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.
