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A Team Barn Owls Cache!
A world class equestrian facility tucked away in a wild and rural area of southern California’s low desert? Yes! Thermal’s little known secrett, HITS - Horseshows In The Sun Desert Horse Park in Thermal, CA! This will be a spot of high muggle activity thru-January thru mid-March. It is on a fairly busy road, but there is ample room and a solid shoulder to park well off the roadway. The cache is NOT inside the gates.
HITS-TORY:
HITS is a nationwide company with world-class hunter-jumper circuits in California, Florida, Arizona, New York, and Virginia. HITS operated its first West Coast winter circuit in 1991. In 1992, HITS produced the Desert Circuit in Indio, where it steadily grew in popularity. In 2007, HITS opened the HITS Desert Horse Park in Thermal, just five miles from the former Indio location. HITS Thermal is one of the largest hunter/jumper horse show venues in the United States, and is the new home to the HITS Desert Circuit. This 230-acre, state-of-the-art facility boasts more than $20 million in improvements over the former Indio location, including stabling for more than 3,400 horses and 14 competition rings, including a covered ring for all FEI World Cup Qualifiers offered at Thermal.
The Desert Circuit has been a mainstay of West Coast competition since 1982, and offers classes ranging from Grand Prix show jumping to a selection of divisions for both novice and experienced riders. In addition to offering more than 250 different classes each week, four of the 16 Grand Prix events at HITS Thermal are FEI World Cup qualifiers. Each year more than 3,000 horses, 10,500 horsemen, and 25,000 spectators attend HITS Thermal and more than $1.5 million in prize money is awarded. The HITS Desert Circuit is the winter show home to some of the most accomplished equestrian riders in the world, including U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist Will Simpson, Canadian Olympian Jill Henselwood, and Mexican Olympic hopeful Enrique Gonzalez. Now, honestly, does it LOOK like all that is going on behind that bush covered fence?
Some research on my part finally identified FEI as the Federation Equestre Internationale (or Federation Equestrian International). The FEI World Cup offers competitions in Jumping, Dressage, Driving, Vaulting, and something called Eventing. Also called combined training, horse trials, the three-day event, the Military, or the complete test, Eventing combines the obedience of dressage with the athletic ability of show jumping. In the cross-country jumping phase the horses jump over fixed obstacles, such as logs, stone walls, banks, ditches, and water, trying to finish the course under the "optimum time."
As a teen driving this road to school, I always loved the uninterrupted view of the mountains and mud hills this road provided. As an adult, I love it still.
There is a new Riverside County Sherrif station just down the road, but no worries. This cache was placed with written permission from H.I.T.S., and we're on friendly terms with RSO.
Congrats to IFeltThat, and his/her daughter, for FTF!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gur gnyyrfg pna ybbx qbja