New Changes for 2014

Juniors ride for $10.00 per day!

 This ride special for 2014 means any junior can enter out 15 mile or 25 mile CTR rides or a 30 or 50 mile endurance for only $10 bucks. Do a two day ride for $20.00 and the 3 day 100 for $30.00 !!!

Horse mileage program ends! 

 Our Data base for horse mileage has disappeared in to cyber space. We have had many discussions trying to see if we can bring it back but technology wise and personnel to do it is just an impossible task for our club. If you have signed up this year for mileage you will be refunded. As a consolation any horse a member rides will automatically gain points for the year for the year end high point breed award. You no longer have to registrar the horses you plan to ride. VERDA will be giving awards for Arab, Half Arab, Morgan and Grade.

2013 thaw Ride Results

We had a Real Thaw this year and on the scheduled date The cold weather early in the week broke the night before the ride and and the temps came up to a manageable 30. This years surprise was we
3 times more people in the 15 miler than the 25 mile ride.

January Thaw Ride/Drive Results

Drive

Champion:               Robin Groves & UVM Worthy

Reserve Champion: Wilson Groves & Marty

Ride

Champion:               Wendy Bejarano & Ziggy

Reserve Champion: Jenny Kimberly & Marshal

1^st:                           Erin Lowe & Callie

15 Mile CDR

Jr: Gail Morse & TD Shadow Dancer

Ruth Ferland & Bie-Kin

Christina Phillips & SHG Jonas

Jennifer Ehler & RG Black Fletcher

Chip Kendall & Burt

Anne Marie Savino & Annie

Marlene Bottesi & Dixie Dee

Roxanne Winslow & Ali Kazem

Liz Tallberg

 

2012 Year End Awards

2012 VERDA members

top VERDA finisher(s) in each ride

January Thaw                      Courtney Walker

                                            Connie Walker

January Thaw Drive            Robin Groves

GMHA Mud Ride               Alice Bradeen

GMA Mud Drive                Connie Walker

Brown Bag                          Deb Fisk

Bare Bones                          Courtney Walker

GMHA June 25 Ride          Deb Fisk

GMHA June 25 Drive       Jenny Kimberly

GMHA July 25 Sat. Ride   Ray Johnson

GMHA July 25 Sat Drive  Wilson Groves

GMHA July 25 Sun Ride   Nancy Okun

GMHA July 25 Sun Drive Wilson Groves

GMHA 2 day 50 Ride        Gene Limlaw

GMHA 2 day 50 Drive      Jenny Kimberly

VT 100 Endurance            Christina Phillips

Moonlight in VT 50          Gene Limlaw

VERDA 100 Drive           Robin Groves

VERDA 40 Drive            Wilson Groves

VERDA 40 Ride              Deb Fisk

VERDA 35 Drive            Wilson Groves

VERDA 35 Ride              Carrie Tenney

VERDA 25 Drive            Larry Smith

VERDA 25 Ride              Deb Fisk

GMHA 3 day 100            Marlene Bottesi

GMHA 2 day 60              Rhonda Batchelder

GMHA 40                       Anne Marie Savino

Warren Tessier                Carol Metayer

GMHA 50                       Deb Fisk

GMHA LD                     Wendy Bejarano

VERDA 30 Ride            Christina Phillips

VERDA 30 Drive          Robin Groves

2012 VERDA YEAR END AWARDS

DRIVERS

Champion Wilson Groves

Reserve Champion Robin Groves

1^st Doug Bejarano

2^nd Clark Tharrett

3^rd Jenny Kimberly

4^th Lorraine Thurber

5^th Larry Smith

6^th Scott Monahan

RIDERS

Champion Deb Fisk

Reserve Champion Anne Marie Savino

1^st Christina Phillips

2^nd Steve Rojek

3^rd Rhonda Batchelder

4^th Gene Limlaw

5^th Courtney Walker

6^th Carrie Tenney

7^th Carol Metayer

8^th Heather Hoyns

9^th Suzette Fegan

10^th Ray Johnson

JUNIORS

Champion                        Leah Titus

Reserve Champion          Olivia Turney

High Mileage Rider        Christina Phillips

High Mileage Drive        Wilson Groves

High Point Morgan         Little Acre Prince Andrew

High Point Arab              DB Prophet

High Point ½ Arab         Zainal

High Point Grade           Dixie Dee

Help Wanted for 2013

VERDA needs more volenteers!
We need managers for the VERDA 30 and the 100-15 Drive and Ride Along

Meeting secretary to take notes

VERDA news post person!

Always can use P & R people, water crew and scribes at rides!

2012-2013 winter meetings

Join us while we plan the upcoming years events. Meetings start with a pot luck at 6:30

November 13th    GMHA
December 11th    Polly Smiths
January 8th          Evergreen Equine clinic Dr Hoyns
February 16th      Brownsville Historical soc. Awards Banquet
March 11th          Polly Smiths
April 9th              Polly Smiths

2012 Thaw Ride Results

Riders

Place score Riders Horse

1 100 Courtney Walker Picaboo Street
1 100 Connie Walker Hermoiner Granger
1 100 Erin Lowe Callista Rain
4 99 Christina Phillips Sir Douglas
5 96.75 Heather Hoyns Zainal
6 94.5 Jenny Kimberly Shyrocco Lyric

Juniors
1 98.5 Leah Titus Dixie Dee

Drivers

1 99.5 Robin Groves Derwanda Ricardo
2 97.5 Wilson Groves RG Black Fletcher

New Beginners Clinic

Date : May 11^th 2012 Location : Cornish Town Hall

From 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm Cornish NH (RT

Come learn about the exiting sports of Competitive Trail Riding and Endurance riding. This clinic

will provide information about the care, fitness and preparation of your horse for these sports. With hands on experience you can learn about pacing, the vetting process, taking your horses pulse and what can and can not be used. You will observe the actual vetting in process for the following days Brown Bag 25 CTR with the instructor. Then we will finish with a questions and answer panel with judges, managers and competitors.

Contact Douglas Bejarano 802 484 3406 or Doug@SethWarren.com

GMHA Winter Seminar

March 1, 2012 Ellen Tully 802 457 1509

GREEN MOUNTAIN HORSE ASSOCIATION HOSTS WINTER EDUCATIONAL SEMINAR

South Woodstock, VT: In keeping with their mission to provide education, GMHA will be hosting a full day of equine related seminars starting with “Aiding Vermont’s Horses” presented by Gina Brown, Director of Spring Hill Horse Rescue. Topics of “Colic: How to Make Life-saving Decisions” and “Is it Just a Cough” will be presented by Dr. Daniela Bedenice of Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Seminar is geared toward horse owners and horse enthusiasts, but all are welcomed.

Saturday March 17^th

Tickets are $20/GMHA Members; $30/Non-GMHA Members, lunch is included.

RSVPs are required by March 12th. Full details can be viewed at www.gmhainc.org or by calling: 802-457-1509

New Meeting location

Polly Smith has opened her home up for the rest of the winter meetings.
January, March and Aprils meeting will be held at her home on Hammond Hill Rd
in West Windsor VT.
Directions:
From RT 44 in Brownsville turn north on to the Hartland Brownsville RD
drive a couple of miles to the third road on the right. Polly's is the first house on
the right. Note don't take the second road on the right that is the wrong end of Hammond hill!

VERDA MEETINGS 2011-12

Its time for our winter meetings to start.
Meetings will be held on the second Tuesday of the month from November to April. The meetings will be at the GMHA members room with food being served at 6:30 and the meeting starting at 7:00. The November meeting we will supply Pizza and the other meetings will be pot luck. The Febuary meeting will be replaced by the awards banquet. If you around we would love to see you there!

First meeting Tuesday November 8th 2011

Leland passes on

Anne Marie Savino had to put Leland down after the GMHA 50. She assisted in the AERC mandatory necropsy and they found he suffered from a partial twist in his small intestine. It shows you can do everything right and still suffer a loss. If you would like to send Anne Marie a donation to help with these expenses please make out a check to VERDA and send them to 374 Coon Club Rd W. Windsor Vt 05089. You can also bring a donation to the Eatathon .

Our hearts also go out the Boyers who had to put Sparker down just before the weekend.

Eatathon in on the 29th

The eatathon will be in Cornish NH and will be on Saturday the 29th with a rain date of the 30th.
Contact Ruth Ferland ruthfrlnd@aol.com or Joy Axten ( Secretary ) axten@yahoo.com

recommendations from Agency of Ag

The Agency of Agriculture has received inquiries from veterinarians and livestock owners regarding feeding livestock feed that has been contaminated by flood waters. Please see below the Agency of Agriculture's current recommendation regarding feeding livestock flooded feed or allowing them to graze on flooded pasture. Hopefully, this information will be helpful to you when communicating with your clients.

At this time, the Agency of Agriculture is recommending that people not feed livestock (horses included) feed stuffs that have been inundated by flood waters. Additionally, allowing livestock to graze on pastures that have been flooded is not recommended. The Agency of Agriculture has received inquiries from livestock owners who have historically allowed their animals to graze on pastures that flood seasonally. People should remember that this flooding is different than seasonal flooding that has happened in the past because Irene flood waters are potentially contaminated with pesticides, hydrocarbons, pathogens (E. Coli, salmonella, etc), heavy metals, etc due to the involvement of waste water treatment plants and other facilities that may contain these substances under normal circumstances. Certainly, consumption of these materials by horses does not represent a potential (although as of yet, poorly defined) human health concern the way that consumption by food producing livestock does, but it certainly represents a potential threat to the health of that individual animal. We have heard recommendations like letting the pastures sit through several rain events to help "wash off" contaminants and mowing pastures and removing the cut grass to help minimize contamination. Unfortunately, we know from experiences in midwestern states that even after allowing soybean crops to undergo several rain washings, the obvious and micro-contamination is not fully removed. So, based on all of this info, the Agency of Agriculture is advising against feeding any flood-affected forage and feedstuffs. The Agency of Agriculture has submitted to FDA a proposal for mitigation of contaminants in feedstuffs including mycotoxins (aflatoxin, vomitoxin,zearalonone, ochratoxin), heavy metals (cadmium, mercury, lead), pathogenic bacteria and associated toxins (Salmonella, E. coli 0157:H7, Clostridium perfringens, botulinum), pesticides (organophosphates, chlorinated hydrocarbons), and PCBs. Once we receive feedback from FDA, additional recommendations from the Agency of Agriculture pertaining to the management of feed materials such as haylage, corn silage and pasture will be forthcoming. Please contact the Agency animal health office at (802)828-2421 if you have any questions on this update.

Please see the following recommendations for livestock owners that have been generated by the Livestock Care Standards Advisory Council (veterinary members on that Council include Dr. Kent Henderson, Dr. Ruth Blauwiekel, and Dr. Haas). Please feel free to forward this information as you see fit.

* All farmers, regardless of size or classification, are advised to contact their Farm Service Agency county office ASAP in order to gain time sensitive information on financial loan and grant programs, as well as information on USDA’s Livestock Indemnity Program.

* All livestock owners should be reviewing their herd health and vaccination protocols in consultation with their herd health or large animal veterinarian as these recommendations may have changed in light of the significant flooding seen with Hurricane Irene.

*All livestock farmers should be reviewing their business plans and identifying potential risks. If feed shortage is identified as a risk, then consider culling marginally productive animals or other outliers while beef prices are strong.

*All livestock owners should assess feed inventory and plan now for alternative feed supplies for the upcoming fall and winter.

* All farmers should communicate with their feed representatives regarding proper harvest and storage protocols to minimize losses between harvest and storage and to maximize feed productivity.

* All farmers should communicate with their financial lenders in order to investigate potential financial opportunities that may exist.

* Please visit the Vermont Agency of Agriculture’s website at www.vermontagriculture.com> to review other resources that would be helpful during the Irene-recovery period.

After Irene

Windsor County took a bad hit from Irene. Many roads and bridges in the area were washed out. GMHA's C & D barn were undermined and the cross country is covered in mud. They hope to open back up mid September. I haven't heard of any members with any great losses so I hope you are all OK. Ed Renolds did loose his well and told me he saw someones barn float by his kitchen window. Shirley Ouelette's pasture had a lot of mud added to it. Ruth Ferland's horse's made it in to the paper with an aerial shot of them stuck on an island in the middle of her pasture.

Most important is that the VERDA 30 trails are in good shape and will be held on the scheduled date of Sept. 17th. It is easy to get there from I-91. You may need to check on road closing if you are taking back roads to get there.

March Madness

We held the March Madness ride and drive to make up for the canceled January Thaw. It still looked like a January thaw with 4 foot snow banks, 2 feet of snow in the fields, but boy did we have mud! Many sections of road were almost impassible. Doug and Allen came close to sinking the water while Judges Dr Lisa Hanelt and Linda Glock looked for solid ground to observe the horses. Greenalls found us a great almost dry spot for the halfway hold. We had 10 horses start and 9 finish. 4 from Wendy Bejarano's barn plus Jeff Gardner stayed at Wendy's too!
Results

G.C. Wendy Bejarano on Biekin
Res. Connie Walker on VSC Otis
1 Gene Limlaw on Toby Bartlet's Windrush First Call
2 Ruth Ferland on Wendy's Zambisy's Red Comet
3 Jenny Kimberly on Dixie Dee
4 Joy Axten on Wendy's Jake
5 Yarrow Farnsworth on Wendy's Mecca Bey
6 Jeff Gardner on Gazelle

Thank You Thank You Thank You

At the last members meeting we presented the VERDA wish list and 3 members stepped right up and filled the list. So at the Brown Bag and Bare Bones rides VERDA will be using these great new toys.
A Big Thanks goes out to :
Lee Alexander who donated 4 new walky talkies
Linda Glock who donated a new ez up shelter
Jenny Kimberly who donated her 250 Gal. sap tank and a 300 gal water trough.
What a great bunch of members we have!

2010-2011 Winter Meetings

The winter meetings for VERDA

Date Location Food
October 5th GMHA Pizza

November 9th GMHA Pot Luck

December 14th GMHA Pot luck Christmas Party

January 11th GMHA Pot Luck

AWARDS Banquet
Febuary TBA West Windsor Historical Soc. Catered by Yates

March 8th GMHA Pot Luck

April 12th GMHA Pizza (last meeting )

Great times at the Eatathon

The 2010 Eatathon was a hit with 33 entries, lots of VERDA members and some new faces. Deb Fisk took us down her trails on her mountain and over to the Icelandic Farm and then back the lush field we parked in. Our Horses had there own Eatathon there! The views were some of the best I have ever seen. At the top of the mountain, with the foilage just past peak, the colors just made you want to sit back, light a fire in the camp site and stair out at southern Vermont . Can't wait to see it in the spring for the Brown Bag and Bare Bones Rides.

Photos available at http://denlorephoto.ifp3.com/


Contributors & Volunteers
Martha Fisk stop 1 & 4 (Pastries/donuts,popcorn balls and baking for Deb as well as volunteering at two stops, and then some.
Mary - volunteer in handing goods out with Martha

Ed Reynold - volunteer (stop 2 and lunch stop 3)
Jim Axten - volunteer (stop 2 and lunch stop 3)
and other tasks.

Dinah Rojek - volunteer (stop 2 and lunch stop 3)

Suzette Fegan - volunteer (setup, lunch stop and final stop along with helping everywhere and in between

Everett Briggs - volunteer (trail, setup, lunch, cooking, prepping, clearing up, unmarking, shopping and more)
Award announcer.

Roland Potter- Town Constable, Traffic Control

Laura & Dennis Tatro - 5th stop (Morgan Farm)
Donated food for that stop as well as holding at their farm.
Professional Photographer with access to photos on their site. Laura provided and made two Caution Horse signs for us which I returned to her for future use.

Susan Peters - donated lunch stop field

Mary Lee - volunteer to help at stop #5

Kevin Blakeman - field owner for base camp

Joy Axten as Secretary

Barbara Gerstner as Treasurer

Deb - contributed coffee & compliments supplies, some paper goods, soup, desserts...trail, and host which involves a number of things as well as taking time off from work...it is work to do this ride...whew. But I was left with a lot of smiles so it made it so worthwhile.

I've thanked most and will finish up with a few last minute ones and I think this successfully left everone happy.

Good weather made it all possible.

Brown Bag Results

Well it was another cold and wet Brown Bag Ride. We did have 35 riders signed up but 11 of them were scared off by the weather. Some did switch to the Bare Bones LD on the next day. But Sunday proved to be colder in the morning than the 2010 Thaw Ride. Judges Dr Elizabeth Polson and Linda Glock kept warm with lots of corn chowder provided by Maggie in the cook shack. There were plenty of breaks in the rain to judge the ride and we only lost one ez up tent. See you next year in Tunbridge.

Grand Champion Jenny Kimberly on Old Vermont Rebel

Reserve Champion Courtney Walker on Peakabo Street

1^st Peg Dockham on becky

1^st Melody Blittersdorf on emperic

1^st Kristina Phillips on Sir Douglas

2^nd Gene Limlaw on Con la Gracia

2^nd Rhonda Batchelder on Ashara Billy Alan

2 Ann Marie Sevino on Charlestown Raphael

3 Ray Johnson on WB Chanceful

3 Kathy Demick on Texas Sonet

3 Vicki Smith on Sundance Tatez

4 Esther Fiddes on LBF Hickory Smock

4 Marlen Botessi on Omars Montanna

4 Liz Gesler on Canequin Reach for the stars

5 Abby Bennett on Junesun’s Image

5 Wilson Ring on Cragy Lea Jazzy Lady

5 Melisa Abbot on Kalis

6 Leslie Brooks on Silver Britches

6 Bonnie Hinz on River

6 Cindy Ross on Marie

Jr Grand Champion Casey Thompson on Lutka

Jr Res. Champion Logan Abbot on Calamity Jane

Top Rookie rider Logan Abbot

Top Rookie horse Calamity Jane

High Point Arab Empiric , Melody Blittersdorf

High Point Morgan Old Vermont Rebel, Liz Gesler

2009 YEAR END AWARDS First Place

VERDA First Place Finishers in Vermont Rides for 2009

January Thaw 25 Drive Dlt 01/25/2013 25 1 Thor’s Toy Truck (TJ) 99 Drive Robin Groves
January Thaw 25 CTR Lt 01/25/2013 25 1 Synthetic 100 Ride Melody Blittersdorf
VERDA Brown Bag 25 CTR Lt 05/10/2013 25 1 Nick Of Tyme 100 Ride Debra J Fisk
Bare Bones 50 END en 05/11/2013 50 1 Picaboo Street (Pica) 04:39:00 Ride Courtney Walker
GMHA Mud Sat. 04/27/2013 15 1 Jedidiah Blackguard 100 Ride Ruth Ferland
GMHA Mud Sat. 04/27/2013 15 1 Dixie Dee 100 Ride Jenny Kimberly
GMHA Mud Sat. 04/27/2013 15 1 WBA Chanceful 100 Ride Ray Johnson
GMHA Mud Sat. 04/27/2013 15 1 Rockin Rudy 100 Ride Kathy Hall
GMHA Mud Sun 15 1 WBA Chanceful 99.5 Ride Ray Johnson
GMHA 25 June Drive Dlt 06/15/2013 25 1 Mecca Bey 99.5 Drive Douglas Bejarano
GMHA 25 June Ride CTR Lt 06/15/2013 25 1 Amara's Khadiana 100 Ride Lindsay S Robbins
GMHA 25 June Ride CTR Lt 06/15/2013 25 1 Braeden 100 Ride Allen Welles
GMHA 25 June Ride CTR Lt 06/15/2013 25 1 Furio 100 Ride Carrie Tenney
GMHA 25 June Ride CTR Lt 06/15/2013 25 1 Little Acre Prince John 100 Ride Lee R Alexander
GMHA 25 June Ride CTR Lt 06/15/2013 25 1 Nick Of Tyme 100 Ride Debra J Fisk
GMHA 25 July Drive Dlt 07/12/2013 25 1 Justice 97.5 Drive Wilson Groves
GMHA 25 July Ride CTR #1 Lt 07/12/2013 25 1 Kayce 99.5 Ride Christina Philips
GMHA 25 July Ride CTR #2 Lt 07/13/2013 25 1 Ashmoro Billy Alan 100 Ride Rhonda Batchelder
GMHA 50 Drive dmd 07/12/2013 50 1 Dyberry Bethany 99.5 Drive John Baldwin
GMHA 50 Ride CTR md 07/12/2013 50 1 WBA Chanceful 99.75 Ride Ray Johnson
VERDA 25 Drive Dlt 08/17/2013 25 1 Mecca Bey 98.875 Drive Douglas Bejarano
VERDA 100 Drive dex 08/15/2013 100 1 Spring Thyme 93.167 Drive Paul Kendall
VERDA Ride A-Long 35 CTR Lt 08/16/2013 35 1 Advocate NTF 97 Ride Ann Raynor
GMHA 60 CTR md 09/06/2013 60 1 Paula's Major 100 Ride John Greenall
GMHA 100 CTR ex 09/05/2013 100 1 Picaboo Street (Pica) 98.5 Ride Courtney Walker
GMHA 100 CTR ex 09/05/2013 100 1 Shyrocco Lyric 98.5 Ride Jenny Kimberly
VERDA 30 Drive Dlt 09/13/2013 30 1 Mecca Bey 99.5 Drive Douglas Bejarano
VERDA 30 CTR Lt 09/13/2013 30 1 DB Prophet 99.5 Ride Debra J Fisk
Warren Tessier HRC 30 CTR Lt 09/27/2013 30 1 Bask Taiyin 100 Ride Lori Allen
Warren Tessier HRC 30 CTR Lt 09/27/2013 30 1 Hermione Granger 100 Ride Carrie Tenney
Warren Tessier HRC 30 CTR Lt 09/27/2013 30 1 VSF Otis +/ 100 Ride Connie Walker


2009 Year End Awards

Drivers
Total Miles
John Baldwin 150
Douglas Bejarano 130
Total Points
Douglas Bejarano 136.4375
Jenny Kimberly 97.925
John Baldwin 83.125
Robin Groves 64.6625
Wilson Groves 64.55
Paul Kendall 47.3167
Dan Boyer 46.275

Horses Drives
High Point Driving Horse Mecca Bey ( Douglas Bejarano )
Reserve Dixie Dee ( Jenny Kimberly)
High Mileage Driving Horse Dyberry Bethany ( John Baldwin )
Reserve Mecca Bey ( Douglas Bejarano )
Versitility Mecca Bey ( Douglas Bejarano )

Riders
Total Miles
Deb Fisk 420
Steven Rojek 395

Total Points
Deb Fisk 262.1
Courtney Walker 196.6
Jenny Kimberly 185.25
Ray Johnson 178.35
Lindsey Robbins 173.375
Wilson Ring 170.225
Steven Rojek 164.07
Gene Limlaw 152.275
Allen Welles 132.6375

High Poin Riding Horse Amara's Khadiana ( Lindsay Robins )
Reserve Picaboo Street ( courtney Walker )
High Mileage Horse Picaboo Street ( courtney Walker )
Reserve Craggy Lea JAzzy Lady (wilson Ring )

High Point Combined Ride and Drive Horse

Arabian Nick of Tyme ( Debra Fisk )
1/2 Arab Amara's Khadiana ( Lindsay Robins )
Morgan LBF Hickory Smoke ( Esther Fiddes )
Pinto Daystar Charisma ( Sue Boyer )
Grade Picaboo Street ( courtney Walker )
Appaloosa ?
Morab Mecca Bey ( Douglas Bejarano )