Endurovet Rides Again, After All

 No Great Thoughts this morning as I work through the DOMS after my first 25-mi event in 3 yrs… The good news is, we did it - Twoie performed admirably after some minor Early Morning shenanigans* - & the bad news is, we were overtime! (6 hr time limit to complete 25 mi; we plodded in about 40 min over)

I’m still bursting with pride while second-guessing myself as to what I could’ve done differently - but the trails are challenging, there’s a lot of rock & our ponies were barefoot - picking up the pace risks a lame horse. (What would’ve been the “best” choice would’ve been to have shoes or boots put on, but on Thursday I was tied up all day getting the basal cell carcinoma carved off my neck - that turned out to be a whole-day ordeal since it took her 3 excisions to get it all) The deck was further stacked against us since I had a miscommunication with my girls - they did not clear my schedule so I could get out a little early Friday afternoon - I had to work straight up until 6:00. Thankfully horse camp is only a couple of hours away, so Tony & I pulled in with enough daylight to vet our ponies in Friday night, sparing us the stress of an early morning exam…

* I had gotten Twoie’s new purple headstall which I proudly put on him Saturday morning - however something was bothering him: he was throwing his head around & trying to crow hop,  so I finally went back to the trailer and put his old blue bitless rig on him. He still gave me a little bit of guff getting out the gate but we were finally on trail. It was great to be riding with the Real Krewe again.

Tony always has problems rating Cowboy early in the ride - I held Twoie back & let him go on ahead… I caught up with him about 3/4 of the way through that first 16-mi loop, we stayed together for the rest of the ride. He was saddle-sore enough to ask about cutting things short as it became apparent we were not gonna make the cut-off time, but I jollied him along, spinning that it would be great to have the training miles even if we didn’t get credit for it. (We actually did opt out of the last pasture loop which was probably about a mile - my friend Debbie said she had measured it at 28 miles so I don’t feel bad)

Both ponies demonstrated excellent recoveries, so after about an hour & a half’s rest, we loaded up to come home for Saturday night - we celebrated with dinner at the Rocket Café where I had not been since Zach was an infant. The Rest of The Story later!