May
7
Written by:
c2itconsult
5/7/2010 11:55 AM
Northwest Indiana Trail Happenings
By Lawrence Turnquist
• January 31st 2010 our buggy club had a very interesting evening at Balmoral race track. What does this have to do with ITRA? It was a well organized, well attended outing that is an example of what can be accomplished with some effort. Two people I am aware of, in the group, had connections at Balmoral that made it easier to gain access to areas that normal visitors don’t have access to. We had a short presentation from the state vet (IL) explaining his function, including drug testing. We also got to stand in the judge’s booth during a race and were lucky enough to have there be a photo finish while we were observing, thus getting to see how the equipment worked and how they decided who won. Some people got to ride in the starting gate car, interview a driver/jockey and visit the broadcast booth where they send out the results of the races and televise them. The dinner was excellent and I came out $1.00 ahead on the gambling which included Judy’s who’s not nearly conservative as I am.
• February 13th 2010 ITRA had a board meeting via a conference call. I wanted to put in my 2 cents worth for doing this more often. It saves me five hours of driving and approximately $60.00 worth of gasoline. In my opinion this more than off sets what’s lost by not having the face-to-face contact.
• February 28th 2010 The Lake County Bridle and Saddle Club had their annual chili dump. Bob Thomas did a presentation on ACTHA, in hopes of getting them interested in sponsoring a sanctioned trail competition. It seemed to be satisfactorily received and there were some question indicating interest in participating. Elaine, Bob and I believe this is a potential way to finance our trail advocacy habit. As our program moves from the primary emphasis on being in the field physically doing the work, to trying to influence the decision makers in our society, it’s going to get more expensive.
• March 5th 2010 Lake County Bridle and Saddle club spring meeting; again we discussed ACTHA as a source for raising funds for trail advocacy. No decisions were made by the club but a list was passed around and a number of people signed up as potential participants.
• March 9th 2010 Elaine, her husband Paul, and I went to a master plan presentation and discussion at the LaPorte County Red Mill Park. The president of the LaPorte County Park board is a confirmed horse advocate and this greatly increases the likelihood of them remembering that multi use trails include horses. After the presentation the park employees and the consultants representing the parks department split up and sat at different tables, this enabled the public to have much more one on one time to discuss our views on the presentation. In my eyes it was a very effective way to handle the question and answer period. I felt the evening was time well spent.
• March 17th 2010 Bruce Fingerhut the prime mover in the North Judson Bicycle Group and I attended a Golden Horse Shoe Saddle Club meeting at their club grounds in Knox. Bruce’s purpose in attending was to try to get the local horse community involved in the North Judson/ Erie Lackawanna Trail. The bicycle group has represented this as a multi use trail but there has been very little participation by the horse community recently. This trail is a railroad right of way with a 10 ft wide blacktop trail on the grade and a horse trail off to one side not on the rail grade. The bicycle group has already received $450,000.00 from the DNR and is nearing completion of the requirements to obtain $900,000.00 in stimulus money to complete the next section. This trail goes South East from North Judson and plans are to eventually connect with the Tippecanoe State Park. As of today I have no idea if we accomplished anything by attending this meeting. Scotty is a long time member of this club and is checking to see what their current position is. There is also supposed to be another bicycle group working on a trail from Winamac to Kenneth (also a railroad right of way) I have been told they are also well on their way to receiving a large chunk of stimulus money for a paved trail which will not be open to horses. This March 17th 2010 paragraph is as it’s been presented to me. I have not verified this information.
• March 20th 2010 Dr. Larry Leininger and wife Patty put on their annual Horsing Around Clinic. Bob, Elaine and I were asked to have a booth to discuss “Where to Ride” and trail issues in Northwest Indiana. Being trail addicts we couldn’t refuse even though this conflicted with ITRA’S annual meeting. We spent a considerable amount of time preparing some of which proved to be unproductive but it was a good learning experience and if we were to do it again I believe the time required to prepare would be considerably less and the presentation would be improved. We were satisfied with the number of people and interest level of those we talked with. Elaine had a last minute conflict arise and was unable to attend. Sandy Basala who is in charge of public relations for the Lake County Parks Department participated, at our request, and brought maps of the parks that have horse trails and other park literature. She is a very pleasant and knowledgeable lady and the Northwest Indiana horse people are lucky to have her. Also thank you to the Lake County Bridle and Saddle Club for letting us use about two thirds of their table.
• April 9th 2010 Hoosier Horse Fair, I had a meaningful conversation with Dave Howell (president of the Indiana Horse Council) about the survey of the Indiana horse industry they’re doing in 2011. It’s been my opinion for a long time that someone needs to complete a list of the horse clubs in Indiana. We as Indiana horseman need (desperately) to get organized and present a unified voice. We have the numbers, both people count and dollars spent but the horseman’s representation is inadequate to put it mildly. As I have said in these columns many times, the head of the Indiana Forestry department tried to tell us a couple of years ago when he spoke at an annual meeting about last bridge/Country Haven. Apparently no one was listening. I also had the opportunity to meet Dr. Susan Conners the head of the Purdue Calumet Equine program. They have a committee working with the National Lake Shore and others to develop a program to train people for park administration type jobs. This is upper most in their minds at the moment and my efforts to get more trails is perhaps not receiving their full attention.
• May 22nd 2010 Sharon Nalezny and others are putting on an ACTHA ride at York Hills, I believe this will be a test of the Northern Indiana interest in this type of activity. If we were to start having mailings to every horse club in Indiana this could get expensive and ACTHA could be one solution to the problem. If any one wants more information call Sharon’s cell @ 773-216-5208
• June 5th 2010 National trails Day. This is definitely not written in stone!! I believe Maureen is going to do the National Lake Shore probably the weekend before June 5th 2010, we need support in this project but they had lots of money (stimulus of sorts) for part time summer help so it may be like last year when there wasn’t much to do. If you think you can help PLEASE call her or myself to confirm what the final plans are. Bob, Elaine and I will most likely be at Deep River County Park again on June 5th. Bob and I rode it the other day and while it’s not as bad as I expected, after the long, and in my opinion rather hard winter, there’s plenty to do. If you’re interested in helping please call first, plans are still subject to change. You can reach me at 219-374-5370.
• March 5th 2010 Huge thanks go out to the “Marshal County Horse Association”, Tom and Trudy Stearns and Andy and Carolyn VanHerk. The $500.00 you contributed to ITRA is greatly appreciated, the letter you sent was also very important to the three of us. Most often we are trying to get someone to do something they really don’t want to do, so having some support is important. Hopefully sooner or later we’ll have something to show for our efforts on the Fish and Wildlife front. Thank you again.
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