May Meeting

Tuesday 18th, 7 pm (6 pm if you want to eat ahead of the meeting) 
at Baker's Square, Auburn

Gold Country Endurance Ride

Volunteers Needed

The Gold Country ride is coming up. It is Saturday, July 10th. It is time to volunteer for a position. We need the following jobs filled:

• Timers
• P & R people at camp
• People to man the highway for 1 to 2 hours
• "Water stop" people. I have two places on the ride where we will have drinks for the riders and water for the horses. These two spots need two people at one stop and at least 3 to 4 people at the other.
• Someone to man "slick pavement" in case the Larkins are not available 
  (they may be at a ride and not back in time).

This is the only time during the year that we ask for your help. Please e-mail me at glassman1@foothill.net or call me at 530.272.9222 to volunteer. I would greatly appreciate it if you would call before June 15th (I want all positions to be filled by then). I hate it when no one calls until a week before the ride. That is too late by then. I am not one to wait til the last minute!
Cherryl Holbrook

Endurance Ride Entry

Note that the ride is limited to 85 entrants. The entry for this years' ride is now available for printing out from the web:

• Ride Entry
• Liability Release

(These links are also permanently available on the main GCER web page.)

Ride and Tie Entry

The entry form for the Ride and Tie portion of the ride, managed by the very capable Cheryl Domnitch, is available at:

• http://www.rideandtie.org/race_schedule.html

State of the Community Dinner

Thanks to Mary Abbott’s persistence, a group of us participated in the State of the Community dinner sponsored by the Auburn Chamber of Commerce. It was held at the Ridge Golf Course and Country Club on April 31st and the theme was, “Celebrating Endurance.”

Approximately 300 people were in attendance and tables seating 8 to 10 displayed signs identifying their groups or businesses. From this photo from the Auburn Journal website you can see the sign that prominently identified GCER. Alison has the sign, so if we need to be identified as a group, we’re prepared.

Photo - Auburn Journal

If you read the Journal, you saw the huge cutout of Wendell Robie astride a horse. He was given a posthumous award as an endurance event pioneer and influential Auburn citizen.

We were seated next to the Western States Trail Foundation table represented by Mr. Chuck Mather, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Picket, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Christofk and a few other people that I did not recognize. I type the formal use of their names because they were obviously in their sophisticated, going to the city demeanor.

Honestly, I thought I was sitting next to a group at an English tea party. Sorry, Lucy. Actually, there is probably more emotion shown when ordering cucumber sandwiches than was shown by this group of endurance riders and runners. While the “mother ship” sat in silence or politely clapped when horses or endurance was mentioned, the “country bumpkins” (GCER) led by Potato and Cathy Richardson, Jim and Cherryl Holbrook, Mary Abbott, Alison Spackman, Kristy Hartman and me, showed their enthusiasm for the theme of endurance by responding with unabashed applause. We whooped and generally showing our delight for the recognition of the community for this theme that celebrates athleticism, spontaneity and the ability of a group of people to show an enthusiastic love for the endurance events shared with the animals and people they love.

The Auburn Journal wrote, “Any time horses or endurance were mentioned, a lively group from the Western States Trail Association (sic) responded with enthusiastic applause.” We apologize to WSTF for the error in this printing and hope that others reading the Journal did not assume they showed the enthusiasm they were given credit for that evening. 

Karin Occhialini

State of the Community Dinner:
Wendell Robie Honored 

The Auburn Chamber of Commerce’s Annual State of the Community Dinner was held on April 30th and was particularly noteworthy as this year’s theme was “Celebrating Endurance.” 

The highlight of the evening was Wendell Robie receiving posthumous recognition for his establishment of the Tevis and relentless effort to preserve our region’s Gold Rush era trails. The Wendell and Inez Robie Foundation was given the “Friend of Auburn Award” in memory of Wendell.

“His early 1950's wild idea of riding a horse 100 miles in one day laid the groundwork for what is now the international sport of endurance riding,” Shannon Weil told the audience before presenting the award to Jim Larimer, executive director of the foundation, and Zack Larimer, Wendell’s great-grandson. “He was inducted into the American Endurance Ride Conference Hall of Fame in 1976.”

Behind Shannon as she spoke, was a seven-foot tall cut out photo of Wendell on his horse. At the same time, photos of Wendell were also displayed on a big screen. “His support for the earliest 100 mile run spun into the international sport of ultra- running. Both have brought worldwide recognition to Auburn.”

As an official “sponsor” of the event, GCER’s name was prominently displayed at it’s table for all of the 330 local community members present—including the mayor, council members and representatives of county government--to see. GCER was also listed in the program along with other sponsors, mostly local businesses. However, the Western States Trail Foundation, Western States Endurance Run and Wendell and Inez Robie Foundation were also sponsors.

Perhaps Shannon best summed up the evening when she stated: “Most importantly, 2004 brings us to the 50th year of the Tevis Cup Ride set for July 31. The last Saturday in July will be an awesome day of glory as 250 riders from around the globe gather to ride across the Sierra Nevada Mountains in quest of the world famous silver buckle that is recognizable everywhere. Tonight marks the first of many celebrations honoring this historic event. We will begin by honoring the founder and mentor, Wendell Robie, and thank him for the gifts that he left for us.”

Good job GCER in showing support for a community that has embraced endurance!

Mary Abbott

Club Dues:

• Dues are now past due for 2004!  Single = $15   Family = $25
• I will collect at the meeting, or they can be mailed to the club PO box: 
  P.O. Box 3412
  Auburn, CA 95604.  
• The email and s-mail lists were purged of "non-paying members" at the beginning of April, so if people want to receive anything, they must pay the dues. We don't charge for back dues - so there is no penalty for missing past years.

Stories

Ride & Tie: The New Spectator Sport
Cheryl Domnitch

The third weekend in April, Mocha Brown and I headed to Grant Ranch Park (Mount Hamilton) in San Jose for the SASO (Shine and Shine Only) Ride & Tie. Although the sun didn’t shine very much, it wasn’t raining, so the race was a go. The vet check was Friday evening, and although I had been to the park many times and knew about the wild pigs, it was still a thrill when the first group of pig spectators showed up simply to check out the craziness of it all.

It was a cold and windy 7:30 am start, insanely early for us prima donna R & T’rs, but necessary to avoid timing conflicts at the vet checks with the endurance riders. Although Sabrina, our human partner was in shorts, I wore tights, two long sleeve shirts and gloves.

An uneventful start is always a positive sign at a R & T. Nobody put themselves in between the horse and the ground, although Mocha, as is typical, couldn’t make any forward motion until he got the bucks out of his system. Fortunately, I start riding and Sabrina starts running, so she gets to miss most of the fun!

The course is spectacular. The first 10 miles is sheltered with trees, ample excellent ties, plenty of hills and a few gaggles of wild turkeys trying to get in on the action. Woohooo, Go Ride & Tie!!!!

Sabrina, Mocha and I were all weak links, not having done enough distance for a 25 mile R & T, but as we approached the vet check at mile 10, Mocha was having a blast, so Sabrina and I decided to chug it out. I rode Mocha into the vet check, dropped him off with crew and took off running. Sabrina’s job was to run into the vet check, guide Mocha through the check and head out on horse. If the runner in front – this would be me – is running for a long, long time, you can guess that your horse is having problems at the vet check. That just wasn’t the case….Mocha met criteria and achieved all “A’s” and he and Sabrina caught up to me in no time flat!

Shortly after the vet check, we crossed the highway and also seemed to cross a geological barrier. Gone were the trees, gone were the ties, and we were welcomed by dozens and dozens of cows, wondering: “What the heck are these crazy humans up to?” and of course they were all laughing inside as they lazily grazed away, each with one eye on us at all times. Only the hills were everlasting. There were so few ties that Sabrina and I were running for long distances, 2-3 miles before a transition. Generally, we transition every one-half to three-fourths of a mile. This meant fewer rests for Mocha Brown. But he proved, by far, to be our strongest link with Sabrina and I fading at the end, while Mocha was ready for the next 25 miles. 

We were thrilled with our finish, 1st place woman-woman pro-am team and 6th place overall! Oh, and just in case I forgot to mention it,….. there were six R & T teams competing. In the spirit of endurance, “To Finish is to Win”.

American River/Tevis Fun Ride 
(side plot to the Nightmare of Tevis)
Lucy Chaplin Trumbull

This should probably be entitled "Training for Tevis and Continuing to Make a Mess of It"—April had it's ups and downs, and May didn't turn out much better.

* * * *

My Tevis training came to an abrupt halt two weeks ago when Provo stopped dead a quarter of the way up the side of El Dorado Canyon. Provo never stops dead... it's against his religion, so I knew something wasn't quite right.

American River

To backtrack, we did American River 50 the weekend before and for once I let him go a bit to see how that pace suited him. My aim had been to finish the ride in a ride time of less than 9 hours. Well, we met that goal, and then some – finishing in 8:19 after spending the day with Jazon Wonders' Pan Am/Tevis horse, Milarepa (aka Mikey). Provo was extremely cheerful the whole day and was evidently very enamored with Mikey because every time they were separated, he made a big fuss.

Provo doing his best to trample me or Dr Bob Morgan at Cool - photo Cindy Larkin

At Cool he was about as bad as I've ever seen him– trampling around and trying to stand on people. He went so fast during his trot-out that I had to have him do a big circle at the far end just to get him slowed down enough to trot back in the other direction. Dr Bob Morgan commented that he was going to make a lousy 100 mile horse, seeing as he wasted so much energy. I agreed with him totally - but by then was too far gone and too pathetic to be able to convince Provo behave with any degree of credibility. 

And then, after staggering down to the Coffer Dam (off and leading - being too sore to continue being repeatedly slammed into the pommel of my saddle from Provo jigging to keep up with Mikey), watching with amazement as Provo proceeded to canter up the other side (the same stretch of trail he had hitherto trudged up like death warmed up) and resorting to using the cruddy horse sponge on myself in the ditch at Maidu, I was even further gone by the time we got to the finish. Provo looked great, although he was tired when he finally came down to earth an hour or so later. Sadly Mikey came up lame 40' from the finish line and was pulled. There but for the grace...

We certainly earned our 12th place – even if the main reason we finished that high was that we didn't get lost like the other 80% of the riders.

WST on the way up to Michigan Bluff
El Dorado Canyon

So, there we were, a week later, stuck in El Dorado canyon. Quite what possessed me to think that riding from Foresthill to Deadwood and back was a suitable "post-50 ride" is anyone's guess. I believe the term is "DIMR" (distance induced mental retardation). I suspect I was lulled into a false sense of security by riding with GCER members, Vicki Testa and Sheila Larsen, and for some reason thought they were going to "go slowly". I'd never ridden with either of them before and what Sheila neglected to mention is that her mare can walk at about 6 mph, so Provo had to trot even when we were "going slowly". <sigh>

After I told Vicki and Sheila to go on up to Deadwood without us, and rested by El Dorado creek for half an hour, Provo proceeded to power walk back up to Michigan Bluff - not even stopping when I wanted to take pictures. He finished the ride OK, but again looked a bit "bleah" (medical term) back at the trailer. 

WST at Michigan Bluff, above the plunge to El Dorado Creek

Vicki and Truly, Sheila and Splash, and Provo – leading down Volcano Canyon

For the next few days he wasn't eating very well, seemed extremely subdued, and after watching him staggering in the back end when we brought him in the night before, I ended up taking him in to Auburn on Wednesday for Dr Adrienne Brower to look at. At that point, I was convinced he was suffering from some neurological "something" (i.e. was the first horse in Northern CA to contract WNV, I was *sure* of it). Adrienne looked him over and pronounced that he was probably "sore". <weebly smile>

The upshot of it, is he'll probably be fine with some buting and a couple of weeks off. The most worrisome symptom was short-striding on the right rear, but this might be related to having some chiro work done on him a week before AR50 and him being "blocked" on that right rear. We were speculating that during the 50 maybe he was using a bunch of muscles back there that hadn't been properly used in a long time and over-stressed them. <fingers crossed>.

Lesson learned? 16 yr old horses don't bounce back with quite the same speed as younger horses after tougher-than-usual 50 milers. From now on, we will be returning to our former dawdle pace.

Tevis Fun Ride

Anyhoo... Provo didn't get to go to the Tevis Fun Ride and I planned to take "Plan B" instead - Patrick's young pinto, Zini. Zini hadn't really been ridden since last fall when she and Provo got in a kicking match and she lost (sibling rivalry at it's worse), but I figured she'd be OK to mosey down the canyon towards Michigan Bluff even if we didn't get all the way there.

Saturday morning dawned and I went down to feed and found Zini standing on three legs - the fourth with four fresh gouges down the front of the cannon, seemingly caused by her barging into one of the plastic electric tape holders and ripping it off the fence post... quite how she managed to get *four* gouges is anyone's guess, but that's Zini for you.

I was reduced to "Plan C" - Mouse - who hadn't been ridden in 13 months, looks 17 months pregnant, and was 7 weeks into her last trim, so her bare feet looked like badly damaged pie plates. Last time I rode her was April last year when she was 7 months into rehabbing a suspensory injury and we'd just got to the "add 5 mins of trotting a day" part. We were out on our standard loop, and she bucked me off and fell down and split her lip open. Not good memories to encourage me to just "hop back on her". <gulp>

So Mouse got to go to the Fun Ride. I figured she could use the exposure, and, if nothing else, I'd just walk her around the mill site and she could take in the sights.

Even when Mouse is slim 
(which she isn't right now by any stretch of the imagination), 
she always looks like a small fat girl stuffed into a party dress

What actually happened was she was totally bored by the whole proceedings (provided she was in front of a hay bag) - even when a horse went galloping through the area in a panic, trailing a lawn chair. I ended up saddling her up, hand-walking her down Volcano Canyon. 

On the return journey, after I'd staggered a mile and half up the worst of the canyon (the singletrack part with the drop off, which I wasn't willing to attempt on Miss Flighty), when it widened out, I opted to get on and ride the last mile in up Bath Road. Mouse acted like the last 13 months of inactivity had never happened, and was calm and quiet the whole way. Huh.

As my friend put it, she'd forgotten all about the bucking incident minutes after it happened and probably wondered why I still held it against her 13 months later.

So all in all, although it wasn't the Fun Ride I'd anticipated, I was thrilled with Mouse's "mile" of trail riding. Funny how your expectations change depending on which horse you're working with and where they are in their "program."

The whole day was really nice - very laid back. I don't know how many people turned up, but the mill site was packed, so it was good that WSTF got such enthusiastic support. The weather was about perfect - warm, but not ludicrously so. John Maretti was not there and didn't decorate the trail. The barbecue was very good, the raffle obviously fixed (Frank Smith's wife Joanie seemingly won most of the prizes) and my day was ruint when I didn't win the free Tevis Entry, but somehow I managed to enjoy myself anyway <grin>.

Time Spent with Sanskrit
Part 2
Terryl Reed

The second in a two-part account of Terryl's experience with Sanskrit.

Tevis
At Tevis, Sans was ready and, to tell you the truth, I thought we had a chance to win. The night before my daughter and I were both woken up by what sounded like Sans playing in his water, yet when we got up that morning his water was brim full. I asked if anyone had filled his water and no one had. It puzzled me that no water was missing and concerned me that he had not drank any water since 10 PM that night. I put it on the back burner. 

A friend of Dee's, Cathy Ellinghouse, asked if she could take Sans for a short walk before I saddled him. I wasn't sure about the need, but Dee thought it was a good idea. While walking him, Cathy said he had wanted a drink and she had let him have a good drink at the water trough. It made me feel better about his not drinking from his bucket during the night. 

At the start of the race Sans was awesome. He quietly stood as we waited for the start. We left close to the front of the pack, but not in front. Sans weaved in and out of traffic like the pro he was. While other horses were bobbing and bouncing, lunging, pulling and bucking, Sans was trotting at a good strong steady trot. 

We reached Squaw Valley in good shape, coasting up the mountain at a slow, almost show jog. I had asked him to walk, but he wanted to go faster, so we compromised with the jog. At the top we continued on at a slow trot. 

Half way up Cougar Rock Sans stopped, turned his head, and whinnied to the horses below. Everyone froze, thinking he was turning around. I knew he was only saying "hurry up!" to a mare we had been riding with. 

When we reached the Red Star Ridge vet check, he drank a good half a bucket of water. Sans was a good drinker – almost too good. Moire my riding buddy and I use to joke about how much Sans drank. At one time we thought he could be diabetic and Dee and I had a blood panel done by Greg Fellers at Loomis Vet. There were a few highs and lows, but for the most part the bloodwork looked fine. 

One other oddity Sans had was his sweat – he never quit lathering. Greg and Bob both said not to worry, considering Sans was winning races, getting best conditions, etc. it was probably something that didn't matter. That morning Sans was lathering more than normal and the consistency was thicker. After a little more than an hour it cleared up. Again I was concerned, but because he felt so good I ignored the warning. The vet at Red Star told his colleges "If all horses looked this good, we wouldn't need this check." 

If he only knew. If I had only known what was coming. 

I purposely waited there to let the front horses get further in front so Sans and I could ride alone for a while and enjoy easing into Robinson relaxed and ready for the check. Somewhere between Red Star and Robinson, Sans changed. I knew something was wrong, I could feel it. I offered him a carrot and he refused. 

When I got into Robinson his pulse was 48. I asked my crew to keep an eye on him. He had a small cramp and his pulse went up a little. We took him to the vet check where he was passed to go on. I told the vet there might be something wrong and she said to walk him and come back in 30 minutes. We walked him up the road, out of the commotion of the check, and he appeared to feel so good that he was dragging my daughter who was leading him. He cramped slightly again and then seemed fine. Greg Fellers from Loomis Basin and my friend Moire drove up about then and I asked Greg if he could check Sans. Greg had just watched Sans pulling Shannon down the hill and said "He's not tired". I said "I know, but he is in trouble." Greg gave him a look over, checking dehydration, etc. 

Sans then cramped again and from that point on he went downhill. Even with all the IVs, he continued to dehydrate and wound up at Loomis.

Back at home,  while putting everything away, I noticed a red residue in one of the water buckets we had used for Sans. It tasted salty and made me wonder if someone had put something in Sans water. That would explain why we heard the water noises - maybe being stirred, not him playing in it. Having an unfamiliar taste, Sans didn't drink any of it and that is why he was thirsty and drank at the water trough when taken for his walk. Maybe it had something to do with his excess lathering, unexplained cramping, and dehydration. 

Derby Ditch
After a good rest, I started him up slow. We rode a 25 mile LD and then went to Derby Ditch. Although we were using the Derby Ditch as just a trial run to see how he was, he showed just how good he is. Moire and I started 20 minutes late and were having way to much fun. Sans felt great. A third of the way into the ride Fleet, Moire's horse, took a bad step and came up lame. We doodled along for quite a while until Moire convinced me that I should go on. We trotted into lunch as if we had just left camp. I don't remember how far it is from lunch to the last vet check, but just out of lunch Sans changed from a trot to a lope. There was five of us riding together. Sans was eating up the trail and loving it. One by one the other four riders pulled up saying their horses had had enough. Sans continued on strong. We galloped straight into the last stop. Jamie Kerr was the vet. I hopped off and said "Check him." "Do you want a courtesy?" I said "No, lets go for it". Jamie said everything was fine and handed me my card. After a brief look, I told him I was concerned with the B- on his gut. Jamie said "Don't worry – he just finished 50 miles in less than 6 hours". He bet within a hour it would be back to an A. He was right.

American River
From Derby Ditch we went to American River and that is where the second metabolic upset occurred.  

Sans was ready. I gave him a small dose of electrolytes and we were ready to go. We had a good start. He was really feeling good, moving out strong and eager. I had started towards the end, so we found ourselves weaving in and out of traffic. But he was once again lathering. The lather disappeared an hour into the race and I thought we were fine. 

The rest of the race was fun. We rode with good company, all got lost together and came into Cool at the same time. Just before getting into Cool, Sans stopped and took a long drink at the end of a driveway . We then walked on in to Cool. 

Sans passed his vet check and just before leaving I gave him a good dose of electrolytes. I figured since we were running in front it wouldn't hurt, and maybe even help. I had been trying them on Sans at home, so wasn't worried, but my boyfriend instantly said after I gave them to Sans: "You screwed up." Dee jumped back thinking he was referring to something she had done. I stared at Al with what I am sure was a puzzled look. He said "Look at him – he isn't moving." Sans had been stomping, moving around and munching on hay, now he was just standing there, looking at the horses coming in behind us. 

To tell the truth I don't think either Dee or I saw what Al saw. Dee encouraged me to hurry and I thought everything was fine. 

I left Cool with a horse that wanted to go. He even spooked at a big rig shifting gears and braking. I caught the two leaders without trying and together we walked on down the mountain and half way up the other side. A runner who knew Chris Knoch jogged up to us and said to Chris "I guess you have this race won." Chris pointed to Sans and said "No, he does". Both Chris and the other rider were using Sans to drag on. Sans was without a doubt still feeling strong and must have looked good to them. 

But once again as we walked up the last hill to Todd Nelson's vet check, I felt something happen. I told Chris to go on that I would mosey in slow. Sans always kept a good attitude and when I walked into the vet check Rho Jacoby, Todd and everyone said "boy, is he looking good!" I shook my head, and Todd said get him in the water and cool him off. His pulse climbed like at Robinson. Todd told me to go on in, but take it slow. I led most of the ways and then got on and rode in. Sans felt good and I thought perhaps he'd be fine. Frank Pickell greeted me with Dee. I unsaddled and gave him a mash to eat while I cleaned him up. He looked good. Frank said "I bet you have best condition sewn up." I was still pessimistic. I took him over to Hank Cook who was vetting the finishing horses and he told me Sans looked fine, to quit worrying and let him eat a little grass. We took him back to the trailer and he cramped. One of us got Jason Shavers and by that time Sans had started to dehydrate. Jason tubed him, Sans cramped more, and we wound up taking him to Loomis where they pumped fluids into him. He got pretty sick. 

The common factor was electrolytes. The residue in the bucket was electrolytes. Excessive lathering, cramping, quick onset of dehydration. 

Dee really freaked out and accused me of overriding Sans . I know being the rider it is my responsibility to know when things aren't right. But once I felt the change in Sans, it was too late. 

Later I was talking to Marge Pryor and she told me she knew of more than one horse that had the same reaction to electrolytes. Sans just didn't need them. His system was so good and he drank so well. When I screwed with the balance that made him so great I played God when I shouldn't have.

It's interesting how things work out. Dee's gone on and done good things with Sans. I went back to school and got my teaching credential, became a baseball mom, and have a new stallion named AFlame who I am breeding to my Sanskrit mares. I also have two AFlame mares that are just turning four that I plan on breeding to Sans. The Sans mares bred to AFlame have been nice. I am sure the AFlame mares bred to Sans will be equally as good.

I fully support Dee in her promotion of Sans and the diversity to which she has exposed him – showing everyone what an exceptional individual he is.  My hat comes off to her and I applaud Dee. 

Fate has a destiny of its own. If I had of stayed involved instead of becoming a teacher, Sans might have traveled down the trail and been kept a secret as to how great and truly diverse he really is.

Adverts

Maretti Horses Still For Sale

Beholdd—Foaled 3/90, Polish Arabian, Grey, Easy going, level headed, has done several 50's and Ride and Ties, some dressage training, very easy to ride, $3500

Cisco—Foaled 4/90, Spanish Arabian, Chestnut, extremely athletic, responsive, easy on the hands, several endurance rides, Level 1 Dressage, experienced riders only, $3500

John and Cathy Maretti H (530) 345-0240

(Note: Having discovered that Beholdd and Provo share the same sire, I questioned Ann Hall [who bred Beholdd] on the trail during AR50 about his breeding. Ann raved about the sire, Bihar, and said that Beholdd's dam is the same as Hal's Haggin Cup winner, Bogus Thunder's. As she put it, Beholdd is 'bred to the hilt'. While being smashed around during AR50, I developed a secret fantasy that I could buy Beholdd and he'd be "just like Provo, only comfortable". Unfortunately, Patrick didn't share the same fantasy and ruined everything. Lucy)

Upcoming Dates