{"id":2512,"date":"2015-09-08T02:24:06","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T02:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/?page_id=2512"},"modified":"2022-02-12T01:41:42","modified_gmt":"2022-02-12T01:41:42","slug":"aerc-national-championship-50","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/?page_id=2512","title":{"rendered":"AERC National Championship 50"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"grumpy_kitty\"<\/a>So, in sixteen years of competing, I have never qualified for the AERC National Championship Ride.\u00a0 Not that I want to ride at Old Dominion again this year (see June’s ride – whew!<\/a>) but as Miss Daizy and I have qualified, and the ride in is our region this year, and I am determined to beat the OD trail … off we go!\u00a0 I’m thinking that I will NOT be able to conveince Paula to come and crew for me (ever again) so Naoma has promised to come and crew for me the day of the ride.\u00a0 The vet checks are away from base camp and I need some poor unsuspecting person to drive my gear around.\u00a0 (Hello Naoma!)<\/p>\n

I use this above photo to start this ride story because at 2 1\/2 weeks out from the ride … absolutely NO-ONE is talking about it.\u00a0 I have no idea who is entering, who is going, who is crewing … it’s like the ride doesn’t even exist.\u00a0 Sooooooo ….\u00a0 I created this meme and put it out on the endurance Facebook groups to see what response I’d get.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, not much!\u00a0 Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.<\/p>\n

I am going to be all alone at this ride.\u00a0 No-one I know is qualified to go.\u00a0 I do have two people interested to ride trail with me, now to pray they are serious about that.\u00a0 Otherwise, I’ll just go up when everyone else is ready to go on trail and hope some rider doesn’t mind my jingle bells and would like my company.<\/p>\n

This will be very interesting!<\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n

Ah, the ride story.\u00a0 It was an amazing three days, I will admit. I really enjoyed the camping time with my daughter Naoma and my three grandchildren Katana, Sai and Stas.\u00a0 Stas was a bit on the pouty side the entire time, but then again, I can’t blame him.\u00a0 He was surrounded by all girls, even Miss Daizy and Poe!<\/p>\n

I learned, on\u00a0 my trip down to Oakney Springs, VA, that the state of Virginia lies.<\/p>\n

LIES!<\/p>\n

When I crossed into Virginia, it was my intention to top off my tank so Naoma wouldn’t run out of gas while driving around being my crew and gopher.\u00a0 I saw a Shell gas next exit so pulled off.\u00a0 I drove aimlessly for five minutes before I realized that the Shell Station had been replaced with a BP Station.<\/p>\n

Dammit.<\/p>\n

I got back on the highway and drive another five or six miles and saw another blue “GAS” sign that indicated there was a Shell at the next exit.\u00a0 I promptly got off the exit only to find the Shell had been replaced by a BP … and it was across the street from another BP.<\/p>\n

WHAT?\u00a0\u00a0 (&*^*&$#$^#$&*&*))<\/p>\n

So, I got back on the highway looking at my gas gauge indicating that we were now below a quarter tank and since I’m driving a trailer I had best get gas soon.\u00a0 Carefully watching for a Shell or Sunoco “blue gas sign” I saw another Shell emblem before the next exit.\u00a0 I really didn’t believe it at this point, but I got off this exit anyway.<\/p>\n

(sigh)<\/p>\n

No Shell, but a bran new BP station.\u00a0 Now, it’s not important that I only fill up with Shell or Sunoco, but as I have gas credit cards for these two gas providers, it’s much nicer to pay for the gas next month, than pay for it right now.<\/p>\n

So I filled up at the BP, using half my cash I brought with me to do so.<\/p>\n

I got back on the higway and the very next exit, another Shell emblem on the blue “GAS” sign and .. yes … I could see a Shell gas sign standing tall over the trees.<\/p>\n

OF FREAKIN’ COURSE!<\/p>\n

Yep, the state of Virginia lies and I am going to complain to their Department of Transportation about it, too!<\/p>\n

I arrived exactly when I wanted to, at 1:00 pm.\u00a0 And the camp was a ghost town.\u00a0 Seriously, there were maybe 10 rings there when I arrived.<\/p>\n

WOW.<\/p>\n

I have never been to this camp that there weren’t over 100 rigs.\u00a0 This was amazing.\u00a0 And although they wouldn’t let us park on the road side of the camp, due to the very soft and mushy state of the field, I was still able to pretty much pick my spot.<\/p>\n

Nice.<\/p>\n

Naoma arrived shortly after I did with kids in tow.\u00a0 My crew is here!<\/p>\n

YAY<\/p>\n

\"camp\"<\/a>We rapidly set up the camp.\u00a0 In fact, we set up the camp so fast, I was in amazement of the efficiency of having four extra hands!\u00a0 I directed and did the heavy lifting while Naoma did the setup and the kids fetched and carried.\u00a0 Katana walked Miss Daizy around to eat grass while Naoma and I setup the corral panels and filled her water buckets.\u00a0 When it was all done, in a couple minutes, Miss Daizy was petted and loved on and set free.<\/p>\n

WOW<\/p>\n

\"naoma<\/a>And I am super jealous of Naoma’s new tent!\u00a0 It has (as the kids put it) TWO ROOMS!\u00a0 A sleeping section partitioned off from the sitting section.\u00a0 Remarkably, as big as it is, Naoma managed to set it up all by herself because I was busy setting out chairs and the camp stove and didn’t realize she was doing it alone.\u00a0 SORRY NAOMA!\u00a0 A customer of hers found out that she liked to camp with the kids and offered Naoma this nice tent, used once, for free.\u00a0 You have to love your customers, who love you back!<\/p>\n

NICE! (and really big)<\/p>\n

\"AERC<\/a>Katana and Sai brushed Miss Daizy up nice and pretty so we could go down to get her vetted in.\u00a0 As this is the AERC Nationals for 2015, there was a photographer taking photos of all the horses entered after their vetting in and the girls wanted her nice and pretty for her photo.\u00a0 They did a very nice job.\u00a0 Miss Daizy was beautiful.\u00a0 And passed her vetting in with wonderful scores and low pulse.\u00a0 Now, during the photo session afterwards, she wasn’t as wonderful!\u00a0 She didn’t want to stand still, she wanted to eat grass and stare at the Asgard mare that was on display for the raffle tickets, and eat more grass.\u00a0 We finally did get a nice picture of her, though.\u00a0 Thanks to Becky who patiently snapped away as Miss Daizy danced around.<\/p>\n

I have been having a ton of trouble last season into this season with fitting a saddle to my little mare.\u00a0 Miss Daizy works like a big horse but she is only 14.1 hands tall and she is very very short backed.\u00a0 And I am no little person, weight wise I fall into the Middleweight division in AERC.\u00a0 So finding a saddle big enough to fit my fat butt but small enough to fit onto the small landscape of her back, has been quite the challenge.\u00a0 I am working on saddle number five at this ride.\u00a0 The first competition we did in it, it seemed to work well.\u00a0 At the second competition we did, it made her so sore I almost pulled her from the ride.\u00a0 I changed some setup on the saddle, got a better girth and am hoping that it is solved this ride.\u00a0 We did this trail in June in an old beat up saddle and after this ride, I have to stop using that saddle as it caused the left side of her back to swell and all the hair fell out a week later.<\/p>\n

So, everything is finished for the day and now we can go around camp and visit with people.\u00a0 By this time more rigs are coming in but it still seems like a very small group to be in this very large base camp.\u00a0 I am not used to this small of a crowd.\u00a0 My understanding is that there are forty-four horse and rider teams qualified and entered into this Championship Ride.\u00a0 When I saw the listing, I was a bit freaked out because there are a LOT of big names on the list … top competitors in my region as well as a couple top competitors from the SW and MW.<\/p>\n

Oh my …. and here we are, two little peons, Team Miss Daizy.\u00a0 A little blip on the screen of endurance competitors.\u00a0 (grin)\u00a0 It feels good, though, to be qualified to compete against these big name riders and horses.\u00a0 I have one goal.\u00a0 Just one.\u00a0 Complete and do it better than I did in June.\u00a0 I am not competing against the other riders, I am competing against myself.\u00a0 My June 2015 Old Dominion ride was horrible!<\/p>\n

Katana spent most of her afternoon taking Miss Daizy out into the big grassy field and hand grazing her, then trotting her all over, then hand grazing.\u00a0 I watched the two of them and I really wish I had thought to take pictures.\u00a0 Miss Daizy was having the time of her life.\u00a0 Every time Katana would ask her to trot, her tail would flip up and her ears stood forward and she trotted right alongside Katana until Katana asked her to stop.\u00a0 Then her head would immediately drop and she’d start eating grass again.<\/p>\n

I had heard rumors about the grass at the Old Dominion field.\u00a0 I’m not sure whether they are true or not, but it has been said that horses have become sick on this grass.\u00a0 As you read this story, keep this in the back of your mind as a book marked information.<\/p>\n

\"sai_poe\"<\/a>Sai was in charge of Poe and she did a fabulous job of keeping Poe walked and taken for potty breaks.\u00a0 It was kinda funny to watch those two together because Sai is very much like me, a clown, and Poe is like … WTF?<\/p>\n

Chuckle<\/p>\n

I loved this photo that someone took.\u00a0 It warms my heart to see that one of my grandkids has my wonderful sense of adventure and fun.\u00a0 Sai was pleasant and fun the entire time.\u00a0 Even after the kids ate all their breakfast food when they arrived in the afternoon and she thought they would have no breakfast for the rest of the camping trip, she was still in a perky mood.\u00a0 YES, she also has my ravenous appetite.<\/p>\n

It got hot and humid around 3:00 pm and we were getting a wee bit concerned because it was supposed to be more humid during tomorrow’s ride.\u00a0 The horses have all started putting on their winter coats and I only saw three horses with a radiator shave.\u00a0 I was praying that Miss Daizy would stay her normal cool and pulsed down self for the vet holds.\u00a0 I was riding with Peggy tomorrow (a big name and long time endurance competitor) and I knew that she liked to cruise into a vet check and go straight in for pulse.\u00a0 Miss Daizy is not always down right away because she gets excited to be in a hold and have FOOD!<\/p>\n

Getting time for the dinner and ride meeting.\u00a0 I told the kids to grab jackets because I knew once the sun went down it would get chilly.\u00a0 Naoma did not heed my instructions and halfway through the meal, she had to send Katana down for a jacket.<\/p>\n

Uh huh<\/p>\n

\"map\"<\/a>Ride meeting was pretty thorough (or so I thought at the time).\u00a0 My grand children made friends with twin boys and they played so very hard while we finished up the meal and had the ride meeting.\u00a0 it was so nice to hear giggling and laughing coming from far far away as they played.\u00a0 Naoma did have to get up at one point and go tell them to “shush” because they got too loud.\u00a0 Everyone through out the ride day that saw me on trail or in the holds kept complimenting me on my well behaved grand kids.\u00a0 Not my doing, it’s all Naoma!<\/p>\n

Okay, I digress – ride meeting.\u00a0 They told us that they had taken out the long hill and rock climb across the cliffs – OH DOM!\u00a0 Pay attention!\u00a0 They took out your scary part of the trail.\u00a0 They also said they put a water tub at the top peak of that loop.\u00a0 Oh thank goodness because that 17 mile loop was hard on use in June as it was devoid of any fresh water for the horses.\u00a0 What they did NOT tell us was that they replaced those miles with service road.\u00a0 Graveled service road.\u00a0 Miss Daizy is NOT happy on gravel.\u00a0 I am not happy on gravel.\u00a0 And if they had told us this bit of news at the ride meeting, I would have put Miss Daizy in boots before we started the ride.\u00a0 See that straight section in the middle of the two loops?\u00a0 That we do twice?\u00a0 And a small section of the outer loop at the bottom?\u00a0 All road … graveled road … and no burm on the sides to get off and trot in the grass.\u00a0 Now, one thing this did do was speed up the completion times for this trail over the June ride because horses were able to “git up and go” on the road instead of climbing up and over rocks.<\/p>\n

Nice!<\/p>\n

Here’s our distances to each hold.<\/p>\n