Friday morning I was up and about early, fed all the critters, did my walking, and yes even had time to do my Friday morning critter litter duty before the garbage man ran... had a lil talk with my three big bellies, "I am going to be gone for just 2 days so PLEASE wait until I get home..." then finished loading up and it was off to Sabrina's. As I made ready to turn onto her street, a lil blue pickup turned in ahead of me... hey, that's BRENDA! I called her and she said yup we were ALL meeting at Sabrina's and her mom had just pulled in... and as we approached the house, Sabrina came home from work in the opposite direction. So it was a quick transfer of all my stuff and all Glory's stuff into Sabrina's trailer, and off we all went... I am SO not used to being a passenger on trips like this, but it was very relaxing to travel with the Head Hag, I didn't even need to know where we were going!
Setting up camp was a breeze with "Jack" (Sabrina's new camper) and we were just about to relax under the easy-ups when we see Vikki and Claudia coming up the road... got them settled, had a snack, signed in and had our vet check... all the Friday afternoon "stuff" including SHOPPING {grin}. Ate dinner and attended the ride meeting, more camaraderie in camp and some relaxing beverages and we were thinking about bed when Toni and Melanie arrived...
I even got my camera out and carried it around but didn't take very many pictures on Friday
Camp...
Glory
We went to bed early... got up once, crawled back in bed and was thinking about the race when Sabrina said "are you still awake" and I said yes so she said she had to get up AND check her phone, someone texted her... it's ONE IN THE MORNING and she was afraid it might be one of the kids in trouble but the text was Melwood!!! "I am so excited I can't sleep" etc... well by that time neither could we, we looked out the window at the stars and chattered for quite a while, finally fell asleep and it seemed like just a few second later the alarm went off...
Getting ready Saturday morning:
Savannah (Sabrina's horse)
Shirley and Gypsy
Glory
Ellen and Feather
Claudia and Canyon
Steele (Vikki's horse)
Sabrina, Shirley and I had our hands full with our girls, they were ready to race well before it was time to start - and I was pretty proud of Glory, she hummed like an electric chair under me but as long as we were walking, she stayed in control and did NOT pitch her pretty-much-standard "when the hell are we going to MOVE" fit... We saw LindaK and Rachel coming in but couldn't really stop to talk...
Brenda took video of our start...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajf4gTBPVeA
...and we were moving pretty fast so just a couple shots from the ride itself:
The first 9 miles were awesome, we gaited, we went carefully through rocky patches and rough patches in the wash, we gaited and gaited some more... Savannah was getting tired, Sabrina said GO so we did... and we gaited some more, and we CANTERED - yes my first canter on Glory, and WOW... I couldn't help myself, I was hollering YAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, she is awesome... Sabrina caught up at water, and she caught up at the potty stop, and she caught up at the next water... then we started up Mingus Mountain and we all slowed down so we were together for a while...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzLWPo8lhWc
Looks easy here but later on, what a tough climb! Towards the top of the hill Savannah said no more, Sabrina said GO ON so we did... we made the vet check and it was so good to see Brenda and Vikki's mom Nancy, and Vikki and Claudia were there, Canyon was fine, Steele not pulsing down... soon it was time for Claudia to go on... even though we walked in, Gypsy and Glory were pretty beat by that hill, took a few minutes to pulse down... then they had water and food and we did too, in the meantime Sabrina came walking in dragging Savannah, we were so happy to see her... and sorry to hear that she felt she should pull Savannah, but of course supportive of her decision to put her horse's welfare first! And all too soon it was time to go... I had no idea that Shirley was nervous about going on without Sabrina, she and Gypsy seemed so confident! and down the switchbacks we went...
I can see why Sabrina says this is one of her favorite parts of this ride, the views were incredible...
We crossed the finish line together, made it in with a LITTLE breathing room, thank goodness because Glory wasn't pulsing down... all the hags were there to help us untack and rinse the horses to cool them down, my friends are AWESOME!!! Gypsy was cleared and Glory still high and I was getting worried... but with 7 minutes to spare, the pulse-checker called for time on my horse and we had a successful first 25-mile ride, and a heck of a ride it was!
Took care of the horses and it's now about 1:45 or so, was planning to visit with Madeine this afternoon but first checked my phone... oh boy, what is this, numerous messages and texts... what is going on??? First message is Hilary, 9:40, "mom we have a baby and mama isn't feeding it and you need to come home RIGHT NOW"... oh boy, gee thanks Hil, I have THREE pregnant donkeys about to pop, she didn't even tell me which one {sigh} and I don't even have my own rig, I can't come home... next message is Randy, about 10 or so, sounding very serious, "please call me as soon as you can" and there is a text that says G I R L with a picture of a spotted baby... but I STILL don't know who MOM is!!! Called Randy, and NO ANSWER geez... called Hilary, she's at work so left a message, she called me back and finally I know it's Peggy Sue, the chocolate mama, which really surprised me because I was SURE Betty Lou was going to go first... and Randy is calling back on the other line so Hil went back to work, Randy says he got hold of Lindsey and she is coming to help, and my friend andneighbor Pam had been over to help {THANK YOU so much PAM}, and another great big THANK YOU to Sabrina and Shirley and Brenda and all the rest of the gang for listening to me babble and trying to keep me sane, Randy was saying if you can come home please do, I can't fathom dumping my horse on Sabrina but I COULD get a ride home with Linda and Rachel later... until I got a call from Lindsey, "do NOT come home mom, I am here, all is well, I will take care of everything"! What a great kid I have! Well ok Randy is great too, he hung in there and handled everything but for his sake it was best that Lindsey come take over...
So we then headed over to the finish to hang with the gang and cheer the 50s coming in...
In the meantime another call from Lindsey, she talked to Soleil, mama is in a lot of pain and identifying it with the baby, AND since Hilary wasn't up early enough, one of the other mamas, Milly Jo, had tried to steal this baby, and that interfered with Peggy Sue bonding... but they got colostrum milked from mom and bottle fed baby and things were going ok...
Dinner was great, and Dana, the gal who won 1st horse AND best condition in the 50, gave such a nice speech she had me in tears... guess I was so stressed and worn out I leaked!
Back at camp one last phone call with Randy, no additional problems, and at 7:50 Sabrina and I hit the sack in Jack...
BOOM FLASH WHOOSH and BAM BAM BAM on the camper roof, we awoke to a massive storm, thunder and lightning and wind and driving rain... quick zip the flaps and yay no leaks in Jack, poor horses and gosh hope our stuff is ok out there but the ONLY thing we would have accomplished by going out would be to get soaked to the skin, no point in that, nothing else we could do! As soon as it moved off and the rain calmed down we were up and out to check the girls, grab the camera bag off the saddle, grimace at the wreck of the EZ-UP... oh well, it's pitch dark, everything is sopping and muddy, the horses are ok so it's back to bed... oh, and checking the phone, it's TEN FIFTEEN! We thought sure it was like 3 in the morning!!
Oh well, back to sleep! Awoke to clear skies and lovely mud and mess everywhere... fed the girls, started cleaning up and packing up, into the dumpster went the EZ-UP frame but saved the canvas as a spare... all the chairs were wet, we carried them around the truck to set in the sun...
and lil miss innocent Glory
Look what she did!!!
Sabrina is such a good friend, no worries, it could have been my horse just as easily, and wow what a good girl she didn't pitch a fit or we'd have felt the whole rig rocking, and thankfully no injuries to Glory, it could have been so much worse... Shirley's mallet to the rescue, we got it bent enough we could lock the rear gate and get home safely and Sabrina's dad is quite handy So it will be fine...
Snuck in a quick visit with Madeline since I never got over there Saturday... guess David and Linda were still asleep!
Saying hi to the Head Hag
and checking out Ellen's dog Chloe Rose
and then coming over to lip my elbow...
and many thanks to Sabrina for getting some grandma pictures for me - i sure love this lil girl!!!
And I get my phone out of truck, it was charging... gee another text from Randy, it says G I R L and it's not spotted - what??? I text back ANOTHER ONE? and my phone rings, Randy's voice says "Yes, another one..." Betty Lou this time, no surprise there, I really thought she would go first... she did good, I told her that after Moses, then Jeffrey, it was time for a girl... the only thing she didn't do was wait until I got back! He tells me this one is doing fine, already nursing, he found poop... but please don't dawdle coming home...
Then it was off we go, stopped for fuel and McDonald's and down the hill we go... as we pass Sunset Point I get a call from Lindsey, she sounds utterly exhausted, "Mom please come home I can't handle TWO babies"... Oh my gosh, what now, I thought Randy said the second one was doing fine! "Oh," she says, "I haven't been out yet... I spent all night in the Cabella's chair (reclines) in the pen, dozing with Sherman, baby would wake me up when she was hungry and I would fix a bottle... didn't get to bed until 5am... just woke up."
Well we made it safely home, many many thanks to Joe and Sabrina for helping me transfer my stuff so fast so I could get home...
to this:
and this:
All I really wanted was a shower and a nap... but instead I spent the afternoon outside in the heat making sure the babies were ok. More pictures tomorrow, I promise!
