TROT - Trail Riders of Today

TROT BOARD Meeting - First Tuesday of the month unless otherwise noted - 6:15 for pot luck, 7:00 for meeting - Call Pat Talbott at 301.704.3871 or email her for location and Conference call attendance.

Latest Newsletter (also available is an archive of past issues)
The May 2012 TROT Newsletter is online. Please also check the addendum. The newsletter needs YOUR contributions. And all TROT members can have a free ad in every issue! Send Nancy Osgood your ad or your article.

Check Ride and Trail Work Schedule for next event
Our 2012 ride schedule is posted on our ride calendar. Contact Lisa Troutman, our Trail Ride Coordinator, to lead a ride of your own. We also maintain our trails with a busy schedule; no experience needed. Email Amy Kimble for details and see below.

TRAIL WORK CHALLENGE
EARN AWARDS BY PARTICIPATING IN TRAIL WORK DAYSar)
The TROT Board has developed an incentive Program for the Trail work volunteers. The program will begin 5/12/2012 and end 12/15/2012. For each hour put in working on TROT sponsored trail work you'll earn 1 pt. to include all completed 1/4 hours spent plus commute time, subtracting side trips. This will be on THE HONOR SYSTEM. Awards will be given at the Annual Dinner. Work days will be posted on the website, in the latest newsletter and through the Maryland Trail Riders Yahoo Group. Work days will be canceled if actively raining 3 hours prior to the work time. All mounted workers go out in groups of 2-4, to be most productive. Most work sessions are 2-3 hours and you should bring your own tools and water. Check for updates on the website or email Amy Kimble.

TRAIL PRESERVATION MESSAGE
PLEASE SIGN THE 2012 PETITION TO RETAIN WSSC's TRAIL ON THE ROCKY GORGE RESERVOIR
(whether or not you signed the 2011 petition last year)
One of TROT's core missions is preserving equestrian trails. We are very concerned that the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) closed their long-standing, environmentally sound equestrian trail (which WSSC had earlier dedicated to one of TROT's founding members, Terry Ledley), moved riding to their dangerously steep and severely eroding fire access road, banned all winter riding and banned previous barn accesses. The WSSC claimed these changes were necessary because use of the equestrian trail was causing severe damage to the reservoir's water. However, we feel that WSSC's claims of damage are most improbable, given the trail's impressively fine condition and the previous calculations from WSSC's volunteer environmental group showing that those assertions could not possibly be true. Last year there were many hundreds of requests for these data which WSSC claim caused them to close the trail, but WSSC has not provided any such evidence, instead releasing a few documents which reveal their claims to be disingenuous.

The new 2012 petition states that if riding causes the damage that WSSC asserts, the equestrian trail should be closed, but if those claims are without basis, the equestrian trail should be re-opened. This petition is intended primarily for elected officials, to encourage their help in engaging WSSC.

Please join in the trails preservation effort by printing out the petition (available by clicking here), and provide your signature, printed name, and address (and ideally also a phone number or e-mail address), and sending it to Barbara Sollner-Webb, by mail (17200 Melbourne, Drive, Laurel, MD, 20707), fax (410-955-0192), or e-mail (a scan or photo of the signature sheet, to bsw@jhmi.edu). If you would be willing to also get the signatures of some friends and neighbors (they do not need to be riders!) that would be fantastic! Thanks so much for your needed help!

One feature of our website that may be little known and little used is our park map coverage. Our park mapping project has .gpx and .kmz files on about a dozen parks. That means you can google earth these trails. There are more traditional trail maps for another dozen parks. For instance we just added maps and information links for West Friendship Park. We invite your contributions to our archives; either gps files or plain maps are welcome. Just email them over.

Not only that but many club members who are knowledgable about specific parks have volunteered to serve as park guides if you'd like to ride these parks. See out park guide list for what is available. What a great resource for our club!!

Search Our Website: Enter search terms in the yellow box on the upper right of this and all pages. Note that our old newsletters are part of the search database. Looking for a tack shop near Highland? Search for 'Highland tack'. Remember an old article about hay? What about an 'equine dentist'? Before googling for horsey stuff, try TROT Search

Playing in the Patapsco River on horseback

If you enjoy riding horses on trails in Maryland, want to learn about great places to ride and would like to see these trails remain open to all riders, then you'll want to join TROT, the Trail Riders of Today. To see the scope of our activites, please see our 2009 Accomplishments. Dues remain $20 per year for an individual or a family. Show your support for preservation of equestrian trails. You can renew your membership online using PayPal or your credit card. See the membership page to join/renew/contribute.

We have a balanced calendar filled with interesting rides and other activities all over the state. We are developing an information resource about equestrian trails; to include directions, maps and resource guides. We maintain awareness of and educate our members to active trail issues since there always seems to be threats to the equestrian way of life.

If you wish to comment on the site or problems with it, report broken links or just make a suggestion, then please contact our webmaster. And do consider joining TROT; membership information is online.

TROT participates in and encourages you to join these YAHOO mail groups:

The Maryland Trail Riders group is for equestrians who want to share information and news about Maryland trails, find a trail riding buddy, arrange transportation to a trail ride or other horse miscellania relating to trail riding in the state.
The TROT members group is for TROT members to share information about upcoming events, the preservation of equestrian trails and general horse talk.

To join just enter your email address in the appropriate box and then click the link below.

Click to Join MarylandTrailRiders more information about this group		Click to Join TROT Members more information about this group