Ben, my race partner, and I have been discussing strategy and training for a good part of the year. He has a fantastic horse named Superman that we had been planning to ride. How many people get to take flight on Superman I ask? Superman was fit and is skilled in Ride and Tie, which can be disconcerting to a new horse. The only thing left to do was drive to the race camp in Ft. Bragg, CA. Then Ben called me a week before making that drive. Superman was "off" on one of his feet. 35 miles would be too much for him.
We considered several plans, but decided in the end to test out another of Ben's horses, 5 year old Marquitable Asset (Marco). Now a bunch of things were running through my mind with this decision. First- how cool that Ben has yet another horse that could work. Secondly- a 5 year old?? As much as I like to think I live in a horsey kind of world, I rarely get to ride. In fact, the last time I rode without one of the kids nestled in front of me going no faster than a slow trot, was probably at the 2008 Ride and Tie. 5 year old horses aren't exactly trustworthy. Thirdly- Oh whatever, I'll wear a helmet. Nothing is going to stop us from doing this race!
With a little less confidence, we made the drive with our entourage: Me, Brian, the kids, and the dogs. Cathy came and camped with us. She made sure Rowan didn't swing from all the electric horse fences. And she kept Iris from making her own camp underneath horses. My parents came. My mom's cousins came. We kept adding chairs to our camp.
Race day from camp. The blue tent is the mother-in-law unit.
The dish washers
Iris takes the pot for a walk
My mom with her cousins Karen, Jeanette, and Verna - it was also my Mom's 70th birthday this month.
We had a few days before the race to check out the course, ride a little, and enjoy camp. I finally got to meet Ben and his horses. He brought along Tia, Marco's babysitter. We took them out for a ride on the course and did a bit of practicing. One of the problematic parts of Ride and Tie is that you get off and tie the horse to a tree and then take off running. During this time other horses race by the tied horse. Sometimes horses go so whacko they pull the entire tree down and take off running with it dragging behind. I imagine that being tied up while others run by feels entirely wrong to a horse. They might be thinking there's a good reason every one is running and being tied to a tree is the very last place a horse should be. Luckily horses are pretty smart and catch on that there is no real reason for it, just weird human stuff, and settle in with practice. Marco is a smart guy. By race day he had it figured out.
Tia, Me, and Marco
Tia also babysits kids pretty well
After several days of waking up to coastal drip, race day dawned with a small strip of fog and bright, bright sun. The race course consisted of 2 long loops up and down and around the mountains with a veterinary checkpoint about midway through. I ran the first leg 3/4 of a mile up the mountain and then hopped on Marco. Ben had already been running for a while and must have been going pretty fast because I didn't catch him until mile 3. During that time I was able to race past every single team except one in my search for Ben. There was a section of relatively flat trail (perhaps the only spot), where I let Marco take control and stretch out his legs a little. I think I started gleefully yelling about how happy I was to everyone I saw at this point. I've been wanting to gallop along a mountain trail for way too long. We played leap frog like this for the whole loop. We eventually passed the team ahead of us when they lost their horse in the woods somewhere. Another team, Mark Richtman, Mary Tiscornia, and Nero had gone off course early on, passed us just before ending the first loop. We had been playing a game of cat and mouse for miles with them. Mark had been taunting me jokingly every time I tried to catch him. But as I ran out of the veterinary check I didn't see him again until the finish. Our next goal was to keep ahead of the team just behind us who has won this race many times.
Amazingly, Marco ran this race as if he had been doing it for years. His pulse was lower at the finish line than it was the day before the race. We let him choose his pace for much of the race and gave him a lot of rest especially on the second loop. All I can say is that Nero had better watch out. I can't imagine having a better race partner. I've had such good luck with race partners for all 3 of the races I've done. Ben knew the course and gave me detailed descriptions of what to expect every time we were close. We finished in 2nd place with the 3rd place team Sara and Jim Howard only a minute behind. I kept looking over my shoulder during the last mile hoping like crazy I wouldn't have to sprint to the finish line. The cool thing about the winning team is that Mary Tiscornia has ridden in all 43 championship races and this was her first time winning overall.
And what did my kids do all day during the race? This. Is that a manure pile you ask? Perhaps.
Me, Ben, and Marco at the finish!
Hanging with parents after my migraine finally went away. Stupid migraines.
Might as well roll the brother around in a poop bucket.
Chilling out at camp
And yes, I know that's a hell of a lot of pink. I'm not responsible for any of it.
For more information on Ride and Tie go to their website: http://www.rideandtie.org/
You don't have to be fast or be a great rider to participate. You can take it at whatever level you want. If you want to win, run hard, get a good partner with a horse and cross your toes for luck. You'll need your hands to grab a chunk of mane to hold on!
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