Greetings!

What a summer! I know we are all going crazy with this non-riding weather. We do have something to look forward to however; Friends of FENCE will sponsor the first Hunter Pace of the Season. It will originate and finish at FENCE but the course is a new route that will include Cotton Patch. The Friends of FENCE hunter pace is scheduled for Sunday, September 1st. Rain date is September 8th. FENCE has about 4 miles of FETA trails and truly needs your support.  So c'mon out and show your support of a great asset to our community!  FENCE, as well as FETA, is experiencing a lot of unexpected expenses due to weather damage and needs your help.

Please check "like" on our Facebook page. Look for photos and info on our trail maintenance crew, Bob Lesowitz and Carol Propest. They are extremely important in keeping our trails cleared and safe.  FETA is inundated with fallen trees, branches, and heavy erosion.  Be sure to listen to the phone message and check the Facebook page for the latest information regarding damage when trails are open.  

If you are a land owner with FETA trails on your property and can clear non-dangerous fallen trees or branches and take care of any other maintenance on your trail, we greatly appreciate it. If your neighbors own the trail, please offer to help them.  

Anyone interested in being on a list of volunteers to assist in cutting fallen trees too large for Carol to handle, please contact trails@fetatrails.org.  Our list of volunteers would be on an "as needed" basis. Donations are also appreciated as we will have to hire out most of the re-grading of eroded trails.

Thank you for your diligence in reporting trail problems.  Please continue reporting.  We will be working on the main trails first followed by the lesser used or secondary ones.  Please be patient if it takes some time to get to yours.  

May the sun shine!

From my muddy stall, Judith

FETA was born to address pressing problems destroying the trails.  First, the devastating ice storms of 1991 and 1993 had closed the trails.  Landowners could not keep the system open by themselves. Second, inconsiderate riders and development were closing trails and cutting off access.  FETA was organized to preserve and protect the trails, help maintain and regulate their use, and respond to landowner concerns about appropriate and considerate use of their land.

FETA has been a resounding success.  The organization has reopened long closed trails, built new trails and connected old areas, worked with landowners to preserve the trails for posterity, and promotes good horsemanship, rider consideration, and safety.   FETA is seen nationally as a leader and an example of how to protect trails and administer trail systems.  Many current area residents moved here specifically for the trails.

Just as in 1993, extreme weather has taken a big toll on the trails. It will take awhile to deal with the destruction caused by massive rainfall and flooding.  FETA's one part-time employee and volunteers are swamped (literally), and we need everyone to pitch in again and help clean up the mess. This is what YOU can do to help:

1. Landowners: Please check your trails and report your damage. Please clear and repair what you can yourself or with your neighbors.
2. Non-landowners: DO NOT RIDE until the trails are cleared. Offer to help any landowners you know. Many hands make light work, especially with downed trees. Contact Judith Kerns to volunteer with trail clearing. 
3. Everyone: DO NOT clear trees that are potentially dangerous.  Let us know about them and we will put them "on the list".  Also, please advise about any excessive erosion, sink holes, or other dangerous conditions you find.

Trail damage is inevitable with extreme weather but as with the storms 20 years ago, let's rise to the occasion.  Let's work together to preserve and fix what we have been the beneficiary of for 20 years and help our wonderful landowners clean up this mess!

Bored? Tired of all this rain? Frustrated that you can't be out and about on the beautiful FETA trails?

Here are some ideas to make your horse a great trail horse without leaving home. It may surprise you as to what you and your horse cannot do.

1. Can you stay straight on the asphalt overlap line in the driveway for more than 10 feet?  20 feet? How far can you keep each half of you and all 4 quarters of the horse centered over the line?   That could come in really handy when the mudslide has taken out half the hillside trail and you are looking down at the raging river.

2. How fast and smooth can you stop your horse. Softly on a dime, or not for 5 lengths with the nose straight up. Think about that river again.

3. Will your horse sidepass to the mailbox and stand still while you open it and retrieve your mail? I understand that it is more efficient to walk there yourself to retrieve it, but you are bored, remember? And that exercise might come in handy when a tree Is partially blocking the trail and you don't want the branches in your face.

And a few suggestions for when you can't even get out of the barn:

1. Stop/start/ forward /back with lightness, on the ground and mounted. It will make your horse responsive and engaged, which could save your life.

2. North/South/East/West with lose lead on the ground. Great fun, but too dizzying in the saddle. Really gets your horse paying attention.

These fun exercises will give you something to do when the trails are closed. Perfect practice makes a perfect trail horse, who could save your life out there in the rainforest.

Remember to protect the trails you want to keep riding on.