Highcountry Highline

Transcription

1 2014 Board Members President: Jacque Sansaver, Vice President: Jill Breeze, State Director: Krohn Traversie, Alt. Director: Robert Badgley, Secretary: Jill Siegrist, Treasurer: Theresa Radder, Public Lands: Krohn Traversie, USFS Liaison: Krohn Traversie, Newsletter Editor: Robin Granger, LNT Education: Robin Granger, Trail Bosses: Walt Hyde, Rex McMullin, LouAnn Matches, Shari Tayar, Volunteer Hours Coordinator: Robert Badgley, Webmaster: Robert Badgley, Historian: Kellie Hyde, Llama invasion at Soda Springs Wenas Valley Chapter BCHW Highcountry Highline Events Calendar August 7 General Meeting CANCELLED August 29-Sept. 1 Chiwawa Horse Camp, Chelan Sept. 4 Board Meeting Sept. 11 General Meeting Round Table Pizza Sept Black Pine Campout/Ride Sept Conrad Meadows Campout/Ride Oct. 2 Board Meeting Oct. 7 TWIG Meeting Oct. 9 General Meeting Oct Teanaway Ride/Campout President s Message I hope everyone is out enjoying their summer being out on the trails and getting in some camping with your horses before it ends. It s hard to believe that it s August and fall is just around the corner. Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this weekend I did a ride out of Mesatchee and we hit bees on the Dewey Lake trail. Yes that s right folks, Bees!! I could not believe it but they were out. so be prepared for another possible bad year for ground bees. Fortunately that was the only trail we hit them on and it was on the last trail back to camp after a 27 mile loop ride, so the horses were too tired to buck. Our Chapter ride at Soda Springs the weekend before turned out great and we did not encounter bees. The rain the previous days before kept the trails wet and dust free, but you did have to deal with those pesky mosquitos in certain places on the trails. I m happy that we had such a great turnout and that there was enough space for us all to park, since the parking area is very limited at the Soda Springs trailhead. Our next Chapter campout and ride will be Labor Day Weekend August 29 th - September 1 st at the Chiwawa Horse Camp. We will send out information with directions later this month. PLEASE NOTE, THAT THE CHAPTER MEETING THIS MONTH IS BEING CANCELED. There are so many people vacationing and unable to attend that it was decided to cancel the meeting. We ll see you next month at the September General Meeting. Please start thinking about nominees for our 2015 Board. This will be my last year as President, and there will be other Board positions available as well. Safe riding and hope to see you on the trail. Jacque 1

2 Wenas Valley Chapter Back Country Horsemen July 10, 2014 General Meeting Minutes Sue Peterson Home, Selah, WA 1. Call meeting to Order - 7:00 PM 2. Approve June Minutes - Colleen 3. Treasurer s Report - Theresa absent New Members or Guest - None Reports: DNR/Public Lands Report - Krohn RE: Whites Ridge Users group use trail June State BOD meeting Krohn, Meeting with Ken M TWIG- Krohn/Bob Future Trails Adoption with Naches Ranger District Wenas Upper Group meeting date changed Bob Continuing Business: 1. Surprise Lake Trail Clearing Work Party June 21 & 22 Wenas Valley Chapter Update - Jim 2. Sand Flats Crystal Mtn Multi Chapter Work Party July th Tahoma Chapter - Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Must RSVP July 15 to Rick Zeleznik New Business: GENERAL MEETING : Meeting moved one week EARLIER location August 7 th Carol Darby, Selah Chain Saw Certification Rex and Krohn 2013 Wine Ride money for working Volunteers - Krohn update Grandview Fair August 6-9 Need Volunteers - Lori Lennox for info Soda Springs Ride and Campout July Any other New Business Adjourn meeting Submitted By Jill Siegrist Wenas Valley Back Country Horsemen 2

3 Update on "WENAS FLATS" (see map on page 4) Submitted by Sherrie Murphy I attended the Upper Wenas User Group Meeting on June 26th, regarding the present Wenas Access Project and took down these notes: As most of us know, BBQ Flats in Section 22, is no longer accessible. An agreement was reached to construct a new horse/user campground in Section 16, called "Wenas Flats. The new horse campground will include, hitching post, highlines, CXT toilets (Cement structures) and will accommodate large groups. The word was twice as many as BBQ Flats. Non-motorized trails with barrier rock will be used to keep motorized vehicles out. Water from the creek is available in spring, but can be expected to dry up in late June/July. So bringing your own water for livestock and personal use is a must. The new road to Section 1 will be approximately 5 miles long. Road construction will be done right, similar to the steep stretch going into Haney Meadow's, but with turn-outs at both ends and one in the middle. Cattle guards will replace existing gates. A map showing the new road was passed around, but they are still talking about potentially shortening a 1/2 mile section of road. The time frame for this project to be finished is June/July The capital dollars to get this project finished go away in June of next year. The money is there now, but what is needed is CREATIVE IDEAS TO RAISE FUNDS to keep this area open. Suggestions are needed. Anyone? Shari, Jody, Jacque and Jim Funding from the Discovery Pass breaks down to: 84% goes to State Parks, 8% to DNR and 8% to Fish & Wildlife. This is a small slice of the pie. The Green Dot system will still be in place, plus additional Green Dot use. Private lands will be posted, but not fenced. It is extremely important to respect the rights of the private owners. As horse owners/riders, we have been given a gift. Creation of the new improved horse camp is a huge bonus. One we should be proud of and do our part to maintain and preserve it. This year, they will not be logging in this area, but will in the future. Timber sales help pay for schools. Rich Rhea, newly hired law enforcement officer will be patrolling this area. His message to all users: "If you see something reportable, report it. Don't confront the person(s) yourself. Next scheduled meeting will be December 2, 2014 at 6:30 p.m. at Selah Fire Hall. Inside A Horse The horse has one stomach. In contrast, cattle, sheep, goats, bison, deer, elk, caribou, moose, and camels are "ruminants" which means (among other things) they have four digestive chambers instead of just one stomach. The horse is an herbivore, which means it feeds mostly on plants. The normal horse s small intestine is about 70 feet long. The normal horse's large intestine is about 12 feet long. The average horse's heart weighs approximately 9 or 10 pounds. The great New Zealand / Australian racehorse, Phar Lap, had a heart that weighed 14 pounds. The great American racehorse Secretariat had a heart estimated during his autopsy to weigh 21 pounds, though the heart was not weighed. 3

4 Bob & Dakota 4

5 Soda Springs Campout July Jug Lake Many of us arrived at the camp area on Thursday night. Everyone worked together to squeeze the rigs into the available camping areas, leaving spaces open for those who would arrive on Friday. On Friday morning Jacque, Jerry, Joyce and LouAnn left to tackle the trail to Tumac Mountain. Colleen, Autumn and I headed out toward Penoyer Lake. We stopped at the lake for a quick lunch, hurrying to get back on the trail due to the thick mosquito population. We took a nice loop around a small portion of the PCT, on to the Potholes Bob & Colleen near Carlton Pass trail and back to Cowlitz and returned to camp. The snow had recently melted in the meadow areas and we encountered mud and water on quite a few of the trails. On our way back we ran into Mark who had ventured up the trail toward Jug Lake. Back at camp we found that a few more members had arrived. Discussion around the campfire that night brought about plans for riding on Saturday. The next morning four groups headed out separately. Rides took members to Jug Lake, Penoyer Lake, Frying Pan Lake along Carlton Pass and the Pony Creek trail. Also on Saturday, many of the horses were introduced to Llama pack animals as their handler had set up camp at the Cowlitz trailhead. I know my horse for one, was not overjoyed Jacque on the trail to Tumac Mtn. meeting them face to face. Saturday night as we were getting ready for potluck, Christine, Matt and their two children (Zoe & Weston) surprised us and set up a tent to stay overnight. The potluck was wonderful and the kids even roasted some marshmellows to top off the evening. Rex also ventured off for an evening ride, on the hope he would run into a couple of our chapter members who hadn t yet returned from their ride that day. All was well when they rode into camp at dusk. On Sunday morning a few campers left after morning coffee. A group of us decided to take a short ride before heading home. We started up the Pony Creek trail and turned off on the Carlton Pass trail toward Kincaid, and then down to Jug Lake where we had a brief stop for lunch, then back down the Cowlitz trail and into camp. Another great weekend of riding with friends was over.looking forward to Chiwawa now! Robin 5

6 Encourage Horses to Pass Scary Objects, Scientists Recommend By Christa Lesté-Lasserre, MA Imagine the scenario: You're out on a trail ride and suddenly your horse spooks at, say, a scary-looking tree stump near your path. You have three choices: 1. Encourage your horse (with your legs, voice, reins, crop, etc.) to move toward the stump to find out it's not so scary after all; 2. Be patient, allowing the horse time to figure out that the stump really isn't so scary in his own time; or 3. Turn around and go home (or take a different path) and flee that scary stump. What do you choose to do, and what's best for your horse? Danish equitation scientists recently investigated this question. They found that if you want to get past the stump, Choice 1 could be better for both you and the horse, even though it might be more stressful than Choice 2. "Horse riding is a relatively dangerous sport, and habituation to new objects has been known to reduce the risk of accidents," said Winther Christensen, a research scientist at the faculty of agricultural sciences at Aarhus University in Tjele, Denmark. "If an animal avoids or escapes an object and can get away from it, that avoidance behavior gets reinforced, and the animal is likely to repeat the behavior. But also, studies in other species have shown that prevention of innate behavior (flight response) can lead to increased stress in the animal. So we wanted to find out what was best for horses." Christensen and colleagues studied 22 Danish Warmblood geldings (aged two to three years old) separated into two groups learning to get accustomed to open umbrellas on the ground. Handlers encouraged each horse in one group to approach the umbrellas using negative reinforcement (in this case, pulling on the halter and lead line). Horses in the second group were released, one at a time, in the arena with the umbrellas and allowed to take their own time exploring them. On the following day, each horse from both groups was taken individually into the arena where he could find buckets of food next to the umbrellas. On both days, researchers evaluated the horses' heart rates and behaviors and recorded the time it took for them to approach the umbrellas and the food. The negative reinforcement group showed much higher signs of stress (heart rate and behavior) than the other group on the first day, Winther Christensen said. But on the second day, they spent less time investigating their surroundings and approached the feed buckets faster than horses in the other group. "A negative reinforced approach to the habituation of novel objects increases stress response during the first exposure, but it also appears to facilitate habituation to the objects," said Winther Christensen. "However, because the procedure does lead to a temporary increase in stress responses, it should be carefully managed." Winther Christensen also cautioned that her results were specific to her study and might not apply to all scenarios. "It may be that a stimulus of a different intensity could give different results," she said. "In general there is a lack of knowledge of different habituation techniques, how effective they are, and how they affect horses." Further studies are under way, she said. Our Mission Statement The purpose of Backcountry Horsemen of Washington is to perpetuate the legal and moral claim by the American people to use horses and mules for recreation on public lands. Our Goals 1. Perpetuate the use of horses and mules for recreation on public lands. 2. Assist government and public agencies in the maintenance of the backcountry to achieve our goals. 3. Educate, encourage, and inform horsemen in general public in the wise and sustaining use of resources in the backcountry. 4. Take responsible citizen involvement in actions affecting access and the use of stock in the backcountry. SUBMISSIONS TO THIS NEWSLETTER Please send your stories, recipes, ads or anything else you would like to share with others by the 25th of each month to: Robin Granger at robi105@yahoo.com 6 ADVERTISING RATES Business Card - $4.00/mo or $44.00/year 1/4 Page -$7.00/mo or $77.00/year 1/2 Page -$18.00/mo or $198.00/year Full Page -$25.00/mo or $275.00/year