Members present:
Mary Yeager, Jenny Carol, Christine Whalin, Debbie Busta, Fonda Eigle, Kathy Caldwell, Tamme Roberts, Harvey Roberts, Martin Fitzgerald, Annete Fitzgerald, Amanda Fitzgerald, Brenda Kiniyalocts, Martha Slamer, Beth Blankenship, Patty Todd, Janice Meyer, Pat Reichle, Martin Prendergast, Katherine Prendergast and Tilka Marzolf.

The Equine Affaire is being held on April 10 through the 14th at the Ohio Expo Center, outside of Columbus Ohio. Region V is hosting a Connemara Booth. Jill McNichol is the main organizer for this huge undertaking. Jill will be bringing her mare Hazy and Courtney Yeager and Shammer Jake will be coming on Thursday to do the breed demo in the main ring. Jill is looking for anyone who is willing to bring a pony to participate in the breed demo, which is about 15 minutes on Thursday afternoon at 3 pm, and also for ponies to be displayed in the expo center next to our booth, for any day from Thursday through Sunday. We also need people who can’t bring a pony, to come and help man the Connemara booth, to speak to people, answer questions and hand out flyers. Its not difficult, but it is long days. We are asking for volunteers for any day or time that they can give. So far, Jill and myself will be there from Wednesday through Sunday to set up, man the booth, do the demos and tear down. Janice Meyer is going to come and help on Saturday, Patty Todd and Alma Shipley have volunteered some time and Fonda may be able to bring her pony. This is the biggest promotional event we can do for the Connemaras and has an enormous impact and visability. Please consider coming to help, (plus there is great shopping). Contact Jill McNichol at 330-482-1530 or e-mail at csequine@aol.com.

Martha Slamer has been maintaining the region V sales list. Unfortunately, she has gotten no inquiries. There was discussion of how to make the sales list better known and how to advertise it. Martha is going to provide the list to local horse shows and send it to the other regions for their newsletters. We are going to contact the Tri-state pony club and see if we can get a link to their website for our list. The updated list will now be posted in each of our region newsletters. I am going to look into the advertising cost of the sales list and the advertisement of our show in magazines such as the paisley pony. Martin Fitzgerald had the idea of adding a “sale” class to the show, to follow the stallion parade. Anybody who has a pony for sale can enter the class at no charge. People will be able to enter the class either ridden or in-hand, and provide information about their ponies for sale. This should give people an opportunity, who are looking for a pony to buy, to see a lot of them at one time. This opportunity will be advertised in the prize list, newsletter and locally. Martin has agreed to do a search of people who have ponies for sale and let them know of this.

Jenny Carol presented information about the National Pony Dressage Cup. It is being held at Paxton Farm in conjunction with their recognized dressage show at the end of June. Information has been submitted to the magazine, is in our region newsletter and can also be obtained at www.dressageponycup.com. The ACPS is sponsoring a high point purebred and halfbred award for the show.

Debbie Busta and Jill McNichol have been working on membership and sending out welcoming packets to new members in the region. Debbie encouraged all who have not renewed to do so as soon as possible, so that they can be included in the yearly green membership book for 2008. This book is invaluable for contacts and information.

Tamme Roberts presented the region financial report. The region horse show is the biggest fundraiser. Other profits come from the sales from the region store. Our biggest expense is the postage for the newsletter, and now the added expense this year of the equine affaire. We currently have a balance of around $6,000.00. Tamme has served as the region treasurer for the last six years and is now passing the responsibility on to Fonda Eigle to take over. Thank you Tamme for all your hard work over the last six years.

Pat and Janice had patches made for the region store. They can be sewn on saddle pads or jackets or blankets. Several different colors are offered. The inventory of the store is getting low and bargain prices were offered on the items, in order to clear the way for new things. Pat and Janice have been running the store for a long time and have now given over the responsibility to Kathy Caldwell. She will be ordering new things and advertising what we have available. Thanks to Pat and Janice for the time and effort put into this.

There was much discussion about fundraising ideas. We discussed a Connemara calendar, Connemara notecards, screen savers and mousepads. Jessie Cohen is interested in designing a calendar. Martin Fitzgerald has suggested that people who want there ponies or farm on a calendar page should pay to have it there as a way to fundraise. I am going to contact Jessie to get details on how to proceed.
Pat and Janice are doing a great job on getting the newsletter out quarterly. It seems to get bigger and better each time as people are sending in their news. In addition to the hard copy of the newsletter, they send it out to all the e-mail addresses. They are asking anyone who is willing to just get it by e-mail and forgo the hard copy to please contact them. This will save on unnecessary postage. Anyone who has an e-mail address that doesn’t get mail from Janice and Pat, please contact them with your e-mail address so you can be added. Not only do they send out the e-mail newsletter, but also news updates for the region and anything about upcoming events.

The region V horse show will be held this year on August 2-3 at South Farm in Middlefield Ohio. Debbie Busta will continue to be the show manager, and Fonda Eigle is the show secretary. Catherine Mack will be the in-hand and performance judge, Gretchen Singleton the dressage judge, and Patty Todd has agreed to handle the trail classes again. We will once again be offering the catered dinner at the farm on Saturday evening for a reasonable price. The prize list will be coming out in May. South Farm is a wonderful facility and we are expecting to host the best ever region show. Because of the change of venue and time of year, there will be some small changes to note on the prize list. Please contact Debbie Busta with any questions. Two immediate changes will be the addition of an open jumper class, and the addition of the “ponies for sale” class.

In conjunction with the show, we are hosting an inspection on Sunday August 3rd. It will be done simultaneously with the Sunday performance classes, but will not interfere with anyone who will be showing on Sunday. Jill McNichol will be the site manager for the inspection and they will work around the show schedule. We have decided to do this instead of holding people over for Monday inspection and think it will work out well. This month’s magazine has an inspection nomination form in it, and also it is available on the ACPS website. The cut-off date to nominate a pony is June 30th. Marynell is very accommodating about working with people for inspections, but requests that everyone get their paperwork in to her as early as possible. Please contact Jill McNichol or myself with questions or if you have a pony to be inspected.

The annual ACPS meeting will be held in North Carolina on October 3-5th. Region 3 is hosting the meeting and as soon as details come out we will get them to you. I am encouraging everyone in the region to attend. The meetings are informative and the awards banquet is a lot of fun. We can plan a little region get-together during the meeting.

Once again we are planning for our region V annual meeting in March of 2009. I’d like to move it up to the northern part of the region in order to give everyone in the region a chance to easily attend and spread it around. Anyone in northern Indiana or southern Illinois who would be willing to host it next year, please get in touch with me. If no one in this area is able to help, then Patty Todd in central Ohio has agreed.

I would like to say a big thank you to Fonda Eigle for hosting the meeting this year. She provided a lovely lunch and we enjoyed her beautiful Rosemont Farm very much. Over twenty people attended and we really all had a wonderful time. Thanks Fonda.

Region V’s annual meeting will be held in Lexington Kentucky at Fonda Eigle’s home on March 15th. Lunch will be served at 11:30, followed by the meeting. We have moved the region show to South Farm in Middlefield Ohio. It will be on August 2nd and 3rd . We will also be holding an inspection on the 3rd in conjunction with the show. South Farm is a great facility and we are looking forward to having the show there. Cross country schooling will be available for an extra fee if anyone wants to take advantage of that opportunity. Fonda has agreed to continue as our show secretary, with Deb Busta being the show manager. Jill McNichol is the inspection site manager. Please contact either Jill or myself if you have ponies to nominate for inspections. We have reserved the Hoosier Horse Park for the weekend of October 11th, and plan a fun day or trail ride. A booth has been booked for us at the Equine Affair in Columbus Ohio for April 10th to the 13th. Jill and I will be managing the booth. Anyone wishing to volunteer to help with this endeavor should contact either Jill McNichol or myself. It’s a great opportunity to promote our Connemaras. The quarterly region newsletter is getting bigger and bigger. Thanks for sending your news in to Pat Reichle and Janice Meyer. Its fun to hear about everyone’s ponies.

A region sales list will be started. Martha Slammer is going to be in charge of this and will collect all data on ponies for sale that is sent to her. Anyone wishing to find out what is for sale can contact her. Anyone wishing to place their ponies on this free list should contact her with details of their pony. Martha’s e-mail address is: marthas@gtownonline.com. Her home phone number is 937-855-6063. Martha will be providing a great resource for region members.

We are looking to hold an inspection in 2008, in the Youngstown Ohio area. We need at least 10 ponies. If you have any ponies that will be ready for inspection at that time, please get in touch with Mary Yeager, so that we can get a preliminary count. E-mail at loughinfarm@msn.com, or phone at 440-834-0234. Hopefully, we can work with region 2 and meet the needs of that area.

The region financial report was given by Tamme Roberts. Our biggest income is from the horse show. Our biggest expense is the postage to mail the newsletter. Please notify Pat Reichle if you don’t need the newsletter hard copy sent to you, as it is sent to everyone online. Tamme is willing to continue as region treasurer for the next year.

A possible region trail ride was brought up for this summer. There was much enthusiasum for this. Kathy Sparks suggested Brown County in Indiana which seemed to have all our requirements. We need a site with stabling, and camping or cabins available. Anyone who knows of local facilities that would meet the needs of a trail ride group, or have interest in this please let me know so we can organize. It could be a ton of fun. If you have ponies to lend, let me know that also, as there are people who might like to participate, but don’t have a pony available.

Hosting a breed booth at the Columbus Equine affaire was discussed. It is a tremendous amount of work and organization, and if there is anyone in the region who would like to manage this endeavor, please get in touch with me. We of course are talking about April 2008. The region and the ACPS can cover some of the costs. We feel it’s a great venue to promote the breed. I feel that we can get volunteers to man the booth and help out.

The Region V horse show will be at the Hoosier Horse Park on the last weekend in October for 2007. Debbie Busta will be the show manager, assisted by Kathy Sparks, and Fonda Eigel will once again be the show secretary. The class list was refined to meet the demand of the last show. It will now be a day and a half show, with the in-hand and dressage classes on Saturday, and the performance and fun classes on Sunday. We will need plenty of volunteers and are going to ask for people to sign up for specific time increments of 2 or 3 hours at specific times when they will not be busy with their own ponies. The paper bag raffle will still be held as it was a huge success last year. Also, we are planning on having the dinner on Saturday evening, which will be put on by the Rooster restaurant. We are looking for an assistant secretary to help with the paperwork and man the show office during the show. Fonda wants to be able to show and she needs a consistent person to give her a hand during the show. Anyone wanting to take on that responsibility, please get in touch. Alternate sites for the 2008 show were discussed, which would enable us to move up the date earlier in October. There is a reasonable show ground in Northeastern Ohio, which is a possibility and Debbie is going to look into a site near Dayton. Anyone who knows of a show facility in their area, that can accommodate what we need, please get the cost, and the information and get it to us.

The next Region V meeting will be hosted by Fonda Eigel in Lexington Kentucky, tentatively on the third weekend in March next year. We hope to move the meeting around in all the states, so will be looking for a host in Michigan or Illinois for 2009.

Jill McNichol is going to take over the job from Cheryl Reed as the region welcoming person. Cheryl has done a terrific job for years and is ready for someone else to take over. Jill will be sending out information and a welcome to all new region V members. Thank you Cheryl for all your work and efforts.

Mary Lightbody has already donated our first item for this years raffle at the show.

I’d like to thank everyone for attending, and thanks to Deb and Mike Busta for hosting. Lunch was great!

REGION V SHOW

The region V show will be held on October 28th, at the Hoosier Horse Park in Indianapolis. We have an expanded prize list this year, with many awards. We are offering a catered dinner on Saturday evening at the show grounds, and will be holding an inspection on Sunday following the show. This facility has covered indoor and outdoor arenas, is user and horse friendly and a good place to take your youngsters to for their first outing. All are welcome for fun and competition.

Contact information:

Show secretary: Fonda Eigel, 859-293-1265 or summerresort@msn.com

Show manager: Debbie Busta, 330-664-0871 or dmbusta@adelphia.net

Inspection site manager: Kathy Sparks, 812-988-2377 or elmshoot@aol.com

Raffle: Mary Yeager, 440-834-0234 or loughinfarm@msn.com.

Prize lists are available, please contact Fonda Eigel, and all donations for the region raffle are needed, please contact Mary Yeager if you have an item to donate.

Member news:

Tamme Roberts from Marshwood Farm has been taking dressage lessons with Andrea Spauschus-Kroll, Karen Rohlf, Sharon Lindy, and doing Parelli natural horsemanship clinics. Tamme has been very busy with Bally and Zoie this summer. She is working at level 2 and hopes to complete it this year.

Dori Zaidel from Hew Heart Connemaras has bred both her mares to their stallion Cornerstone Indelible. They have had 2 foals this year, New Heart’s Hotsot, a halfbred colt and New Heart’s Dancing Winds. New Heart’s Mroning Glory is going to be spending some time in training this year with Amanda Pierce.

Catherine Prendergast from Windy Isles Farm has reported that all three of her mares are in foal to *The Quietman, for early spring 2007 foals. Her two mares who are in Ireland are also safely in foal for next year. They have spent the last month is Ireland and attended the Clifden show. They will be back and attending the October show and bringing their mares for inspection.

Loughin Farm has had two foals this year, a filly by Kerrymor Madison and a colt by *Kilfenora Windy Isles. All are doing well. Loughin’s Dreamcatcher was sold to Jill McNichol and is on her way to being a star.

Region V Newsletter for February, 2006
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