In which there's an endurance ride, but there's also a lot of kindness

"Hey, if your horse is still lame for the April Daze Ride, do you wanna borrow mine?"

This photo illustrates so many kindnesses
photo by Cassidy Rae

Paul has been a friend since we all took the Trail Master course together back in 2006.

 We rode the 100-miler at Mt Adams together in 2007, and kept each other awake with stories and songs and all kinds of nonsense, and we try to hang out at rides whenever we can manage it.

But.

I'd never ridden his horse before.

I've never really ridden a gaited horse before, actually.

And, although Fiddle is definitely healing (25 minutes of walk under saddle per day PLUS 3 minutes of trotting now!) the April Daze ride was not on her schedule.

So, okay!

Camping with a two dogs and a minivan is a lot less complicated
than camping with a horse!

The entire weekend was full of people doing kind things for each other.  Paul offering me a good horse like Pete was just the beginning.  

We showed up at camp on Thursday, and talked with ride management.  We needed to take a shakedown ride, and they needed some more ribbons placed on the blue trail.

Pete ( Lucero Reedo de Rioto) has 3230 endurance miles and 595 LD miles.
He and Paul are a Decade Team
And for me: Pete is ready to mark the blue trail.

Out on the trail, we saw coyotes, white tail deer and lots of birds, and we made sure the trail was thoroughly marked for the riders on Saturday.

Pete prefers the largo and the canter as his trail gaits.
You read that correctly:  I rode a cantering horse and didn't die!

Sunshine and rainclouds at the vet-in

Saturday morning, we took off down the trail together.

ready for ride day

More kindness in action: I left home without a hoodie, and was loaned a
nice warm green hooded sweatshirt by a rider who was a greenbean at
April Daze last year.  Thank you, Erin: it kept me warm all day!

More cantering

Pete and his buddy Frank allow Paul to photobomb
while they tank up on water

Back in camp, there is more kindness going on.

When Sue Summers broke her leg a few months ago, she and her husband
advertised for a student to come live with them and ride their
world-class horses for a while.  Tessa (on the right) rode Easy to a top-ten
finish at the ride, and is having a wonderful time helping keep the
Summers' horses fit and happy.

The ride photographer's car was broken into and window busted out in
downtown Spokane the night before the event.  Three members of ride management
(including Santa Jim) figured out a good temporary fix for the window so
Cassidy could drive safely over the pass to home.

On the road home today, a post from an endurance rider popped up on Facebook:
her trailer was BROKEN and she needed help.  Within the hour, another rider
had dropped her own horse at home and headed back up the mountain pass to assist.

For a lot of people, the weekend could have been a real bummer...and for a lot of us, thanks to the kindness of others, it was pretty good.

I just wanna say "thanks."  

If you ever doubt the kindness of humans, come to an endurance ride.  Our people can show you how kindness happens.