Hi everybody!!!
I had to write to you all and brag about my boy. Mom and I took Dude to Utica, IL last weekend to another Endurance ride. In case you are wondering, Utica is about an hour north of Bloomington, a 5 hour drive from St. Louis. We got there Friday afternoon and got all set up in our camp site. It was Dude's first time camping and my first time camping with a horse. He didn't seem to mind being tied to his picket line at all. Friday night though was a long night to say the least, especially for Mom and Dude. Mom wanted me to get some sleep and she volunteered to keep watch on Dude all night. He must of been pretty nervous because he winnied at EVERY vehicle that pulled in and every person that walked around too. This went ALL night! Poor Mom, I felt so bad for her and everybody else that Dude kept up. He also kept
answering another horse that was obviously as nervous as he was. At 3:00 am I got up and fed him his grain so it could be well digested before his ride. That did quiet him down for awhile. Then at 5:00 am somebody was driving around the camp playing loud music and honking his horn. Turned out that that was our wake up call because the 50 mile competitors had to start at
6:30am. Boy was it hard to get motivated Saturday morning! And Mom thought she would get to rest during the day while we were out on the trail....WRONG!... She ended up helping us out on the trail too. Our "neighbor" camper came over and asked if Mom would drive the truck to certain areas with water in the back to douse the horses and give them a drink. You could tell she really didn't want to, but there would be a helper, Margaret, a 15 year old who's Mom was also riding in the 25 miler. So, Mom got moving and agreed to meet us a predetermined spots. 7:00 start time, off we go, Art on Fancy, an Arab, Patty on Mike, a Morgan, and me on Dude,
yes, all Quarter Horse! The trail was beautiful and we quickly got to the first pit stop. So fast that Margaret and Mom weren't quite ready for us. Then back on the trail. This was a long stretch before the pit stop. We went past a model airplane field, but no planes at the time. It was still early so it was fairly "cool" out. Next pit stop. Mom and Margaret were prepared for us this time. Off we go. This part got a little interesting. The trail went into the woods and we came across an extremely steep down hill! There were three other riders already down it and they warned us to get off our horses and walk down. Patty had no problem with that and walked on down. Then Art decided to ride Fancy down it and she was sitting on her butt it was so steep. It wasn't very long, just steep. Well after watching Art and Fancy, I knew it would be best to get off. Dude handled the hill very well. Art said on the next time around he will get off too. There was a little creek there, so we sponged the horses and let them get a drink. Then we had to go up hill, although not as bad as the one we came down. This hill went on and on and on. After  a while we came across another bad hill going down. One person was on her way down with her horse. Both on the ground of course.This hill was much longer than the other one and even steeper! So one at a time we walked our horses down safely. Back on the trail. We made it back to our pit stop with a few tired, but not too bad of shape horses. Nothing too exciting after this, one more pit stop then back to camp for the vet check and half hour rest. We got off the horses when we were almost back so they could recover and their heart rates would come down faster. Dude's heart rate was down right away. Then his vet check, which went well. 30 minutes go by quick when you are trying to feed your horse and yourself! Before I knew it, I had to quickly saddle Dude back up and leave. Fancy and Mikey didn't recover as fast as Dude, so they had a few more minutes before they could leave. Fancy, by the way, has been in about 15 races! This was Dude's third. I quickly made it to the first pit stop and then on the trail again. Dude trotted for nearly 45 minutes before I finally made him walk some. This time there were some model airplanes flying around. They didn't seem to bother Dude at all. The only thing he did was "follow" them with his ears. It was kind of like a satellite following a signal :) When we made it back to The Hill again, we took a little better route down that I didn't have to get off him. Then up the other hill, at this point Dude was really hot! I was worried about him for awhile. He was really sweaty and puffing hard. I walked him, (me on the ground) all the way to the next Bad Hill. Down we go, we are still ahead of Art and Patty too at this point. Poor Dude was really tired here. I got back on him and we walked for awhile longer. Then as we were getting closer to the next pit stop, he must have known because he kicked back up into a trot and went straight to my truck and drank some water. We were almost done. Off we go back towards camp with one more pit stop to make. Mom informed me at this stop that Art and Patty were a few minutes behind me as well as the rest of the riders! This meant that Dude and I were running first! Once again I got off him and walked him into camp. His heart rate came down a little slower, but still faster than the rest. While we were waiting for it to come down, the rest of the riders came in. I couldn't believe Dude was first! He passed his vet check and I took him to our campsite and let him rest. He was a tired cookie, and so was I. Mom? Oh she was VERY tired. But we definitely appreciated all of her help and Margaret's too!!!! Thanks a lot!!!!! We really thought we had first place. Mom and Margaret never saw anybody else pass us, so we were sure. So were all the other riders.  At this point all we had to do was wait for the awards/pot luck dinner. When the awards were announced, they were a little messed up to say the least. They had me in 5th place! Mom and I were shocked, we knew it was wrong. I talked to Carol, the ride secretary, and she found her mistake and so we were then second place. I was wondering about that and she said the first place rider finished a half hour faster than us! There was just no way this could be true. First of all, Dude worked his butt off and second, Mom never even saw this person go by the pit stop. I didn't contest it though because it was late and we were happy with our second place. The next morning I told Carol about what we thought and then another rider, Debbie, came up and asked what the first place rider's time was. She agreed that it couldn't be true. She also said that she was sure that this rider must have missed the bad part of the trail. So, in my mind, we placed First, but there isn't any way to prove it.  Needless to say, Dude was very quiet Saturday night. Amazing what 25 miles will do to a horse!!! And, we also think the trail was more like 35 miles! It took us 4 hours and 58 minutes to complete the ride and that was at a trot for most of it. My fist ride with Dude that was 25 miles only took 4 hours and 15 minutes and we walked a LOT! We had a great time and impressed a lot of people. The trip home went well and I know that 2 people and one horse slept well! Our next ride is September 12th and I am really pumped up for this one!!!

Happy trails!
Margi