June - Palos Verdes Peninsula Horsemens Association

Vol. XXVIII, Issue 6
COMMUNITY
CALENDAR
June 16-17
Daniel Stewart show jumping
clinic - “How to pressure-proof
your ride”
Info: 310-525-6870
Portuguese Bend Pony Club
June 18, 25
Louise Koch dressage clinic
Info: 310-377-3507
Portuguese Bend Riding Club
June 19
PVPHA general meeting
Empty Saddle Club
June 22
ETI Corral 8 horse show
Info: eticorral8horseshows.com
Ernie Howlett Park
June 29
LSAC horse show
Info: palosverdes.com/lsac
Ernie Howlett Park
July 11-13
Las Amigas de las Lomas show
Info: lasamigasdelaslomas.org
Ernie Howlett Park
July 20
ETI Corral 8 horse show
Info: eticorral8horseshows.com
Ernie Howlett Park
July 27
LSAC horse show
Info: palosverdes.com/lsac
Ernie Howlett Park
Events listed here are not necessarily
sponsored or endorsed by the Palos
Verdes Peninsula Horsemen’s Association. To add an event, send the
information to [email protected].
Dispatch
PVPHA.org
June 2014
Support Sol Vista Trail, PVPHA urges
by SHARON YARBER
vice president, civic affairs
The city of Rancho Palos Verdes
recently received a $300,000 grant
from Los Angeles County to fund a
portion of the projected $465,000
cost of restoring the portion of the Sol
Vista Trail between Sunnyside Ridge
Road and Palos Verdes Drive East—a
trail that connects the equestrians on
the east side of the Hill with the rest
of the Peninsula trail network.
At its meeting on May 20, the RPV
City Council approved the execution
of the grant agreement and also authorized adding $165,000 of city
funds to the city’s 2014-15 budget to
fully fund the project.
That was welcome and great news!
So what’s the issue? Well, a close
reading of the grant agreement discloses that RPV can bow out of the
deal and not take the grant funds at
any time prior to commencement of
construction. Further, a recent communiqué from RPV staff to interested residents says that the approval to
execute the grant agreement and to
allocate funds in the budget does not
mean that the project itself has been
approved to go forward.
In fact, yet another council meeting—scheduled for July 15, but the
date is subject to change—will be held
to consider the merits of the project. A few residents of the Sunnyside
See SOL VISTA, Page 2.
next pvpha general meeting: June 19
Learn all about gaited horses
by BETSY SCHOETTLIN
VICE president, education
Come join the Palos Verdes Peninsula Horsemen’s Association on
June 19 to find out all about gaited horses!
Lifelong gaited horse enthusiast, competitor and trainer Brianna Dotson will be giving a presentation and demonstration of the many talents
and abilities of the gaited horse. She’ll answer your questions: What is
a “rack”? Can gaited horses canter? Do they jump? Are they really that
smooth? Are they born with it? Dotson will have several horses at the
meeting demonstrating the many talents and abilities of these fun and
unique horses.
The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. June 19 at the Empty Saddle Club
in Rolling Hills Estates. As a reminder, the Empty Saddle Club requests
that meeting attendees leave their dogs at home. /
2 • PVPHA Dispatch
June 2014
SOL VISTA: Trail would connect riders
on east, west sides of Peninsula
Continued from Page 1.
Community Association have expressed concerns about
increased traffic, loss of privacy and crime, so a lively discussion between supporters and opponents is likely to ensue at the meeting.
The history surrounding this former trail and prior efforts to improve it make for an interesting story. Prior to
RPV’s incorporation, L.A. County had a public right of
way for the extension of Narbonne Avenue—known as the
Narbonne Right-of-Way—from the intersection of Palos
Verdes Drive North south to Colt Road. When the city
was incorporated in 1973, this 100-foot wide right of way
was shown on the RPV General Plan, and the trail over
this large swath of land was used, as it had been for many
years, by both hikers and equestrians.
RPV adopted its trails network plan in 1984. The TNP
was to serve as “an advisory tool for City decision makers”; a “guide for implementing and funding city and regional trails”; and “a device to achieve a consistent course
of action in developing an integrated network of trails to
support transportation, recreation and other needs of the
general public.”
At the time of its adoption, the TNP acknowledged that
there were two general locations within the city that supported major concentrations of horses and equestrian
trails: the Eastern District (the Bronco-PVDE area) and
the Western District (the Portuguese Bend area). The
TNP also acknowledged that many of the trails that had
been used for years were on privately owned property and
therefore subject to abrupt closure by the owners, thus the
TNP states that “the trails network proposed for equestrians is intended to incorporate a system of dedicated easements and right-of-ways to insure its longevity.”
At some point in time, plans to extend Narbonne Avenue were abandoned. In 1996, the county and RPV decided to vacate the portion of the right-of-way lying south
of PVDE and north of Sunnyside Ridge Road in order to
create a single family home lot and to allow for the sale
of such lot, the proceeds of which were split between the
city and county.
As part of the sale of the land and the city’s agreement
to vacate this portion of the right of way, RPV required
that an easement for trail purposes be granted to the city
over a 10-foot wide strip on the eastern boundary of the
property and over the 100-foot wide rear of the proper-
Courtesy city of Rancho Palos Verdes
The proposed Sol Vista Trail, which links the existing
trails at Sunnyside Ridge Road and the Palos Verdes
Loop Trail along Palos Verdes Drive East.
ty (see photo for a depiction of the location of the easement). This easement was, in fact, granted to the city and
a home was built.
Unfortunately, RPV staff neglected to realize that the
10-foot wide strip leading from the street (Sunnyside
Ridge) to the rear of the property that connected to the
PVDE trail was located on a steep slope barely usable by
hikers and virtually unusable by equestrians.
For 18 years, residents on the east side of the Hill have
been waiting for this mistake to be rectified. In 2007, RPV
authorized staff to apply for a grant to improve this trail,
but the grant was not awarded. Other grant applications
have similarly failed.
This recent grant of funds and approval for the payment of the excess costs will allow RPV to give back to
the public the trail that enables hikers and equestrians to
safely traverse from the upper areas on the east side of the
Peninsula to the rest of the Hill. If the council ultimately
rejects this long-overdue improvement, the entire future
of an equestrian presence in RPV is in jeopardy.
We encourage fellow equestrians to support this trail
improvement by appearing at the July 15 meeting and/or
writing to the RPV City Council at [email protected] to express
your support. /
Vol. XXVIII, Issue 6
PVPHA Dispatch • 3
NEWS BRIEFS
Local equestrian to teach Horsemanship 101 at
Dapplegray arena
Kelly Yates will be teaching Horsemanship 101 at the
Dapplegray arena on Fridays from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Fridays from June 13 through Aug. 22. No class will be
held July 4 due to the holiday. For more information, call
Yates at 310-704-7226.
PVPHA board positions up for election
The following positions on the PVPHA board are up
for election at the July general membership meeting:
president, vice president of civic affairs, vice president of
membership and corresponding secretary.
Those who are interested in running or nominating
someone for one of the four positions should contact
nominating committee chair Melody Colbert at 310-4274378 or [email protected]. Sharon Yarber is also on
the nominating committee. /
INSIDE THIS
ISSUE
Events calendar
June meeting details
Sol Vista trail update
News briefs
Si’s Trail spotlight
Ranch sorting clinic
RHE Mayor’s Ride photos
Why horses eat weird things
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valerie goodman
The Palos Verdes Chapter of The California Dressage Society’s East Meets West Ride-A-Test clinic held June 8 at
Ernie Howlett Park was a fun event. There were 17 rides
for the day. Special thanks to judges Carole Hoffman and
Ken Anderson and trainer Carlos Santos for their expertise, as well as the volunteers! Pictured from left to right:
Lori Clark, Kim Brookhart riding Gee Gee, Lisa McCord,
Carole Hoffman, Sheryl Steckel riding Chantico, Carlos
Santos, Ken Anderson, Valerie Goodman, Charlene O’Neil
riding Theo, Karen Nocket and Steve Boilard.
4 • PVPHA Dispatch
June 2014
Trail spotlight: Picturesque Si’s Trail
offers snacks for humans, horses
by BETSY SCHOETTLIN
vice president, education
photos by betsy schoettlin
Top: The entrance to Si’s Trail in the city
of Rolling Hills.
Bottom: Blackberries bloom along Si’s
Trail in Rolling Hills.
One of my favorite trails that I ride
regularly is Si’s trail. One of Rolling
Hills’ longest trails, Si’s begins at the
second bend on Middleridge Lane
and leads to the top of the hill at Crest
and Portuguese Bend roads.
Winding its way through the hills,
Si’s Trail provides a picturesque journey through intermittent canopies of
willow trees with a small, bubbling,
natural stream at the canyon bottom.
Along the stream you can find palm
trees, blackberries, cattails and wildflowers tucked away.
While it is formally known as Si’s
Trail, I call it the blackberry trail. All
along the lower part it is lined with
huge blackberry bushes—and I mean
huge! There are bushels and bushels
of blackberries every year.
They usually start to ripen just as
summer rolls around, and this year
is no different. If you have a sharp
eye, you can already find a few ripe
ones tucked away. You don’t even
have to get off of your horse to pick
them! Even on my 17hh horse, I can
reach handful after handful. By July,
I’ll be heading out with a few plastic
containers to load up. With organic blackberries priced as if they are
gold-plated at the store, I take double delight in bringing home quarts
of them for tarts and jam. The horses
love to snack on them as well!
In fact, the whole trail is a smorgasbord of healthy equine culinary
delights, including bamboo shoots,
thistles, grasses, blackberries, mustard and fennel. Every now and then I
head down this trail with the sole purpose of allowing my horses the chance
to stop and snack at every turn. You
need to know your “snacks,” though.
Don’t let horses eat the castor beans;
they are highly poisonous.
Si’s Trail can transport you to another place and time. Some parts of
it have an almost otherworldly feel
with gigantic palm trees mixed in
with bamboo and towering trees.
There are sections that can make you
feel as if civilization is far, far away,
and because of the water, it’s filled
with wildlife. Little finches and bunnies, hawks, and owls are all common sights. There is one tree that is
a favorite haunt of an owl and, if you
are riding at dusk, you have a good
chance of seeing it.
There are also some awesome sections that are just perfect for a good,
long canter. I love the long slope headed up to Crest, just after the turnoff to
Cliff Hix ring. The trail is well maintained and slopes upward. It’s really
super for conditioning work and just
as lovely for a nice long meander.
So saddle up and head out, but
don’t forget your camera and a container for blackberries! I hope to see
you there. /
Betsy Schoettlin
Vol. XXVIII, Issue 6
Nicole Mooradian
PVPHA Dispatch • 5
6 • PVPHA Dispatch
June 2014
Mindie Maus
Kim Brookhart on her Arabian mare sorts while her partner guards the gate during the May 17 ranch sorting clinic at
the Empty Saddle Club in Rolling Hills Estates.
Ranch sorting: Fun for everyone
by NANCY WILDMAN and
CAROLINA KROON
contributing writers
The Ranch Sorting Clinic hosted
by Sean Martin and John Jones on
May 17 at the Empty Saddle Club was
very well-attended, an indication of
the growing popularity of this fun
event. More than twenty riders participated—all women, ranging in age
from ten to sixty-something. Their
horses were mostly Quarter Horse
types, but we also had an Arabian, a
Haflinger and a Hanoverian/Thoroughbred cross.
Ranch sorting is derived from the
ranching practice of sorting cows
from calves, or steers from heifers,
according to the American Quarter
Horse Association. It is a fun competitive timed event that matches a
two-rider team against twelve head
of cattle, to be sorted in numerical
order from one sorting pen to another. There are 10 cattle numbered
from zero through nine, and two unnumbered cattle, called “dirty cows,”
to add to the challenge. One person
sorts the cattle out of the herd, the
other person works the gate, making
sure that only the cow the team wants
sorted moves into the other pen. The
team with the most cattle sorted in
the fastest time wins.
Sorting is about horsemanship—
taking a specific point on your horse
and moving it to a specific point in
the arena in order to work your cow,
Martin explained. Finesse, agility,
and taking your time are key, as is
communicating with your partner.
Sorting gives your horse a purpose
that puts into practice all the exercises they learn in the arena. Martin
also mentioned that horses schooled
in dressage were often very good at
ranch sorting because they are welltrained at moving off the rider’s legs.
The afternoon’s exercises started
with the riders sorting the cows on
foot, to help them understand how
the cattle move and react. I found
it to be a very helpful exercise—and
a great workout, too—as well as humorous to watch, especially for the
cows. Afterwards we partnered up
and began practicing with our horses
while Martin and Jones coached us
from the sidelines. Their suggestions
were extremely helpful, and most of
us saw a big improvement by the end
of the day.
An excellent example of this was
Grace Ardeshiri and her Hanoverian/Thoroughbred mare, Roxy. Both
were new to cattle work. Initially,
Roxy seemed to be OK with the cattle
as the pair stood quietly in a corner
Vol. XXVIII, Issue 6
PVPHA Dispatch • 7
Mindie Maus
Candace Ham sorts and Nancy Wildman guards the gate as instructor John Jones coaches from the other pen.
of the pen; however, as soon as the
cows started moving, she became terrified and bolted to the other end of
the arena.
Martin worked with Ardeshiri and
Roxy, and they slowly and calmly
worked their way back to the sorting
pen, allowing Roxy time to realize she
was not in danger of being eaten by
the beasts. Ultimately, Roxy’s confidence was restored enough for Ardeshiri to remount and participate in
the sorting competition held at the
end of the day.
After several practice runs with our
partners, a friendly competition was
arranged to round off the day. Martin
and Jones randomly drew partners,
and each team received two opportunities to sort the cattle. The top five
teams then competed against each
other until the three teams with the
most cattle sorted within the sixtysecond time limit were determined.
First, second and third place prizes generously donated by Jones were
awarded at the end of the day. One
of the first-place finishers was Ardeshiri and her mare, Roxy, who had
so much trouble at the beginning. In
fact, they enjoyed it so much that Ardeshiri has ordered a western saddle,
and they’ve been back every Wednesday night since for sorting practice.
It was a fun afternoon with a great
group of people. Ranch sorting is an
enjoyable way to improve your riding
skills through practical application,
and a great confidence-builder for
your horse.
The Empty Saddle Club hosts
ranch sorting practices Wednesday
evenings and Saturday afternoons.
The cost is $25 for non-members,
and all are welcome. For specific information and to be added to the
email notification list, contact Karen
Padgett at [email protected].
To find out more about ranch sorting in general, contact Martin via
martinperformancehorses.com. /
Mindy Maus
Two clinic participants sort cattle on
foot to help them understand how the
cows move and react.
8 • PVPHA Dispatch
June 2014
RHE hosts 57th
Mayor’s Ride
by NICOLE MOORADIAN
dispatch editor
Rolling Hills Estates city officials and local equestrians
took to the trail on May 10 for the 57th annual Mayor’s
Breakfast Ride.
The hour-long ride began at Chandler Park and finished at Ernie Howlett Park, where local scouts served a
breakfast with pancakes, sausage, eggs, coffee, tea, juice
and milk to riders and other community members. /
photos by Richard Fowell
RHE city officials and local riders take to the trails.
Vol. XXVIII, Issue 6
PVPHA Dispatch • 9
Why do horses eat weird things?
‘Pica’ is a behavior where horses eat things like rocks or dirt, says Dr. Ramey.
by DAVID RAMEY, DVM
DOCTORRAMEY.com
Editor’s note: This article originally
appeared on doctorramey.com, the
website of equine veterinarian David Ramey. It is reprinted here with
permission of the author.
Horses are not picky eaters. I
mean, they’re not carnivores, so they
will generally turn up their noses at a
good steak (although I did run into a
horse that had a taste for hot dogs).
But they were essentially born to eat.
In the wild (which isn’t always the
best measure, by the way), they eat in
23 of 24 hours during the day. Eating
like a horse, indeed.
Anyway, periodically I get questions about why horses eat what they
eat, and whether what they eat is bad
for them. Here are some answers.
Many horses are kept in stalls bed-
ded with wood shavings. Wood shavings are absorbent, and smell nice,
which, of course, is particularly important for us, since we’re the ones
that put them there. Horses also like
to get dirty, and don’t seem to care
much how they smell, which is also
perplexing to owners.
Wood shavings are also not unpalatable. Not that you’ll see a lot
of horses munching down on their
shavings with any regularity, but
there are many horses that are more
than happy to consume a mouthful of
shavings just so they can savor that
last alfalfa leaf. The practice is completely harmless, unless you’re using
black walnut shavings. Those, unfortunately, are fairly toxic to horses;
they cause severe laminitis, a problem which, sadly, took a few horses
getting really sick to recognize a few
years back.
Chances are you aren’t going to
find any black walnut shavings in
your horse’s stall, and if you do, get
him—or them—out.
Wood is, in fact, a good fiber
source. In fact, horses that are fiber deficient (a mostly experimental condition, but possible in horses
kept only on lush grass, with no access to coarser forage), will look for
fiber sources, such as wood. Again, it
probably won’t hurt them, although
horses that insist on eating wood
(planks, fences, doors, etc.) are a big
pain in the backside: sort of like having an oversized pet beaver. If you’re
feeding your horse hay, he’s getting
enough fiber; if he’s eating wood anyway, he’s probably bored with life,
and looking for something to do.
Horses eat manure, too. The practice is called coprophagy (I have
to throw in big words from time to
time—it’s what I went to school for).
That’s also a practice that’s pretty
harmless, and pretty widespread.
Young elephants, koalas, hippopotami (I love that plural), and pandas
Continued on the next page.
10 • PVPHA Dispatch
Continued from the previous page.
are among animals—including horses—whose young eat feces, which is
thought to help populate their intestines with the bacteria that help allow
them to digest the coarse feed that
they live on.
Rabbits, guinea pigs, and chinchillas eat their own feces, which are actually thought to be quite nutritious.
So, for that matter, is horse manure,
which has some undigested plant
material in it. Dogs eat horse manure, which is just one of many reasons why I don’t like barn dogs to lick
me in the face; apes have been seen
eating horse manure, presumably for
the salt. It even used to be fairly common to feed horse manure to pigs.
Flies, of course, love manure.
Think of it this way: if you’re raising a
horse, you’re raising flies, too.
While eating horse manure is
generally harmless (and apparently tasty), it is one way that internal
parasites are transmitted. People
with pastured horses that insist on
spreading manure in their fields only
compound the problem of parasite
transmission. But in horses that are
kept in stalls with limited access to
pasture, the occasional bite of manure is harmless.
The phrase, “An apple a day keeps
the doctor away,” was not, however,
written about horse droppings.
The practice of eating other weird
things (dirt, hair, rocks, etc.) is called
pica. It seems that lots of people get
really worked up about it. There’s
this idea out there that horses have
June 2014
some sort of “innate intelligence”
about their diet; that is, if they are
missing some micronutrient, or have
some sort of a vitamin or mineral imbalance, they will try to fix the problem on their own.
That seems not to be the case.
Equine nutritionists—who in addition to be very good at basic math,
study such things—have found that
horses really only seek out energy
(calories—hungry horses, like hungry
people, seek out something to eat),
water, salt, and fiber. Horses that
have nutritional imbalances typically
don’t eat dirt, or other weird things,
or like concrete, or anything else.
Such behaviors reflect curiosity, not
nutritional problems.
There’s even research to support
the idea that horses with dietary deficiencies don’t seek to correct them
(I really like it when there’s research
to answer questions). In the 1970s,
ponies were fed diets that were deficient in calcium. Those ponies didn’t
eat any more of a calcium-containing
supplement than did ponies that had
adequate calcium in their diets.
In another research study, ponies
fed a diet lacking phosphorus were
given access to several different mineral salts, including those containing
phosphorus. Those ponies—not nutritionally wise, apparently—actually
ate more calcium, which, theoretically, would have made any mineral
imbalance worse, since eating more
calcium interferes with phosphorus
absorption.
That said, there was a study last
Classified
GO ONLINE: Buy/Sell/Lease a Horse; Buy/Sell Tack; Rent/Find a
Stall. List your ad (including pictures and unlimited words) FREE at
palosverdeshorses.net.
Two-line classified advertisements are free to PVPHA members. To
submit a classified advertisement, email it to the editor of the Dispatch at [email protected].
year from Turkey (I like to read) that
looked at 15 horses who either did
or did not engage in pica. They ran
blood tests on the horses and concluded that the horses with pica had
lower levels of copper and iron in
their blood, as well as the mathematical ratio of copper to zinc.
Frankly, I don’t really get the
study, because it seems to me that if
they were eating weird things to correct an imbalance, they wouldn’t have
had the imbalance, but that’s just me.
Suffice it to say that in the absence
of more rigorous studies, I generally
don’t think that pica is a big deal for
horses, health-wise.
Of course, eating sand is another
matter entirely. In areas that have
a lot of sand—such as Florida, Nebraska, Arizona or southern California—sand colic is a problem. These
horses, however, eat sand along with
their feed, and some of them can accumulate so much sand that it blocks
the intestines. I’ve seen 70 pounds of
sand in a horse’s gut in surgery. The
horses aren’t eating sand because of
some dietary problem; it just comes
along with whatever else they are trying to eat.
Anyway, mostly, when horses eat
weird things, it’s not a big deal. Horses are curious, and like young kids,
they put their mouths on most anything. As long as what they’re eating
isn’t directly harmful to them (say,
oleander leaves or feed bags), eating weird things is more annoying—
and sometimes destructive—than
anything else. If your horse is happy
munching on a mouthful of shavings,
then I say, “Good for him.” Happy is
a good place to be.
For more articles from Dr. David
Ramey, visit drramey.com. You
can also find him on Facebook at
facebook.com/DRRameyDVM. /
Vol. XXVIII, Issue 6
PVPHA Dispatch • 11
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Dispatch edited by Nicole Mooradian.
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