Mike and I photographed No Frills again this year. Becky had the same scheduling conflict as last year and we were more than happy to step in. For starters, it's a great way to get to a ride and see everyone. Last year we also made a killing on photo sales. We have a lot of upcoming expenses so the chance to make a little extra cash was appealing. No Frills is a two day ride, which meant taking half a day Thursday to head down.
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| My photography assistant for the weekend. |
As I alluded to in my April recap, Mike and I photographed the No Frills endurance ride in Virginia over Easter weekend.
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| Ride camp as seen from the drone. |
My last endurance ride was Fort Valley in 2019. It was the perfect note to end my best ride season to date. Lunar and I finished the 50 and earned my first Triple Crown. The finish put me in the Top Ten in the regional point standings. After a season of competing pretty much every other weekend, riding in just about every state from South Carolina to Maine, and flying out to California for my first Tevis attempt, I was ready for a winter off. We wrapped up the year by driving down to Virginia for the OD Christmas party. As we all got in our cars to head our separate ways, everyone hugged goodbye with promises to make plans for the upcoming ride season. For me, that meant seeing everyone at Rabbit Run and Bunny Hop... in March 2020.
Needless to say, that ride never happened. Instead, we all went into lock down as the mystery virus that would soon become a household name made its first appearances in the US. As you all know, Mike and I took (are still taking) the pandemic very seriously. For me, that meant shutting down my business and not riding for three months. At the worst of it, we didn't stray more than five miles from home unless it was to go grocery shopping. Endurance riding... with its group gatherings, interstate travel, and inherent risk... was the furthest thing from my mind.
As we learned more and restrictions gradually loosened, there was a scattering of endurance rides in the northeast region. Often there were last minute changes or cancellations. Most rides featured crewing limits or additional precautions for social distancing.
Over the course of the 2020 season, I went on two conditioning rides on Maddie. For the first one, I met Jen and Michelle at Allamuchy. Jen is a nurse and had seen COVID up close and personal. Michelle is a vet and was taking the virus very seriously. By this point, we knew that social distancing and masking were very effective, and that the transmission rate outdoors was much lower than indoors. We all took separate vehicles, met outside, and never got within a horse length of each other. About a month later, Jen and I met at her barn and took Lunar and Maddie for another ride together.
By this point, I missed endurance riding terribly.
Both times that I went riding, Jen invited me to join her at the next endurance ride, and both times I declined. While we probably could have gone to a ride safely, it just didn't feel like the responsible thing to do. In fact, I felt like I would be a hypocrite if I preached about the importance of staying home and sacrificing the non-essential things for the greater good, then turned around and went to an endurance ride. Plus my anxiety about the virus was still really high. On top of that, I couldn't really see the point of spending the money to travel and compete for a season that basically wouldn't count for anything. Who is going to look back and care about the point standings for the 2020 season? Nobody. So even though I longed to get back to doing what I loved, and even though I worried about losing my ride on Jen's horses, I politely turned down her offers. Instead, Mike and I stayed close to home and saved money.
In the mean time, along came Lucy and my itch to explore trails on a good horse was temporarily satisfied. Thank god for Lucy. I really think I would have lost my mind otherwise.
Winter came and went and there were suddenly whispers of a viable vaccine. A year after my endurance dreams were dashed to pieces, medical personnel and front line workers became eligible for the vaccine in NJ. By the time I joined Jen and company for another conditioning ride in March, about half of us were already vaccinated. It eased my anxiety a bit, and I was eager for my turn.
By mid May, Mike and I were fully vaccinated, but still taking a ton of precautions while we waited to see how effective the vaccine would turn out to be.
Meanwhile, the endurance season was in full swing, and I watched wistfully from the sidelines while everyone posted ride stories and photos on social media. Jen and I still touched base from time to time, and I congratulated her when Bryn on Maddie and Michelle on Bambi tied for first place at the OD 100 in June. Jen had been so wonderful about respecting my boundaries this entire time, and I will forever be grateful for that. Things were going well for the Whisperstreams crew and I knew that the juniors were doing well on a slew of horses. It sounded like there was a butt for every saddle and I was thrilled watching their successes online. Still, I worried that the virus had cost me my place in the group. It had been the right thing to do, but it stung.
Then Holly called me. She was managing the Muckleratz endurance ride over fourth of July weekend and she needed a ride photographer. Would Mike and I be interested? I confirmed that Becky Pearman didn't want the gig (she was out in Montana for the national championships) then asked Mike what he thought. Together, we decided that this would be a great way to dip our toes back into the endurance world. My plan was to go do the photography, show my face in camp, and tell Jen that I would love to come crew for her and her riders at any other rides they had planned for the season. As always, I kept my plans to myself, and as always, the universe has a funny way of helping a girl out.
A month before Muckleratz, Jen texted to ask me if I'd be interested in doing the LD on Sunday. I told her we were the ride photographers, but that I would discuss it with Mike. Of course, Mike was his usual supportive self and told me he could handle doing the photography by himself on Sunday and that I should ride.
And so it came to pass that 20 months after my last start (but who's counting?) after the longest hiatus I've taken from endurance riding since my first start in 2008, I found myself back on the distance riding trail...
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| Photo by Becky Pearman. |
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| Introducing Reggie, the Rugged Rhino. |
