Del Valle Vulture Venture October 2001

The Del Valle Vulture Venture was held Oct. 6 with a lot of QSER participation. The
ride is local for us - near Livermore in the Del Valle Regional Park and the weather
was great - mild temperatures. There was a 25 and 50.

The statistics first:

50 miles - 37 starting - 33 finishing
1st - Ed Meyer - not QSER
2nd - Cheryl Davidison - not QSER
3rd - Barry Waitte - not QSER
4th - Judy Etheridge/Orion ***BC***

11th - Jill Kilty Newburn
13th - Mike Tracy
14th - Robert Ribley/Muir The Blur
20th - Jeff Luternauer/Phoenix
24th - Lori Oleson
31st - Judith Ogus
32nd - Mike Maul/Roc
33rd - Trilby/Beau - Last

Marybens junior Katie Alton finished her first 50 on Jake - Marybens pinto - with Judith.
It was Jakes first 50 as well. Katies parents were on hand as well as her grandparents
from England.  Katie looks like she is hooked now - perhaps another Heather in the making.

Pulled Mike Sofen/Nick - Lame and Maryben on Bandit - Rider Option

25 miles - 45 starting and 38 finishing

Steve Shaw 5th or so
Barbara White, Julie Shur, and Bob Suhr in the last few places.

Tom Stutzman Pulled

Working the ride were Melissa Ribley - Head Vet, Michele Shaw and Judy Reens assisting.

Volunteers on the ride had Mike and Kirsten Bernsten, Brian and Val cooking, Eric
Thompson(Mr. ATV), Mike Newburn.  Becky Glaser worked the ride after deciding not
to start.

The ride was put on for the first time this year - the ride manager Jane Cloud
and Ride Secretary Linda Rogers did an excellent job.  Lunch was served at the
away Lunch Vet Check(Grilled cheese sandwiches and BBQ hot-dogs) and there was an
excellent meal at the awards.

There were lots of awards - high vet score, horse of excellence instead of BC
in the LD, best rider care of their horse in the LD(Steve Shaw), last place
awards in both - Bob Suhr(LD) and Trilby(50).  The awards ceremony was well done
with lots of fun - a song written for the event and sung by two of the volunteers,
all the awards, good food, and a great place to hold it. Nice completion
sweatshirts for everyone starting.

The ride was challenging - lots of hills with reasonable climbs.  Lots of loops
where you saw riders passing in opposite directions and sharing of the 25 and 50
trails.  Marking was excellent - done all the afternoon before by Mr. ATV - Eric
Thompson - because the rangers would not allow it before then. Lots of water.

Parking was tight but manageable - the park only allowed 75 to enter but with trailer
sharing - the number of entries snuck up to a total of 83.

The views of the lake were beautiful from up on the ridges - lots of small boats
with fishermen - a few sailboats - and waves.  The wind was blowing hard and one time
when we tried to get our horses to drink from the lake - the 3 inch waves kept
coming in and the horses would have none of this - Arabians of course... Some of the
trails followed the lake fingers and you could almost see the bottom in the blue
green water.

We had a hold at 15 miles back in camp - then a lunch check at 34 miles - then a
check a few miles out of the finish where you just had to meet criteria.

Observation on the ride:

A comment on the worries of ride managers - until just the week before - not many riders
had signed up - lots showed up in the last week. Bet there was a big sigh of relief..

Something I had forgotten about lakes - if you catch the sun just right - it looks
like thousands of little diamonds flashing from the surface. In the morning - the clouds
hung around the peaks rising out of the fog. As you go thru the day - you see the
quality of the light change on the peaks and know why photographers like dawn and
sunset.

Some of the little thing you do as a ride manager - suckers in the ride packets.  Some
of the smart things you do - I heard an ATV start up at 3:50 AM that I believe went
out for a last minute check of the markings.

Others use the parks too - there were lots of Boy Scouts there - camping and cleaning
up the park.  Something to remember and be careful of - it's a "shared" resource.
We saw hikers - dog walkers - bikers - we all need to be courteous to each other.

Vets do more than watch our horses - I saw a vet send out a volunteer after a rider
leaving the lunch check saying the rider looked really tired and could the volunteer
talk him into staying a while longer.

Riders can be out there just to have fun - on the LD a new horse was causing
it's rider a lot of problems and other riders pitched in to help get it thru.
All very experienced riders using LD as a way of starting new horses.

Mules are different - we watched Roberts mule Muir The Blur - paw, buck, shake
his head for 3 hours while tied to a trailer.  All without harming himself
even with a tether tied to one foot.  Horses would last about 2 minutes.
Mules look like they are smarter and tougher than horses but a whole lot
more stubborn...

There are things to say about riding slowly.  My guy Roc is recovering from a
respiratory infection followed by a cough that wouldn't seem to go away.  I wanted to
make sure I didn't get carried away by how the horse was feeling and ride too fast.
So I paired up with Trilby and rode together for the whole ride.   It was quite
a different perspective than I normally get - and well worthwhile.  Trilby has a
lot of stories to tell.

There was a write up on vultures in the ride packet - but I must have missed the
connection with the name Vulture Venture in the ride meeting. Even with the name -
it was a great ride - Sue and Linda - and hopefully the start of a regular new ride
in the Bay area.

Mike