Coming soon. New York Horse Park.

I am very excited at the thought of having our own 'horse park' in New York. Fairly naturally Saratoga is the chosen venue and I just received my invite to attend the 1st Annual Event Texas BBQ at the Saratoga Winery on August 12th, 2012 from October Hill Farm. Delightful.

Years back we used to regularly show in Saratoga at the Memorial Day Weekend CDI and despite the track being very deep footing for the horses we enjoyed the times spent there immensely. We even went on to sponsor classes and advertise our farm in the program to show our support. I am a big believer in not just talking but putting your words into action. Whether it be by dollar support or volunteering time and effort. It can be a win/win situation for everyone.

I love the idea of a horse park here on our doorstep and hope that everyone will step up and support the idea to bring it to fruition. It's so easy to sit back, criticize and become one of the peanut gallery and let everyone else bring things along or even worse make every effort to cause friction and not cohesion. Be a team player. Yesterday I was chatting with a friend who is on the board of a local (ish) art group. Like me he volunteers his time. In his case to help get the performing arts and art in general off the ground in the region. Sadly, as is so often the case, even though he works hard and is doing what he does for free, there are others who just want to either hijack the association and its goals and play political football behind the scenes and cast negativity where none is deserved. I sincerely hope that while the Horse Park of NY is presumably going to include a lot of commercial activity, that the folks that are working for it do not receive the same attitude or hindrances.

Whenever you do anything there will always be naysayers. There will always be people more concerned with their own angle or agenda than the benefits for all and the greater good. Sometimes I guess it's just jealousy, sometimes ignorance and sometimes fear. This "Horse Park' will be a boost to everything equestrian in New York and if we could just get the NY Congress to pass the Equine Inherent Risk Law ( see the news page at CatskillHorse.org to connect with your representative and ask them to support it, it only takes a minute), we would really be making headway in the right direction.

Horse farms help conserve the farm land that we love in the Catskill region. They save it from development, they maintain it for folks to enjoy riding over and they bring jobs to the area. I recall twelve years ago when we moved from Dutchess County to the Catskills, we had so many complete strangers come up the driveway to ask us if we were going to keep the property as farmland. They were so relieved to receive an affirmative answer. When areas develop from 'sad to lose but happens, dairy farms,'  to horse farms at least the land remains free of tract housing, deer and wildlife are free to roam and the area maintains its beauty.  The support services required for horse farms are numerous and everyone benefits.  The central horse park idea can only help local equestrians by providing a venue where people will come from far and wide to attend events.

So I urge everyone to get busy and get involved. And next time you attend an event remember to thank the volunteers that helped make it happen. Many of us work hard at full time jobs in addition to providing service to the community and for all those of you who volunteer doing anything. Bravo. I urge you to take no notice of those that choose to demoralize or interfere, to KBO as Winston would say ( Keep Buggering On, pardon the language, his not mine).  We need people like you to selflessly donate time, effort and funds to help the community.

 If I get the chance I'll be at the BBQ and hope to become more involved with helping this horse park as things get going. Look for a report at CatskillHorse.org later in the summer.