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<\/a>I get Miss Daizy as clean as I can then we go over for vetting.\u00a0 While I wasn’t looking, Brenda (LeeAnne’s slave for the day) took this nice picture of her.\u00a0 Her boo-boo is now about the size of a half dollar and totally scabbed over.\u00a0 I am hoping that there is no change in it during the ride.\u00a0 Dr. Nick marked it on her sheet and crossed his fingers to hope for the best.<\/p>\nMany people that had been following Miss Daizy’s boo-boo on Facebook came over to investigate it.\u00a0 They were very impressed with the healing process and the fact she was 100% sound on it.\u00a0 It still looks ugly and it’s going to leave a huge scar, the hair that has already come in is white as snow, and it’s still swollen compared to the other leg.\u00a0 However, she is sound on it so we’re going to ride today!<\/p>\n
Remember this for later on in the story.<\/p>\n
I came back to the trailer and tied Miss Daizy.\u00a0 Tiny Bladder Syndrome – run to the bathroom.\u00a0 I’m told Miss Daizy hollered after me begging me to come back.<\/p>\n
grin<\/p>\n Jack, on the other hand, was dancing all around and wouldn’t eat.\u00a0 LeeAnne was feeling better about riding now that the sun was out, but she was stressed by Jack not relaxing.\u00a0 I tell her “Don’t worry about it!”<\/p>\n The ride meeting was interesting, to say the least.\u00a0 The wind was blowing the tent so hard that we could not hear anything.\u00a0 Poor Cate, with her quiet voice, was making every attempt to talk over the wind flapping tent.\u00a0 It was comical.<\/p>\n Our out time was 8:35 am.\u00a0 We had half an hour to wait.\u00a0 Tiny Bladder Syndrome.\u00a0 Run to the bathroom again.\u00a0 I’m told that Miss Daizy hollered after me when I left … like she thought I was going to do the ride without her.<\/p>\n However, once she was in the saddle, Jack was all business.\u00a0 He stood tall and looked out over the horizon and I could feel the tension leaving LeeAnne as he was the perfect gentleman.<\/p>\n I was totally prepared for anything.\u00a0 The wind was so loud we could barely hear each other talking.\u00a0 We came out of a wooded trail into a field about mile three and suddenly Jack went sideways and stopped.\u00a0 From the corner of my eye I saw LeeAnne going out of the saddle.\u00a0 I pulled up Miss Daizy and as I was started to get out of my saddle, LeeAnne saved her seat and remained on Jack.<\/p>\n WHOO HOO – that was a mighty feat of riding, right there!<\/p>\n The trees are swaying and every time we rode along woods, we could hear creaking and groaning.\u00a0 At one point, halfway through on the first loop, we heard a gun shot … well, actually it was a tree breaking .. and neither Jack nor Miss Daizy even cared about it.\u00a0 I don’t know about LeeAnne, but I jumped three feet out of the saddle.<\/p>\n We’re cruising along and came up on a lone gray horse in front of us.<\/p>\n Uh Oh<\/p>\n Miss Daizy was working pretty well on a loose rein to that point.\u00a0 Now I have to keep her checked and rated with Jack.\u00a0 And bless his little heart, Jack didn’t get all worked up about that horse in front of us, nor the fact that Miss Daizy was suddenly “ON”.\u00a0 I was rather pleased at Miss Daizy’s enjoyment of her ride considering she had no work for the past 2 1\/2 months.\u00a0 She was most certainly prepared to do far more work than I was letting her do at this ride.<\/p>\n Whew<\/p>\n But now we’re cruising straight into the wind, entering into an open field, with huge jumps all over, and Miss Daizy has pretty much had it with Jack’s 6.5 mph trot and she wants to move out.\u00a0 I let her go into her pretty little lope … not a canter, just a little framed lope, and that satisfies her to some degree … but I have to hold on to her because I can tell, the slightest release from me and she’s going to run as fast as she can on this field.<\/p>\n Oh boy<\/p>\n We’re loping along next to Jack while he’s trotting, and suddenly, the head wind grabs a hold of my helmet and lifts it up, choking me with the chin strap.\u00a0 I got one hand on Miss Daizy and one hand trying to get my helmet back on my head.\u00a0 I had no idea that my new comfy helmet doubled as a paraglider paraphernalia … wheeeeee<\/p>\n Holy Crap<\/p>\n One mile to go and neither Jack nor Miss Daizy wants to walk.\u00a0 They can still see that lone gray horse ahead of them and they want to jog into the base camp.\u00a0 I decide to stop them at the Porta-John and take a Tiny Bladder break.\u00a0 Getting back on was fun because I thought I could stand at this tree stump to get back on, but apparently all around the tree stump the dirt was washed away and Miss Daizy kept stepping in the hole, up to her knee.\u00a0 Finally she looked at me like “Hey Stupid!\u00a0 How about we go over to that log and get on instead because I’m not stepping in that hole again.”<\/p>\n chuckle – when the horse is smarter than the rider.<\/p>\n First loop done and we survived!\u00a0 Miss Daizy’s leg looks great.\u00a0 Her HR is 40.\u00a0 Her RES is 12.\u00a0 She’s not working hard at all.\u00a0 One thing I did notice was that she didn’t drink much at the hold, and she is a big drinker.\u00a0 She ate her food so I didn’t worry about it too much.\u00a0 Me?\u00a0 I have to run to the bathroom.\u00a0 I’m told that Miss Daizy hollered after me.\u00a0 What the heck is with that?\u00a0 I can’t go to the bathroom because it upsets Miss Daizy?<\/p>\n Now, I had purchased a new saddle, an Orthoflex Patriot.\u00a0 Which I love, by the way.\u00a0 I didn’t have it at this ride, I was using my treeless Barefoot Cheyenne, mostly because I had only ridden Miss Daizy in it three times before the weather got so bad we couldn’t ride.\u00a0 I didn’t want to chance a sore back or pressure points on her at this ride.\u00a0 Unfortunately for Miss Daizy, I was riding very very crooked and when we left out of base camp for loop number two, I could feel her complaining about the right diagonal and she was refusing to pick up her left lead at the canter.<\/p>\n Dammit<\/p>\n I bought a new saddle to stop this kind of stuff.\u00a0 Time to get serious about conditioning in the new saddle so I could compete in it.<\/p>\n Now, for those of you following along Miss Daizy’s blogs, you know she is a second loop girl.\u00a0 She doesn’t wake up and get serious about working until second loop.\u00a0 This wind is half blowing me out of the saddle because it has picked up strength by now, and Miss Daizy is barely keeping me in the saddle as she is begging and begging to work faster.\u00a0 Jack in maintaining his 6.5 to 7.0 mph trot and Miss Daizy has had enough with the sight-seeing speed.<\/p>\n Uh oh<\/p>\n I decide this is a great training ride for Miss Daizy.\u00a0 Rate at your rider, not for you.\u00a0 now I know the motto, “Ride Your Own Ride.” but I was confident I could keep Miss Daizy rated at Jack’s speed without too much trouble.<\/p>\n LeeAnne and I spent the first eight miles knocking knees and feet and Miss Daizy made every attempt to push Jack off the trail and take off without him.<\/p>\n snort<\/p>\n We were unable to have much conversation this second loop.\u00a0 The noise from the wind was roaring in our ears.\u00a0 I can’t remember EVER riding in winds like this.\u00a0 My face started to feel like it was burning.\u00a0 I knew I screwed up by not putting some kind of cream on it.\u00a0 I was going have a severe case of wind burn the next day.<\/p>\n At five miles to go, we had over an hour to our minimum time to come in. We decide we should walk the last five miles.<\/p>\n (for those of you not familiar with CTR – Competitive Trail Riding we have a minimum of four hours and ten minutes to a maximum of four hours and forty minutes to complete our mileage.\u00a0 Visit www.ectra.org<\/a> to learn more about judged trail riding.)<\/p>\n Miss Daizy had other thoughts on that was while Jack was happy to be walking, she was jigging and jigging and pushing into her bridle.\u00a0 Even though I explained to her several times that we were not on an endurance ride, we were on a CTR, she didn’t care!<\/p>\n And then it happened.\u00a0 We came to that wide open field, with the wind blowing straight into our face so hard we couldn’t hear a thing, and Miss Daizy was “ON”.\u00a0 I had a death grip on her, trying to keep her in a semi-slow trot and then she lifted into a framed canter.\u00a0 She was pulling hard at the reins … harder and harder and suddenly she went into a full blown bucking frenzy.<\/p>\n Head between her front legs, hind feet in the air above my head, bucking hard.\u00a0 She put every rodeo horse I’ve ever seen to shame.<\/p>\n HOLY CRAP!<\/p>\n I got her under control, staying in the saddle I have no clue how (maybe the wind was working for me, pushing me down while she was throwing me up) and as I got her turned to stop I saw two riders coming up on us … very fast.<\/p>\n No WONDER she was pushing on her reins so hard.\u00a0 She was NOT going to let someone else win and because the wind was blowing so hard, I couldn’t hear them coming up behind us so I wasn’t prepared for her nonsense.<\/p>\n My back was screaming.\u00a0 LOUD.<\/p>\n I dismounted.\u00a0 I had to.\u00a0 I had to get my back spasms under control.\u00a0 I hate to admit this, but tears were streaming down my face.\u00a0 I hunched over for a couple minutes while poor LeeAnne worried and fussed over me.<\/p>\n Then I tried to stand up straight (NOT! owie) and walk for a minute.\u00a0 I totally know the rules, no forward motion on foot unless it is a safety issue.\u00a0 Well!\u00a0 This is a definite safety issue.\u00a0 If I don’t get my back to stop the hard painful spasms, I will surely not be able to ride my horse.<\/p>\n The two riders that came up on us passed us by.\u00a0 I stood there, bent almost in half trying to breathe and then came along that lone gray rider.\u00a0 She knew immediately what was going on and asked me one word … “Back?”\u00a0 I nodded and she said, “Yep, I know that hunched walk very well.”\u00a0 She asked if she could do anything and I said nope, I was fine.\u00a0 She did hang there for a minute or two just to be sure.<\/p>\n THANK YOU<\/p>\n I managed to get myself straightened up and then walked over to a pile of gravel, determined to get back on Miss Daizy and finish the last two miles.\u00a0 I’m telling LeeAnne that 150 yards is not really forward motion … is it?<\/p>\n Miss Daizy didn’t want to stand still … three horses just passed her, you know, and she had to catch up.\u00a0 I’m sliding and slipping in the loose pile of gravel trying to explain to Miss Daizy that she can’t catch back up to those horses unless I get back on.\u00a0 So after a paragliding lesson and a rodeo lesson, now I’m having a downhill skiing lesson.<\/p>\n gawd<\/p>\n (NOTE:\u00a0 I was contacted after the ride by the ride Manager, Cate.\u00a0 She wanted to know the exact reason I dismounted and did forward motion off my horse.\u00a0 UH OH … someone must have read this story and told on me.\u00a0 It is possible to be disqualified in an ECTRA sanctioned event for breaking any of the rules.\u00a0 I’ll keep the story updated once she gets back to me.)<\/em><\/p>\n Now, don’t get me wrong.\u00a0 Up until this point, I was having a blast.\u00a0 Riding in the wind, totally working my horse and myself, listening to LeeAnne cracking jokes about our date and rubbing knees and my Fun-O Meter was running high on full.\u00a0 I was getting a bit achey in my back from holding Miss Daizy in slow-mode … but I wasn’t complaining about it, because I’d much rather hold her back than push her forward.<\/p>\n But Now?\u00a0 After this rodeo ride?\u00a0 Fun-O-Meter just went on empty.\u00a0 Two miles to go.<\/p>\n I have to admit, Miss Daizy must have totally known what was going on because when I got back on her, she was suddenly very sedate and we walked the final two miles without any fussing on her part.\u00a0 She was jigging a bit, but just to keep up with Jack’s big walk.\u00a0 He walks at about 4 mph and she walks at about 2 mph.\u00a0 The jigging was not fun … owie.<\/p>\n My Fun-O-Meter was slowly refilling and by the time we got back to the base camp, it was almost back to full.\u00a0 I rather enjoyed that last two miles.\u00a0 Especially when I realized that Miss Daizy was more in tune with me than I realized.\u00a0 Maybe that’s why she kept hollering at me when I would go to the bathroom.<\/p>\n I untack Miss Daizy and see that I was seriously clamping on her left side.\u00a0 I start brushing her and when I get to the left side she’s like, “Get the &^%#% away from me with that brush.”<\/p>\n Dammit<\/p>\n So much dirt and loose hair.\u00a0 I brush and brush and brush the entire 20 minutes while we wait to go up for our pulse and respiration check.\u00a0 Miss Daizy was at 40 and 12 again.\u00a0 Her trot out is perky and fast.\u00a0 YAY! And her boo-boo looks exactly the same as it did when we started, all scabby and gross looking.\u00a0 I am thrilled by her performance today.\u00a0 She has not been ridden since January 29th when she got the boo-boo and she just busted out this competition with a ton of horse left in her.<\/p>\n A TON!\u00a0 She had at least 3\/4 tank of gas and was ready to go back out on another loop.\u00a0 I had promised Kelsey that Miss Daizy could be her riding partner for Foxcatcher the following weekend, if she did okay at this ride today.\u00a0 Well, Kelsey is in for a ride!\u00a0 because Miss Daizy is “ON” and strong and ready to bust out 50 miles.<\/p>\n She is an amazing horse.\u00a0 I can’t get over the fact that she is my partner.<\/p>\n VERY BIG GRIN<\/p>\n We have a long wait for the hands on portion so I go to (you guessed it) the bathroom.\u00a0 I was drinking a lot of water and gaterade because I knew that the wind was busting off my hydration faster than the riding was.\u00a0 And I also know myself, if I don’t stay hydrated, I get nauseous.\u00a0 Well, that fluid has to go somewhere … to my Tiny Bladder.<\/p>\n Hands on went about the way I expected it to go.\u00a0 Dr. Nick commented on her boo-boo that he was pleased to see it had no change.\u00a0 YAY!\u00a0 I was a bit miffed about one item.\u00a0 Miss Daizy checked in with tickly on her left girth … they marked her sheet as such.\u00a0 At the end I lost points for tickly on her left girth.\u00a0 Now, in CTR if you start with a “thing” and it’s the same at the end, you are not supposed to lose points for that.\u00a0 I can tell you that I watch the judges very closely in the checks because if there is change in my horse, I want to be aware of it so I can correct it.\u00a0 She did exactly the same thing at the end as she did at the beginning.<\/p>\n That was my only complaint!\u00a0 Everything else, exactly as how I expected it.<\/p>\n Kevin said he and Czar had a good ride, too.\u00a0 We had an amazing ride home.\u00a0 I picked his brain about everything I could think of regarding doing a hundred mile ride.\u00a0 We talked about old trails at Old Dominion and new trails that were at new rides and different horses we had ridden over the years.\u00a0 I couldn’t believe it when we were getting off the turnpike because it did not seem like we had been in the truck for two hours.\u00a0 It seemed like minutes.\u00a0 And I didn’t even ask him to stop along the way home for a Tiny Bladder Syndrome pee break because I went just before I got into the truck and I was good to go.<\/p>\n Now, for the cravet to this story.\u00a0 I pulled my paperwork so I could fill out Miss Daizy’s AHA Competition form and lo’ and behold, the paperwork is in Steel’s name.\u00a0 … apparently when I sent in my ride entry I wasn’t sure Miss Daizy could go to the ride so I sent in Steel’s paperwork.\u00a0 Now I have to get ahold of Cate and ask her to change everything so I can get the correct mileage for Miss Daizy.\u00a0 Although I’m sure Steel would LOVE to accept the fifth placing for her own self, it is important to me that I keep it all correct for the two of them.<\/p>\n A short note to my 50+ Endurance Group … although I was riding on my flouncy bouncy horsie, and she torqued my back something horrible during the ride, I am writing this story feeling pretty darn good and drug free.\u00a0 My back feels alright and although my calves are reminding me that there is quite the difference between riding a Cadillac (Steel) and riding a Ferrari (Miss Daizy) it’s nothing I can’t deal with if I just stay in the chair and don’t walk up and down stairs.<\/p>\n chuckle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, I have been anxiously watching the weather for three days leading up to this ride because they were calling for heavy rain Friday and Saturday morning.\u00a0 Then they changed it to just rain and rain showers Friday and Saturday … Continue reading <\/a>By the way, she was totally unfazed by the wind.\u00a0 Czar was eating his hay and she decided his hay was far better than her own hay so was sharing.\u00a0 I tacked her up so she’d at least have the saddle area warm.\u00a0 She seriously didn’t care at all that the wind was blowing her off her feet.\u00a0 She just munched\u00a0 on\u00a0 Czar’s hay, while her own hay bag was left all alone and untouched right at her feet,\u00a0 and stood there like a perfect little lady.<\/p>\n<\/a>Jack was doing airs above ground while I was sitting on Miss Daizy and letting her eat green grass.\u00a0 Oh yeah, she was in heaven here in Maryland, there was green grass everywhere and she was determined to eat every bit of it.\u00a0 I was worried for LeeAnne that Jack was going to live up to his name (JackAss) because he was definitely feeling the wind before she got mounted.\u00a0 I was rather enjoying the show from my vantage point on top of Lazy Daizy (not for long … )<\/p>\n<\/a>And we’re out.\u00a0 LeeAnne and I are on our date.\u00a0 Let me tell you, they started out quiet and calm, wind blowing us from one side of the trail to the other.\u00a0 Got into a nice 6.5 mph trot and we were moving right along.\u00a0 LeeAnne finally started smiling and it was grand!<\/p>\n<\/a>We came out of a wooded area into an open field with four miles to go and the wind hit me so hard from the left that I almost fell off on the right.\u00a0 I was seriously out of the saddle.\u00a0 Fortunately for me, Miss Daizy felt me going and she stepped to the right and picked me back up.\u00a0 She never missed a beat.\u00a0 The photographer was there taking pictures and I wonder how many other riders had to do a quick adjustment back into the saddle so the photo would look great.<\/p>\n<\/a>We were ready to go out again and even though the wind was really whipping around now, it had most definitely picked up speed and added volume, our horses were totally cool with that.\u00a0 I am most impressed by how well they handled all that wind!<\/p>\n<\/a>LeeAnne and I came into the finish line holding hands and Miss Daizy actually sped up her walk a bit to keep up with Jack while we did it.\u00a0 I think someone was taking pictures so maybe I’ll be able to get one or two pictures from other people brave enough to take out their camera in the wind.<\/p>\n<\/a>She finished in fifth place (Oh look, I did have one picture for this story – only because I took it at home, in the house, where there is no wind.)<\/p>\n