This is a “vault” post. These are events that I made videos for but didn’t really make write ups for. So these write ups will not be as detailed as my recent events.
Florida is unpredictable
Florida, known as the Sunshine State, is horribly unpredictable with winter weather. I don’t mean “there’s a blizzard coming.” It goes without saying, the Heat Miser would never let it snow in Southtown, USA but it can be 90 degrees and beach weather or 40 degrees and wet and miserable. You never know what winter Florida will throw at you. The weather will also change within hours of the projected forecast.
Leading up to River Rise, the forecast was solid storms. If you haven’t been in a Florida storm, let me tell you they are violent and strong. Thursday waas forecasted to be pretty bad so we decided to drive up Wednesday evening so we could set up camp in clear weather, sit out the rain Thursday, and pray for a miracle on Friday.
As it turned out, the weather cleared and it was perfect.
GoPro Video
Looking for just the video? Get it here. But you should read the whole post.
Why does Roach’s head look thicker than usual? Well, when his winter coat comes in, he gets a little bit of what I call a “donkey helmet”. Donkeys can have copious amounts of hair on their forehead area with a smoother muzzle and jowls. I don’t know why this is so, it just is. So every winter, Roach looks more “donkey-ish” than usual.
Riding the Race Needed, Not Wanted
We came in 14th out of 15. I did not race the race I wanted. But I feel I raced the race I needed.
I wanted to test our speed. But I decided to ride with a more experienced rider who tends to be slow. However, she has two decade team horses which is a goal for me and Roach. Clearly, she knows what to do. Today ended up being ultra slow in the beginning. Her horse was seeing gremlins EVERYWHERE for the first 3ish miles or so. It took us an hour to cover those three (for perspective, Roach and I cover 5 miles in 50ish or so minutes at a “slow” pace). BUT I decided to focus on what I could learn from this ride instead of lamenting my goals for top ten. Things I benefitted: further practice in tempering my competitive nature, conversing with a more experienced rider and figuring out how to do 50s successfully, practicing being in the saddle for HOURS (which is a mental more than physical game), forcing Roach to listen and wait for my cues on trail instead of him insisting on keeping pace with surrounding horses, being forced into riding negative splits (riding a slower first loop and faster second) which I have never done but theoretically want to (and then competition brain takes over).
What happened? Our best vet scores to date and effortlessly returning to a good pulse and feeling like I am mentally closer to being prepared for a 50 than I thought. Additionally, Roach came in feeling like he had at least another good 15 miles in him and I did too!
So I didn’t race the way I wanted, but I think this was a race I needed. Additionally, I helped calm another horse and I hope, if Roach was being that much of a goober, someone also would set their placing goals aside to help ensure a happy, healthy completed race. It was a “Do unto others” experience, and I learned and benefited immensely from it. To finish is to win!
