Mounted Explorer Post 686

Mounted Explorer Post 686

The Mounted Explorers has given High School age young people, a chance to become involved with horses in a natural setting. This group has been around since the 1950's and has been on the PGE property since 1972.

 

As an Explorer Post we are part of Learning for Life, a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America.  This Post is mostly girls.  We teach city kids basic horse care and maintenance and a whole lot of responsibility.  These kids are out here every Saturday for a minimum of 4 hours year round.  They work for a couple hours and ride for a couple hours.  We have the care of both the herd and the land, which borders a housing development, 2 apartment complexes and the Springwater Trail.  Naturally there’s a lot of fencing to maintain as well as the blackberries and noxious weeks that are relentless.

 

The members learn to perform basic horse owner physicals as well as the necessary first aid that is needed with a herd of 19 horses.  Living in a herd there are pecking order scuffles that can cause nicks and dings.  Fortunately, living in a herd on acreage they are grazing and moving as nature intended so we don’t see as much colic and other conditions often seen in stalled horses.

 

Most of the saddles and tack are donated to us but we earn the money to care for the herd.  With the cost of feed and supplements rising as fast as everything else it’s quite expensive. Fortunately we have enough acreage that the majority of the herd doesn’t need a lot of extra feed.  We have several near and over 30 years old who need the extra feed due to a lack of teeth. For about the past 15 years, we have been very fortunate to be able to work for the food service companies at Mt Hood Community College in their concession stands to make most of the money we need.  In 2009 we worked a total of 697 man hours fundraising.  This is on top of the weekly work parties at the property and the weekly meeting hours on Monday nights.  These kids have found something they love and they’re willing to work hard for it.  The loss of most of our saddles and tack was devastating.

Sometime between 7 PM Thursday January 21, and 3 PM Friday January 22 unknown suspects literally broke their way into the steel tack building and removed all saddles, bridles, bridle parts, harnesses, lead ropes and even cloth groom bags.
 
The thieves left tools, most of the saddle blankets and minor supplies that are stored there.
 
To gain entry the thieves even took parts off the the harrow (large steele teeth) to use as prying and chopping devices. They must have made a tremendous amount of noise.
 
After gaining entry, the thieves used the four Post wheel barrows to haul the stolen goods across the pasture in a NW direction to the City access road by the large gravel pile. They must have got tired or spooked as four of the older saddles were found in a pile outside.
 
Lorna and Wes are working on a more complete inventory, but somewhere between 20 and 23 saddles gone plus all the rest of the necessary items to run a riding academy.
 
Two of the Post girls are checking E Bay and Craig's List to see if any of the items come up for sale.
 
Needless to say this is a huge shock and loss to our Post and our sponsoring organization, The Optimist Club of Gresham.

 

Donations can be made to Mounted Explorer Post 686 at any Key Bank or email: mountedexplorers@yahoo.com