StoneBridgeFarm: May 2014

Ride weekend! This is the bridge connecting Cornish, NH with Windsor, VT. According to my husband, if you plug "Cornish NH Fairground" into your smartphone, you wind up in a field on the wrong side of that bridge. I went by the directions on the ride paperwork and did not go across that bridge, but I did make one call to home in a panic when I was on 12A for far longer than anticipated....

In the end I did arrive at my destination on Friday night and set up camp. King got to use the fairgrounds' cowsheds for the night.

We were parked in with lots of people with Living Quarters. They had heat, kitchens and bathrooms in their rigs. They were from places like Maryland, New Jersey and Maine. I had a very enjoyable evening sitting around and chatting with a group of ladies who even insisted on feeding me a hot bowl of chicken stew. It sure beat my hard boiled egg, apple and granola bar. The night started to fall and get quite cold. We had rain on and off. But I was pretty snug in my new bunk!

John spent the weekend before the ride building this little beauty. It's tall enough to fit my saddle on the rack under it and some boxes of things. I bought a pieces of memory foam over at the local Mardens for $24.99 and John cut it to fit the odd shape of the nose of the trailer. We had a rail from a loft bed up in the attic so he put that on there when I was worried that I'd roll off in my sleeping bag and get hurt. Perfect fit! I think I slept better just from having a place for most everything as much as from having the comfort of the new bunk. I don't know why it stresses me so when things are simply tossed into a space without a proper home for the item...but there it is. I'm well on my way to getting a spot for each thing and it's a huge help!

Day one was a 15 mile CDR or Conditioning Distance Ride. The ride plan for the weekend was to do 45 miles over the 2 days as a stepping stone to our first one day 50 in July. On day one there is a time window to fall in of 2 hours 15 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes I think. I had it written on my hand. So it was a bit distressing when we rode out (first) to find that at the end of the very first dirt road there were no markers to say which way to turn. I turned back and then encountered the next riders and we all went to the end of the road and now searched for the markers. I went one way, they went the other. No confidence markers in either direction. So we turned back again and went until we saw the last marker and turned back again (this is my 3rd time on this stretch of road) to see where we missed a turn. A lady came out of her house in her pajamas and asked if we were looking for ribbons as she had taken them down. Finally! She didn't realize they were for our event. She thought they were for the foot race from the weekend prior. We made our turn and started to work at making up time! Out on the loop there was a covered bridge to ride through. I've always wanted to do that! It was awesome. I took the photo from a distance as I didn't know how King would like the bridge but after a slight hesitation and look at the boards he walked right in and I think it felt like going into a barn. He really liked it and so did I.

At the end of day one I found my husband and youngest son back at the trailer. They had arrived. John crewed a bit for me for the vet check at the end. We've never discussed crewing and he had no idea what it was that needed to be done at the end of a ride. I untacked King and grabbed the dressage whip and headed up to the pulse area. John was wanting me to eat or drink and I had to shoo him away. Sorry love, it will be a few more minutes until I can do those things. I stood there very quietly with King and not telling John anything because it's very important that King just goes to sleep standing there. His pulse dropped nicely and he did virtually go to sleep. Ending P & R was 44 and 5. With that done I could snack a bit and head up to the vets for trot out and hands on. Once our final check was complete we went back to the trailer to relax. King got more electrolytes and barley and grass. We moved the horse trailer forward and moved King to the next stall up in the cow shed. Then John's niece and daughters who live in Cornish stopped by for a visit. The girls really enjoyed seeing all the horses. King was happy to have the attention. The temperature shift from Friday (50s) to Saturday (80s) was making him quite sleepy. I even put shorts on for the first time this year! Then I took the girls on a walk around camp. I think there were roughly 60 horses there at that time. Everyone else was riding either Saturday or Sunday. So the whole camp changed on Saturday with the exception of the people who traveled so far that they arrive Friday to ride Sunday. King's immediate neighbors did not change very much and that was good for him.

Saturday night was an awesome dinner for all and we had the ride managers there for the next 4 or 5 events of the year and they each had a chance to talk about their rides to the whole group. The ride Vet gave a talk too about some of the changes going on with AERC and how that would be on this ride. A good meeting to attend for sure. Then we headed back to our site and had a bit of a relax. John & Ben had cots set up in the horse portion of the trailer for the night. We managed to be parked very near the rowdiest party of riders and joined in the laughing for a while. We quit before they did so I went to sleep with the pleasant noises of laughing and happy people. That night was much warmer than the previous and my sleeping bag was almost too warm! I came close to opening the window but didn't and it's a good thing because the temperature dropped off by 4 or 5 in the morning. Something woke me up at that time and I assumed it was the first 50 milers getting up and moving. Their ride out time was scheduled for 7:00 and the 30 milers at 8:00 so I had the desire to go back to sleep for awhile.

Here we are warming up before the ride begins in the morning. The next two photos are my view for most of the ride and a photo of us as we were riding past a crew stop where John met me to see how we were doing on trail. I told him when I thought I'd be there but I was early and I was lucky enough that he was too! He was just driving up as I rode through. Doing fine! Just going a bit faster than I'd planned on....

It was absolutely amazing to have crew at the 1/2 way. The vet had called for saddles off so everyone had their saddle stands and water buckets and crew bags all set. John & I picked our spot out too and left everything there that I thought I'd need. Amazing that I'd still forgotten things. People food for one! Advil for another....so our son kept making the run back and forth to the trailer to get things. So nice!! He also got tasked with holding the horse a bunch and all manner of little things which in the end are not "little" at all. I feel a debt of gratitude here.

There was a confusion with the timer too. I pulled in at the same time as some people in front of me and with 3 riders who came up from behind me. I made sure to make good eye contact with the Ride Manager who had just swooped in to assist the timer who was having difficulties for some unknown reason. I don't like standing around in a horse log jam as getting kicked is not on my list of things to do. I made sure that the Ride Manager had my number and I walked away. A quick glance up at the heart rate monitor said 64. 60 was the goal and we were almost there. Over to the pulse station immediately. I had my usual panic about where is my ride card and then located it in the same pocket I've put it in before...and handed it to the proper people. 60 was achieved and they had no blue time paper to write on so they wrote it on my riders card. I went back to the timer and got my blue time card (quite out of order to how we "should" do it) but in my case...it worked. The ladies behind me were another 10 minutes at least before pulsing. I think I played the game well enough--the out time is based on your pulse time. The trot out was fine and the rest was a good one and then the photo above of riding out for the last 15 miles.

The first 1/2 of that loop felt an eternity. We kept encountering other riders coming at us for the first few miles and King wanted to turn and ride back to camp with all of them. In particular with this one stallion we shared a water tank with for a moment. That horse he really wanted to go with. On we went with me having to drive him to go a bit which is so rare for him. Then as we rounded the middle of that loop and were on our own way back it was all about keeping the speed down. He thought we should canter all the way back now. In the end the 2nd loop only took a few minutes longer than the first time we'd done it that day. It was a ride we enjoyed. We finished top ten and enjoyed every minute of it! Attaboy.

So spring for me was a season to condition for our upcoming Competitive Trail and Endurance rides. I officially was back in the saddle after a long stretch on March 18th. The countdown to May 10th begins there. At first we ventured out just by going up and down the driveway and finally up and down the road. King is full of spring and for horse people we know what that means! A lot of kicking up of heels and wanting to GO!

So I found him places that we could do just that. Miles and miles of dirt roads. I have to pick carefully though as the spring road conditions are an ever changing thing.

There is ice covered in mud like this. Sometimes just ice, lots town maintenance crews to work around and little rocks they leave behind after doing a good job with the york rake.