spring clean up

Show season begins soon. But before that, spring clinic! And that is next weekend already!

This weekend, we had our Spring Clean Up to get the grounds cleaned from the winter and ready for show season!

Clearing trees

Building a sandbox for the little ones

Trimming trees

Using tree trucks and repurposing wood to build a bench

We do our showing at the Harry Hughes Youth Equestrian Center. Their mission is to empower youth leadership and positive sportsmanship, encourage community connectedness, and provide a safe family environment through the equine world. They really focus on the kids and I think they are a good organization to be involved with. For me, it is low key showing and mostly about hanging out with a great group of people and their horses. 

Every year they hold a free spring clinic for the kids. Saturday's clinic focuses on light horse topics such as  showmanship, English equitation, Western horsemanship, trail in hand, and trail. There will also be a lunchtime discussion about sportsmanship presented by the Harry Hughes Youth Group. Sunday's clinic focuses on drafts and driving. There will be sessions in braiding and rolling your draft for show, draft showmanship, a lunchtime discussion on the rules and show day readiness, safe harnessing and hitching, and team set up and driving. It is always an educational and fun time.

This year, I proposed the idea of holding a raffle at the clinic to help raise money for maintenance and upkeep of the grounds, mainly the driveway and announcer's booth. My idea was accepted by the board and I set out to contact various equine companies to ask for donations to the cause. So all the registered participants for will be given five free raffle tickets with the option to (hopefully) purchase more tickets. All auction items will be on display so anyone can place their ticket(s) in the box for the item they want to win.

Really, so much awesome stuff from some great businesses and people!

I started contacting companies in January and have been working ever since to collect donations. Some of the board members, local companies, and individuals (including myself) made donations as well. But I really want to give a huge shout out to the following equestrian businesses for their more than generous donations!

A Horse Box

Animed

Chick's Saddlery

Drafty Gals

Equilite's Sore No-More

Equine Gourmet

Five Star Horse Decorations

Hawthorne Products

Higher Standards

Horse Teeth Co.

Horseloverz

HorseTech

Mane 'n Tail

Mrs. Conn's

Nicker Bait

NickerDoodles

Pony Pizza Company

Riding Warehouse

Rod's Western Palace

Shapley's

Tough 1

Valley Vet

Wahl

Ziky Boutique

I am very excited to see how this fundraiser goes for Harry Hughes and how much we can raise for the grounds. I am also so amazed at the awesome stuff that was sent to us for the fundraiser and I want to say thank you to these awesome companies for sending their products to help us So fellow bloggers, a lot of these are businesses started by individuals, so if you can support them! All of them are on Facebook, so if you are too, give them a "like." And, if you are in the area of Northwest Ohio, come on over and check it out! It is free and fun!