Hiya Sweetie,
Finally had a decent night sleep, Lola was quiet all night, and I woke up refreshed and raring to go! Had my usual morning routine, then Linda came by and offered to let me be on her team, so after walking Lola, I saddled up Flash and headed down to her trailer, got signed in and registered, and off we went! We each received a map with a series of circles with numbers on it on one side, and a list of clues for each number, which led us to a certain landmark. Once there, we took compass readings to determine which direction to look for a paper plate with a number on it, and a couple of words with letters underlined. We recorded the letters at each station, then headed off to the next one! There were ten plates in all, and we found them all, but Linda's youngster misread one of the plates and we got the wrong letters, so we only got credit for nine plates. Still, it was a good first experience! Flash did get a bit competitive and crazy, doing his silly collected canter and trying to go sideways, but we made good time between plates, and he would quiet down once we got to the circled area and we had to stand for a bit. It was a good exercise for him, and I'm glad to know we could never be accused of slowing down a team! I mostly observed, but I did manage to find a couple of the plates, and I learned a bit of strategy when we passed another woman, who had left much earlier than us, struggling to find a marker. I don't know how we placed in the end, I need to ask that tomorrow. We left at 12:15 and were back by 2:00, so the hours suit me just fine! Much better than getting up at the crack of dawn like at the endurance rides! They're having another one at Tippecanoe in a couple of weeks, but I have no intention of coming back south for that, not after already having spend two weeks there sweating my butt off. I plan to stay farther north as long as I can. Got back to camp, rinsed off a sweaty Flash, did a load of laundry and settled down for the afternoon. Lots more people came in during the afternoon, and we had a nice little rainstorm come through that cleared up the smoke that's been hanging around for the last couple of days, not to mention making it a tiny bit cooler. Looking forward to another early night, and another competition tomorrow! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!
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