President's
Message, May, 2000
This weekend looks
pretty dismal because it is supposed to rain. However, on
the bright side, it
makes the pasture grass grow and the horses like that.
The bylaws have been
rewritten and are posted on the Quicksilver website. A
copy will be mailed
to each member with the details about when they are to be
voted on. Check
them out and see what you think.
All of you who missed
the April meeting at Trilby's missed a good one.
Trilby served tacos
for everyone. I heard they were good. The meeting was
pretty quick and then
we socialized. We raffled off the leftover prizes from
the awards banquet
which was a pretty good deal, since the ticket were free
to all present.
The May meeting will be at Roundtable Pizza at Via Valiente.
That is the
PW shopping center in between Camden and the turn off to Old
Almaden Road.
Roundtable is next to Long's Drugs. The board meeting will be
at 6:30 and the general
meeting at 7:30. There may be more surprises. Come
to the meeting and
find out---especially if you like pizza…..
Duh,
Maryben
Minutes April meeting.
Meeting called to order
at 7:35 by president. In the secretary's absence
[she is on vacation
at the Panama Canal and other places] Maryben took the
minutes.
Treasurer's report.
Ride Account
$2,187.13
Trails
834.29
Junior
754.44
General Account 811.40
Ride was discussed.
Lori Oleson and Brian Reeves will discuss the
Quicksilver ride and
present their recommendations to the board at the next
meeting.
Brian reported that
the reward check has been resent to Canada to the correct
address.
Ken Cook talked to
one of the rangers in the park recently and inquired as to
improvements, maybe
getting new water tanks and repairing the trough at Bull
Run. We will
look into this further with the park.
Talked about having
one of our meetings at Bob and Julie Suhr's house with a
potluck similar to
the one we had a few years ago. This gives our Santa Cruz
County members a closer
place to go and it is a beautiful setting. We had a
great time before.
Bob cooks a mean hot dog. Maybe we will have the June
meeting there.
The weather should really cooperate by that time and maybe
the daffodils will
still be in bloom.
The meeting was then adjourned.
Up-Date from Janice
Hi, everyone! Here's
the revised schedule for the animal ordinance moving
through the various
committees.
April 25/26:
Community meeting in San Martin (still nailing down date)
May 3: San Martin
Planning Committee
May 4: Planning Commission
- final
May 18:
HLUET - final
May 23:
Board of Supervisors
For more information,
call:
Janice Frazier, Manager
Wafer Test and Yield , SSD, Office Bldg. 14-2
225A; Phone tieline
276-4931; external (408) 256-4931 pager (408) 542-6270
Who Doesn't Love a
Bargain?
Quicksilver Quips
has them.
Maryben wants to sell
an older WW 2 horse trailer. It has: 2 escape doors,
tack compartment,
new floor, storm doors and a ramp. Extra wide and extra
tall. $1650. 408-265-0839.
Trilby wants to sell
a chestnut 8 year old gelding that stand 15.1 plus.
$1000 OBO at 408-997-7500
Judith Ogus wants to
sell two 4 years olds. Both are started under saddle.
The first one is a
stout Fadwah (AERC Hall of Fame stallion) son. He's a bay
gelding
and his price is $2000 OBO.
The other one is a
chestnut with lots of heart, good legs and very pretty.
His price is also
$2000 OBO. Call Judith at 408-997-0814.
Also, Becky and Judith
have PS Copper Sage, a really nice Saam+/ son,
standing at stud at
Lightfoot Stables. Copper's resting heart rate is 21 bpm
which is to
die for in the endurance world. His first babies will be on the
ground in June and
you are welcome to come see them. Call Becky or Judith at
408-997-0814.
Trilby has room for
a few more boarders. $160 per month will put your horse
in her pasture or,
if you prefer a stall with enclosure, $210 will take care
of your needs.
408-997-0814
Looking Forward to Getting To Know You
John
and
Darlene Wilcock
WELCOME TO QUICKSILVER
IMPORTANT. Don't forget
to check Maryben’s President's message for the
location of next month's
meeting.
NEED A CLINIC IN YOUR
LIFE? HOW ABOUT
An Equine Hanna Somatics(R) Clinic will be presented at Lightfoot Stables
on McKean Road in
South San Jose on Sunday, June 18, 2000, from 9:00 AM -
4:00 PM. Check-in
is at 8:30 AM; the clinic will begin at 9:00 AM.
Like humans,
horses experience stress and develop chronically contracted
muscles. Equine
Hanna Somatics(TM) (EHS) is a hands-on procedure for
teaching horses, horse
riders, and horse handlers the voluntary, conscious
control of the neuromuscular
systems of horses suffering muscular disorders
of an involuntary,
unconscious nature.
After the EHS session, horses are relaxed, walk more easily, and their
muscles move more
fluidly. During subsequent riding sessions, horses seem to
respond more readily
to rider requests, and riders report enhanced bonding
with their horses.
Dr. Eleanor Criswell Hanna, Ed.D. a professor at Sonoma State University
and the Director of
the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training
will be presenting
the clinic. Eleanor has worked with thousands of people in
individual somatics
lessons, as well as leading individuals and groups in
Somatic Exercises.
Over the past several years, Eleanor, who is also a horse
person,
developed Equine Hanna
Somatics(R).
The clinic will begin with an introduction to the principles of Equine
Hanna Somatics(R);
then Eleanor Criswell-Hanna will guide the group through
an EHS session with
their horses. After the EHS session, a riding session
will be presented
to allow you to experience the benefits of EHS to your
horse.
Please bring your horse to the clinic if possible. The afternoon
session
of the clinic will
also include a session in the Somatic Exercises (for
people), also led
by Eleanor Criswell-Hanna.
Clinic attendance will be limited to 12 to 15 people. The cost for
the
day is $70 for participants,
and $10 for silent auditors. After the clinic,
Eleanor will be available
to work in one-on-one sessions with participants
and/or their horses.
For further details,
please contact Jackie Davidson at (650) 564-5160 or
(408) 224-4181.
First “Deadman” is
a Hit!!
Because I had offered to help Jim Mitchell, trail master, my husband,
Ken, and I took Orion
down to the Deadman on the Wednesday before the ride so
I could preride the
trail to check on the ribboning. The ridecamp was
located at Jim's 1,000
acre ranch in a beautiful canyon about 1-1/2 hours
west of Bakersfield.
To provide enough miles for the ride Jim negotiated
with the local landowners
for use of their lands. Jim built many of the
trails over a 6 month
period by clearing brush by hand and by using heavy
equipment as well.
I prerode the trails from Wednesday to Friday in addition
to competing on Saturday
thus gaining an appreciation of the enormous amount
of work he did.
Jim was really concerned about parts of the trail that had
been ridden on and
inadvertently damaged soon after it was bulldozed. I
found those sections
to be pretty awful and swore I would just walk them on
the ride. Jim
took his scraper out Friday morning and worked on parts of the
trail.
The Deadman ride had the purpose of publicizing and raising funds to
complete the new 200
mile Cuesta-Sespe trail which follows the ridges of the
coast range just to
the west of the ride site up to San Luis Opisbo. The
ride manager, Steve
Shaw, envisions holding multi-day rides on the trail,
maybe as early as
next year. A silent auction for some very nice items and a
raffle were held.
In spite of my best efforts in bidding for a set of
clippers and other
things, I only came away with a boot warmer, dang!
Bidders kept sneaking
in to the table and upping the bids. I would imagine
that at least several
thousand dollars were raised for the trail
Preriding about 40 miles of the trail was a treat because I got to enjoy
the scenery and the
many spring wildflowers. The trail did not have a lot of
elevation gain but
provided a nice mix of single track, ranch road and
cross-country experiences.
On Friday the riders started pouring in--the ride
was full at 100 entries.
I was happy to see fellow QSers Hugh and Gloria
Vanderford and Pat
Verhuel, and the Waltenspiels and Tinker Hart were there,
too. I met a
lot of Southern Calif. riders. Jim gave a realistic description
of the trail at the
briefing meeting.
Ride day dawned clear and pleasantly warm. The 50s took off at the
civilized hour of
7:00 AM and the 30s at 8:00. The bad trail and most
elevation gains were
on the 1st 16 mile loop and I found it amazing how a
trail improves when
going faster than a walk. --Anyway no one seemed to be
bothered by it.
Orion and I wound up with the front runners and were back in
camp by 8:30 or so--big
mistake cause he was so excited that I couldn't get
him to stand still
and lost 15 minutes trying to get him down to the 60 bpm
criteria. The
12 mile second loop was the most beautiful; we rode through
twisty single track
and onto a large meadow studded with wildflowers. Orion
was still jazzed and
took a few minutes to reach criteria before starting the
1 hour hold.
The last 22 mile loop started out on a new trail and went over
to the next canyon
where the rocky trail followed Cottonwood Creek down and
under the highway
for a 3 mile out and back. Orion started reluctantly, too
many times leaving
camp I guess, until Gloria on Dardanelle caught up with us
and we zipped in to
the last vet check 3 miles from camp. There were some
serious hot shoes
ahead of us, Jennifer and Salim Nice, Loretta Potts and
Alexandra North who
has an awesome mare. We caught up with her only because
the mare had lost
a shoe. Alexandra had no easy boot but found a broken one
on the trail and wired
it shut with a flag wire she found--very resourceful.
Orion and I followed
her in for a 5th place finish. Jim Mitchell was so
proud of his Smoke
who came in 10th for his first top ten finish. The vets
were pleased how well
the BC horses looked and Alexandra's mare was awarded
the prize. I
hope Jim puts on the ride again next year! Judy Etheridge
Why you should never look a gift horse in the mouth...from the
Internet.
The Beginning Of The End....
A friend gives you a horse...
You build a small shelter...$750
You fence in a paddock...$450
Purchase small truck to haul hay...$12,000
Purchase a 2 horse trailer...$2,800
Purchase 2nd horse...$2,500
Build larger shelter with storage...$2,000
More fencing...$1,200
Purchase 3rd horse...$3,000
Purchase 4 horse trailer...$7,500
Purchase larger truck...$18,000
Purchase 4 acres next door...$28,000
More fencing...$2,000
Build small barn...$16,000
Purchase camper for truck...$9,000
Purchase tractor...$12,000
Purchase 4th & 5th horse...$6,500
Purchase 20 acres...$185,000
Build house...$135,000
Build barn...$36,000
More fencing & corrals...$24,000
Build covered arena...$82,000
Purchase Dually...$34,000
Purchase gooseneck w/living quarters...$32,000
Purchase 6th, 7th & 8th horse...$10,750
Hire full time trainer...$40,000
Build house for trainer...$84,000
Buy motor home for shows...$125,000
Hire attorney ? wife leaving you for trainer...$5,000
Declare bankruptcy, wife got everything.
Friend feels sorry for you...gives you a horse.....
by
Roger Larson
Published by the Quicksilver
Endurance Riders Inc.
P.O. Box 71, New Almaden,
CA 95042
Julie Suhr, Editor
TEL and FAX 831-335-5933