Maddy's visit

One of the Pirates (endurance team) is touring Europe right now and she spent this past weekend with us. Although I hadn't talked to her for years, Maddy and I go way back.

Way back in 2003 we did our first Ride & Tie together and had a blast. I wanted to share a few photos from that day before I jump back into 2011.

Maddy is a catch rider, not having her own endurance horse, and she has ridden way more endurance horses than I have because of this.

She has also had some pretty fantastic opportunities the last few years to expand her knowledge and skills.

If you read Aarene's blog (Haiku Farm) you know that Maddy helps build trails for endurance rides in the Pacific Northwest, she volunteers at a handicapped riding facility, she is on the riding team at her Univerisity, and she has been living in Spain the last year taking riding lessons on Spanish horses.


Whenever she's home in the northwest, she goes to some endurance ride often on some horse she's never met before. And she sleeps in the horse trailer.




We had a lot to catch up on about the PNW scene--who is still doing endurance, who is not, who is doing well, who is not: )


I was happy to hear my nemesis is still out there on his barefoot mustangs kicking up dust.

We shared our most terrifying trailering breakdowns; we both have too many stories to tell on this, scarily. Trailer tire blowouts being the tamest of the incidents, she's pretty good at replacing them now.

Anyway back to 2003: that Ride & Tie was so much fun! The R&T people are so thrilled when anyone from Saturday's endurance ride agrees to try out their sport on Sunday, they mentor you and they had set up a really easy 10 miler. I'm no runner, so I rode and walked, but Maddy rode and jogged. Did you know that some R&T competitors run faster than the endurance horses? It's amazing! Maddy and I took our time, and laughed and talked the entire 10 miles. The Sunday endurance riders would pass us and say, "Wow, good job!" and I remember doing the same whenever I saw someone running out there while I sat on my horse.

Afterwards they interviewed us for their newsletter and I started the article by saying, "It makes you feel studly!" and for the longest time, you could google my name and find that article *blush*. (10 miles is not so studly, but you do feel pretty good after sharing a horse that far!)

I haven't been riding with Maddy since then, but Baasha recognized her Friday night.

To be continued...