JULY 2010 THE RIDER /13 2010 Ontario Trail Riders Association Board of Directors
President Janice Clegg
Everett, ON L0M 1J0 Home: 705-434-0816 Cell: 519-940-1445, Work: 800-360-5821, Email:
pineriverranch@gmail.com
1st Vice President / Booth/ Marvin Halladay Orton, ON L0N 1N0 Home: 519-787-2307 Cell: 519-938-0695
Email:
marguerita_halladay@hotmail.com
Membership/ Web Site/ Education Wendy Downer Elmvale, ON L0L 1P0 Home: 705-322-0287 Email:
wnewdawn@xplornet.com
Newsletter/ PR/ Promotions Karin Zawadowsky Toronto, ON M9P 3T2 (647) 239-6509
Email:
kzawadowsky0228@rogers.com OTRA: Box 3038, Elmvale, ON L0L 1P0 •
www.otra.ca
The Ontario Trail Riders Association Inc, established in 1970, is an equestrian organization which promotes recreational trail riding and the creation, development, preservation and safe use of trails.
OTRA and its members represent the equestrian trail user with the Ontario Trails Council, Ontario Equestrian Federation and Equine Canada. We welcome your membership to help sup- port the voice of OTRA on your behalf. For more information please visit our website at
www.otra.ca
Snow Birding with our Horses
My wife and I and another couple decided to try our hand at taking a winter break with our horses to Florida. We dis- cussed the various time frames and loca- tions and began to put it together. Febru- ary seemed to be a good time as it is usu- ally the worst and coldest in Southern
Ontario and it would provide us the break from those winter blahs that we needed. I began to check locations and nar- rowed it down to a place called Ocala, FL. Apparently it is know as the horse capital of North America. Now where to stay. A bunch of searching using the Internet nar-
rowed it down to three places. It is amazing what you can find and what you can hide on the Internet. Our choice was made to go to the Goethe Trailhead Ranch in Dunnellon, FL. It was a brand new facility that had 96 covered horse stalls, 73 full RV hook-ups, bath house, covered BBQ pit, feed store, 15 large turnout pens, 2 round pens and a huge sand filled out door riding
arena.
Right across the road was access to the Goethe State Forest with unlimited easy riding. Sandy wide trails with loops from 1.5 hours to all day. A trail pass for the month which covered 8 people was $30. The facility was 20 minutes from shopping, restaurants, and most anything you would want. Only one hour from Dis- neyland.
We spent the month of February there and enjoyed the entire experience. We rode most days and there were other days we enjoyed a variety of nearby horse activi- ties like Cowboy Mounted Shooting, mounted archery, Carriage Museum, driving horse demonstrations and a clinic for “Bonding with and Desensitizing your Horse.” The weather was unusually cool and even wet at times but we never had to shovel. Actually it was proba- bly a blessing because there were no bugs and the horses were rather furry but never sweated from riding which was great.
The drive down took us two days and we took four days driving home as we stopped in Tennessee at East Fork Ranch to ride in the ice and snow up on the Cum- berland Plateau. It was an awesome place but meant for spring, summer or fall riding.
The USA sure knows how to look after horse peo- ple. The horse facilities are for horse people and they treat them as good business. On that note we also found out how the Internet can lead you astray. There were two other facilities we were considering in the Ocala area and just happened to visit them while down there. They certainly were nothing like the web site described. So buyer beware.
Administration Shirley Bodnarchuk Elmvale, ON L0L 1P0 Email:
shirley@auracom.com
Fundraising/ Special Projects Morris Radomskey Everett, ON L0M 1J0 Email:
morris@sprayhts.com
2nd Vice/ Trail Book/ Grants Marjory Morden Proton Station, ON email:
ochrerider@live.ca
Secretary/ Ride Schedule Kari Kelly
Elmvale, ON L0L 1P0 (705) 322-6338,
Email:
kkrkelly@xplorenet.com
Treasurer Jan Belanger
Elmvale, ON L0L 1P0 Home: 705-322-2027 Email:
janbel@csolve.net
Trail Development Ruth Pugh
Woodstock, ON 519-424-3661 Email:
rpugh@equinechiro.ca
Ontario Trails Council / Ontario Equestrian Federation Regional Representative Coordinator Bonnie Simpson
Kirkfield ON K0M 2B0 Home: 705-438-5752 Email:
equestriantrails@hotmail.com
All in all it was a wonderful experience for the four of us and our horses (the horses absolutely loved the place and all that sand). It showed us how to prepare for the longer drives with the horses, what to take and what to watch out for. Planning is the key and discussing it with someone who has done it really helps. We are now planning on doing it for two months next year and can’t wait.
If you would like more details on the overall trip and what you should be prepared for, I would be happy to share that with you. It makes for an awesome experi- ence.
Bryan Turner at
b.turner@allstream.net.
Volunteer as a Regional Rep
If you are interested in developing trails and riding opportunities in your area, we are asking you to volun- teer to become an OTRA Regional Representative. You become OTRA’s eyes and ears in your local area to keep OTRA informed of any local issues that effect equestri- ans such as: barring horses from existing trails or a need for safety or access improvements on public trails. Rally other OTRA members in your area to help with trail work and rides! If interested please contact Bonnie Simpson at
equestriantrails@hotmail.com. Thank you to these new Regional Rep volunteers: Colleen Singbush—Perth Sara Busse—Moorefield Mark Dobrindt—St. Catharines
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