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RE: [RC] poker ride - David LeBlancPatty Bass said:
gosh, sorry for all the typos in that message. should be Poker Ride.
thanks again
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We have them all the time up here. Seems they ran afoul of state gambling
laws, so I'm not sure how they'll work now. Here's how they work - you mark
about 12-15 miles of trail. Put people with cards (or poker chips) at 4
checkpoints on the trail. You charge maybe $5 for a hand, people buy as many
hands as they want. If you use poker chips, number them from 0-99. Prizes
are then awarded usually high-low and so on moving towards the middle until
you run out of prizes. Poker chips in a can are a fun de-spooking aid -
works like this - you grab the can, horse moves, can rattles, horse moves a
lot, can rattles a lot, wash, rinse, repeat...
My wife likes them, I usually do not. Seems the crowd varies a lot depending
on where it is held. Out here poker rides tend to draw out the 'podunkers' -
people who don't ride much, just pulled their horse out of the pasture, and
they figure 12 miles ought to take 4 hours. The worst ones draw out the
people who put a 12-pack of beer in each saddle bag. Fortunately, this isn't
all of them.
Us endurance riders tend to get into trouble - we don't think anything of
trotting up on someone and trotting right by them. Regular people (and/or)
their horse tend to freak out when this happens. I've been read the riot act
because I broke to a walk 150 feet away. I really think that if someone
dropping to a walk 150 feet away is a problem, your horse needs more
training. I've also been grumped at because my horse can walk at 4 MPH or
so. Fortunately, this isn't all of them - there's been other rides where
everyone was nice.
Tights, helmet and shiny tack tend to draw stares, too, esp. if you're male.
If you can be first ones out, then you can have some fun and ride at
endurance speeds without scaring anyone. What's also part of the "fun" is if
you take fidgety hot endurance horse, and then throw them into a ride where
there are 150 riders all moving at a walk, you'll never pass them all and
you, your horse, or both will lose your minds.
I have had fun at some of these, so I'm probably complaining too much. If
you're the one putting it on, you probably have some control over how things
work and how much fun it might be.
Do check with the gambling laws, though.
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