April 2022 FCOHC Newsletter

It’s official, spring is here. The winter hair is starting to roll off of the horses, it has snowed 3 times since my forsythia bush bloomed, and I started mowing the yard this morning.

If you follow Facebook, you will see our club has been busy with multiple work days at the state forest and state parks where we assist with the maintenance of the horse camps and trails. This year has been especially challenging after the ice and snow storm back in February. If memory serves me correct, different members of our club have spent 6 days clearing trails, another day repairing the tie line at Great Seal and another day where we accomplished two jobs the same day. One crew replaced the tie line cables at Airplane Rock rest area and a second crew repaired and spread lime stone under the tie lines at Hocking State Horse Camp.

I’m not going to try and single out and acknowledge every volunteer that helped accomplish these tasks, just simply you’ll never know how much I appreciate your unselfish donation of time. Thanks! I hope all of our efforts are appreciated by the thousands of riders that visit the various parks.

More of our improvements are planned for Hocking, but they are on hold for better weather. The camps and trails were a top priority in anticipation for the reopening of the state forest on April 1st. Did you notice, the Forest did reopen last Friday? Now we need the weather man to toss us a bone and warm things up a bit.

If you visit Hocking, you will notice that several of the State planned and promised improvements to the trails have not been accomplished. I don’t have the answer to this issue. I hear excuses but not sure I’m hearing solid reasons. We’ll see what the near future bring and go from there.

Last week our planned summer ride schedule was posted on our wed site. For those that may be new members, you can access our web site by googling ffohc.com. Look under calendar tab at the top of the home page. I hope to see several of you on the trails in the near future.

Our meeting dates are also post on the web page. The meeting date is normally the second Sunday of each month. The only exception to this is May when the meeting was moved to the third Sunday because Mothers Day is on the 2nd Sunday. We did move the location last fall to the Pizza Cottage on West Fair Avenue in Lancaster. The time is 7 pm but several come early to eat. All are welcome to do that as well.

At the State OHC meeting a few weeks back, Fairfield County OHC was recognized as turning in the second most trail miles ridden by a county chapter club. Our total miles were 21,930 miles. This is several years in a row we have accomplished this position. Sure would like to get to number 1 one of these years. At this same meeting one of our members, Jim McQuire senior, was recognized as being in the top 10 for his individual miles ridden. Jim totaled 1900 miles last year. Not too shabby for someone 83 years young. Allie, Jim’s great grand daughter and Tom McQuires grand daughter was recognized as being in the top 10 youth riders. Congrats to both and thanks to all of our members that logged trail miles last year.

Our major money maker for the year is quickly approaching. As a club our members donate time to assist the sponsors of the All American Youth Horse Show in Columbus at the state fair grounds. The show is scheduled for May 12, 13, 14 and 15. In return, our club is compensated very well. It’s kind of a grind, but it only lasts 4 day and we only ask each volunteer to do a 4 hour shift. I still have a few slots to fill. If you have a little free time, get a hold of me and we’ll see if your time meets my needs.

It has been a busy but very rewarding spring up to this point when I look back at what our club has accomplished. It’s now time to slow down, relax and enjoy the fruits of our labor. Hope to see every one at a meeting or on the trail soon.

Chris