Club Stuff

Musings from Karin   

Labor Day has come and gone and I guess that means summer is officially over. The best is yet to come, with cool days and even cooler nights. Time to get firewood stacked, chimneys cleaned and think about putting the BBQ away. OK, maybe that’s a bit premature, because we all know we can have some pretty warm days in September and October.

At the August meeting, the current officers elected to stay in their respective offices. So much for an election! We need to know if the board members will remain the same. Alison will be chairing the September meeting and please let her know if you are willing to continue on as a board member or would like to step down. If there is a vacancy, we will need to fill it at this time.

For September, we will be having a guest speaker, Pamela Riggs. Pamela is an equine touch practitioner and was brought to our attention by Betsy Wobus. I hope the attendance for the meeting shows our support for this guest.

October’s meeting will be our last for the year. I think it will be a fun, entertaining and informative way to end 2005. We have invited Tim Thomas, a horse trainer from Cool, to do a training demonstration at Steve and Claudette Horvath’s facility, the Rock’n H Ranch in Greenwood. Steve and Claudette recently joined Gold Country and graciously volunteered their arena for this function. The ad for their boarding facility runs in the newsletter…be sure to check it out. After Tim Thomas, we will be going next door to the Larkin’s’ for a potluck. Mark Sunday October 30th on your calendar and plan to attend. The afternoon’s activities will start at 1 pm. 

Thank you all for the support you have shown the club and its activities this year.

Karin Occhialini

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

Judy and Karin's Big Adventure
Karin Occhialini

A trip to Silver Lake had been in the planning stages since February and the big weekend was finally here. Judy Carnazzo and I were planning on staying in my motor home with each of us towing our own rigs. Camping with us were Becky Santucci, Vicki Hoffman, Sue Bain and Marina.

Thursday morning I headed out the driveway and down the Marshall Grade to meet Judy and Cherryl Holbrook at the State Park in Coloma. We headed off with Cherryl leading, Judy following Cherryl and me bringing up the rear. The plan was to have Cherryl lead until we arrived at Highway 50 and then I would take the point since I had been in the area before.

Trouble started almost immediately as we started to pull some hills coming out of Coloma. In low gear, my engine was making a high pitched squeal. As I shifted back into drive, the noise stopped. Alright, I said, I had better stay in drive. Of course, when you live in the foothills, have an older motor home and are towing a horse and trailer, it’s pretty impossible to stay out of low gear. The noise was intermittent but persistent in the lower gears, and I did my best to ignore it. The radio was turned up and I was moving to the music, but the noise continued not only in the lower gears, but now could be heard in drive. 

I reached for my two-way radio whose mate was with Judy. My plan was to communicate my difficulties and let her know that I was probably going to take the exit into Sly Park and not turn towards Silver Lake. 

Ring, ring, ring…..JUDY???? No answer. 

Ring, ring, ring…suddenly, the sound of voices in an foreign, unknown language. Who are these people and what have they done with Judy??? 

The probability of a terrorist cell invading the airways crosses my mind, but I have more pressing issues. Off goes the radio. I decide to call Pete, who is working on files at home. 

Ring, ring, ring, “Hi honey, It’s me…I’m in Placerville and can you hear this?” I hold the cell to the dashboard. “Uh, no I don’t hear anything.” “Wait!” I say. “Let me put it closer.” No, he still can’t hear anything, and by now is wishing desperately he had not answered this call. “I’m getting off at Sly Park,” I say. “Would you call Cherryl on her cell and tell her what is going on?” I hang up and think that when I pass Cherryl to take the lead, she will hear my engine and know that I am in trouble. I pass her motor home and get a big wave and smile while I drive by. Ok, that didn’t work, but Pete is now calling Cherryl on her cell and I know we’ll have a plan when we get to Sly Park. Off I go and turn left instead of the prescribed right turn towards Mormon Emigrant Trail. Everyone will follow. Judy is right behind me, but wait, where is Cherryl?

We stop at the first gas station and pull over. Judy says that Cherryl was behind her, but took the road to the right. “Great,” I say. I call Pete. “Did you talk to Cherryl? No, the phone just rang no answer.” He’s not sure it’s the right number. I ask him to call Cindy to verify Cherryl’s number, but the number Cindy has written has been disconnected. 

Meanwhile, the mechanic is checking under the engine and of course it’s quiet as a mouse. After getting in and driving around for about 15 minutes, I get the noise to continue and return to the station. As soon as I hit the driveway, the noise ceases. With the mechanic staring at me, I tell Judy that I cannot take a chance towing my horse up in the mountains with an unknown potential catastrophe lurking ahead. “Of course not,” she says and suggests going home and getting the truck and continuing on our journey.

I call Pete again. Good news, Cherryl has contacted him. She has pulled off to the side of the road and says that if we can get to Silver Lake we can sleep in her motor home. Pete says he is coming up to give us the truck and he will drive our motor home back to Garden Valley. 

Judy and I begin unloading the motor home with all items that we will need. Two men drive up and get out. Are you two ladies having a garage sale, we are asked?

NOOOO!

We pack up food and load what we can into Judy’s truck and settle in to visit with the locals.  Within the hour, here comes Pete. Judy thinks he is just wonderful to come all this way to save us, but I think he just wants us out of cell phone reach so he can get continue with his work. No matter the reason, soon my Dodge truck is hooked up to the horse trailer, bags of ice are on the food and Judy and I are on our way. We arrive at Silver Lake in just about an hour.  Our long weekend has begun.

Silver Lake and Plasse’s Resort is beautiful. The campground is right by riding and hiking trails. The lake is about 100 feet away and we are within walking distance to showers, a general store and a restaurant. We had a wonderful time exploring new areas and some of the campers swam in the lake after riding. Others, like me, lounged in the meadow with a cold beer while horses grazed. There were a variety of people using the campground, including kayakers, hikers and ATV riders.

Rapidly, Sunday approached and it was time to head home. After a hike with our horses, Judy and I started the return drive. Within an hour and half, we are approaching Placerville on Highway 50, along with all the Tahoe returnees. I call Pete to announce my imminent arrival and to warn him it’s time for the dancing girls to leave the ranch.

When he answers the phone, I ask him to listen to the engine. “Hear that,” I say. He responds, “I don’t hear anything.” “That’s right…that’s the hum of my Dodge engine bringing me home.” 

Hanging up, I sing along with the radio and cruise to the stoplight. Oops, the engine stalls. No problem, I restart and put it into drive. It stalls…again. OK, this may not be a good sign. Try again. Stall again. Oh no, I’m in bumper to bumper traffic, the next turn is about 200 feet ahead and how am I going to get out of here??? I start the engine and throw it into drive, jumping a few feet. I do that one more time and start coasting on the downgrade. By now, Zorba is kicking the wall of the trailer. “What’s going on up there?” he says. My faithful road traveler, Judy, (Never leave your wingman) follows me off Highway 50 and around the corner onto Bedford Ave.

Jumping out, I tell her that my truck has died. We are both in shock at this turn of events, but promptly develop a plan. We load Zorba in Judy’s trailer and she heads out to deliver him home. 

I call Pete relaying this turn of events. “You’re kidding?” he says. No I’m afraid not. “OK, I will call AAA and meet you at the Dodge dealer in our one remaining vehicle.” 3 Hours later, I’m home, minus our motor home and truck. I do have Zorba safely delivered by Judy and the tow driver delivered our horse trailer home. Interesting side note, we are driving from Shingle Springs with horse trailer in tow, cruising the canyon roadsat about, oh, 60 mph, when I am asked if my horse is inside. No, but thanks for asking! 

The final story is motor home–one noisy fan belt, but we still are having full service work done. The problem with the Dodge is the fuel injector…not so easy or cheap. Still, the 4 days in Silver lake was great fun and beautiful. I was also fortunate that the problems with the vehicles happened in accessible areas. Can you imagine pulling the Marshall Grade with horse trailer in tow and stalling? Yikes!

Also a couple of lessons were learned. Next time, I am carrying current cell numbers and posting them on my dashboard. Also, remember to turn on your cell phone while traveling and finally learn to speak a foreign language, so you can communicate with people who are on your two-way radio channel. 

Karin Occhialini

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Patriot Ride
Phyllis Keller

I don't know if you have met me yet, I'm a member but have only made one of the meetings in Auburn, as Horsemen here in Truckee meet the same Tuesday night. 

If any of you haven't ridden the Patriot Ride yet you are certainly missing out on a highly technical and very well run ride. This was only my horse's second 50 so I wanted to go slow and complete. Well - I was 19th out of 19 horses but the experience was wonderful and so was the cheering squad. 

Friday night started out pretty well, got parked, set up and had a wonderful dinner of pasta, salad and garlic bread. The Rotary Club from Greenville puts on a great pre-ride dinner and the ride meeting is great. As last year we had a full-sized map of the ride and were "escorted" through each section by Kassandra DeMaggio the ride manager. It was nice to know what we were to expect, the Zipper, the 1 mile hill climb, where buckets of water were going to be, who would be holding the gates open so cows wouldn't get away, where the photographer would have his Kodak moments, etc. Well I left ride meeting pretty well informed. 

About 2 hours later it started to sprinkle a little rain. So on with the waterproof blanket and the hopes that it would soon stop. As it got heavier, I put Aireus in the trailer thinking the fall thundershower would pass over and soon enough it did. So I went about business getting ready for the 6:30 a.m. start when it started raining again. Back into the trailer we went only to find out the rain was not going to stop and Aireus didn't want to be in there anyway. Out he went to hang with the other horses and I set up my cot in the back of the trailer to keep him company and hopefully get a good night's rest. We all know how that goes! Sometime around 3:00 a.m. the rain stopped and he decided to start the eating process. 

Five o'clock rolled around and it was time to get started. The boy was great and we got saddled and ready in a good amount of time. At 6:30 the ride started and it was nice, due to the rain, to be dust free. The ride doesn't take long to start the climb and it's uphill for a good distance. You hit the zipper and wind your way up to a jeep road, climbing all the way to the top with just phenomenal views with the fog hanging in the valleys. It was beautiful. Aireus was nice enough to take his time for a change and listen to me, but before too long we were at the tail-end of the pack and all alone just as I had expected to be. It was nice though to see all the smiling and cheering faces at each checkpoint, water and hay were in good supply.

Photos: Lucy Chaplin Trumbull, from 2004 ride The trail continued along Mountain Meadows Reservoir with cows looking on. It is nice and flat and you can make really good time to the bottom of the one mile hill climb, fondly called Devil's Pinky. It lives up to its name! Aireus and I climbed together on foot and finally made it to a spot that rivals Yosemite, Dearheart Lake. Due to the temperature, the steam was rising off the lake and the granite walls surrounding it made it one of the most beautiful places I have ever ridden. The three cowboys waiting with water and fresh caught trout were also a welcome sight perhaps for other reasons.

You continue through the Enchanted Forest, a stand of trees draped with moss, along Inspiration Ridge to a point where for your safety you need to lead your horse called Old Nicks Table.

From that point you follow the Granite Traverse back to the fast paced jeep road where you can make up some good time unless your horse is lonely!

It's back to the Zipper and back to the hold at ride camp and the vet check. Needless to say I was watching the clock rather closely and I was not sure I would be able to finish unless Aireus could find some newfound excitement. Well according to the vet the young boy had a full tank of gas so off we went for the second loop knowing I would have to ask him for all he had.

The second loop is flat to rolling and can be fairly fast for those of you more experienced riders and horses. I had to finish by 6:30 and had set my goal for 6. At the last vet check I only had 10 or 11 miles to go and had made more than that in two hours so it was a big possibility. I asked him and he gave me more than I imagined. We finished at 6:00 on the nose and had the photographer waiting for me, not to mention all the people who had encouraged me throughout the day. I used 11 1/2 hours, all worth it! It was so nice to have the good words and encouragement from all the volunteers and to find out that my guy had a wonderful score on his final vet card. We completed the hardest ride we had ever tried! 

I can't say enough about the volunteers that put on this ride. They are such wonderful people and make the miles go by. The views are spectacular and if you haven't ever done the Patriot Ride, try it next year if for no other reason but to see what you're made of! Oh did I mention the dinner and hot showers waiting back at the finish? It made it all worth while! 

Hope to see all of you at a meeting soon!

Phyllis Keller and Aireus Bay
Truckee

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Camp Far West
Betsy Wobus

This is the tale of my 2nd 50-mile endurance ride with Timi, aka AE Psymmetry, in Spenceville Wildlife Preserve on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005 (Camp Far West ride).

After we finished our 1st 50 at Gold Country (in Dru Barner Park, near Georgetown, CA) in mid-July, I planned out my schedule to see if I could get Timi ready to do Tevis next year. After all, I'm not getting any younger, and 100 miles in one day is a lot...

I decided the Camp Far West ride – figuratively in our backyard – was the logical next, and since it's usually broiling hot there in early September, it would give me a good indication as to whether we both could tough out the Tevis next August. The terrain is rolling foothils with lots of oak trees and a few residual streams to cross (and sponge and drink from) which I knew wouldn't be too difficult for Timi. The big question for him was: would he eat and drink and maintain B or better gut sounds through the ride?

The weather forecast was for temps in the low 90's and breezy--much better than in recent years. We vetted in on Saturday afternoon (with A gut sounds) and came home to get a good night's sleep. Hopefully, he slept better than I did; even with Tylenol and Benadryl, I didn't fall asleep until after 1:30AM, and then it was only fitfully.

The AM was cool; we found a place to park near the start and I went off to the riders' meeting while Timi ate happily on the hay hanging on the trailer. I had mixed electrolytes in with his dinner the preceding 2 nights, and I had eaten my usual pizza to salt-load me as well.

The ride started off down a dirt road, then crossed a bridge to a gravel fire road and on into rolling meadows and oak trees. My friend, Vicki Testa, was riding her horse Handsome in his 1st 50; we had ridden with them on the American River 30 and had done many trail rides with them. The 2 horses get along well together, so we started off about 5-10 minutes after the "front-runners" left. Handsome decided he wanted to be a front-runner, too, so Timi and I were quickly left behind. Not that Timi wanted to be left behind – I've just learned how to manage him at the start of rides so he doesn't burn up all of his adrenalin in the first couple of miles. We actually walked across the bridge (1st picture), then trotted up the road we'd been on many times before (2nd picture – I saw the photographers in time to smile!).

The first loop was 18 miles, and I thought we'd be back to camp in 3-4 hours at a comfortable 5mph pace. We caught up with Vicki and Handsome – and Jennifer (last name unknown), who turned out to be a neighbor of mine – after about 2 miles and continued on at closer to an 8-9mph pace, which didn't seem to be too taxing. 

Back in camp around 9:30AM, Timi pulsed down (criteria was 60 bpm) immediately, and I untacked him and offered him hay and a mixture of wet beet pulp, COB and black-oil sunflower seeds (my horses love it – I call it my "secret weapon"). He was very antsy, watching the front-running horses and riders go out on their 2nd loop, totally oblivious to his food and water. He did pee, but that didn't help to quiet him down. After about 1/2 hour, I took him over to be vetted, and there was that C on gut sounds. The vet (Jamie Kerr, who was riding the ride, but filling in for Rob Lydon who was treating a horse who fell and had cut both knees) cautioned me about having him re-checked before I went out on the 2nd loop, or observing that he was eating and drinking well, or that his gut sounds were better. So I waited an extra 30 minutes (it was an hour hold) while Vicki and Handsome went off after their hour.

His gut sounds perked up enough that I decided to continue, riding out alone, but being quickly overtaken by Mark Scheurman and Hal and Ann Hall with the junior rider, Elise, they were sponsoring. Timi was happy to trot along with them at a 6-7mph pace. again on gravel roads and through a meadow we had ridden through 2 weeks ago on the night before the full moon. Elise's family was on the road in a pickup truck and got out water for their horses before we went through the gate to the archery range. I asked to let Timi have a drink, to which they graciously consented: he sucked up that water like there was no tomorrow, and I knew we were home free!

The rest of the ride was uneventful. We again caught up with Vicki, then left her while she was schooling Handsome about not running on his forehand down hills. Rob gave Timi a B- on his gut sounds at the 2nd check (a 15-minute hold, which we almost doubled so he could chow down on hay and "nummies") and a B+ on his completion check. We were back in camp before 2:30PM!

Timi now has 100 endurance miles, with 90 miles of limited distance. And after only 18 years, I have 250 miles, so I'll get my first patch from AERC!

As for Tevis next year, it's out of the question. I want to see him eating and drinking right from the git-go before I think of taking him on that 100-mile ride. I had planned on doing the Lake Oroville Vista (aka LOVER) 50-mile ride in early November next, but I may 'back off' and just do the 30; it's a more difficult ride with lots of ups and downs, and the weather can be downright nasty that time of year. Then we still might try a 2-day 100 at Ford Ord over Thanksgiving, depending on how the Oroville ride goes. And I'm already looking forward to the American River 50 next April now that Paul and Erin (McChesney) Klentos have picked it up.

But next year's main focus may be on dressage and eventing, with the odd endurance ride thrown in to maintain conditioning and to see if his self-preservation instincts are improving.

So we'll hope to see many of you on the trails, some at dressage shows and horse trials, and others just around.

Happy trails!

Betsy Wobus

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Ride & Tie Is Going to Be Fun, Right?...
(Part 6)
Lucy Chaplin Trumbull

The trouble with announcing to the world that you're going to do something, is that it becomes very evident when it doesn't happen. I freely admit that my R&T "career" is well and truly stalled.

The main problem is that when summer comes, running in a hundred degree temperatures rapidly loses its appeal. The last time I ran was the Monday following Tevis when I ran down from the Overlook to see if I could spot the shoe lost by my friend who finished Tevis in the early hours of Sunday morning. As we walked her mare down to the stadium, we were shocked to notice that she was missing a front shoe - would she be sound at the finish? <bite nails>. As it turned out, Elly was fine, and Dorothy said thought she'd lost the shoe coming out of the creek in the last mile before the finish. Lucky.

In the event, I never found the shoe, but did find scuff marks where poor Janine Esler went off-trail just before the finish and thereby went overtime and didn't complete. As far as I can work out, her horse lost its footing in the exactly same place that Jon Saunder's Rocky went off a few weeks previously. It just goes to show that you can never let your concentration go until the very end.

So August and most of September swept by. My running came close to suffering a revival when my friend Dana talked me in to doing the half-marathon out of Cool at the beginning of October to celebrate her birthday. But alas, she suffered a stress fracture to her foot, so won't be able to participate – and it just wouldn't be the same without her.... <honest>

Perhaps I would have still considered it, had I not been out trail trimming poison oak while riding in shorts, and managed to self-infect myself by brushing bits of twig off my saddle. That resulted in a miserable ten days of itchy weeping all down the backs of my knees and legs (and what looked like a case of measles on my torso) which was only marginally relieved by liberal applications of Zanfel. 

A week into it, I suffered a minor panic about Zini's state of fitness: she hadn't really done anything since Bridgeport and is supposed to be doing East Bay next weekend. So I cooked up a plan to ride from Third Gate to Auburn Overlook and back, which I figured was about a 28 mile round trip. 

Sheila Larsen joined us for the first hour on her youngster, Georgi, but after Brown's Bar we continued on alone. Zini was actually very good about it and didn't seem at all put out leaving her new friend behind. Coming into Auburn, we met up with another friend, Nina Vasiliev, who happened to be riding down. Because her horse was suffering from the "bleahs", they followed us back up to the Overlook and hung out while Zini and I took our "30 minute hold" and then joined us for the ride back down as far as No Hands Bridge. 

I was glad of her company because although Zini was quite cheerful to go to Auburn, the idea of returning back to Third Gate didn't seem quite as thrilling to her. After leading down through the Black Hole, she pulled over to let Nina's horse go in front - evidently having to do all that "keeping watch" business was more than she wanted to deal with. 

I was also glad for the company because by then, my weepiest patch of poison oak on the back of my leg had begun to rub on my sheepskin saddle cover (I was riding in shorts, out of necessity) and I was having to squirm bizarrely in the saddle to keep my leg from gluing itself permanently to the saddle - having someone to talk to, to take my mind of it, was a good thing. (Later that evening, I spent a sad 20 minutes in the shower, trying to unpick bits of black sheepskin from my leg).

Once again, Zini didn't seem to care much when we parted company with Nina, but our return trip was much less animated than the journey out. We completed the trail in a little over six hours including our "hold", so I was quite content that our performance had mirrored a real ride. Zini's legs looked good the following morning – despite not icing/hosing/wrapping – which surprised me given the amount of trotting we'd done on the hard river road. Hopefully East Bay will be a success... fingers crossed.

Lucy Trumbull

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Living with Mountain Lions
Sheila Larsen

I attended a meeting of the El Dorado Trails Foundation where the featured speaker was  Dawn Simas of Wild About Cats (WAC). Her website is http://www.wildaboutcats.org/ourcats.htm. 

She spoke about living with mountain lions and what we can do to protect ourselves and our animals from attack. I also pulled some information off of various websites. I highly recommend visiting the WAC website as there are vocalizations of various cat species, including mountain lion. You might be surprised to hear some of the vocalizations, and several people in the audience went "ooh so that it what I hear sometimes at night". 

So, onto the tips.

• Don’t feed wildlife: Don’t put food out for deer, raccoons and other animals as the presence of these species are prey for mountain lion. Mountain lions specialize in eating deer but will take other prey as available, particularly young mountain lions that may be inexperienced in hunting. This means don’t leave cat food in the barn where animals can come in at night when everything quiet. 
• Landscape your yard and barn area carefully. Plant deer resistant plants in your yard to keep them from coming in your yard and barn area. Remove vegetation or debris that mountain lions can hide behind. Remember they hunt by stealth, either by jumping down from above or from behind cover.
• Secure pets and small livestock like goats at night: Dawn recommended that small livestock be brought in at night. I believe she recommended a minimum 6 foot fence, but I am sure a cat could jump that, but it probably discourages them. If possible put a cover on the pens, to keep cats from being able to enter the pen. A goat is definitely a tasty easy morsel to eat.
• When on the trail, either walking or riding, be aware of your surroundings. When you tie your shoes on the trail, do not bend over to do so. Your curved back reads “deer” to a mountain lion and also makes you look smaller. So pick up your foot and put it on something to tie your shoe. This is definitely something to think about when you are putting on an easy boot or cleaning a hoof....of course, all the swearing that may accompany putting on the easy boot will probably discourage all but the most ardent of mountain lions. So obviously, you will have to lean over, but you may want to think about the position of your back and look well around you before you bend over.
• If you encounter a mountain lion, try and look big. If you have a jacket, wave it. Throw stones or branches. The caveat to this action, however, is to make sure the cat has an escape route. You definitely don’t want the cat to feel cornered. However, if you come on a mountain lion feeding, I wouldn’t recommend the above either. Just get out of there as quickly and calmly as possible. One web page said that feeding mountain lions can appear almost tame, but then attack quickly. Mountain lions hide their food so if you find a carcass that is covered with leaves and debris, leave it alone and leave as quickly and calmly as possible. 
• If attacked fight back with whatever you have, rocks, sticks, fists, caps, jackets. Try and remain standing and face the attacking animals.

Mountain lions have home ranges where they live their lives. Females have smaller home ranges than males. Along the western slope of the Sierra as many as ten adult lions occupy the same 100 square miles – so if you don’t think you have mountain lion, you are probably wrong.

When the young leave their mother, they must forage on their own and find their own home range. This is when and why most livestock are killed – young cats unable to hunt effectively and are wandering. The good news is that if you can withstand the death of a few animals, the cat will probably move on. If it doesn’t move on, it is probably establishing a home range. This means that if the cat is successful at establishing a home range, the livestock killing will probably stop when the cat gets better at hunting deer. In addition, if the cat establishes a home range it will keep other cats out and you probably won’t have any more livestock killing until the resident cat dies, which can be up to about 12 years in the wild. 

Of course, if you feel you need to call the California Department of Fish and Game to remove the mountain lion, their Rancho Cordova phone number is 916.358.2900.

Sheila Larsen

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The aim is to get the newsletter online on Friday before the meeting.