Horse show, Family Fun Day raise money and spirits for ranch

Posted by Nancy Guenther Chapman on April 18th, 2010 at 2:33 am,
with photos by Nancy Guenther Chapman

Car­rie Cheuvront, 12, com­petes in the Bit of Hope Ranch Fam­ily Fun Day and Horse Show Sat­ur­day at the Sad­dle Up Ranch.

Happy kids, res­cued horses.

You could tell the annual Bit of Hope Ranch Fam­ily Fun Day and Horse Show, held at the Sad­dle Up Ranch on Morn­ing­side Drive, was fun for the par­tic­i­pants — they were smiling.

“She has just grinned all day long,” said Jen­nifer Mori­arty of her daugh­ter Abbie, 11.

Cheyenne John­son, 12, com­petes in the Bit of Hope Ranch Fam­ily Fun Day and Horse Show Sat­ur­day at the Sad­dle Up Ranch.

Abbie was just one of 30 to 35 chil­dren par­tic­i­pat­ing in the day­long horse events. The fam­ily fun at the ben­e­fit for the Bit of Hope Ranch included bounce houses, a man in a truck sell­ing tacos and some spec­tac­u­larly reha­bil­i­tated horses.

That included Bar­ney, who looked fit and happy. He has come a long way in less than a year. When Bar­ney came to the ranch last June, his state was hor­rific. He was just skin and bones; he had no hooves — some­thing akin to hav­ing no fin­ger­nails — so he couldn’t stand for more than a minute; he had been lying in one place, uri­nat­ing on him­self for so long that his badly burned skin was peel­ing on his legs and stomach.

Bar­ney, a reha­bil­i­tated horse, trots in the youth division.

Bar­ney trot­ted and jumped in the com­pe­ti­tion, and so did many other horses from the ranch, and some for­mer ranch horses who have found new homes. There were also horses from out of town. One fam­ily came from Braden­ton for the event.

Com­pe­ti­tions involved jump­ing over obsta­cles set at vary­ing heights, and sim­pler things, like trot­ting. Many rib­bons were handed out in the more than 30 classes of competition.

Most of the rid­ers were chil­dren who had vol­un­teered their time to help the horses at Bit of Hope, in return for rid­ing lessons from ranch oper­a­tor Suzanne Park or her children.

Heidi Gar­adis, 13, com­petes. Heidi’s par­ents got to see her ride for the first time at the show.

To hear the par­ents tell it, the kids have got­ten more out of it than the res­cued horses.

“Every morn­ing Kayla wakes up, (she says) ‘I dreamt about this horse, I dreamt about that horse,’” said Jea­nine Gebert. “It’s just constantly.”

Dan Mori­ar­ity attrib­utes it all to Park.

Abbie Mori­arty, 11.

“What she does for the kids of the com­mu­nity is just awe­some,” he said. “I never thought my kids would be into horses. Until Suzanne. I never even thought that they would even care.”

The easy way to dis­ci­pline Abby is to tell her she can’t ride the horse for a week.

“You can pun­ish her any­way you want, but if you tell her you’re ground­ing her and she has to miss a week of  Bit of Hope, she’ll bring her grades up,” Jen­nifer Mori­arty said. “She’ll make her bed, she’ll do any­thing you tell her to do.”

That won’t work for Gebert.

Kayla Gebert, 11, sets out to cir­cle barrels.

“My hard­est thing is I love the horse as much as she does,” she said.

Mean­ing, she doesn’t want to miss out on the horse, either.

The par­ents com­mented that the event was run very fairly. Chil­dren who were advanced were not allowed to com­pete with those who were at a basic level.

“Every­thing Suzanne does is awe­some,” said Dan Mori­arty. “She had made so many people’s kids’ dreams come true.”

The amount raised for Bit of Hope Ranch was not imme­di­ately available.

For more about the Bit of Hope Ranch, go to http://www.englewoodedge.com/2010/02/06/bits-of-hope-for-youth-and-animals-at-ranch/

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