HAPPY TRAILS : Riding Teams Compete in Friendly, but Tough, Competition

About six hours before Winning Colors took the Kentucky Derby by storm Saturday afternoon, 37 riders and their horses were winding their way down a hill and through the brush on Chaney Ranch.

In Louisville, there were thousands of people and 80-degree sunshine.

In Warner Springs, population 203, there were a handful of people, 40-degree temperatures and a biting wind. Andy Terralavoro stopped on the trail long enough to hand Lois Grote a hat.

The riders moved slowly along the desolate path at a good, conversational pace, sometimes in groups of two or three, sometimes alone.

“Watch the barbed wire on the ground there, Helen,” one rider called behind him as he guided his horse around the obstacle.

It was 8:30 a.m., and the North American Trail Ride Conference-sanctioned competitive trail ride was just getting started, for the first time ever, at the Warner Springs Ranch.

The 37 participants, mostly from California and Arizona, were beginning a ride that would take them about 30 miles on Saturday and another 20 on Sunday, through rolling plains and wooded canyons, up and down steep hills and across a shallow creek. It would be an opportunity to renew old acquaintances, strike up some new ones, and get to know the land.

And it would be a test for both the rider and the horse.

“We look for a variety of terrain, something that will challenge both the horse and the rider,” said Kathleen Stardig, who was the ride chairman and spent three months designing the course. “For example, the creek they crossed was muddy, and the horses couldn’t see the bottom. (In crossing the creek) the rider had to make a personal decision for his safety and for the horse’s safety. And when they came up from the creek, there was a big log at the top of the embankment they had to climb over. And the long hill they rode down before the creek had a steep decline and was rutted out. The horse had to pick his way through.”

Much of the course, covering part of the Pacific Crest Trail (which runs all the way up the coast from Mexico to Canada), was rocky.

“It was really rocky, but they were round rocks as opposed to shale or something that can cut a horse,” said Bonnie Wheeler, 41, an honors English teacher at Orange Glen High School who rode Vals Shadowdancer. “But it’s a really pretty course. The panorama is really pretty on top of those mountains.”

The first one across the finish line is not declared the winner in an NATRC-sanctioned trail ride. Instead, competitive trail rides emphasize time, distance and stress as the judging criteria.

At each ride, there are horsemanship judges and veterinarians. The horsemanship judge scores the rider; the veterinarian grades the horse. Winners are declared in subdivisions of each category--Novice, Open and Competitive Pleasure.

In Warner Springs’ first event, because of fewer riders--normally, rides average as many as 50 or 60--there was one judge for each category. Basically, each horse and rider start off with scores of 100, and points are subtracted for mistakes.

“My main job is to judge rider safety and handling of the horse,” said horsemanship judge Lory Walls, who lives in El Cajon and said she judges about two or three rides a year. “Is the rider handling the horse in the best way for himself, others and the horses?”

The horsemanship judge gets to as many points in the course as possible to observe. Many, such as Walls, hide so they can observe the riders in natural settings.

There are three pulse and respiration stops along the trail, all at surprise locations. There, the veterinarian scores the horses for condition (including pulse, respiration and fatigue), soundness (lameness, injuries or tender backs), manners (how the horse acts on the trail), and “way of going” (how a horse handles his feet; whether or not he stumbles or his legs rub together).

“I think the main thing is trail riding is a good, clean sport,” said Henry Cook, 60, of Grass Lake, the veterinarian this weekend. “It’s good for young people to get into. It trains a person to train his horse, and it teaches him how to take care of his horse.”

The judges score for actions off the trail as well. Trail rides are weekend events, with the riders arriving at the campground on Friday and then riding the next two days. This weekend, the riders were handed maps of the trails at 9 p.m. Friday night. They spent the night in various forms of campers and tents and were ready to go early Saturday morning. After riding for nearly four hours, they broke for lunch, then continued for another two hours. Saturday night there was a steak roast, and early Sunday morning, they were back in their saddles again.

The judges are on hand throughout, from check-in to check-out, observing the horses and how they are treated.

Rider points can be subtracted when a horse’s blanket isn’t tied tightly enough and there is a chance the horse could catch his leg in the rope, when the horse’s hay isn’t tied at the right height or if the water bucket isn’t secured.

Horse points can be subtracted for things such as bad manners at check-in (if a horse is unruly) or if a horse is injured in any way.

The riders are expected to have common sense and know the correct methods of caring for their horses--both in and out of the saddle.

Said Wheeler: “The people are very friendly, and they are concerned for the safety of their horses and concerned with having their horses do something useful rather than just arena (show) work. I just can’t see riding around an arena with a horse. They were designed for other things.”

Two things that stand out in competitive trail riding are the variety of ages of the participants and the amount of training that goes into it.

“In Phoenix, I met a 65-year-old woman who had never been on a horse until the year before,” Wheeler said at lunch on Saturday. “You find a lot of older people.

“Also, it takes at least two hours a day, seven days a week to train. We just rode for five hours up and down hills, trotting . . . You have to train the horses for it. These are athletes.”

“I think the NATRC is the best educational thing for people just getting into horses,” said Leslie Wilson of Boulevard (east of Pine Valley). “Even though there’s competition, everybody’s so nice. I love to go just for the people.”

But just when you are lulled into a relaxed state by the natural beauty of the land and horses and the friendliness of the riders, some crazy things happen.

Wilson had to scratch when she went for a ride Friday evening and her horse, Countess Sofiah, picked up some barbed wire that was buried in the mud. The wire wrapped around the horse’s leg, slicing it. Her partner, Linda Johnson, contributed a T-shirt to wrap around the horse’s leg.

Said Wheeler: “The last ride I was on, in Chino Hills, one of the horses just freaked out. The poor rider . . . every time she headed the horse forward, it ran off with her. So she was backing it up for miles down the trail. Luckily, it was not a narrow trail.”

Wheeler has had a pretty good season. In her first ride, at Lancaster, Vals Shadowdancer finished fourth. In Arizona, he was second. And at Chino Hills, he was near first until he bruised a foot in the final three miles.

Ken Truesdell, 67, of Jamul rides with his granddaughter, Stacey Heimburg, 14, of Santee. Heimburg won this weekend in the Junior division for horsemanship and her horse, Chumacos Viento, took a first in the Junior Horse division--but not before some excitement.

“My co-rider’s horse tried to jump a stream,” Truesdell said of Heimburg. “He decided he didn’t want to get his feet wet.”

One of the biggest worries a competitive trail rider has is getting lost. The course is marked by ribbons that are tied to tree branches, but they don’t always stay in place--especially if they’re in an area where people are likely to be found.

“You do run into some problems when you come into an area in which people have been,” Walls said. “Some people think the trees are being marked so they can be cut down, so the people take the ribbons down.”

Aside from missing ribbons, there are a few other concerns.

“The biggest worry is your P and R (pulse and respiration) stops,” Truesdell said. “When you have to stop after climbing a hill, you worry about the horse coming down within the allowable numbers so you don’t lose points.”

The allowable numbers are normally 12 pulse beats and 6 breaths per 15 seconds, depending on the weather. A horse is allowed 10 minutes to cool down before his pulse is taken. If it isn’t down at the allowable level, points are taken off, and he is given 10 more minutes.

This is done in all kinds of conditions. It started snowing in the middle of a trail ride in Glendora last year. In Arizona earlier this year, it was 95 degrees.

“The people involved in trail riding like the outdoors and like animals,” Truesdell said. “People wouldn’t come out and spend a weekend like this, freezing, if they didn’t like it. If it rains, heck, we put on our slickers and ride.”