Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

On Behalf Of Peggety123@xxxxxxx

Yup...it was an EXCELLENT ride!  John went to a lot of trouble to make a
great and memorable experience for us all!  Everything was first
class....the ride camp was a HUGE area studded with lots of big shadey Oak
trees - plenty of room for everyone to spread out.  We were able to high
line all our horses and give them a nice spot in the shade (we had 4 with
us).  We had our own private spigot with loads of water pressure.

There was so much water on that ranch...troughs everywhere and some streams
still running with beautiful crystal clear water.  We started the ride by
fording a good sized stream in the early am - it was there for us at the end
of the ride too - a welcome relief to our horses!

Bummer for the 50 milers....John had them start at 5am as he was drag riding
and wanted to make sure everyone (especially himself) was back in time for
party time!  We started the 25 at 7am...a more civil hour!
The trails were wide with good footing....some rocks but not bad.  It
appeared they had just been cut with a dozer just for our ride.  The vistas
on the ride were superb.... views of nearby Lake Cachuma, rolling Oak
studded hills, vast green meadows (still mostly green too-they must have had
as much rain as we had up here in No. Ca.)lots of beautiful wildflowers and
blooming shrubs along the way.  Yes, and the cows which we had to blaze
through several times on the trail- there were plenty of them.  It was a
great conditioning ride - lots of gradual uphills, some steep stuff and some
long stretches for trotting out.

The vet check was amazing....such luxuries!  They had a full sandwich bar
with sandwiches made to order, cookies, fruit.......

The horses had their fill of luscious Oat and Alfalfa hay and buckets of
grain laid out with lots of carrots....all provided by ride management.
There were plenty of vets and p&r people - lots of helpful volunteers.
Then there was the dinner and dance afterwards.  Great food (Louisiana Cajun
style), then we had our awards presentation...John started with
"incompletion awards" for all the folks that didn't finish for various
reasons.  EVERYONE got a loud Hawaiian shirt with the ride name on it,
including volunteers.  John said the shirts were required dress for the
dance that night so we all wore them proudly and danced our booties off!
Band was great - good music and crowd participation with all the ladies
invited up on the stage to belt out "Mustang Sally" prompted by the lead
singer.  We stayed until the bitter end.  We were probably close to the last
ones to leave the camp the next day!

Don't know if John will do this ride again....it was done to celebrate his
50th bd..(hence the name "Cincuenta Anos").  Hey John, how about doin' a
"Cincuenta y Uno Anos" in 2004???????
You can count on us to come along with many other happy campers!

Bob and Peggy Eaton


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