We had sun, wind, bugs but we managed to do our "classroom" stuff where we chatted about what endurance rides are, clubs and organizations, feeding, conditioning, pacing, managing your horse and a whole lot more. Then I shared my contents of a crew bag that would be handy at the vet check. Then we hid from the wind and had lunch. I shared easyboot information with Amy Heward. Shoulda got a pic of that! Oh darn we should have gotten a pic of a lot of things but we were just busy.
After lunch everyone learned how to take their horse's pulse and listen for gut sounds. The wind made that a challenge as we were suddenly deaf and found it hard to hear what we were looking for! We then had a mock vet check with Virginia Ware and myself impersonating vets and examining horses, telling riders what we were looking for and why. Each person had a rider vet card to work with. They trotted their horses out just like a real check. Giving them more to know when it comes down to the real thing.
Afterwards it was saddle up time. I had a 13 mile loop without any gates, and a shortcut to make it 8 miles. Everyone had a great ride. One participant said she had a nice trail ride but had learnt that endurance riding was not for her. She still had a great time!
Virginia Ware got a nice shot of part of the group as they headed out to ride. Samantha Alley, Joy Haines, her friend Sabine Saley who was visiting from Austria, Tammy Gray and MaryAnn Yamamoto heading out of camp.
Debbie Grose riding Jack out through some sagebrush. We couldn't do the "creek" loop because the water was too high.
After riding we did the next best thing, we potlucked and ate some really great food! What a spread. Several people stayed and camped and we rode the next morning too. Virginia and Bob had so much fun they stayed an extra day. Thank you all for coming. I hope you go through the DVD's and soak up all the info on them. See you on the trail!!
