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[RC] Patriot Day Ride - amber applegate

I want to thank everyone that helped put on the Patriot Day Ride up at Greenville, Calif.
 
This was a spectacular event! The trails were so well marked, no way anyone could get lost, Kassandra made both days a different route which made for an interesting weekend of riding. The Sunday fifty took us high up a mountain with views so breathtaking of Lake Almanor and Mount Lasson as we spiraled around the trails. Waterfalls here and there, springs, oh it was beautiful.
 
The local people from Greenville are wonderful! The local Grocer set up a lemonade stand at one junction where there was a water stop. He had the best ice cold lemonade, iced tea, organic bananas, apples for the riders, they had alfalfa for the horses at this stop. Amazing!
 
Off to VC where so many people that were not even horsey people were from the town and volunteered to help. This was incredible to me to see coffee, buckets of iced drinks for the riders, food out in abundance for the riders, luscious alfalfa hay everywhere for the horses, candy, cookies,  I felt I was at a party.
 
The Saturday night BBQ was held in the lodge at this camp that I will get to later, the dinner was Tri tip steak, BBQ Chicken, all the fixins to go with it and this same local Grocer brought bottles of various wines, not cheap stuff either for all the riders to enjoy with their dinner, lots of wine...err too much wine. I got a headache.
 
The ride camp is like a vacation land. The owners of this camp was about as gracious as one can get. We had the use of a swimming pool, ping pong, a fishing pond with a boat, hoses to bathe the horses, showers, a nice sand arena to let the horses go for a nice stretch or roll, round pen, corrals, oh my too much to even remember! I am so used to our Oregon desert rides looking for a bush to pee behind that I kept wondering if this was another Dallas dream segment.
 
The Ride Vets, Dr. Liden and Dr. Roberta, sorry didn't catch her last name were just great. They were all about us having a fun ride and taking care of the horses.  On day two I had a bit of a concern before vetting in and grabbed Dr. Liden while he was getting some coffee and he was johnny on the spot to check out my boy. Found nothing wrong but he was glad I was so concerned and he stayed alerted to my horse for the rest of the ride.  Dr. Roberta was all smiles all day and encouraging to all riders that I could see. She loved my horse so I loved her!
 
This was not an easy ride and not a real tough ride. It was a great ride, and I cannot say enough good about it. I hope people that are looking to do a good moderate mountain ride will support the Patriot Day Ride next year, you just don't know what you are missing by not attending this.
 
I also want to thank Dennis Miller for being so kind to work on my horses hooves when he threw two hind shoes on Saturday and rasped the outer edges and evaluated his hooves at the VC to make sure he had no stone bruises as I rode him barefoot on Sunday.
 
I made some great new California ride friends and all the volunteers at this ride were fabulous. I will definitely drive the five hours down to do the Patriot Ride next year.  Thank you Kassandra and please thank all your fine volunteers for a job very well done.
 
For riders in Southern Oregon and N. Calif, I highly recommend putting this ride on next years schedule.