President's Message, November, 2000
NOVEMBER PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Well, we survived another
Quicksilver Fall Classic and it seemed to go off
pretty well.
We had 40 starters in the 50 miler with 30 finishing. The
winner was Judy Etheridge,
riding G. T. Orion and Gloria Vanderford, riding
BA Dardanelle was
3rd and took BC.
There were 32 starters
in the 30 miler and 30 finishers. The food was great
and all the volunteers
worked really hard.
Next year we cannot
use the same date and are thinking of new dates for the
ride. October
is pretty much taken up. Maybe a Spring ride at a different
location. If
you have any ideas, let us know.
Next month we will
be voting on the Officers and nominating the Board of
Directors. The
meeting will be at Trilby's and knowing Trilby, there may be
goodies. Please
come and vote for your choices.
I will try to have
a report of the mid year board meeting. I will attempt to
keep accurate notes
so you can be the "first to know". See you there.
Duh.....
Maryben
QUICKSILVER
BOARD MEETING
of October 11, 2000, convened at 6:45 p.m.
We discussed dates
for next year's Quicksilver Ride at great length in an
attempt at avoiding
and coinciding with other rides. This was quite a
challenge!
It was moved and seconded
that we have the ride on October 6, 2001. Steve
Lenheim volunteered
to be Ride Manager for this event.
At 7:45 p.m., it was
moved and seconded that the meeting be adjourned.
QUICKSILVER GENERAL MEETING convened at 7:55 p.m.
No Treasurer's Report
was available as Trilby had already left for the Grand
Canyon Ride.
We discussed this year's
Quicksilver Ride again at great length. Looks like
everything is set
to go. No Best Condition will be awarded on the Limited
Distance ride. There
will be an overall Horse of Excellence award instead
with the winner receiving
an entry to next year's 50. A ride meeting will be
held at 8:00 p.m.
on Friday evening. Both rides will start at 7:00 Saturday
morning. A photographer
will be present.
Nominations were accepted for next year's officers. They were:
PRESIDENT:
Diane Enderle
VICE PRESIDENT: Mike
Maul
SECRETARY:
Jackie Davidson
TREASURER:
Kathy Miller
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
DIANE ENDERLE
Secretary
ADVANCE WARNING
At the October General
Meeting, nominations for the Quicksilver Officers for
2001 were made as
reported in Diane Enderle’s minutes. These will be voted
on at the November
General Meeting.
At the November
General Meeting, nominations for Quicksilver Directors will
be made. They will
be voted on at the December General Meeting.
The new officers and
directors will take office in January 2001. If you wish
to be included as
a member of this elite group, please make sure you attend
the November meeting
at Trilby's (20535 Rome Drive, San Jose--408-997-7500)
The Quicksilver Endurance
Riders wish to thank Trilby for allowing us to meet
at her home
repeatedly.
YOUR VOTE COUNTS
Within the next few
weeks you will be asked by the AERC to make a choice as
to who you want to
represent you as Directors at Large. There are eight
openings and twenty
candidates. Three Quicksilver members are running--Becky
Hart, an incumbent,
Mike Maul and Robert Ribley. They have all indicated
they are willing to
listen to your concerns. In many ways the AERC is at a
crossroad---Limited
Distance Rides and FEI Rides continue to be
controversial. And
recently there is a move to have a minimum age to enter a
ride--not for the
horse but for juniors. So choose your Directors with care.
THE RIGHT KIND OF NEW MEMBER
A hearty welcome to
new member Jackie Davidson of San Jose. She's the kind
we need more of!!
Diane's minutes indicate Jackie is running for club
secretary. Yea, Jackie!
West
Coast Distance Riding and Trail Horse Sale
and Mini Faire
....a new idea well received.
The first of what hopefully will be an annual affair, was the West
Coast Distance Riding
Mini-Faire and Auction held at Cal Expo in Sacramento
on September
30, 2000. Quicksilver was well represented. A reception the
night before
hosted by Sportack with Cory Soltau and Diana Butler, the
events co-managers,
greeting the guests. The following morning there was a
seminar with Quicksilver
members Becky Hart and Julie Suhr speaking along
with Hal Hall of Auburn,
Marion Schlinger of Santa Ynez and a representative
of the Arabian Trail
Riders Assoc. Bazy Tankersley of Al Marah Arabians was
supposed to make a
presentation, but spent a miserable weekend with the flu,
instead.
After lunch the 22 horses to be auctioned were ridden in the
arena and then unsaddled
and allowed to run free. Quicksilver members Robert
and Melissa Ribley
rode horses belonging to Joy Pritchard that were being
inspected...and apparently
quite well as Barbara McCrary bought one.
Each horse could be
examined in its stall and the results of pre-purchase vet
exams were posted
along with the horses vital statistics and a rundown of
its personal history.
This included information
on where the horse was raised, what its training
and riding experience
was and a list of rides that the horse had completed if
it had already been
introduced to the sport of long distance riding. The
horse's heath history
was posted also along with its vaccination and
de-worming schedules.
In most cases, the horse's owners or trainers were in
attendance if people
wanted to ask more questions about a particular animal.
A silent auction then
followed with a bidding sheet by each horse's stall.
Quicksilver members
coming home with new horses were Barbara McCrary, as well
as two of her daughters,
Ellen and Janet, purchasing horses also. Of the
Quicksilver members
looking but not buying were Lori Oleson, Becky Hart,
Heather Bergantz,
Judith Ogus, Kathy and Eric Thompson, Barbara McCrary,
Robert and Melissa
Ribley, Steve and Michelle Shaw, Jennifer Layman and Kathy
Mayeda, Nancy Elliot,
Skip Lightfoot, Jill Newburn and Barbara McCrary, Pat
McKendry and Jan Jeffers,
Bob and Julie Suhr.
This attendee thought
it was an excellent first start. There were some
glitches that need
to be ironed out and the work that went into planning the
affair was evident.
There was some difficulty understanding the bidding
process and confusion
between the meaning of Minimum opening bid and reserve
bid and consignor's
bid.
Eleven of the 22 horses
presented were sold, the highest for $17,000 and
ranging all the way
down to $2,500. In addition there were some tack shops
offering all sorts
of wonderful gear on which endurance riders love to
feast. Actually, you
could have started from scratch and left on a horse—
completely outfitted.
I feel that this
program can be built into something that will really
attract large numbers
of buyers. The idea is great--just needs a little
refinement.
j.s.
November 2000
November
4 LAKE OROVILLE VISTA 25/50
Kathy
Papa 530-534-9057
November
8 Quicksilver Meeting
Board
6:30 General 7:30
Meeting
Place - Trilby Pederson’s
November
11 SUNLAND 25/50
John
Barnes 818-834-4747
November
24-26 SILVER STATE 50/50/50
Fred
Toomey 702-658-2008
Quicksilver
Classic 2000 Ride Report
By Mike Maul
The Quicksilver Endurance
Riders club put on the Quicksilver Classic
Endurance Ride on
Oct. 14 in Calero and Quicksilver Parks with a 30
and 50 mile ride It
started in Calero - went to Quicksilver - and finished in
Calero. The
weather was excellent - 40 started in the 50 mile ride and
32 in the 30 mile
ride. Vet checks 1 and 2(lunch) were both at Mockingbird
with vet check 3 back
in Calero. The lunch vet check for the 50s was at 33
miles.
The head ride vet was
as usual - Nancy Elliot - assisted by Craig Evans of
Adobe and a last minute
addition - Stephanie Flowers. The ride entries
went from 30+ on the
previous Sunday to 61 on Wednesday to 78 at the vet-in
with not all starting.
Very nice that Stephanie came at the last minute.
QSER members finishing
were Judy Etheridge on Orion(1st), Gloria Vanderford
3rd and BC on Dardanelle,
Rick Gomez/Monterey 4th, Robert Oram/Splendent 6th,
Steve Lenheim/Ibn
7th, Dom Freeman/Proud Legacy 8th, Kathy Mayeda/Beau 9th, Mike
Maul/Thor 12th, Mike
Sofen/Nick 13th, Kathy Webster/Fire Alaarm 14th, Gertrude
Walker/Eddie 15th,
Ervin Quinn/Ebony 18th, Robert Ribley/Quigley 19th,
Julie Suhr/War Hymn
23rd, Jill Kilty Newburn/Blue at 25th, Jennifer Kurtzhall on Connell
and Kay Allison's
stallion Nusaam at 28th and
Jack Enderle/Step
Aside(stallion) at 30th(horses first 50). Ken Cook/Rocky
pulled at the lunch
vet check. Barbara McCrary pulled in the 50 also.
Nancy Twight, Carolyn
Tucker and Georgina
Wallbridge finished
in the 30. QSER members took 10 of the first 14 places
and 7 of the top 10
in the 50.
There were 5 stallions
in the ride and they all got along fine. Carolyn Tuckers
Oman at 18 was still
looking good in the 30.
There were lots of
volunteers from the club - Connell cooking, Jan
assisting the vet
and taking digital pictures to later appear on the QSER
website, MB as secretary(always
be nice to MB when you change things), Scott
Sansom, Diane Enderle,
Val Weizer, Skip Lightfoot donated water tanks, Kathy
Miller, and others.
Bing Voight, Hugh Vanderford, Bob Suhr crewing, Linda
Cowles riding drag,
Lud McCrary crewing. I am sure I missed someone here.
Not Brian - of course
- he's the ride manager...
Some things to remember the ride by.
Steve Lenheim donated
a week in his Hawaii condo to the winner of the drawing -
Ervin Quinn.
Will he be the first to actually use the condo from three drawings
so far?
The race to the finish
between Joyce Souza and Judy Etheridge was really close.
Both horses looked
terrific and Steve Lenheim's comment on being passed as they
lapped him on the
last loop - "they both went by us at a flat out gallop".
Pretty good for Joyce's
horse at 17. It was a tough ride - any time you get
to climb Cardiac twice
you know it is tough.
Really great crewing
by Hugh Vanderford for many people at Mockingbird. I heard
several offers to
get him as a permanent crew but he kept saying that if
he didn't make it
to the 3rd vet check before Gloria did - he was in deep trouble.
Mike Sofen and Mike
Maul rode together the whole 50 miles. Thor was so bonded
to Nick at the end
that Mike was told that he could leave but Nick had to stay.
Dennis Rinde was running
as usual and slipped - put his hand out to catch his
balance - then had
his horse step on it. Looked bad but the vets taped it up
and he took off running
again.
Jennifer coming back
over to the trailer at the end and when asked by Bing how
Nusaam did in the
final check saying - "Dead lame - no completion" . Bing knew
better but I got caught.
Nusaam had done fine in his second 50.
Mike Maul and Robert
Ribley both gave short speeches at the ride meeting
introducing themselves
as candidates for the Director-at-Large positions.
Robert finished his
by saying - if you elect me - you get two opinions for the
price of one - Melissa's
will always be in there.
Finally - the ride
could not have gone from Calero without the help of Jim
Green. The ride
went through his property and there was no way without his
permission.
He helped Brian mark trail in Calero and even more - because he had
sold the part of his
property that the ride went through last time - he went
out and cut a new
trail for us.
And he is something
that I believe illustrates a real difference in life
today in Silicon Valley
and what the Santa Clara Valley used to be. When
Mike and I came up
to him on the way back - he was sitting in his chair
there waiting for
us. He got up - gave us 3 peppermints each and said he
would keep doing it
for the next riders until he ran out.
He told us about how
pleased he was to be able to do this for us and how
he had changed the
trail so we could get through this year. He was happy
to be talking with
us and participating in our experience.
Jim Green seemed proud
that he could do this and that we were all enjoying
our ride. It's nice
to see this in people and perhaps - unusual today.
When I compare his
view of life with the "normal" dweller in today's Silicon
Valley - the Santa
Clara Valley view has a lot going for it. Our daily
"how's the market
doing - are our options underwater - let's keep the horses
out of our new clean
community" isn't something that reflects the values
that Jim does.
And I think Jim's views are closer to what we do with our horses.
I live in Silicon Valley
myself but I think we are all missing something that
Jim has and will continue
to have. Perhaps our horses can bring us a little
closer to the Santa
Clara Valley way of life.
So - it was a nice
ride - challenging - with people we know and horses we love.
Think about the part
that Santa Clara Valley can play in our life too.
Mike Maul
Mike's Sofen’s additional comments
---------I want to
echo Mike Maul's sentiments on the ride itself (really an
outstanding course,
great trail markings, etc.) and especially of Jim Green.
To see this gentle
soul get up out of his chair with a big smile on his face
and handing us these
mints...it is a very special person who will share his
time and his property
with us in a way that makes us feel honored by HIS
generosity.
I am moved by Mike's
words about the changes in the Santa Clara Valley and I
find myself not wanting
to accept that the Jim Greens of the world may be
slowly disappearing,
leaving behind folks who don't understand what a slower
life means, or who
don't understand that horse manure isn't fatal.
I don't have an answer
for where to find the next generation of Jim Greens. I
do know, however,
that I'll notice when they're gone.
Thanks for a great
ride recap, Mike, and thanks for a great ride all you QS
dudes and dudettes,
I enjoyed meeting a bunch of you.
Happy Trails,
Mike Sofen
IAHA Championship Competitive Trail Ride
Nancy Twight & Tonto by Jan Jeffers
I got a phone call
from Nancy Twight in early September inquiring about the
qualifications for
the IAHA Championship Competitive Trail Ride held on
September 23-24 in
Santa Ynez, California. I told her she needed 50 miles of
competitive trail
(either IAHA or NATRC), and the rest of the mileage could be
endurance, IAHA or
NATRC. She was discouraged, as her horse, Pogonip, (or
Tonto as we all know
him), did not have any competitive trail mileage. "You
are in luck," I said,
"there's a NATRC two-day ride next weekend in Cool,
which upon completion
will qualify you for the IAHA ride."
Off Nancy went
to Cool the next weekend. She arrived at the Silver Spurs
NATRC ride about dark,
too late for check-in, so went for a midnight
ride. That's our Nancy!!
She and Tonto not only qualified for the IAHA ride
but Tonto won 3rd
place in the Open Lightweight Division.
The IAHA Championship
Competitive Trail Ride was a two-day, 80-mile ride
over a course of rolling
hills (some call them mountains) and oak trees.
Nancy and Tonto rode
the ride with ease. Tonto consumed 10 pounds of carrots
during the ride (comfort
carrots we call them). Nancy's fellow competitors
cautioned her that
giving your horse carrots during the P&R could make his
pulse rise; however,
in Tonto's case it did just the opposite . There may be
something to this
carrot thing!!
Tonto placed 1st in
the purebred Arabian class. He not only received a
beautiful trophy,
Nancy a buckle but also qualified for the prize money since
he is sweepstakes
nominated!
Tonto's accomplishments
for this year alone include, completions at the
Castlerock 50, Oakland
Hills 50, Tevis Cup, and Swanton 100 (finished 5th and
runner-up for best
condition), as well as taking home the top prize at the
IAHA Championship
Competitive Trail Ride.
As many of you
know, Nancy trains horses with her "fat free" training
methods, and is the
owner of Cool-Offs, those fabulous coolers and
neckerchiefs that
keep us cool in the summertime.
Tonto is home
now enjoying his celebrity status. I think he has earned it,
don't you!!!
Nancy has turned her attention to some of her other horses, in
particular, Ginger,
who is on a "fat free" conditioning program for the
winter!!
Congratulations to a fabulous team, proving they can do it all!!
Jan
FAMOUS
LAST WORDS
Last month we reported
that Pat and Bob Verheul and Becky Hart had new
horses. Then next
we heard Barbara McCrary had bought a new at the
Sacramento Auction.
Then Jan Jeffers followed the crowd with an addition to
her barn.. But the
count goes on. Pat McKendry’s story is sort of horse
classic.....
--”had no intent of buying a horse”, but came home with one anyway!!!”
MY NEW HORSE "STAR"
By: Pat McKendry
I accompanied
Jan Jeffers on a horse-buying trip to Santa Ynez about a month
ago. She picked
out two horses to try, a gelding and a mare. She liked the
gelding. I,
of course, had no intention of buying a horse - I was along for
company - but the
mare caught my eye. A couple of weeks later Jan was going
back to buy the gelding
pending a vet check and asked me to go along. There
was something about
that mare that called to me, so I called the owner and
made a deal to bring
her home. Her name is "Rocketstar" (just what I need is
a rocket!).
I nicknamed her Star (don't want her to get any funny ideas).
She is a 14-1+ hand
Arabian mare, gray in color, seven years old, race
trained (just what
I need also is a race trained horse!).
I sent Star
to Trail Riding School 101 with Nancy Twight - the "fat-free
horse trainer"!!
She will be in school for about two months of schooling.
Three months ago I
sold my nice nearly new van, as I was not using it. Now,
not only do I have
to buy a new van but a new horse trailer as well. This
was accomplished last
weekend, so I am ready to take on the Tevis for my 10th
buckle that eluded
me in the past. Wish Star and I luck! See you out there
on the trails!
Quicksilver member
Robert Oram has acres of nice pasture at $165 per month
which includes supplemental
feeding as needed. He also is in search of used
pipe corrals.
Robert can be reached 831-761-1184. He is in the Watsonville
area right next to
Nancy Twight’s Peaceful Pastures Training Center on Old
Adobe Road.
Some Trivia for Quicksilver
Horsepower is the amount
of power it takes to pull a 150 pound weight out of
hole 22 feet deep
in one minute.
A horse that
yawns frequently may have a sore throat. It may be his way of
scratching it.
Clean dry sawdust rubbed
into the hair of a sweaty horse will dry him off
quickly.
Quicksilver Book Review
A New York Times book
review by Richard Bernstein caught my eye with the
title Dark Horse and
Black Beauties., Animals, Women, a Passion by Melissa
Holbrook Pierson.
Amazon. com delivered it to my door 48 hours later and I
attacked it with relish
expecting a good journey. It was not to be, although
the newspaper write-up
gave me a right to expect a good trip by stating it
was the story of women
and their horses and the affectionate relationship
forged between the
animal kingdom and its human masters. While the author is
obviously a deep thinker,
(and perhaps I missed the essence of the story)
the chapters seemed
disjointed as her obviously quick mind raced from one
thought to the other.
Her love of horses is apparent, but she also feels
humbled,
unworthy and frequently defeated in their presence. She points
out, repeatedly,
the abuse horses have suffered at the hands of man from the
millions killed in
war to the neglected and mistreated from past centuries to
the present.
She suffers for them and this in itself is deeply thought
provoking as she questions
what right man has to assume that he should be
master over them..
Dark Horse's and Black Beauties sells for $22.95 and is
published by Norton
& Co.
j.s.
Published by the Quicksilver
Endurance Riders Inc.
P.O. Box 71, New Almaden,
CA 95042
Julie Suhr, Editor
TEL and FAX 831-335-5933