It has been two days since the Great Western (Grampians) Ride, and I am still
sore and sorry.

A lovely ride base, lovely ride committee, and I had the luxury of a lovely head
strapper (aka hubby) to top it all off.

My little Ransom Bartholemew is a few rides out of novice now, and I had heard
that this was going to be a relatively flat track, so I might test him out, just
a bit. I decided I might try and make a placing, and just see how we go. Well
after a few drinks and Head Strapper telling me it is time to test, I finally
convinced myself it was time to go.

Getting up at 5am, cold, not really in the mood to go riding, I set out at 6.
Normally I hang around a few minutes and go out with the slower riders, and
gradually build up pace. Not this time. If I am to be competitive, it has to be
right from the get go. off I go, and within 10 mins or so I find myself up the
bum of the lead riders. Now these are the normal lead riders, Kim Fitzpatrick
and Ken Bradley. As I am zooming not quite out of control, I am thinking to
myself, 'Is this how they always ride???' My God, flat out, ducking low
branches, and as light comes into play, hanging on from shying at small puddles
on the track. This is not my normal scene. All I could think about was I WANT TO
SLOW DOWN, as I thought I would use up all the energy in the first leg, and have
nothing for the second leg. In hindsight, I should have more faith in my
training. As we come into the end of the first leg, I find myself about a minute
in front of the next rider. We came in at about 1 hr 50, which is about an hour
faster than what I am used to.

Ransom appears tired, but after a short rest, we are out again and he puts
himself into a canter, so he must be feeling alright. Then the seriousness of it
all hits me. I am in front, I am by myself, and we are both a bit negged out as
we have no one to talk to. No fun here. I think I like the slower rides more, at
least I get to see the other riders. Then I realise, if I am to stay in the
position, I can't let anyone pass me, so now comes the constant looking over the
shoulder for someone to overtake on the sly. Too much stress here. Sure enough,
just a few kms out, I see Trish Reeve from Brieema come up. She is in a
different division, so no problem, but I thought I might really go for broke.
Yee-haa, off we go, and canter into the ride base, with a welcoming committee of
Bob Punicki, Ahmed from UAE and Head Strapper extraordinaire.

Weigh in, vet in, all good. HR41, can't complain. Maybe I should have flogged
him more?

Then comes the punishment, BC. I am starting to get used to that, but I am still
displaying to the world that I can't ride. As I am cantering past the crowd,
everyone is yelling at me 'wrong leg'. I know that, you know that, but Ransom
doesn't know that and happily canters past his cheering crowd.

My first ride at endurance in Vic was at Great Western, a 40km ride where I was
looking at the 80k'ers come in, and I could not believe how calm they looked
going out on their second leg, and coming in again as if all is fine, and it is
not unusual to be riding a horse for a ridiculous amount of time and kms. Now,
4.5 years later, I am one of those strange beings. What a turn around.

My original goal was the TQ buckle, and I got that. My next goal was a rug for
my pony, and now I got that. I was 1st HW, and won BC. For BC, I won a lovely
rug, sheepskin lined, sponsored by Carrolls Saddlery. I am so so so very happy.
I wanted to wear the rug home, and into McDonalds to show it off.

Thank you Grampians Riding Club for putting the ride on, and a special thank you
to Carrolls Saddlery for the wonderful rug.

Why is that I spend less time in the saddle but I am twice as sore?

Tamara Atkinson
Member 31218