Wild West Ride May 28/29/30^th, 2006 (incomplete ridestory)

It's exactly 2 weeks later and I'm finally getting time to write about the 3-day Wild West Pioneer ride Isabella and I attended over Memorial Day weekend, May 28/29/30, 2006. I've barely had time to breathe since the ride.. a brief 2 days at home after the ride then I was off to Canada to spend time with family, leaving Isabella in the capable hands of my horsey friend, Erin (who owns Angel - Isabella's girlfriend).

Melissa and Robert Ribley put on an awesome ride! Can't say the weather was perfect (as you'll soon read), but the camraderie and shared love for horses made the long weekend seem like going away to summer camp (for adults). I had an absolute blast the 5 days I spent in Skillman Horsecamp in Nevada City.

Thursday morning I drove down to Moss Beach to pick Isabella up. Of course Devil's slide was *still* closed so in total out my door I drove around 5 hours to camp. With the price of gas, this trip cost me a pretty penny (although it was worth every one). I had gone to the grocery store and stocked up $100 worth of food in one measley cooler + truck cab. I was worried about what to eat for 5 days without much more than a cooler and a Coleman stove, so I packed pretty light and easy: PB&J sandwiches, yogurt, lots of fruit, water, and bagels. I brought brownies and apple pie for the potlucks and a sandwich from my favorite Deli for dinner the first night.

I pulled into Skillman Camp and saw Melissa right off the bat. She directed me to a perfect little spot right next to Mary Anderson and her very pretty gelding. Mary asked me how my backing skills were with the truck.. "Eh, about a medium. Only so-so." She kindly offered to park my truck and trailer.. woohoo! 1st class service! I unloaded Isabella and she expertly backed up my trailer into a nice little spot, perfect for me, China and Isabella over the next 5 days.

It turns out that we also parked next to Chris Martin of Freeform USA who had his horse riding the multiday 50 (Tasha and Rambo ended up with the fastest time and came in 1st on the 3rd day!). After I set up camp I went over and picked Chris' brain about the new FreeWest saddle I was riding in. We chatted for a while and decided to "upgrade" to a size 18" seat (oy, my big tush) and he offered a HAF pad for me to borrow for the ride, and if I liked it, for the next few months until his company recieved the new sweat flaps for the FreeWest. What a nice guy! :) I saddled up Isabella with my big cushy sheepskin cover and we went for a test spin. She seemed lively and happy, although she did recieve a nasty swollen bruise from leaning up against the trailer divider. I didn't notice until after the pre-vet check but it went away over the next few days after applying Ice-Tight poultice.

Isabella recieved all A's for her first day pre-ride vet check. Good girl! She must've been VERY relaxed because the initial pulse Dr. Jo took was 24! She couldn't believe it so she rechecked it... yup, 24bpm.

Ride management decided to split the camp into two locations so the second camp (with the 'day' riders) were located about a mile away. Ride start on the first day for both the 50's and 30's was in Skillman camp at 7am. Isabella, as usual, stopped eating at around 5:30am until I saddled her up, after which she started chowing down. She just wanted to make sure that she was going out with the rest of the herd. I got on at around 6:55 then walked around camp for about 10 minutes on a loose rein. I really love how Isabella strides out in the FreeWest.. her shoulders feel so much freer and even though she's a nice loose walker to begin with, I can feel her reach under herself even more with the new saddle.

Serenity didn't last long, however. As soon as we reached the trail, the nice calm mare turned into a jiggy monster as rider after rider passed us. I don't understand why people start late then zoom by on the trail..? Ugh. We ran into a rider (whose name I've forgotten.. poop!) and her ex-racehorse, Stretch, who were walking along quite nicely. Isabella seemed to find some solace here so the rider and I chatted for a while as people passed. Soon this wasn't good enough for Isabella so we hung back and found a nice little niche where we could *finally* walk a bit.

Much of the 1st day was a blur. I don't remember much except the last part of the ride when I ran into Christine Daniels, the owner of Sundowner trailers of California, on a big pretty paint and her riding partner on a bay arab. I chatted with them for a bit, pleased to see a big paint on the LD! Isabella wanted to move so I trotted her ahead of them for a while until they fell back. We were right near the finish and soon enough, we walked in and pulsed down quickly. I think we were done at around 12:10pm that day with a 30 minute hold back in camp.

(too lazy to write more so here are some photos :)

Wild West 30/35/25 - Isabella waiting for the ride start, day 1
Originally uploaded by Julienne:).

Wild West 30/35/25 - Day 2 - it snowed overnight! Over the course of the ride it snowed, rained, sleeted, and hailed like crazy. We came in first today.
Originally uploaded by Julienne:).

Wild West 30/35/25 - We won the 'Horse of Excellence' award on the third day, woooohooo!!!! Isabella is pawing in this photo, very impatient that her mom is making her pose with her brand new (huge) blanket she won.
Originally uploaded by Julienne:).

Julienne
& Isabella Mari

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