Norco Riverdance - Aug 30, 2002

The Norco Riverdance Endurance Ride was held Sat Aug. 30 in the PS
region with good weather, a large entry(157), and a very unusual
trail.  It's put on by 5 time ride manager Lynne Glazer of nearby
Ontario, California.

Most of ride takes place in the city of Norco(described as a cow town by
the locals in nearby Orange county) and in the riverbed of the Santa
Anna river that flows through on it's way to the Pacific Ocean 35 miles
away.  Norco is an urban environment just 15 miles from Anaheim.
It's a very horse oriented town of 24,000 residents(20,000 horses)
with 90 miles of horse trails.  The town slogan is "Not a one horse
town".

Ridecamp is in the Hidden Valley Nature Preserve with a large open area
for very easy parking.  The camp is higher than the surrounding cities
and Friday night we can see the yellow city lights spread out toward the
horizon.  The ride starts at 6 AM for the 50 milers(62 starters) - 7 AM
for the 25 mile LD(a record 95 starters) and goes directly into one of
the most jungle looking environments I've seen outside of the Tropics.

The bamboo like Arundo forms dense areas along the river that have
tunnels cut through them - real tunnels taller than a mounted rider and
6-8 feet wide. They're long tunnels and needed glowbars at the start
even after the sun had been up for a while.  It's an odd feeling to be
trotting along in these tunnels looking ahead and not seeing any place
to go - then having a sharp turn show up and lead into another tunnel.
The Arundo grows fast and apparently has to be cut by machete wielding
trail clearers regularly.

After we cross the river many times - shallow in some areas and deeper
in others(it's not a ride for a horse that can't cross water) - we head
for 7 miles of moderate hills for an out vet check - then back to camp
for the 25 mile 1 hour hold.  Vets Beasom and Hewett with assistance
from local vets are handling the ride.  We've been told at the ride
meeting that the river with the tunnels is a high humidity environment
and to be very careful to ride and electrolyte accordingly.  The
white fetlock deep sand is another hazard to ride carefully in.

And indeed - it does turn out to be high humidity.  It's not the Central
region in the summer but it's certainly the highest humidity ride I've
seen in the West and Pacific South.  We're lucky in having an overcast
morning keeping the temperatures down until afternoon. We cross the
river at least 7 times in the morning so there's always water.  After
noon the temperature reaches 112 for a  short time at the third vet
check with the very white sand reflecting the sun back on rider and
horse. Given the heat and humidity - the halfway LD vet check criteria
was set at 56 rather than the normal 60 bpm.

In the morning 25 mile loop - we pass through the town of Norco using
their bridle paths which line all the streets.  The residents
are out watching, the police have traffic stopped so we can cross the
towns main street, and there's fresh water in a wheelbarrow(with a big
sign stating this) for us outside one of the city residences.  It really
is a horse oriented town.

In the afternoon we spent a lot of time near the river.  We ride down
long stretches of little streams branching off the river - not along
side the streams but directly in them.  One section has the ride going
down a portion where my reasonably large horse was in water up to my
knees.  And it wasn't just a few feet but several hundred.  There was a
bypass for the more cautious riders.  Ride management had suggested the
night before that we send dry socks and shoes to the 3rd away vet check.
It was certainly a cool off for the horses as well as the riders.
I've been in Venice several times and with the amount of water trails on
this ride - I felt that I could have been in Venice with the gondola
replaced by my horse.

The winner was Suzzane Ford Huff(BC) followed by Shelli Sexton in the 50
with 59 of 62 finishing.  In the LD, 88 of 95 finished. It was an
very good completion rate of 94% up from the first year in 1998 of 84%.

The awards dinner was excellent out on the grass of the Nature Center
followed by an awards ceremony that seemed to have something for
everyone.  All 157 entries were called forward and the top vet
scores, turtle awards, hard luck awards, juniors, youngest rider, oldest
horse made up for an interesting ceremony.  There were even two riders
there with Icelandics and neither was John Parke.

Observations:

Some nice amenities from the ride management and volunteers include
wakeup music at 5 AM that sounds like it's from the commercial for Irish
Spring and a water truck that keeps the dust down on the ridecamp roads
that also stops to fill up water buckets at trailers along the way.

Having a very good interaction with the park staff helps a lot.  The
park official here has been working with equestrian groups like the
ride's for many years to provide the great facilities and trails. It's a
neat place to ride that's unique.  The park rangers' birthday was the
day before the ride. There was an excellent cake at the awards dinner
for him and as dessert for us.

There's an extra stop 5 miles from the finish where you pause for 5
minutes and then go. It may help break up this "race to the finish" that
a rider can get caught up in toward the end of the ride.  It certainly
can help in conditions like the high humidity we had on the ride. Plus
there's an In + Out fast food place right next to the stop for the
riders.  Some thought for the horses safety certainly went into
this extra stop.

The ride is using the FEI P&R box at all vet checks.  It seems to
work well and more rides in the W and PS are using it now.  The
ride also used the AERC BC rules for the first time as are other rides
in the PS region this year.  There doesn't appear to be any problem with
LD riders pushing any harder even though placings are being given.

Horses certainly like the clean white sand.  After several water
crossings - the sand looked so good to my guy that he tried to roll with
me still on him.

Volunteers were everywhere at this ride - spotters at many points, all
the vet checks covered well, and the hill portion of the ride had
markers every 20 feet in white on the ground.  A number were mounted and
certainly seemed to be enjoying their participation in this sport where
riders do these "extreme" things...  Volunteers are the glue that makes
our rides possible and this was a very nice group.  Lynne had 80
volunteers for the ride with many not even being equestrians.

If you are careful and educate your riders - sometimes taking years -
you can get high completion rates such as this years 94% even with a
large number of inexperienced riders as there was in the record 95 entry
LD ride.  Serious discussion by the ride vet the night before on past
problems coupled with a good article in the ride packet on riding in
humidity can play a strong factor in this success.

Lynne says she's taking a one year break after this ride.  And possibly
moving it to earlier in the year when the weather isn't as variable as
September can be.  She's really put on an excellent unique ride for the
past 5 years with the help of her volunteer staff. And I certainly hope
she either decides not take a break after all or to come back after the
break to put on the "jungle" ride of Southern California again.

This ride also is at a point where the summer is ending and the days are
getting shorter.  Our riding time is getting a few minutes less every
day as we head into the fall.  We have the fall rides to look forward to
- cool enough to starting riding in the CT and SE regions again, and
soon in the desert areas of the West and SW.  I always miss the evening
times to ride in the fall after the time change but there are lots of
nice rides coming up in last part of this Chinese "Year of the Horse".

A great ride - Lynne - and a unique experience.

Mike