Still riding the range

Though the range is getting smaller and smaller with each new development, a group of horse enthusiasts in Stagecoach still try to ride the open country about once a month.

They also hold clinics on the training and care of horses, collect food for the hungry, and keep a sense of the Old West alive.

The 52 members of High Desert Horsemen are made up primarily of riders from Stagecoach, but also include members from Silver Springs, Dayton, Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Fallon, Yerington and Washoe Valley. Club member Linda Mulkey said they usually have between 12-15 join each ride, and more than that during the warmer months.

"It's never the same people all the time," she said. "We alternate, we have some rides on Saturdays and some on Sundays, so that people who work on Saturdays can ride and so can people who go to church."

All you really need is a horse, Mulkey said. She has three, a 2-year-old chestnut Arabian filly, a 20-year-old half-Arabian mare and a 28-year-old bay Arabian gelding.

Among the places the riders head are Lahontan, Fort Churchill and Washoe state parks, as well as Bureau of Land Management land in the Stagecoach area.

"We need to find out how to go about preserving the trails we use," Mulkey said, adding that the club also holds an occasional moonlight ride.

Riding horseback is not the only way to join in the fun. Some club members hitch up their horses ti a carriage and drive.

"It's not common, but we do have three or four members that drive," she said. "Some drive the little miniature horses, and there are three people with full-size horses that drive. We don't have a high turnout for the drivers."

The clinics cover such items as ground manners, or controlling the horse from the ground and de-spooking.

"De-spooking is where you introduce the horse to things like flags waving, noise, things that would normally frighten them," she said. "You want to get them conditioned so that when you're out on the trail you don't hurt someone."

The club has been in operation for a little more than a year, but has already had an impact by giving out food baskets and gifts to 25 Dayton and Stagecoach families during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Each participant in the club's monthly rides is asked to bring a canned-food item, which will be used to fill Thanksgiving baskets for needy Lyon County families. The food for April is turkey gravy and in May bring instant mashed potatoes.

And if the rides, clinics and helping the needy weren't enough to keep club members busy, Mulkey said the group is planning to add horse shows to its activities list. The first for this year is on Saturday.

"We're doing three horse shows," she said. "These will be schooling shows, that gives people who can't go to shows a chance to show their horses."

Margy Hamilton calls riding with the club "cheaper than therapy."

Hamilton, 75, founded the club and still joins the rides, sometimes riding and other times driving a horse.

"I have two Morgan horses and I have a miniature I drive," she said. "I also have a Shetland and an Arabian-Hackney that are in training for driving."

She has a cart for each horse and enjoys driving, but she prefers to ride.

"I have an 18-year-old Morgan that is just awesome to ride," she said. "I can go out with a headache like you wouldn't believe, and it'll be gone."

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.

If you go

Second annual Hairy Horse Schooling Show, 9 a.m., Corral, 11225 Silver Lane. High point awards at end of day. Call Marie McIntyre, 629-9705.

To join

To join the High Desert Horsemen, got to www.hdhorsemen. org. Cost is $25 for a single; $35 for a family.