This weekend I was in Maz's stomping grounds. Star and I did the 30 mile ride at the Bell Cow Boogie in Chandler OK. I wasn't too sure if we'd finish. I'm really outa shape. Star has done only two CTRs, one in May and one in June. We just haven't trained very much. But my 19YO horse showed me he still can get out there and do it with the best of them, just not as fast, LOL.

Ride Story! Part 1

Ride meeting was very brief explanation of trail. No food at this one. We're totally on our own. So spoiled by KS and Mo rides! At the end of the ride meeting, the RM said, oh, by the way, on the 13 mile loop there are feral pigs. Oh, by the way?????????? Visions of a teleport ran through my head.

Star vetted in fabulously. got him set up with food and water. Got me and Lady set up. Met a nice couple that parked near me, Glen and Elizabeth. Glen is the crew. Elizabeth a lovely Brit with a gorgeous bay Arab. Glen offered to take care of Lady for me while we were riding! This couple kind of adopted me for the weekend. They couldn't believe I do this by myself, LOL

Windy and cold as heck that night. Woke up at 3, 4, and 5:30. Finally stayed up. I'm SOOOOOnot a morning person. Why do I do this to myself! I felt kinda sick. Thought, oh, sh!t, let's just go home. Gave myself a pep talk. Just kept making the motions... tacking up Star, etc.

It was cold and very brisk on Sat. a.m. Horse were full of it. 50 milers headed out on the big trail at 7. We headed out on the 13 mile loop at 7:30... the loop with the feral pigs.

Each loop was out and back... 13 miles and 17 miles. Star was not happy that I was holding him back, but at his age and condition, I had to save horse for the end of the ride! After about 5 miles of pulling and pulling on me, he finally settled down to a nice pace. We were at the back of the pack and that was fine with me.



The trail is not hard, but it's more technical than it looks. lots of trail ruts. Lots of small ups and downs that make the horse really use his feet and legs up, down and sideways. Lots of twists and turns, lots of single track through burr oak woods. A few open areas are welcome relief. There are also a LOT of areas of really deep red sand. That deep sand is really ###### a horse's legs if they don't train in it. And we don't have much sand around here.

We went out 6.5 miles and had to punch a hole in our ride card to prove we went all the way to the end. There was the sign and the string, but no hole punch. ######, soemone had done it too fast and yanked the hole punch off the string. i finally located the punch and tied it back to the string and went on.

We did that first loop in 1:50. Better than I had planned. That gave us lots of time for the second loop.


Ride Story part 2

Had a 45 minute vet hold. Star made criteria right away (64 bpm). Got mostly A's on his vet check. I gave him a sloppy wet meal. He ate some of it but not all. I took him back to the vet to check his gut sounds again before heading out. Vet said, 'A," he sounds great. Ok, we're off.



Second loop started out for a half mile over steep red sandstone rocks, winding and twisting through a piney woods, then across a road and another mile or two of wooded trail interspersed with riding along a roadside. Star was on fire and wanted to go.

Then, we crossed the road again and went into the city park. At this point it hit Star, Dang, we're headed away from camp and maybe I'd better save some energy." he slowed way down. i had to keep leg on him to keep him going. Especially when the other riders who were way ahead of us were coming back. Star thought we ought to turn around and follow them back to camp.

Uhuh buddy, we got a long way to go.



Finally came to a water tank. he stopped and really sucked down the water. That made him feel a whole lot better. He wanted to grab bites of grass, and I praised him for that.

We had to ride alongside the dam that made Bell Cow Lake. Then through some parking areas, then along some back flows of the lake where we rode on a steep bank between huge piles of rocks on one side and highay on the other. Then back into woods again.

FINALLY, we got to the turnaround point on this trail. Hole punched my card and headed back.

Wheee. Star now was a horse on a mission. Get back to camp! I didn't have to put leg on him anymore, LOL.

:bigemo_harabe_net-130:

About two miles back, some idiots came racing up behind me. I thought they were 50 milers racing in for a good placing. But they were 30 milers. Stupid to race at this point, when we're vying for 25, 26, or 27th place, LOL.

Star wanted to race and I saw his HR go up. I held him back and convinced him to walk fast, but not run. We came into camp about 3 minutes behind the people who passed us. But one of the racers, his horse didn't pulse down.

In the limited distance, you have to meet a 60 bpm criteria at the end of the ride. your ride time ends when your hears meets that.

Star got to criteria as soon as I untacked him.

he vetted through with ALL A'S.

Anyway, we finished 30 miles with a ride time of about 5:15. We finished with a good hour to spare.All Star wanted to do was roll. Right there at the vet check, LOL.

Got him taken care of, went to awards meeting to get my t-shirt. Yes, we do this to ourselves for t-shirts, LOL.

Took a shower, loaded up and started my truck. UJm, won't move out of park! Can''t move it at all. Turn it off, move the steering wheel, check the brakes, check the 4wd, start it again. Nope, can't move out of park.

I'm thinking, ######, I'm gonna have to call US Rider and see how good they are.

Glen came over. Said it probably was the weight of my trailer holding the linkage from moving. AFter trying several things, he unhooked my trailer, started up the truck, and voila! Moved out of park. Hooked the trailer back up, drove it to a flat spot, and loaded up Star again, and we were off!

Thanked Glen and Elizabeth profusely.

When we finally got home, I turned him out, and he chased Zab and Ali, got a big drink, and raced out to his pasture. I guess he was OK!


Pictures in another thread and more about riding 30 miles in the LJ. YES YES YES... it worked fabulously.

chris
P.S. We never saw any feral pigs.

Congrats, Bayrab. Having fun itsn't what we have horses for!

I'm having a hard time trying to post photos, so here's a link to ride photos on a nother board

http://bayrab.proboards37.com/index.cgi?bo...read=1162753680

congratulations!! yea that old bell cow trail isn't much fun out and back, did you see the long horns in the pasture next to that short trail. my SOs daughter get poison oak out there.. but it is different.. and they've held that ride there for years and years.

we were at the turkey flat ctr at arrowhead park. had a great ride saturday, took the fat little 10 year old trix i hadn't riden since August and just rode the cp division and she did great for the 15 miles we did saturday, don took khid out on his first solo open 25 mile day saturday and was greatly pleased... we were due too start out at 7 this morning, and it's pretty rocky terrain there, when about 4 am it started raining.. we weren't in any annual points race or anything special.. we were counted in the totals for those that were, so , after the rough weather ride we did in kansas we decided there wasn't a good reason not to go home ... we had a good ride in the colorful hills of SE Oklahoma.

next ride in a month and i'll take all the foul weather gear with me... again.

Congratulations, again Chris!

p.s. 19 is just a baby, 35 year old elmer was running open at turkey flat....

oh, that Elmer is a hoot! What ahorse!

Star is just not in condition for running a whole ride. He wanted to, but I wanted to save some horse for the end, LOL

anyway, I was very pleased with our weekend. it was the horse therapy I desperatly needed!

chris

Ack, not sure where the photos went. Here they are again!

From the "Flat Rock" Loop, 13 miles of trail



Lots of oak woods, single track trail



The "Red bud Trail" We did 17 miles of this


It starts off a little challenging




but then it gets easy
and you get nice views of the lake



good job, Starman!



My little traveling buddy

AWESOME!! You bring your rides to life...feel like I'm in the saddle with ya!

Oh my gosh it sounds like it had its challenges for sure...that rocky climb would make me do the eyebrow wag for sure!


Robin

check out the pictures on this site, both the direct link to equestrian trails and the natrc 06 ride pictures,

http://www.lcb.okstate.edu/EquestrianTrails.htm

if your MODTRA folks or anyone AERC wants to check it out for a ride, Don has said he would trailmaster it or help a trail master if we are elsewhere.

ooooh, thanks for the link Maz! We do have a few Ok members in MOTDRA. I'll pass this along. Maybe someone will want to manage another ride for us!

chris

you are welcome, you could come ride our oklahoma land run natrc ride in march. the novice division is real easy for early in the year, also the picture in my avatar of don on the bay is at the lake.

keep an eye on that link under 'events' other horse activities go on.