I will be at the ride this year (September 21/22) It is the 50th anniversary of the Chesapeake Rides! LeeAnne will be riding Miss Daizy on her first official 2-day 50 mile CTR. I am too excited.
I have been healing and I did my first “hard ride” last Sunday (September 1) since my back and hip went out on June 2, 2013. I survived the ride, so I will start doing more hard rides and hopefully I will be riding Miss Daizy at the Ride for the Ribbons CTR in October.
I did make Miss Daizy sore on her right loin during that conditioning ride. I watched some video that Cheryl took and see what my problem is so I am going to start working on correcting that. it’s all about the seat (chuckle) and since my I was babying my left side, I sat too hard on my right side. NO MORE! I’m gonna suck it up and ride straight, dammit.
I did a ride a week later with LeeAnne on some new trails I had not been on and Miss Daizy and I were in perfect harmony. No soreness for either one of us. I concentrated on keeping my left side working, regardless of the pain, and that worked out nicely. She’s ready for her 2 Day 50 mile ride!!!
I have a new nickname. Not sure it fits me, but I have to accept it. Corinne has named me, “Miss Anti-Social”. It’s not my fault. Read on.
Saturday morning I leapt out of bed at 3:00 am, jammed two cups of coffee into my stomach and left the house at 3:45 am to drive down to Elkton, MD for the ride. I arrived at 5:45 … ran a little behind due to two things. First, I had to keep stopping to get rid of the coffee (chuckle) and Second, I completely turned right instead of left on 273 and went 20 miles out of my way. Sheesh. I was pretty sure where I was going so I didn’t have my GPS on. Guess I’ll never forget now.
I woke LeeAnne up when I texted her upon arrival. Their start time was 7:43 am so she had plenty of time for a quickie nap after she fed and watered Miss Daizy. She met me at the stall and when Miss Daizy saw me she let out a holler. Too funny.
LeeAnne, Corinne and Tiffany were running around getting ready and being all nervous. it’s kinda interesting to watch people in the morning when I’m not actually riding. I wonder if I look all stressed out like that. I sure hope not, I usually and pretty laid back about all that stuff these days. Maybe not so much when I had Flame … who was likely to be killing me about 5 minutes before a ride started. Miss Daizy is just as cool as jello when it’s time to start. I love this little mare.
I got sent out to my hospitality station (I was a volunteer this weekend for Cate.) and I did not get to see them off. I did get a nice picture of LeeAnne and Miss Daizy before she mounted up to get going.
I was at the absolute best hospitality station ever! I got to see all the riders two times and we were 3 miles from base on the first loop and 2 miles from base for the second loop. People were thrilled to see us, we were right at the creek so a lot of people stopped there to cool off, and I saw lots of action!!!! My partner in crime at the station was Scott. He was a blast. I had so many good conversations with him and found out that he also speaks French … we had a very enjoyable day together.
The horse ambulances had to come out and pick up three horses. They are all fine, no worries. Mostly due to lost shoes and sore feet. One of those horses was a sad story. His owner has never been able to complete a CTR this year and was riding with Scott’s wife in the hopes that a seasoned rider would get them through. Nope. Blew a shoe and sored up his foot so the ambulance had to pick them up. I thought she was going to burst into tears when the ambulance arrived. A whole season and no completions. That’s very disappointing.
As the horses came through I watched for Miss Daizy. She sure stands out in the crowd all decked out in yellow. Here she is on Loop 1, she was following the pack. And on Loop 2, she was trotting out front and trotted all the way across the bridge. I was thrilled to see her still trotting along, tail swaying and ears forward at the end of the ride. The day started out cloudy but then it cleared up and the sun was really hot. Horses coming in to our station on the second loop were showing signs of fatigue and most of them were panting pretty hard. Not Miss Daizy. I don’t think she breathes at all.
Here is how I got my new nickname. After the ride was over, we all were sitting around at Corinne’s trailer. Now, I had sat in my camp chair all day, getting up and down for five 100 mile riders (three loops), eight 80 mile riders (two loops), nineteen 50 mile riders (two loops), thirty-two 30 mile riders (two loops) and fourteen CDR clinic riders (one loop). Did you count how many times I got up and down out of my camp chair? Which isn’t really good for your posture to begin with? MY BACK HURTS!!!!!
So, the girls all go up for the ride briefing for the next day and I decide I have to lay down and stretch out my back. I know it’s only 6:00 pm, but my back is screaming in agony. By the time I actually got situated in the back of my KIA on my bed, spasms had started and I was in tears. Every time it would spasm, my sciatica nerve would scream all the way down my leg into the top of my foot. O M F G
We also had rain from about 7:00 pm until 2:00 am … once I got my back settled down, I wanted to go back out and sit with the giggling nonsense going on but I didn’t want to get wet and damp so I just stayed in my car – missing out on all the fun they were having. Next morning, Corinne teased me (unmercilessly) about being anti-social. Oh, it gets even better, so stay tuned.
So, next morning, the sun is out and the sky is clear blue. GLORIOUS DAY for a ride. The rain freshened everything up nicely and the humidity from the day before was gone gone gone. LeeAnne, Corrine and Tiffany are moving a little slower this morning (compared to yesterday morning) and there is some concern about completing. I checked all the horses and told them they were going to kick ass and take names, get out there and have fun finishing up the ride. They left but only two of them had smiles on their faces. Miss Daizy was ready to rock and she was perky smirky!
I was working the halfway point on Day 2 so I had a great view of all the horses coming in for the first hold. Miss Daizy, working out front of the pack, trotted right in, went round the barrel and left. I didn’t even get to give her a cookie. The girls were running tight on time and LeeAnne was a great “mommy” and busted them about moving on out. Miss Daizy wasn’t even sweated up. How impressive.
I heard the ride and tie people talking about the creek. The rain the night before had it up and running rapids. Apparently, the creek was over the waist of a couple of the people and the conversation turned quite “raw” as they discussed their wet undergarments and squishy coochies. (chuckle) It was a rip roaring conversation, to be sure.
Coming in to finish, Miss Daizy is still happy! LeeAnne and Corinne are grinning ear to ear. Tiffany, not so much. I think she felt her mare wasn’t having any fun, so she wasn’t having any fun. I felt kinda sad for her. LeeAnne and Corinne on the other hand had a BLAST!
Now, for the end of the new nickname story. At the lunch and ride awards, Pixie (my little dog) caused Cate’s dogs to go crazy with barking so I moved out of line of sight. This meant I was on the other side of the meeting, away from LeeAnne, Corinne and Tiffany … and I was being anti-social again (sigh). That’s how this all got started. Guess there are worse names I could earn, yes????
YEA! LeeAnne and Miss Daizy completed 50 miles at Chesapeake Fall CTR.