Dear Ann,
 
I will send a full report with photos tomorrow but quickly wanted to  let you know that Kalika and I just got 
back from our first "Limited Distance" ride, 30 miles from Folsom to Auburn along the American  River. I didn't 
want to jinx it (since this was my third attempt at a  ride) so I didn't tell anybody ahead of time and it 
worked ;)
 
And not only did we finally get to a ride, we came in FIRST in about 5 1/2 hours. I'm not exactly sure about
my time because they only give completions but no times to LD riders and I forgot to turn off my  timer so it 
kept running forever ;)  I had no idea where I was in the  line-up because fairly early on some of us 30-milers 
started catching  up to some 50-milers and after the first vet check and hold we got all  mixed up anyway.
 
But in any case, not only did we come in first, Kalika got super good grades from the vet - all A's and and 
a B for gut sounds. And that  after the hardest part of the ride, Cardiac Hill, a crazy technical  climb on 
switchback that seemed infinite... The head vet was Melissa  Ribley who got the Haggin Cup at Tevis last year 
and when she vetted  me in she thought Kalika looked great and complimented us, so that was  the cherry on top :)
 
Thank you thank you thank you for raising and training such a  wonderful horse! She did so well and I'm so 
proud of her!
Ines