# Wish us luck! Our first LD this weekend.



## grayshell38 (Mar 9, 2009)

After spending another alienated year in cow horse country, I finally found Arabian people! And they are experienced in Endurance racing! I have been training to get my gelding ready to go for our first ever 25 mile LD. 

He is showing promise, but has a little case of race brain when around other horses, so we are working on it!

As far as his fitness goes, if we continue to improve as we have been, there is a slight chance we may be able to do a 50 by the late fall. We'll see! 

Anyway, fingers crossed for a sound finish and many more to come. 
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## grayshell38 (Mar 9, 2009)

Can't forget photos!


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## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

Good Luck!!!

Which ride are you doing?


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## grayshell38 (Mar 9, 2009)

Thank you! I will be going to Thistle Down Run in MN. It is supposed to be pretty unchallenging terrrain wise, so I am feeling good. 
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## phantomhorse13 (Feb 18, 2011)

Happy trails!

Can't wait to hear all about it. And look at pics, of course!!


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## 2scicrazed (Apr 7, 2014)

Good luck!
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## grayshell38 (Mar 9, 2009)

I'm back! Oh my, what a long weekend! 

Well, my friends and I drove around six or so hours to get to the ride. I learned about vetting in and paperwork and all of that. Haha.

Got camp set up and battened down for the night. I woke up at 5 which is really 4, but we had a time zone change.

I watched my friend get ready to head out, as she was doing a 50 on her new mare and their start time was 30 min before ours. She has been doing this since she was very very young so I try to listen closely when she tells me things. 

My other friend and I got all set to go and I was vet happy with Mana's attitude. He wasn't super rushy or hot, which are things that we have had issues with in groups before.

We were making good time even though we had intended to take it easy. My friend was riding a quarter horse gelding and he was being anxious whenever we were trailing someone, so we ended up passing them.

I can't stress how happy I am with Mana's attitude. All work. I love it. 

However, about 9 miles into the first loop, Mana stepped on a rock wrong or something and bruised his frog to the point that he was limping pretty badly. 

I sent my friend ahead and walked the last few miles back to camp to pull. 

Our effort was far from lost though and I got the opportunity to help crew for my friends after that and watch how everything worked. 

His foot is almost all better already and our next ride is the first weekend in September. I will be doing back to back 25's with boots on all four feet.  

My friend and the little qh she was riding finished 3rd with great health scores. 

And now, pictures!


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## grayshell38 (Mar 9, 2009)

Hmmm....some of my pictures aren't coming up...


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## grayshell38 (Mar 9, 2009)

Boo! The best ones aren't showing up. They are the ones that the ride photographer took. I will have to sort this out on the computer tomorrow.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

well done! if I can't do it myself, I am tickled to read about others doing it.


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## phantomhorse13 (Feb 18, 2011)

Sorry to hear you found the rock with your name on it, but sounds like you had a great experience anyway.

Congrats! When is your next ride?


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## grayshell38 (Mar 9, 2009)

Our next ride was going to be in a couple of weeks at Fort Meade, but my friend found one in Wyoming this weekend. <br />
<br />
Mana's foot his all better so I am looking foreward to it even if it is an 8 hr drive one way. <br />
<br />
AND I got a pair of regular renegades and a pair of vipers for $200 shipped! I won't have them for this weekend, but I will have them for the Fort Meade ride. Which is good since it is sooo rocky.<br />
<br />
My mentor suggested I do four more 25's and see how he does, then maybe hit a 50 for the end of the season. <img src="images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Very Happy" smilieid="12" class="inlineimg" /><br />
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