Sandy and I both signed up for the next show scheduled for early June. One of the challenges I face in this discipline is that in walking the Ease of Handling course. Doing that is extremely difficult for me. My walking has continued to deteriorate over the years. Prior to the show, I reached out to a good friend who is a paralyzed veteran. I asked him if he knew where I could get an off road wheelchair so I could “walk” the course. My amazing friend then told me he had an Action Trackchair ™ that I was welcome to use. I couldn’t believe his generosity.
The Peets scheduled the show for Saturday and a clinic with the judge, Julie Alonzo on Sunday. As the weekend neared, I became extremely disappointed because the weather forecast for Friday and Saturday called for extreme heat and humidity, while the weather on Sunday was supposed to be beautiful with no humidity. I came to the difficult decision that due to the dangers associated with the heat and my MS, I would have to scratch from the show.
The week before the show, Howard Peet called all the exhibitors to make sure we were all ready to compete. At that time, I told him I couldn’t show because it would be too dangerous for me to ride in the heat on Saturday. Howard paused and just said “No, that just can’t be.” He asked me if I wanted to show and I told him, of course. Then he proceeded to tell me that since he was the show manager, he decided that I would on Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. when it was cooler. He said he would just tell all the other competitors that everyone would have to wait to be pinned until after I finished on Sunday morning. Howard doesn’t know it, but after I hung up the phone with him, I was in tears. I don’t know if he will ever understand how much what he did meant to me. Every single one of the competitors was on board and supported me completely. I went to the show that weekend and won the High Point Award for Introductory Level.