No Frills Recap and Foxcatcher

This past weekend was the Old Dominion No Frills ride in Star Tannery, VA. I went up to crew for Becky Boyce and her Junior, Amy on the LD 30. Becky rode Sunny (owned by Ann Crandell) and Amy rode Maggie, a nice well-behaved mare that's been around endurance for a while. Becky was super-awesome as always and let me stay at her house through the weekend. Thanks Becky and Justin for letting Jack and I crash!

The weather was typical No Frills: Cold, Wet, and MUDDY! It rained all day on Friday, so by Saturday everything was a nice sloppy mess. Combine that with the rock of Old Dominion country and you have quite a technical, challenging ride! Didn't seem to slow everyone down too much though. The OD managers took great care of everyone at the vet check, providing food and water for both people and horses (as well as hot chocolate and tea). They allowed very few people back at the check so we were happy to be there, and tried to help many of the horse and rider teams that came in. Jack was also with us, and was a very friendly and happy doggy face to keep everyone's spirits up!

Becky won the LD and Amy came in second and got first Junior! Sunny pulsed down faster than Maggie, as he has more conditioning on him and is a little more spry. Becky actually tried to give Amy her placing but it didn't quite work out. No matter though, both horses performed great and did fantastic all day! They flew on the last loop and overtook everyone. Both horses are very familiar with the trails there, since that's where they train, so they knew they were headed home!

I wasn't familiar with the riders who won the 50, but they set a blistering pace finishing in about 5 hours. Daryl Downs, Sandra Fretelleire, Steven Hay and their crew of PA riders came in top 10 just behind them. Since it was No Frills, they didn't do an awards ceremony so I don't know what the official standings are. But I will keep everyone posted as I find out. I do know there was a pretty good completion rate so it seemed that as fast as some people went, everyone was pretty careful and took good care of their horses.

After the ride, we went back to Becky's house to shower and then led everyone out to the Lost River Brewery down the road past the WVA border. The food there is phonemenal and they have a well-stocked bar. Most of the riders staying overnight made an appearance, so you can bet it was quite a rockin time! Even the vets and ride managers came out! Awesome times.

Sunday, we went back to the Crandell's property so that Becky could test out my Freeform saddles. I have both a classic and Enduro X model, she liked the classic better. Both are very different but are solid treeless saddles (which is great for me since I ride so many different horses). If you're looking at going treeless they are one I like to recommend. They tend to range between $1,000-$1,500. Also, once you decide on a base the seat is interchangeable, so you can mix and match based on your preference or riding style! http://www.freeformsaddles.com/ I also really like the new ansur models, but they are still way out of my price range ($3,500-$4,000). http://www.ansursaddle.com/ She also tried out a few more saddles that John brought out for her, including a very interesting one from Italy that looked like a playschool kids toy! Just kidding, it's actually an ingenious idea. The saddle is made out of a durable plastic that is completely hollow and super lightweight. It has a light pad screwed into it (like the Haf pads except less thickness). So it's really REALLY light. The only bad thing about it is it isn't curved wide enough in the front, so there was some fit trouble. John took it apart and is going to try a heat gun or blow torch to see if he can reshape it. Man-hilarity at it's best!

Good news for next weekend: it looks like Sarah Seasholls and I will be able to make Foxcatcher after all! Many of my flatlander buddies were at No Frills, including Carolyn Vavala (from Gloucester, VA). Carolyn came up to drag ride and volunteer, and mentioned that she was going to Foxcatcher the following weekend. Knowing that Sarah's truck probably wouldn't be fixed in time, I asked if we could hitch a ride, and she said yes! So our late entries are now in and we'll be riding up to Maryland in style! Carolyn is a lifesaver! I'm not sure if you all know her, but she is a wonderful friend and a very loving person, and I'm very happy to have her help! I also will hopefully be working with her gelding, Luke, soon once our schedules line up a little more. Yay more training experience for me!

I should do quick mention that we had a little trouble with the Renegade boots this weekend. It was pretty muddy and each horse had the bottom velcro around the toe slip off 1-2 times. The good thing is, when that happen the boot tends to stay on for a bit (so you can catch it), and if it does come completely off the ankle strap tends to keep it on the horse, so you don't lose it. When this happened to Helo, he simply stopped to let Sarah fix it. Aleah had a little more of a reaction, she took a few dance steps and then stopped. The issue really was stemming from the velcro coming loose once it got muddy, then making it more difficult to put back together.

There are some easy tips though to prevent this from happening (which we plan on doing from now on). Sarah found these on the blog sites and I remember Heather and Jeremy using them too, just forgot until now:
1. Using trash ties, wrap them around the toe keeper strap to keep the straps/velcro in place once you have the boots sized.
2. Replace the toe velcro straps with a biothane curb strap instead of velcro
Apparently doing either one of these things makes it pretty difficult for the boot to come off mid-ride.

That's it for now, I'll keep everyone apprised as Foxcatcher pans out and we see how Aleah and Helo handle it!