My Ex-Mule's Lifetime Achievement

 ...as the first mule to successfully compete in & complete the Pan-American Championship Ride in 1999! Quite the accomplishment, even finishing dead last counts as a success. As you can see, this ride had a 50% completion rate...

100 Mile Pan American Championships 1999

Midwest RegionManager:Myna Margetts08/07/199990 starting, 46 finishing100 milesWinner:DML Smoke Silver ridden by Constance Walker in 09:32BC:
ridden by in , points

1	L	09:32	Constance Walker	on	DML Smoke Silver	450/450
2	L	09:32	Darla Westlake	on	MC Rams Z	375/375
3	F	09:43	Christy Janzen	on	Tais	450/330
4	F	10:03	Amanda M. Taylor	on	VP Bojtok	375/300
5	L	10:13	Patti Pizzo	on	Savaq	330/270
6	L	10:13	Linda Crandell	on	LR Forgeym	300/240		*R*
7	M	10:50	Stephanie Teeter	on	Nature's Khruschev	450/210
8	L	11:08	Julie A. Bullock	on	Ashara Neferititi	270/195
9	F	11:15	Marcia Smith	on	Saamson	330/180
10	N	11:16	Kevin Bohm	on	Ns Fay Royale	/		*RH*
11	L	11:17	Roberta Harms	on	Sha-win	240/150
12	M	11:29	Dana Reeder	on	Wyle-a-way Iris	375/150
13	L	11:55	Jan Worthington	on	LM Master Mind	210/150
14	L	11:55	Melissa Crain	on	Charbiel	195/150
15	H	11:56	Linda Fisher	on	FC Extreme	450/150
16	N	11:57	Larry Handziuk	on	Misty	/		*RH*
17	F	12:06	Candy Barbo	on	Augustus	300/150
18	L	12:23	Carol Steiner	on	MX Tio Vivo+/	180/150
19	N	12:28	Diane Duperron	on	Coralina	/		*RH*
20	F	12:35	Wendy Benns	on	Flirt With Ecstacy	270/150
21	F	12:46	Shellie Hatfield	on	Major Attraction	240/150
22	F	13:03	Genie Wunderlich	on	Twister	210/150
23	M	13:05	Harriet Aiken	on	MC Raptor	330/150
24	L	13:14	Teresa McHugh	on	Spring Nevada	165/150
25	N	13:17	Renata De Siqueira	on	Nature's Sungari	/		*RH*
26	L	13:26	Suzanne Hayes	on	Ssa Csea Dream	150/150
27	F	13:32	Ruth Sturley	on	River Dancer	195/150
28	L	13:32	Shirley Dennis	on	Faust	150/150
29	F	13:36	Carol Lewin	on	Csardas Ryptide	180/150
30	M	13:36	Jim D. Wiseman	on	Cyrano HC	300/150
31	F	14:30	Karen Binns-DiCamillo	on	RGS Zazarr	165/150
32	M	14:30	Debi Sanger	on	Novah PR	270/150
33	N	14:45	Silvia Assi Vaccari	on	Corkey	/		*RH*
34	N	14:45	Henrique Garcia	on	Nature's Nikita	/		*R*
35	M	14:45	Dory Jackson	on	DHC Nassahr	240/150
36	L	14:58	Anita Fiondella	on	CF Precarious	150/150
37	L	15:01	Juanita Gibney	on	Sir Bazharr	150/150
38	L	15:02	Joan Harris	on	Gallager	/		*R*
39	M	15:09	Gary Ceragioli	on	Desert Roses Raz	210/150
40	N	15:09	Bob Toothill	on	Bg Tazim	/		*RH*
41	L	15:43	Joan Storrey	on	Soaring Eagle	150/150
42	L	16:34	Claudia Harper	on	Castanea Cavalette	150/150
43	L	16:35	Barbara J. Cameron	on	Zoneyna	/		*R*
44	H	17:57	Joaquin G. Avellan	on	DJB Chaser	375/150
45	F	17:57	Jennifer Noblin	on	DAF Bobbi Sox	150/150
46	H	17:58	Mike Jaffe	on	El Cascabel Coyote Waits	330/150
RO			Nancy Beacon	on	Traverston Cob
RO			Cynthia Bell	on	Wameco
RO			Cecilia Butler	on	DJB Conquistador
L			Lisa Baker	on	Sassy			*H*
RO			Conrad E. Briggs	on	Blaze
L			Bruce Burnham	on	J Joqhuir			*H*
RO			Darolyn Butler	on	DJB Bab Razzmatazz
L			B. Jane Cloud	on	Ezer's Cloud
L			Earle Baxter	on	CH Catch Me If You Can
RO			Joseph Sandy Brown	on	Ruby
RO			Prue Critchley	on	Fort William+/
RO			Gail Fiebelman	on	HK Obsyssion
RO			Mary Fields	on	Christiansen10
M			Len Fox	on	Markoss//
RO			Janet Fredrickson	on	Sharteka
L			Dominique Freeman	on	Fire Mt Fancy
RO			Jack Enderle	on	Fad Silver
RO			Kim Hofmarks	on	Dakota
RO			Robert Gielen	on	Dvj Cassels Marcus			*H*
RO			Bianca MacKenzie	on	Kukuyu
RO			Susie Morrill	on	McFyre Flyte
RO			Eliana Rocha Leao	on	Tashi Samr			*RH*
RO			Amanda Winder	on	Dark Shadow			*R*
RO			Karen Badger	on	N.s. Sahiba			*RH*
RO			Rachel Bohm	on	My Bonny Ladd			*RH*
M			Luciana M. Doria Grande	on	Dragon Slayer			*RH*
M			Valorie Reeves	on	Copper
RO			Tricia Mellor	on	Keylyn TH Censor+/			*R*
L			Jose S. Marino	on	Brown R Winston			*R*
RO			Lari Shea	on	Avantii
RO			Laura Stoicescu	on	Windswift Barak			*H*
RO			Joe Mattingley	on	Ja Flair
RO			Sandy Skinner	on	Sha Hasans Asadd
RO			Joyce Sousa	on	Mc Dillon
RO			Clark Palfreyman	on	Sloan			*R*
RO			Jim Peters	on	El Alarib
RO			Rita Swift	on	Just Cass
RO			Kathy Majors Thompson	on	LS Zane Grey+/ /
RO			Stephen Rojek	on	Perigrine
RO			Yvette Vinton	on	Ww Due Me
RO			Brian Reeves	on	RB Royale Brand
M			Bob Spoor	on	Brown R Riseyn
RO			Lana Wright	on	Ll Stardom
RO			Margaret Wade	on	Fbs Silver Bucy			*R*

The data in this website originates from the AERC National Office. Updates can and do occur. The official record source is the AERC National Office.

My Not-So-Funny Valentine

 There’s a reason I have that tidal wave from “Interstellar” stuck in my head: my own internal symbol of what my life feels like - as if everything’s gonna come crashing down upon me if I don’t keep my figurative plates spinning, balls juggling, etc…

I knew something “tweren’t right” when Mr Silas wasn’t near the front of the line for breakfast yesterday - turned out Poor Thing fell in a washout which has eroded the fenceline below the barn. Fortunately he did not panic; lying there calmly upside down, waiting for help! We mobilized the troops by calling up all the able-bodied neighbors who were within range, which turned out to be 5 guys & a Polaris to get him hauled out. Amazingly enough, Silas was unhurt although coated in mud, nose to tail.

I was even able to make my long-overdue dermatologist’s appointment, a little late - I had called straight off to cancel, but when we managed to extract him by 9:30, I called them back to say I could still make it a few minutes late, they told me to come on in!

Stacked on top of that, Peran went with me to do the final clean-out of mom‘s little efficiency apartment at Arabella  - it’s amazing how much stuff we had in a 450 square-foot space!

I’ll try to post a few photos of our dramatic rescue later…

                                                                Mud-puppy Silas

Remembrance of Things Past

Yesterday was a stress-fest between “an ordinary Monday” & the fact that Zach drove out to visit his dad** - Z had asked him to help fix the grill on his car even though I advised Z that “juice probably wasn’t worth the squeeze” - I’d have been happy to deal with the little body shop in Mesquite who fixed a scratched & dented fender on my little Buick for a reasonable cost…

** Zach must do 100% of any effort involved in maintaining a relationship with his father as far as calling him, driving out to his place, etc. etc. Of course I realize it’s completely up to them to negotiate their adult relationship, but Zach wants so badly for his father to behave somewhat normally - from what I can see, that’s never gonna happen. My ex-mule Coyote is still alive at age 33 even though he looks like the wrath of God (aka a walking skeleton) - I know Michael has done none of the routine maintenance one needs to do for a senior equine like dentistry, special feed, etc. Zach sent me some photos which just broke my heart all over again - while I would dearly love to bring Coyote home and give him the kind of pampering that he deserves, I know Michael would keep him from me just for spite. (Long backstory: Michael and I had switched horses when I was pregnant with Zach since Coyote was still fairly green & had tossed me a few times, so I took over his Arabian Wynkhy. When everything came to a head, Zach was about eight months old - Michael was moving out & he threatened to take Wynk to the slaughterhouse. I could only save one animal at a time so I let him take Coyote while I kept Wynk. I gave Wynk the TLC he deserved, until he died peacefully at age 25)
So it took me a long time to go to sleep last night - grieving my ex-mule, worrying about my son, etc.

Why should I have any involvement in these matters at all, you might ask? I had to get a play-by-play from my son who called me multiple times throughout the day (last call being The Final Synopsis after Z returned home about 9 PM) Oh, & Victoria learned that Alex & Haley are still in Chicago;  Haley is expecting their second child as Alex has still not found long-term steady employment.

Atlas Shrugged

 I’ve made no secret of the fact that the disruption/uprooting & translocation of my clinic has been a major life-changing event (not in a good way!) for me. I find myself echoing my son as he exclaims: “I was brought up to love, take pride & believe in my country - what is happening!?!”

I have never read Ayn Rand, but I need to - after I catch up on all the contemporaneous material my son wants me to examine in our Socratic quest to understand WTF is going on?!? He has been sampling a lot of YouTubers, some of whom are absolute nutcases, but a few make some valid points…

Ultimately, though, I must concentrate on that which is within my control - which is just my immediate circle of family/friends/clients & colleagues. I have a bad tendency to overreach and (try to) take responsibility for things which are none of my effin’ business. 

Saturday morning, I went into town for a meeting with our trail riding group and the Corps of Engineers who manage Lake Bardwell. Our trails suffered extensive damage during the flooding in 2023 and have been closed for many months now. Our helpful government agencies want us to avoid injury (ha! more like liability!) so we had to develop an extensive plan to ensure trail markers are reinstalled with emergency vehicle access… after months of negotiations, we will finally have our first work weekend at the end of this month, after which we should have access to the trails again.

We went for brunch afterwards and I offered to bring Silas for my friend Linda to ride yesterday - she has not ridden all winter, thinks her older gelding is too unconditioned and still doesn’t quite trust her youngster. And while Silas was his normal gentlemanly self, Linda complained that his stride was “too long” and of course got stiff & sore as she is out of “riding shape”. (Anyone who thinks the horse does all the work - I could prove a thing or two to you) Twoie turned tail and ran away from me yesterday morning; I didn’t feel like chasing him down so I brought Baraq - after a couple of hours of jigging around on him/worrying about Linda’s experiences, I came home with a splitting headache. I took some Tylenol which didn’t touch it; a couple of hours later, I took some ibuprofen but finally had to lie down to shake it off. Lesson learned: I cannot take responsibility for everyone else upon my shoulders