THANK YOU Arabian Horse Times

Arabian Horse Times raised $33,750.00 for the Arabian Horsemen’s Distress Fund from our online auction and the live auction at the Readers’ Choice Awards. Thank you to everyone who donated items.

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Social hour starts at 5 p.m., and the competition heats up starting at 6 p.m., when the tasting begins. The auction will follow the crowning of the chili and dessert champs.

So if you make a mean chili or decadent dessert, bring it on for your chance at bragging rights!

All attendees get to taste the entries and judge the winners, then, when they are so stuffed they can’t think straight, the auction begins! Everyone will have a chance to win treasure – or perhaps have it won for them – during the auction portion of the night’s festivities.

This year, proceeds from the auction will go to the Arabian Horseman’s Distress Fund. This is a great organization that helps our fellow horsemen and women in times of need. Please learn more about the AHDF, or watch this touching video about one barn they helped last year. With such a great beneficiary, we hope everyone will get involved in this event!

Items up for bid are all donated and range from white elephant items to riding lessons, gift certificates and brand new donated merchandise. Other donation ideas include used/outgrown show clothes and tack. If you are a business owner, gift certificates or merchandise are always welcome donations for the auction. Or maybe approach your favorite business owner for a donation… No matter what – if you have a donation item or questions about making a donation to the auction, contact event organizer Laurie Swicegood, 913.256.9524.

Remember, this is also your chance to saddle some other family with that “beautiful” lamp you’ve hidden away in the basement, so search through those old treasures today and find some great white elephant items to donate! But beware! Someone might just be the winning bidder on an item that they’ll “win” for you. You could go home with more white elephant items than you started with. Of course, you can always donate them back to the auction next year.

This event is a lot of fun! We hope to see everyone there for a great cause!

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Sandy, Gord, and Brady are long-time Arabian breeders, trainers and owners, and well known faces in the working western divisions.  They run a family business out of their Alberta farm that includes breeding Jack Russell Terriers and Bernese Mountain Dogs, as well as many notable Arabian horses.  They stand a number of stallions, including SR Delta Force,  US National Champion Work Cow Futurity horse, and have been mainstays of the Arabian industry for many years.

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to assist the Hesters, you can go on-line to make a secure donation through paypal to www.horsemensdistressfund, or you can send a check to The Arabian Horsemen’s Distress Fund, 236 Henry Sanford Road, Bridgewater, CT 06752, along with a note to earmark the funds to assist the Hesters.

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… Achieving New Levels at the close of 2011

As the Horsemen’s Distress Fund has become established over the past six years horsemen have grown ever more creative in their involvement. Shawn and Carmelle Rooker of Rooker Training Stables put together a fundraiser in 2010 called the “Pick Of The Pasture”, a raffle that entitled the winner to take his or her pick of the Rooker’s exceptional 2009 foal crop.  The winning ticket was purchased by Iron Horse Farm of Canton, Georgia and the raffle itself generated $40,000 for the Horsemen’s Distress Fund. At the 2010 U.S. National Championship Show in Tulsa, Bob and Becky Nash of Colonial Woods Farm put on a great HDF fundraiser right in one of the main barns. The event was dubbed The Wine Walk, and included a wine-tasting, beer and appetizer tour during which over ten farms participated. Naturally, HDF organizer and advocate Mary Trowbridge wanted to come up with some great ideas that were equally exciting for fundraising during the 2011 U.S. National Championship Show.

“We were looking for another great idea to create some ‘buzz’ for the HDF,” says Mary. “Becky Nash and her husband Bob offered to do The Wine Walk again this year and Carrie Fritz and Leslie Sommers volunteered to help with a Silent Auction to take attention for the Horsemen’s Distress Fund up yet another notch. Two years ago Strawberry Banks Farm trainer and manager Brian Murch approached saddle makers David Freedman, The Arabian Saddle Company and Dale Chavez (via Helen Nymeyer) for three saddles to auction off in center ring at National’s. The saddles brought just under $30,000 for the HDF. This year I thought I would try to solicit the donation of some top quality, nationally competitive horses and auction them off during the last weekend of the show. It turned out to be more successful than I could have imagined.”

On Friday the 28th, during the U.S. National’s evening session, the Horsemen’s Distress Fund was introduced to the show’s in-house audience as well as worldwide viewers. Everyone watching saw a poignant video created by Jessica Rowlett featuring the tragedy of the Goslin-Nix fire in Magnolia, Texas last August. Gordon Potts then rode in on the seven-year-old black Tobiano Half-Arabian mare, Khandy Spots (*Khadraj), donated to the Horsemen’s Distress Fund for auction by The Brass Ring.

“We were very pleased with the quality of the mare,” Trowbridge noted. “As soon as we started taking bids there was participation from all over the stands. The bidding stopped at $10,000 and the winning bidders, Don and Janey Morse and Dan and Maureen Grossman, immediately donated the money and sent the mare back to start the bidding again! The next successful bid also stopped at $10,000 and the winning bidders were Robyn and Jeff McGlinn of Mystica Arabians. They were watching the Arabian Horse Global live streaming from their home in Western Australia. They also donated the money and sent the horse back out one more time for bidding. This time the winning bid of $8,500 sent Khandy Spots home with Candy and Larry Larsen of Woodstock, Illinois. Candy Larsen was thrilled.”

“We were down for a couple of days to watch the show,” says Candy. “We went over to see the auction horse, Khandy Spots in her stall and Gordon Potts told me he thought the horse might be the one to take me to the Nationals one of these days! Honestly, Larry and I got all caught up in the moment Friday night. I am going to keep Khandy with Katie at Mike Neal’s in Wisconsin. The HDF is a great cause and we couldn’t be more delighted.”

On Saturday night Eleanor Hamilton’s handsome, six-year-old chestnut gelding, Zee Fire Storm (Hesa Zee+/) also sold, adding even more to the Horsemen’s Distress Fund coffers. “Eleanor Hamilton was the first person to step forward and volunteer a super quality horse for this auction,” Mary says. “She’s one of the great ladies of this industry. We have a number of heroes in this category. Like Eleanor they are always there in the forefront … moving, shaking and wholeheartedly supporting the things that are ultimately important.”

Another of those very important souls who set the right things in motion for the Arabian horse and its people is Florida owner and breeder Frank Hennessey. “In the middle of our annual fund raisers at the 2011 U.S. National Championships in October, Frank Hennessey of Hennessey Arabians dropped by to see me,” says Mary Trowbridge. “He suggested that it was high time that the HDF considered an Endowment Fund. Then, he surprised all of us by giving the endeavor a ‘leg up’ with a check for $20,000! I never cease to be amazed and touched by the generosity of our Arabian horse family when it comes to helping those faced with hardships and tragedy.”

Following the U.S. National Show Mary Trowbridge went on to the Arabian Horse Association convention in Vancouver, BC. There the AHA offered the Horsemen’s Distress Fund a platform and an opportunity to present its case. At the conclusion of the presentation, Canadian Show Commissioner and Region 14 Director Dave Daugherty stepped up to a microphone and issued The Horsemen’s Challenge to the delegation. “By my calculations, if the 23,000 members of AHA each donated $100, the $2.3 million generated would be enough to care for our own during times of disaster for quite a while,” he stated. By the end of that afternoon’s session, thanks to the Arabian Horse Association’s donation of time to the HDF, another $32,500 had been pledged by the delegates and clubs in attendance, bringing the total generated in just three short weeks to over $100,000.

“Perhaps the most touching pledge of all was Theodore Lang’s,” said Trowbridge. “He pledged $20 per month for life on his and his wife’s behalf. The amazing thing about the HDF is that it seems to have the ability to move people in the same way that it energized all of us at the beginning. It’s a way to express our gratitude for a life that is enriched by the Arabian horse and the people that share our love and appreciation for them. It brings us all immediately to the core reason why we have devoted our lives to this endeavor … it’s for the horses and for the people that care for them.”

“At the 2011 Wine Walk the support and enthusiasm doubled this year,” says coordinator Becky Nash. “Great wines were donated. Virtually every barn located on the main aisle participated and made promises for next year as well.” Now that the show success story has been followed up by more energy and enthusiasm at the AHA convention, why stop the momentum? Know someone looking for a Christmas gift for the Arabian horse owner who has everything? How about a donation in their name to the Horsemen’s Distress Fund? What better way to celebrate the season of love, generosity and caring?

To date the Horsemen’s Distress Fund has raised and disbursed nearly $500,000 to individuals throughout the Arabian horse community in time of need, accident and illness since its inception in 2005. These have included trainers, breeders, owners and amateur Arabian owners. Virtually anyone that is an Arabian Horse Association member in good standing is eligible to apply to the fund during times of unexpected crisis. It is not meant to supplement or replace insurance, but to be a vehicle for immediate assistance to help people move forward with their lives. Managed by a five member board of industry-involved horse people, the fund’s guidelines allow for a rapid response in a variety of circumstances. It is not lost on Arabian horsemen that their community is a real, extended family with members that sometimes need help.

To apply to the AHDF for assistance, or to let them know of someone in need of assistance, e-mail mary@horsemensdistressfund.com, or call 860-354-8926 (office) or 860-488-7074 (cell).  To make a donation to the fund, simply go to the How You Can Help page. A special thank you to Arabian Horse Global, http://www.arabianhorseglobal.com , for this story.

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This morning (Tuesday, August 9, 2011) the Arabian Community was visited by another cataclysmic  nightmare when a barn fire struck the Fred Goslin/Gwen Nix farm in Magnolia, Texas.  The blaze errupted at 6 a.m. in the training barn housing 28 show horses.  14 horses were lost in the fire, but 14 were rescued by Fred and Jennifer and their children Casey and Crizta.   The barn housed nationally decorated horses for people throughout the Southwest area, including several of the family’s children’s horses.

Tom McNutt is organizing on-site assistance to help with clean-up and to prepare for re-building.   If you are interested in donating “In-Kind” assistance, contact Tom at 936-756-2724 to offer assistance.  For those interested in supplying In Kind donations, these  may be able to be deducted through the Arabian Horsemen’s Distress Fund.  Contact mary@trowbridgesltd.com for more information.

If you would like to assist with donations for the Goslin/Nix family, simply go to the How You Can Help page on this website, where you will find a secure PayPal button to make an online, 100% deductible donation.  All monies generated on behalf of the family will be available for their use–no money is utilized towards administrative expenses.  To earmark your online donation to help the Goslins, just send an e-mail to mary@trowbridgesltd.com with a copy of the PayPal receipt you will receive via e-mail and ask that the money be applied to the Goslins.

If you would prefer to assist by check, simply make your check payable to The Arabian Horsemen’s Distress Fund and send it to

236 Henry Sanford Road

Bridgewater, CT  06752

Include a note with the check relating to the Goslin/Nix fire.

Please join us in reaching out with a Leg Up to one of our horsemen in need.

Goslin-Nix Stable Loses 14 to Fire

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Harry knew horses, and he also knew horse people, a lot of them, and he was a tireless and always appreciative supporter of anyone who shared his passion for the Arabian horse, and the places that it has taken us all.  It is no surprise to any that were fortunate enough to know him that he would name the Arabian Horsemen’s Distress Fund, along with Salemm Children’s Home, as charitable memoriams in his name…it was so like him to continue to give to the world that he loved.  Thank you, Sue and Scott, for introducing him to and sharing him with all of us.  To see more on Harry’s life and work, and to listen to his self-recorded eulogy, go to http://www.seehorsevideo.com/HarryEulogy.html.  To make a donation in this great man’s memory, simply log on the paypal button below, and send an e-mail to mary@trowbridgesltd.com to be sure that the family is notified of your donation.   Rest in peace, Dear Friend.  We’ll all see you at the Outgate.

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