Club Stuff

Musings from Karin   

Well, I think it’s spring, but if you gauge seasons by the weather, there are some days when it appears that winter is still with us. I know we will appreciate all the full creeks and streams later in the year, but I must admit the mud is getting tiresome. Oh well, since I can’t do anything about it, I stop complaining and enjoy the beautiful days we do have.

Congratulations to all who started American River. I hope it was a successful ride for all. It’s a wonderful ride and I hope it continues for many years. Pete and I were in San Diego for the weekend, but our thoughts, for a few minutes anyway, were with the riders and their horses. 

Our meeting this month is going to be dedicated to club business. We have had speakers for a few of the meetings, but it just doesn’t leave enough time for discussion of our endurance ride and the also, the vet stop on Tevis that our club manages. Hopefully, our attendance is enough that we can accomplish our goals. Greg and Diane will be at this meeting and discuss the needs for the Quarry vet check. Remember, even if you are riding, it would be nice to show your support for the people that wait all night to make sure your stop at the Quarry is a positive one for you and your horse. 

Let’s see a full house at this month’s meeting. One more thing…Our endurance ride is set for July 9th. I will be managing the vet check on the first loop and look forward to the great help I usually have. Have a great May and see you on Tuesday.

Get out and enjoy!  

Karin Occhialini

Club Stuff

Jon Saunders will be purging the roster of non-payees after this month. 
Please get your dues in to avoid being "dropped".

Club Dues:

• Dues for 2005:  Single = $15   Family = $25
• Jon Saunders will collect at the meeting, 
  or they can be mailed to the club PO box: 
  P.O. Box 3412
  Auburn, CA 95604.  

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Stories

The Diablo’s Pistoleros 25/50 Ride
Cathy Rohm-Richardson

If you haven’t experienced Henry Coe State Park, do so as soon as you can. What a marvelous place for a ride! This was the setting for the Diablo’s Pistoleros 25/50 which took place on Saturday, May 7th. The ride was ably managed by Doug Reynaud and family, and was assisted by our own Marilyn Hunter.

The ride began well outside of camp, giving riders a 25-minute warm-up. If you went the correct way. My group and I managed to set a record for getting lost immediately – no matter how hard one tries to listen at pre-ride meetings, sometimes the words just float in one ear and out the other, and it was raining, and the sun was in my eyes. Etc., etc. However, no harm, no foul, and the ride started at 7:15.

To say this was an absolutely stunningly beautiful ride is a true understatement. Every inch of the way, yes, even the "lost miles" was an incredible treat for all participants. 
A group of us started by mistake or neglect with the "hot shoes." Jeremy and Heather Reynolds and two Haggin Cup horses were in the lead, with me, my pal Margretta, Lauretta and her lovely stallion and Jane and her Arab-Appy mare hot on their heels. I felt I was going at too brisk a pace, so slowed my sweet Fifi down, and at once, I lost sight of Jeremy, Margretta and Lauretta. I sailed into the first vet check at 8 miles only to find out I was in third or fourth place. Jeremy was trotting out his horse, and neither Margretta nor Loretta were anywhere to be found. Margretta’s husband, Paul, was a volunteer Pistolero, helping at the vet check (they got really cool hats for volunteering – a nice touch, Doug). "Where’s Margretta and Lauretta?" I inquired. "Not here yet." Yikes, they’re lost. 

I vetted through and took off for the lunch stop, which came up before I knew it. This ride was so enjoyable that the miles literally flew by. Unfortunately at lunch, I didn’t realize we needed to pulse in or down or whatever as soon as possible, and I shot the breeze, had a beer, talked to my horse for 20 minutes before someone said, "Cathy, what on earth are you doing? Go pulse in!" Again, no harm, no foul, and I’d managed to give my good mare an additional window of eating opportunity.

Upon leaving the lunch stop, which had marvelous home-made sandwiches, by the way, I caught up with Cheryl and her mare CV Scarlet. We savored every mile of trial we rode together, until we got lost. For reasons I can’t explain, we meandered right by three red ribbons telling us to take a sharp left and ended up going over a very scary bridge. I did a total of four "dumb miles" on the asphalt road, only to be told that I was the only rider to make this mistake, and if I wanted my completion, go back, find the trail, and we’ll see you in a bit.

I did, and they did, and we came in 12th, having left the last vet check with Cheryl and Scarlet, aka Victory, in 5th and 6th places. Miss Fi presented well for that nice Dr. Fellers, and we got the Big "C" for completion. Cheryl was able to top ten as her horse refused to cross the Very Scary Bridge. Smart horse. 

The vistas on this ride, particularly the last loop, were spectacular. Throughout the day, we were treated to fields of waist-high green grass, wild flowers, enormous ancient oak trees, cascading creeks and streams, blue skies interrupted by fluffy snow-white clouds. The entire day was a Hallmark moment.

I would be remiss not mentioning the lost souls, to-wit: Margretta and Lauretta. They got lost together three times, and Margretta simply couldn’t take wandering aimlessly anymore and headed back to camp. Lauretta was very determined and hunted and pecked until she found trail and ended up being the last person to finish the 50. She is one tough gal, and her horse is one of those stallions whose genes should be widely spread. Abba El Shaba. Remember that name. 

The after ride dinner consisted of some Very Good Burritos. The pre-ride dinner was bar-b-qued chicken that was so good it nearly brought tears to my eyes! Super-friendly help, both for the food service and all through the ride. Good ride, good friends, awesome experience, all in all.

Hats off to all involved in the Diablo’s Pistoleros. Put it on your ride calendar for 2006. I know I will! 

Happy Trails,

Cathy Rohm-Richardson

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American River
Dorothy Foster

After finishing the LD at Whiskeytown with lots of horse, I took Myah to American River to babysit my friend, Charlea, who was riding her quarter horse and just wanted to complete the 30 without being overtime. We took things easy, trotting at a leisurely pace and walking through the granite areas. We literally stopped to smell the wild roses and to admire all the wildflowers along the trail. It was the best display ever on what is always a spectacular ride. 

The conditions were perfect for horse and rider and we finished the ride with plenty of time to spare, but I was really upset to find that the quarter horse actually had more "go" at the end of the ride than my Arab! 

One thing that was different at this ride was that the BC for the 30 was chosen from the last 10 horses to finish rather than the first. I have no idea who placed where, but as I was waiting for my rig at the finish, I did see the first 70 miler finish, and she and her horse looked GREAT. 

The only REALLY bad thing about the ride was Kathy Perry's announcement that she would no longer be putting on the ride. I certainly hope someone else takes on what is surely a huge project and continues the tradition. This year instead of an awards banquet, each rider was given a tee shirt as soon as he vetted in and a dinner was served Friday night. Also each rider was entered in a raffle, and Les Carr won an English saddle donated by Christensen's Saddlery. 

The American River Ride was my very first endurance ride back in 1980 when it started at Cal Expo, and I certainly hope that someone takes up the challenge to continue it.

Dorothy Foster

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Tevis Fun Ride - A Pictorial Rendition
Lucy Chaplin Trumbull

We had a fine time at the Tevis Fun Ride last weekend. My friends Dorothy and Dennis came down from Quincy and we rode the California Loop together. To save on the newsletter download time, I've put a few photos on a separate page for your viewing pleasure:

Ride & Tie Is Going to Be Fun, Right?...
(Part 3)
Lucy Chaplin Trumbull

Well, our R&T experience is somewhat stalled at this point. I've been busy with saddle fit issues and foot-disintegration issues, so have not progressed further with Zini's R&T education. 

I did sit down with some rope and two carabiners purchased from REI and built myself a genuine R&T tie rope to Cheryl Domnitch's specifications. This special rope has a carabiner firmly tied in at each end (why bother with pesky knots?) and secured with duct tape to stop them flopping around, and two loops tied along the middle of the rope to clip your carabiners to after wrapping the tether around the tree. I haven't actually tied Zini to a tree with it yet, but have attached it to the trailer and hung off it to make sure nothing came unravelled. So far, so good.

(note that although tying this way doesn't give much opportunity for "quick release" in an emergency, I tie my rope halter - which this R&T rope will be clipped to - with a quick release by looping the tail back through the knot, so hopefully that will work at a pinch. Tying a rope halter this way is a good idea, regardless, since it means that you can always get the darn thing undone, no matter how hard your horse sat down on its tie rope).

And I've been running. Unfortunately, most of my running is still downhill, which causes me to have the false sense of being competent at running.  I was feeling reasonably accomplished until the other evening when it was soggy and I ran from home and about suffered a cardiac arrest trying to run up the hill half a mile from my house. Running on real terrain (aka something with uphills) turns my average continuously maintainable speed from 5.3 mph to 3.6 mph, which was a bit demoralising. 

My favorite running section is from the top turnout on hw-49 after you start down the canyon from Auburn, down through the Black Hole, along the old railroad bed, over No-Hands bridge before spewing out at the bottom (where Patrick is waiting with the car - I run this loop on our way home from work). It is a whole 2.65 miles and I can do it in 28 minutes if I really scuttle.

Running this section is good practice for riding it on Tevis in the pitch dark as I now know every root, rock, and overhanging stick of poison oak intimately. At some point, I need to remember to run with my snippers and do some trail trimming along the way. This will wreck my oh-so-important running time splits (?), but I figure it's for a good cause. Another thought I've had is to take along a trowel and scoop out some of the sediment that has filled the trough in the Black Hole causing the water to only be half an inch deep.

Right now I'm giving Zini the rest of the month off, in an effort to grow out her feet. They disintegrated during the last shoeing cycle, resulting in the loss of both front shoes and her feet looking like they'd been attacked with a weed-whacker. Attempts at reconstruction with acrylic have not been terribly successful, so I decided waiting until the beginning of next month for her feet to grow out was probably a better option.

Next month things will be better, right?

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The Education of AE Psymmetry (aka Timi)
Betsy Wobus

Since I hit the magic age of 59½ last year and now have some IRA funds to use for competing again, I've done 2 dressage shows and one 30-mile LD ride with my 6-year-old Padron's Psyche son, AE Psymmetry, aka Timi. Both dressage shows were at Rancho Murieta, where I've volunteered as a scorer for the past 4 years.

Since the show manager is a friend, I asked to ride for a particular judge for the first show in early February. Little did I know that she would give me not only that judge for both rides, but 2 other judges for both rides as well (I've never shown for 2 judges before). And--best of all--both rides were in the indoor arena! 

Now Timi had seen only one indoor arena in the 1½ years I'd had him by then, so I made an extra trip down (75 miles each way) the day before the show to ride him around and show him the indoor arena. (My 20-year-old, Tolly, thinks the stands and 2nd story to the berm of the indoor are full of lions and tigers and bears – oh, my!!) So Timi got a look at the stands and the PVC arena and the "bare bones" of the judges' stands and handled it all modestly well. 

Then came show day. First of all, he shook his bridle number off 3 times while I was warming him up before someone showed me how to bend the little metal piece so it wouldn't fall out – and he stopped shaking his head. Then he thought the tables with cloths and judges and scribes sitting behind them on the stands – that he'd seen the day before – were certainly going to eat him alive. But with minor disobediences – some politely labelled "playful" by the judges – we managed to get through both tests without my being bucked off, without Timi jumping out of the arena and with all 4 trot > canter transitions resulting in the correct leads! Our scores were in the high 50s, so I was quite pleased. 

For the April show, I also requested a certain judge, but carefully stated not if it meant showing in the indoor arena and with more than 1 judge for the ride. I didn't get the judge I wanted (she'd labelled him "playful" in the first show), but I got both rides in the outdoor arena by the cross-country course. 

Timi and I had been having some "issues" with canter leads, and we blew both of them in the first test. He did do some very nice flying changes from left to right for reasons which are totally obscure to me. When the judge rang the bell to indicate we could enter for our second test, the heavens opened up. Mind you, this was not the downpours we got the next day when we actually had to stop the show twice because of wind, rain, lightning, flooded arenas, etc., but it was a significant shower. When we did our first "halt at X," Timi kept trying to turn his tail into the wind and rain, and I had visions of being eliminated for "prolonged resistance." The judge, however, recognized that the rain was possibly bothering him, and was quite generous in her scoring. This test, he got the left canter lead, but not the right. Go figure... Anyway, there being only 2 riders in the class, we came away with our first blue ribbon!! 

Well, dressage is still a work in progress; meanwhile, we were going down trails with lots of creeks and puddles in preparation for the American River 30. Many of you remember Timi was ridden in the Gold Country 30 last summer by Vicki Testa after I had emergency surgery for a gangrenous gall bladder (without stones). Then truck troubles and a hole in Timi's right knee (compliments of an unknown object in his living environment) kept us from getting out much in the fall. So this would be my first "Endurance" ride on him. 

As he grew up in the Nevada desert, he has always thought that water belongs in troughs and only falls out of the sky as snow, so he's leapt over the seasonal creek that runs through my pasture in spite of the placid examples set by my 2 older horses, Tolly and Tonka. 

When I first started riding Timi at Spenceville, Mary Anne Maynard would pony him over the little creeks that blossom there in the winter. He then became comfortable following a more seasoned horse through them without having a lead rope on, although he'd still leap across if at all possible. 

Well, our last training ride at Oroville finally "cured" him of his trepidation. We rode with Adella Albiani and Fancy, Corey Maynard's old endurance horse, with Timi leading on the way out, stopping at every little mudhole on the trail. But Fancy led on the way back, and if he didn't just GO through those puddles, he wasn't going to keep up! I rode him at Spenceville solo a few days later, and the trolls were no longer hiding in every puddle and creek. 

He camped at Negro Bar better than I did: I froze sleeping in the horse trailer, and even after getting his polar fleece cooler to add to my sleeping bag, the road noise on Greenback Lane kept me awake. We got up and dressed early, ready to ride out at a respectable time with Vicki on Handsome (his first ride also) and Sheila Larsen on Splash. But "Mom" left her truck keys on the wheel well of the trailer and had to run back to get them, further delaying our start. Now, Vicki had said she wanted to do a slow ride and come in last because Handsome wasn't in great shape yet, so we were all OK with the late start. Except Timi... 

Timi knew Handsome from earlier rides, and Splash is a mare, which was just fine with him. He seemed to understand that they were his "herd" for the day. But what about those horses just up ahead? "Shouldn't we be up with them, Mom?" I never got the feeling that he wanted to be in front of them, as I had in the one 30-mile ride I did on Tolly, my ex-racehorse. He just seemed to think they might be a nice "herd," too.

So we had some discussions for the first 5 or 10 miles about who was making what decisions; again, he didn't buck me off (though I heard Sheila say "Oh my!" behind us one time), and I learned that ripping his teeth out one side at a time (known as a "half halt on one rein" in dressage circles) was far more effective than trying to do both sides at once. (I've subsequently learned that letting go after a good tug works best of all: it's always been said a horse won't pull against a rider who's not pulling.) Finally, he sort of came up with the idea that it really didn't matter which "herd" he rode with and we got along great from then on. 

Handsome was the only one of our herd who figured out early on that drinking was a good thing, but Timi caught on at the vet check at Rattlesnake Bar. From counting his swallows, I estimated he took in about 2 gallons at that stop alone; he drank at almost every creek after that, too. Splash was the only one who never really drank well, but she seemed to make it through just fine anyway. 

Needless to say, the ride was beautiful, the wild flowers were outrageous and we all had a good time. Timi took the log over the trail in the last 1-2 miles at a trot with a nice jump and pulsed down to 48 in the few minutes it took to find "my" vet, Sarah McCarthy, for the final check. I have no idea where we came in, though it wasn't anyway near last. My guess is we were probably in the top 1/2 of the 30-or-so horses that started. 

I know Vicki got her truck out of the mud, and I assume Sheila got back to her rig; waiting for Craig (McCann) and Adella to get my rig to Auburn was the hardest part of the ride! Craig had understood that if we came in "last," that would mean an arrival time of around 2PM (cut-off). Problem is, we came in at 1PM, and even after I called him on my cell phone, they didn't get to Auburn until around 2:30. There was plenty of stuff for Timi to eat and drink, but I'd consumed all my liquid on the ride; thank heavens for Greg Kimler, who gave me a half-liter of bottled water. And driving home, Adella only had to yell at me once for falling asleep and driving onto the shoulder... 

Aside from re-inventing the wheel about not pulling against your horse, the other important thing I learned was "Don't leave your stirrups at jumping length the whole ride!" My quads gave me some major reprimands for 2 days; I didn't even try to ride again until Tuesday, and then it was just 1/2 hour of walk-trot-canter out on my gallop track. But we got back "into" dressage the next 2 days, did a 13+-mile ride with Adella in Spenceville on Friday and a dressage schooling show on Saturday... 

This weekend, we head to Sacramento for the Sheriff's Dept. Search and Rescue Training (aka "desensitize your horse to anything and everything"). Then there's a schooling horse trial at Eventful Acres in Oregon House the following weekend where we'll ride Beginning Novice (fences 2'6" and under). And the first day of the Wild West Rides, we'll again do the 30, this time with a junior rider from Felicia Tracy's barn whom I met when I looked at Felicia's truck camper some weeks ago. (I'll be volunteering again the next 2 days of the rides.) 

And, after a few other eventing and dressage thingies in June, we're aiming for the Gold Country 50 this year--if Mother Nature doesn't intervene again in some nasty way. 

Wow, it sure is fun to be back in "competitive" mode!! 

See you on the trails... 

Betsy Wobus and Timi 

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