Dear Riders: I am very disheartened by some emails that I have been getting. As some of you may know, this October ride was very challenging to schedule. While I had hoped to do Manzanita, the Tribe was unwilling to allow us to use the horsecamp. I was fortunate to be given permission to again use the Lucky Five Ranch because very few groups are allowed to use this private ranch. With the new change in management at Cuyamaca State Park, they did not give me permission hold the ride on the normal weekend in October because there was a 100 mile run already scheduled for that day, which had never been an issue in the past. So it was necessary to move the ride to the following weekend. Because the 2 miles on the road outside the back gate of the Lucky Five which gives us access to Cuyamaca is on Forest Service land, I was required to get permission from the Forest Service to use this 2 mile section of road. I submitted the application, but was informed that they could not process a permit for these 2 miles in only 7 weeks, so I was forced to move the basecamp to Descanso and reroute the course. The entries were slow in coming in. On September 11, I asked Jennifer to send out my message to all those on our database explaining the many reasons why ride managers stop putting on rides -- some because of the loss of basecamps, trails, and such, but also because of their frustration in trying to determine what resources will be needed on race day because riders wait until close to the ride date to register. I tried to explain that ride managers have to schedule their resources and supplies (vets, caterer, farrier, awards, porta potties, etc.) well in advance. I was not trying to solicit more riders to come to the Descanso ride, but to let our riders know that if they were planning on entering this ride, that they should enter early so that I could plan adequately. The vets are a good example of a need of knowing how many riders are attending. If you do not schedule enough vets, and many riders sign up at the last minute, it can impact the entire ride. This happened recently at a ride in northern Calif. 50 riders signed up at the last minute and there were not enough vets so there were long lines at the vet checks and riders did not get vetted through in time to leave until after their out time, which gave little time for the horses to relax and eat because their time was spent in line. After this message went out, I did receive many entries over the following week, but still, after a week with only 3 weeks before the ride (when I had to start putting in deposits), I only had 41 entries for Saturday and 15 for Sunday. Last June, the Forest Service gave me a surprise bill of $1500 two weeks before the ride to pay for a ranger to “monitor” our use of the trails ($79 an hour), which ended up coming out of my pocket. With only 41 riders signing up for the Saturday rides, it became obvious that with so little interest, the same would happen again. It is a lot of work to put together these rides even when you know that you will have the revenue to cover the expenses, but when the riders dont let you know they are planning to attend and you know that you are not only going to put in a lot of work, but may end up using your own money to cover the costs, you start questioning your sanity. So I cancelled the ride. After I cancelled the ride, I received several emails from riders who said that had been planning to sign up the following week and I even had one rider ask if I had really cancelled the ride because she and her friend had been conditioning their horses and were going to wait until just before the deadline to enter. So what is disheartening is that I had explained to our riders that ride managers need time to plan, and riders can help by signing up so they can make preparations for the number of riders, but it appears that many riders were still planning on entering, but did not see a reason to let me know that they were planning to attend. I enjoy putting on these rides, and I plan to continue to so long as the interest is there by riders to attend. I am not whining, but just letting you know that if you expect ride managers to continue putting on rides, then you need to do your part and help them out by entering early, or sending them an email letting them know you are coming. Don’t wait and then complain when the ride manager has to cancel because the entries are low and she knows that she may get stuck paying some of the costs out of her own pocket. I will be sending out the refunds for those who paid online. If you sent me a personal check, I plan to just tear those up. If you want your check mailed back to you, please email me by Friday. Terry Woolley Howe [email protected]
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 23:32:43 +0000
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