Trails
- Annual Tunbridge Trail
Ride
The Vermont Horse Council will hold it’s 8th annual two day
ride at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds in Tunbridge, VT on September 21-23rd,
2007. The ride grows larger and better each year with up to 150 horses
and riders coming from all over Vermont, New England and as far as
Virginia and they look forward to this event all year.
The two day organized ride includes 15 to 20 miles of beautiful scenery up
and down hills on mostly dirt trails. A limited number of stalls are
available on a first come first served basis. The campground has two
shared showers with several toilets and water and electricity at every
site.
Delicious food is catered
at every meal over the weekend and in addition to having time to enjoy
family and friends there is an opportunity to shop for new tack at the
Saturday night JP’s North tack auction. If you want to share your
cherished memories of the ride On the Spot photo will be there to
photograph you and your horse.
Hope to see you on the trails in Tunbridge in September.
Directions
More info
Entry Form
Liability Form
The Vermont Horse Council is pleased to offer
grant opportunities to Vermont organizations that use, promote, and
maintain equine trails within the state. The program will assist equine
trail organizations the opportunity to maintain and repair trails with
matching grants from the Vermont Horse Council. All Vermont
organizations involved in equine trail. This is a matching grant program
with a maximum award amount of $500.00. To learn more and fill out an
application: Click on trail grant and
trail grant report files.
- Groton State Forest
Trails
The wheels of progress move slowly but they are moving. Almost two years
ago we had a meeting with Forest, Parks and Recreation (FPR) staff
regarding the forests long range plan, in regard to trails that could be
used by equestrians and a group of VHC members meet this past summer to
discuss the final plan. This plan will unfold over many years. Last summer
FPR put wash stalls in near the horse camping area of New Discovery.
There will be a meeting at Seyon Ranch, April 21, 2007, starting at 10:30
with a potluck and then some work on some trails. The trail from New
Discovery to Seyon will be discussed at this meeting and the Telephone
line trail. These trails will happen faster with volunteers helping to
make them what we need them to be. Please check back as I will keep this
updated as progress is made. You can contact me at
smsrumor@hotmail.com with questions
or comments..
Ride & Drive Program
The Vermont Horse Council riding and driving program began in April of
1992 with Pat Johnson. The program was developed to recognize personal
achievement and not competitive achievement. Actual riding and driving
times are logged for each participating unit, which consists of one person
and one particular horse. You may join with several horses but each one
must be registered separately. You will receive a patch when you join and
as you reach 50,100,150, 200,350,500,750,1000 and 2000 hours you will
receive a matching hour bar. Special awards are given at 500,1000, 1500
and 2000 hours.
Large Animal Technical
Rescue
Large Animal Technical Rescue Training Was A Huge Success!!
On August 4th and 5th 2007 forty eight participants including members of
thirteen fire departments and technical rescue units from Vermont and
other animal professionals from VT, MA, NY and NH converged on
Cottonwood Stables in Colchester for a Large Animal Technical Course
sponsored by the Vermont Horse Council.
Cindy Cross-Greenia, President of the Vermont Horse Council opened the
Saturday morning session using live horses and teaching horse handling
and behavior. Participants were instructed on the use of emergency
leading and haltering, the four strike zones of a horse, basic
behavior and were given the time to work hands on with live horses
Buttons a Thoroughbred mare and Sophie a Haflinger mare. These four
legged volunteers were owned by Jeff Senesac of Cottonwood Stables and
seemed to really enjoy the attention.
Saturday
afternoon and all day Sunday allowed participants to develop skills
using both specialized rescue equipment as well as items commonly found
on fire apparatus. Rescues were done in the form of real life scenarios
such as a horse down in the woods with a possible shoulder fracture and
a horse cast in a stall with injuries needing medical attention these
required the use of the Rescue Glide which can be described as a large
horse backboard. Another focus of the course was learning to use an
Anderson Lift to raise horses that may need to be lifted up with the
help of a tractor or rope pulley systems. Rescues were instructed by
Roger Lauze Equine Emergency Education Coordinator of the MSPCA Nevins
Farm and performed on Lucky the rescue mannequin, Lucky is 15 hands tall
weighs 600 pounds and is fully poseable.
We
asked participants to fill out a post evaluation of the course and the
feedback was excellent with all responders feeling assured that they can
perform a technical horse rescue.
What we need now is funding to purchase the equipment for these
departments and rescue teams, starting with Colchester Technical Rescue
who have the ability to respond to many areas of the state. We would
like to continue raising funds and place this equipment throughout the
state to increase response time to an incident. Each equipment package
will cost approximately $5000.00 so your support is needed. If you are
interested in making a donation please send your check to The Vermont
Horse Council, PO Box 392 Underhill VT 05489 and indicate Technical
Rescue on your check all donations are tax deductible and you will
receive a receipt. If you would like more information on this project
contact Cindy Cross-Greenia at
goodhorsekeepingco@yahoo.com or 802/899-3928.
In closing I would like to thank Cottonwood Stables for the donation of
their facilities for this event, CCR Sales and Service for the use of a
tractor, David Blow, Martha Benoit and Terry Rose for volunteering their
time.
Large Animal Technical Rescue is the process
of rescuing animals in accident situations such as a horse falling through
an ice covered pond, becoming mired in mud or being injured on a trail and
unable to walk back out to a trailer. Technical rescue requires special
training and sometimes equipment to protect both animal and rescuer from
injury.
The Technical Rescue Committee was formed
after two years of research by Cindy Cross-Greenia who recognized the need
for training of fire department responders to assist our beloved horses
and other large animals in times of need.
Our short term goal is to provide training
this summer to fire departments and technical rescue units within the
state. We will be sponsoring a two day weekend training which will
encompass one half day of horse handling and behavior and one half day of
basic rescue training using equipment that is already available to most
fire departments such as fire hose and straps. The second day will be
devoted to training with specialized large animal technical rescue
equipment, which the Horse Council hopes to purchase for an existing human
technical rescue unit in the near future. This unit will then be capable
to respond to most areas of the state.
Look for the dates for this event to be
coming soon and encourage anyone you know on a fire department to attend.
If you are interested in volunteering at
this event or joining this committee please contact Cindy Cross-Greenia at
802/899-3928 or
goodhorsekeepingco@yahoo.com
