News & Updates
The Florida State Fair FOSH Regional Championship show has been finalized. The dates for the show are Feb 4 & 5, 2010. The show bill and stall reservations form are posted on the Events page of this site. The fair has dropped the price of showing to be only $50 for the stall and $100 to show the entire show (or $25/class for those with horses only in a few classes). FOSH will be holding
Sharon Driscoll has taken over the job of trail coordinator and has already planned 3 trail rides. The first is at the Florida Horse Park, next is at North Star Acres (near Dunnellon) and the third at the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak.
Planning is going forward for the Fall Gaited Classic. We will be adding a costume class since the show will be on halloween. Our judge for the Fall show will be Edie Gandy. Planning for the Florida State Fair show has begun and things are starting to come together. Our judge for the February show will be Keith Dane.
On May 30 2009 we had our Spring Gaited Classic. Conky Price was our judge and as always she did a great job. Show results are here.
On March 14 2009 we had our Fun Day at C&W Mountain Horses, Inverness, FL. We had a great turnout with over 20 people coming to take part. We started out the day with a trail ride through part of Greg's farm. When we got back we had lunch and a short meeting. The main topic of discussion was the upcoming show on May 30, 2009 at the fairgrounds. After lunch we saddled back up and headed down to the cattle pen. Greg had 10 head of cattle for us to work and had asked over several team penning/team sorting experts to help us introduce our horses to cattle for the first time. I was quite surprised at how quickly our Rockies took to working around cattle. We even tried our hands at a little team sorting. Meanwhile several of the members also played on our new obstacles. We finished the day off with another short trail ride. Everyone had a great time. Pictures from our day are here.
Update: We are replacing the Liz Graves clinic, with a Club Fun Day at C & W Mountain Horse Farm on March 14, 2009. It should be both educational and fun. Please see the Events page for all the details.
Update: Unfortunately we are going to have to cancel the scheduled Liz Graves Clinic. The economy is just too poor currently to support it. At this time we are less then a month away from the clinic date and have no one signed up to ride in it.
On Feb 5 & 6th we had our annual Florida State Fair shows. This time they were sanctioned with FOSH as well as RMHA. We had a good turnout, especially for the FOSH classes. We definately need to plan doing more FOSH classes next time. Unfortunately the RMHA came out with a new set of show rules just days before the show and that caused a great deal of problems and confusion. It looks like the best way to avoid this in the future but stay true to our principals will be to sanction with FOSH exclusively (at least until such time as the RMHA figures out how to have fun at their shows again). We did get to meet some new people and hopefully they will become regulars at our gaited classic series of shows. The show results are posted here for Feb 5th and Feb 6th.
Update: We have booked the facilities at Lake Panasoffkee for a trail ride on December 13, 2008. Members should bring their lunch and the club will provide drinks. Feel free to bring a guest (even if they are riding a trotting horse). The more the merrier. The ride will head out at 9am. Please be on time. Additionally, we are working hard on the plans for the Florida State Fair shows. They will be held on Feb 5 and 6, which is a Thursday and Friday. We could not get our normal dates due to some scheduling conflicts. The draft show bill is online now and is located here.
On November 1 we held the Fall Gaited Classic show at the Florida State fairground. We had a wonderful turnout from the Missouri Foxtrotter group. Show results are here.
On October 18 we held our annual general membership meeting at Greg Williams' farm. The club treated everyone to a wonderful dinner of pulled pork, rice, and beans. A new board of directors was elected. Our new directors are: Maye Carter, Korrin Dykhouse, Leah Diamond-Fischer, Joanie Elder, Kathy Parrish, Sandy Taylor, and Greg Williams. Everyone indicated that they wanted another Liz Graves clinic in the near future. Greg indicated that he was willing to let us hold it at his farm again. Several also wanted a trail ride. Several sites were discussed for the ride. We will research what sites have open dates and get back with the membership. The Winter Gaited Classic show that was planned to be added to our show circuit will have to wait until 2010. The site that we had planned to hold it at, Amik Run, has closed. No other venues are available currently. The Florida State Fair has approached us about expanding out RMHA fair shows to include the FOSH classes that we currently hold in our gaited classic series of shows. The fair manager has been impressed with the turnout we have had and enjoyed the friendly atmosphere of those shows. She indicated that the TWH show that normally takes our arena in the evening will not be held this year and felt that the gaited community in general could be better served by our expanding our show since that would allow all gaited horses to participate at the fair. Everyone at the meeting agreed that this would be a big step forward for our club.
On October 17 and 18 we held the Liz Graves clinic. It was such a hit that we are planning to bring her back on March 13 and 14 for another clinic. Several of the auditors indicated that they would be signing up. We did lose some money on this clinic so we will be having to increase the price slightly to $300 for members. Participants will be required to become members (cost is $25) if they are not already. The auditor costs will be increased by $5 also. I am currently working to get a paypal account established for the club so we can accept payments online.
Update: Our clinic is just weeks away. Everyone is very excited to be bringing nationally known gaited horse clinician Liz Graves to Florida
for the first time ever. We do still have 4 slots left. We also have auditor positions. Those signing up as auditors ahead of the clinic will
get their lunch included with the purchase price. The clinic will be on Friday and Saturday, October 17 & 18, 2008 at C&W Mountain Horse Farm
in Inverness, FL. See the Events page for additional details.
Our annual meeting will be held at lunchtime (noon) during the clinic. The club will provide drinks and meat. Members please bring a side dish
to share. Anyone interested in becoming a member of the board of directors for the club should contact Maye Carter or Sandy Taylor to have their
names put on the ballot. The requirements to be a member of the board of directors are that you must be a member in good standing of our club
and that you must own a registered Rocky Mountain Horse (you do not need to own a Rocky Mountain Horse to be a member of our club - just to be on
the board). The elections will be held October 18th at our meeting. We will also be discussing our upcoming shows and trail rides.
Additionally, we are taking sponsorships for the Fall Gaited Classic. The form is here. As a sponsor,
your information will be added to the online show bill as well as the printed show bill at the show. You will be announced
as the class sponsor several times during the class.
On May 31, 2008 we held the Spring Gaited Classic horse show at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, FL. The show was a big success with 39 horses. Highlights of the show included some Florida Cracker horses as will as a large number of Missouri Foxtrotters. A short meeting was held during the lunch break. Results of the show are posted here. The show was sanctioned as a FOSH class A show. Our treasurer, Maye Carter, was the show manager, John Dykhouse was the show secretary. They did a great job. Tom and Gail Smith were the announcer and ringmaster. Our judge for the day was Conky Price.
Update: Things are moving fast with the clinic. We have decided to get nationally know gaited horse clinician Liz Graves. The clinic will be on Friday and Saturday, October 17 & 18, 2008 at C&W Mountain Horse Farm in Inverness, FL. See the Events page for additional details. Also, we are taking sponsorships for the Spring Gaited Classic. The form is here. As a sponsor, your information will be added to the online show bill as well as the printed show bill at the show. You will be announced as the class sponsor several times during the class.
On March 15, 2008 we held a trail ride and meeting at Greg and Danette Williams' farm. Greg treated us to pulled pork, rice, beans and plantains. Everyone else brought a side dish to share. At the meeting, everyone introduced themselves since there were quite a few new faces. Items covered included the treasurer's report, the ads and judge for the upcoming show, as well as future plans for meetings and activities. There was a great deal of interest in expanding our current shows to include a winter show in January or March, possibly at Sumter Equestrian since the fairgrounds would be unavailable. There was interest in building an obstacle course. Greg said he would build it if we could draw it. Next we talked about the elections in October. Maye and Sandy volunteered to act as the nominating committee. There was interest in having a clinic for a future club activity. Kathy will research the cost and available clinicians.
On February 15-16, 2008 we held the Florida State Fair Rocky Mountain Horse Show. It was a big success. A lot of the Florida club members came and showed their horses. We also had farms from the Carolinas, Kentucky and Tenneessee. Congradulations go to Peg Edwards who's horse Peg's Diego won the high point horse award. We had a tie for high point youth this year with Langstone Harvey from Deweese Farms in Franklin, KY and Riley Charping riding out of Conrad Skidmore's stables in Spring Hill, FL. For results click here for day one and click here for day two
On January 26, 2008 held a general membership meeting at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park. A treasurer's report was presented as well as the final financial report for our Fall Gaited Classic show. We talked about the upcoming shows at both the Florida State Fair on February 15 and 16, as well as our Spring Gaited Classic on May 31st. Kathy Parrish went over the updates to the RMHA show rules. It was noted that the Spring Gaited Classic will be under FOSH rules since the RMHA has ceased sanctioning the smaller B rated shows. Kathy Parrish encouraged everyone to let her know soon what classes they would specifically like to see at our May show. Greg Williams volunteered to have a trail ride and pot luck dinner at his farm in March. He said that he will provide the meat for this event. The date was set to March 15, 2008. After the meeting everyone went out to the stables and went for a trail ride along the river.
On Tuesday, November 20, 2007 starting about 6pm the board had a meeting via telephone. Present for the meeting were Kathy Parrish, Maye Carter, Paul LeRoy, Laurie LeRoy and Joanie Elder. A treasurer's report was presented as well as a financial report for the Fall Gaited Classic show held earlier in the month. Future shows were discussed as well as the RMHA's expected rule change to do away with the class B show which allows other breeds to show. Everyone present thought that was a mistake on their part and expressed their feeling that we needed to continue to look toward small multi-breed gaited shows. An e-mail had been received from Dennie Begley (national SAC chairman) saying that our show during the Florida State Fair has been approved, however, after talking with other national board members it appears that the fair will need to make major changes to the show bill. Kathy Parrish will try to co-ordinate communication of the new requirements to the fair staff, however, it was noted that all these changes are still in the works at the national. The board agreed to go forward with our show program for the state fair as we have always done. Ads will be $25 for business card, $50 for a half page, $75 for a full page and $100 for the back cover. The board also approved moving forward with a spring show that would be like the Fall Gaited Classic show but do to the expected RMHA rule changes will have to be sanctioned solely through FOSH. It was noted that the next general meeting would be held during the January campout/trail ride on January 26, 2008. There will also be a general meeting held on February 16 during the lunch break at the Florida State Fair. A form for release of liability for club functions was reviewed and Laurie LeRoy agreed to make the recommended changes. Approval will be conducted via e-mail. Also reviewed were some changes to the bylaws to add an inactive member status. It was suggested that while we are making changes to the bylaws that we also move the membership year to run with the calendar year. All approved and Laurie volunteered to make those changes also. It was agreed that the bylaw change vote will be conducted by sending the change out by mail to the members.
On November 3, 2007 we held the Fall Gaited Classic show at the Florida State Fairgrounds. Many of our members attended and they all seemed to have a good time. The show was sanctioned as a RMHA class B show and a FOSH class A show. Our treasurer, Maye Carter, was the show manager, Kathy Parrish, our president, was the DQP. Korrin Dykhouse had to be in class that day, so she sent her husband, John and friend, Carrie to run the show office. They did a great job. New members, Tom and Gail Smith were the announcer and ringmaster. Also on hand to help was board member, Laurie LeRoy. Our judge for the day was Jane Blue.
