Firewise

I haven’t written for a long time but I just ran across information about being firewise with our horses and the information is important right now.

Dennis is up at our cabin West of the Klickitat River to mow down the weeds that we didn’t get to earlier in the year. He can see the smoke from the Milepost 28 fire near Goldendale. We also have friends in the Goldendale area. Fire up there is scary stuff.



This information is from the yahoo group - HorsesForCleanWater@yahoogroups.com by Alayne Renee Blickle.

With funding provided by Southwest Idaho Resource Conservation and Development, Alayne Renee Bickle developed educational materials for horse owners on ways to reduce risk and deal with wildfire. Her free Firewise materials as well as tons of other very good information “on green horse management” are available here.

This is the link to a very well done Planning Checklist and this is the link to her Evacuation Plan Checklist. This would even be really good information to have in the back of your mind as you venture out on a trail ride.

We do lots of other things to keep our horses safe – safe fencing, vaccinations, good feed, good shelter and general vigilance. Now you can add being firewise to that list.

Here comes the rain

Oh how we all cringe at that statement.

I know that we need God's liquid blessing so that this area we live in can stay green and beautiful. But..... I sure could live with the mud that is coming.

We have our horses on our property and I like being able to look out and see them happily munching away but there is a trade off. We spend our time working on fencing and the barn. Feeding, hauling hay and cleaning stalls.

Or we could have them at a stable where we could just drive over and ride them in a dry area.


Lucky K is just such a facility located at 16818 NE 223rd Circle in Battle Ground. They have big matted stalls, warm water wash rack and individual tack lockers in the barn. And from there you can go to the 72x120 covered arena with seating and a club room and an indoor bathroom. They also have a 60'round pen and parking for your trailer.


They have a basic boarding package for $375 a month. Give them a call at 360.718.7555 or cell 540.841.1642 and talk about your individual needs and preferences.

Trail connection coming soon.

A vision that has been held for decades is finally going to pay off.

I had heard that the "Fairgounds trail" was moving forward but saw in the paper this morning that even better than that, with enough volunteer help, it could be ready for use in a month.

In an article on the front page of the Life section of the Columbian, written by Scott Hewitt, says that this short trail will be an important connection to a trail that will eventually connect our regional parks. Lisa Goorjian, a landscape architect with the Vancouver-Clark parks says this trail will eventually run from the Columbia River on the west to the Mount Vista area, near the campus of Washington State University Vancouver, on the east.

Dennis and I were part of a committee that continued long standing work to get a trail from the fairgounds to Whipple Creek park. When that committee died because of a change in county employees, we felt like that option would be gone forever.

Let me encourage you to not give up on a good idea for the good of our horse community. Where we left off, others came in and now we will have our trail!

Thank you to all who worked to get this accomplished.

Now we just need 'wet gloves on the handle of a shovel' to get this trail ready to ride.

LOST HORSE

This is from a friend here in Vancouver. Please pass this information on to everyone!

Her 15'2 hand 10 year old grey mare Sophie was last seen 6/24 near Forest Road 1600/1611 off the Nile Road east of Naches in Yakima county during an endurance ride. She was wearing a black English saddle at the time she was lost.

There is more information on the lost horse international website netpossee.com - http://netposse.com/view_report.asp?reportid=1377&e=1391XXX

Please contact Misty or the Yakima County Sherriff’s office if you have any information on this horse.

Misty: 360-263-4551 mandmf@pacifier.com

Yakima County Sheriff’s office: (509) 574-2500 • FAX (509) 574-2501

2011 Trial Trials results

How fun.
Great weather, beautiful location and fantastic people.
Today's Trail Trials were a success and I will have tons of pictures in a day or two. In the meantime, I wanted to post the winners.

Congratulations to you all.......

Adult Placings
1st Lisa Lichte 126.5 Bridle
2nd Bill Bott 123 Groom tote
3rd Debby Williams 118 Saddle Pad
4th Pam Walsh 118 Saddle Pad

Youth
1st Chloe Nevins 115 Earrings or Bridle
2nd Emily Wickert 84 Silver Hoofpick

Extreme
1st Debbie Woodhouse 120 Saddle
2nd Kathleen Ingerson 117 Bridle
3rd Stephanie Gaylord 116.5 Hoofpick