I'm heading to Henryville IN for the AERC/AHA National Championship 50 Mile Endurance ride with Bask N Coins+ (leopard appy-half-arab).

Just wondering if anyone else is going to this ride or the National CTR so we can put faces to names.

I will be there too- I'll be on Saga, and am hoping to have my cousin (JR) on Kismet. I want to get up there early if she is able to miss the extra days of school, but we will be there Fri at the latest in order to ride the 50 on Sat. We will definitely have to at least introduce ourselves!

when it gets CTR within 500 miles of me i'll go, especially if they use good vets.

off to regionals friday this week. CTR.

I will be in the area, and I'm thinking about going as a spectator. Will they have many vendors do you think?

Sarah

A funny thing happened on the trail at the AERC/AHA National Championship ride - I was leading a bunch of riders and they started singing "The ants go marching in...." and lo and behold it was Mystic Rose and her junior.

We had a lovely chat and then we got separated with me heading on in advance.

In the AERC ride I finished a respectable 63rd (out of 114 starters) on Bask N Coins with Jennifer on Summer Sage coming in 84th and Kaitlyn Stoddard on Autumn Kismet coming in 85th. Congrats girls!!

In the AHA portion, I finished 6th out of 9. Boohoo, I was one out of T10! Ah well you can't T10 in them all.

Awesome course with the second loop being a real eye opener with hills near 90 degree incline with switchback turns. Incredible to ride with some of the top riders and horses in North America.

Great to meet Mystic Rose in person even if she mainly saw my back!

Well Dalriada beat me to posting about the ride, it was very funny, the other adult rider who was with me is who starting singing, for once my Jr rider didn't start the silliness! But anyway- I am riding along behind a leopard app with a Canada Maple leaf covered red and white rump rug, and it suddenly clicked that "Hey- I think I know who that is!" Sure enough!

It was a fabulous ride, we ended up finishing a bit slower than I had hoped as my Jr's mount decided she was tired of the hills with about 3 miles left. Poor Kismet- her last endurance ride was 2 yrs ago, but she was the only horse that Kaitlyn was qualified with, so coming off of injury/maternity leave (we weaned her colt in Aug) we threw her back into conditioning and amazingly were able to get her fit. Of course she had a good base from years of endurance prior, so it wasn't like starting one from scratch - legs and tendons etc.. were good to go, but it took a lot of riding to get her fit again!

The ride itself was fabulous! Major up and down hills, steep inclines, a very technical trail, which are my favorite kind. They definitely created a National Level course, as they apparently made a point of linking the trails that are their most challenging there. Very well run ride, seemed like everyone had a great time, I didn't hear any real complaints.

Hopefully this link will work it is the link to the ride photographer - should link straight to a picture of Saga and I - he is in a turquoise rump rug, then you scroll forward past another grey (friend of mine) then a chestnut- my Jr Kaitlyn on Autumn Kismet. If you scroll backwards from Saga and I than you will see Dalriada on her appaloosa with the maple leaf covered rump rug.
http://geniess.smugmug.com/gallery/6354503...8007_NHEnP-O-LB

The link to additional pics is www.geniess.com that takes you to the photographers home page if anyone wants to browse the other pics- the 100 milers etc...