Crewing at a Horse Endurance Race in Hodges Alabama

April 20th, Thursday
Woke up bright and early, in enough time to gather my items, and waited for my daughter to pick me up to take me to Hodges Alabama, where she was going to compete in a horse endurance race. She does quite a few of those every year and this one was the season closer for her called “Hodges Hootenanny” and held at “Rock Bridge Canyon Equestrian Park”. 

Friend Donna got an early start, as she was going all the way to Jacksonville, Florida. I drank probably the worst coffee in my life, but it woke me up.
My daughter “Maranda” pulled in around 8:30am (she was running a little behind) in her huge truck with the even larger 5th wheel horse trailer/camper combo. That girl of mine is something else! In the dictionary under the description of “kick ass chick”, should be a photo of her.
We loaded up and I finally got to meet the newest canine member of our family. His name is Gizmo and he is a cute energetic pill. LOL

We rolled into camp and I knew immediately that I was out of my element. See I am not overly fond of dealing with horses. Mind you they are beautiful, but they scare the crap out of me. Horses EVERYWHERE! These are not your average stable horses, they are strong and fast and sometimes overly spirited, so I figured I would need eyes in the back of my head to avoid being trampled.

We found our camp spot, her friend Heather aka “Flash” was already there with her horses and two dogs. I had only met Flash once before in Baton Rouge, but saw her plenty on my daughter Facebook page, as they go on many of the endurance rides together. They are thick as thieves, but completely opposite each other.
I met my new best friend when he licked me on the boob and made my shirt all icky. His name is Brees and he is one big beautiful lab. Later I learned that he did not like strangers at all, but he picked me out of the crowd, while I was visiting the neighbors next door, and that was that. We became instant buds.
Met many really nice, cool people. Everyone is so down to earth and it is like everyone is family AND you like them.
Paul and Patsy came by to say hi. Nathan (the farrier for all the horses) offered me a beer which I gladly excepted, and I walked down to his campsite and chatted with some more folks. I quickly felt at home and part of the gang.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrier

Maranda got the camper all set up, off-loaded her horse Mikki and the work began instantly. I thought I would relax around camp, but my daughter had other things in store for me and chilling out was not one of them. LOL
Lots to square away and then go out to the first rest stop of the 50-mile long ride set for Friday, to organize and prepare all the food and water for the horses. They have numerous buckets of mush, rice water, regular water and feed. There is hay and alfalfa too. Besides taking care of the horses, the riders have to take care of themselves with the necessary amount of food and fluids. It is very draining on both horse and rider. Oh and the horses get a huge syringe, at every stop, of electrolytes and whatever else is in there. It all seems and is so technical.

April 21st, Friday
There is a lot of planning that goes into these endurance rides. I did not ride out with them on Thursday night for the pre set-up, but I sure should have because when I arrived to the first rest stop that morning, I was more than a little lost.
Maranda left out around 6:30 and Flash left out about an hour later. (Flash was riding a 25 mile.)
So I needed to meet them about five miles away at the first stop, make sure everything was prepared for the horses and water readily available, have a chair for them to rest in, make sure the food and drinks were ready for the humans and in general aid Maranda and Flash while they rested. I had to drive her big truck, and with the huge side mirrors, it was a bit intimidating when passing semis.
I have not even told Maranda this, but I put water on top of her pre-prepared mush for the horse and got a bit carried away with the water. I was not supposed to add any water. My first dork moment and Nathan came to my rescue. He quickly fixed the situation and helped me finish setting up. (Sorry Randa-Panda and thank you Nathan for the hand.)

In she rides much later than expected due to Mikki (horse) acting up quite a bit and the trail being quite challenging. I got her food ready and she rested some. They have about 40 minutes to rest and eat three different times during the race. However it really flies by when you have to untack your horse, cool them down, get vet checked, feed them, feed yourself, go potty then replace all the tack, so it really helps to have an extra set of hands for the smaller stuff.
What I DID NOT know, was that I was expected to walk with the horse if need be and/or help others. It was a feat for me to just stand there and hold the dang reins while the horses ate and the riders took bathroom breaks. This is a fairly small area for so many horses and they all come in at different times, but still challenging for someone not familiar with these gigantic creatures and of course the horses want to walk around, not just stand there.

Very shortly after Maranda headed out, Flash arrived and it started all over again. Flash was very appreciative and said I was hired on, but the pay sucks. LOL However Maranda made sure I had meal tickets so I would not go hungry. The two paragraphs below are what they wrote on Facebook when they got home. Made me feel like a super star.

Maranda > “My mom, TJ Seaton came along to help and hang out. She was awesome at crewing, even walked horses so I could rest or eat. Big feat as she finds them a little intimidating. We all know how much bucket cleaning is disliked and she is amazing at getting that done! She made sure I ate and rested. I was very glad she was there because I had also decided to do my first multi -day.”

Flash > ”Thank you SO much for supporting Maranda and I on our endurance rides this past weekend! It was so nice coming into camp and you being there for us!! You were so helpful and the moral support was first class.  Oh and the laughs were much needed!”

The second stop was in camp, same rest procedure as before, but we got in some tear-producing laughs when Mikki decided to start walking towards the stables before Maranda could tie her up and I stepped on the reins to “stop” her. Yes In my head I was stepping on a dogs leash, but in reality I found myself being flipped over on my ass and finding out pinecones can do some damage to exposed skin to the point of actual bleeding.

I instantly started cracking up at my own ignorance, Maranda was laughing and then helped me up. She apologized for laughing and I told her no problem, as it really was just too funny and it helped her have a good laugh. I still laugh when I tell this story.

The first two stages were very difficult, so I was hoping the last two would prove somewhat easier. Being on a horse for 50 miles or more? Nope! There were three or four horses taken out of the race due to different issues. One guy was thrown off his and came in covered with clay.
I also got in some extra exercise by riding my bike up and down the hills. Did not ride as much as I had planned on but it was all good. Flash was done riding for the day and took care of Maranda at the 3rd rest stop.

Maranda was five miles into her last leg of the race and wanted to give up. She was exhausted and called us for a pep-talk. See her write up below from Facebook:

Maranda > “Called Flash a few miles into our last loop of the 50 needing a pep talk which she and my mother gave freely as well as the remark that “she didn’t raise a quitter” lol. Shortly after we hung up, we saw another rider whose horse was searching for company as well. Away we went and Mikki was back in her element of leading someone along. We finished in 10th after a long ride day.”

Yep, tough love but it made her hang in there. Flash and I met her at the last stop and took good care of her.
Afterwards was time take care of Mikki, play with the dogs, gather up items from the first stop, rinse buckets, get our grub on, go to the awards show, enjoy a much needed shower, check ourselves for ticks, then to bed earlier than I have ever been since like five years of age. By the way, ticks ticks everywhere. It was shivery gross!

I even walked Mikki back to the stables today. I would have never done that before.
I spoke with Han often and asked him to come get me on Saturday. I was supposed to have driven home with Maranda on Sunday to Baton Rouge, but I was so dang tired, I missed him and being a month away from home was about all I could take.

April 22nd, Saturday:
Sleep was not great last night, since I felt too claustrophobic with being so near the ceiling of the trailer, and going to pee in the middle of the night is taking your life in your own hands. I think it will be tent time in the future.
Flash headed home in the early morning, since her other horse was not able to race due to a limp.
I had some quick cups of coffee, pulled on my MUK boots (raining today), put the doggy inside, grabbed a bite to eat then headed out to the first stop again. Maranda rode a friend’s horse called “Quisto” and let Mikki rest for the day. The rain had the gnats swarming humans and horses alike. Literally have never seen so many.
Things were easier this time as Quisto likes just grass and water. Walked him around, or if we are being truthful, he walked “me” around.
After all the horses and riders were gone, there were three of us left. We gathered up the supplies of what riders had left out there and took it all back to camp. When one of the organizers saw that, she told me I deserved a t-shirt.

I am so glad Maranda only rode a 25 today.

Tornado Watch!!

Han arrived a little after 2:00pm. I gave him my lunch ticket, introduced him to some of the people, loaded all my crap in the car then drove back to the front of the camp to meet up with Maranda who was letting Mikki stretch her long legs.

We parked the car while Maranda walked Mikki back to the stables, and seconds after we got out of the car, the tornado sirens went off. My eyes about bugged out of my head. Most storm systems don’t faze me terribly, but tornados will turn me into a quivering mess. We started walking towards the shelter, with ears covered because the sound was deafening. Then the announcement went off and said to take cover immediately. Well, I look over and my defiant sweet daughter was standing under an open pavilion and just waved at me. I called her and told her to get to the shelter in a stern mom voice. She is 39, so she kinda laughed but ended up joining us to placate me. I was fine with that. There were riders still out on the trail and it was pouring buckets of rain. (everyone showed up safe and sound).
The little kids were really frightened, I gave my jacket to a little boy around five who was shivering from nerves and rain and told him it was a magic jacket and would keep him safe. Maranda showed them videos of her animals and it kept them entertained. The tornado touched down about six miles away from us and a little later we were able to go about our day. We never had to lock the shelter’s entrance door, but they were standing ready to do so.
I never want a repeat of that.

We all visited some more, had a huge plate of southern barbecue with fixings, watched some of the awards ceremony and hugged my girl bye.
I will definitely be joining them again and help crew when they pick it up again after the summer.

It was amazing to spend time with my daughter, just she and I, no kids or mates. Was the first time since she moved away from home and I am so thankful. Also happy to know that once again I have grown, because crewing at a horse endurance race would not have been part of my vocabulary before.