Doncaster Renegade weekend

["Snodgrass, Bonnie" <snodgrab@ncr.disa.mil>]

A good time was certainly had by all! This was such a full weekend with an
AERC 50 and the ECTRA 25 and 35. John and Helen Stacy worked so hard for
weeks to put these rides on. I got lucky and got to ride one of their horses
in the 50 miler while mine is on R&R and had tremendous help from  numerous
friend and strangers with crewing. The trails were very well marked. John
and Helen use colored plastic plates in addition to ribbons and paint to
mark the different loops, turns and mileage. The plate colors match the
ribbons and paint and the plates can be cut into "wedges" that are used like
arrows to point the way the trail turns.

We have such great trails here, mostly wooded single track. This is my
backyard and I ride these trails all the time. Our local Friends of
Doncaster work on trail repair and new trails thru the fall and winter
months, and John built 3 new bridges just for these rides. We may not have
many hills but we don't have rocks or deep sand or months of snow and ice.
Guess we did have a few ground bees though.

Sheri D.'s young horse Remi just about scared Sheri to death. They were in
line after the 25 mile ride waiting to do their trot out and Remi suddenly
started convulsing in his throat and abdomen. Turned out to be a short lived
choke on some beet pulp.  I went to look for the treatment vet and came back
to Sheri who was getting worried. She said something about needing to sit
down, I took her horse reins and over she went. At least she fell backwards.
Her head sounded a bit like a ripe melon when it hit but she went down on
pretty soft ground. About then the vet Nancy Reams got to the horse and the
choke cleared up. Sheri was laying on the ground gigling at herself. she did
say something about it would be unfair for this to be on ridecamp when she
was with out a PC. Well.......what are friends for?? Sheri and horse are
fine.  VBG

Bonnie Snodgrass