When I ran across this photo earlier while looking at photos to add to the previous posts about the 2011 ride I had to laugh.
I rode with juniors a lot on the ride and this day resulted in us coming up with a new rule.
No more Pony Express running mounts! Dave Rabe was always showing off how he could run alongside his horse and then hop up into the saddle and keep going.
Well, the kids decided they wanted to learn how to do that too. Sometimes they did pretty good. Other times, they fell on their faces. Usually….but not always, their horses would stop and wait for them to get back up, dust themselves off and try again!
Can you guess what happened in this photo? Here is a hint: The chestnut horse next to me….I’m ponying! Two miles….yep….that’s how far he went when his rider didn’t quite make her running mount. It’s pretty funny NOW but at the time I was less than thrilled. Hence the new rule for the rest of the ride – no running mounts! Right next to rules like: no whining, no blocking water from other horses if your horse isn’t drinking and if you want to ride with me, you gotta be ready on time….I know there were a lot more. We made them up as we went. I think the best one was if any of us exceeded the 10 mph self-imposed speed limit with our horses, we owed the others an ice cream, that was the speeding fine. Darnit if we didn’t often exceed that speed limit every so often!
I’ve got an update on my horse Bo. He has a sore neck!
We think he wrenched it while rolling on Thursday before I left for 20 Mule Team. He knocked the gate open and may have got twisted up like a pretzel in the process. I heard it but didn’t see it, so I don’t really know what happened.
Bo is going to have a chiropractor work on him. I rubbed some Surpass into his neck, gave him a gram of bute and am alternating icing the sore swollen muscle on his neck (left side) and using heat packs. Hopefully he will recover fully and quickly from this. He’s already sound again. I’m relieved that it’s not something in his leg, that had me really worried.
I’ve still got more stuff to share on the topic of the Twenty Eleven ride. Stay tuned!
KD – is this the photo that you are talking about? That is my horse Rocky. He still has that blue halter, the same reins and S-hack and b/c too! That stuff just NEVER wears out! Unfortunately back then I was using a much lower resolution camera. The shots come out great for looking at on the computer, or for power point presentations but can’t really be printed much larger than 4×6.
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Yep – that’s the one ! Don’t you like that composition? May I copy it for personal use?
Oh…… forgot to say glad Bo’s okay.
Sure, just right click and download it. Thanks for asking! I love the clouds and the colors in that photo too
. (and that Rocky’s mug is in it as well) Karen
Glad to hear Bo’s ok!
bo’s a champ
gp
I’m so happy that bo is OK!!! I can’t read your blog at work so I’ve been waiting an ENTIRE week to read this post and see how he was doing.
How did you figure out that it was a sore neck? I’m so glad it wasn’t something mroe serious.
I so wnated to do the XP ride and I admit your pics totally are sucking me in, and your storeis of the juniors. *sigh* I just can’t swing the entry fee of 5K. It’s perfect timing because I could take 2 months off and go directly to vet school afterwards. I don’t know. One thing is now that I’m down to 1 horse it’s difficult for me to concieve of being able to do more than a week or to and to spend that kind of money on 1-2 weeks of riding. *sigh* I may just have to live it through your blog!!!!
I don’t know, I’m definately keeping my options open, we’ll just have to see how things work out.
Anyway – sorry this is so long and I’m rambling. It was great to see you at 20 MT.
mel – it was pretty obvious that it was in the neck. By the time we got home it has swollen up some, and Bo was super sensitive to palpation there. The chiro did a great job and it was so neat to see the relief Bo got from that. I’m still going to proceed cautiously. Bo is the kind of horse to get into stuff, I just wish he could do it before a plain old one day 50 and not a 100 (since there are so few of them).
Re: the 2011 ride — you could probably work out purchasing a partial entry, or get yourself hired out as a crew/driver. You could also come along to help as a volunteer. It would be a real once in a lifetime experience.
Mmmm…. That’s an idea. I could vollenteer and be a crew driver and then perhaps ride the last portion. Ok off to figure out how this would work. I have hope!