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[RC] May horsenews - Mike SherrellMay horsenews Livermore Stampede was more like the Livermore Trudge. The ride between wineries was rather disappointing: the wine samples too small and sommelliers too snooty to make it possible to get enough to get high ? they wouldn?t even let you take the bottle you bought with you, but delivered it back at the grounds ? , and we had to walk our horses the whole way, which meant holding them back. Tanya Rebarchick was there. Nobody fell off their horse. Boooor-ING! Trail Trials, Mt. Diablo: Traveller and I placed 3rd of Sr. (over-50), of whom there were probably only 3. The only interesting events were one where you had to get off the horse onto a picnick table, then back on from the right, and another where you dragged a bunch of branches with a rope, which had Traveller hopping around. Pacific Coast Tennessee Walking Horse All Gaited show, Elk Grove, Larry Braun and others of the paso club were there. Was I the only one who registered the irony of the black judge judging the riders dressed up like southern planters? The riders were not as good as those at Peruvian shows, but it didn?t look to me like they brought their trainers along the way Peruvian owners do. Traveller got a 4th out of 11 in some kind of all-breed gaiting class, and a 3rd out of 7 in ?natural horsemanship?, which amounted in our case to riding reins made by the lead rope hooked to one side of the halter and tied onto the other. We would have done better if we could sidepass. The first two places went to people who reined their horses with lead ropes attached to just one cheek-piece. Jean and I rode around Briones in the East Bay with the Rismans. It's really too steep to be very good for Pasos. Traveller and I have been heading out to the Central Valley on weekends. The weekend before Memorial Day we pulled off Highway 12 at the first canal east of I-5; headed south; picked up the railroad tracks; then east along Bear Creek into Stockton, under I-5 until it dead-ended in the hobo jungle. T?s developing a paranoia about trains. Coming back along the tracks we met one coming towards us, and he started to run. I would have turned him except it would have been onto a golf course that had some foursomes taking in the spectacle, not the right time to leave a long arc of divots across the green. The weekend after Memorial Day we went north from the same jumping-off spot, all the way to Tracy this time. This turned into one of the best rides of the year. A couple of miles up the canal we came to a little tent city, nice outdoors store-bought dome tents inhabited by campesinos; on the way back, around five, it was starting to get lively: barbecues smoking, kids running around, young men splashing in the canal, mariachi music coming out of a car with the windows down. Further up the canal we had had passed a tattooed Anglo father and his four kids swimming in the same canal, his four-door white pickup truck pulled off the road where the canal goes under. Someday there's going to be a third-world-style cholera outbreak. For pictures, go to http://www.grizzlyanalytical.com/12_and_5_to_Lodi.htm. The migrant encampment was not as jolly as the caption makes it seem: there were a couple of young girls there, like 8 and 11; a lot of bored-looking young men and at least one sinister-looking, scowling older man. Regards, Mike Sherrell Grizzly Analytical (USA) 707 887 2919/fax 707 887 9834 www.grizzlyanalytical.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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