Trail Rides and Events (NEWS)

HORSES N’ HEROES ~ OCALA LIVESTOCK PAVILION

The Horses Horses Horses Gala to benefit Horses N Heroes was held on July 11th & 12th at the Ocala Livestock Pavilion. This was a great chance for the FFTA to help a local charity, as well as to introduce the public to the Fox Trotter. They had quite a line up consisting of Lipizzans, Paso Finos, Mustangs, Quarter Horses, Arabians, Appaloosas, Lusitanos, Gypsy Vanners, Mules, Tennessee Walkers, Fresians, Peruvians, Jumper Horses and of course, the Missouri Fox Trotter. As more and more spectators started coming by, what started out as a table full of information about the Fox Trotter ended up almost empty … seeing that made everyone sure that the weekend was a success. With that being said, we have a very special thank you for Marilyn Johnson who volunteered her time at the FFTA booth. (Not a bad day for Marilyn, her name was drawn for the raffle—enjoy the quilt!) Saturday there was a 4 minute presentation of the Fox Trotter and a 30 minute educational segment held by Jim Woodward, Michael O’Neal & Big Mac’s Silverado. Sunday was the Parade of Horses, where the group was able to show the audience how versatile the Fox trotter can be. They were really strutting their stuff out there - look one way and see the infamous Fox Trot, look the other & you could see the canter, while in the middle they had the versatility going strong. There was another instructional segment Sunday afternoon, and then the weekend was over. While packing things up, you couldn’t help but think, what a wonderful weekend it had been for the FFTA and the Missouri Fox Trotter.

A huge THANK YOU goes to Carl & Linda Balyeat, Cailean & Michael O’Neal, Jim & Kathie Woodward for making yourselves available for this event. One look at these pictures and it’s obvious that the FFTA was VERY well represented.

EQUINE EXTRAVAGANZA IN OCALA   written by Peggy Litt

    Sunday, April 19th, 2009, the Equine Extravaganza was held at the Florida Horse Park in Ocala. The weather was beautiful, Mother Nature was with us for sure and the performances were not only informative but exciting to watch as well! The show was 2 1/2 hours long and featured 20 breed demonstrations and   7 equine acts. The show was opened with a flag ceremony and then had a line-up of horses some we had never heard of. The Mangalarga Marchador?  The Crioulo?  People learned a lot as the horses came through while a script was read set to music. Then laced in between those demo's were equine acts that ranged from the wonderful Lynn Palm performing on Rugged Painted Lark jumping jumps with no bridle to a Lance and Sword routine to a police routine with smoke and seesaws to bareback bridleless routines by Ken Norjack to the incredible All Fla. Quadrille Team which is 8 men/ 8 women square dancing on horseback at a FULL GALLOP!  It made the hair on the back of your neck stand up!

    At the end of this show they played a game called the People's Choice game. This is where the audience was asked to donate money into their favorite routines bucket (each demo and act had a bucket with a picture of their horse or routine on it) and the routine that raised the most money for the horse park won the 2009 Equine Extravaganza’s People's Choice Award! The buckets were passed around and for the second year in a row, a Foxtrotter won! Out of 27 demo’s and routines the Foxtrotter that won this year was Jester's Jackpot, owned by Lisa Wright and Rob Vollmer and was ridden by trainer/farrier Henry Dann!

 

Jackpot was a GORGEOUS representation of our breed! Congratulations go out to you Henry, Lisa and Rob, way to go!!! It was a win for our breed and the horse park! It was a great Sunday!

Talk About Versatile!        written by Linda Bayleat

When I bought Casey’s Big City Lights aka “Lights” 6 years ago, I never thought that we would go so far. I took him to a few shows for fun, but after all he was my “trail horse”. I soon realized that he was a quick learner with a kind mind. But I really didn’t like just going around in circles, nor did he, so we soon began trying different things. I set up a few obstacles in my yard to try and “spook” him – nothing really worked, thus, my trail classes as well as English & Western classes. Later we tried going to Ava, to the “Big Show”. Won the driving class, jumping class and so on, though the jury is still out on whether we’d ever go back!

As I am always looking for new things to do with our horses, we began going to Mounted Shooting practices. Lights took to it right off the bat. Nothing bothered him, not like it did our other Foxtrotter. The loud guns were nothing more than a walk in the park. Now Carl & I both shoot off of Lights.

Then I heard about the Xtreme Obstacle Challenge. And in March Lights & I went to participate in the Hillsborough County Mounted Sheriff Posse Event in Brandon, Florida. I had my doubts about completing all 15 obstacles, but we gave it our all. I was SO thrilled to beat all 54 horses to win some wonderful prizes. I can’t imagine anything more exciting, at my age, than this win! In the future, I hope to help others who are interested in learning to do some of these things. Maybe even have a versatility/obstacle clinic. Thanks to Bud Blankenship for finding Lights, to the breeders of this horse – what a wonderful thing – and to Lights, my constant companion.

	Tom Zimmer shows off the new saddle he won at the FFTA Gathering at Rocking Horse Stables, April 18th, 2009