The Paper Chase

Judy and I did the Paper Chase today.  It is an hour and a half "race" that winds through woods and fields, up and down hills and across streams of South Branch Farms.  This is a twice a year event, where Bob Kinsley generously shares his miles of farm and trails with the riding community.  The weather was beautiful, Tzar and Kaylee ran well, and we had a great time.  Now, I am tired and sore . . . but it was worth it!

The Nobel Horse

Horses came into my life through my wife Judy.  Riding has been her joy for the last 15 years.  But for me, not so much.  Well, at first, anyway.  I took some English riding lessons with her 7 years ago, and while it was very helpful, it just did not hold my interest.

Me on Barron

Things changed in 2006:  We bought two horses, a Quarter Horse Stallion (Barron) and his son, a Paint (Tzar).  Barron was the perfect "Husband Horse," meaning he is so well behaved that you could even put an inexperienced husband on him.  Fortunately, Barron was patient as I learned.  Allie, Dan, and I took turns riding him through woods and farms.  Now, I was having fun!

Judy on Tzar

Allie on Barron

Dan on Barron

But it wasn't until the next year that I was hooked.  I watched my first Polocrosse Tournament at Black Horse Farm in Felton.  I watched the US Polocrosse team play the visiting Irish team.  The sights and sounds of six noble horses racing up and down the field can't be described.  It can only be experienced.  I came away from that weekend thinking, "This is so cool, but I'll never be able to do that."  Or maybe I would . . .



Allie and Me



The following summer, the opportunity came.  Judy, Allie, and I joined the Spring Valley Polocrosse Club.  To say that it was slow at first, was an understatement.  I was still a beginning rider and it was a challenge to try to get Barron to move where I wanted while trying to scoop up the ball from the ground.  I had no racket skills and no riding skills, but I was having fun.  Then came the news:  There was a tournament coming up in 3 weeks.  Would we like to compete?  3 weeks into the sport, and we were headed for a tournament!  We walked, trotted, stumbled and fumbled that tournament weekend, but we had fun. 





The next couple of years Judy and I progressed in our riding and Polocrosse skills.  Barron did well as a beginner horse.  Tzar, not so much, so Judy leased Ria, a wonderful, fast, experienced Polocrosse horse.  We moved beyond trot, and now we were galloping down the field.

But I found that Barron had his limits.   He was willing and usually patient as he learned the sport, but as the level of played progressed, we were literally being left in the dust.  He just did not have the speed.  This became more apparent at the 2010 Bay Area Tournament.  We ended up with second place.  We played the 1st place team twice, and twice, Barron and I got pushed all around the field by a mare, who happened to have "For Sale" painted on her butt.  We looked at her that afternoon, bought her and took Kahlua home that weekend.  Kahlua won best horse honors that weekend.

Kaylee

As there was already a Kahlua on the farm where we boarded, we renamed her Kaylee.  She is a delight to ride:  energetic, fast, and sure-footed.  You just give her the lightest signal and she responds.  Did I mention that she is fast?  There is no feeling on this earth like the feel of racing down field or trail on a fast horse.  Oh, yeah, now I am hooked . .

How do you glue down Gargraves track?

After a few weeks of testing (ie., running trains around and around), I decided that it is time to glue down the track.  I am using the Woodland Scenics tacky glue.  It was a big pain, since I need to pull the track up about an inch or so (with the feeder wires attached), paint the glue on the underside of the ties, and then push it down and weight it down, all before the glue dries.  I could only do about 5 feet at a time.   How do you keep the track  down?  You weigh it down with an MTH Allegheny, of course.  And then any heavy object you can find.  Eventually, I figured out that it works better to apply the glue to the roadbed.  I have already covered all the ways NOT to do it, so it is going smoothly now.

Then I got to the crossover . . .
So, this was a pain, lifting up the crossover (with 4 tracks attached).  Of course, both center rail power pickups pop out (remember all my failed attempts to feed the center rails?).   Well, this was not going to work.  So, out comes the soldering iron.  Yeah, right!!  Did you know that the blackened center rail is the only metal in the universe that solder will not stick to?  Back to the drawing room.  Finally the solution comes to me:  Drill a hole through the vertical part of the rail, loop a copper wire through, and solder it to itself.  Success!!  And the solder even stuck to the drilled bare metal.

I fed the switch machine wires down through the table to wire them up, and then remembered that I don’t yet have a control panel.  So, that will be the next project while I am waiting for each section of glue to dry.  Fortunately, I have a borrowed Z-4000 to properly size the control panel.  I am going to try to keep the panel size down to somewhere less than half the size of the layout . . .