Monday, May 2, 2011

I've hit the ground running!

 It seems just like yesterday the last time I posted a Blog! Since then I have gone the the NW Heritage Arabian Horse Show and Three Endurance rides. Big breath! Heritage was a great show for Brejd. We managed to get all the Sport Horses qualified for there regional classes that we needed to. StarBuck Bay made us proud. He managed to keep his feet on the ground and took a 2  place in Amateur Training level and a 3 Place with me in Open Training Level. For a western horse he is really rocking in Dressage. Bandit, Dar, Beleive, Starbuck, Sig, Zeemie and Burly were all Superstars!
  Our first Endurance Ride of the year was Home On the Range. As I posted before it is not a ride that I have done well on. I decided to take Nikki (my niece) on her first 50. I figured that this would help me keep the pace slow and enjoy the ride.  At the 25 mile mark my bad luck rubbed off me and on to her. Her horse Boggie came up lame with a groin pull. So off I went, I managed to catch up with one of my team mates Katie and rode the rest of the ride with her. Spot finished SOUND!! We have now broke the curse of Home on the Range! What a great feeling it is. That monkey is now off my back and I can look forward to that first ride in the future.
  Our next ride was in ID. The Tough Sucker ride. I planned to wait until I arrived and checked out the ride site and decide what distance I wanted to ride. I needed to pick up a mare I had bought so I decided to combined it with a road trip to a ride. The trails were soft and dry. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. It did my heart good to feel the sun on my face. I think I could feel the moss start to dry up on my body. It felt good, so good I decided to try the 75 miles race. The ride could not have gone any better then if I had a way to plan it. I won the 75 and won the B.C! Yes, life is looking good.
 Then off to the MRRT ride by Vantage WA. This ride did not go was well as the other two. Spot was just not right from the start to when we were pulled at 20 miles. She was traveling bent to the right, more sweaty then normal and just wrong. I stopped and re saddled her. Checked her hoofs. Just could not put my finger on it. I arrived at the vet check, she pulsed right down and looked good. I had noticed she had a small cut on her right front hoof. I thought she must have hit a rock. I pointed it out to the vet before we trotted off. Dead lame. Not a little lame but blind granny lame. WTH? She trotted into the check sound, within 5 minutes lame. A half hour later really really lame. The vet checked it again and decided she had blown a abscess coming into the check. Well its not so bad  I decided. It could have been a lot worst! By the time I unloaded her back in camp she was sound 100%. Oh well. It least it was a close ride.
  I now leave for another Horse show on Wednesday. The Cascade Classic. WISH ME LUCK!