On a weekend in the middle September 2006 we went to our First
CTR ( Competitive Trail Ride), my regular riding mare had gotten
kicked so I decided to bring along Big Chocolate Chip, the old guy my
daughter grew up winning tons of Walk Trot classes on. I was a little
worried as I know they do allot of vet checks, and we have never had an official
vet check, just routine stuff , like teeth floating, and like really this
guy is "up there"!
But he looks great for a horse his age, had no arthritis, and this year
we had started him on a different diet ( soaked hay cubes, Thanks Kris for
the tip! ) this year and well as you can see in the below pictures, he looks
great for his age! But is broke, broke!
|
First show! |
| It was an exciting weekend, after clearing the
scary Bertha mountain pass there right in middle the road was a huge bull moose! WOW... What a treat! He was very dark
rich chocolate in color, wish I had the camera phone then!
Just a few miles down the road was the camp, and other than not
lounging well ( he does not see the "point", his only hole ) he passed his first vet inspection with flying colors and earned the nic name of
"Gramps" after the management found out how old he was.
|
|
The next day it was dreary and raining, and I pulled out my
handy Wal-mart $1.99 rain poncho.. I keep all sorts of things in my saddle
bags, for years it has seem for the "Just in Case, and I get allot of
teasing for the contents that I pack around even for a quick local
ride.". The Hand warmers I had been packing around for years, came in REALLY handy this day.
We started off in the beautiful forest surrounding
the YMCA Camp, we paced our selves well and were right on the ride schedule at first
, but a few hours into the ride it started to snow!
Now we are just south of Rocky Mountain National park at 9000++
elevation, so no surprise for snow. But then it start to blizzard, with micro
bursts and big winds. When we were riding thought the aspens, there was so much blowing snow,
we could hear but not see all the trees falling!
Chip, looked around at me
a few times, like who's idea was this anyways! But what a trooper, was
thinking all the time of the stories where the horse knows his way
back.... we always joke that Chip has a "spot-o-meter" and no
matter which way you take him , he know where "home" is, whether
is really home or just the trailer. We joke it is the Spots, that help him!
There was one time I could not
get back in the saddle the snow was piling up so fast, so I gave up and
just plopped down in the snowy saddle seat, ick!
We made it back to camp just fine , and from the pictures my face looks
like a "tomato" cause so frozen!
It was scary when a few others riders did not show up and
the Drag riders went back out and eventually found the poor frozen riders. The
Ride Management had a toasty warm room and hot coffee ready for us
after we blanketed and feed our trusty mounts! Chip went from smooth summer coat to fuzzy winter jammies in about 1 hour, smart horse!
|
Big fluffy snowflakes!
Coming in, frozen but still smiling!
|
|
Well after a cold night where my jeans froze
stiff in the trailer, it was good thing I had packed about 10 quilts, we did the
rest of the ride the next day.
SO PRETTY, aspens in full fall foliage where so
bright it almost hurt your eyes to look at them . Chip and I saw a
bear and several deer, it put the previous snowy day a frozen but quickly forgot memory.
The cool thing that ended the weekend,was the results of the ride, Big Chocolate Chip took a 5th place
horse in Novice lightweight, which for his age and first time competing is
AMAZING!
|
