On April 16th and 17th, OVH members supported the Old Dominion Equestrian Endurance race near Strasbourg and the West Virginia line. The OVH members helping were Gil, KM4OZH; Duane, KK4BZ; Mark, WA4KFZ and John, KG4NXT. Net control was Ed, KE4RL and other hams assisting were Zoe, KG4TAM; Tom, KN4UNR and Neil, KE2LEY. Frank, WB1USN was assistant net control.
The event consisted of a 50 mile race, a 30 mile race and a Ride and Tie race (RT). The RT event had a team of 2 humans and one horse. One person rode the horse and the other ran. At various points, the horse/human team pulled ahead and tied the horse to a tree. When the second person caught up, she got on the horse. Meanwhile, the first person then became the runner.
Most of the communication was on a 2 meter repeater but contact the with drag riders (defined below) was by GMRS.
OVH’s own Duane, KK4BZ helps run the event and is also a horse owner and competitor. He normally runs the “drag riders”. The drag riders have nothing to do with quarter mile racing or even dressing up like Rue Paul ; it is the riders who perform a tail end charlie function for the horse race. On Saturday, Duane competed in the race and had Zoe run the drag riders.
Duane did well. In his own words:
