And shine it did! The weather forcast for this past weekend was in the mid-70s and clear. Hello, does anyone around here know we're in the middle of winter?? Well, with one fuzzy mare and one chocolate dog in tow, I headed off to San Jose on Friday afternoon to do the LD ride at Quicksilver park. I'm very glad I chose the LD, even after moving up to 50s late last year. This was a tough long ride with gradual uphills that seemed to go on forever (can a ride have more uphill climbs than downhills?). Combined with the warm weather, I really took my time for this ride and managed to come in with 30 minutes to spare.

I had an additional challenge for this ride. Nicole, an 11 year old junior, had posted a notice on Ridecamp that she needed a sponsor to take her on her very first ride. She didn't know anything.. and had never gone to an endurance ride before! After several chats with her mom, Jackie, we agreed that it may work out and I arranged to meet them at Friday night's ride meeting. I was pretty concerned about pacing.. Isabella is slow.. and I was worried that this little girl wanted to go much faster than I was willing. I had a good chat with Maryben when I checked in and got a few wise words from her on how to handle a junior that didn't want to cooperate. "Just tell 'em you'll dump them off at the vet check if they don't listen to you.." haha! Ok, that's my kinda advice.

I met Nicole (who was very very quiet) and her mom Jackie (who was very very talkative) at the ride meeting and we figured out the logistics for the next morning. They'd drive over from Gilroy early in the morning and we'd start a little after the pack. Both the 25's and 50's were starting at 6:30 so it was going to be quite a ride beginning. Especially considering it was the first ride of the season! Lots of yahoo's out there in full force (horses and riders) I'm sure.

Fortunately the ridestart was uneventful and we headed out on the first loopdeloop before the trail headed around the park. It seemed like this ride, although it was in the same park as the Quicksilver Fall last year, would be longer because of the extra little loop in the morning. I later heard that the mileage was actually over 26 miles. :/ Hrm. We would have to boogie quite a bit during the ride to make it in before cutoff time. Isabella behaved herself quite well, although it took about 10 miles for Nicole's horse (named *Firecracker*!!) to calm down and walk.

Becky, my old barnmate, was there with her new gelding Batez doing his first 50. She is one brave soul.. she got off and walked quite a bit because he definitely had racehorse on the brain. I later found out they completed close to the cutoff time for the 50's (hooray!).

The day was beautiful and we saw everything from wild turkeys to deer out on the trail. I tried to empart my relative newbie words of wisdom to my young sponsor and she smiled and nodded.. a girl of little words. Towards the end of the ride I really had to push Isabella to keep moving up those long hills. I could feel her panting and if I had my hrm (I sold it to buy a Garmin Forerunner 301 which I will purchase.. one day..) I'm sure the readings would've been pretty high. Everytime I'd ask her to trot she'd point her nose to the ground which was very odd behavior. Later after the ride I would find out that she was trying to tell me that, "MOM hello, I lost a shoe..". I really didn't listen to her very well. :(

We came into a barrage of photos from Nicole's proud parents and her horse pulsed down right away. Isabella took a few minutes to get to criteria but I was proud of her. Despite diarrhea from the barn changing hay the week before and using the Easyboot Epics on her hinds (this was new for her), *and* losing a shoe, her vet scores throughout the day were all A's with very few B's. I felt like I asked a lot of her. She also had big white marks on her back where the saddle bridged, this was *after* I had it restuffed again to try and get the saddle to fit! ARGH. Poor Isabella. So.. anyone want to buy a 17.5" wide Arabian Saddle Company Solstice? I put my order in for a Sensation saddle which should come in 2 weeks or so while I wait for my custom Sensation saddle.

This bare bones ride was definitely bare bones.. our completion ride was a choice of different colored bungee cords and my junior got a really nice wooden brush. On my way back from the vet check Maryben stopped me and said she had a special award for me.. (!) She said Becky told her she could give this prize to anyone she wanted and so she gave it to me "because anyone who takes on a junior who doesn't know squat about endurance rides and has never even met her before the ride" deserves a special prize. hehe. So I also got a beautiful towel with bright orange smiling suns.. quite appropriately Shine and Shine Only. Nicole's mom, Jackie also gave me a $25 Starbucks card for getting her daughter through her first ride, totally unnecessary but nice, nonetheless.:)

I haven't decided yet if I'll do this ride next month. I learned that Isabella really doesn't keep her fitness as well as purebred arabs probably do so I really need to keep her in condition better.. she was definitely pooped after this ride and the next day when I checked on her she was taking a doze in the sun with her nose squashed into the ground (poor tired girl). Her windpuffs came back even though I wrapped her legs so next time I will be sure to leave them on overnight. Her back was sore as well, something that has never happened in the past. :( Oh yeah, on top of all that she just went into raging heat! That's my girl.. tired, sore, and horny as hell. hehe.

Congrats to Sandy Holder - her first 1st! In 10 hours no less.. (did I MENTION it was a tough ride??) Woohoo.. see ya at the next ride.