The week before the ride, I saw Sandy posting on Facebook. She was looking for someone to pleasure ride some of the Bunny Hop trail with her on Sunday. It would be Mickey's first time attending any kind of distance riding event, and Sandy was looking for a quiet horse to hold Mickey's hoof through the experience. I couldn't think of anyone quieter than JR, and the idea of getting to enjoy one of my own horses for a change was very appealing, so I chimed in.
There was a scramble to figure out all the logistics. My life wouldn't be complete if I wasn't always up to some harebrained scheme. First and foremost, I needed to have shots and Coggins done before the weekend. NJTRA requires a rabies cert and Coggins from the current calendar year, so even a six month old Coggins is no good. Thankfully, my vet is a good sport and came out right away, and even put a rush order on my Coggins with the state. I had it faxed to me less than 48 hours after the farm call.
Sandy and Sherry were also troopers about the whole plan. They agreed to come to the house on Saturday and get JR (and all his stuff) while I was away riding. I informed my landlord, "Just so you know, a strange horse trailer is going to come here on Saturday while I'm away and steal one of my horses. It's totally fine. I just thought you should know." Of course, we all joked about how Sandy was going to sneak Tookie to the event instead.
As it turned out, the timing was just about perfect. Sherry and Sandy pulled into camp just as Wendy and Ival were leaving. Mike and I walked across the property just in time to see JR standing tied to the railing by our camping spot to be.
"Hey, Fat!Pony," I called, walking briskly over to JR.
He looked slightly startled, "! How did you find me?" but when he saw Mike, he started to nicker. Very cute.
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| *ear flick* "This is a weird day." |
Apparently JR met Sandy and Sherry at the gate. He crawled at a snail's pace up our driveway, until he spotted the trailer, at which point her perked up and eagerly climbed on board. Good pony! Ozzy propped his chin on the gate and looked forlorn.
"Ooh... pony bus! No? Not for me? Ok. Bye guys..."
Sandy told me, "I wouldn't be surprised if he's still standing at the fence, staring sadly into the distance."
I started to sort through the few belongings I had asked Sandy and Sherry to grab for me. Basically, there was half a bale of hay, a feed pan, and a five gallon water bucket that I had filled with grooming supplies, baggies of grain, Previcox, and braiding bands.
As I was sorting through my things, I spotted a familiar metal garbage can. I did a double take and asked, "Did you guys bring this pail from our house?"
Sherry glanced over, "Yes probably."
I started laughing uncontrollably. "Guys! That's our dog poop can!!"
To be fair, I had told them to grab the 'bucket full of stuff' at the bottom of the stairs. Rest assured, I did not stop teasing them about that one for the rest of the weekend.
Once the horses were unloaded and secured, we walked up to the gun club to sign in. We were registered to pleasure ride, essentially taking advantage of the marked trails, but not competing. We had paid an entry fee nonetheless. It's only fair! As it turned out, we would also have to vet the horses for liability reasons. I chuckled at the idea of having to vet JR. He's not exactly the picture of an endurance athlete.
Meanwhile, Mike had set up our camp.
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| The dogs were very happy to hang out in the nice warm car. |
This would be JR's first time camping. After his antics at the hunter pace last year, Mike was pretty concerned about containing the pony. I figured he would be alright, so long as the fence was plugged in. After all, he lived in electric tape for almost two years at Carolyn's. As long as nobody kicked him, he would have no reason to go anywhere.
As I suspected, JR wound up doing just fine in the temp fence. I put him in the back corner of our camping spot to be safe. That way he had visual barriers on all sides (the sand bank on two, the trailer on one, and the other horses on the other). As soon as he realized that he had access to food, he turned his butt and settled down to munch, not the least bit concerned about the strange new circumstances in his life.
JR's newly discovered camping abilities were put to the test almost immediately after that. We had set the horses up all in row. JR and Sherry's super-calm gelding, Scutch, flanked the camping area with Mickey in the middle. The boys were basically acting as her body guards while she tried to figure out what black magic this was.
Next door, Leanna had parked her rig and set up a pen for her gelding, Jack. Jack is a little... erm... notorious for getting loose at rides. Personally, I would invest in more visible fencing (or, you know, a HiTie) but he's not my horse or my problem.
Except he made himself our problem that afternoon.
Scutch was quietly munching hay and minding his own business when Jack suddenly went through his fence and charged right into our camp. Scutch continued to eat, not fazed by other horses being nutty. Not only did Jack rip his own pen out of the ground, but he then tore Scutch's fence out as well. In the blink of an eye, Scutch's legs were wrapped in electric tape, which was making an awful whizzing noise as it ripped through the air. Scutch still tried to maintain his composure, but the final straw came when the fence charger that Jack had ripped out of the ground also came flying through the air and clocked Scutch squarely in the head.
Scutch ran from our camp, circled around the next set of horse trailers and came trotting back towards us, shouting, "I need an adult, I need an adult!!" He came trotting right to me and I grabbed his halter.
The pen was destroyed, Mickey was spinning in panicked circles in her pen, and JR was standing with his head straight up in the air and his eyes bugging out, looking thoroughly offended.
"IS THIS WHAT YOU PEOPLE DO ON THE WEEKENDS?!?! I want a refund! Ozzy warned me, but I didn't believe him."
Scutch was visibly shaken by the whole experience and avoided the horse-eating fence for the rest of the weekend.
"I've seen things, man..."
(I just realized that we didn't take a single photo of Scutch all weekend! The horse is worth a visual.)
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| The saintly Scutch, taken from Sherry's FB. |
Thankfully, things settled down after that. We finished setting up our camp and whipped out our customary collection of beers. Sandy and I took JR and Mickey for a walk down to the vetting area, where I practiced circles and Sandy flew her kite.
Eventually, it grew dark and we grew hungry. I had brought a ton of soup to share, and we moseyed up to the club to make use of the kitchen. Hot soup, sandwiches, and my favorite crunchy salad made for a good meal, and we warmed ourselves by the fireplace. The temperature outside was dropping rapidly, and we weren't looking forward to going back out in the cold. Still, we didn't want to leave the horses unsupervised for long, so we eventually sucked it up, zipped our layers, and wandered back outside.
That's when we realized that Mike and I didn't have head lamps. Sandy did and Mike told her, "Lead the way, Mistress of the Light."
Only, that's not what I heard! Jokingly, I shouted, "Did you just call her your Mistress of the Night? I'm sitting right here!" It became our inside joke for the rest of the weekend (and perhaps all of eternity. It's too soon to tell.)
By then, I was pretty exhausted, and decided that I wanted to go to bed early instead of freezing outside with my beer. Mike and I took the dogs for one last walk, then dove into our tent to hide from the elements.
I have to say that camping, despite temperatures in the teens, was a success. The memory foam worked much better than our air mattress has in the past, and the dogs behaved themselves remarkably well. Once they realized how cold it was outside, they wedged themselves firmly under the blankets and didn't move for the rest of the night, even when there was excitement in camp. Between the warm dogs, the thermal sleeping bag, and the hats we wore to bed, we actually managed to stay warm that night. In the morning, I was actually somewhat concerned about Herbie. We got up, got dressed, and unzipped the tent, and she didn't budge. When we pulled back the blankets, she looked surprised and displeased. She was toasty though! (Did I mention the dogs had sweaters and Herbie also wore her jacket?)
My only complaint was that I was very stiff and sore when I woke up. The next time I decide to ride 30 miles and
then sleep on the cold, hard ground, somebody please kindly punch me in the head.
The good news was that the day was warming up already. The better news was that there was real coffee to be had in the main building.
Sandy and I grabbed our horses and took advantage of the lull in activity to get them vetted. Of course, JR was lame for his trot out, which is really too bad because the rest of his vetting scores were stellar. He had a heart rate of 36 (!!) and didn't have a mark on him. He stood like a champ while the vet judges poked and prodded him, and I got lots of compliments on his manners and laid back personality. People thought he was my retired endurance horse and were stunned to find out this was his first time at an event! Had we been competing, JR wouldn't have passed the vet-in, but since we were pleasure riding, and the head bob is mechanical, they just noted it on his paperwork and let us go. After this weekend, I'm extremely sad that I didn't get JR as a youngster because I think he would have kicked some serious butt in the CTR world. As for our trot out... I took off jogging and his response was, "Mom's running, so I guess I'd better keep up." No questions asked. What a good pony.
After vetting, we had some significant time to kill. We were going out after the very last competitors, which gave us about an hour and a half to kill.
Since it was warm, we tied the dogs outside in the sunshine. They both seemed to enjoy the attention from people passing by, and Herbie was thrilled at a chance to roll in the sand and scratch her back.
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| Feels so good! |
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| Mike jogging Julio around camp. |
In the mean time, Mickey was starting to settle down a bit. She took a cue from Herbie and had a good roll herself, then seemed to settle for just watching the world go by around her.
Of course, I couldn't resist the chance for a photo op. As I've mentioned, Mike seems to be riding JR around bareback every time I turn around at home. I asked him to hop on board for a picture, and was surprised at how gracefully he just swung up there from the ground. Just when I think the man can't get any better...
Within a few minutes. we tacked the horses up and mounted. I asked Mike to take a picture of me on JR. It wasn't until after he posed nicely that I realized that the thing on my head was my hat, not my helmet! Whoops!
From there, the Mistress of the Night and I rode off merrily into the
sunset pine forest.
Sandy and I had a lovely ride. As I had expected, JR was the perfect baby sitter. Whenever Mickey would stop or balk, he would come quietly to a halt and look over his shoulder at her, as though rolling his eyes at an unruly toddler. By the time we reached the single track at the top of the 'hill', Mickey was actually quite settled, and didn't need any baby sitting. Periodically, we would get passed by competitive riders going out or coming in, but as the ride went on, Mickey's reaction to them lessened.
I even saw
Dodie on Steel, who looked stellar in yellow.
"I see why you like riding this mare!" Dodie called as they trotted by.
"Uh oh! Does this mean I'm not getting her back?" I joked.
Sandy and I were having such a good time that we were debating doing the entire ten mile loop. We were going at an easy enough pace, and the horses probably could have handled the distance. We decided to play it wise, though, and not push our luck. Let's be honest... we ran out of beer and decided to turn around!
On the way back, we let the horses move out a bit. We were still on the long, straight, wide stretch of sand road, and it was easy to let the horses roll side by side for a long period of time. That's when JR really hit a groove. He pricked his ears, got into a beautiful little frame, and broke out the power stride. He was chugging along at this gorgeous, forward trot, and he actually felt completely sound. It's as though he just decided, "Sure. I could do this endurance sport." It was adorable and totally made my day. Sandy agreed that JR was looking really good, and Mickey was being a rock star. Weekend made!
We even managed to take some pictures of each other out on trail.
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| JR and me between cranberry bogs. |
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| The view from the other side of the camera. Haha. |
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| Mickey's working face. |
On the way back to camp, we ran into the exactly scenario we had been hoping to avoid. Heading towards us up the trail was a chestnut horse with a long flaxen mane and a wide blaze, with a rider decked out in purple.
"O no! Sherry and Scutch!"
We were worried that Mickey would have a melt down if she found her long lost boyfriend (JR doesn't count!) and then had to be separated from him all over again. We were having such a lovely ride and we were worried how this would affect her beautiful behavior thus far.
I thought quickly and picked a conveniently placed side trail, and we took off at a fast trot, putting room between us and the other horses. We went just far enough to be out of sight, and when we returned to the marked trail.
Crisis avoided!
Except, apparently the horse and rider we saw was either Future Sherry and Scutch or not them at all, because minutes later we passed them on trail again. Thankfully, we were able to just pass quickly at the trot without any antics.
Right after that, we picked up a competitor on a gray Arabian who was very prancy and 'up'. At the same time, one of the driving pairs came up the trail. We moved aside to let them pass, and I positioned JR to shield the other horses from the 'scary' cart. I am proud to report that neither JR or Mickey batted an eye at the cart (I wouldn't expect any less from a standardbred!) In fact, the horse that seemed the most bothered by the encounter was the one in the harness!
From there, we were just moments from the power lines.
Just as I was about to text Mike to let him know we were heading back in, he beat me to the punch by asking if I wanted photos of us heading back to camp. Of course!!
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| Partners in crime! |
We brought the horses down to the trailer, stripped our tack, and went right back to the vetting area. Despite the fact that he's in no way a conditioned horse, JR pulsed in immediately at 50bpm, well within endurance and CTR criteria (and we hadn't even waited the 20 minutes allotted for P&R). As it turns out, we had done almost seven miles, and he didn't have a mark on him. His lameness was actually less existent than it had been at the start of the day (he improves with movement). As I keep saying... it's too bad I didn't get him before he was injured!
JR even earned his first ever score sheet (though, of course, it doesn't count since we were just pleasure riding!)
I still wasn't done torturing my saintly pony, however. Near our camping spot was a wooden platform, that was just the right size to play the part of a trail obstacle. Of course, I couldn't resist making JR stand on it for pictures. The horse honestly does all the silly things I ask of him without protest. Even with the intermittent lameness issues, he's worth his weight in gold.
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| Sweaty but still in good spirits and no worse for the wear. |
We put the horses away to relax and eat, and briefly spotted Sherry while she was in for her hold.
But our adventures for the day weren't over yet! As we were coming in to the timer, Sandy had realized that her phone had fallen out of her pocket in the process of taking pictures. It would cost $500 to replace... and our photos! We asked for the drag riders to keep an eye out for it, but they had no luck turning it up. Of course, Mike and I were not about to make Sandy go trekking out for it on her own!
We leashed up the dogs and proceeded to take a hike up the trail. By then, the markers had already been pulled and all the riders and horses were back in camp. Thankfully, we went armed with beer in hand, and the weather was perfect for a wander in the woods.
I have to admit that the walk (which ended up being about three miles) took more out of me than all the riding I did all weekend. My knee was on fire for days afterwards (and is still pretty sore). I'm sure the deep sand didn't help.
The good news is that we found the phone! Or, I should say, Mike found it. Of course it was at the very end of the side trail we had taken to get away from Future Sherry and her time traveling mount. I had almost turned us around before we got to it, but Mike's excellent eyes spotted it in the pine needles. Phew! What a relief!
Victory beer!
The bad news is that Scutch wasn't having a lucky day. He came up with a lot of heat and swelling in one of his legs, probably the result of his encounter with the Attack Pen of Death the night before, and he was off as a result. I'm not sure how Sherry handled the news, but I was furious on her behalf. Maybe I'm a bad sport.
After that, all that was left was to pack up camp and go home. Mike made fast work of our tent and supplies, while I helped the girls take down the horse pens.
Before long, we had the horses loaded up and were heading home, albeit later than we originally planned. Sandy took us on a bit of a detour around the Air Force Base, but missed the turn that should have made it into a short cut. I was entertained nonetheless because it was part of the area that I hadn't seen before.
At home, JR unloaded quietly (after arguing that "no no, there's food in the box, I'll stay here"). I walked him down to his paddock. Tookie was beside himself because I brought back his 'mare with the blaze'. Ozzy, on the other hand, didn't even come up to see us. He didn't seem to miss JR very much, and I think he was a little mad at me for taking the wrong horse :(
We bid Sherry and Sandy adieu, and put our dog poop pail back where it belonged. Then Mike, the dogs, and I went upstairs and went to bed early.
I can't tell you how happy I was to just take one of my own horses out for a beautiful trail ride again. I get to ride so many wonderful horses, and I cannot complain about my competition schedule at all, but I do miss spending saddle time with my own boys. It was the perfect second half to the first ride of the season.
