RIDING TALL: No lawyer jokes please. A...

RIDING TALL: No lawyer jokes please. A posse of cowboy lawyers plans to hitch up some ponies and trot across Palo Comado Canyon near Thousand Oaks during its official dedication as public parkland Saturday. . . . Members of the Cowboy Lawyers Assn., said Christina S. Kruger, “consider themselves cowboys first and lawyers second.” The ridge riders plan to clip-clop by the dedication ceremonies, she said. “We are going to be very controlled and polite, and as quiet as we can be with 63 horses.”

RUNNING SHORT: Remember when camping meant getting away from the madding crowds? As the hordes from Los Angeles and beyond descend on Ventura County campgrounds, state campground officials say don’t bother showing up without a reservation. . . . Some tent sites and RV hookups have been booked for months by Mistix, a ticket agency with an 800 number. “After the hard rains, everybody comes out at once,” Point Mugu State Park Ranger Simon Cavazos said. “We get people from other states, and from Germany, and France too.”

HARD BALL: It looks like Bobby Ayala, the all-state pitcher from Oxnard’s Rio Mesa High, has used his split-finger fastball to make a major league move. Coaches in Seattle believe that the 24-year-old Ayala will become the closing pitcher for the Mariners this season (C8). . . . “He’s got the stuff to do it,” Mariner pitching coach Sammy Ellis said. Ayala has grown a beard since he left the Cincinnati Reds to make him more menacing on the mound. Said he: “It’s good to intimidate the hitters.”

FIXED WINGS: Jerry Thomas of Simi Valley hopes to set up shop at the Naval Air Station at Point Mugu to help injured birds of prey straighten up and fly right. Thomas is working out a deal with Navy officials to take over a long-abandoned wildlife facility on the base near Mugu Lagoon so he can nurse animals back to health and help with the Navy’s wildlife education program (B1). “What we teach first and foremost is respect for the animals,” Thomas said. “Without that, why go on?”