“WOOHOO Mr. Sandman, please bring me a dream” 😊 The lyrics from a song by the Chordettes in 1954 is about The Sandman, a mythical character in European folklore who encourages and inspires dreams by sprinkling magic sand over your eyes and this is why he’s our Mr. Sandman 🙂 I am so proud of his work ethic this weekend and his 18th place finish out of a fast, fit group of 48 well managed horse and rider teams. He got straight A’s on his Vet In’s and amazingly his pulse was 40 on the first loop and 48 on the second loop and well under the criteria of 60. I think our training is paying off now and his fitness is really starting to show as his base mileage is building his brain is more focused now and his performance at every race is now a notch better than the prior ride where in this case we finished just back of the front pack.
This photo was taken about 20 miles in at a cooling station, with temps in the 90’s and some deep sand washes and rocky terrain on the ridge top coming out of camp I held him back (which didn’t sit well with him) and let quite a few teams pass us until we cleared the rocks whereupon I dropped the reins which for Sandman is like stepping on the gas and he launched like a coiled spring into his ground gobbling 11mph stretched out long trot and we began really picking up speed and leapfrogging ahead a bit. We rode much of the time with our new friend Clinton Kirberger who was on his first endurance ride with his horse Smidgen who was fit as a fiddle which allowed us to move pretty quickly and switch leads seamlessly when called up.
It was a great break thru ride for Sandman, he was head down calm in camp, ate and drank well out on the trail, kept himself together while surrounded by other high energy horses and settled into his job on the trail much quicker and more focused than ever before. All in all a great ride and ride weekend.
I want to thank Stephanie DuRoss and Barb Clausen and their on the ball assistant Taylor Jane for putting on another very well managed and safe ride, Mark Anderson and all the Vets, and Volunteers and Lancette, Andrea, Mary Jane, and Ashley who are the dynamic foursome who singlehandedly organized our Arizona Endurance club now with almost 80 members and also organized the pot luck dinner on Saturday night for all the hungry riders. The food was amazing and the comraderia, friendship, and helping hands were on exhibit all weekend and into the night and so much fun to be a part of and truly representative of what endurance riding is all about.
Everyone have a great week and as always, enjoy the ride, this was a good one.