https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Y2l0EfTFQJk<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/laural_run_view.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
My fun meter is way up and I’m feeling in heaven. Like literally, we’re on top of the world. This is Penny Pony’s first competition where she has to do it all by herself, and she’s doing great.\u00a0 We do not do a lot of riding alone because of me.\u00a0 Not that I can’t, but I choose not to.\u00a0 If I come off on trail, and I’m alone at home, someone may never find me for hours.\u00a0 At a ride – well – there are lots of people behind me on trail, someone will see my green glow in the weeds.<\/p>\n
(chuckle)<\/p>\n
We do drive buggy at home, alone.\u00a0 So she is accustomed to having to go out by herself.\u00a0 I was thrilled when she decided she didn’t need a buddy and left that Appaloosa all on her own.\u00a0 She’s learning.<\/p>\n
We came out onto the crossing where we have to (literally) pull a very steep one mile trail.\u00a0 Then we do another two miles, still uphill, along a ridge.\u00a0 We stopped at the water tank there and Penny Pony tanked up.\u00a0 I mean, like you could see the water level visibly diminishing.<\/p>\n
WOW!\u00a0 Bonnie was taking numbers there and since no-one else was around, I asked her if she would give a half an elyte to Penny Pony so I didn’t have to get off.\u00a0 Bonnie was awesome!\u00a0 Slipped that right in and Penny Pony didn’t even notice.<\/p>\n
And off we go.\u00a0 Up the hill, and Penny Pony is like, “F^&%^%$ you, Dodie.”\u00a0 I had to agree with her.\u00a0 That climb looked very daunting.\u00a0 I haven’t done it for three years and had forgotten how utterly steep it was.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/2_mile_climb-150x150.jpg\")
She started up the hill and was bring a perfect endurance horse.\u00a0 She’d go about 100 feet, then stop and eat grass on the side while catching her breath.\u00a0 Then she’d dig in, push herself upward another 100 feet and stop to eat grass while she caught her breath. And on and on.\u00a0 I heard a horse coming up behind me and it flitted across my mind, “Oh Poop!” because Penny was taking it easy and working her way up without overly stressing herself and now that another horse was coming along she’d want to blast up the mountain and give herself a heart attack.<\/p>\n
Oh poop…on a stick…<\/p>\n
I realized at this point that Penny Pony was getting tired.\u00a0 Although she made every attempt to keep up with the gray gelding passing her on the two mile incline, she simply wasn’t up to it.\u00a0 He got on ahead of her and she seriously wanted to be the winner.\u00a0 We made our way up until the trail leveled off and then she perked up.\u00a0 Within ten minutes, she caught up to that gelding and passed him by.<\/p>\n
Once again we were on our own and cruising along at Penny Pony speed. On a loose rein and perked ears.\u00a0 This felt awesome.<\/p>\n
We come out on the flat and there’s a creek crossing.\u00a0 Penny Pony stopped to drink and drink and then she ate some grass alongside the trail,\u00a0 We were still in our pocket of aloneness, so she was taking her time and not feeling any pressure.\u00a0 All on her own, she came out onto the gravel road and turned left towards VC2 (Laurel Run)\u00a0 I swear she could read the sign on the tree.\u00a0 I laughed out loud.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/Laurel_run_hold-150x150.jpg\")
Off at a nice relaxed trot and we’re moving along.\u00a0 She slows down and I let her move at her own pace.\u00a0 The riders behind us caught up to us just as we were turning into the vet check.\u00a0 Penny Pony didn’t stress over it and she quietly merged into their group. (funny story about this photo, the ride manager Diane was taking them from a truck and as we were passing, Penny Pony and I almost fell into the ditch.\u00a0 Sheesh)<\/p>\n
Shockingly, she walked into the vet check and called out.\u00a0 I looked up and there was Amie and Lugnut! HEY!\u00a0 Lugnut called back to her.\u00a0 Too funny!<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/laurelruneating-150x150.jpg\")
I asked Amie when she was out, and she said she had about 10 minutes then she was gone.\u00a0 Nice!\u00a0 They are cruising along today.\u00a0 Lugnut looks great.\u00a0 Amie told me to come park Penny Pony in her spot and eat what was left over.\u00a0 A volunteer came by and I asked him to find my bag, #516.\u00a0 Within a minute he was back and he started unpacking my bag as I was pulling off Penny Pony’s tack.\u00a0 She had her face buried in Lugnut’s pan, eating and eating.<\/p>\n
She was panting pretty good and the sky was darkening.\u00a0 I was praying for a passing shower as I started getting water on her.\u00a0 She never lifted her head out of the feed pan until it was all gone.\u00a0 Another volunteer came by to help me cool her off and she brought a little scoop of feed.\u00a0 Penny Pony was like, “Oh Yeah, give that to me.”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/laurelr-150x150.jpg\")
Side Note: Penny Pony has gotten very smart about holds.\u00a0 Last year she was frantic at the beginning of the season.\u00a0 As the year went on, she became more interested in her food than in what everyone else was doing.\u00a0 At laurel Run she was pretty much back into the swing of being an endurance horse, standing still while I pulled her saddle and leg protection and patiently waiting for the “goodies”.<\/p>\n
I listened to her heart and it seemed a wee bit high but I thought she might get settled by the time I got her up the hill to the pulse takers.\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 It was at 70.\u00a0 There was a water trough there, and the one pulse taker gave me a bottle so I could keep wetting her down.\u00a0 She was ferociously attacking the grass next to the water trough as I wetted and wiped, wetted and wiped.<\/p>\n
But she’s still panting.\u00a0 I am running out of my 30 minutes so I take her over to the pulse taker again.\u00a0 Nope, still about 68.\u00a0 Time to see a vet.<\/p>\n
AND THE SKY OPENS UP.\u00a0 The rain feels really good.<\/p>\n
Dr. Marshall observed her eating, then drinking.\u00a0 He palped her back, asked me to trot, listened to her guts which were As all four.\u00a0 He thought she might just be over heated, but he did want me to get down to Dr. Lynne right away so he went off to find me the horse ambulance.<\/p>\n
I walk back down to where my gear was and hastily stuffed everything into my bag.\u00a0 Another volunteer came up to help me.\u00a0 Penny Pony wasn’t going anywhere, she was nose deep in a pile of hay eating every bit of it like a vaccuum.\u00a0 To me this is a good sign.\u00a0 She is always a good eater and drinker, and she’s doing a lot of that right now.<\/p>\n
Off we go to camp.\u00a0 I text Naoma that I was pulled.\u00a0 She asked if someone should stay for Amie and I quickly answered, “Yes!\u00a0 She’s on the move, keep her going!” Naoma said she’d grab my stuff and meet me at camp.<\/p>\n
Dr. Lynne examined Penny Pony.\u00a0 Everything is As except for her hanging pulse.\u00a0 She watched her eating and offered her a slurry with elytes in it.\u00a0 Penny Pony turned her nose up at it and kept eating grass.\u00a0 Dr. Lynne’s biggest concern was that her pulse wasn’t coming down.\u00a0 it is still hanging around 70.<\/p>\n
We’re at one hour since our pull.\u00a0 Dr. Lynne sends me to my camp with instructions on cooling her off and letting her rest.\u00a0 Come back in an\u00a0 hour.<\/p>\n
OH NO NO NO … I have to walk 20 miles to my camp, wait then walk 20 miles back to the treatment vet.\u00a0 My legs are gonna fall off.<\/p>\n
LOL<\/p>\n
We do that and when we come back in an hour, Penny pony is still panting and her HR is still 68.\u00a0 She peed, pooped a million times, ate grass for an hour and yet her pulse is not coming down.\u00a0 Dr. Lynne told me she had five other horses all doing that same thing.\u00a0 Because Penny Pony is eating and drinking and her guts sound good and she’s not acting in pain, Dr. Lynne doesn’t want to do anything yet.\u00a0 She says to take her back to my camp, give her a triple dose of elytes and come back in an hour and a half.<\/p>\n
NO NO NO NO NO … 20 miles down, 20 miles back.You’re killing me!<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/finished-150x150.jpg\")
Naoma and Katana were a great help.\u00a0 They loaded all my stuff up and brought it back to our camp.\u00a0 Naoma cleaned most of it while I started putting stuff away.\u00a0 We set up a canopy for Penny Pony, thinking the shade might help her cool off.\u00a0 Katana held her on a line in the shade under the trees so she could eat grass and she didn’t bring her head out of it for that entire hour and a half.<\/p>\n
Oh dear, now it’s time to walk that 20 miles to see Dr. Lynne again.\u00a0 Katana walked Penny Pony, Naoma walked, I rode my bike.\u00a0 Penny Pony is still panting and her heart rate is still hanging at about 64 now.\u00a0 It’s down some but it’s now 3 1\/2 hours since we were pulled.\u00a0 She should be mostly recovered. I am beside myself, believing I had broken my pony.\u00a0 I felt totally helpless.<\/p>\n
(Thank you Dr. Lynne, for your bedside manner while I was beating myself up.)<\/em><\/p>\nDr. Lynne made up a nice white pasty mess of Magnalax, elytes and calcium.\u00a0 She syringed it all down Penny Pony and then gently wiped Penny Pony’s white mustache away.\u00a0 She felt she might have the beginnings of an ulcer and maybe Penny Pony had an upset stomach.\u00a0 Within 15 minutes, Penny Pony stopped panting and hung her head, closed her eyes and fell asleep.\u00a0 Dr, Lynne took her pulse and it was 40.\u00a0 Her breathing was 8. Dr. Lynne says, “Ah ha … she needed a calcium boost.”<\/p>\n
Calcium.<\/p>\n
Why has no-one ever told me about calcium???<\/p>\n
In 19 years of doing this sport, I have never heard of a calcium deficiency.\u00a0 But in the past three days of telling people my story, every one of my friends is like, “Oh yeah, you should have calcium on hand to give at a hold.”<\/p>\n
WHAT????<\/p>\n
You don’t know what you don’t know.<\/p>\n
So I quizzed Dr. Lynne and Dr. Marshall about elytes, calcium, other supplements and then they told me to look at the ingredients on the elyte I was using (OTC Jug) and compare it to the one I purchased because the OTC was not available.\u00a0 I did and found the OTC had a much higher percentage of calcium that the one I had with me.\u00a0 AND, it was actually higher in a lot of things.\u00a0 So, now I order a crate of OTC and hope it gets off backorder soon.\u00a0 And yes, I do have a bottle of calcium in my trailer now!<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/lugnut-buckle-150x150.jpg\")
In the meantime, Adam crewed Amie and Lugnut through Bird Haven and they arrived at the finish line in 10th place. I was thrilled to hear they did so well.\u00a0 We had a lot of conversations about Lugnut and his learning curve (chuckle)<\/p>\n
10th PLACE!\u00a0 WAY TO GO AMIE!<\/p>\n
At some point during my 100 mile walking back and forth to the treatment vetting area, Evelyn found me and told me that she had a black hoodie hung on a chair.\u00a0 She was pretty sure it belonged to the person with whom I started the days’ ride.\u00a0 AH!\u00a0 Amie’s coat.\u00a0 YAY!<\/p>\n
Allow me a moment to talk about Evelyn.\u00a0 Relatively new to our sport and on Saturday she rode the 100 mile Beast of the East, Cavalry-Style…and not only was one of the 18 of 32 finishers, she was Top 10.\u00a0 I was very excited to hear that! Now, if I can just get Penny Pony’s brain adjusted, get some more miles on her, maybe I can do a very easy 100 miles with a full dozen crew….<\/p>\n
Mwhahahahahahha<\/p>\n
And if you think that I had a horrible day, you’re very wrong.\u00a0 I had a blast.\u00a0 I met new people, I enjoyed all but about 3 miles of my 30 mile ride with Penny Pony. I love to ride the OD trails and I was very very pleased with Penny Pony’s overall work.\u00a0 We had a hard start to this season and winter\/spring conditioning has been hit or miss with the weather in Pennsylvania being crap.\u00a0 If she did that well in what I consider a “under conditioned” state, just imagine what she’s gonna be like when she gets caught up in her conditioning.\u00a0 For all her quirks, I love this mare and always enjoy riding her, even when she’s an asshole!!!!<\/p>\n
(story still under construction)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The real title should be, “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW” Let me begin the story with my elyte woes.\u00a0 I have always used OTC Jug.\u00a0 I like it.\u00a0 No sugar, high amounts of the things the horse needs, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":5162,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4118","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4118"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4172,"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4118\/revisions\/4172"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/naoma_drive72-150x150.jpg\")
For the very first time, in the history of my attending OD, I made it to the ride in a record 4 hours driving, which included stopping for gas and a pee break as I got off I-81, without any traffic incidents. My crew, on the other hand, took 6 1\/2 hours to drive a normal 3 hour ride. Poor Naoma, they hit three accidents and the third accident had them detoured off onto some crazy back road and everyone was driving 3 mph.\u00a0 She kept texting me approx time to arrive and it kept getting later and later.\u00a0 I was hoping they had enough refreshments in the car so they didn’t die in the wilderness of The Shenandoah\u00a0 Valley.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/camp_arrival-150x150.jpg\")
Pen all set up and Penny Pony is off the trailer.\u00a0 Whew.\u00a0 Now to get all the other things going.\u00a0 I am hot.\u00a0 The temperature isn’t so bad, maybe upper 70’s, but that freakin’ sun is beating down on me and sweat is running off me in rivers.\u00a0 I hope this is not a prelude to the weather for tomorrow.\u00a0 I will die. I am trying to get as much done as possible before I pass out from dehydration.\u00a0 This is crazy!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/swimming_hole-150x150.jpg\")
Once everything is finished, I grab Penny Pony and walk 20 miles up to the vetting in.\u00a0 Remarkably, again she is being very quiet and well behaved.\u00a0 This is not normally her attitude when she arrives in camp, but I’ll take it.\u00a0 Calm is good!\u00a0 On the way to vetting, I had noticed that the OD ride management considered that us riders would be passing out from dehydration and they were kind enough to set up a human swimming hole.\u00a0 Oh yes, I am all about jumping in there in a couple minutes, after I vet-in and walk Penny Pony 20 miles back to our camp..<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/aime_lugnut-150x150.jpg\")
I get back on and we’re walking. Walking walking.\u00a0 Penny Pony is on now.\u00a0 She’s ready to go and Lugnut is also very ready to go.\u00a0 We take a walk away from the finish line, up the road and Penny Pony is like … “Uhm, I’ve been here before and this is NOT the way to the starting line.” Lugnut is like, “I don’t care what direction we’re going, can we just get GOING?”\u00a0 Too funny.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/the-start-150x150.jpg\")
I hear them open trail, I get myself mentally prepared, and turn Penny Pony back to head towards the start line.\u00a0 It was chilly when we were getting ready to go, but now that my adrenaline is going, my light jacket feels like a winter coat.\u00a0 I pull it off over my helmet and tie it around my waist.\u00a0 I look over and Amie is also heating up and she has pulled her hoodie off.\u00a0 As we pass the start line, she throws her hoodie at someone and we’re on a roll.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/runaway-150x150.jpg\")
I see the sign for the photographer and can’t WAIT to see this picture. (Exactly what went through my mind was, “This is gonna be one screwed up photo.”)\u00a0 I am bracing on the reins and I’m attempting half halts, and side pulls, and anything I can to get this horse to STOP RUNNING AWAY WITH ME DOWN HILL.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/naoma_crew-150x150.jpg\")
And finally, we make it into Bird Haven.\u00a0 Penny Pony drank long and hard at the creek crossing just before the hold, and that made me happy … because when I looked at my phone and saw that we came into the hold way too fast for this terrain, I was concerned she’s burning herself up.\u00a0 I yelled “NAOMA!” as we came into the hold.\u00a0 I was supposed to text Naoma a couple miles out but we were moving too fast to safely take the phone out.\u00a0 Turns out there was no service in BH hold anyway, so yelling was the right thing to do!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/files\/2018\/06\/adam_crew-150x150.jpg\")
I told Amie to grab her gear and come over to share my crew!\u00a0 She was so thankful.\u00a0 Lugnut pulsed right down.\u00a0 He also lost a shoe so she had to take him over to the farrier.\u00a0 What a really good boy he is.\u00a0 He is quiet and mannerly in the hold and he was no trouble at all.<\/p>\n