On Friday, Bob and I loaded the horses and headed off to our 3rd ever CTR, the Silver Spurs CTR ride in Cool, CA.

We passed by No Hands Bridge on the way down.. it was cool to think that we've ridden over it and have played in the river underneath with Isabella and Tavi.

We arrived at the campsite and found ourselves in a HUGE equestrian center with several arenas, round pens, and plenty of water (hoses, imagine that!). We settled in quickly, said hi to a few familiar faces, then took the horses over to the arena for the pre-ride check in.

The vet for this ride was Dr. Jack Chandler, known for being very thorough - and that he was. Isabella and I were the second group up. He took a baseline P&R and she was inverted at 8/10. She was seperated from Tavi on the walk down to the arena so she was a bit tense. He spent quite a bit of time feeling her front fetlocks and asked me to trot her out a few times. (Isabella kept picking her feet up whenever he'd go to palpate her legs - fidgety girl) He then informed me that she had a little heat in her left front and was 'slightly off' at the trot. UGH! Hmm.. What does that mean? Well, she probably shouldn't do the ride.. My heart sank. I thought quickly.. well, could we check her again in the morning? Dr. Chandler agreed.. bright and early, 6am!

I now know the beginning phases of grievance of having a horse pulled at a ride. First, denial: What?? Isabella's never been lame a day in her life! We went for an easy 14 mile ride the Sunday before the CTR and she had the whole week off to mosey around in pasture. Second, self-pity: Why... oh why me? Poor me.. Woe is me. Third, acceptance: I went up to Zina, the ride secretary and said I was just not going to take the chance and pull her from the ride. She was extremely sympathetic and I spilled my sorrows to her.. She convinced me to take the chance and have him check Isabella again in the morning.. it could be a fluke thing, maybe she just bumped herself in the trailer.. You know your horse best! Dale, the ride manager was listening to me spill and he suggested I hose her fetlock tonight and tommorrow morning before the vet checked her again. So I hosed.. and hosed.. and hosed. Before dinner I hosed, after dinner I hosed, and I hosed again in the dusk before the ride. Dr. Chandler came by at around 6am - "All clear - she looks good. That hosing paid off." Yipppeee!! I wanted to jump for joy ! I gave Isabella a big hug and I promised to take good care of her on the trail and keep a close eye on her. Bob was happy for me too.. he'd never been riding with Tavi down the street alone, let alone a 21 mile trail ride.

So we rode! I braided Tavi's mane for the ride.. turned out pretty nice!

The trail was superb.. Bob and I had so much fun - especially the first part going into lunch. The trail was mostly single track and fast.. we trotted most of the way with big toothed grins on our faces. There were a few steep hills mixed in here and there and for the most part the trail was shaded so even though temps were in the 90s, the horses stayed cool. There were several points along the trail where water was available and you could hose your horse off as well. The first obstacle was a back up a slight incline. We got dinged for 'some resistance'. Jack wanted to see your horse tuck his nose in and back nice and willing.. Isabella and I really hadn't worked on that at home. Next was a judged downhill. I got 'excellent position, excellent control' WOW! Those lessons are really paying off. Next came a step over a tall metal gate. Several horses balked because it was so tall and we saw several that jumped over it as well - from a standstill! Tavi took a sniff then plowed over it and Isabella took his example and went over it smoothly. At the first P&R, both horses got 11/3 and then there was a trot-out and a mount. There was a bit of a ledge you could use so Isabella and I got through it just fine. Bob decided to do an off-side mount just to impress the judges and got a few pluses for that. The second P&R Isabella got a 11/3 again and Tavi a 12/3. At this check Isabella's pulse had to be taken several times because of some rambunctious horses running around bucking and roughhousing in the pasture right behind her.

At one point along the trail I was reaching back to grab a Gu supplement. Isabella did a little spook (I must've goosed her) and scooted her butt forward, causing my arm to swing forward, *catapulting* my Gu into the bushes. The Gu was nowhere to be seen.. so we trudged on. So I littered on the trail (sorry!).. and somewhere along the Auburn Lake Trails there is one happy electrolyted squirrel.

At lunch the hour zipped by and we peeked at our maps and realized we only had about 5 miles left! Wow.. the trail went by really quickly. At that point we were about 25 minutes ahead of time so we moseyed to the 2-mile mark (where there was a 2-mile party going on there). Along the way we took the hills slowly, giving the horses a breather after each because the heat was setting in. The second part of the trail was less shadey, so it was a good thing we could take our time. We also let the horses graze along the way.. We were were pleased to see they EDPP'd themselves well the whole weekend. (Eat Drink Pooped Peed - Tavi more than Isabella..haha)

At the end of the ride, the judges wanted to see the horses immediately untacked then brought to the arena for the final check. No cleaning up this time.. I was so happy to see there was no edema along Isabella's back, YAY!!! That made the ride for me.. I could've gone home happy after that. The previous 2 rides we've had problems with saddle/saddle pads causing problems for Isabella's back. Jack checked her out and she passed through cleanly. Tavi was eager to trot-out for Bob, which is a new one for him.. usually he's pretty tired at the end of the ride. We got back to the trailer and cleaned up the ponies.. I really have to thank Bob. He did a lot of the water bucket trekking back and forth and moved all the poop to the manure pile when I was crashed in a chair by the trailer. It was pretty hot by the end of the ride. He's such a good sport.. Luv you hon!

We feed beet pulp, Omalene 200, Forco, and e-lytes.

Tavi really gets into his food. See how he's managed to splatter it on the trailer wall? At one point when he's eating he usually takes the lip of his bucket and throws it up in the air, splattering it all over his neck and chest and anyone who is unfortunate to be standing around.

Isabella is a little more dainty.

The ride dinner they had was pretty darn good. Bob is vegetarian and the main course was roast beef.. so he looked pretty sad with his beans and coleslaw.. but then the cook came by the table and gave him his vegie burger and Bob perked up and was a happy guy again. :)

Ride management gave out these really nice completion certificates that looked beautiful. When it came time to the awards, I really didn't expect anything because of the whole fetlock fiasco. I was happy to have just ridden and completed the ride and have Isabella's legs and back healthy at the end. Bob felt pretty confident though.. he said Tavi did excellent throughout the ride and he was really happy with him. Novice Heavyweight Horsemanship placings were announced and I was shocked to get a 2nd place.. when I checked my scorecard after the ride I found I got -2 points for getting Isabella too close to the judges table at the pre-ride check.. doh! Those kind of points are tough to accept.. the silly ones that you know you could've avoided. Then came the awards for Horse. They started with 6th place and went up.. I was kinda sorta hoping to get at least a 5th or 6th but they passed these placings and I sighed and relaxed.. ah well. Then they announced 3rd place.. "Juliana Ray (my name is always mis-pronounced..haha) and Isabella Mari".. Wow! Then they announced Bob and Tavi as 2nd! Yay! Bob was so happy.. his first ribbon and a 2nd! When we checked our score cards later we found that we had tied and his extra plus for doing the off-side mount was what determined the placings. I had to give him a playful punch for that! That's okay.. I ousted him out of a ribbon at the Almaden ride so we were even now.. haha! I'm hoping next year that I'll lose a few pounds and be able to compete in Lightweight.. then we wouldn't have to compete against each other.. (weight loss motivation - haha!)

When we got back to the trailer, we found all the flies that were buzzing around the campsite sleeping inside of our trailer. I tried shoo'ing them all away with my jacket but they would just buzz around and come back. Fly-spraying helped a little bit, but they were still hanging around. Finally, I just took our supply of tissues and crushed them, one-by-one. Took a while, but I finally got most of them.. I must've killed over 50 flies. Tavi, who was tied up outside, was peering inside the trailer and observing me throughout the whole ordeal. It was kind of creepy.

A big thank you to Dale for putting on a spectacular ride and Zina for encouraging me to give Isabella another chance.. you kept my hopes up! Thank you to all the volunteers that make everything go so smoothly and were so friendly and nice. All the trail neighbors out there that provided water along the ride.. the camraderie out there was so heart-warming to see.

So, that was the last ride of the season. Kinda sad, I wish we had started earlier in the year but our horses probably wouldn't have been in shape for it. We entered in 3 rides and completed 3 rides and that's what counts. We've learned so much from each ride and have remarkably improved with each one. I can now say I can sleep through the night without going to the bathroom (which is a feat for me), our horses arrive at camp relaxed and they stay out of trouble (after finding the best place for them tied to the trailer), Blade still barks when we leave (we're still working on that), and Bob can now get Tavi to trot-out instead of his usual walk-out. We still have a long way to go.. buddying is always going to be a problem but we can work on that.. and Tavi's still a big horse and he's going to take a bit more effort to condition and keep in condition compared to Isabella.. but this past ride I think he proved to all of us that it can be done successfully.