Norco retired partner's ride

Barb Thomas

I want to thank Lynne for having the Retired Partner's ride at Norco this year. This woman is an inspiration to us all. I was having a time getting award sponsors and she comes up with Grand Meadows and $600 worth of product as completion awards! We also had Karen Chaton of Saddle Up give us water bottles. One award for the horse, one for the rider. Teddy Lancaster generously donated a gift certificate for our high mileage retiree, and Linda Chapman gave one of her beautiful handcrafted halter bridles to our first to finish horse. Many, many thanks to all our Sponsors!!

This idea actually was conceived in "camp talk" at the Old Dominion. Some of us thought it would be fun to bring back some of the old horses that had done the ride just for a fun ride. From there it evolved to the Norco Riverdance Retired Partners ride. I wanted to call it the old fart's ride, but fortunately good sense prevailed.

We picked about five miles of trail which turned out to be the last 2.5 of the 25 and the last 2.5 of the fifty. My friend Carol Miller and I "pre-rode" the trail Friday. (OK, really we had just picked the trail out on the map and wanted to be sure it would work!)

The morning of the ride started at 4:30 with the most wonderful wake-up call. Starting very quietly, then increasing slowly to a very pleasant volume was the music from Riverdance! I lay in my sleeping bag with a smile on my face and my wee Irish toes a tappin'. Then came this haunting Irish melody floating over the mist that got me Irish eyes a cryin'! I looked out of my trailer window at the horses stirring in the misty darkness; white shadows, dark shadows, ghost animals nickering quietly, moving about with the fog parting to let them pass through. Ah, peace, I thought. All is right with the world and we can get up now.

End of reverie.. things got busy pretty quickly. The 50's left with a shout. The 25's left in the daylight and we watched the controlled start from the hill. It was still a bit foggy and they were lead by a horseman carrying a large yellow flag, trotting down the road, across the lane along the pond, and into the trail. It looked for all the world like the cavalry on the march! At the back of camp, we could watch the horses racing up the hill about 10 miles out, silhouettes against the gray sky. Ok, now I'm going to spend a leisurely time in camp getting things in order for the RP ride. Lorin's daughter helped me put the last touches on the horse's biographies that we presented at awards. Then I went up to the vet check in camp to see what was cooking. Then I got put to work! P&R, now out-time the 50's from lunch, now P&R, now in-time the 25's finishing (give the 50 out-time sheet to the next volunteer), now P&R...boy did we have fun! I gave the vets a quick reminder that they had to pick a BC for the RP ride and went off to get ready.

What a congregation of retired horses, plus a few others who just wanted to go along for the ride. Bobbie L. did her very best to get this group together for a few seconds for a group photo. You try to keep 11 endurance horses still at the starting line, retirees or not!! Photo done, we're off! None of theses horses had any intention of going slow. They were all back in the groove!! Linda Smerber took off after the first mile on her magnificent Shahleen and we never saw her again! Next off was Diamond on Grenzal, disappearing around the bend much to the frustration of my pony, Whisper. She was pissed!! Well, ol' Diamond took the scenic route, forgetting to turn left and stay on green ribbons. We're sorry he got lost but he saw more arrundo tunnels than the rest of us!! Now, I'm next on Whisper and she's forgotten she's 28! I'm swearing, pulling back, bracing in the saddle and she's off, somewhere between the morgan roadster trot and a canter. Hackamore, what hackamore...she's racing!! Just behind me is Cynthia Binder on the beautiful Meksiko, a Russian stallion. She says to me, "Boy, that pony sure has quite a reach. How big is she anyway?" 13.2 I shout back, yanking and swearing. This was supposed to be a fun ride, not a race, but no one told the horses that. They were all having fun. The others, well, they were back there. Now it's Whisper, Siko, and Sandy's mare Harlot. By the way Harlot's ride letter was "A"! Very appropriate. About a mile from home, Siko decides he really likes Whisper and lets out the studly shout! Now, I've trained and ridden many miles on mares with this horse and he's never been a bad boy. But something about Whisper just heated him up. Anyway, he got himself dignified again in a split second and we headed toward the finish. Sandy pulled in front of us, Whisper hot on her tail, Siko right behind her and we galloped up the hill and across the finish line! A timer recorded our in times and we went to pulse. Here's where poo-poo occurs. Remember, we were supposed to do a BC? I thought we'd have one guy, Nigel, taking pulses. Some others joined in but didn't write the recovery times on the cards. Vets couldn't make a fair BC assessment without them, so drop back and punt! Ok, Linda finished ahead of us, so I gave a first to finish instead of BC. Sure am glad it was all in fun!

At the awards ceremony, each owner got up and talked about their horse. There were some very moving stories to be heard. We typed up the biographies on parchment, put them in presentation folders with silver and gold ribbon and gave them to the riders. Each had their choice of Grand Flex, Grand Vite, or Grand Hoof and one of Karen's water bottles. Talk about retirement benefits!! Linda Smerber and Shahleen won first to finish, Jane McGrath on Sierra Fad Farah (Happy) had highest mileage with 5,285 miles. Hey, that's just over a "mile" of miles!! The rest of the finish order (to the minute) was: seconds, Sandy Adams on Harlot, Barb Thomas on Whisper, Cynthia Binder on Meksiko; thirds, Lauren Horn on Kyla, Sharon O'Halloran on Miso; fourth, Jane McGrath on Sierra Fad Farah (she rode her own race!!); fifths, Heidi Paul on Callie, Robert Paul on Duke, Lynn Kinsky on El Sinchi Roca (Peruvian Paso!!), sixth, Diamond on Grenzal, who not only rode his own ride but rode it on his own trail! I hope a good time was had by all and we sure had a good looking bunch of old farts!!!

This ride was, for my horse, a Celebration of Life! It was one year ago to the day that I came back from Norco to find Whisper so lame she could hardly walk (reason has been resolved among the involved parties). Her bruised soles progressed into laminitis and she was hospitalized for several weeks. Many may remember my agony on ridecamp last September through November as she was not healing. By mid November, I was seriously considering putting her down. Last resort was to pack her feet with arnica/witchazel poultices and put magnetic wraps on her legs. It worked and she turned the corner. Then with the help of my miracle farrier, Jim Clark, we got her shod and stopped the toe curling and separation. I owe a debt of gratitude to the staff and veterinarians of Humphrey, Giacapuzzi, and Cox, especially Drs. Cox and April, for their countless hours of care and their moral support. I owe Jim my pony's quality of life for his wonderful correctional shoeing that has given me a sound horse today. Whisper and I have been friends since she was a weanling and none can ever have that special place in my heart! I'll post the biographies as soon as I can, but I'd better do some work first!!

Copyright 1999, Barb Thomas

The Saddle Shop carries a full line of Circle Y Saddles, Big Horn Saddles, Tex Tan Saddles, English Saddles, Australian Saddles, Western Saddles, Show Saddles, Roping Saddles, Barrel Racing Saddles, Custom Saddles and used saddles and equestrian tack. Many are 30 to 40% discounted from list price, and shipping is always free.

For an additional 2% discount, use coupon code ridestories

BuyACar Accept credit cards on your website Website hosts HTML for beginners Advertising on your website Privacy statement