Hungry Buzzard 60

["Tina Hicks" <tina@autoairbagcovers.com>]

Hello everyone, Just got back from a great weekend at the Hungry 
Buzzard SERA Benefit ride near Auburn, AL. This is sort of a new 
ride - meaning it's an old ride brought back to life under a new 
name :) This was the War Eagle ride for many years (Samm, 
Angie, Truman....how many???) until 1996 - the last year it was run 
under that name. This was also the first endurance ride I did - 
tagging along behing Samm on her horse Embers in 1996 :) 

I don't know who put in the weather order but they did great. The 
War Eagle ride was always notorious for either drenching rains, 
tornadoes (really!), mud, storms, you name it - it was almost a let 
down to not have to have your rig hauled in or out by a tractor :)

This weekend the sky was crystal clear, the days were nice and 
warm and the evenings were crisp. We were camped in a working 
pecan orchard - that's right - the management of this ride actually 
talked a private landowner into letting ~70 rigs/horses trample all 
over his livelihood.  Everyone I saw (with one exception :<) 
completely obeyed the rules of staying off the trees, picking up all 
trash, and taking care of the place - we were all so happy to have 
this ride back (the only one in AL right now) that we sure didn't 
want to wear out our welcome.

Aaaannnyyywwwaaayyyy, on to the ride....It was great! :) We had 
a 18 mile loop on forest land and a 12 mile loop on private property. 
But get this - we didn't just ride on any ol' private property - we 
were allowed to ride across a private hunting preserve *on the 
opening day of bow season*!

I am not a hunter myself but I know how important it is for lots of 
folks (heck, here in the South I think the priorities are God, good 
hunting, and a good dog - in that order <g>) - add to that the fact 
that these people are paying big yearly $$$$ to hunt on this land 
and they let us ride across it on opening day! _That_ is what good 
relations with your local landowners will do for you ladies and 
gentlemen. 

We rolled right along through most of the ride and were 11th going 
out on the last check. 10th was waayyy ahead so the Top Ten was 
in no danger of being invaded by us :) Tony was drinking and doing 
well though he wasn't eating quite as much as I like so we slowed 
down on the last loop and ended up 18th which was just fine with 
me. Our ride time for 60 miles was just under 8 hours. Considering 
we were next-to-last, almost-next-to-last, and last at Big South 
Fork 3 day ride, 18th out of 27 was practically screaming :)

The marking, vet checks, vets, trails, etc... were just great. A 
bunch of people (as always) worked hard to bring this ride back to 
AL and it was a huge success.

There was one pull on the 60 and it was a rider option by a 
 junior after the horse had passed the check....there were a few 
pulls I think in the 30 - so the overall completion rate was nice and 
high. I don't remember much about the specific placings except 
Bud Davidson won and was BC on the 60, Wesley Crowe was BC 
on the LD and I think he placed 2nd or 3rd but don't quote me on 
that :)

Ummm, there was pizza, beer, and great fun at the awards - how's 
that for an official report :) And Nina Gibson had her cat with her 
which I thought was a real hoot - I can't wait till all ride fliers have 
some statement like "All cats MUST be on leash - will be strictly 
enforced" :))

Tina and Tony
tina@autoairbagcovers.com