Friday morning we finished organizing our "stuff" for easier access in the
back of the trailer.  We'd met our two camping neighbors, Joylen and Lisa
(don't ask me for last names!!!) the evening before.  I decided to go look
at the vet check area, and encountered Lisa, who was doing the same.  We
walked through it, and she explained how it was set up.  It was much like
our CT region rides, except that instead of having 4 or 5 large water tanks
for cooling out horses, there was just one, and everyone would have their
own crewing areas for cooling, etc.  My friend Gail Zeck had explained to me
that this was how many SE rides were run, so I was prepared for this, having
brought several large muck buckets that Lianne and I could use.  As we
finished walking through, Lisa introduced me to RM Connie Caudill, and to
Larry Kanavy.

Lianne and I set up her canopy in a good spot, then filled our muck buckets
and took hay and alfalfa down.  I figured we'd likely do our holds at the
trailer, but we wanted to be prepared for anything.  As Lianne was grooming
her gelding Al, she noticed that he was a bit stocked up down low in one
rear leg.  We figured it was from all the time in the trailer...Bear had
been stocked up a bit in both rears upon arrival, but was mostly back to
normal now.  She took Al for a long walk, which dissipated much of the
puffiness.  We vetted the horses in later in the afternoon.  Bear and Al
both trotted out fine.  Al has a neat trot at liberty or in hand, in which
he seems to hang in the air briefly with each stride.  Ross calls it his
hang time or air time.  He was true to form, trotting out perfectly sound,
hanging buoyantly in the air with each stride.  Lianne asked the vet about
the puffiness, and the vet suggested possibly wrapping it later, although
she didn't seem too concerned.

Back at the trailer, we continued to get the horses ready, braiding manes,
etc.  Lianne continued to check Al, and now thought that she felt a bit of
warmth up in the hock.  I wasn't sure I felt it.  However, I offered her one
of my ice boots.  It wouldn't stay up that high but she was able to put it
on, and then put a baggy of ice on top of it on the target area.  She
continued to check Al off and on throughout the evening.  Al was 110% sound,
quite likely just stocked up from the long trailer ride, but what to do?  Al
typically doesn't move around much in his electric pen at rides, even though
he usually has a good sized one.  Whenever she'd take him out and walk him,
the puffiness would decrease, but it would then return when he'd stand for a
few hours.  And it was quite minor to begin with...one had to really look
hard from a certain angle just to see it.

Dinner was some delicious BBQ chicken...yumm!  The ride meeting was short
and to the point, but covered everything that needed to be covered.  It was
very strange being at a ride where we recognized no one.  Some years a
number of Texas riders come to this ride, but this year we were the only
ones.

The next morning, we got up at 5.  The 100s would start at 6:30, 50s at
7:00.  Al's leg looked much better...very little puffiness remained.  Lianne
decided she didn't want to try a 100 with him, so decided to do one loop of
the 50 and reevaluate.

At 6:15, I climbed on Bear and headed to the start area.  There were 13 of
us starting the 100.  I checked in, and then walked and trotted Bear around
to warm him up.  When trail opened, 8 riders headed right out.  I walked
Bear out, with three others behind me.  The first loop was 20 miles.  When
we got to the road, I let him pick up a nice trot.  He was actually
behaving, unlike the raving lunatic he'd been at his last 50 3 weeks prior.
We headed down the road, then into the woods, following red glowsticks in
the morning gloom.  We were alone, with 8 horses ahead of us and 3 somewhere
behind, and Bear was being a good boy.  Life was good!

We crossed a paved road, with a spotter to help us make the crossing
safely.  Down a gravel road, following the red glowsticks.  A rider caught
up and passed us.  Bear wanted to give chase, but then didn't.  Wow...that's
a surprise.  We continued on, the trail alternating between gravel roads,
dirt roads, and short stretches of deep sand.  I urged Bear into a canter on
the sandy parts, as we don't train in sand, and I didn't want to over stress
his tendons by trotting too much sand.  He was more than willing to oblige.
Morning light began to filter through the trees.  This forest was much
different than the forests of East Texas.  Here in Goethe, the forest was
mostly open longleaf pine, with very few hardwood trees in most areas.
Growing under the pines was a dense sea of palmettos, ranging in height from
3-8 feet.  It was quite beautiful.  I had seen trees with white bands
painted on them while driving into camp Thursday, so knew that there were
endangered Red-cockaded Woodpeckers here.  I hoped to see, or at least hear,
some during the ride.

As we continued on, I began to see more of the woodpecker trees with the
white paint.  It was still too early for them to emerge from their
cavities.  We passed through more and more clusters of cavity trees.  It was
easy for me to pick out the scattered older, relict longleaf pines from
among the many younger trees, even though all were about the same diameter,
by noting the twisted crowns and flat-topped appearance of the relicts.
These were the trees the woodpeckers needed for excavating their cavities.
Finally, it grew light enough that I knew the birds would soon emerge.  Sure
enough, as we trotted past a cluster of white-painted trees, I heard the
sharp calls of a Red-cockaded Woodpecker!  I pulled Bear to a stop and
listened.  There should be at least one more bird...yes!  A second bird
emerged from a tree about 40 feet from us.  It flew to the top of a tree,
then flew over and joined the first bird.  I sat and listened and watched,
until Bear's fidgeting reminded me that I was not there to survey for
woodpeckers, but rather to do a 100 mile endurance ride...and had about 90
more miles to go!!!  I gave Bear his head and he picked up a good trot and
we flew down the trail.  About 1/2 mile ahead, we passed another group of
woodpeckers calling as they went about their morning business.  Yes, life is
good!

Bear began to act like a nut, tossing his head and pulling to go faster.
Then I noticed that we'd begun to catch up with a group of horses in front
of us,  So, I slowed him to a walk, which irritated him to no end.  The
final two riders caught us, and I let them go by.  Surprisingly, I
recognized them...former CT region riders Adri and Cristo Dinkelmann.  In no
time we passed the vet at the trot-by, and got the thumbs up.  Continuing
on, we were passed by the front runner 50 miler, and then by a group of
50s.  Not long after, we crossed the paved road, headed along a sandy trail,
made a right turn, and headed up a dirt road to the gravel road that headed
to camp.  Bear was trotting along smoothly, next to the fence, when suddenly
the sound of dogs barking exploded to our right, and at least 200 dogs
slammed into the fence right next to us!  Bear immediately teleported about
8 feet left.  I hung briefly in the air at our original location, then
fortunately followed him.

After I recovered my composure (and my left stirrup), I realized that it had
only been 5 or 6 dogs, beagles to be exact, bursting forth from their dog
houses and rushing the fence in full chorus.  Evil little creatures, with a
twisted sense of humor.

Back to camp, drop tack at the trailer, down to the P&R area, where I
checked Bear with my handheld HRM.  He was in the 40s.  We walked right into
P&R, then to the vet.  He got all As and a few A-s, except a B- on gut
sounds.  If Bear ever gets a sold A on gut sounds during a ride, I'll be
grabbing my stethoscope back at the trailer and checking to see if he's
overly gassy.  He's chronically quieter than all 6 of our other horses, even
in the pasture at home.  Weird horse.  So I don't worry too much about his
scores, as long as he sounds relatively normal when I get him back to the
trailer.  His CRI was 52/48.  This pattern went on the whole ride...As and
A-s on everything except gut sounds, which were usually B+ or B-, with one
A- and one C+ mixed in.  CRI was great the whole ride, too.

Back to the trailer, food for Bear, snacks for me.  Being untacked,
sweaty, and standing in a patch of sand, Bear wanted to roll.  So I tacked
him back up, and then he realized he wasn't done, and ate.  LOL  Lianne came
in from her first 20 mile loop while we were there.  Al had done great,
trotted out fantastically sound, but there was still a bit of puffiness, so
she'd decided to pull him to be safe.  There's always another ride.

We headed back out on loop two, 15 miles.  The clouds were clearing off, but
there was still a cool breeze.  Down the gravel road to the woods, across
the paved road, and into the forest.  Ride management had done a fantastic
job of setting water out on trail.  Apparently there was usually lots of
natural water on trail.  However, there was none this year.  Connie said
that there were 8 water stops.  The trails looped around such that every
loop hit water plenty often.  The department of forestry folks refilled the
water several times during the day.  Trail markings were fantastic.  There
were a number of permanently marked trails in the Forest, marked with
colored metal markers.  Ride management had supplemented these with ribbons,
signs, and wooden arrows to ensure that we didn't get lost.  It was one of
the best marked trails I've ever ridden.  This loop seemed to go quickly.
Partway through the loop I caught up with the Dinkelmanns, and rode with
them the rest of the way in.  We chatted about the ride, and I filled them
in on some of the people they remembered from their days in CT region.  Our
horses paced well together, which made things nice.  Cristo was riding
a gorgeous little gray CMK gelding...I would have been quite happy to have
packed him up and taken him home with me!

As we headed toward the gravel road leading to camp, we had to pass the Pen
of Evil Beagles.  Bear remembered them...he slowed, and veered as far to the
left as he could, watching the pen closely.  The dogs barked some, but much
of the novelty of horses passing by had apparently worn off.  We made it by
without being eaten, and continued on.

Back to camp, same routine.  Bear was down immediately, so we pulsed through
and vetted through right away.  Since Lianne had pulled, she was now crewing
for me, and did a great job.  I'm terrible about eating and drinking, and
she did a good job of nagging the stuffing out of me to take care of
myself.  The 50 minute hold was up in no time, and I headed back out,
hooking up with Adri and Cristo again.  We would do the same 20 mile loop
we'd started with again.  They were riding the same moderate but steady trot
I'd planned to do, so we all rode along chatting about people we knew and
various rides for the entire loop.  We took a few short walking breaks in
the deep sand, but otherwise moved steadily along.  Bear again gave the Pen
of Evil Beagles, now quiet, a wide berth as we passed.

As we headed down the gravel road back to camp, there was a water tank along
the road, and a hose with a sprayer on it.  We would stop each time and hose
the horses off, as they were getting pretty warm.  However, the breeze was
still cool, which helped them to pulse down quickly once in camp.  We
trotted on down the road, made the turn to camp, and hopped off to lead them
in.  Bear seemed to know the routine now, stopping for Lianne and me to
strip tack, then turning to head down to the P&R area.  He was again already
down in the 40s by the time we got there, so we moved right on through the
vet check and back to the trailer for our 1 hour hold.  I ate a few things
at Lianne's urging.  We had 55 miles down 45 to go.  Over half done!  Bear
still looked and felt good.  He munched on beet pulp and hay, and took a
nap.

Time to go...a 15 mile loop this time.  I climbed on Bear using our little
step stool (he'd grown several inches since morning LOL) and headed out.  I
saw only Adri...she said that Cristo's horse had stumbled once during the
trot out and had been pulled.  He had looked fantastic coming in off trail.

Adri and I headed out on the orange loop.  This one had a small amount of
single track, which was fun.  There were no glowsticks on this loop, and
we'd be racing against darkness.  We did get caught in the dark on the last
3 or 4 miles.  However, Adri had done this ride several times in the past,
and remembered the trails well enough to find her way.  Had I been alone, I
would have had to use my headlamp to check trail markings at every
junction.  As it was, we were able to trot along in the dark with only an
ocassional hesitation.  Ride management had been planning to put glowsticks
out if anyone was on this loop in the dark, but they ended up looking for a
lost 100 miler, which obviously takes precedence.  Fortuantely, they found
him and he returned to camp safely.  And thanks to Adri, we made it around
safely as well.  Another trip past the Evil Beagles, then down the road to
camp.  Whoo-hoo, 70 miles done!

We had a 30 minute hold, but this was the hold that Bear decided he was
REALLY hungry.  So, when Adri stopped by to get me, I told her to go ahead,
I was going to let Bear eat some more.  He ate for another 20 minutes, then
decided to nap, at which time I tacked him up and headed out.  The remaining
30 miles would consist of doing the 15 mile green loop, marked by
glowsticks, twice.  We headed out, down the now-familiar gravel road and
into the woods.  The first part of the loop seemed to take forever, as
Bear's motivation was lagging, then the last part went quickly.  I love
riding in the dark.  There was only a tiny sliver of moon, which provided
very little light.  The night was clear, and I could see all the stars.
This would be important on the last loop.  I don't like using lights while
riding, so I just rode along in the dark, following the glowsticks and
trusting Bear to see where he was going.  Much of the time I could see the
white sand trail, but there were patches of very dark woods where I couldn't
see my hand in ront of my face.  I could feel when Bear hit deep sand and
slowed him to a walk if he didn't do so himself.  He would pick up a trot on
his own as soon as he reached better footing.  Suddenly, we were approaching
the Pen of Evil Beagles.  What a nice surprise.  We headed into camp for our
last 30 minute hold.

Ok...12:04 am, and we headed out on our last 15 miles.  All of the other 100
milers were done.  I was teaching these SE folks about Texas-style endurance
riding, where one gets one's money's worth.  I paid for 24 hours, and I was
going to use most of it!  LOL  Bear was not enthused about leaving camp.  We
walked down the gravel road.  Walked into the woods.  Slow trotted some.
Walked.  Ok, buddy, we're not going to make it at this rate.  After about
2-3 miles, we were slow trotting along, when the palmettos suddenly exploded
alongside us, as a herd of feral hogs took off, grunting and snorting.  Now
THAT woke both of us up.  We'd been hearing single critters scooting off
through the palmettos, none of which had really bothered Bear.  But the
crashing of a bunch of hogs was too much.  We had good impulsion for a
while.  LOL  After that, Bear seemed to remember where he was, and was on a
mission to finish this thing.  He motored along steadily.

About two thirds of the way through the loop, I was starting to nod off as
he trotted along.  Suddenly Bear slammed on the brakes, spun right, and
bolted off through the palmettos, stumbling over them as he went.  I was
vaguely aware of hogs all over the trail in front of us, that went crashing
off through the palmettos in all directions.  I grabbed anything I could to
stay on, as I fought to pull him up.  I finally got him stopped.  Holy
#$%@!!!  Bear stood tense and trembling.  My biggest concern was, where was
the trail?  We were out in the middle of a sea of palmettos at 1:30 am, and
between glowsticks.  Hmmm.  Then I realized that Bear was staring ahead and
to the left.  I figured that's where the hogs had been, so I urged him to
walk that way.  But first, I looked up for Orion's Belt, the only star
consellation I can recognize.  I saw it, and kept it in that location as we
walked.  After about 60-70 feet, we hit the trail.  Whew!  I immediately
dismounted and pulled my headlamp out to check Bear's legs.  With the
exception of a small patch of hair scraped off, he'd escaped injury from his
charge through the plamettos.

After several tries (short, tired rider, tall horse, loose girth), I managed
to mount back up and we continued on.  Bear seemed to be moving ok, so I was
hopeful that he hadn't hurt anything in the palmettos.  These palmettos have
small hard trunks on them, and he'd been tripping and stumbling over them as
he bolted from the hogs.  We finally came to the water tubs with the hay,
and I let him eat for about 10 minutes.  We then continued on.  Note to
self...no more dozing!!!  I hopped off and led him through some of the
longer stretches of deep sand.  He was doing ok, but was getting tired.  The
sand was really getting to him ("Mom, how come the ground is all loose and
squishy??").

We finally passed the Pen of Not-So-Evil Beagles (now that they're sleeping)
for the last time.  Up to the gravel road.  Bear was tired of gravel roads,
so I got off and led him down the road most of the way.  I remounted at the
water trough, and we walked the rest of the way to camp.  Done!  Just gotta
vet through one more time, big guy, then I promise, no more!  We arrived a
little before 3 am, and waited for vet Ann Christopherson to come vet Bear
through.  He did fine, and we were done...our second 100 miler under our
belts!!!

Back to camp, food for Bear, quick shower for me, check on Bear (still
eating), Lianne made me eat something, check on Bear again (napping, looks
fine), and we went to bed at 4:10 am.  Got up at 7:10 for the awards
ceremony, Bear looked fine.  At the awards, we found out that 3 of the 13
100 milers were pulled, so I was 10th.  I've always said that the only way
I'll ever top ten any ride is if 10 or fewer complete and I'm one of 'em.
Yep, I was 10th here.  LOL  Got a neat horsey door mat for top 10.  I can't
remember who won...how bad is that?  We met some more people at the awards
meeting.  Two of the people we met were Steve and Dinah Rojek.  Steve had
completed the 100 (in 2nd or 3rd place, I think), and Dinah had completed
the 50...can't remember her placing, but it was pretty high.  They were two
of the nicest people I've ever met.  I had found a HRM watch on one of the
gravel roads and stopped and picked it up and Lianne had turned it in to the
RM...turned out it was Steve's.

The drive home was anticlimatic.  We left camp around noon or so, stopped in
Chiefland at a BBQ place for lunch (I was ravenous), picked Denette up at
the Ag station, and continued on.  I drove for the first 45 minutes, to the
Ag station, then turned it over to Lianne.  After I got a full stomach, I
was done for the day!  We ended up going to Blackwater State Forest (their
Coldwater Rec. area) to spend the night.  The horses had great pens, and we
were able to turn them out in a pasture to run and play and roll for about
30 minutes before leaving the next morning.  It was great to see Bear
running and bucking Monday after finishing a 100 barely 24 hours before.
And Al, although still a bit stocked up, was galloping and trotting totally
sound.  We headed out around 8:30am, made a few stops to let the horses out,
and arrived at my house at 10:15 pm.  Home at last!

It was a really fun ride, well-managed, lots of volunteers, great trail
markings, tons of water.  Definitely worth the drive, if anyone is looking
for an early season 100, or just wants to try something different.  If
you're in SE Texas and in the market for a new truck, stop by Calvin Ford in
Sour Lake...nice folks there.  Tell 'em Lianne, Denette, and Dawn said
hello.  Ask for Wayne.  Be sure to ask him about his donkeys, too.  And if
you need a place to stop over, let us know, and we'll give you Eugene The
Pervert's phone number.

Dawn Carrie
and
Little Bear TC (I don't like deep sand)