Message from the President (of TRSC)
12-29-09
Christmas – New Years…I still can’t believe the year has gone by so fast.
Speaking of, if you have not gotten in your 2010 membership, please do so
asap as these are due by December 31st.
====================================================================================
The 2009 Banquet was a huge success. Hooley Hall just felt like home and
turned out to be the perfect venue for us. I am so grateful to all the
people who showed up early to help decorate and prepare food; Hooley Hall
never looked so good. The 2009 Executive and Board members did a phenomenal
job creating this evening!!!
We have many new “first timers” on board seats for 2010 and I am excited for
their fresh outlook and ideas. And of course, the faithful do-againers who
so graciously accepted a board challenge again, I thank you as well. ( all
board members are listed on the web site )
We also welcomed in our new 2010 Royalty; Cowboy Nathan Tschanz, Samantha
Kent, DeNeila Clymer and Paige Skelton. I know that Paige has some excellent
and new ideas for our royalty next year and we are very excited to watch
them represent our club. Again, I would like to thank all the kids who ran
for royalty positions this year and especially for the respect, support and
sportsmanship you displayed throughout the process. I am very proud of all
of you.
I certainly had the best seat in the house. It’s not everyone who gets to
speak from a TRSC Barrel podium. And from that vantage point, I could see
every child who walked up smiling ear to ear, every teenager, every adult,
came up the same way. And looking out into the audience of members; it was
the same thing…smiles, laughter and a few tears. And the food was
outstanding!
If I learned one thing this year, it was that it really is about the
“Smiles.” And the thing about smiles; they are not age regulated. From every
Pee-Wee gripping a ribbon or a new trophy to Bud Dorsey adding yet another
TRSC award to his collection; the response was all the same..smiles. Every
event, every show, every meeting, my goal was the same; to respect all who
came before me and for everyone to “enjoy the ride.”
I spoke of it at the banquet and I meant every word; our kids, the
youngsters are the backbone of our club. I am so proud of the type of young
people that represent our club. It’s so much more than just jumping on a
horse; it’s the try, the step to next step process, the respect and yearning
for knowledge and the look in their eyes when it all comes together. We are
a horse club, we enjoy the western way of life and we take the advancement
and care of our horses and our children very seriously.
I am really looking forward to next year. We have some exciting ideas and I
cannot wait to see how it all plays out. Our fun shows will include a few
changes this year, all aimed towards having a great time and involving as
many people as we can. The calendar of events is
also ready on the website, so pencil in the dates and plan on attending. And
as always, we need your time and commitment to make this all work smoothly.
Again, thanks to everyone who stepped up to help in any way this year, we
truly are the class of the Saddle Clubs!
Enjoy the Ride!
Happy New Year to you and your families.
Rex
11-30-09
Good afternoon everyone
So many of you have lifted Emma’s spirits over the past several months with
cards, gifts and prayers and I am truly grateful and very proud of the type
of people we have in our club. She has so enjoyed everything.
As you know, Emma is 6 yrs old and battling Stage 4 cancer; she likes
nothing more than all the same things that any 6 yr old lil girl would like.
And she loves horses; I believe they give her solace and a few moments of
tranquil peace.
Emma is going through an extremely difficult time right now and the
treatment protocol is aggressive and the side effects are ugly, unforgiving
and uncertain.
Chemo, radiation, and dialysis…..on a regular and wearing schedule..her lil
body is fighting with every ounce of strength it has and Emma continues to
walk the walk and have faith that her Jesus is watching over her.
As we approach our banquet and this holiday season, I am asking that you
keep Emma in your thoughts and prayers now more than ever.
She needs our strength; she needs our prayers.
Thank you!
Rex
11-19-09
Hello TRSC Members
It’s hard to believe, but our Awards Banquet is right around the corner.
Here is the official invitation for each
of you and your families.
This year we will have a “special guest” appearance during our evening. If
you would like your child to receive a gift from our “guest”, please bring a
wrapped gift and set it under the tree when you arrive. Please keep the cost
to $15.00 and under.
Also, if you have not already, please forward 3-4 pictures that you would
like included in the slide show to myself or Martha:
Rex@csshiviz.com
Marthatko@yahoo.com
We will have door prize drawings throughout the evening; if you have a door
prize, please bring it to the banquet. It would be greatly appreciated.
For anyone that would like to assist in decorating and preparing the site,
please be at Hooley Hall on December 5th at 8:00 am. We certainly welcome
your handy work and elbow grease. This should only take a few hours.
Please Note: December 1st is our election
meeting. Every member 16 yrs and older are eligible to vote.
Please plan on attending!
I look forward to seeing everyone at these events and hope that this finds
each of you and your families well.
A Safe and Happy Thanksgiving!
Rex
10-20-09
Hello everyone
Thought I’d get to ya before the next wave of pre-winter hits. Three good
days in a row and we all get giddy huh?
(1) Just a reminder that we are taking nominations for all positions. You
may nominate yourself. First timer or experienced been-there-done-that
members welcome! Enjoy the Club from a Whole New Vantage Point!
Executive Board: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer
Sr Board Members
Jr Board Members
WSCA Delegate
(2) Pictures…for the Christmas party,, we need your pics. If you have pics
you can e-mail me or send to myself or Martha Northwick via dvd or storage
device; please let us know so that we put together an updated and exciting
slide show for the party.
Hope this finds you and your families well.
Enjoy the Ride
Rex
9-10-09
Good afternoon everyone
Looking forward to seeing you and your steeds on Saturday. Remember.. Show
Starts at 11:00 am, with Pleasure Classes first.
Our pot luck get together will be at the end of the show following the
4-In-Line event. This event is for everyone as we draw names to make up the
teams. It’s a great way to end our club show season with laughter, fun and
sportsmanship.
Also, I am still looking for some help in the following areas:
Office Staff: (1) 10-12pm (1) 12-2pm
Recorder: 11-1pm 3-5pm
Out Gate: 2-4pm
Let me know if any of these will work for you. I’m really looking forward to
a great day of saddle club fun!
Enjoy the Ride
Rex
p.s I will also be taking names of anyone interested in running for offices.
Don’t be shy.. we ask for no blood, no home interview and prefer that you
like chocolate, invest in the club’s best interest and most of all.. Enjoy
the Ride.
9-8-09
Good morning everyone
This is a personal request for our lil Cowgirl Emma Phillips.
Last Friday after another scan, it revealed that Emma had more activity in
her abdomen and 3 ribs that were affected by her cancer. Emma was taken into
surgery right away..very unexpectantly and not without Emma putting up a
fight as she was not prepared and does not like surprises. Lisa said that
she went under fighting and came out fighting.
During surgery, they removed the tumor on her shoulder, the tumor on her
lung, scraped the tumor from her leg bone (which is very painful), removed 3
of her ribs and replaced with plastic ribs, removed her right ovary, removed
her omentun and drained the fluid from her stomach. She has (5) small
incisions and is home recovering for the next two weeks. She is very tired,
in some pain and knowing Emma..wanting to get outside the house and get to
school. Once recovered, Emma will have to undergo more surgery for the tumor
on her spine.
Emma wants to go to the Saturday Fun Show in the worse way, but that will be
decided later in the week. Until then, I am asking that if you have a moment
to please send Emma a card or note. I am asking for a full out TRSC card
barrage to her. Emma so loves the people in our club and many of you have
made such an impact on her. It would mean everything to her.
Her address:
Emma Phillips
5900 259th St
Wyoming MN 55062
Emma will battle Mr Rhabdo (her cancer as she calls it) with every ounce of
life she has..she has such determination and a strong faith that Jesus is
watching over her.
I so appreciate any effort you can make to bring a little sunshine into her
days; please keep Emma and her family in your prayers.
I hope this finds each of you and your families well and I look forward to
seeing everyone on Saturday.
Respectfully
Rex
8-26-09
Good afternoon everyone
Yesterday afternoon, Michelle Schimek suffered serious injuries due to a
fall from her horse while on a trail ride.
Michelle has 2 broken vertebras, one in her lower neck and one in her middle
back. Another CT was taken a short time ago to look at the lower back and
for any other indications of damage or injury. She is wearing a neck brace
and is being fitted for a body brace (neck to waist), which she will receive
on Tuesday.
It is uncertain at this point whether or not surgery will be necessary.
There is no paralysis. Michelle is at Regions Hospital in room 6110.
Jenifer just called from the hospital and Michelle is in a lot of pain, but
staying cool with her sense of humor and sporting her sunglasses (she has a
serious headache and is on some heavy duty pain meds) It sounds as though
her recovery will be very long and involved and she will need a lot of
support from all of us.
Please offer your thoughts and prayers for Michelle.
I will keep everyone updated as we receive updated information, please feel
free to contact Jen or I.
Rex
p.s Kathy Sasik has volunteered to organize food efforts for the family if
anyone is interested.
Kathy Sasik
mypaintedponies@gmail.com
8-12-09
For those of you who have not been in attendance the past couple of
meetings, we have (2) issues that need your attention.
A) Sponsorships – We are extremely low, embarrassing low on sponsorships for
our open shows. Please do what you can to secure a sponsor for this
Saturdays show. They are greatly appreciated and much needed.
B) RAFFLE: We will be raffling off products at Saturdays show in an effort
to raise funds to support the new timer that was purchased.
Please bring your raffle items to the show and the staff will take care of
them. Again, greatly appreciated and of great importance as our club
continues to move forward, grow and maintain our financial responsibilities.
Enjoy the Ride
Rex
7-15-09
Good evening or morning as it may be...
Attached is the work shifts for the
County Fair. There are (3) tabs for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Please respond to me as to which shift you can take.
Shifts are as usual, 2 hours long and easily worked. Our club is committed
to these shows and it is in our best interest to continue our strong
alliance with the Ag Society.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to support Trail Riders Saddle Club
and the Washington County Fair.
Enjoy the Ride
Rex
p.s Slots are filled, first come, first served. I will respond to you as
soon as possible on each work shift request.
7-13-09
Good day everyone
The Courage Rider program is looking for a few more horses and volunteers.
They meet every Tuesday evening, main arena at the fairgrounds. This is a
program revolved around special need children that offers them the
opportunity to ride and enjoy horses as we all do. For each child that
rides, there is a horse leader and 2 walkers on each side. Due to unseen
circumstances, one family has had to pull their horses out which leaves
Courage Riders short 3 horses and 2 volunteers.
For more information, please contact: Gay Soltis at
gaysoltis@yahoo.com
Thank you
Rex
7-10-09
It is with great enthusiasm and appreciation that I let all of you know
that Trail Riders Saddle Club will be sending a check for $3623.00 to the
Kidney Cancer Association in honor of Mr Norm Strohfus. Simply OUTSTANDING!
I am so proud of the effort that was put into this show and the silent
auction. I know in talking with the Strohfus family that they were humbled
and extremely grateful for paying tribute to their father and husband. Hat’s
Off to a wonderful man and to TRSC! I applaud you all who made this day a
memorable one.
Also, the July 4th show was very successful for our club as well. The
pleasure classes were beyond our expectations, the game classes were just
nuts and the Palomino Tribute Class was just that, 17 Yellow Horses…Pure
Class. The presentation of the colors and National Anthem were one for the
books, thank you John and Mary for having the “girls” there. And our Royalty
represented our club in great fashion. We rode 5 ½ hours of pleasure and
over 13 hours of games! It was a long day for many, but we pulled the
numbers we had hoped for and the show ran smoothly and without incident.
Managing a show this size is no easy feat, but your Executive Board really
stepped up and made themselves available at all times.
And…just in case you missed it..Jessica Morgan may have had one of the most
incredible rides I have ever witnessed. Tough to describe, but lets just say
that she was coming off her horse in Jump Fig 8, she fought her way back to
the saddle at full speed and before she was completely in she hit the jump..
she continued to battle before ending on the ground. She was a lil bruised,
but walked off. Thank God she was ok and …that, my fellow members, was
Cowgirl Tuff!
Enjoy the Ride
Rex
7-9-09
Happy Thursday everyone
I have received the information on the Hastings Rivertown Parade:
Sunday July 19th
Parade starts at noon
Our Unit # is 51
Staging Area – Hwy 55 to General Sieben Drive, North to Pleasant Dr via
Featherstone Rd or 4th St.
Parade helpers will be wearing yellow shirts and directing. I would plan on
arriving by 10:00 am so that the horses will be ready and can adjust if
needed. And of course, decorate your horse if you would like. We may need to
stage trailers for pick-up, although, the parade is approximately 1 mile
long, so a ride back to re-parade would probably work fine.
If you have not participated in a parade with TRSC, give it a shot. We
always have a great time and like I have said before, everyone loves horses
in a parade. Even horses that are new to this have done fine in this group
setting.
Please let me know if you are interested or plan on riding with us….
Enjoy the Ride
Rex
Also...
Good afternoon…again
Tomorrow is our July Fun Show and it sounds like we are going to have
perfect weather. Tomorrow night is pleasure first, then games. Games are
barrels and jump.
We still need help in the following areas, please let me know where you can
fill in.
Office Staff: 3 Needed for 7-8, 8-9 and 9 till close
In / Out Gates: 8:30-9:30 9:30 to end
Ring Crew: 2 needed 7:30 – 8:30 3 needed 9:30 to end
Yee Ha…should be another great show.
Rex
6-30-09
It’s show week and in typical fashion, we’re getting down to the wire. I
have attached the work shift schedule
and as you can see, we are fairly well filled out..THANK YOU!
I do need some additional help in the office and booth. Remember, the office
now has nice big windows on the south side that allows you to sit and watch
the show. Please volunteer your time in the open slots so that I don’t
have to beg during the show.
Also:
SPONSORSHIPS: We need to have these asap or bring your sponsorship to the
show. If it is to sponsor a particular class, please let me know so that
Cindy and I will know when announcing.
SILENT AUCTION: If you have silent auction items, again, Maria Lubich or
need to know asap. Honestly, I was hoping for more widespread participation
on this at the club level. Feed stores, tack stores etc..al places we
frequent and support.
I’m very excited about this years show and I thank all the people who have
jumped in and helped keep things organized.
Let’s throw our best show ever!
Enjoy the Ride
Rex
Also.......
For those of you who were at the Sunnyside 4H Open Show this past
weekend:
TRSC Members Ruth and Bob Lundquist were there taking pictures if the gaming
events. Actually.. Bob took the pictures and Ruth kept him fed… As usual,
Bob has some excellent shots of you.
Please ck out your action shots on their website
www.LNIphoto.com
6-24-09
Pat Calkins has been kind enough to put a link to this work shift
schedule on our website. We will keep it updated as quickly as we can.
Please let me know the slots you will be able to help in and I will keep the
schedule current.
Schedule
As always; thank you for your volunteering.
Rex
p.s. Note to Self: Install Onboard Saddle Option Equine Air Conditioning
6-22-09
Our first open show is quickly approaching and I fully expect a
tremendous turn out for this event. Because of that, we will need as much
help as we can possibly get to make sure that our July 4th show runs
smoothly and efficient. I anticipate a very long day and organization is
going to be the key.
I have attached the worker schedule as
it sits today. Please let me know where you can fill in, it is imperative
that we have every slot filled in so that we don’t have to solicit
volunteers during the show. Just one less thing going on.
Royalty: I expect to see our royalty there in all their gala. John Strohfus
will be flying the colors with Norm’s team and wagon while the National
Anthem is presented. After that, he has offered to escort our Judge in and I
would like our royalty to be in the wagon as well for introductions. This is
a classy way to start the show. Andrea, we will allow you time to get
changed before your first class if need be.
Jacob and Heidi – We also need Ring Stewards after Julia does the first 2
hours; I would greatly appreciate each of you assisting with this during the
pleasure classes.
Of course, we will also have a royalty ride during our break between
pleasure and games, after the presentation.
Tribute: After the final pleasure class; western Pleasure 18 & over, we will
have the Norm Strohfus Palomino Tribute Class. At that time, I will say a
few words, present the family and ask our judge to judge the class as a
pleasure class, western horsemanship. It does not matter if your horse is a
pleasure horse, game horse, or trail horse, I would love to see as many
Palominos in this class as possible. I am so excited to see all the yellow
horses in the arena at one time; Norm would have loved nothing more,
although he never would have expected it.
Yellow –Up!
Lastly: SPONSORSHIPS – Please get these in
Silent Auction Items Need to be to Maria Lubich or me by July 1st
It’s summer time…it’s Show Time!
Enjoy the Ride
Rex
6-19-09
Good morning everyone
We are still looking for silent auction items for the 4th of July Show. We
don’t care if it’s something you have made, something you have had donated
etc.. Big..Small..We’ll take them all.
Maria Lubich and I will gladly accept the donations.
If you buy feed, ask your supplier, if you visit a tack store, ask them, if
you have a special skill that attains to horses, throw it out there, if you
frequent any business that could possibly donate something for a worthy
cause, it would be greatly appreciated. We will recognize everyone who
donates at the silent auction and throughout the show.
Use your imagination…ie..A Date with Eddie E.C. Clymer..(Heck I may bid on
that one) Note to Clarissa – we need a handsome pic of the boy.
Maria would like to have everything in her hands by July 1st.
Thank you for taking the time to be involved and for supporting our club.
The proceeds will be donated to the Kidney Cancer Association in honor of
Norm Strohfus.
In my haste to get info out, and a sweet reminder from my wife…I did not
mention a couple of things.
(1) Please be sure to communicate that all donations are tax deductible, we
can send them a receipt for the value of their donation. (Maria – Please put
this on your tickler list and we will work on this)
(2) DO NOT limit your ideas or donations to just “horse” related items.
Great ideas are the baskets: Wine Basket, Sporting Goods Basket, Kids
Baskets, limitless ideas on basket assortments… ..tickets to sporting
events…jewelry…
Thanks again
See you at the parade??...Let’s ride
Rex
6-18-09
It’s Parade Time: Strawberry Fest Grande Day Parade
When: THIS Saturday, June 20
Where: Cottage Grove, Cross Roads Church at 80th St & Jamaica
Line Up: at 8:30, Parade Starts at 10:00am
Our first parade opportunity of the year! Sammy and I have rode in this
parade the past 2 years and have never came away disappointed. The streets
are wide and comfortable for the horses and the crowds are greatly
appreciative C’mom, who does not look for the horses in any parade?
I would really like to see a strong representation from our club. If you
have never rode in a parade, I urge you to give it a shot and I am confident
that you will come away wanting to do it again. .
I would LOVE to see our royalty in the parade all decked out! This is our
opportunity to show our pride in our club and bring smiles and big eyes to
hundreds of little kids.
PLEASE contact me if you are interested, have more questions or know that
you will be going so that we can make arrangements for all the horses.
Besides riders, we also need someone to handle the banner (Who has the TRSC
banner?)
We could use a pick-up to carry (3) barrels with our covers on it, someone
to be the Pooper-Scooper and if possible a gator.
I have all the directions and information that I will gladly, fax or
scan/e-mail to you.
I am very excited to represent our club again in this parade..PLEASE join
me.
Rex
6-4-09
Maria Lubich made up the following announcement
to be used for donation solicitation and event notification for our July 4th
Show.
Please use this when you ask for silent auction donations. As we discussed
in our club meeting; Maria and I will gladly make arrangements with everyone
to pick up silent auction items. She would like to have them in order by
July 1st.
If you have specific connections with a business, please ask for their
generous donation to this great cause.
Feed stores, tack stores, grocery, restaurants, trainers, vet, farriers…etc..the
list of opportunities is endless.
Or if it’s a donation from you; we’d love to accommodate that as well.
It’s going to be a great show and we are fortunate to have so many great
people involved.
Enjoy the Ride
Rex Kent
President of TRSC
