Monday, September 14, 2009 MONK wins AERC Champ Ride (9:58Hr. 100miles, BC Aerc, BC FEI, 1st place FW) Lucky numbers? The morning I went to pick him up (the 9th) I was listening to a local radio talk show, while waiting for my broken down truck in Oakland, and they were talking about the ridiculous notion that the 09 09 2009 was some lucky day or numbers or something like that. I thought that it was pretty unusually and although I am a non believer had it in the back of my mind that it was a good sign that MONK would do well. The fat farm was Lindsay’s mom’s house in Napa where MONK spent 3 weeks getting pampered with 3 meals a day, two back to back days of nice riding at Point Reyes. I was supposed to pick MONK up on Sunday on our way home from the airport, but we were in a rental car because my truck broke down in the middle of beautiful downtown Oakland at 5:30am. I picked up MONK an headed home to start loading the trailer, even though two days late. MONK still needed to be trimmed and new boots glued on plus mega hours getting loaded. The broke down truck and all the driving put me way behind. As soon as I got home I put MONK on the scale. He weighed in at 909#’s. The talk on the radio station immediately came to mind. 909 on 09092009. I did immediately send a text to Lindsay as they thought MONK had gained quite a bit of weight at the fat farm. His usual fit conditioning weight is 860#’s, his high weight is #882, so 909#’s is a good gain. The Ride The AERC Championship ride was held in Greenville CA which is only 3 hours from where I live. It is a beautiful mountain community with about a 3500 elevation with beautiful trees and nice forest type roads. The camp was held at a amazing camp called Copper Creek, a kids camp with more facilities then I have ever seen. They had showers, a canteen, flush toilets, a large arenas, large meadows for camping, ropes coarse, climbing wall, swimming pool, basketball court, volley ball court, BMX coarse, ponds etc…. Our Goal This was to be another very careful planned ride. We had looked at the finish times in the 100 from previous years. This was to be our coc so we had to finish the ride in 12:20 min. We also knew that the trail had been a little short in previous years and they had to add mileage to the coarse. So at the time of the start our mind set was that we need to go just a little bit faster then usual. Our back up plan, just in case the 12:20 was not doable was to just slow it down and use this ride for the other 2 star or better ride we needed and to do our coc on the flat desert coarse in Jan. Start to first Vet Check Lindsay was on MONK at 4:20am to warm up MONK for the 5am start. It was totally dark at that time of the morning but there was a almost full moon. Since I was not riding I can’t describe the start other then what Lindsay has relayed to me. She said she started maybe mid pack. After they got to the top she let MONK go a little. We were waiting at the first vet check were she arrived in about 15th position. MONK went to the vet box after a long drink where he pulsed down almost immediately, he passed 10 horses and MONK went out in 5th place. Needles to say he looked fantastic, he drank and drank and then ate a good breakfast before hitting the trail. We packed up and headed back to camp where vet checks 2 and 3 were being held. Second Vet Check Lindsay and MONK were 2nd FEI rider going out of the first vet check and everybody pretty much arrived in the order they left the first vet check except I think Lindsay might of been 4th. I was paying more attention to the FEI placing then the other riders because that was our point at being at the ride in the first place. Third vet check was pretty much the same. MONK looked fantastic, was eating and drinking and taking his electrolytes like a big boy. He is a very easy horse to ride and Lindsay was having fun. Forth and Fifth Vet Checks The FEI rider in front of us was Brad Green who we know very well. We knew that his horse takes awhile to pulse down. Brad left in I think 2nd place out of the first vet check. When we got to the 4th vet check, Rachel came in first, followed by Brad about 5 min later, and then 10 min later by MONK. MONK pulsed down before BRAD so they basically left together out of the 4th vet check. They were riding together and were in the hunt for Rachel. I knew that if MONK and Brad came in together that we could possibly have a 10 min jump on Brad. All 3 riders showed up at the same time into vet check 5. Rachel got pulled and BRAD could not get his horse to come down, took him 20 min. MONK pulsed right down and left with a 20 min head start to the finish line which was 13 miles away. I talked to BRAD to see if he was going to try and run her down and he said that he just needed the completion, so LINDSAY had a free ride to the finish line. Brad showed up 37 min later. He did get a completion and he did show for BC. MONK looked like he just jumped out of the trailer all day long, including the next day. MONK won both AERC and FEI Best Condition, Lindsay won first feather weight. I was pretty sure that it was a way short 100 but most riders thought it was real close. This win should propel us to the June WEG Endurance selection where riders will be selected to go back to compete for a spot on the 2010 WEG USA endurance team. See you in Kentucky!

Chris Martin – Penn Valley, CA

Lorino is a 13 year old Hannovarian Equestrian Vaulting Horse. He was the American Vaulting Association (AVA) horse of the year in 2007. In 2008 he carried the USEF/AVA National Gold Womens Champion (picture)! He also helped to get three girls from our team qualified to participate in the World Vaulting Championship in the Czech Republic. He has been a platinum client for 5 years. We are spending this July in Kentucky, getting ready for WEG 2010! www.woodsidevaulters.org All of our horses are platinum users!

Julie Divita- Emerald Hills, CA