Oakland HIlls story (long and dull...)

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From: Judy Long 
Email: julong@cisco.com

Here is my belated Oakland Hills story.  It's pretty long and basically
dull but I had a good time!
  
I was actually smart enough to take Friday off of work so that I could get
to the ride site before dark.  It doesn't matter that this is the closest
ride to us (30 minutes away and only that long because the road is twisty).
I always manage to take forever to get going.  I really notice it when Nick
doesn't come along because he packs up and gets ready to go in about 1/6 of
the time that I take.

Warpaint got new shoes early Friday morning.  That was the way the shoeing
schedule had worked out and I figured he would be OK.  I knew there were no
rocks on this ride and lots of good footing.  I'm not sure what happened to
all the time between Warpaint being shod and me finally having everything
packed and in the trailer, but it wasn't until after 3:00 pm that I was 
pulling out of the driveway.  My last task was to pull up to the gate and
fill the water tank in the trailer.  I couldn't believe it when I looked 
up from filling the tank and saw Nick's car nose to nose with the truck.  I
couldn't have used up the entire day!?  But no, Nick left work early.  I
know there are a lot of riders out there that are "directionally challenged".
I am "temporally challenged", i.e. perpetually late.

I finally drove off towards Anthony Chabot Regional Park, heading for the 
Bort Meadow campground.  Nick was going to stay home and take care of the 
boys.  His plan was to come out to crew the next morning.  I actually arrived 
at the camp before dark (I actually had several hours of daylight!) and 
more importantly, before all the parking was filled up.  I have very weak
trailer maneuvering skills.  They probably aren't all that bad but my 
confidence is low and my fear is high.  I don't want to get that rig stuck 
anywhere!  I ended up with a slight case of analysis paralysis but was 
able to successfully park (OK, big deal, but I was happy!).
I was near Donna Snyder-Smith and her crowd of riders and mustangs including
Steve Chang and Ruth ? whose last name I don't know.  Lori Oleson and Kassiq
were on my left so there were a lot of familiar faces around.  

I took my time setting up camp and vetting in (you're not surprised about 
that, are you now?).  I must have picked the time that the vet line was at 
it's longest.  I think it was about 45 minutes before I made it through 
the line and back to the trailer.  It was OK  because the weather was 
nice and the grass was green.  I forgot to mention that summer arrived in
the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend.  We skipped spring entirely and
just went straight to warm weather.  After this winter, the warm weather was
very welcome.  We have actually had overcast and rain in May and June
(unheard of!) and our "Golden Hills" are still fairly green.  The seasonal
grasses on the hills are usually gold (ok, brown) by the end of May.  

I managed to have Warpaint vet in with Dr. Diana Hassel.  Dr. Hassel is the
vet that we saw at UC Davis last July when Warpaint had his mysterious splint.
(It's a suspensory! No, it's a splint! No, it's a tumor!)
I thought it would be a great idea to have her look at him again.  She
remembered him and checked him over.  She palpated the splint and he
practically ripped his leg out of her hands.  Yikes!  Warpaint has made a
habit of taking summers off, so the first thing through my head was "not
again!". He trotted out sound and everything else was OK.  Dr. Hassel 
didn't like the sensitivity of the splint and said that if he started to
look off at all, we should pull him.  I walked him back to the trailer, not
sure what to think.  Of course then I started poking and prodding his
splint and he didn't give me any response.  I adopted the "wait and see"
approach.  Although it might sound defeatist, I'm always ready for something
to go wrong.  I need to be prepared for disappointment just in case.  The
good side of that is that the successes are really sweet!

There was a nice (no mosquitos, at least none that I noticed) ride meeting 
that started just about on time, covered the essentials, and ended before 
dark.  I went off to the camper to spend the night by myself.  In the early 
days before I met Nick I was a competent person that did everything for 
myself.  Some of you may know Nick and what an industrious, busy guy he is.  
So for all the time we have been endurance riding, Nick has just about had 
everything done in camp before I have to lift a finger (everyone should be 
this spoiled).  Unfortunately this has made me a real lame-o when it comes 
to doing things by myself.  I did manage to boil some tortellinis and eat 
them without hurting myself (too badly).  No sauce, just a little parmesan
cheese that I had to shred with a butter knife (where's the cheese grater,
dear?) If it had been difficult, I would have just eaten them raw!  

I slept well and got out of bed around 5:10 am the next morning.  I planned
to leave late to avoid the crowd.  Later on Carolyn Schultz told me that
she and Marilyn Russell were concerned about running late while getting
their horses ready.  Then they noticed that my camper light was on and
my horse was still in his corral with his blanket on.  Nick arrived and
reminded me that I was late.  But I planned it this way!  The part I 
didn't plan on was someone's stallion misbehaving and bucking the rider
off.  As the horse cantered and bucked its way around the meadow with
everyone trying to catch him, I finished getting ready.  I didn't really
want to leave until everything settled down.  As it worked out, we ended
up starting at the same time as the wayward stallion.  Luckily he wasn't
interested in my gelding.  

Warpaint and I actually had a nice start if you don't count the 1/4 mile
down the road to the actual start.  That involved some disagreement 
between us on just how fast we would start out.  As we hit the start we
were behind the stallion again (made my first and only wrong turn of the
day).  Surprisingly enough, Warpaint behaved himself trotting at a 
controlled speed about 50 yards behind the stallion.  We did this for
about a mile and we passed with no trouble.  I didn't catch up to any
other riders for quite a while.  The morning was overcast but warm and
I was enjoying my ride.  We came across Judith Ogus with her 1/2 arab 1/2
curly stallion.  I didn't know he was a stallion until after the ride.
He just trucked along looking incredibly cute.  The curly forelock is
great but the curly fetlocks are the cutest!

Nick met us at the first vet check and helped cool down Warpaint.  The
check was a nice short break and we headed back out on the trail after
a brief hold.  The rest of the first loop was pretty uneventful except
for a near-encounter with about a hundred pygmy goats.  These weed-eaters
have been in the park for this ride so many times that Warpaint decided 
they were old hat.  As we trucked back to the campsite for the lunch 
check, the weather stayed overcast and warm.  Warpaint was travelling 
fairly quickly and was pretty warm when we stopped to walk into the
check.  I pulled Warpaint's tack and was able to hose him off a bit.  He
came down in a reasonable amount of time so we vetted and went off to
have lunch.  Nick was taking a nap in the camper!  Another rare event.

After lunch the sun was finally shining and things got warmer.  Warpaint
and I ended up leap frogging with Kathy Ruiz and her riding partner
Marta.  We saw each other off and on through the whole loop.  I walked
some parts of the trail on foot and ended up regretting it as I became 
the host for a colony of ticks.  I was pulling those nasty things off 
all evening.   

The last vet check went OK.  Since Nick was there to help, we decided it 
was easier to cool him off if we pulled his tack.  I can't imagine
trying to put it back on if I had to hold him myself.  The last loop was
short but we took a while doing it.  We were by ourselves and Warpaint
just doesn't see the point in hurrying if there isn't any horse to catch
or to run away from.  The last part of the trail included Cascade trail in
Chabot park, a lovely flat single track that we trotted easily on.  From
there it was probably less than a mile to camp and the finish.  We
came in around 4:15 and vetted through successfully.  Dr. Hassel checked
the splint again and there was no sensitivity.  A Completion!!!!!  
Warpaint is up to 1920 career miles now and seems to be doing well. So
maybe it only takes appys 7 years and 2000 miles to settle down.  I
had a great ride and no blisters!  

We had a great ride on a beautiful, well marked trail on a lovely warm 
California day.  The ride was well organized down to the last detail,
including the most excellent banquet.  Thanks to the Moraga Horseman's
association, Gary and Laura Fend, Kathy Campbell, Karen Bottiani and all
the others who helped make this a great event.  



Judy Long and Nachi Sunshine
Hayward, Ca.