Pan Am ride, Bend Oregon
Hi all- Judy and I spent a week of our vacation time this year by going up to the Pan American Championship ride in Bend, Oregon. Judy had nominated her wonder Appy Warpaint for the Pacific South team, but as is so routine with her horse these days he injured himself again a couple of months ago and is once again in healing mode. This time it's a splint problem, but at least it has healed up enough to put him back to work. Since he couldn't take part in the ride (imagine an Appy up there with all those splendid Arabs!) we decided to go up to help out the team from our part of the country. The Pacific South team has a weird boundary line- it sort of splits the Bay Area in half, and goes all the way down to southern Cal. Our Chef Dequipe (spelling on that one?) was none other than Teresa Cross from Danville. She has been involved with endurance a long time, and has had a lot of international experience as well. (She got pulled at the finish of the world championship a few years ago. Ouch! I can relate) Her right hand helper is Cathy Campbell, who works as a fire fighter in her non endurance time. This duo put in an unbelievable amount of effort to put the team together and organize the ride.
Speaking of the team- It seemed lucky if we would even get our horses to the ride. Team member Heather Bergantz from San Jose was hauling her horse Tyler up to the ride when the transmission let go in her truck somewhere near Mt Shasta- It really let go! Her trans caught fire- lucky for them they were prepared enough to carry fire extinguishers and knew how to use them. Barbara Sanchez (another team member) was pulling her big horse Tor up from their home somewhere down near Paso Robles (I think) and gave Tyler a ride to Bend. It took poor Heather about three days to get to the ride! Shirley Delsart from Berkley brought her incredible horse Dusty (K.J. Destination) up for the ride, and made it to Bend, but had her transmission burn up while out pre-riding the course! Her groom Merrick had to fight the fire with the shirt off his back! All these fires! What miserable luck. Gary Ceragioli made the drive from Nevada to join the team with his family for support, and made it without losing any valuable engine parts. Connie Creech of Northern Nevada fame came to crew for Gary, and to help take care of Gary's neat horse Czar. I think the horses name is something like Desert's Roses' Raz, but whatever- it was a cool horse who I believe is a Mustang / Arab cross. Jack Endere and his wife made the drive from the Santa Cruz mountains to join the team- he brought his horse Fad's Silver. Kirstin Bernstien (I HAVE to keep spelling that wrong, just because it's a tradition now!) came up with her husband Mike to enter her horse Kid, also known as W.S. Calisto. The team was rounded out by Wendy Lumbert and her horse named Wip. Wendy was the only alternate to make the trip with a horse, and would have her share of ups and downs during the week. More to come on that.
We arrived at the camp late on wednesday night, and woke thursday to a wet Oregon. It had rained on and off for a few days, but the sky seemed clear enough that day. Thursday brought the opening ceremonies complete with a pair of huge black Freisan horses being ridden by one rider. That was neat. We ran into lots of familiar faces- Steph herself from Endurance Net fame was on hand to report on the ride as it happened. All we have to do is get her set up with a cellular modem and palm top computer, so she can strap the thing to her back and report while actually riding in a race! Next year at tevis? Marcus Hoff from Idaho was there displaying his fine Horsin' Around portable corrals. Dom Freeman from Go the Distance had a booth set up with a rainbow of biothane glowing in the flickering lights. Several other vendors were set up in the large barn / dining hall. And there was the raffle! It seemed like everyone won a ton of stuff. I bought 12 tickets, and won 8 prizes! Including a complete servicing for my truck in downtown Bend, which I took advantage of. Jack from our team won 9 shirts, a couple of buckets, some grain, some feed, a pile of little bottles of stuff, and a horse! Yep- he won the baby Arab. We spent part of thursday pre-driving to the vet checks to make sure we knew where they were located. A thursday night banquet ended the day with a meal which was probably not worth quite what it cost, but hey, this is a championship! Most of the team riders went out to ride their horses to keep them limber for Friday's vet exam and check in.
Friday brought more surprises for our team. We went out on the last driving tour with our team vet Susan McCartney, who brought along her two best buddies- Dave Cootware, and her Beagle Heather. (not to be confused with one of our team riders. Dave did!) We were greeted upon our turn with the news that Heather's horse Tyler had tied up while riding in the morning. He wouldn't be going now, so Wendy's day was changed from a relaxed alternate to a team rider! She took the quick change in stride and got her horse ready for the vet in. The horrible luck continued when Wendy trotted Wip out for the vets- he was declared off and was excused form the ride before it began. Heartbreak! Now we only had five horses starting the ride. Teresa announced the team would be Barbara, Jack, Gary, and Shirley, while Kirstin would ride as our only solo. Friday night was sort of relaxed as we loaded the trucks for the 4:00 am departure. The camper kept the light sprinkles off Judy and I, but we were certainly outdone by the boat that Steph was driving! She calls this thing a motor home, but it looked more like a cigar shaped motel to me.
Saturday morning- off to the first vet check in the cold, cold, cold mountain air. It was freezing up there before the sun came up. The ride started at 6:00, and at 7:30 here comes the horses! Shirley was up in the top 5 or so, with Gary and Kirstin close behind. Jack and Barbara made it in soon after, but more disasters! Barbara’s horse Tor was pulled for a slight lameness. Now the team was down to three horses, the number needed to finish for a team placing. The rest of the horses made it through fine, and the check was quickly deserted. We dashed off to the fourth check to set it up while the horses climbed up to the high part of the course. Check 2 was way up in the mountains in a weird little lava field. More disaster! Kirstin’s horse was pulled for a metabolic problem which ended up being a gas colic which worked itself free later on. Out ream was down to 3 horses- the team was still in it. Check 3 was hard to get to, so we waited at Check 4 for the riders. The Pacific North team was dominating the ride- they had something like all 4 team horses in the top 7, plus 3 others. They looked unbeatable! Shirley came into check 4 at about 50 miles looking good- they were in fourth, I think. Gary made it to the check in the top 15, and Jack was near the end of the pack, but still going smoothly. Shirley left in 3rd, and looked great bolting out of the check. A nice mare from Canada west left the check in 12th, and was moving up!
We packed up the check and drove to check six, in the same place as check one was located. We were expecting the Pacific North team to come in, but what's this! It's Shirley! She and that mare from Canada came in together in the lead! All Right!! It turns out Pacific North suffered as much bad luck as our team. Their horses running in first and second were out, and both were on the team! That eliminated them from the team results already. Shirley got her Grey gelding vetted though quickly and efficiently, and after a short hold was back out leading the ride, with Canada right behind her.