It’s been a while since we’ve written a blog post. Life got busy throughout July and August, with horses, goats, summer camps, endurance rides, and plenty of miles on the road.
After the dairy goat national show, Amanda headed up to Vermont for a week at Green Mountain Conservation Camp. She has been going to the camp for several years now and loves having the opportunity to serve as a junior counselor.
Vermont 100
On July 17th, Alex and I left in the morning with four horses and headed north to Vermont for the Vermont 100 endurance ride. Anna and Quinn traveled separately, with Anna driving to the northern end of Vermont to pick Amanda up from camp. Quinn worked for a while before joining us later that afternoon.
The Vermont 100 is one of the few remaining 100-mile endurance rides on the East Coast. We aren’t ready for a 100-mile ride yet, but it was another good opportunity to put some miles on the horses and get a feel for the ride. This is also one of the last simultaneous runner and horse events; hundreds of runners are there to run the 100K or 100-mile race. The camp is a mixture of people camping with horses, runners camping in tents, and runners who simply check in and find somewhere nearby to sleep before returning the next morning.
The 50-mile riders don’t return to base camp until the end of the ride. That makes having a crew particularly helpful, since there are several stops and veterinary checks along the way where the horses need attention. Originally, I (Rob) was planning to ride the 50 with Amanda. However, the challenges of riding without crew made us decide to offer up Fiona for someone else. We were about to openly advertise for a catch ride when Quinn decided to come out of endurance retirement (at the age of 20) and ride Fiona. So, I was crew for Amanda and Quinn, who were riding JJ and Fiona in the 50-mile ride. Alex and Anna rode Mojo and Milo in the 25-mile Limited Distance ride.
The 50-mile ride started at 5:00 AM for Amanda and Quinn. Both horses were excited and ready to go. I met them at the first stop-and-go around mile 16 and then again at the first hold at mile 22. Unfortunately, when they arrived at the hold it was immediately apparent that JJ was off on her left hind.
That meant JJ had to take a trailer ride back to camp, and Quinn was left to continue on Fiona. Fiona probably has the least experience of our horses riding alone, so Quinn was luckily able to buddy up with Katelyn Reed and her Mustang, Tonto. The two of them ended up riding the entire rest of the ride together.
The weather started out beautifully—cool in the morning and warming up as the day went on. Then the rain arrived. There was a lot of rain starting at the second hold and Fiona was getting cold and shivery. We threw a blanket over her and had Quinn saddle her back up and walk her around in circles until it was time to leave so she could keep her muscles warm. The riders were completely soaked for the last hour and a half of the ride.
Quinn and Katelyn made it back to camp, soggy from the rain, but Fiona looked great. She had plenty of energy left and could have gone another 25 miles that day—which is exactly what you want to see in a horse gaining experience before moving up to the next distance.
Meanwhile, Alex and Anna had started their 25 mile ride at 6 am on Mojo and Milo. The two loops were 12-13 miles each. The first loop was snowmobile trail with a little bit of road, and the second loop was a lot of gravel road with a little bit of snowmobile trail. The midway hold went well, both horses passed and looked good. The horses traveled well together, and made great time on the first loop. The second loop they started to see a little bit of fatigue from Mojo on all the hills, so we slowed down our pace. Anna and Alex still finished in plenty of time and this completion qualified Mojo for his 10 year AERC longevity award! He is 20 this year, and can still be pretty spunky out there.
Unfortunately, things weren’t going quite as well with JJ. After the ride, JJ still wasn’t looking right. She had been pulled for lameness, but she also wasn’t eating well and just seemed off. Her personality wasn’t quite right, and she wasn’t interested in the alfalfa or other horse delicacies we were offering.
We were also dealing with a leaking tent and a puddle of water on the floor, with more rain predicted overnight. Around 6:30 that evening, we decided it made more sense to pack everything up and head home rather than stay and watch the 100-mile riders finish through the night and into the next morning. We loaded up, left camp, and made it home around 11 PM.
Unfortunately, JJ continued to decline over the next couple of days. By Tuesday she was in pretty rough shape. We suspected that she was dealing with ulcers and started her on ulcer medication, but she became severely dehydrated and eventually needed IV fluids from the veterinarian to help her recover.
The good news was that she bounced back, but the treatment for ulcers and lameness pull meant that JJ was going to need some time off. That also meant she wouldn’t be able to go to the Pine Tree endurance ride just two weeks later.
4-H Fair and Pine Tree
The weekend after the Vermont 100, Amanda participated in the Windham County 4-H Fair. She took eight goats, and there were only three other pet goats at the event.
She had a great time hanging out with friends, doing the animal obstacle course, and participating in the Battle of the Barns. With so few goats at the fair this year, though, she’s thinking about making some changes to the clubs and counties she attends next year so she’ll have a little more competition in the goat show.
Meanwhile, we confirmed that JJ needed to stay home instead of going to Pine Tree. Since we were concerned about keeping her stress level down, we also wanted to leave another horse home with her. That meant making the difficult decision to leave Milo home with JJ.
With two horses staying home, the goats still needing to be milked, and JJ’s situation still a little touchy, getting meds three times a day, Anna would stay home from Pine Tree. My parents made their annual trip up from Alabama and arrived at our house on Saturday. On Monday, we went to Maine with Alex and Amanda, while Quinn had already driven up a couple of days earlier to work as the ride secretary.
The ride was well attended this year. On Tuesday, Amanda rode Fiona in the 50-mile ride while Alex rode Mojo in the 30-mile ride. Everything went well. Both horses did great.
Fiona was able to ride along with some other riders and, once again, looked amazing at the end of 50 miles. We gave the horses Wednesday off, and on Thursday Fiona and Mojo went out for another 30-mile ride with Alex and Amanda riding together. Both horses completed again. After the Thursday night lobster dinner, we did the annual bubble blowing with grandparents and got friends from ride camp to join in.
Friday was a rest day, and Alex and I headed home with the horses.
Amanda stayed in Maine with Quinn for the rest of Friday and Saturday. They rode bikes and spent some time hanging out together before Quinn drove Amanda back to upstate Vermont on Sunday morning for another week at Green Mountain Conservation Camp near Buck Lake.
When she returned from camp on Friday, she got home around 11:30pm. After about four hours of sleep, Amanda and I were back on the road at 4:00 AM Saturday morning. This time, we were headed to Maryland for the Old Dominion Young Rider Endurance Clinic.
Old Dominion Young Rider Endurance Clinic
The drive to Maryland took about seven hours and Amanda got to learn how to drive the horse trailer on the NJ Turnpike. We took Fiona and Milo with us. Milo was along as an extra horse for another youth rider who didn’t have her own horse to bring to the clinic.
Fiona and Milo were amazing camping together throughout the week. The kids had a great time working with different instructors, learning more about endurance riding, and getting to know other young riders from around the East Coast. There was plenty of time spent riding and learning, but just as importantly, they got to spend a lot of time around the horses and with other kids who share the same interest.
Milo seemed particularly happy to have a girl around who was willing to love on him and feed him treats whenever he gave her his sad eyes.
On Thursday morning we loaded up and headed home. The trip down had taken seven hours, but the trip home took ten.
Still, we made it home—and after the number of miles we’ve put on the truck and trailer this summer, that’s something to celebrate. It has been a busy couple of months around the Sawyer Family Farm. There have been some great rides, some difficult moments with the horses, lots of time with goats and friends, and more than a few long drives. Stay tuned for some goat show results in the next blog post.