RENEGADE NOT CANCELLED

[renegade12@juno.com]

This is a two part message, 

1st)  The 13th Annual  RENEGADE 5 DAY RIDE is not cancelled.  Due to the
initiatives of Bill Clinton and Bruce Babbitt to develop more national
monuments in AZ, we were unable to obtain "new use" BLM Permits for the
Bumblebee location this year.  The RENEGADE will be a One Base Camp 5
different trails (55 miles per day) ride in New Mexico same dates of
March 20th thru 24th, and this year we added  35 mile LD's each day.  

2)  In response to an earlier cheap shot post, The Wickenburg Ride was
upset about the proposed Renegade move, however the RENEGADE dates have
always been the same.  In 1998 Wickenburg decided to revive itself, after
having not existed for most if not all of the 1990's.  For their own
reasons, in both 1998 and 1999 they picked the day after the RENEGADE as
their ride date.  I spoke with the ride managers of Wickenburg a couple
of months ago and told them I would include their Ride Flyers in the 200+
Renegade flyers that I would mail, and I would help promote their ride to
those many people from outside our region who would enter the Renegade
and had extra horses.  In fact, I had over 10 riders who planned to
finish the RENEGADE and then drive the short distance to Wickenburg to
ride that ride on Saturday.  Also, I pointed out to the Wickenburg Ride
Manager that multi day rides mainly attracted riders from outside the
region, I reviewed with him the Renegade Ride entries to the Wickenburg
entries for 1998 and 1999 and it was obvious that most of the Renegade
entries were from other regions, not the SW.  I am confident their ride
would not have suffered, and probably would have picked up additional
riders who would never have been in the SW except they were entered in
the RENEGADE.  I am sorry Wickenburg acted hastily and made the decision
to cancel.