Horse Association & Trail Riders News
BRIGHTON TRAIL RIDERS ASSOCIATION As this is being written, the snow is coming down and up to ten inches is predicted over the evening and into early tomorrow morning. No riding today. However, we know that the weather in this part of the state can have some extreme ups and downs, so who knows if all this snow will stay with us. If not, some of our hardier riders will still hit the trails. Others of us, who might be accused of being wimps or perhaps, possessing good judgment, won't consider hitting the trails before next spring. Regardless of the weather, we trail riders also like to party and did we do that on Saturday night, December 10th! The Brighton Trail Riders and the Pinckney Trail Riders decided to combine our holiday parties a number of years ago, and that turned out to be an excellent decision. The Brighton Recreation Area and Pinckney Recreation Area are located a few miles from each other and are actually connected, so the equestrian trails in both areas can be ridden in the same day. Moreover, many members belong to both organizations so this decision made even more sense. Over sixty of us showed up for the celebration. This year, as in 2015, we held our party at Cleary's Pub in Howell. This is a popular restaurant which has several banquet halls. They offer a diverse and delicious banquet menu, and the ambiance lends itself to comfortable dining and socializing. Entrees with salad and side dishes were awaiting our hungry guests and the meal was topped off by a table full of deserts which were contributed by our two clubs. Another table was devoted to prizes for our raffle, and a dizzying array of outstanding gifts were placed there for display. When every guest arrived and registered, s/he was given a raffle ticket. All the ticket stubs were placed in a bucket and when the raffle was held, the first winner went to the table and s/he had first choice of all the prizes. The second winner had second choice, and so on. Almost twenty prizes were available so a lot
of guests took something home. The prizes ranged from equestrian themed items such as wine glasses with etched horse heads, leather halter/bridle, etc. to more general offerings including gift certificates. Virtually all the prizes were donated by members or local businesses, and we thank them all. Even though we'll hunker down over the next couple months as far as big events are concerned. Our Board of Directors will be meeting on a regular basis and will be working with the Brighton DNR staff on upcoming projects for 2017. In the meantime, we hope that everyone gets off to a good start in the New Year. Mark Delaney, BTRA President
FORT CUSTER HORSE FRIENDS ASSOCIATION Hello Trail Riders! Winter is here and all most of us can manage is the feeding, cleaning and keeping the water thawed for our horse friends. It's time for family and holidays and fun. Hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas season! Here at Fort Custer, we have had a wonderful year of progress for our Park. If it wasn't for the board members and members who freely give their time to maintain trail grooming, maintenance of creek crossings and bridges and trail signs, put countless hours in for setup and take down for the camp out events, just to name a few, our beautiful trail system would not be what it has become in just a few short years. Your membership dues, fundraising monies from camp outs and grants we receive from Pfizer for employee volunteer hours are all put right back into the Park and horse trails. Tell all your friends to plan on attending our 2017 Camp Outs and come explore 20+ miles of trails with 6 creek crossings that wind thru prairies, woods and around lakes. You won't be disappointed! The DNR held a seminar for equestrian groups in December which Nancy Simmonds and Barb and Wayland Funk attended for FCHFA. Our Park manager, Tony Trojanowski also went as well as other park managers.
©2017 C & C PUBLISHING, INC. • JANUARY 2017
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Cooperation between groups will benefit all in the future as we work towards new trails and matching partnership grants with the State. Because of communication with the Park at this meeting, we have opened a discussion for a new trail at Fort Custer. There are great things to be discussed and projects to be proposed for 2017 for our trails! To keep up with the latest news go to our website @www.fchfa.org. Event dates for 2017 are as follows: Spring Camp Out is May 11-14 and Our Annual Fall Equestrian Camp Out is September 14-17. These are 4 day events to enjoy all our trails have to offer. Come join us this year! Thank you to all riders for using our Park and trails in 2016. Look for the calendar of events online. See you next year! Toni Strong, FCHFA Secretary
HIGHLAND TRAIL RIDERS ASSOCIATION 2017 a New Year! We hope your holidays were safe and joyful. Our new year's resolution is to ride, ride, and ride! The HTRA is looking forward to an eventful 2017 riding/camping season. We are a smaller club looking to expand our membership. We encourage you to join by completing the membership form in the membership section of this edition. While we are always looking for volunteers to help with our events you can join to provide monetary support as well. Be sure to mark your calendars for our 2017 events. As the result of last year's success we will again be hosting two equine only camping weekends/day ride events. Preregistration is required for the campouts. Event information will be posted on our website, www.highlandtrailriders.com and on our Facebook page. Camping/Day Ride Event Dates Saturday, May 12-14 (Poker Ride) Saturday, Sept.8-10 (Horseshoe Hunt) Looking forward to seeing you on the trails – Come Ride with Us! WWW.SADDLEUPMAG.COM