Oakland Hills

["Marci Cunningham" <mcunningham@calcot.com>]

Had a great weekend at the Oakland Hills ride.  Laura Fend put on a nice
ride with great trails and camping.  I met ridecamper Kat Meyers after
hunting her horse down in camp.  It is always fun looking for a gray arab,
luckily I got her number from ride management and was looking for a specific
numbered gray arab.  I had some pictures of her horse to deliver to her from
its previous owner.  I had cross entered in the IAHA Region III ride but
after seeing the terrain I doubted we would pick up any extra points unless
the other half-arabs cross entered were pulled.  I was more interested in
finishing with a horse fit to continue that risking getting pulled for the
sake of achievement award points.  All of Torch's rides this year have been
flatter desert rides and she didn't need the down hill pounding on her front
legs at this point in her conditioning.

My husband asked upon our return home, I traveled with a friend and her
horse, if the ride was worth the 6 hour drive and I answered in the
affirmative.  We are used to shorter drives to rides so 6 hours seemed like
a long travel time, but this was a real nice ride and worth the time spent
driving.  Besides my friend, Karen, got to drive my rig for the first time
on Interstate 5, a long, straight stretch of highway up the middle of
California.

My only bad experience on the ride was when 5 of us, riding at the end of
the pack, arrived at the water stop a couple of miles from the finish.  We
were in the bottom 10 so no one was racing and I have always felt that if
you arrive at water in a pack and no one is racing, you don't leave until
all the horses have had a drink or you ask if leaving will cause a problem.
The two gals on palomino horses took off for the finish at a trot just as my
horse started to take a drink.  As soon as Torch saw those horses take off
she wouldn't have anything to do with the water.  It wasn't a big problem as
she had been drinking well all day, but it was annoying as these two riders
were oblivious to the other three of us still trying to get our horses to
drink.

I had a nice walk in with Tom Bowling and his son Shawn and talked about the
'olden days' in AERC when Tom was a director.  A highlight of the weekend
was the nice complement my mare received from Kerry Ridgeway when he vetted
her at the pre-ride check in.  If your schedule allows it put Oakland Hills
on your calendar for next year.

Happy Trails,
Marci Cunningham
Bakersfield CA


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