President's Message, October, 2000
Just got back from
Virginia City 100 which was a lot of fun but made the Quips late
because I did not
have my message done. We had Gloria Vanderford and Michele Shaw in
the top ten.
Jennifer Nice won the
ride with Al Baraque and Marcia Smith on her new horse took BC.
I think the horse's
name was Proud Endeavor but am not sure. Bing and Spot finished
with capable crewing
from fellow QSER member Jennifer. It was a really hard ride as
always but at least
the weather cooperated. It was gorgous and we toured Virginia City
like all the other
tourists. NASTR did a great job. The parking is extremely limited
but
we all crammed in
and it worked. 75 started and 51 finished. There were about
4
juniors who finished.
The meeting for October
is just a few days before our ride. Trilby will be leaving for
Grand canyon so we
can meet at my house.... 1299 Sandra Drive, San Jose(in the
Willow Glen area).
Board meeting at 6:30 and regular meeting at 7:30.
DUH,
MaryBen
October 2000
October 7 COMSTOCK 25/50
John
W.Collier 775-829-1221
October 11 QUICKSILVER MEETING - OUR PRESIDENT GETS AROUND...
Maryben’s-1299
Sandra Dr., San Jose
Board
6:30 pm.; General 7:30 pm
October 14 QUICKSILVER FALL CLASSIC 30/50
Brian
Reeves 408-397-2378
October 21 LAKE SONOMA 25/50
Ruth
Waltenspiel 707-433-8254
Quicksilver September Meeting
Quicksilver Board Meeting
was not held this month. There was no Board Meeting
last month due to
the potluck and barbecue at Trilby’s.
Quicksilver General Meeting was called to order at 7:45 p.m.
Treasurer's :
Gen'l Account $ 666.69
Report
Ride Account 2147.13
Junior
Account 756.32
Trails
Account 836.36
The Club Endurance
Ride was discussed and Brian put out a call for help
(volunteers) in all
areas, but particularly with food preparation and
cooking.
Trilby made a motion
that the Club insurance (Liability) be paid out of the
Ride Account as the
General Account was not of an amount to pay the $1,119
owed for the year.
Brian seconded this motion.
Goodwill: Becky Glaser
broke her ankle upon tripping over her dog. Ken made
a motion to send a
gift to Becky in an amount up to $50.
Brian
seconded this motion.
Ken made a motion to
adjourn the meeting.
Trilby
seconded the motion.
Meeting was adjourned
at 9:05 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Diane Enderle, Secretary.
As
ride manager of our Quicksilver Fall Classic Endurance Ride on October
14th,
Brian Reeves needs and deserves our support. He cannot make it a
success
by himself. He needs help. Please see the entry form on pages
8 and
9
for more details Then call Brian. His pager is 408-397-2378. His
e-mail
address
is breeves@genus.com
WHAT TO DO WITH THOSE OLD RUNNING SHOES
submitted by Marvin Snowbarger
With the current issue
of AERC's ENDURANCE NEWS running an article on
athletic hoes, I thought
the disposal of same would be appropriate for our
club members. It is
from the September/October 2000 issue of Trail Runner.
Paper issue only
Jim and Joanne Dietz make a big change
Hi Julie,
We just
got back from a nice ride this morning and thought it was time
to drop you
a note about our new house and location. We moved to Mariposa
at the end of July
to a house almost on the start line of the old Mariposa
Ride. I'm sure
you remember the End of The Road Restaurant. It's just
across a meadow from
us. Needless to say there are trails everywhere.
We are in the
middle of Sierra National Forest and most of our neighbors
are trail riders.
A very horse friendly place. We are involved in putting
up a barn and getting
all our corrals and pasture fences done. But there
is still plenty
of time to ride! Dr. Bob Young and his wife are building
a house on property
behind us and our vet is Rich Theodore's daughter Eileen.
Ron Theodore
lives across the road and has started showing us some trails.
We are
looking forward to
watching the snow fall this winter and we will see
you on the trail,
Joanne and Jim Dietz
All of Quicksilver
wishes them many happy years in their new home. Their
address is:
7017 Scott Road
Mariposa, CA 95338
(209)966-5567
The Demise of a GOOD RIDE
The McCrary family
has officially announced that the Castle Rock Challenge
Ride has run its last
course. Our gratefulness to the entire McCrary family
for their devotion
to this event for a quarter of a century is boundless.
Thank you for giving
us a chance to seek adventure and to share your trails
for so many years.
Quicksilver will look forward to supporting and enjoying
your new ride in July
of 2001.
The announcement as made on the internet--------
Yes, it's true.
Very sad for us, as we've managed it for 25 years. But
that's also part of
the reason we're giving it up. Our three daughters and
their husbands work
very hard on the ride, as well as Lud and I. They've
recommended we consolidate
and put on just one event a year.
Considering the amount
of time and energy we all expend on ride management,
and the fact that
they have their own lives to live and families to raise,
we're going to throw
all of our energies into one event a year. Since we all
agreed that the Swanton
Pacific is our favorite ride, we're going to offer it
as a two-distance
ride. It will be extremely simple to shorten the ride in
two places, without
changing the vet check sites, thus allowing us to offer a
70 (approx.) mile
ride as well as the 100.
Whether we also offer
a R&T on two mileage levels will be determined by the
number of teams who
show any interest in the event.
We've had as many as
6 teams in the past, this year we had only 3. So it may
simply die for lack
of participation. It really breaks my heart to think of
dropping Castle Rock,
especially since it is the longest running 50 miler in
the world. But
managing 2 to 3 events a year takes up most of our time for 6
months, and we haven't
had the time to condition our own horses. We've been
to only 1 or 2 rides
in two years. And, I spend quite a bit of time as an
AERC director.
It's time to smell the flowers...... we're not getting any
younger, and we've
begun to enjoy a bit of traveling. Often we are thinking,
"Oh, we can't do that,
it's right at the time of Castle Rock". We can't go
on letting the ride
run our lives, or someday we'll realize that we've missed
some wonderful adventures
because we "had" to stay home and manage a ride.
Some other ride will
come along. There are new ones all the time, and good
ones, too.
Diablo is taking the May 2001 date that Castle Rock would have had.
Barbara
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE QUICKSILVER STABLE
Becky Hart and Bob
Verheul both have a lot to shout about. They have new
horses. Becky's new
horse is a 9 year old grey gelding .
Bob's new mount is
a tall chestnut saddlebred/Arab gelding, nicknamed
‘Flint’ for the distinguished
white marking on his face. (Looks like an
arrowhead, I am told.)
. He will join Pat and Bob and Shabar on the Year 2001
Pony Express Ride
across the country. Flint has primarily been an arena
horse so Bob is introducing
him to the great outdoors and he is learning fast
about creeks and bridges
and other exciting things.
Riding with Mike Maul at the Eastern High Sierra Classic
The Eastern High Sierra
Classic ride this w/e was attended by Quicksilver members
Maryben, Traci and
Mark Falcone, Mike Maul, Robert Ribley, Bing Voight,
Jennifer Kurtzyall
, Jeff Luternauer, Trilby, and Dom Freeman.
It's the first time
I have attended this ride and the area is beautiful. The basecamp
has the background
of huge mountains rising from the valley floor with snow still
in places on the peaks.
The nights were crisp and the stars were something we
never see near the
cities. The Milkyway ran across the sky disappearing into the
mountains at night.
The ride combines high
desert, mountain terrain, and alpine meadows in the
50 mile distance.
The ride had a controlled start at 6 AM led by Ron and Ruth
Waltenspiel in the
desert area - then going into rocky areas that led us toward the
snow.
While we never made it to the snow - we did get up to 8500-8700
feet
using lots of switchbacks.
Coming down - we passed the waterfalls from the
many streams.
Most everyone walked the rocky areas and made time in the
desert and meadows.
My unofficial number on the vertical up and down was
about 9000 feet from
the information on the ride map.
The 20 mile morning
loop was the desert and mountain leading back into
basecamp. The front
runners were in by 9 AM even with the rocks. The
second loop was in
the meadows and really nice. The grass was very green -
something
the group from Quicksilver doesn't see again until winter
here... Lots of cattle
grazing - many places to let your horse stop and eat.
The non-front
runners did that in lots of places.
The "Duck" was
the head vet. After getting the date for the ride wrong -
he chartered a plane
and flew in for the ride start. There were 43
starters and 43 finishers
in the 30. There were 128 starters and 114 finishers in the
50. A
big ride but very well run by Jackie Bumgardner. The large
basecamp
was full of rigs.
There was an excellent dinner Saturday evening after the
ride where Jackie
gave out the awards.
Some things I heard
during the ride that stuck with me - Maryben coming in at
the end on her first
50 after several years off with Trilby shouting Go - Go - we are
running out of time!
Trilby had set her watch ahead and thought she had no
time left.
There were actually 4 minutes left when they got in... Karen Chaton
rode with them in
her slowest 50 ever to make sure MB made it in. |-)
MB saying - this damn
horse never gets tired...
Another woman coming
in just a few minutes earlier - then hugging her
husband and crying
- it was her first 50 and she was so happy her horse
had done
it.
Ron and Ruth saying
one of us always makes it through - this time it didn't
happen - but it was
a great ride anyway...
Riding with new people
at various times during the ride - trading names -
where you lived -
what you did - how you got started in this crazy sport...
How all the horses loved the grass... and green again...
And it's your turn to open and close the gate... |-)
For me - it's rides
like this that show the side of the sport that sometimes
gets lost in the desire
to top ten or be high in the awards standings. I
have hiked some of
these Sierra areas on foot and seeing them from a
horse is something
really to remember.
I know Karen Chaton
will have her pictures to post soon - but being there
and seeing
it was great.
Great ride - Jackie.
Mike Maul
*********Placings as
I remember them Dom Freeman at 20th Mark
Falcone - 1st HW at
25th Mike Maul/Thor - 2nd HW at 26th Jeff Luternauer
at 54th or so Bing/Jennifer/Robert
- in the middle MB at 113th Trilby at 114th
And then Maryben’s version
To clarify, Maryben
had a bad fall on a desert ride in 1997. With
surgeries, physical
therapy and endless hours of wondering if she would ever
ride again, she proved
herself a true endurance rider at the Eastern High
Sierra Classic that
Mike wrote about on the previous page. Karen Chaton,
MB’s good friend from
Nevada, had agreed to ride with MB---for moral
support.
I feel human enough
now to write my end of the story. Karen and others have
written about the
ride and how great it was. I have to write about my
perspective of the
ride, which is mostly thank yous.
I was terrified to
ride and came close to not getting on the horse in the
morning. And
to set the record straight, it was Karen's defective step
ladder that I fell
off of. When Karen said that by the look on my face
coming into lunch,
she thought I was thinking about stopping she probably
meant not so much
the look on my face as the tears. Anyway, she and Trilby
absolutely refused
to even consider my not finishing this ride and they were
right. I have
to beat Heather Bergantz to 8000 miles and she is right behind
me. The second
loop was much better. Of course, the drugs probably helped a
lot. Living
well through chemistry or whatever General Electric used to say
QUICKSILVER ON THE TRAIL AND IN CAMP
The Pacific South Int'l
East Bay 25/50(Formerly LAS TRAMPAS) ride was held
Sept. 9 - in the Oakland
Hills by Gary and Laura Fend. The
weather was beautiful
- the ride was well marked - the trails were great and
as usual for their
rides - a great experience for all.
The ride start
was after dawn at 6:30 - the first loop was a part of the old
Las Trampas ride with
the rest of the ride very similar to the June Oakland
Hills trails.
There were 51 starters
in the 50 with 42 finishers. Jamie Kerr was the head
vet with 3 other.
The 25 had something like 34 starters with almost all
finishing.
The winner was
Benjih - also Tevis winner this year - ridden by Dennis Tracy
with Suzanne Huff
second - Ray Visco - third, Mike Rapposelli either 4th or
5th. The first QS
members showing up in the placings were Mike Maul/Thor at
7th and Rick Gomez/Monterey
at 8th. Julie and Bob Suhr took RO with Dom
Freeman out as well.
Lori Oleson and Judith Ogus rode drag. Becky Hart,
Judy Etheridge, Brian
and Val were working the ride as volunteers as well.
Some other items
of interest - as a celebration of their 28th anniversary -
Laura Fend let Gary
ride her horse to a 13th place completion. Laura noted at
the awards ceremony
that it was the best looking horse there...
It's great that Laura
and Gary are keeping the local rides going. They
always put on great
ride.
Mike Maul
I recently found two
quotations which I think have direct application to our
sport of Endurance
Riding.
The first one was made
by General
Douglas MacArthur.....
“Sometimes we have
to make a choice between the roar of the crowd on one hand
and the voice of our
conscience on the other.”
I do not know the author
of the second quote other than that he was a German
dressage rider who
won a gold medal at an Olympic competition. I did not
write down his words
as I read them, so the following is not verbatim.
Once a horse
has reached his potential, I do not ask for more. I want to
keep him as my friend.
I think the ability
which separates the rider from the horseman is recognizing when
a horse has reached
his potential. It is a very narrow and elusive line.
js
A Nice Horse and A Good Friend
Remembered++PISTOL
September 6, 2000
I had to put Pistol
to sleep early this morning. He was 27 years old.
1/6/73-9/6/00. We
had 4,160 recorded endurance miles together. 1979 was our
first full year of
competition and we completed 755 miles together. In 1980
we completed 970 miles
and placed 22nd in the AERC National Mileage Division
and 8th in the AERC
West Region Division.
I bought Pistol when
he was five. He was on a rent string and although I had
a lease agreement
on him, after a few months I was told to select a different
horse to fulfill the
remainder of the lease. as he was to be sold “down the
road.” I bought
out the lease to keep him from that fate.
Pistol was very healthy
for an older horses. However, he suddenly developed
a very fatal type
of small intestine colic that very old horses are prone to.
The onset is sudden
and it progresses very quickly. He was fine at 5:00 PM
and by 6:30 he was
in violent pain. Dr. Towes arrived round 8:00 and told me
that the outlook was
very bad but if surgery was an option I needed to get
him to Davis, a three
hour drive away. He was transported to Davis but by
the time we arrived
it was just too late for surgery. His condition had gone
from bad to worse.
I made the decision to put him to sleep so he would not
continue to suffer
the terrible pain he was in.
I truly don't know
what I am going to do without him, he was just everything
to me. He and
I were so bonded that I feel as if my very heart has been
ripped form my body.
I know I gave him a wonderful life for 23 years.
Nothing was too good
for my Pistol. He has been retired from endurance for
many years but our
bonding continued and strengthened. I could not ride
because of my multiple
heart problems and he could not be ridden because of
his navicular so we
eased into retirement together. We enjoyed our time
together and reminisced
together about the good old days on the endurance
trail. When I went
to the ranch to see him I would call to him “Pistol,
Mommy’s here” and
he would always whinny to me and come to the gate to greet
me. I hear him
now in my memories.
Jeri
Ayers-Scott
UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE
Jan Snyder reporting
from Auburn, CA, where a fire was reportedly started
when a horseshoe struck
a rock
. An article in today's
online Auburn Journal has the full story: For those
who may not get this
in time to read the article, Officer Tina Rose of the
California Department
of Forestry and Fire Protection was interviewed.
"She reported the fire
started when a horseshoe struck a rock, producing a
spark that ignited
nearby brush. The horse and its unidentified rider were on
the Pioneer Express
Trail in the Auburn State Recreation Area.
"Rose said a
fire investigator analyzed photographs and other evidence
before concluding
the blaze started when a horseshoe struck a rock." The fire
was observed shortly
before 3 p.m. Sunday in the rugged canyon."
This was about 10 miles
from my place, but we could see and smell the smoke I
would love to know
how they figured this out. Jan
-
"Fire blamed on spark
set off by horseshoe
"By Wayne Wilson, Bee Staff Writer
Published Aug. 29, 2000)
"A horseshoe is being
blamed for the wildfire that burned 125 acres in the
American River Canyon
and threatened homes in the Falcon's Point area of
Auburn.
"According to Tina
Rose, public information officer for the California
Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection, an investigation revealed the
blaze started Sunday
afternoon when a horse's hoof struck a rock, generating
sparks that ignited
underbrush in the canyon.
"The humidity was extremely
low and equestrians are common on the trails that
wind through the area,
Rose explained. it was unlikely the horse and rider
responsible would
be identified."
Published by the Quicksilver
Endurance Riders Inc.
P.O. Box 71, New Almaden,
CA 95042
Julie Suhr, Editor
TEL and FAX 831-335-5933