BCHPEarly Fall 2009 newsletter.pub

WISE AND WACKY COMMENTS ~ STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH
WISE: Wherever man has left his footprint in the long ascent from barbarism to civilization we find the hoof print of the horse beside it. ~ John Moore
BUCKY SAYS:
WACKY: It’s a lot like nuts and bolts—if the rider’s nuts, the horse bolts. ~
Nicholas Evans
NEWS FROM
THE BUCKS COUNTY HORSE PARK
VVolum3 6, Issue 2 ~ Early Fall 2009
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
What do noodles, super
September
soakers and mini something
20 ADS Driving Show
or others have in common?
27 Judged Trail Ride
October
Come to the 6th annual
3 Pink Ribbon Ride
Judged Trail Ride on
4 Fall Jumper Classic
September
27th and find
11 Starter Horse Trial/Combined Test, Dressage
out!!
12 2009 Annual BCHP Membership Meeting
17 USDF/USEF Dressage at the Park V
18 Spook-a-Rama
Has
November
everyone
FOR
FURTHER
DETAILS
8 Schooling Horse Trial
seen the
swans?
11 Annual Awards Banquet
On CALENDAR EVENTS
29 Thanksgiving Hunter
Pace
Visit our website at:
BucksCountyHorsePark.org
P.O. Box 386
8934 Easton Road
Revere, PA 18953
Phone:
610-847-8597
Fax:
610-847-5507
Show Day Phone:
267-421-8337
Website:
BucksCountyHorsePark.org
Part of
Pink Ribbon Ride, Drive
&Country Walk
Saturday, October 3rd
Special Prize for the Most
Pinked Out!!
Please see the Park’s website for
details, entry forms, sponsor
forms, etc.
The Bucks County
Park System
MISSION
Bucks County Horse Park ~ A History by Kurt J. Schneider (Founder) April 15, 2009
Editor’s note—the following is the text of a talk given by Mr. Schneider at the Volunteer/Landowner’s party. We thought
members would find it interesting and informative. The sign shown below was dedicated at the party.
The Bucks County
Horse park was created
with the concept of
protecting open space,
promoting
equestrian trail riding and
enjoying fox
hunting. The other
equestrian
activities were initiated in
order to provide a
source of income to pay
for the
aforementioned activities.
The original name
of the Park was, “The
Delaware
Equestrian Conservancy.”
I changed the name
to The Bucks County
Horse Park in 1991
and filed for a 501c3, non
profit status.
Many farms
were purchased with the
We are a non-profit 501c3 corporation that
intent of creating this trail system. The original farm, “Windfield Farm” of 82 acres, I purchased in 1973
manages the Park for the Bucks County Park
from Clarence Foellner. Barbara, my wife, wanted to start riding so she bought Hazel, a grey TB mare. We
and Recreation Department.
needed trails to ride so that got things started. The second farm, purchased in 1986, was the John Mattes
farm of 66 acres. The Horse Park entrance and main show grounds are on this farm. I purchased the Four
HORSE PARK BOARD
Winds Restaurant on Rt 611 in 1987 and my wife started the 3 Mares Tack Shop. This shop is now called
President: Liz Dudzinski
the Horse and Rider and is over on Rt 412. The Four Winds building is now the Palisades Community Bible
Vice-President:: Paul Lewis
Church. The original parking for the Horse Park was in the back of the 3 Mares Tack Shop.
Secretary: Nancy Krial
The next farm added was the Howard Shive farm of 60 acres. It is now the Steeple Drive Ltd.
Treasurer: Maureen Ferris
Development. The Mathias Shafer farm of 113 acres was added next. It lies on both sides of Frogtown
Trustees:June Brody, Jane Cory,
Road. The old Miller house on 18 acres, where Dan Barber and Anne Young live, was added in 1990. The
Cass Gwalthney, Judy Hohmann, Shane Bachlund Farm of 28 acres on Frogtown Road., now Roberts as added and the polo field was put in. Kitties
Ledyard, Jeff Lindtner, Judy Ludwig,
12 acres on Frogtown Road was bought from the Wolfinger family. The multiple undeveloped lots between
Diane McIntyre-Raudenbush, Nick
Helen and Williams Drive were purchased on Route 412. These were combined into a single protected plot
Olijslager, Anne Young
of about 20 acres and now is the Natalie Johnson Trail. The last to be purchased in 2000 was Alana Mann's
NEWSLETTER STAFF old farm of about 34 acres. These deeded acres connected all the trails around the old Hidden Valley land
Fill with is owned by Bucks County. The Brownstone Farm on Quarry Road of 85 acres was purchased and
Judy Ludwig, Nancy Krial, Judy
a trail system surrounding it was deed dedicated It was connected to the Horse Park over Nick Bracia’s
Hohmann
farm. This connected 611 to Quarry Road. All of these properties were deed restricted from further
Designer: Kris Becker
subdivision and large portions of them were deed dedicated for the use of the Bucks County Horse Park.
Contributors: This issue: Terri
The funds to purchase these properties were provided by Univest, The Union National Bank. Collateral was
Lewis, Maureen Ferris, Liz
Dudzinski
our home; Windfield Farm. It was necessary to do some subdivision to pay off the loans. Dan Hendricks
and Rick Swiantecke did the engineering and Linda Emerson Shea helped with the real estate work.
A number of deed dedicated trails were arranged through other persons development work. The Trauger
VOLUNTEERS
Crossing
development has a nice deed dedicated trail system. Dan Hendricks, Bob DeGroot, Rick
The Bucks County Horse Park
Swiantecke and Bye Kibble did the subdivision and we worked out the trails together. These trails
could not operate without its many connected School Drive to Traugers Road. Dr. Funke’s development has deed dedicated trails. This
volunteers. We’d like to extend a connected Church Hill Road with School Dr. The last deed dedicated plot was Kintner Ridge. Dwayne
special “thank you” to Jane
Gross donated trail easements off of Kintner Hill Rd.
Ferris. She is quietly on hand to
Many residents gave us “Riding with permission Trails.” If you wish to have trails, you must maintain
them, you must have good relations with the owners, and the riders must respect the land and owners. Trails
help at many Park events. She’s
have been lost because of poor treatment by riders. On the other hand, if it is deed dedicated, it must be
always willing to try something
new or different to help the Horse monitored, maintained and enforced by the Buck County Horse Park.
The facilities at the Park were developed over a 17 year period. (continued inside)
Our mission is to serve the amateur
equestrian with a year round facility
offering high quality recreational,
competitive and educational
experiences in a variety of disciplines.
To manage and improve the facility:
enhancing open space, practicing
stewardship in land management, and
maintaining the traditions and natural
environment of Bucks County.
Park continue on its path to the
future.
TRAIL RIDING
New Neighborhood Sign
By Liz Dudzinski
Dudley’s Way is Bucks County
Horse Park’s newest neighborhood
sign. Dedicated in memory of Kim
and Paul Havis’s beloved Jack Russell Terrier, Dudley, the sign is located at the trailhead where the landfill meets the Havis (now County
owned and part of the Horse Park)
property.
Dudley spent many happy hours
with his devoted owners exploring and enjoying this area of
the Park. Now Dudley and his trail are reunited.
A special thanks goes out to Mary Clark Confalone for seeing this project through from beginning to end.
__________________________
Dogs teach about faith, trust and devotion. They teach us how
to devotedly serve a higher master, how to attend and wait and
how to let go of a grudge. But most of all, they teach us about
the meaning and experience of unconditional love.—Lama
Surya Das, Dog is My Co-pilot.
HUNTER/JUMPER
When this year’s TMHS series first comes to mind, the
thought may be, “It had to be the rainiest series ever.” And
then the thought may be, “But they came to show anyway.”
Other thoughts on the series: the third ring worked well, with
the Leadline Division being one of the most hotly contested
divisions; the trainers were enthusiastic about the weekly
Trainer Award; Gene, our faithful EMT, rarely had to get out
of his vehicle (that’s a good thing!); the leak from the pond
was finally fixed, so we had plenty of water to water the rings,
but we didn’t need to water the rings that often; food from the
food truck was, as always, delicious; the 2nd Annual Ice
Cream Social was enjoyed by all; new automatic timers in the
Jumper Ring were a welcome improvement.
Now we await the Fall Jumper Classic on Sunday, October
4. The points from that, as well as the Spring Jumper Show
will count towards the year-end awards for the TMHS.
_____________________
DRIVING
DRESSAGE
On June 21, we held the first driving event of its kind—”Driving
”Driving for a Cure,” at the park The weather, once again, did not
cooperate, but in spite of it, twenty beautiful turnouts competed to help raise funds for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Turnouts competed in pleasure class, and a musical reinsmanship class where they were able to choose from over 40
instrumentals to perform their tests. It was amazing how well the music went with many of these turnouts; even without prior
practice.
Following was a cross-country
country course that ended with a beautiful pink ribbon obstacle on the stadium field, so that everyone
everyon
ended his or her day with a reminder of what it was about.
Placings are posted on the website, but from the Park board, to the volunteers, vendors and of course, competitors and our
generous sponsor, Lisa Koehler, the Park was filled with champions that day and it was truly beautiful.
With good weather, we could have had a larger turnout, but we could not have hosted a nicer group. It was so much fun we
actually forgot about the rain! We earned over $1350 for the Foundation that day and Stephen Crowers Photography added to
that number with a generous 50% of his sales to put us over $1500!
Once again, Bucks County Horse park was first to support a unique venue and once again, the Park made a difference!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Horses and riders continue to
trailer in to the Bucks County Horse
Park to enter at A in one of our three
dressage rings. A USEF/USDF show
was held on Sunday, July 5th which
was well attended and another recognized show ran on Sunday, August
23rd. There were over 120 rides at the August show despite the hot,
humid weather. PA and NJ riders and trainers are not letting the
weather slow down their show schedule! There will be one more
recognized dressage show…Dressage at the Bucks County Horse
Park V… to be held on Saturday, October 17th.
The Tuesday Evening Dressage Shows are now finished for the
2009 season. Although the May shows got off to a slow start due to
rainy weather, TEDS attendance picked up markedly for June, July,
and August and most shows filled three rings. Now all those test
scores will be analyzed for 2009 TEDS year end awards!
August was also the month for the Park’s first Dressage Sport
Horse Show. While the weather did not cooperate, many of the entrants liked the idea of this breed competition and encouraged the
Park to try again in 2010. We’ll cross our fingers that the weather
will be better for the foals, mares, and stallions that participate! ~~
Nancy Krial
DRIVERS — DON’T MISS IT
Great fun for spectators too
Bucks County Horse Park’s Seventh Annual ADS Recognized
Pleasure Driving in the Park
September 20, 2009
See the Park’s website for more information
(cont. from p. 1) The trails were started in 1986 from behind the Four Winds Restaurant and in ’87 they were switched to the
current Horse Park entrance. The parade field was started in 1987 and the first Thursday Morning Horse Show was started in
1988. The entrance road up the hill was made from the rock removed when Dave Snyder and I built the parade field. Dave
Snyder and I also worked together to create: 1– the large show ring; 2–
2 the secondary ring; 3– the first dressage ring, and then;
4– the second dressage ring. I built the reservoir for watering the rings and Founders’ Hill.
The pavilion was built in stages by Mark Gross, Jim Parker and myself. Tim Maloney and I built the announcers stand in
my arena and dragged it out on the snow. In 2001 and 02, I built the maintenance building, the main office and the secretary’s
stand. Dave Snyder and I installed the water and electric lines with B&B Electric making the connections.
There are numerous people to thank for all their work; Nancy Krial, Mark Gross, Linda Emerson, Peg Loubris, etc., but my
biggest thanks go to my wife Barbara and to Michelle Smyser for their continued work and reliability in getting the work done.
The last year that I was full time active was 2002. It was a great year. We had over 40 local and nationally recognized shows.
We played over 40 polo matches. We had 750 members and just a glorious time.
The single most exciting event for me at the Park was the Polo and Fox Hunting Gala. We set up 10,000 square feet of
tenting overlooking the parade field. The tents contained vendors, crafts, artists, and a 200 seat dining room. On Saturday we
played two polo games and had a beautiful dinner with wine. On Sunday we had a Fox Hunt with hay wagon tail gating. This
was followed by a catered Hunt Breakfast.
Building the Bucks County Horse Park was the most fun and rewarding portion of my life. We sold the 134 acre show
grounds to Bucks County, thus keeping it alive. This was a fitting end and beginning for this endeavor.
Kurt Schneider
EVENTING
Well! The main thought about eventing has been “RAIN”! Who
would have believed that it could rain as much as it has this summer? Never mind! Eventers are a hardy group and, although we
thought long and hard about a shortened format for the June event, it
went off smoothly. The incredible volunteers (you know who you
are!) and maintenance staff got the Cross Country in great shape for
the competitors. Susan and Duncan MacRae, the course designers,
created a course that kept the competitors out of most of the mud
and still provided great entertainment.
Eventing at the Park just keeps getting better and better! We’ve
added two beautiful “skinny” jumps that look like cordwood piles;
these are portable and can be placed wherever our courses dictate.
New ditches are being constructed and we are working to get all the
Park Concerns & Bits and Pieces
permissions necessary to
build the water complex.
The end of the 2009 season is drawing nigh, which means the Annual Awards Banquet is also. As you know, one of We are eternally grateful
the best parts of the banquet (besides your ribbon, of course) are the raffle and silent auction items. If you would like for the contributions that
to donate something for this event, please call Cass Gwalthney, 215.534.3467.
have been made toward its
Speaking of the Fall Jumper Classic ……Details are on the
completion.
website, but just to tempt you—
The Park’s 2009 Membership Meeting will be held Oct.12, 2009 from 7 pm ‘til 9 pm, in the Park Pavilion.
Come join us Oct 11th
Bucks County Horse Park Prix—$1000 (3’ to 3’3”)
You should have received a notice in the mail. Please come! This is your Horse Park and we (the Board and
or Nov 8th for the last two
Pony Prix—$250
Management) would like to meet with you, bring you up to date on the Park and answer your questions. Besides, I’m horse trials of the season.
Mini Prix—$250
sure there will be food!
by Maureen Ferris
Volume 6
THE BUCKS COUNTY HORSE PARK NEWSLETTER
Issue 2