Canadian Championships, Sundre Alberta, Aug. 2 and 3, 2008

Hi all!

John and I are sitting here at Lori Bewza's place and luckily logged in to someone's wireless network.  It's dark, Lori's gone to bed and John and I are sitting outside our camper in the field with our great boys munching on the grass.  God, it's great to be back in BC!

 What a weekend! 

 As most of you have heard, it was a VERY tough course.  Between the bogs, rain, hail, thunder, cold temperatures, etc., it's amazing that some of us, and our BC horses, faired as well as we did.

Most of you got the info right about the riders and standings.  I must say, it was interesting to watch Nellie and Bianca ride a CTR and do well.  We caught up to them at the boggy sections of the "red" loop and amazingly enough, we all survived.  For some of us who live in the wetter regions, we've come across similar situations, but John and I sure felt deep concern for the riders who ride in the drier climates of BC and had never experienced mud bogs before.

They were terrible, and we got our trusty steeds through just fine, but frazzled nerves on our part.  I did come off Shab and landed in a nice, warm swamp on the yellow loop, but all worked out and Shab got out of that bog without any injury to himself or to me.  I can laugh now, but at the time, I was **^&())(&$## and thought "that's it!  I may be walking in now."

Good thing John caught Shab as he came out of the swamp and back onto the road. 

 We, and I think I can speak for the general group who attended.....we learned many new things about rides, trail markings, timings, weather changes, courses, us and our horses.  Kudo's to all the BC riders who pitched in and helped the competitive trail riders and vice-versa the endurance riders from our province.  It was evident that it wasn't just individual discipline's from BC, but all BC riders coming together for a common goal, and that was to get us all through with healthy and sound (as best as possible) horses at the end.  I'm proud to be from BC and to have so many great BC friends!

 The day after the 100, I think I saw most of the horses trotting and walking about and they did look good, and none worse for wear. 

 Shab and Comet look great today and are enjoying a good frolic in the field.  We're tired and heading off to bed.  I know there will be many stories to add, but tomorrow is another day.

 We'll be heading on the rest of our way home tomorrow and hopefully to catch the 5:30 ferry, and settling the "boys" at home late tomorrow night.  Until then....good night and happy horsey dreams!

~Karen

Hi Everyone,

What a blast! Beautiful weather except for the day the 100's rode, which turned the trails from challenging into dangerous and very slow. I heard that it took the last riders finishing the 100 about 6 1/2 hours to do the last 18 mile loop. They came in after 3:00 a.m. All our riders were fantastic, but thanks to Lori Bewza and Gail Jewell finishing for the team, British Columbia got bronze inthe 50-mile race and silver in the 100. Since there were so many pulls they had to go with whoever had at least one team member left! Congratulations to Elroy, Desiree and Julius for their 50 mile completion as well, but it was tough for Gail and Sandy thru the bog. There was a grizzly bear spotted at the outcheck and Julius, I think, rode thru a pack of howling wolves.

The CTR riders had it really tough as well as they were the first ones out on the trails, and it was from their experiences that endurance riders were able to get an idea of what was coming up for them. The CTR shorter distance had to ride the same rainy day that the 100's did along with 200 unexpected quads. I don't know who all the BC CTR riders were, but they too had a real challenge.

Jackie and I were treated like princesses by BC crew on our limited distance ride! loved that! haha and then we helped crew for them the next day. Daphne was an outstanding chef d'equippe and Desiree's chocolate cake kept the crew going strong. Last day was fun, relaxing and watching the ride and tie start (people and horses running together - I just had to see it) and the pony express which looked like a lot of fun running that mail! Thanks to ERABC who gave us all beautiful shirts which we proudly wore at the closing banquet.

Very proud of our riders and crew, and happy to be home.
PS Titan doing fine, I pulled him to be on the safe side. Jackie did a great job on the 25 (which was upgraded to 30) with Pam's little mare substituting at the last minute for Azar who got bit on the back just hours before leaving on our trip.
Carol
 

Like Carol said what a blast. I would like to thank Garry, Tunie, Terre O, Roberta for all the help that Carol and I got for our very own crew.

Camp was like Barb mentioned was a little city of Rigs lol. Tons of grass and no flys. It was quite different for some of us starting the ride on wide open rolly hills. lol Thanks to ERABC for the great shirts.

Congrats to all the riders.
jackie
 

We got back last night - after an uneventful but hot drive. Myrlyn ,very happy to see all the guys at home, flew out to the pasture and had a good long roll and looks great!

As many have said, the trails were abysmal for the 100 mile ride and not much better for the earlier 50 and CTR events. I know, I wasn't on the trails but I was crewing for everyone and did hear a lot of comments. Suzanne Hayes, who has done 75 100 mile rides, said it was the most difficult she has ever done! Very boggy, very long and steep climbs, lots of road. Yes, great views but what could you see in the monsoons!! I think the weather really pulled the plug on a lot of the 100's. I believe there were 7 rider options but not sure about that. Grant and Gary chose not to go out again knowing they did not have time to finish due to the deterioration of already very, very difficult trails. It took Gail Jewell 40 minutes to go 2 miles!

In the 50, both Gail and Sandy Laing pulled at the first check having both horses lamed in an especially deep and dangerous bog.

Elroy and Lori Bewza were the first through on that day and sunk into it up to their horses' hocks. When Julius came through about 10th I think, he said his feet were actually in the water! Desiree, on her big horse managed OK but said her heart was in her mouth hoping that there would not be a lameness on the other side.
So you can just imagine what it and all the others were like after three hugh rain and hail storms had gone by just in the morning! Ride Management actually took part of a roof from a collapsed building, hauled it out there as close as they could by truck, then towed it with ATV's to the bog where they installed it. Grant said it was a life saver! Thanks Brent!!

Enough about the trails! You get the picture!
Camp was great - a huge hay field adjacent to the cabins and ranch house. There must have been 200 to 250 rigs there separated out in blocks by province and FEI. What a site! Like a small town! There was a concession stand that tried very hard to keep up with the sandwiches for the volunteers and officials as well as orders from us 'on the ground'! And Showers!! There was a bonfire and cowboy poets to entertain us every night. That was a real treat - some people picked up their guitars for a sing song as well. The bonfire was welcomed as it got cold at night but soon warmed up in the mornings with the sun rise - except on Sunday for the 100's! That was overcast and a rain rise!

I'm not sure of the results - I guess we will have to wait to find out who finished (other then our own of course) as they didn't have any completion awards!! Gee! If I had ridden and completed a ride like that I would at least have expected a public mention!! Oh well! I certainly know what Ride Management was going through! They had a lot of "stuff" thrown at them like 200 Quads in a poker rally on the same trails, injured riders, one who had to be air lifted out, huge coordination of 5 or 6 different events, and last but not least Weather!!

So, it was an experience - a huge learning curve for many of us but I don't know about those Alberta trails!! The people are great but the ground?

Barbara
 

Yes - it was an exciting time at The Nationals, watching all types of distance riding from endurance, to CTR to Ride and Tie to Pony Express. Competitors of all ages! Too much fun!

I don't think Karen Eigler mentioned how well she did in the 35 mile CTR - lst place! WOW! And I believe John wasn't too far behind her - check the website of RMC for the final placings.

I went to ride the 2 day (82 mile) CTR and was picked up by the Ontario team. They were all great and we had a super Chef d'Equipe who kept us well organized. Dante was a star (strong the whole time!) and Team Ontario took the bronze.

Many thx to the Petersons for giving us accommodation on the way to Alberta. Most appreciated!
And an extra special thanks to my crew person - June Melhuish - who worked her butt off the whole time helping me and the rest of the BC riders, whether CTR or endurance.

Does anyone know the BC couple whom I believe won the 20 mile Ride and Tie? We should get them to organize an R & T at one of our events!

A special thanks also to Elaine Bessuille for not only helping crew for endurance riders, but also for volunteering for 2 days for the championship CTR ride. It was great to see a familiar face out on the trail!
Karen Ellis - could you please send me your email address?
Cheers!
Anne
 

Am off to the airport to pick up my daughter but will try to write a report for you later - LOTS to tell - not all bad! No, unfortunately, Christy was pulled but Jaylene and Crystal finished so Alberta won the team championship. 10 out of 27 finished: Jan Marsh, Sue Summers and Carol Giles were about 1 1/2 hours behind Gail. Trisha finished too so would win the silver in the Canadian Championship

Quickly , in the 50 - Elroy first, Lori 5th, Desiree 7th - don't know where Julius placed overall but he won the FEI CEI** - 50. BC rocks! 

Daphne

Hi all
    Came home to an "overfull" email box and multiple messages from telus re bounces, so I have no idea what I've missed! Read the messages on the yahoo page, tho, and so will reply to a few of them.
    Re: the handheld, Gail has it and will bring it to Skimikin. They came in really, really handy and were much appreciated.
    We all, do, indeed have a LOT of stories! Quite the weekend! Ask Sandy about the grizzly, and Sue Summers about the moose.... But don't ask ANY of us about the bogs!!! They DON'T have solid bottoms--or at least not after that much rain, and all those ATVs! Some loose logs under the mud, too... On the other hand there were ordinary mud puddles that DID have a solid bottom; however one of the ones I went through was chest deep on Koszaar--THAT'S how much it rained. (On the positive side the deep water washed off some of the bog mud from when he went down). Really, really tough conditions--and when we did finally get on some reasonable dry grass that you could move on....Koz just wanted to eat it! Ah, well--that's why we call it endurance!
    In a typically masochistic endurance rider kind of way we all had a good time, tho. It was sure cool to see all the BC folk--CTR and endurance riders, crew, family, etc--pull together and support one another, and share the occasional beverage. We had a great group of people there who worked hard, had fun, and most importantly of all took excellent care of our wonderful horses under very trying conditions. People made very good decisions for their horses and as a result they all--every one of them--came home sound and healthy. Everyone who was there in any capacity should be very proud of themselves.

terre (ps, if anybody finds a white hrm electrode it belongs to Chris...she just doesn't know I lost it yet! I DO however have Barb's camera and a pair of glasses in a silver case and a small silver wrist watch--all soon to be found on ebay to help pay my gas bill!)

PPS---there WILL be pictures (possibly even Barbs!)