THINGS ARE DIFFERENT IN THE EAST My dad dropped me off at my auntie Kim's in Luray, VA on Friday afternoon. She wanted to leave by 11 pm. Well we got there about 11:05. I went down to the barn and met my mount, Red Dog Dan. I had seen photos of him but this was my first chance to meet him in person (horse?) He and Falcon both looked fat but since Kim has been riding them both up her mountain I figured they'd do fine. We each haltered our horses and led them up to the trailer. Posed for a couple of photos and then got them loaded up with no problems. I threw my overnight bag and purse into Kim's truck, hugged my dad, husband and toddler goodbye and off we went. Kim wanted to stay off I-81 as long as possible so we took some smaller parallel highways, which also got us around a mountain instead of hauling over it. This worked out well until we realized how long we would be on the road at this rate. So eventually we did get onto I-81 and it was pretty packed, Friday evening traffic. Some of the semi-trucks were driving crazy, waiting until the last minute to jerk over to pass and riding people's tails. Kim and I had some good conversation on the road. When we got close to ride camp I read out the directions and they were very clear but we found the milage increments to be a bit off. It didn't really matter, we made it with no trouble. It said to look for Tom Sites and he would park us. Well we never did find Tom. Ride camp looked packed. I got out and walked clear down to one end and there was room so I had Kim pull back there and she got turned around, we unloaded horses, and then she backed into the shade. We got the horses tied to the trailer and walked down to registration to figure out where everything was without the horses. We also wanted to give them time to eat their hay and rest before vetting in. Well turns out we were parked as far as possible from registration and the vetting area. Go figure! We hiked down there and got our ride packets. Mine was incomplete, so I filled in the info for Red. Then the lady wanted to see our AERC cards to verify that they were current. I have never heard of this before. (Kim says "well Shana, things are different here in the east!" - this was to become a familiar phrase over the weekend) So we hiked clear back to our camp and got our cards and hiked back again. It felt like a mile but Kim had her GPS this time and it was about .36 of a mile one-way. I asked about the ride dinner, if it was for the night before, or the night of the ride. They told me I could choose, and if I wanted to know what they were serving to go and ask. So we hiked over to the building housing the kitchen and discovered Friday night was spaghetti night with both meat and veggie options. Saturday night was taco salad night with meat and veggie options...but also vegetables and pasta salad and cake and ... WOW! I am eating after our ride! So after we got that squared away we went back for the horses. We led them to water and they weren't interested, but they did nibble along the way. The ride camp was in a really nice grassy area. Red vetted through with all A's and a heart rate of 46 I think. Great! Kim said Falcon got a B on muscle tone and she meant to ask about that but didn't. She couldn't believe Red started out better than Falcon already. So the horses were taken care of but it is now about 6:30 pm and the dinner starts at 7 with ride meeting to follow. We still had to unpack the rig and set up camp and tend to horses. We decided a pre-ride was out. Oh well. So we tied the horses and set up Kim's portable corral (that thing is neat, but heavy!) Once they were squared away and fed with water in front of them we got to working on our camp. Kim had brought everything a person could want, even her own personal toilet. HaHa! Well I helped her lug everything out of the front tack room so she could inflate a mattress in there for bed tonight. She didn't feel like setting up her truck-bed tent and it was already getting dark, so we decided one person in the trailer and one person in the truck. She has a four-door truck with a nice back seat so I volunteered to sleep back there. I am quite a bit shorter than Kim and I figured she may not sleep too well all cramped like a sardine. Plus, her trailer smells like cat pee. She said she has shampooed it numerous times and the smell will just NOT come out. I kept looking around camp since I didn't have a watch on at the moment, and noticed people started grabbing chairs and leaving so I told Kim we should get on down to the meeting area. I was paranoid we would miss something, and had fresh memories of my last ride where I never did hear the horn for the meeting and missed it entirely. I made up our PB&J sandwiches for tomorrow's vet check hold and said let's go! So Kim gets some last things done and feels rushed and unorganized but oh well, off we go. We hike the .36 miles for the fourth time in a couple of hours and realize after we get there that we should have brought the chairs!! Well Kim is tired and achy and I still feel ok so I tell her I will go back for them. As I ran off I overheard a lady say to Kim "she's a lot younger than you are. Well, I don't mean you are old!" And Kim says "yes, she is about 20 years younger than me!" (although if you stop and do the math that isn't right, Kim has a ways to go before she gets to 50) Not long after I had picked up the chairs and was struggling back to the meeting with them I met a lady named Mary who was walking two horses. She said if I could make it to her truck, she would give me a ride. Fantastic! When we got in the truck she mentioned that it had been through hurricane Isabella and because of that the gears didn't work right and she couldn't put it in reverse. Well I am not complaining, a free ride is just that! I got back with the chairs and we reclined together and ate pasta salad she had made and drank our ice cold water and waited for the ride meeting to start. I must say, I have never sat through a more enjoyable ride meeting. I believe it was Don and one other guy doing most of the talking and they were both such a RIOT they had me rolling in my chair laughing. They were talking to an audience of A) people who already rode the ride today, B) people who would do the ride tomorrow for the first time and C) people who would attempt both days. So when asked about the trail they would say "ask your neighbor because the rocks will be bigger and the trails will be steeper when they tell the story" They explained for the 30s that the trail would start out with a trot out one at a time at the start, and then follow the road we came in on for a little ways, then take a right and go up on a jeep road up the hill which would turn into a single track trail which would become switchbacks up the mountain and then after some more climbs we would reach highway 94 and there would be volunteers there to help us across. At the vet check there would be home made ice cream and the hold time is 40 min. It was noted there were climbs on both sections and a fair amount of rock but it should be fine and everyone should have a good time. Plenty of water on the trail, provided for us by the Ivanhoe Fire Department. So that was that, they talked a little about the 50s/55s? and then said that the beginners meeting would be given during the awards meeting off to the side by Stagg Newman. I told Kim we should go to that too since she was a new rider and secretly I just wanted to meet Stagg and hear what he had to say since I see his photo and read his editorials all the time in Endurance News. So Kim agreed, even though by now it was pitch black. Stagg went over the usual new people things and allowed plenty of time for questions and I thought did a real nice job. He even handed out back issues of Endurance News and I got a classic from 2006 that I may not already have :) They also handed out some reading material and a stethoscope to everyone there. Impressive! Don or someone had mentioned during the ride meeting that "tomorrow when you start out in the rain..." so I asked about the weather prediction for tomorrow and was told it should be a real nice day. Good weather. Super! Back at the trailer we did more last minute preparations and called it a night. RIDE DAY Sleeping in the back of the truck wasn't all that bad. I had a pillow and a sleeping bag and the seat was fine. I was a little tall for the width of the truck however and found that I could stretch out one leg by curving it around and the other leg was bent. I woke up off and on throughout the night and felt... damp. Just clammy. Yuk. Well what are you going to do? At about 5:30 am I woke up and although it was dark I could see my camp neighbors were packing up their SUV. They were being pretty quiet but if they were up that must mean that it was about time for me to get up (never-mind that they were 55s with a start time an hour earlier than me). So I got up and put on my boots and tromped on down to the porta-potty. Coming back I wasn't sure what to do because if Kim was sleeping I didn't want to wake her up. So I walked down to the water trough and hauled back two buckets for the boys. Red drank a little which I was glad to see. I took off my boots and crawled back into the truck to see if I couldn't get another 30 minutes of rest. Well not 10 minutes went by and Kim was up. So I got back out of the truck and Kim asked me if I knew the horses mysteriously had water. I said yes, I hauled it up for them. So she went off to the porta-potty (so much for her fancy personal toilet I guess) and I fed the horses, brushed my teeth and put up my hair. Kim came back and we had cereal (the good kind with strawberries and blueberries) which we topped off with a fresh banana for a breakfast of champions. After that there was enough light to see by so I did some final packing of my saddle bags and we got the horses tied to the trailer and started tacking up. Kim was ready to go in no time flat, I couldn't believe it! I had to get a little help from her on Red's girth, it was a leather western style one. Well Kim had everything color-coordinated, from our helmet covers to the plates we ate off of, I have never seen such a thing, it was really fun. We were ready to go right on schedule so we mounted up (I had to use a bucket, Red is taller than I am used to, and I had adjusted the stirrups pretty short). Red doesn't wait around so it was a bit of a jump to get on him as he walked off. We walked the horses down to the start and asked if anyone was taking numbers. They weren't ready so we walked some more circles back towards our trailer and Kim put Falcon to work since he was acting fairly co-dependent on Red. Red didn't seem to have a problem with leaving Falcon so I told Kim for the trot-out she should go first. We went back to the start, it is 7:50 or so and they are still not taking any numbers. So I told Kim we should walk the horses towards the registration table at the other end, she wanted to get out of the crowd of horses that had gathered. Red's walk was no-nonsense, we are going some place which was nice to ride, a ground-covering rocking stride. We warmed up and stopped at the big water trough. I was glad to see Falcon drinking but Red wasn't interested. By the time we got back to the start everyone had left and they told Kim to trot out. I waited for her to get ahead of me a little because at the ride meeting they had specified ONE AT A TIME. Not two seconds later and the out timer said "The trail is open, you may go" so I don't know if there was anyone there even checking the gait of the horses. We caught up with Kim quickly and the horses were eager to go. We had a short canter and coming back down to a trot I was able to get Red gaiting for about a minute before he broke back into a trot. It was awesome. Kim said I was lucky to get a minute from him. We followed the trail as it went up on the jeep road and then went to single track. In the start, Red did a fair amount of leading, but we had horses not too far away from us and he was chasing them. We got on the trail that started up the mountain and we were MOVING, I remember a very fast trot and sometimes a canter as we wound around some sharp corners. It was incredible. The trails were beautiful and great footing. We came to a dry river bed and it had some big rocks but Kim commented that this was nothing, the trail was much better than she expected. Well, famous last words, right? We reach highway 94 (6 mi) at just about an hour into the ride. We were at the tail end, although there was a lady on a leopard appaloosa not far ahead of us, and a gal on a really pretty chestnut Arab behind us (I can't let you get behind me because I am competing for the turtle award, she told us) After crossing with the aid of the fire department we reach a nice water stop. Kim dismounted and sponged both the horses (bless her!) Red still would not drink. Onward we went, climbing the hills and walking our way through the rocky sections (which were becoming more frequent). Every so often I would pull out the camera and try to get a photo of the trail or the view. We were both having such a good time, it was a blast to finally ride with Kim as an adult. She has been my inspiration for endurance riding and now finally we have the chance to do it together. Her first competition ride and my fourth this year. She was great company! We passed a group of people going the opposite direction and the man said to us "You better step it up or you aren't going to make it in time." I grumbled at him in my thoughts, it made me mad that he said that. We are out here doing this and we are doing fine on time, how dare he tell us how to ride. (As he says this we are walking through one of the worst rock sections) The vet check was right about half way and I had heard that if we didn't make it in by noon we would not complete the ride on time. We pulled in about 11:20 I think. Crews were allowed on the left side of the road only. Our crew bags had been delivered and were on the right side of the road. We had dismounted to walk them in and were trying to figure out what the next step was. I think we lost a couple minutes just trying to think at that point in time. Finally I told Kim to grab the crew bag and set it on the left somewhere so we could dump the tack and go down to vet through. It was hard to find a spot, it looked like some places were reserved for... who? 55s coming later? Well we squeeze in a place and it looked like it would work. Ok! This ride said tack off for all vets. We then took the horses down to the water tanks. Falcon drank, Red did not. Geez! 13+ miles and still not thirsty? I was starting to worry about him a little bit. I asked for a pulse and a friendly man came over and took it. I think he was down to 60 and the criteria for this hold was 64. The man asked me how he was doing. I said he seemed a little tired but I thought he was ok. We chatted a couple minutes while I waited in line for the vet. In the meantime I let Red graze. The vet checked him out and scored him high on everything but a B on gut sounds. We did our trot out and no problem there either. I noticed Kim was going through with Falcon at the same time at the other vet so I let Red graze nearby since no one else was waiting at the time. Well Falcon did not like his vet, he would not stand still for her to listen to his HR or gut sounds and worked himself up trying to get away from her. It took a significant amount of time to get him vetted through. Finally he passed but scored a C on gut sounds so the vet told Kim to come back and get rechecked before we headed out. They told her to feed him everything he would eat in the meantime so we headed back to our crew area for our 40 min hold. Kim had their grain/e-lyte mix all ready to go in their tubs and told me just to pour some water on it so I used what was left in the bottles in my pack. Sure enough he slurped it right down. I ate my PB&J sandwich, it was so good. I also downed a whole bottle of fruit punch gatorade and it was still partially frozen. Yum! I swapped out the water bottles in my pack and that was about all I had to do. We weren't sure if the vet wanted to see Falcon before or after we tacked up, so we decided to go back down there before. We stopped again at the water tanks and this time, FINALLY Red decided to drink...and drink...and drink. Wow, he was not messing around. So I let him drink as much as he wanted and in the meantime Kim had made her way over back to the vet. This time they gave Falcon a B on gut sounds so back we went to our crew area to tack up. I held Falcon while Kim got her saddle on and then she held Red while I hoisted up his saddle. I had her girth him up for me again because she is faster and better at it and he blows out and she does real well with him on that. Kim put our crew bag back in the pile for pick-up and then we walked the horses down back to the vet before re-checking the girths and mounting up. Well I had to lead Red over to the side of the mountain to get a leg-up on him. Off we went. On the ride out Kim mused that we never got our ice cream, never even saw any of the ice cream. Oh well, it would have been just another thing to fuss with and we had our hands full as it was. The trail out was good footing for awhile and then it turned to rocks. Rocks, rocks, rocks. Slow going for quite a while. I was keeping an eye on the time and figured we were ok. Kim was watching her GPS but the milage was shorter than it should have been. Oh well. We passed that group of people, again going the opposite direction, and again the man telling us to "step it up if we were going to make it in time." This time Kim told him we were just taking it easy with first-time horses. We had someone catch up with us and pass us and about then we caught up to the gal on the pretty chestnut who wanted the turtle. So we passed her and rode along, trying to "never hurry, never tally" like Stagg had told us. After awhile we got onto a private gravel road and saw a lost boot. About a minute later I saw a man on foot leading his horse. I asked if he lost a boot, he said Yes and we pointed back to where he could find it. Then the road turned and went up the mountain. The plate sign on a tree said "1 mile climb" so onward we went. At the base was a woman walking her horse, she said they were ok but waiting for a trailer to come and give them a ride back to camp. I think the gal following us knew her because she stopped and talked with her a while. At the top of the climb was a water tank. The horses drank and Kim went off in the woods to pee. I ate a fig newton. Falcon acted like he wanted some so I gave him one and he spit it out. Kim came back and mounted up and off we went again. Just then the other gal appeared, on foot, leading her horse on up. Said they were doing good. We rode the ridgeline for awhile and trotted as much as we could, knowing we were getting short on time now. According to the map, we had a 'lollipop course' today meaning we would ride out and back in on the same trail, and the outer trail was a loop around with the vet check in the center. We made it back to the stick part of the trail and eventually made it to highway 94 again. I knew we were 6 miles from camp and we had made it up in an hour, so giving ourselves an hour and a half to get back down should be no problem. We get a move on and trot trot trot. Sometimes Red canters short bursts on the uphill but I was unable to get him to gait anymore since that one nice moment on the way out. I forgot to mention I had seen someone at the vet check with a New Promise Farms Crew t-shirt on on a gaited horse and I talked to her a little bit and she gave me some pointers- sit deep in the saddle, ask the horse to collect and squeeze with your legs and he should go right into it. Well I tried and tried but never was able to get it from him. Part of the problem was his trot was so big and so fast that it threw me right up out of the saddle and "sitting deep" at the trot was just about impossible. Well we are crusing around and up and down and not remembering all these uphills. We are looking for the switchbacks, knowing they were fairly early in the ride. On and on and on we went and Kim is convinced I have my time wrong and we are not going to make it. Maybe she is right. Well we finally get to the switchbacks and I made the mistake of looking down on a sharp turn. I immediately felt sick to my stomach and lightheaded. I just focused on breathing and looking ahead (and not down!) oh wow, I have never felt so sick on a horse before and this is all my own fault. I am a bit scared of heights. Well we made it past the knee-knocker trees and down the mountain and still have a ways to go. When we made it back to the jeep trail, some 55s came cantering past us. Red suddenly realized he was close to home and now he had someone to follow! So he took the lead and just ran his heart out. It was glorious. He had tried bucking with me a couple times this ride but now that was the furthest thing from his mind has he happily ran towards 'home.' I heard Kim call "Wait for us!" and I pulled him down to a trot until she caught up and then off we went again. We ran and ran and ran. The 55s lost us and then we slowed the horses down to a trot. We got back on the gravel road and saw the finish line. I started tearing up. We had made it. I looked back and smiled. I tried to say "now is when I get all emotional" and Kim said "I can't even talk right now!" We dismounted and walked the horses back to the trailer. We dumped our saddles and walked them to the vet check. I glanced at the time and we had about 10 minutes to go until cut-off time (3:15 pm) Red walked over and pulsed in at 48. (WOW!) Kim asked for a courtesy check on Falcon and he was still up there, about 86. Michael told her to get the hay out of his mouth and not let him eat since the very act could be keeping his HR up. I had never heard that but within 5 minutes he called for time on number CO. (Forgot to mention, Red was number CN) I think he pulsed in with only a minute to spare. Vetting through, Red did excellent, mostly A's from what I can remember, maybe a B on gut sounds and muscle tone. They let me keep my vet card so I will try to scan it in when I get back home. This was a fabulous ride and one I shall never forget. I know I have left out a lot of little details so will try and put them in later as I remember them. After we vetted through we put the horses up with water and hay and sat down with some food for ourselves. We had boiled eggs from Kim's chickens, potato salad Kim had made, more frozen gatorade (Kim said "I think this is the best thing I have ever had") chips with salsa Kim had made. I am sure there was more but I am forgetting what. We rested and reminisced and once we had the energy we got up and took the horses for another walk. We hand-grazed them probably about an hour and then I got tired of Red dragging me all around so we put them up and I don't remember what after that, I think by then it was about time for dinner. So we took our chairs this time and walked back down to the meeting area. They were just opening up the tables for dinner, and MY what a spread! They had a table for meat eaters and a seperate table for vegetarians - bless them! There was chili beans and chips and lettuce and tomatoes and onions for a make-it-yourself taco salad. They encouraged me to take two plates so I could fit all the food that they were about to give me. A woman told me "honey, you ain't lived until you've had this cornbread salad" so I tried that too. There were fresh canned green beans and fantastic off-the-cob-corn; potato salad, pasta salad and rolls. Seems like there was even more of that, I just could not believe ALL THAT FOOD! The ladies really outdid themselves and I have to say a huge thank you to them for that wonderful meal. I sat down and started in on my first plate. I got through it and then looked up to see my dad and Matt and Levi walking up. Yay! Levi was hungry so he ate a fair amount of my taco salad and green beans and corn. Later I also shared my cake with him too. There was about 12 kinds of cake and one was even in the shape of a horse! The chocolate kind I selected was so moist and good. There were a number of igloos for juice and tea and I saw one labeled sweet tea so I had to take some of that. I was a little disappointed though, it was warm and not sweet at all. Oh well, can't really complain, everything else was soooo awesome. Kim said "this is the south, and they FEED you in the south!" We really enjoyed listening to the mountain music provided by a lively band, the Pilot Mountain Bobcats, who I hear won a first place at the local fiddler’s convention the weekend before. Levi even danced to it. Awards seemed to start a little late and my dad pulled his car up close and sat in it at the back since we only had the two chairs. They started out by calling out the last people completed - Kim and I, and mispronounced both our names. I expect that with my name - Shana - most people get it wrong, but Kim Patton - they said Payton I think, but no bother. Don said he had put out the award for rider most traveled and I won that since I came from WA but he also said he expected it to go to the person who brought their horse the farthest, and if anyone was there who thought it could be them to let him know and there may be a free ride entry in it for them. The award shirts were cute - a cartoon sketch of a horse and rider with their thought balloons overhead. As for the turtle award - there was none! But Kim would have won it being the last person in. The other gal ended up pulling at the finish, she said her horse was a little stiff and and off at the end. We left shortly after and Kim stayed the night with the horses and got home safe on Sunday. Be sure to read Kim's version of the story below

Kim Patton's tale Time to Go Friday-the truck and trailer are packed to the hilt. I think I have over-packed. Oh well, better to have more than less! Now I just have to put the cooler, the horses and myself in the vehicle and go. I have to pick up Alison from volleyball practice at 10, Shana is scheduled to arrive between 10 & 11...and then down the road we goooooo.. yikes! my chest is tight! I better go make myself busy to distract the jitters! Virginia Highlands, our first LD Aug 22nd, 1030 a.m. found me impatiently waiting for my neice to arrive so that we could load the horses and GO! I felt like I had the trailer all packed and ready...nothing else to do but wait... It turns out that I could have done a few more things to organize myself, but oh well, lessons learned. Shana arrived and we went to the barn so that she could meet "Red". I was in a hurry to get going and so I grabbed Falcon and we all tromped up the hill to the trailer. The horses loaded nicely and we were on our way lickety split. I opted to take the country roads to avoid crossing the Masanutten Mountain and also to avoid all of the truck traffic on 81. The 4.5 hour drive went quickly for me. I was in good company and good thoughts about the ride. I think we pulled in to Ride Camp around 4:30 or 5. We had been told that someone would park us, but "someone" was no where to be found. We followed a sign to overflow parking and Shana hopped out and walked almost 2/10 of a mile to see if there was a space for us. Yeahhh, way at the end, nice and quiet. We unloaded the horses and Shana held them, while I finished parking. I felt disorganized and distracted and didn't know what to do first, wasting time before I decided that I better get the portable corral set up. This went fairly quickly and Shana suggested that we use the truck and trailer as a wall to make the corral bigger, thus both horses could hang out in it. We used a goat halter/leash compination, bungee cords and a lead rope to attach it all to the trailer and truck. Then we tromped almost .38 mile to the ride camp desk. The nice ladies there found our packets...there wasn't much to look through, we were almost the last ones to check in. UGggggggggh, They then said that they needed our AERC cards. OH BOTHER! Tromp tromp back to the truck, get our cards, tromp tromp, back to the table....tromp tromp, back for the horses, tromp tromp to Vet in the horses and tromp tromp back to the trailer....good grief...we were getting some exercise! I was exhausted by then, all of that driving and then all of that walking and setting up camp, and then ALAS I couldnt find the "STUFF" for my new porta-potty that neutralizes odors. Also, I decided, that since it was getting dark by now and the horses corral was attached to the truck, that the Truck Tent would not work out and Shana HAD volunteered to sleep IN the back seat of the truck, so I blew up a mattress for the tack room of the trailer and made my bed there. I had my tack room PACKED with STUFF and we had to haul ALL of it out, including the spare tire, so that the mattress would fit. Our camp looked like a JUNK YARD! I started to pack my saddle bag for the next day, but then got distracted doing something else, Oh, we had to mark our own Horses because there didn't seem to be anyone around doing THAT after the vet check. So Shana, dutifully took on that difficult task. Then Shana said "I don't see ANYONE, it is too quiet, EVERYONE MUST be at the ride meeting! Oh good grief, I still had a TON of stuff to do. So we tromped off 30 min early to the meeting, but everyone was just eating. I was SOOOO tired and remembered our chairs AFTER we had walked all the way to base camp again. So Shana, being SO much younger than I volunteered to go back and get the chairs and managed to hitch a ride back in a truck with a friendly lady. After the ride meeting we went to the "newbies" meeting with Stagg Newman. It was good, but mostly repetitive info for me. Then we trudged back to camp. I was so tired that I told Shana good night and crashed onto my bed. My sleep was short lived. Red kept chasing Falcon around in the corral, so I got up and gave them big piles of hay to munch on and more water. This allowed me some sleep, but then I was awakened again by the noisy horses and the need to go visit the porta potty....man I wished I had found my STUFF for mine. The night seemed to never end and my body craved rest. RIDE DAY! YEAHHHHHHH!!!! 6 a.m.! FINALLY the night was OVER! Time for another long walk to the porta-potty... The horses had consumed a good bit of hay in the night and Shana had gotten them fresh water, lugging it from the water tank a good bit away, I think, not realizing that I had a 25 gallon tank and hose in the tack room on the trailer. We had a healthy breakfast of cereal with blueberries, strawberries and banana's. Truthfully, I was not hungry, but knew I HAD to eat. Suddenly it seemed like it was 7 and time to start tacking up. I grabbed icy bottles of water and gatorade and stuffed them in to my saddle packs...one last nervous trip to the port-a-potty and it was time to mount up. MAN that time went way too fast. Falcon was feeling frisky and did not want to wait for Shana to mount Red. He was difficult to control as he started backing or getting light on his front feet...no way buddy....WALK~! We walked the horses down to the Trot Out, but they weren't ready for us to go. I could feel Falcon getting nervous under me and he refused to stand still. I asked Shana to move on and get out of the gathering crowd of horses. So we walked the horses toward the base camp check in. When we turned around, I peered over the trucks and cars and saw helmets bobbing up the trail and knew that the trail was open. I approached the Trot Out and called out my letters. ALL of the other horses were GONE! The vet motioned me on and said that the trail was open! YEAHHHHHHH! Shana and Red were close behind and I let them pass us at some point. They took off at a very fast trot and the emotion welled up within me. WE HAD STARTED! WE HAD STARTED OUR VERY FIRST RIDE! We were close behind a pair of other riders, trotting and cantering along the cool shady jeep trail above the New River. Soon one of the riders moved on ahead, while the other pulled off and let us pass. Oh what a RIDE! and fairly fast. Soon we crossed a creek and headed up up up a narrow trail with sharp switchbacks. But the horses charged up that while we tried to avoid having our knees whacked. The trail turned into double track again and flew by. We came to a meadow and paused for a breather and to let the horses munch on some grass. Then we were off again, cantering, cantering....oh what a wonderful ride. The wonderful trail was soon to end. We arrived at the highway 94 crossing...crossed over and found a big tank of water. I hopped off into the mud and quickly sponged both horses. Shana worried because Red refused to drink...soon we went up the trail again. Here it turned Rocky and steep in places. The footing of Rocks intermixed with sand made for some treacherous footing for our "un-padded" horses feet. Falcon took the word "ROCKS" to the extreme and would slow to a walk everytime I said it...which was frequent, but I wanted our horses to come out of this ride UNINJURED! There were more water stops...still Red would not drink, while Falcon slurped every chance that he got. Soon we topped the ridge and were able to trot and canter again. Prior to 94 we had made very good time, but now I was worried...But we made it into the vet check around 1120. We were a little confused as to where the vet check was and we wasted some time figuring out what to do at that point. But Shana had me grab our bag from the side of the road and we yanked the horses saddles off and walked down to P & R. Falcon was at 60....yeahhhhhhh! So then I went to vet him in. He did not want to trot out and he did NOT want the vet to listen to his gut sounds. He kept charging around and being a BAD BOY! They told me that he was earning a trailer ride back to base camp. I almost cried! They felt sorry for me I guess, gave him a C and told me to come back 10 min before our 40 min hold time was up. This time he trotted out better and a nice person fed him horsey snacks while they finally gave him an A- for gut sounds. Usually I can tack up in no time flat. Now, after 14 miles, my arms felt like lead as I hoisted the saddle up on Falcon then helped Shana with hers while she held the horses. I crawled up on Falcons back and wished that the PB & J sandwich and fresh cold gatorade would give me some energy. Out of camp we went at a walk. The horses thought that they were done for the day and just plodded along. In several places we weren't sure whether we were going the right way or not, but decided to follow the numerous horse tracks. It was difficult to motivate the horses to move on down the trail. It seemed like the hills were longer and more frequent and when we arrived at the base of the "mile long hill" both of the horses STOPPED dead in their tracks along with another gal and her horse. It was ridiculous, none of them wanted to budge, but finally Falcon took on the hill and the other two horses followed. That was the longest hill in my mind of the day. Wonderful water tanks were at the top and Falcon slurped...I don't know if Red did or not. I was too tired to care. After that hill remained more ups and downs and ups and downs and when we reached the narrow switchback trail, I was encouraged that we were close to home...but still worried that we wouldn't make it back in time. I stopped at the creek to let Falcon slurp again, but then urged him onward. We then heard voices, 2 55 milers were blowing down the trail and took off at a canter past us on the jeep road. Red pulled out and took off behind them leaving billows of dust....Falcon picked up the pace and we zoomed after them. I yelled at Shana to slow down, but only because I couldn't see or breath from all of the dust...but we cantered most of the way until I suggested that we walk. the FINISH line was in sight! YEAHHHHHHHHHH I choked up again, not from the dust, but with the emotion of it all. We had made it! Well not really, we had 20 min left to vet in the horses and have a pules of 60. We walked the horses to the trailer and ripped off their saddles, then walked back to the P&R. Red the "wild card, no good pony clubber, non-gaiting Missouri Fox Trotter" went straight through P&R with a pulse of like 48 or something crazy like that and vetted right through. Falcon on the other hand was 86 and all excited with the commotion of the 55 milers racing in, diesel trucks and golf carts motoring about. P&R checked him again and said NO WAY he is 74. Then he told me to keep his head up, sponge him and not let him eat....This time he gave him a pulse of 60 with ONE MINUTE to spare....sheesh that was CLOSE! Then to the vets, Trot Out, then pulse again, 64. Then cripes, they pulled US AGAIN for the second time that day for the CRI....trot out again, pulse at 60....YEAHHHHH! and THANK YOU FALCON for standing STILL for the GUT SOUNDS....I LOVE YOU HORSEY! WE FINISHED-if there had been a turtle award, we would have won it for sure! Suddenly I felt hungry....

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