As I mentioned in my prior post, Skyler’s weekend ride choice for her birthday was the Chesapeake Fall CTR held at Fairhill (MD). Not only was it going to be her first time multi-night/day camping, but also her & Scooby’s first “competitive” ride, not just a fun trail trip. It was really all of our first CTR (vs. endurance ride), though I know Breeze has prior competitive ride experience.

I had been to these trails once before – my first 50 on Sully at Foxcatcher in the fall of 2020 – so I was hesitant – as this course is known for open field areas for riding, which wasn’t an issue except at the start for Sully, but was anxiety inducing for attempting with Breeze. I was able to request a time slot for leaving that was planned eliminate the desire for Breeze to chase other horses, so with my fingers crossed and having learnt some more tools the weekend prior, I agreed to sign us up. I figured if we were hauling that far (~4hrs with traffic), we were going to ride BOTH days; 15miles the first day, 10miles the second with a good break before hitting the road home. This would tell me if we could all manage a 25 LD together in the ‘near’ future too.

The week leading up was stressful with lots going on each evening and the need to prep as much as I could ahead since we weren’t leaving until after school and work on Friday to drive up. And top that off with finding Scooby lost a hind shoe early in the week! Thankfully the farrier made it out to us Thursday am to fix that. Friday we got out a little later than I hoped, pulling out right about 6pm so a 10pm arrival expected. I hate getting in that late, let alone driving in the dark to a new place, but had to go with it. I had pre-arranged our late arrival, so Denise was waiting on us and came to our rescue when I got to a spot that didn’t make sense and texted her my confusion. I was literally only 0.5mile from where we were supposed to be but didn’t want to risk having to back in the dark unassisted (I had already done that once due to GPS! lol). In the end we pulled up to the barns and were shown where to put our horses about 1030pm. I raced around after unloading, while Skyler let them graze and stretch. I got their stalls set up with straw, water, and hay, said our goodnights and then found a spot to camp. We got ourselves set up and things shifted around in the trailer, prepped the morning’s feed, changed into PJs and finally closed our eyes around 1130pm, only to have my alarm set for 6am Saturday!

As usual, I didn’t sleep much that night. I beat the alarm up and headed over to feed the boys. After that I got Skyler up and moving as we had to vet in for the ride yet, which started at 630am. Breeze did pretty well for the vetting in, which is different from AERC as you do circles both directions as well as a down/back trot out. Scooby a little more hesitant, but he did it. The vets had their work cut out for them, as Scooby had lots of old scars from his prior life and newer marks from his pasture shenanigans. They mark everything to see what changes at the vet out, especially new stuff, which can take away points. We had our breakfast and got the boys tacked up to leave at 815 on our 15miles. While we had no one in front of us to start with, I did not however, account for the balking leaving that slowed us at the start, or those behind us being hot-to-go and passing by! The first few miles were definitely tense and filled with a few “I need to get off this ride” moments, then we settled in with another rider, Rebecca, and her horse Vasari who was able to keep his cool (though prancy) and not race ahead, which allowed us to separate ourselves from the mess of mental angst. The three boys seemed to just fine together and we enjoyed lots of conversation along the way.

Not only did Fairhill have their normal traffic of walkers and cyclists, but they warned us of an upcoming bike race, which apparently meant everyone and their mother/father was out there training for it! A few bikes are usually not an issue for either of our horses. But ~50 at a time? coming at them, or from behind… yeah, not so easy! We survived many rounds of passing or being passed by large groups of bikes before the half way point, which was near one of the parking lots and had a mass of cyclists ready to go out. All 3 drank well there, but this is where Breeze got focused on the parking lot, and did not notice in his poking along as I prodded for forward movement, that Rebecca & Vasari were leaving us! From there it was just Skyler & me. Breeze was particularly hard to get to trot in the open areas, worrying about everything coming out from the surrounding woods, so we didn’t get to move out much, just a few times. We made it over all the bridges but almost had a SPLAT on the last one leading into final stretch as Breeze spooked right at the end and scrambled in place a moment on concrete. At last, we made it back to camp an hour “over-time” for our 15miles. That was OK by me, as we needed the brains over speed to work in our favor. We vetted out, with some fan flair, lol. I learned that Breeze won’t do the trot out in a bridle, but did better once I got a lead onto the halter instead. Scooby was much more willing to trot along with me at the vet out (see my exasperated face from running lol). Both horses vetted through and then were off to take naps in their stalls. The stall is really not Scooby’s favorite spot, he’d weave any time we turned away if he didn’t have food in front of him. It had gotten a bit warmer and sunny, so the stalls offered some nice shade for them. We took a little break, ate lunch, then moved our stuff from the crewing area back the trailer and took showers (bonus amenity for this ride). We basically just hung out, fed and walked the horses, fed ourselves and got things prepped for the next morning. I think I fell asleep before Skyler, and slept hard till about 2am 😛

The alarm was set for 6am again Sunday and I was of course up before it. I fixed up the horse’s breakfast and went and brought them back to the trailer. I got Skyler up and moving, the horses ate a bit and then we went to do a trot out (we had to do another vet-in to be able to head out on the 10mile ride at 730) and this time neither wanted to go it alone. Dr. Nick suggested they try together, and that worked well for the out & back of this soundness check. Then it was back to the trailer to tack up; I thought we were running ahead of schedule but they started calling for us as I was doing final touches, before my watch said it was time! I ended up forgetting Scooby’s red tail ribbon, but otherwise no problems in bit of rushing. We hopped on and headed out – Breeze a bit more confident leaving than the day before and we held off trotting for a bit, which in turn had us letting a few folks pass us in the woods. Breeze was quite OK with that idea, it was Scooby that tried to follow them! We got him back in line and then just decided that he would not be allowed ahead of Breeze, only along side and behind when other horses were nearby, just to avoid any tempting run offs (he was even game on Saturday to run off a bit). We went along well, albeit very slow in the open grass fields. Breeze was convinced the woods along side the grass held boogeymen and that the cross-country jumps way out there were going to eat us. It was all I could do keep him moving forward, no chance of trotting then! Once back in the woods I got him trotting and we had a deer along side that then cut in front of us 😛 He didn’t think much of that and kept on. Eventually we were caught by Sonja and Star, who we knew left last of the 10milers, lol. They passed us at a creek and once out of view we picked things back up. The boys soon caught up to her and another pair of riders. Things got a little interesting with Breeze as we hit those open fields and gravel wide trails seeing those riders ahead, but the brain stayed engaged and while I had to deal with a 9mph pace to ensure it stayed that way, he did eventually break free of the “herd-pull” and it was back to just us riding together again. That also made it quite a bit easier to set the pace trotting and keep Scooby coming along. Breeze has a lovely 10mph trot that is smooth to go along with and does not leave Scooby far behind. Unfortunately, Scooby has a SLOW walk, so we would lose a bit of momentum when walking instead. No crazy amount of bikes out on Sunday; the only scary obstacle was the carriage coming towards us as we got back to camp! They politely stopped when they saw both horses balking.
I was able to keep the pace up for the just the two of us and we came back at only 7minutes over time. We pulled tack and cooled the horses, my focus more on Scooby as we hadn’t asked for something like this before (move at a faster speed consistently). Apparently I was mistaken in my worry as he came through the 20min check with a 36 HR! Skyler vetted him out this time; both boys needed some encouragement from someone behind to keep trotting for their final vet out. Overall good scores for our first time out I think 🙂 And Scooby’s score beat Breeze’s both days 😶

Breaking down camp took longer than usual as we had to clean both stalls in addition to getting everything back in the trailer. We hit the road before the rain set in, but drove through it on and off on our way back, which I expected to do. Skyler had a blast and wants to do more 🙂 now to just get all the pieces in place and working together.

Now where would I be without my list of things to do different next time? Lessons Learned:
– I really hate driving into camp at night, just glad it wasn’t raining too.
– Stalls with straw stink to clean up – it multiplies! lol
– I need MORE buckets to handle two horses camped and a crew spot.
– Bring more hay, especially for stalled events for Scooby. We had just enough, but would have been better to toss him even more. He does not weave in the portable pen…
– Both horses loved the Stress Free Forage and RepleniMash. I added that this ride on a whim to see how it would go. Now it stays in the trailer.
– With Scooby eating slower, Breeze will try to steal his mash if close enough when tied, so I now know we can’t do a combined pen in future camping trips.
– Bridges and tunnels are doable for both of them… Grass fields hold boogeymen.
– Scooby is far fitter than I thought!
– We have work to do on the trot outs away from home! I guess we have to practice in random places.
– The ‘new’ truck hauls well, this was our longest drive yet. MPG isn’t great, lol, to be expected though.
– I miss the F150’s heated seats – my back sure could have used it on the drive home!

One might ask how my time working with Tom has helped – For one, I definitely used the “let go of that” and soften to look the direction I ask when he’d get hyper-focused or concerned. That helped a great deal in the areas he thought things were going to eat us.
As far as what changed for being able to manage the mental state with other horses – part of it was definitely finding someone to ride with when it was hairy, in addition to one rein maneuvers and verbal cues. I’ve also worked on paying more attention to how I’m asking for the woah & to slow down. And while I couldn’t relax into his pace, at least we kept things reasonable at that point and not bolting through my hands. He was definitely tense and a bit braced though, so more to work through.
Also utilizing, when I remembered, the 3-leg cue ask. There are times he’s “dead to them” and I had to use my quirt, but I am more consistently getting a response on the 2nd ask vs. third now; eventually it will be the first ask!
His loading is going well too – now he stops several times halfway getting on – which apparently has inadvertently been trained in as a cue now that I have to turn my back on him to get him all the way up, vs facing him and asking for the pause. oops.
Unloading is still a bit rushed, but he will back off again. I need to have Skyler work on this as she’s usually the one unhooking them and he’s bullying right over her to turn and go.

Was our ride perfect? No, far from it.
Do I have some more confidence and trust back – Yes. I am looking forward to doing this again with Skyler, maybe an LD this time, but I also know we are taking things SLOW to work through our issues, not exacerbate them and end up in a whole ‘nother set of messes to fix.

Many memories came back to me crossing the trails in places I recognized having done with Sully. I can’t believe it is coming up on a year since he’s been gone. I miss the uncomplicated ride, but I remember when it used to be complicated with him too, just in a different way than it is now. I know I shouldn’t compare them, but it is hard not to…

The next stop was supposed to be for Skyler to take Scooby to his first schooling show and do 4 walk-trot classes with him. We managed to get him hauled over for a lesson Tuesday evening to see how he’d do with unfamiliar horses in an arena and practice in her Duett saddle (she hasn’t been using it on trail yet, though it has a new pink fuzzybutt to make it trail awesome for her!). Scooby was moving great and they even worked on his canter a little.
All the final things got picked up throughout the week – a bridle to borrow, brown stirrup leathers (we only own purple or red for him!), braiding spray and waterless shampoo to spot clean if needed (just because I know him!). But, tropical storm Ophelia decided to come through VA and cancel the show, both her soccer games (Sat & Sun), and Asher’s 1st scheduled Marching Band competition. So, Scooby gets to wait another month before trying out the show experience; at least that means more practice time available on weekends until then.