Jersey Devil 2024

After Hector, my ride season came to an abrupt halt. We missed Chautauqua. After that, I set my sights on Mustang. Originally, I was planning to take Lucy and do her first LD. I was going to ride with Sam on Puma. Then Mustang got cancelled. We regrouped and planned for Jersey Devil. The plan was to ride Lucy in the 25 with Sam. Then Sam mentioned that she wanted to do the two day 50. It would be her first multi day. I decided to enter Lucy in back to back 25's. This way, if she completed one day and not the second, the miles from day one would still count. It would be more expensive, but since I ride pass fail, I was all for it. 

After the Essex hunter pace, I had my doubts about Lucy being able to do both days. Booger, meanwhile, was still rip roaring fit. I had no doubt she could do 50 miles in two days. It would be our first multi-day as well. In the end, I decided to enter Booger in both 25's. My train of thought was to ride the first day and see how it went. If I wasn't having a good time, I didn't have to start the second day. I was interested to see if she'd be quieter on the second day. I keep telling myself "no more sand rides for Booger" because she treats them like really long race track. But I had such a good time riding with Sam last year. I figured it was worth a try.

It turns out, Booger wasn't the problem that weekend. 

I seriously love this mare so much.

Pulling Plates at Green Lane

 The day after my Stephens adventure with Sandy, I met Dodie and Jen at Green Lane to pull pie plates from the NACMO ride back in June. It was Lucy's turn, and she happily volunteered herself when I pulled in with the trailer.

Playdate with Kricket

 Before Julio's e-vet visit, I had taken a few extra days off around 4th of July. We already had Thursday off. We were heading to Muckleratz for the endurance ride Friday. I took that Wednesday off as well. The farrier was coming Wednesday morning, and I figured I might as well take the whole day and get a five day weekend. My original plan was to head to the Assunpink both Wednesday and Thursday to get the trail finalized. 

After almost losing Julio, however, I lost my motivation to do anything. I met the farrier Wednesday, then spent the rest of the day mostly catching up on sleep. I almost pulled my entry for the endurance ride. Christine and I were planning to do the 50 together, which I had been really looking forward to. However, the heat index was in the 100's for that weekend. Mike was photographing the ride so we had to go either way. I would decide what I was doing on Friday.

In the meantime, I still had Thursday off, as do most of us in the corporate world. Jen and I had originally made plans to scout trail together and she had bought her WMA permit. She approached me with just the right mix of persistence and empathy to get me out of the house. 

In the end, Jen brought Kricket down with the cart to see how she would handle a longer drive than she's used to. I'm really glad she "dragged" me out. It ended up being a delightful day despite 84 degrees with 62% humidity. 

New Year's Day Ride

 It is almost February and I've done practically zero blogging this year. That's ok because I've done practically zero riding despite the fact that the year got off to a promising start. Jen and I rode together at the Assunpink on Friday. We had a such a good time that we agreed to meet up again on Monday (New Year's Day) to ride at Jacobsburg. Jen had hauled all the way down to meet me. It was only fair I haul to meet her. 

I decided to bring Lucy again, and was pleasantly surprised when she came trotting over to the barn and volunteered to come in as soon as she saw the horse trailer. She has been trailering out alone a lot since November, and I guess she's having enough fun on our adventures that she wants to keep doing them. That was a nice feeling. 

She is the best girl.

What the Blue Blazes?

 Lucy's last ride for 2023 was 13 miles at the Assunpink with Jen and Killian.

Crewing Mustang Memorial

 The weekend after we got back from our vacation was the Mustang Memorial endurance ride, right here in NJ. Originally, I had planned this ride to be Booger's first 50. When I entered her in the Horseshoe Bend Boogie in August, I was hoping it would be her second 50. After she was not-quite-sound at the finish, I went back to the drawing board. I hemmed and hawed and Mike encouraged me to enter the ride. My mantra all year has been "just try it and see what happens". Jen F and Christine would be attempting their first 50's. Jen M was coming to crew for them. A lot of our friends would be coming down. I wanted to camp and ride and have a good time.

In the end, I entered the 30. I planned for it to be my last ride of the season. The only other ride left on the AERC calendar was Fort Valley, and we are definitely not ready for OD trails. 

With 48 hours to go, I couldn't shake a bad gut feeling. Plus the forecast was calling for 80% rain. I had only ridden Booger on trail once since the 50. I ride her in the ring about three times a week so she's not just sitting, but still...

If I was being honest with myself, I just plain didn't want to do this ride. I have done Mustang a million times. The trails are, frankly, boring. I will never beat crossing the finish line of the 50 in first place with a ride time of 4h13m in 2013. While I try to actively support all endurance rides, and especially the local ones, I didn't want to go. Thirty miles of sand and pine trees in the pouring rain sounded awful.

So I did something I've never done before. I pulled my ride entry and cancelled my PTO. 

Instead, we went down and crewed for Jen and Christine. It ended up being a lovely day.

Crew Jen, Killian, Rider Jen, and me.

Booger's First 50

 Yup. That happened.

Jacobsburg

 The weekend after Muckleratz CTR, Jen offered to show me around Jacobsburg. This park has been on my list for a long time, but I have never managed to get out there. Luckily for me, these are Jen's home trails and she knows the park very well. Christine was not available that weekend, so Jen and I would be heading into the forest unsupervised. We joked about the types of misadventures we might get ourselves into, but it ended up being a drama-free ride.

Trexler

 The day after the fox hunting clinic, I met up with Jen and Christine to ride at Trexler. You would think they would have run for the hills after seeing Booger running through the forest without me at Muckleratz, but apparently I have found my people. I was delighted to be invited. Mike and I hiked Trexler right before the pandemic, and I have been wanting to ride there ever since. As always, I am eager to go on any adventure that means I don't have to navigate. 

We were meeting up early, the terrain is a bit technical, and the ladies originally planned to do the ten mile loop twice with a "hold" in the middle. All of that meant I was heading out to meet them by myself. 

The whole day turned out to be an adventure.

We totally harassed a stranger into taking this picture and texting it to us.