With NATRC offering a free membership for new members, I signed up. Then spent literally WEEKS fighting to get my profile signed up on their website "RMS". Honestly, that was THE most frustrating aspect of NATRC, the website. I still find it unwieldy and a challenge to navigate.
Now, I joined and signed up planning to take Tilly. And, since I knew she wasn't exactly reliable tied to a trailer (see also the $400 vet bill), I decided I would put her in a pen.
Well, we all know Tilly did NOT end up going.
So then I decided I would be taking Socks (this was pre-vet visit) and that I would go ahead and keep the pen, despite him being okay tied to the trailer all night.
The reasons are many. In NATRC, hoof and leg protection is not allowed (hoof boots are), and if you wish to ride with hoof or leg protection, you can ride in their "Distance Only" division, meaning you will not get a placing, though you do the ride just like everyone else and do the obstacles like everyone else. As I have already established, Socks NEEDS bell boots. I refuse to ride him anymore without them. So, the plan was to take Socks, ride him in the bell boots and ride in the "DO" division.
And then I got the all clear with Strider. And I decided I was going to swap out who went.
So, Strider and I signed up for the 1 day ride in NATRC's Novice division.
NATRC is a bit different from endurance. Your horse is judged on their turnout/cleanliness. So, knowing this, I knew I needed to bathe my horse before we went and REALLY focus on removing all of the bot fly eggs, which are very visible on a black horse.
So, on the Friday morning before I left, I was up at 6:30 am, in the cold, giving my horse a quick bath. Which he was PISSED about, for the record. I don't blame him. He was shivering. He couldn't figure out WHY I was torturing him this way. I didn't get all the soap out of his mane, but, I tossed a blanket on him once I was done rinsing him off as best as I could, braided his mane, found as safe a place as I could to tie him up while I dashed inside to take a quick shower myself.
Loaded him up, then hit the road about 15 minutes later than planned.
GOAL: Leave at 8am.
REALITY: Leave at 8:15am.
Not bad. Not great. I had a few stops along the way to make.
Surprise, surprise, I needed fuel. *sigh* I also needed to swing by H's house for a saddle for my friend C.B. to try out. And, I needed ice. Oh, might as well grab breakfast too.
So, I stopped in Round Rock to get diesel and ice at HEB. Then ran into McDonald's for breakfast. And then a hop, skip, jump to H's.
Got the saddles loaded up, gave her a hug and hit the road again.
About 15 minutes from her home...this:
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| Yeah. Stop. And it wasn't even hammer time. Or in the name of love. Nor did we collaborate and listen. |
Finally the pilot truck showed up and got us all through so I could continue on my adventure.
Got routed a new-to-me way through Bellville, which was interesting, and quite a bit faster than driving through Bellville proper and then out of the way.
And then, 7iL!!! Down the jiggly drive, over the cattle guards, and an attempt to find my friends as I blocked the road while we ladies figured out the parking situation.
Eventually though, we got it sorted out, and I was able to offload the pony and get him set up.
Now, another rule with NATRC is they do NOT allow electric pens. You can bring corral panels, but you cannot use step ins and hot wire/hot tape. So, knowing Strider like I do, and his penchant for fiddling with a knotted lead rope, I used my coil tie for the weekend on the trailer.
People have trouble visualizing what I'm talking about, and since I forgot to take pictures of Strider on it, you'll have to look at these pictures farmed from the Google.
So, this is a coil tie:
Here's it in use on a horse who I don't know, but I'm going to dub Jimmy:
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| Here is Jimmy with the coil tie at what I would consider
"neutral".
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| And this is what happens when Jimmy moves. It stretches, like a spring, but without the potential for it to actually whip and hurt the horse if something gives. I actually prefer to have the panic snap on the stationary object and not the horse, in case the horse is panicked and I can't reach it. |
So, get him set up on his coil tie, fill up a bucket of rice bran water, which he chugs SOME out of, hay bag of hay, a bag of alfalfa and another bucket filled with plain water AND his bucket of beet pulp and grain.
And then, the dreaded syringe. ELECTROLYTES DOWN THE HATCH!!!
I let him relax and eat and drink before I started going over him, again, for bot fly eggs. I decided to go ahead and trim his fronts since my friend L.B. was there to help oversee what I was doing. So, fronts trimmed, bot fly eggs stripped off. Now what do we do?
Register!
Here is where the differences started showing up in NATRC as compared to AERC.
They actually weigh NATRC riders to make sure they're in the right division. Without tack, I am quite solidly in the NATRC heavyweight division. You do your weigh in with your tack, but, since I was over without, I didn't need to bring my saddle and such up to be weighed with it.
We were then given our rider packets. This included 2 ribbons, 1 of which that our horses were to wear at all times during the ride, an index card to be affixed to our trailer to designate where the horses "lived" during the ride, and, a bib for the rider to wear at all times outside of their trailer to be matched with the horse.
I think if I was to be serious about NATRC, I would buy a number and do as I saw other riders; have shirts and sweatshirts made with my number permanently on them so I wouldn't have to wear the bib. Front and back of the bib must be visible at all times as you are, potentially, always being judged, so your number needs to be visible to the judges.
So, now that we're all checked in, time to go vet in! I went up and did vet in with L.B. because T.M. and C.B. had already done theirs while L.B. and I were trimming tootsies.
NATRC has the horsemanship judge run their hands all over the horse to check for cleanliness and to make sure that where the tack is going to go is clean (or at least, that's how this horsemanship judge explained what she was looking for).
Then you have the vet check. My eyes must have bugged out of my head when she starting calling off 0's because she turned to explain to me that she was counting how many seconds until she heard gut sounds, etc. Oh thank goodness, because I was worried it meant she didn't hear ANY gut sounds!!!
They flex the fronts, check for heat and swelling and check the rears. Then it was time for the trot out and circle right and left.
We have the trot out down handily. I got a little tangled in my lead rope lunging him both directions. It always makes me smile inside when I can hear people saying "What breed is that?!" when he hits his gait. People always love to watch a Paso Fino move. They're just so freaking full of themselves that it's irresistible!
We got both circles done, then trot back to the vet. And all done!
As compared to an AERC ride, he was MUCH easier to handle this time. I don't know what the actual reason was.
Was it because I'd sent him to training in June? Was it because the horses in the line waiting were all very calm and there weren't a lot of horses acting like fools while they were being handled by the vet? Was it because the energy is just so very different at a NATRC ride? Don't know. But not as much dancing around from him, that's for sure!!
Back to camp where I let him keep eating and drinking and tanking himself up as I finished getting my "bedroom" set up. For whatever reason, I just wasn't feeling getting my space set up this time. I don't know why, but eventually I got it all done.
Now, as we know our camps are being judged, we all stayed on top of the manure situation. And Strider had a LOT of output. I would venture to say more than usual, but I'm not complaining. Poop means moving guts, and moving guts are good things!!! But I was constantly picking up after him.
I'd sit down, he'd poop.
I'd get it cleaned up, maybe go do something else, and he'd poop.
Sit and talk to my friends for 10 minutes, more poop.
It was almost comical.
The ride manager and the horsemanship judge came over at some point, answered some of our questions, and let us know that dinner and the ride meeting would be announced with the horn. HEY!! Something similar to endurance!
So, we knew it was supposed to be at 6, but no horn at 6. We all just kind of shrugged and kept piddling around our camp, doing last minute things. At about 6:20ish, FINALLY the horn (I was getting hungry!), so we all made our way to the pavilion.
Ride meeting was eat first, then let's go over things next. NATRC has a smaller group, which is nice. Certainly not as much talking as you strain to hear the ride manager!
Thing is, as I told the girls (none of them have ever ridden 7iL before), if you get lost on these trails, you are DELIBERATELY trying to get lost. The trails are obvious and they're well marked. T.M., in fact, did a brief leg stretcher on Sunny before the meeting and agreed.
After the meeting was their version of a "Green Bean Meeting" where we were all able to ply the horsemanship judge with any and all questions we had. Which, honestly, were a LOT!!! From timing and pacing to potential obstacles, everything we could think to ask, we asked. And still walked away and thought of more questions later.
So, we all leave from the meeting and head back to our camp. I refill Strider's hay bag, get his glowstick on his halter and his flashing "ankle" bands on for the night. And, I'm in my trailer fixing to take off my bib, because I was already tired of wearing it, and, come on, it's DARK...when the RM, horsemanship judge and their secretaries come into our camp.
"Surprise inspection!!"
Uhhh...uhhhhh...glad I topped off the hay bag. Of course, while we were at the meeting, Strider left 2 more piles, which I mentioned "He did that during the meeting!!!" Like a naughty child who hadn't done all their chores. The RM laughed, said he knew "Shit happens" and that it wasn't going to count against me.
I explained to them that the flashing lights and glowstick are from a traumatized rider and a remnant of the Shanghai Trails endurance ride and, of course, they knew exactly the incident I was referring to. They thought that they were great ideas to help find a lost horse in the dark.
The horsemanship judge liked my coil ties. She hadn't seen one before, but had heard of them, and liked the way they worked.
So, after our camp was inspected, they all left, and we ladies settled in for bed for the night.
I got dressed for bed, set Strider up with another beet pulp/grain mash and mixed his electrolytes in, then laid down to read for a while.
And at 3 am was jerked awake by a bear outside my trailer!!
Okay, so that's an exaggeration. All I saw was a flash of gray that had been snuffling at my buckets outside my door.
Rubbing the sleep from my eyes as I hollar out "LOOSE HORSE!!!" The girls all quickly rolled in to action (except for poor T.M. who was looking for pants...LOL!) as we grabbed halters and lead ropes. I can hear from L.B.'s trailer her baby talking the horse...and then she says "It's a donkey!"
*face palm*
Seriously? A DONKEY?!!!! I know one of the owners of the ranch has a donkey, but I had never seen it free range. So, C.B. calls the ride manager and mentions there's a loose donkey in our camp. He says just shoo it out, but it's okay.
So, we shoo said donkey out (I called it Donkey-Pocalypse because it scared the hell out of us), and everyone goes back to bed.
I hadn't actually planned to wake up in the middle of the night to electrolyte Strider, but figured since I was already awake, might as well go ahead and shove more down the hatch. Mixed up a quick batch, got them in him, rinsed out his mouth and went to go lay back down for a few more hours before getting up.
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