From the President
Someone needs to beat me with a switch and get me back on track! Too many irons in the fire and time just gets away from me. So here goes an attempt to bring all members up to speed on past and near future activities.
Starting back on April 14th we hosted our first official club ride at Tar Hollow. If you have not been there in recent years, now is the time to give it a try. Two new restrooms have been built, all new stone spread on the parking pads and new concrete manure bins have been built. The trails offered up a few challenges, but that was the fault of a wind storm that went through just days before our arrival. None of the trails were completely blocked, but a few detours were required to get where you were going. Don’t remember the exact count, but 5 or 6 of us camped and others came in to day ride. Nice start to the summer.
Our next ride this spring was at Mohican. The weather forecast hurt attendance some. But as weather can do, it was in our favor and the majority of the rain came at night which allowed those of us went to enjoy the trail during the day. You have all heard about the tornado that tore through the forest last summer. Not all of the trails are open, but there is more than adequate trail miles to keep you riding for a weekend. Chad and his crew are working hard to restore the forest, but the devastation is simply just going to take time. For now if you are headed that way, everything north of Rt 97 is open to ride. Part of the blue and red connector trails to the south of art 97 are open. The yellow and the south end of the blue near the church and tee pee are closed. Commercial logging crews are in that area working to clear the downed trees. The big winner of our ride at Mohican was Donna White. She found a little over 100 mushrooms when not ridding. 👍
Coming up in a little over a week is our Memorial Day Ride at Hocking. We will be staying at the state camp, not the group area. Last year we did this and plenty of space was available. The official ride is May 26th through 29Th. You can come or leave as you like. We are planning a couple special activities. Tom and Jamie McGuire have hired a local singer to come in on Friday or Saturday evening. I’m not sure so come both days and not miss out. I will me doing a fish fry on Saturday evening in conjunction with our community meal. I’ll provide the fish, everyone else can add to the main course and deserts. Hope to see a big turn out.
Let’s move on to other activities your club has been involved with. Back in March, we had our first work detail to build a tie rail on the light green trail near the Rock House. There had been one there in years past, but time took it’s toll on it and rendered it unusable. Art, Bryan and myself gathered up the necessary post and pipe and built a new tie rail about 75 to 100 yards off Thompson Ridge Road. Close enough for you to easily walk to the Rock House but far enough off of the road so your horses can’t be seen. If you ever thought, man I wish I could ride over and check out the Rock House, now you can!
At the end of March we as a club were asked to help clear trails at Hocking. Four of us hooked up and cleared everything south of Unger Rd through Old Man Cave to Cedar Falls. The trail was not severely clogged with downed trees so the day went pretty easy. The best info I have, has reported the all trails were clear as of last week. Cross your fingers for no more wind storms.
To finish up our to do list, a tree had fallen on the north tie line at Great Seal State Park. We as a club do provide assistance for the equine activities at that location. The state cleared the tree and again I rounded up a crew and took on the job of repairing the tie line. After reviewing the problem, we decided to completely replace the line. Two post had been knocked into a leaning position and the anchor on one end had been pulled. We straightened the post, reset the anchor, removed all of the line and hardware, then strung a new line and replaced the hardware. Great Seal is now back up and usable again.
Now to a slightly different activity - the main reason we can do the things we do as a club. We just finished up the All American Youth Show in Columbus. At this event our members volunteer their time and our club receives a very nice check in return. The volunteers assist the management of the show to check in participants for the various classes, line up the kids for their classes, open and close gate to the arena and occasionally run errands between rings. Basically what ever helps to make the whole event run as smooth as possible. This is a large event with entries from as far away as N Caroline, New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana and all parts of Ohio. All total, the manager of the event told me they had entires from 800 individual families that brought just over a 1000 horses that competed in 4000 individual class entries. The show runs Thursday through Sunday in four separate arenas. Everything from minis to Friesians compete in showmanship, ranch riding, western and English under saddle plus performance type events. So much fun to watch the youth compete. Space won’t allow me to list all of our volunteers. I have sent an email to those that gave up their personal time to support this event. If you could not find time this year to help, there is always next year. We have been asked back.
As I canceled our May club meeting due to too many irons in the fire and timing of the youth show and Mother’s Day. Our next meeting is June 11th. Same time same place. This meeting is important. It is time for us to get organized for our state Labor Day Ride.
Hope to see everyone at Hocking or at the June meeting. My brain has been drained.
Chris
May 26 - 29
Memorial Trail Ride at Hocking
June 11, 7 pm
FCOHC Meeting at Pizza Cottage
June 16 - 18
Trail Ride at Caesar Creek
June 30 - July
Trail Ride at Zaleski
All American Youth Show. FCOHC has it Under Control!
On the Trail, Spring 2023
Airplane Rock
Donna's Mushrooms