Come share in all kinds of animal fun at Reining By The Bay now through 25th at The Horse Park in Woodside. This year at the NRHA “A” rated event, top horses and riders will compete for over $100,000 in cash and prizes and you can come home with your very own prize of a loving new family member a dog or cat. This is the second year that Reining By The Bay has chosen the Peninsula Humane Societyas the charity partner of the event. Equestrian Life (the media partner of the event) will be providing live streaming video coverage of the Futurity, Non Pro Derby and Open Derby classes free of charge here. (And we can’t even get our Town to cover COWncil meetings!).

If you don’t already know, “reining” is a type of judged event which really shows the athletic ability of the horses as they are put through a program of precise patterns of circles, spins and stops. This “Western Dressage” as it is sometimes known, applies principles and technique to cadence, balance and carriage. The fundamental purpose of Dressage is to develop a horse’s natural athletic ability and willingness to perform, through standardized progressive training methods, thereby maximizing its potential as a riding horse.

What makes this spectacular event even more special is that it helps our furry friends to find homes. The Peninsula Humane Society/SPCA, will have dogs available on site for adoption. PHS/SPCA representatives will be available to talk about the pets and how COWs can either adopt and/or assist the organization in their ongoing efforts. The PHS which receives NO funding from the National Humane Society or the American SPCA. This year has been especially hard for PHS and other local nonprofits. Vital programs such as: free spay/neuter clinics every week for low-income communities, a cruelty investigation department, humane education programs like summer animal camp, free sheltering for pets belonging to domestic abuse victims and a therapy program which has our volunteers bringing their pets to hospitals and other health care facilities need your donations to continue, so please consider helping out.

Take the herd and get on down to the Horse Park and have yourself some fun at this very worth while event!

There is a national Firewise Communities program designed to encourage towns like ours to make a real effort to involve homeowners in protecting against the risk of wildland fires before a fire starts. We were interested to see that the Town included funds for a “Firesafe and Firewise Program” in its 2010-2011 budget. The proposal is to award grants of up to $1,000 from the Town Public Safety Department budget pay private homeowners to take measures to reduce their fire risk and consequently make the Town safer. The recently-imposed 7A fire regulations have mandates that can cost property owners thousands of dollars. It may make sense to provide the “carrot” to go with the “stick” even though the amount of money involved ain’t hay.

While a budgeted amount of up to $50,000 were discussed, ultimately the COWncil budgeted $25,000 as seed money. The COWncil recognized that the program might prove very popular (free money usually is!) and that it wasn’t a good idea to get the program up and running just for it to run out of money and frustrate late applicants.

While the money has been budgeted for the Town giveaway, the details of the program “will be fine-tuned later.” A phrase like that always makes us worry! The success of a grant program depends on careful definition of projects which are eligible for the grants, what the application process is, and the basis on which grants are awarded. Will financial need be a factor? Suggested projects were fuel mitigation (such as reducing brush and dead vegetation) and subsidizing the costs of fire-resistant roofs. You can find some examples of what communities, counties and states have done under their Firewise Programs in the National Database of State and Local Wildfire Hazard Mitigation Programs here. We eagerly await more details of Woodside’s program.

We applaud the fact that the Town has been focusing attention on the risk of catastrophic wildfire lately. We have been following their efforts closely. See our stories here, here and here. Recently Town COWncil members have joined with Portola Valley officials as well as Woodside Fire Protection District staff to form an Ad Hoc Firewise Advisory Committee, whose role is to promote “public education, fuel mitigation, and the implementation of fire wise building codes.”

We do have some reservations as to whether a grant program is the wisest way to encourage fire safety in out Town. Perhaps, this will indeed prove to be a great way to encourage smart fire practices in our Town or it could just be a costly boondoggle, giving away public funds for things that homeowners should and would do anyway.