(Not a fair framing of the sitch at all, but ya can’t publish the blog entry without a title!)
After all, it is 100% my fault that Twoie & I failed to secure a completion in yesterday’s 25-mi event…
It’s hard enough trying to mentor one person, let alone two! I’ve been a little bit annoyed with Tony & the self-defeating behaviors he exhibits: two weeks ago, when we were going out for our final training ride (because last weekend was the state veterinary conference = no riding for Val!), he emerged from his house dressed head-to-toe in black, as if he were channeling Johnny Cash? Needless to say, it was not a pleasant ride for him, as temperatures are still pushing into the low 90’s. So I sent him an explicit text message telling him to wear something bright or light-colored - John the ride manager had already warned us it’s bowhunting season so I wore my blaze orange T-shirt.
My second duckling was Terry, a nice lady I met at our camp-out about 6 wks ago - a competitive trail rider who wants to cross over to endurance & see how the other half lives! When Tony & I arrived in camp Friday afternoon, she was all a-flutter because she had ridden a loop with Alice & her mare had a hard time recovering. NBD in actuality - they had been setting a faster pace than I intended to maintain. Terry took her mare back to the vet check & they pronounced her A-OK… but then just to complicate things slightly, Tony announced that he wanted to try the 25 miler too, after he spent most of the trip to camp explaining that he was only doing an Intro (one loop).
Things got off to an awkward start when Tony broke the billet on my Specialized saddle after he didn’t thread the roller buckle correctly - fortunately I had Peran’s old western saddle so we swapped tack around, all seemed well. But our pace flagged, as Terry had to stop on trail for tack adjustments, a potty break halfway, & fixing a loose boot… Tony called it quits after that first 15 mi, so then Terry & I had 2 hrs to complete 11 mi - challenging but doable. But then I allowed Terry to detour to offer the horses water from a shallow pond - I KNEW BETTER!!! I know that many of the ponds at the Grasslands are boggy and we were not that far from camp, maybe 3 miles? Sure enough, Terry’s mare bogged down & gave her an unexpected bath - poor Twoie almost bogged down too but I had not let him go in that deep!
We wound up overtime by 12 minutes. “Another good training ride” - I am exquisitely proud of Twoie; he performed admirably & I’m sure the 3rd try will be the charm. Poor Terry apologized profusely - of course I shrugged it off & said we had to file it under that “Shit happening” folder.
This afternoon my trail riders are hosting a Bon Voyage BBQ for JR - “one more duty to perform”. I know I see in JR & Carla‘s separation a reflection of my own estrangement & that’s in large part why I’m taking it so hard. But my dear husband wouldn’t even lift his eyes from his phone screen to look at me when I was trying to tell him about our adventures, so I finally just gave up.
