San Diego Beach Party - June 30, 2007

Hi guys and gals!

I just had to take this time to do something that I just don’t do and that is write!!! And so when you see this it will probably have proper spelling and punctuation thanks to my wonderful wife, Sheri, and our club webmaster Sarah!

Well, that being said, here it goes:

WOW!!! What a great time at the beach! GREAT friends helping each other out, from unloading vehicles, horse trailers, watering horses, food preparation, table setup (thanks Marc Dileo for finding us a table leg) to setting up shade covers -thanks Adriana Johnson, Alex Zinke, Carrie Rusk & Cassandra Read. And others that jumped in and helped out - I am sorry I don’t remember all the names, but I will never forget the goooooood times. Let me share with you some of the highlights of this event from my perspective.

But first, let me say a few special thanks to some of the people that really made our first summer at the beach 2007 event happen! Daphne Stoba, and Lynn Johnson. These two did so much from the start, finding out all the details, reserving our site, to planning a day of fun in the sun. Daphne also went to Mary’s Tack, and Elston’s, and was able to get them to donate some cool gifts for the event. Thank you all who brought stuff for this event, your generosity is appreciated! While Mrs. Johnson (Lynn) brought the whole Johnson gang to help as well as their very nice motor home for those special needs – power, water, bathroom, shade or what ever you needed. I also would like to give a big thanks to Steve Johnson and Austin Willett for getting the locked bathrooms open for all of us - Good work guys! Also, thanks to those of you who provided the toiletry supplies. There are so many people to express appreciation for because everybody was just so helpful. I would try to name all of them but there were too many new faces and I’m quite a name-miester. Here are a few more thanks: Sonja who not only hauled extra horses and tack but also let me use her personal truck, and we were able to haul/borrow/and in other words, use Jennifer Madriaga’s trailer to bring even more horses – thank you Sonja and Jennifer. Marcia and Sonja, you did all the work behind the lines getting our event t-shirts made for us, thanks Sheri and Erin for getting the beach t-shirts out to us, and the club waivers. Thank you all the members, family, and friends who came, brought food and prizes and participated to make this all happen - And I personally owe a HUGE THANK YOU to one very special person. This mystery person that I speak of is no one other than Tony Aldana! Can I just say wow! He loaded all the horses that Sonja let so many of us ride - seven of them! Drove four of them down there and I think he got most of them ready to ride, now if that is not enough, at the beach he would ride a horse, get it used to the water, then give it to someone to experience the fun of a water ride - as he would then get on another one that was giving someone trouble and do it over and over until we all got in the water -- THANK YOU, TONY – getting to ride in the water was awesome!!!!

Let’s talk about the beach. There was some impressive show of riding styles for our group at the beach too! We had in-hand, Western, English, bareback, doubles (Adriana and Mehalia, Austin and Brittany, Sonja and Jennifer), costume (Sheik Eddie) and even a backwards rider! At the beach, Jan Grant and friends were coming in as we were heading out. Toni Gomez, Xenia and their friends I saw heading up the beach. Witnessed was Adrianna racing her parents, Lynn and Alex racing, a group of us headed to the border fence to check it out, others headed the other way to check out down near the statuary side.

Well I have talked a lot here and it seems in my mind that I have hardly said anything at all.

And as I have said before and will say again, Lora really comes thru, she is the Barb-b-que Master. I don’t know how she does it! I took one look at those BBQ grills and said no way!!! But obviously NO is not an option for our President and her BBQ partner and husband - Dan the Man! They had those BBQ’s foiled, cooking and producing awesome carne asada and chicken in no time! I think we are going to have to call them the King and Queen of the BBQ!

A BIG THANKS to all of you for the food, drinks, dessert, shade, chairs, and other treats! Though we did not get a chance to get to most of the deserts, they all looked so great! Unfortunately, we had to evacuate before we got to enjoy the deserts, go for our second group ride and play the games due to border patrol shutting the park down to a security risk from the Mexico side. Border patrol gave us 5 minutes to evacuate, but then said we could have the time to break camp and load horses. The prizes and raffle items so generously donated for this event will be used in our upcoming club meeting raffles.

Enough of that - HOW about the RIDE??? Well, as you might have guessed by now - it was great! The water was just right as I can say from first hand experience as I thought it looked so good that I just had to get in. Ok, ok! I know my wife is not going to let me get away with it. The truth is I was the only one to fall/jump off a horse but I do have an explanation for it: my wife wanted a picture of me riding in the water so I rode out all cocky like (because I had already been out there once before) so I was just a little surprised when the mare I was on spooked as a wave crashed on her chest and as she jumped to the left and I kicked her as if to get her to trot, I now know this, thanks to my wife now taking pictures! But yes, you got it, she was taking a video of this high point in my riding life of which I’m quite sure will some day will be used as a training aid as what NOT to do when riding in the water!

Oh well, it’s all good, like I said, fun FUN FUN! THANKS once again to each and everyone of you for all for your help and support. I am sorry that I cannot name each one by name as you were all an asset to this event (but I did my best!). I believe that we had a group of around fifty to sixty people, a great turnout!

Thanks again!

Don Rusk

P.S. Yes, for those inquiring minds… a cake is coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Photos from Jennifer Madriaga - THANKS, Jennifer!