Message from the President

(December 3,2012) What a year it has been! Beautiful weather showed the Park at its very best for Spring Bay Horse Trials, where the recently renovated novice water jump and preliminary bank were put to use for the first time. April also brought a huge turnout for the annual Hunter/Jumper Show and cross-country schooling day.

Pony Club camps, the Tetrathlon Rally, a couple of successful clinics hosted by the UK Eventing team, the Summer Sizzle mini trial, dressage shows, Sayre Horse Show, Horse Aid Live Show—lots of events took place this year. And yet, there was ample downtime for the casual rider to enjoy the beautiful facilities, for the eventers to do their trot sets, the polo players to get their ponies fit, and the dressage riders to practice their tests.

We’ve been busy this year. With the generous support of some local equestrian groups and businesses, we added eight new stadium fences to our inventory; we repaired quite a few cross-country fences, and removed some that were no longer serviceable. We continued to drag the dressage and hunter rings to maintain the footing, and we lobbied to have the indoor arena open for public use during the winter months. Our annual workday in September was well attended, and lots of projects were completed. Thanks to all our sponsors and supporters.

We are extremely fortunate to have Masterson Station Park. We are learning to share the facilities with state track meets, the Extreme Mudder race, cycling groups. We can and we must continue to do so. The more local groups that use the Park, the more support we will generate to protect it. Green space is a valuable resource—let’s make sure we keep it! Talk it up, boast about it with your friends, take pictures of the Park and post them online, write a letter to the local paper, lobby your local council members for continued support for the equestrian facilities, and most importantly, use the Park, support the events held out there, attend the workdays, and stay involved!

Several of our board members leave us this year: Jane Winegardner after six years, Nina Hahn and Deb Balliet after three. Heartfelt thanks to them for their hard work, support, and dedication to the Park, and also a sincere thank-you to Arie van der Heiden, who took on the mammoth task of running our annual show in 2012, and to Kathryn Wong, who did so much for us over the past four years.

 

 
 

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