20 More Distance Once Again
Looking at my records I see I actually started riding Lace again at the end of May! I suspect that may be mainly due to the amazing weather, a fine break of nearly three weeks. However, it was only weekend rides too dark to ride after work and cattle to feed etc etc.
The first ride of the season was once again at Counties at the start of August. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go so Kerry rode Lace. It is probable that my partner Bill was unwell, although Counties is only a day trip so I’m not sure.
This season the plan was to increase the distance again. As ride distance increased I needed Lace to learn to settle better and pace herself, this had not been her forte so far and she had earned a reputation for being a bit unruly… not entirely fair as she was just too keen and competitive rather than actually dangerous. The strategy we adopted for most of this season was that five minutes before the start we would start walking in the other direction, as everyone left we would turn and walk back wandering across the line on a loose rein Exclaiming to people the while that, “see we can go slow!” We first did that at the one and only Rotorua club ride, and Emma and I had a lovely relaxing ride – except for the incident with the mental rogue lamb, who galloped across the paddock on its own just to cause problems by getting through the gate, we also noticed that each paddock of sheep would turn out to have a random black lamb.
The next ride was Tokoroa and this time Bill begged me not to go, he was having trouble breathing and was distressed at the prospect of being alone. So once again Kerry rode Lace, it really feels like sending your kid off to school camp with the piles of gear you need to pack for them! It was just as well, that night Bill didn’t sleep at all, spending most of the night standing up leaning on the chest of drawers. Morning came and we got an ambulance. Now at this stage I had only two horses, George and Lace, so when Lace was away George was home alone. He had seen her go off in the truck, it was white. A white ambulance appears in the drive and the back doors open, George is calling out and peering inside trying to see Lace – so cute! “That’s a friendly horse” the ambulance driver comments! Bill ended up being diagnosed with COPD, but it may also have been undiscovered (until later) heart stuff too.
So with a 40 and two 80s under her belt our next mission was 120km at Taupo. This was the first time at Kuratau and what a beautiful course it was then and still is now.
Emma, Daryl and I were having a lovely time riding along quietly together, only marred by Lace adopting a complete and severe hatred of Daryl’s mount Mudz. She was pulling faces and doing her very best to kick him! And she hadn’t tried to kick anyone in years! I think it was probably because Shimar was there, although they only see each other at rides, Shimar is Lace’s friend and Mudz can bugger off! Whenever Emma and I rode together it was interesting to note that while over competitive with other horses Lace never minded if Shimar was ahead of her, “it’s just Shimmy”.
Unfortunately our idyllic ride was interrupted by Mudz going lame on track and Daryl turning around to walk him home from about as far away from base as you could be. Then Shimar vetted out on heart rate at the 100km point. It was so disheartening for Emma as he did this for a couple of seasons, be fine for the first 100 then have heart problems, eventually Kerry was told to try extra calcium and it seems to have worked
So Lace and I were on our own for the last loop. Unbeknown to me, but totally known to Lace, there were two horses not far ahead, so she made it her mission to catch them and we had a lovely time, nothing like having a horse fit enough to want to step up the pace in the last loop of a long ride! So we passed them and ended up 5th! My first 120. I earned a massage from Kerry! She wasn’t riding and had brought her massage chair along – bliss.
