Anticipation

Friday morning I took the day off work and tried to make sure all our stuff was packed and ready to go. I went out to the barn about 9 am. I got Sinwaan out of the pasture and wet him down, shampooed him and put a horse whitener on his tail. Once done with his bath, I scraped off the excess water and then went to work on his tail. (In the meantime he ate his hay). It had started forming mini dreadlocks so I got it thoroughly combed out and that took me about half an hour but then it looked spectacular. I also did his mane and spritzed him with Show Shine so he would be handsome for all the mares. I picked out his feet and put on some hoof oil, applied fly spray and got my tack in order. I took an extra bridle, spare reins and stirrups, and my box of grooming supplies. Lara was to pick me up at 11 but she was a little late so I handwalked him and let him graze.

I had taken my rainbow halter home to wash it so it would be nice and clean for the ride. I forgot to bring it back out with me to the barn so I used Dee's old rope halter. When Lara pulled in we loaded him up in the back as she already had Rocker loaded. He is getting better about loading now, or maybe he just prefers the rear section in her slant. She had gotten some neat little hay mangers and they were all in place and ready to go with misted hay. I got my stuff loaded and did a mental and visual check to be sure I had everything.

Then we drove on down towards town and I had to put gas in my truck, Lara made a stop at the feedstore, and then we switched trucks so I could park the trailer at the house to finish loading while she ran more errands. Matt wasn't home yet so I loaded up as much as I could and then once he got home I took a shower. We had SO MUCH stuff! Tent stuff and baby stuff and horse stuff (extra halter, lead, two extra saddle pads) in addition to the people stuff and food. I knew I must have forgotten something but couldn't figure what it might be.

We were quite the little traveling band, with 2 horses, a Pointer and mini-Daschund, my husband Matt, son Levi (13 mo), Lara and I. We aimed to leave town at noon but we were just a little behind schedule.

We made it to Odessa with no problem but once there the directions I had from expedia were no good. They had us turn onto Division and then from there onto May, only there was no May. We finally just stopped at a grocery store and they told us we just had to stay on Hwy 21 up the hill and it would be there about 4 mi up. We could not wait to get there. Lara was getting a little carsick, the drive up was not on a major highway so it was slow going around curvy roads.

The first turn we saw for Lakeview Ranch had a big gooseneck trailer pulling out. Matt pulled in and the driver told us it was the wrong turn for the endurance ride so Matt had to back out into the road. He did a great job and thankfully there was no other traffic at the moment. So we drove on to the second turn for Lakeview. From there it was marked really well. And in all fairness, the first turn did have a neon arrow pointing straight ahead (as in, stay on the main road) but we were just confused. (A precursor perhaps?) LOL

A couple of miles in we crested a hill and below could see the whole ride camp. (about 5 pm) WOW! What a neat sight! My first ride camp! This photo shows it from the other direction, look to the top center of this photo at the gravel road we came in on. This photo was taken from the perspective of the vetting area. It was a little bit of a hike from our camp to the vetting area because we were parked in the farthest possible area from the RM and vet station. We wanted some privacy for our tents. We are just behind the last trailers you see to the left of that last porta-potty.

We got camp set up as quick as possible and once everyone was settled in I walked around and asked everyone where the ride manager was. They all pointed me towards the trees (the only real trees in the area). I first met Dory and she walked me into vet check and introduced me to Patty who wears pink, who then helped me find the Ride Manager, also named Patty. It was pretty amusing, when I would introduce myself they would ask Shana, as in Shana Bobbitt from the internet? I had pre-entered so I was able to pick up my packet right then and I was horse #1! That has to be good luck! They told me to bring my horse back down to get him vetted in. They also showed me the corral available to us that I had rented. It was huge, with high wood panel sides. It would be great for our two horses overnight.

I went back to camp and told Lara and she walked down with me with the horses. I held Rocker while she got registered and she was number 31. For awhile we thought she would be the last one in the 25 mi distance but later on we saw a 34 horse so some other people must have come in pretty late. Once the people working the check-in found out it was our first ride they gave us special treatment by drawing on our horses with the grease stick. First Dory wrote a #1 on each side of Sinwaan, and then she wrote "WON" across the top of his rump and then she came back with a blue stick later and drew smiley faces on his shoulders and arrows down his butt. One gal asked me what that was supposed to mean ("This end up?") but I had no idea. At first I was a little upset that they were greasing up my horse but quickly adjusted my atitude, after all you only have your first ride once and this must be part of the experience, like initiation or something. Lara's horse got a heart on each shoulder but hers was all in blue to match her tack. After all that they started looking like Indian ponies.



So then it was time to vet in. We had our little vet cards from our ride packet and they took the horses' pulse, checked respiration, gut sounds, capilary refill and a bunch of other stuff. Then we had to do a trot out for the vet. Sinwaan did awesome, he gave me no hesitation or trouble at all. When I got my card back I was thrilled to see he had ALL A's! Rocker did almost as well, scoring a B only on gut sounds. Lara had been warned that this mare doesn't like to drink water away from her trailer so that was a concern going into it. With Rocker when they pulled the skin on her neck out it tented and didn't go down. Another vet came over and said the neck is not always a very accurate place to check a horse for hydration. He checked her on the shoulder and while it did tent, it came down. She got an A- on skin tenting.

Matt was around the whole time with Levi in a stroller so he could get some nice shots of us with the horses vetting in. He got this beautiful shot of Sinwaan doing his trot back to the vet.



Once we were both checked in with our horses numbered, and vetted through, we were ready to go! Photo op!!

Well after that we walked the horses back up to the trailer. We have a tie-high system on Lara's trailer for them so they have a little more room to walk around while tied and we set them up with their water buckets and hay bags. Sinwaan did not seem to want to drink from his bucket but when I took it off the clip and lowered it and held it, he sucked some right down. Rocker was also eating and drinking, so far so good.

We went back down for the "novice/newbie" meeting at 7:30 pm. I had barely enough time to throw two hotdogs in some buns and take them down with me for dinner. Matt stayed back in camp with Levi this time. Lara and I sat at a picnic table and waited for the meeting to begin. The real riders meeting was to start at 8 pm but this early session was for us greenies who needed a little extra Q/A time. All the vets were there at another table eating their bbq dinner and reminiscing about past rides and situations that had come up. They started the meeting and it seemed like maybe there were only two other ladies who were new riders. The vets/Patty/Dory (I think) explained a lot of things about rides in general, and then we all had a number of questions that got answered pretty well. After this people started showing up and bringing their chairs and settling in for the regular meeting. I forgot to bring any kind of chair but luckily Patty had two extra ones that no one was using so Lara and I got off the picnic bench and reclined.

They started out by talking about the trails, the 75 milers (there were 9 of them) trail order and things to watch out for. Their first loop was 25 mi and went clear into town with one out vet check. Then they talked about the 50 milers (32 of them), their trail order and ride time for everyone. Apparently they changed some things, like start time. We had thought 25 milers would start at 8:30. Well looking at our packet earlier I had noticed the ride time was 7:30 am. UGH! The 25 milers would be doing the 10 mile trail first, then come in, pulse down/vet check and do a 50 minute hold. Then we would go back out for our 15 mi ride. At the time of the ride meeting there were 31 people doing the 25 mile ride. It was a very informative meeting. I couldn't believe I was really there.

By the end of the meeting darkness had fallen so we went back to camp and got the horses and hay bags and brought them down to the corral for the night. I put a blanket on Sinwaan but Lara came around and started laughing because it was too small for him. Even with some adjustments it was still pretty tight. Darn! Should have checked that before we left. I decided not to keep it on him overnight since the corrals were a distance from our camp and I didn't want him uncomfortable or restricted in any way before his big day. The horses settled in quickly and seemed glad for the space and for each other.

We made the trek back to camp and went to bed. Levi was already asleep so I got changed, made up my bed and tried to fall asleep.