Ridecamp was absolutely beautiful. The Dru Barner horsecamp is nestled under a huge cove of pine trees. China, my loyal ridecamp companion, had a field day with all the pine cones on the ground.. she busily chewed on all of them within reach the first day. We ended up camping next to Bill Coburn and his horse Trystan. I rode with him on my very first endurance ride 4 years ago! Back then it was Trystan's first ride as well. No sooner than he let his horse into his pipe corrals, Trystan decided to roll.. in doing so, he gashed up his stifle area quite well. The vet said if it had been any deeper he would've caught that femoral vein. Poor guy! It didn't seem to affect him at all - he vetted out clear and Bill completed the 50 with him in awesome shape.

As soon as we settled into camp, I ran into Steve Elliot of Equine Performane Products. He let me demo the Freeform and offered the saddle for me to use on the 30 the next day, but I decided to forgo that and use my saddle. I'm not sure if treeless is the option for me after demo'ing the saddle. Isabella recieved A's on her back all day long, but I'm still looking for something to resolve the bridging problem we've been having.

At the vet check, Isabella vetted out with mostly A's, except for gait. That right front which had been Grade 1 lame at Quicksilver was now Grade 2 off. She had been fine at Cooley though.. very strange. The only correlation I can see is that at both rides she was due to be shod or trimmed.. and her front right hoof grows at a much faster rate than her front left. The vet checked her suspensory and didn't feel any heat. After consulting with Bob Morgan, the head vet, she said we could start. I told her we wouldn't be breaking any speed records.. :) Not to worry! Well, worry I did. Later that evening I took her over to the ride farrier and asked him for advice. I trotted her out for him and he saw the 'shuffle' that the vets observed. I debated whether or not I should just have him pull both front shoes, trim her feet and use my Easyboot Epics on her, but in the end I just let her be for risk of making things worse.

After a fitful night of worrying and visions of being pulled and hurting my horse, I woke up early and walked Isabella around to stretch her out and evaluate her trot. She seemed to be striding out easily and I observed no heat. I decided to go ahead and ride her, taking our time and playing everything by ear as the day went on. We started about 10 minutes after the start time and walked out on a loose rein (good girl!). She asked to trot so I let her move out and boy did she move! The single track trail we started out was full of turns and had great footing and we booked along, fun! I tried to stay conscious of which diagonal I was posting on and two-pointed as much as I could, paying attention to any change in the rhythm of her trot. At the 5 mile trot-by, Dr. Morgan waved us on and said he didn't notice any lameness, yay!

The trail was a mixture of little single track trails with roller coaster hills and big wide logging roads. I mainly rode by myself the whole ride intentionally so we wouldn't be pushed to go any faster and risk aggravate what was going on with Isabella's gait. This worked out perfectly - Isabella was nicely behaved and took great care of herself. When we did meet up with people we either passed without any issues or let them trot on ahead while I asked her to walk. She was so good.. I was having so much fun with my little girl!

Unfortunately the day didn't go on without its glitches. We passed a gal whose horse had gotten kicked on the inside of his right leg, puncturing the vein. She was understandably distraught and was waiting for the vets to get to her while the other horse's owner had ridden on to find them. I gave her all my first aid supplies, vet wrap and gauze, and went on. She had 4 people nice enough to stay by her side to help (the 2 that stayed with her the whole time recieved awards at the end of the ride) and Isabella was insistant on moving along, fidgeting and snaking her head along towards the trail, LET'S GO!!! We went along another 3-4 miles to the road where the vet photographer was standing and waiting. As I was going along the trail I was fretting about how far along the road was from the gal and her injured horse. At the end of the ride it was reported that the horse was recovered and was doing well, thank goodness.

About the last mile to the vet check, Isabella began slowing down. I don't think she was getting tired, but rather a little depressed that we hadn't seen any horses in a while. I thought we were very close to last at that point but when we arrived at the vet check, it was completely filled with horses. The whole area was a huge horsey smorgasbord and Isabella went immediately to work, chowing down on everything she could reach. I asked one of the volunteers to hold my horse while I went go find an appropriate commode. When I came back she remarked, "You are so cute, coming out to these rides by yourself and doing everything!" I was pretty amused and thanked her - if it weren't for volunteers like her, I wouldn't be able to do it! She provided mash, carrots, and apples for all the horses in line, and later passed out Red Vines and cookies to everyone. All the volunteers were wonderful, thank you!

Isabella passed the vet check with decent scores. She was still intermittantly "off" on that right front but it hadn't gotten any worse. I stayed about 15 minutes longer at the check since Isabella was happy as a clam, eating away, and on the way out she took a loooong drink from the water trough. Good girl.

The second half the ride was less shadey with more climbs. We had a few fun trotting stretches weaving in and out through curves in the trail and trying to avoid the knee-knocker trees. At one point some motorcyclists came down the trail behind us, scaring some of the horses on the trail. We went on ahead while they chatted with some of the riders and eventually came to a road with another volunteer handing out cold drinks. Bless his soul! I sat and chatted with him a bit while I drank my iced tea, then trotted along to the finish. A few times it hit me along the trail that this was the longest distance we've gone so far.. and we were going to complete! It seems silly, but I teared up a few times when I thought about how much fun Isabella and I were having. She was in great condition and was so lucky to be able to enjoy our time together like this! Our first 50 seems to be in our grasp more than ever. I came into the finish line area with a huge grin on my face and gave her a huge hug.. I think my happiness was infectious - people were smiling and congratulating us on our finish. Hooray!

When we got back to the trailer, Isabella immediately went to work, eating everything in sight. I really haven't seen her so enthused to eat since we started long distance. Maybe it was the longer distance? Maybe it was the change in feed? I switched her to Ultium from Omalene 200 a few weeks prior.. and she seems to gobble it down with gusto. She still recieved a B- in gut sounds at the post ride check, but she was eating and drinking well, and seemed lively and interested in everything. On a side note, we were check out by a young vet, Dr. Langon Fielding, who seemed to have a mini fan club. A group of women passed us batting their eyes and teasing/flirting with him during our post-ride check, which was highly amusing to watch.

Coming home was uneventful. I was hyped up on my Starbucks Espresso Double Shot so getting up early the next morning to navigate through those windy back roads wasn't a problem. When I got home, Matt was nice enough to drive us to lunch and fill my gas tank for me. He even gave me a post-ride massage. :) I'm a lucky girl.

Congratulations to Katie for finishing her 3rd 50 with Shrimp! And thank you to Cherryl Holbrook and all her volunteers for putting on an exceptional ride.. I will definitely be back next year. This ride is not one to miss. Hopefully we'll get to the source of what's been going on with Isabella's leg before our next stop, Fireworks!

Julienne
& Isabella Mari