# Mosquito Run 2018 LD and Novice CTR



## QueenofFrance08 (May 16, 2017)

I'm trying something new and trying to revive this forum a little and make slightly shorter posts for the people in the poor 40's plus group to read by moving my ride stories here! 

Friday morning at an ungodly hour for a day off (okay I got up at 5) I loaded up 3 horses and drove myself out to the ride. It was only my second time driving the big trailer by myself but thankfully this is one of our closest rides and it was only an hour and 15 minutes away and there was a route with all back roads available. The only hard part was there was some bigger cities to drive through but that wasn't even that bad. As usual, I got lost. I didn't read that you shouldn't follow the GPS directions to the camp and so I ended up at the day camp portion of the park. I had figured it was like the normal state parks we usually ride at where you can get to everything from one entrance but that wasn't true. I pulled up the ride flyer (yay first ride where there was cell service!) and figured out I was only a few miles away so I got back on the road and got to the correct campground pretty easily. Thankfully the day camping area was big enough I could drive around the parking lot to turn around since I still can't back that big rig at all. I was the first person at camp other than the ride manager (I had offered to help) and was able to get one of the 2 spots with high ties. I had brought an electric pen but between me and my friend we had 5 horses between us and we were really hoping we could get the high ties to make it easier to manage our herd. There was also a barn with 6 or so stalls at the camp which was pretty cool and the people who came right after us snatched those spots up quickly. It started pouring rain as soon as I got to the camp so I scrambled in the trailer to find a rain coat and only came up with DH's coat which is really thick. I put it on anyway and unloaded the horses and got them hay and water. Unfortunately, with the rain the ground under the high ties had turned into big puddles so I had to put Jake at the most dry one because he is still terrified of water. Thankfully, Stitch and Chico could care less so they didn't cause any problems. I went over and helped the ride manager put up signs and true to its name the mosquitoes were out! The ride manager told me to go hang out until the rain stopped and my friend Emily had just arrived so I went over and helped her set up. A few other people started arriving and took the other high tie spot and the barn stalls as I suspected. We had a little lunch (I had forgotten to eat breakfast) The rain stopped around noon and I helped the ride managers move some picnic tables and got to drive a cool side by side 4 wheeler. Emily and I decided to take our newer horses out to let them see the trail a little so we saddled up Jake and Karenna and attempted to hit the trails. Jake and Karenna both spooked at the finish signs that were out on the trail and refused to go until Emily got off and led Karenna past them. Then Jake figured it was safe enough to follow. We kept to a walk and endured Arabian eating rocks, picnic tables, ride markers, and puddles. We made it out to the 2 mile marker and turned around getting 4 miles in. Josh arrived right when we got back with the dogs and the car and we made some burgers on the grill and went to bed.











Saturday morning I got up at 5 to get Stitch ready for our ride which left at 6:30. Somehow no matter what time I get up it's not enough and I forgot to eat breakfast this time. We met up with a new rider who was doing her first ride and offered to let her ride with us. She had a big bay Morgan who was a little overweight and thought it would be good to ride at our slower pace for her first ride. We planned on waiting a few minutes to let everyone get out before us but apparently everyone had the same idea so we just went for it. We were surprised to see a woman we know who usually runs out with the leaders riding by us only to found out her horse took off at the beginning and dumped her off. We made it two miles before the new rider who was with us decided she could hold her horse back anymore and so she went ahead. We were worried that he wouldn't do well running full speed like he wanted but we hoped he would tire out and choose a more reasonable pace if he got his sillies out. We kept going back and forth with a few riders (@phantomhorse13; one was Deb with her other horse Link) and finally decided we should all ride together. At one point at the end of an out and back two of our group got ahead of us and Stitch wanted to canter up to them so I let her but as soon as we got out of the wooded part something scared/upset her and she veered off the trail, tripped, and stopped suddenly causing me to fly over her head. Thanks to my vest all I had was a nasty bruise on my leg from the horn/pommel of the saddle. My vest doesn't deflate right away unless I take out the canister but my hands were too wet to grab it and another rider rode by with a spooky horse and asked me not to pull out the canister so I just remounted and we headed back on our way. We caught up with the rest of the group and the new rider we had originally been riding with at the first water stop which was ahead and we were passed by the last of the LD riders there (the one with the spooky horse and a junior she was riding with) The new rider's horse was starting to show metabolic problems so Deb asked if she would ride with us so we could help her out. While walking through the woods we came up on the rider with the junior again and the one with the spooky horse (she's one of the best riders who has done Tevis but her horse is out with Lyme right now and she's helping train this horse for one of her mom's clients right now) was on the ground walking so we knew something was wrong. Turns out her horse had slipped on a muddy hill and rolled over her. Thankfully she had a vest on and a helmet which took most of the blow but she was hurting pretty bad and was walking back to pull. She asked if we could take her Junior rider with us and we agreed. We took it pretty slow in the shade and tried to move out in the sun but at the last water stop (day camp for the park) the horse was panting and huffing and puffing and had bad skin tenting so the more experienced riders in our group suggested she walk her horse back to camp and pull him so he could get in the shade and relax. We left her with a can of bug spray and got back to camp for our first 50 minute hold at 9:15. Stitch vetted in well with only a B+ on back (I need to ride her in a different saddle I'm just scared to give up my western style for the security) and the rest A's. Emily took Major (TWH) to pulse in and he was still at 19 so she took him back to the shade to get more ice water sponged on him. He was able to pulse down about 8 minutes after we did. I finally got something to eat (Emily had forgotten to eat too so we were both pretty shakey) and DH helped me take care of Stitch and get her more electrolytes and something to eat. He tacked her back up to me so I could change the canister on my vest and we met up with the other riders and headed out at the end of the last person's hold. It wasn't too long before the other two met up with us and we found out the junior's horse had been pulled for lameness at the vet in. We headed out and we realized the other two riders (who were on Arabians) were on much faster horses so we let them go ahead and Emily and I continued together. This was only a 10 mile loop (the first was 15) so time passed quickly. The only mishap we had was at the water stop when Stitch decided to itch her head in the water tank and suddenly dropped to her knees to roll. Emily screamed at her and I kicked her hard and she jumped back up. We made it back to camp with 30 minutes until maximum ride time (YAY! The last 2 rides we've come in with less than 10 minutes to pulse down and this time we got our full 30) and started sponging. One of the most experienced riders (mom of the girl whose horse rolled on her) came over and asked if we wanted help and taught us a ton of tricks to cool them down and Stitch pulsed in at 14 right away. Emily and Major were not far behind and we did our vet outs (Stitch was back to A on back) and got our completions!!!! We guzzled a ton of Gatoraid and didn't do much for the rest of the night other than vetting in the other horses for the next day's ride. Potluck was fun and the food was delicious and I got a potluck tray as my completion award. We went to bed fairly early after hanging out with our friend from Wisconsin for awhile.


























































Sunday we got to sleep in until 7 because the novice rides didn't start until 8:30. We got everyone cleaned up and tacked up and headed out just the 3 of us for our ride. Emily was riding Karenna and I was on Jake and Josh rode Chico to babysit both of us. As soon as we got out of camp some of the LD riders were passing us and Karenna and Jake wanted to chase them. We tried to slow to a walk for awhile but Chico was disgusted at our pace and kept trying to race ahead. We finally got them settled and were able to move out a bit. We figured we would be way past our return time (this was a Competitive trail competition with an ideal in time where the horses are judged based on their fitness when they return) since we had to move so slowly to keep everyone under control. Karenna went flying down one hill and DH had to use Chico as brakes to stop them. Jake kept trying to race so DH put Chico right in front of us for most of the ride so he couldn't run ahead and that worked great. We got to the 2 mile marker with 25 minutes before we had to be in and got to walk a bit of the way in! Jake was not happy with walking and so he kept breaking into a trot. Emily was worried that Karenna was too tired and she was dragging a bit but she was still cheerful and happy coming in. We cooled them down a little (only allowed one sponge bucket per competitive trail rules) and waited our 10 minutes to get their pulse and respiration taken. Karenna was the lowest coming in at 11 for pulse and 8 for respiration, Jake was pretty close at 12 and 8 and Chico who was busy screaming for Stitch was at 14 and 12. We headed back to clean up and pack up our camp. Unfortunately our hay nets had too big of holes so a ton of hay had fallen to the ground over the weekend into the water/mud puddles that were below the high ties making a nasty muddy mess that took us over an hour with the 3 of us and 3 hay forks to scoop up. The camp wheelbarrow had a flat tire making it too hard to push with any weight in it so we borrowed our friend's sled and loaded the light pieces into the wheelbarrow. At this point we were questioning our horse ownership and why we think it's fun to go to these rides but we got it done just in time for the awards. Emily would have gotten 6th with Karenna but we are ineligible for novice awards since we've done more than one 25 mile ride and Jake was only 2 points behind them so I think that would have put us in 7th. Josh got a completion (he's eligible for novice awards still because he's only done one 25) and another potluck tray. We headed home (yay just an hour) unpacked and I fell asleep at 8:00 and slept until 7:00 this morning! 

PS I'm trying to upload my pictures differently so let me know if it doesn't work!


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## QueenofFrance08 (May 16, 2017)

Ok I don't think the pictures worked so back to the old way.


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## QueenofFrance08 (May 16, 2017)

More pictures!


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

Seems like there were lots of Morgans there this weekend, tons of pictures on the "Morgans in Endurance" FB pages. 

It looks so H.O.T. and muggy. I don't think I would have been able to pass the vetting in those conditions :grin: I am such a wuss in high humidity.

Glad you had two good days of riding though! Thanks for sharing the pictures.


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## QueenofFrance08 (May 16, 2017)

@egrogan There was a lot of Morgans there! We were even commenting on it! One girl led a novice ride 2 days with her Morgans, she even rode bareback the second day (to which all I could think was ouch!!!) It was almost 90 both days with pretty high humidity which was pretty rough but the last ride we were at was 92 so it was kind of nice in comparison. I rode Morgans as a kid at the barn I took lessons at (all her 20+ horses were Morgans) but I don't know enough about them. Are there different builds? A lot of the ones I saw this weekend seemed pretty stocky and I don't remember the ones I grew up riding being that thick (Although that was almost 20 years ago so I could be remembering wrong)


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

Hi @QueenofFrance08!

I will try to give you my honest answer on the different types of Morgan question- but will say that it quickly turns into a nasty, heated debate when you get the different "factions" of Morgan people together. I try to stay out of it online because I hate to see people within a breed hating on each other...

So with that out of the way, I will use my own girls to illustrate, since they each represent a different "type." Apologies I don't have great conformation shots but I think you can see the difference in their builds.

Isabel was bred to be a snorty show horse. She had a World Champion daddy and comes from the famous broodmare band of Tara Farm, known for their park horses (both driven and under saddle). While she did start her career in the show ring, and was even owned as a young horse by the AMHA president, for reasons I don't know she didn't make it in a show career. She is smaller than a lot of the modern show horses (which may be why she didn't make it, she's really pony sized) but she has that sort of lean build and long back, which sadly has gone a little swayed in her 20's as you might expect. She is fun for trail riding but I can't imagine her doing lots of miles.

















Then there is my endurance-hopeful mare Fizz, who has some of the "old Western working Morgan" lines (that gives her the color) crossed with some of the sportier UVM lines. She's a little tall at 15.0 but she is decently athletic and not too bulky. I think next year we'll enjoy some LDs. The reason we didn't this year is really a function of how I ran out of time for conditioning, since we moved in the middle of the summer.


















And then there's Maggie. Maggie just arrived here a couple of weeks ago for "semi-retirement." She is old-school New England Morgan, a little bit of Lippitt and a little bit of other old VT lines. To say she is "bulky" is an understatement, but she's actually completed LDs and I believe even at least one 50. So, will be interesting to see if she's just really out of shape right now or if she's always be heavy even when she's in work.


















Now some Morgan people will argue you to death about which style is the "correct" one and what sort of jobs they should properly be used for, and that makes me sad. For having an enjoyable time at LDs, I think the sportiness that some of the lines bring, combined with the hardiness and toughness of the "classic" Morgans can be a good choice, as long as you are thoughtful about their conditioning. We'll see how it works out for us! 

One of the women on my Green Bean team (all Morgans) completed your ride and her horse (cute chestnut mare) looked great doing it!


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## QueenofFrance08 (May 16, 2017)

@egrogan I had to look up your Green Bean team to see who it was, I guess I don't know her! I didn't know you were a Green Bean too! I'm on Mile Maniacs which is a sort of Midwest group with one girl from Tennessee. I understand what you mean about the fighting between the types of groups. I'm no expert on Arabians but I know it's the same with the Polish/Egyptian/ETC groups. Jake is a halter fancy floofy show horse too who got dumped at an auction for $200 when he was 3 because his tail was crooked. Thanks for the lesson! I want another Morgan someday, the ones I rode as a kid were the best!


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## Spanish Rider (May 1, 2014)

@Queen! I was able to see your pics from the first message. There are tiny icons, but if I click on them, I can see them on your Flickr. In the other messages, it says "Attached Thumbnails", but I see nothing.

Go you!


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## QueenofFrance08 (May 16, 2017)

@Spanish Rider That's just crazy! I can see the "attached thumbnails" pictures in my post but I just have spaces in between my paragraph's in my first post with no icons. I hope they can fix this soon.


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## phantomhorse13 (Feb 18, 2011)

Congrats on another good ride!


I saw the attached pics but nothing in the original post. Loved seeing the big smile on your face. Was surprised to see someone without a helmet in one - are helmets not required at your rides?


What ride is next?


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

QueenofFrance08 said:


> @*egrogan* I had to look up your Green Bean team to see who it was, I guess I don't know her! I didn't know you were a Green Bean too! I'm on Mile Maniacs which is a sort of Midwest group with one girl from Tennessee.



Sadly our team has not been able to get a ton of momentum this year. A couple of people have done LDs, but we've had lameness issues, training issues, and then me moving meant that I was pretty much not riding seriously from April through now, so I lost much chance of conditioning to actually get to a ride. I've volunteered a bit and done some training rides with my mentor, so have a few points that should get counted, but certainly nothing like doing rides :sad: Still, it's been fun to virtually meet other Morgan people who are also new. I'll sign up for a team again next year with the intention of actually having points count!


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## QueenofFrance08 (May 16, 2017)

@phantomhorse13 The picture with the person without a helmet was just from our preride on Friday although helmets are not usually required except for juniors. I would say about 95% of people wear them anyway but I think only 2 of our rides actually require them. That was my friend Emily and she always wears hers for the actual ride but she forgets when we go out just for fun. I always wear mine because I feel naked without it and I was sure glad I do. Next ride is August 18-19 which is the other close one to us (I think this one is like 50 minutes away). I'm planning on an LD on Saturday with Stitch (30 miles this time!!!! Our first over 25) and a CTR on Sunday with Jake and DH Riding Chico. It's our "mid summer break" for MN. 

@egrogan I totally understand. Our group is doing okay but the groups ahead of us are doing amazing so it'll be really hard for us to place. We have one girl who rides 50's (this is her 3rd year I think), another who rides back to back 25's in WI at most of their rides who I think is planning on doing a 5 day pioneer which will help us, me who has 3 LD's 2 clinics, one intro ride and 4 volunteering, and 2 girls who haven't really done anything this year. The group in first in our division (we're in the middle group because we had 2 people who had done a bunch of rides before) is all riding 50's so it's pretty hard to catch up with that. Do you have any intro rides at the rides around you? We did our first intro with honestly not much training (It was the first weekend in May and it didn't stop snowing until about a week and a half before) and it was really fun. Maybe that would be an option so you could at least feel like you get a ride in?


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

QueenofFrance08 said:


> Do you have any intro rides at the rides around you? We did our first intro with honestly not much training (It was the first weekend in May and it didn't stop snowing until about a week and a half before) and it was really fun. Maybe that would be an option so you could at least feel like you get a ride in?



I was supposed to do an intro ride back in April, but on a training ride with my mentor the weekend before, Fizz freaked out about trailer loading on the way home from the ride and it took us FOUR HOURS, two trailers, and five experienced horse people to get her on to go home! Given that mess, I decided it wasn't worth the risk of taking her an hour away (would be trailering with my mentor) and risking a repeat. So we skipped the ride, and invested in some trailer training instead, which went really well. There are a couple of pleasure rides near me late summer and early fall, so even though they won't count for points, I am hoping to do at least one of those for the experience.


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

@QueenofFrance08 Huge Congratulations on your completion!! The horses all look fabulous too 

You very fortunate indeed to have so many rides within reasonable driving distance, what a blessing


Going to enjoy following your journal, so awesome to see you and the horses progress!!! 


All lovely pictures too


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