CTR, part 2

As I registered, I heard the same Californians saying, "Oh look, it's the crazy girl who did CMO and CTR at the same time." I was as happy as could be - for this ride was again in Olympia, in the forest I knew, and more importantly, my horse knew every step of those trails. Nothing is better than competing in a familiar area.

I say Californians cuz it appears that CTR is very popular in CA, and most of the license plates on the trucks and trailers said CA. Weird, huh?

I have to explain a few of the wacky details that are CTR.

• You'll be riding along and come to a sign "Vet check ahead-only forward motion from here." This is the point where endurance riders often get off, to walk their horses in. In CTR they don't allow you to dismount and lead your horse along - you have to ride. And once you see the vet check sign, you are obligated to continue forward motion - that is, you cannot stop until you arrive in the check. So the riders all hang out at the sign, hoping their horse will pulse down when they arrive in camp.

• Any food your horse consumes along the course must be brought in your saddle bags. You cannot send your beet pulp/grain/carrots out to the vet checks - you have to carry them. I found out the hard way how stupid it is to put beet pulp in a cantlebag. Ziplock malfunction. (BTW, you are allowed to hand graze your horse at vet checks if there is grass.)

• You cannot use show sheen or hoof oil, cuz it might give you an advantage in the condition scoring (*lol*). In fact you cannot put anything on your horse topically that might give you an advantage in your horse's appearance or comfort. The horses legs must be free of protective boots (splint boots, SMBs, bell boots, etc.) Icing after the ride is not allowed.
  

Those are some of the rules I found odd but I did not break them.

I raced through the course (which was actually 6MPH), and my horse was good for the horsemanship tests:

1. Mount from the right side without a mounting block. OMGosh he's 15.2. OK, let's try that. (That did not go so well.)
2. Back down this hill into a puddle. Then back back up a hill again, nearby. Wow, that was hard! But we did it. Asking a horse to BACK into a huge puddle is a trick.
3. Ride a steep incline. I was marked down for not getting my butt completely out of the saddle.
4. Cross a natural bridge. That was easy.
   

Those are just some examples of our day.

We went on happily trotting and then I saw this flash of red - a rider on a chestnut horse racing impossibly fast through the trees in front of us. I thought, "Crazy! Way too fast!" and then I heard her cussing. Cussing at her horse. At Shieky. I know that horse, I know that rider! She's always trying to stop him. I couldn't catch up because of my pace limit.

But I did. She had finally stopped Shieky, and was having a talk with him. (Pictured is my friend on Shieky - they are the ones I rode downtown Seattle with.)

I said, "HEY!"

She said, "OH! What are you doing here?"

I said, "A CTR ride. Come along with me, it'll be fun."

(WRONG. WRONG...MISTAKE!!!) But at the time, no warnings flashed in my mind.

We rode together for exactly 3 miles, chatting away happily.

Then we arrived at the next vet check and since she was not officially part of the ride, she went a ways away to wait for us. In the vet line people were fanning their horses' faces with paper fans (a strange CTR thing) and letting them drink out of specially constructed water bottles. In CTR, no horse is allowed to drink from water troughs coming into a vet check - only afterwards. I stood there in the heat, pissed about the unattainable water tank in the distance.

Then the ride manager's husband was there, asking me what the heck I was doing, cheating like this.

HUH!?

He said I was using Shiek, to "pull" my horse along on the ride, to cheat.

(I'm sorry, I don't know the term, is that "drafting horse"?)

That was not my intention. I told my friend, "Sorry, I can't ride with you. Apparently there is a rule that non-entered horses cannot be on course."

She sighed and went on her way.

I went the last 35 or so miles alone, and ended well.

I was in the ribbons again. It was all my horse, not me, he was super fit, I was clumsy (at mounting from the right side).

I went back to my campsite exhilerated again. Gave Mac his dinner, and cut a watermelon in half to feast upon. As I was slurping up my favorite God-made food, the ride manager walked into my camp.

"I hate to say this, but I have to disqualify you."

"WHAT!? Why?"

"The others say you cheated. That you used a drag horse." (Is that what it's called?)

I said, "Oh, I ran into a friend, but when they saw her, they sent her on her way."

"It's too bad about that, because I cannot allow you to finish. According to the other riders, you cheated."

I....am a cheater?!! Never, not in horsey sports. (On high school tests ok, but not in what matters)

No way.

"You are disqualified."

I admit, I started crying.

Then I hitched my trailer back up (it was Saturday night), put Mac in, and drove home.

The next day I sent my friend an email, "Hey girl, you got me disqualified." Kind of jokingly.

She sent me back, "No way! That is not possible, how is that? Find OUT!"

So I went thru NATRC rules.

And rules and rules and rules and what the heck, where is the rule about this?

I found none.

There IS none.

Endurance, it turns out, has a rule about this. You cannot hire a buddy horse to drag yours along when he's tired. But CTR, nothing.

I was mad. I was disqualified for nothing???!

I wrote NATRC. Please, please let me be justified here.

Let someone - ride manager - apologize at least?

No.

They sent me back, "What you did was not illegal, but unsportsmanlike."

After studying the rules, I know that anyone can be disqualified from practically any sport for something called "unsportsmanlike behavior."

And with that surprising conclusion, I knew I would never try the sport again.

(The photos are of Mac at various endurance and CMO rides.)