Prez Sez…... Ah, Spring is in the air. Along with that comes the first Gymkhana

Show on April 8. Dressage, All Breed and Hunter Jumper all got

their first shows done in a grand fashion. For those interested in

Rodeo, Lakeside Rodeo is April 28, 29 & 30. PVRA grounds will

get busier with warm weather and daylight savings time, so

please check the calendar to see what and where things are go-

ing on. Pony Club posts their weekly schedule on the website

and on the bulletin board on the PC shed to let members know

their activity area. Congratulations to Poway Polo’s Interscholas-

tic team: Andrew Scott, Nikki Mobtaker, Ian Schnoeblen and

Maddie Graydon for showing their stuff in the best game of the

Western Regional Interscholastic tournament. It took a combined

team of Central Coast/Santa Barbara to take the game from

Poway by only two goals. Andrew and Ian were named to the

AllStar team and Andrew’s horse, Rolls Royce, was named Best

Playing Pony. Thank you for representing Poway Polo so well,

kids. The dry weather makes it necessary for us to be aware of

how dust affects all of our neighbors….follow the Operating Rules

and water when needed. Enjoy Your Club, Nancy

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HORSE TALES

Published monthly in Poway,

California by the Poway Valley

Riders Association.

Editor: Rhonda Morris

News and advertising deadline is

the third Tuesday of the month

prior to publication.

Subscription price: emailed free to

PVRA members. $12.50/yr for

non-members.

Advertising rates: Full page $30,

members; $60, non-members.

Half page $20, members; $40,

non-members. Quotes for other

sizes available upon request. Pric-

es are for camera-ready copy or

simple ad design. Acceptance of all

advertising is at the discretion of

the editor.

Contact: horsetales@pvra.com

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FEBRUARY BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

Called to order by Nancy Kirchhofer, 7:09 p.m.

Present: Nancy K., Ann T., Gillian, Trish, Murray, Kasey, Veronika, Dani (late, arrived 7:27 p.m.)

Absent: Daniel

Recognition of Guests: Ann Vatet sent a proposal for a new type of riding member-ship, but she is not here.

Treasurer’s Report: (Gillian)

Checking: $8,222.62

Money Market: $28,640.05

Total: $36,862.67

Everything has been paid in-cluding Chuckwagon cooler (Arctic Air), or is in the mail. Motion to approve by Mur-ray, 2nd Trish, approved.

Committee Reports:

Horse Shows: Two horse shows canceled and resched-uled.

Board Member of the Month: For March, BMOM is Trish.

Trainers Certificates: See below.

Old Business:

Tractor repair: Got tractor back. They replaced all hy-draulic fluids, at no charge. Arenas were very hard and may have strained the trac-tor. Nancy sent a letter last month to all people who are approved as tractor drivers that Joe would be the lead on

getting the arenas back after the rains.

Polo: Inquiry received on how long to get arenas back up? Nancy went over to look this afternoon; ring 1 is still total mush. Ring 2 and warm-up are too wet and slushy, trail is same, and dressage is wet but close to being ready. We have gotten almost a whole season of rain in 2 months. Nancy notes that PVRA is in a flood zone and ground is saturated. Nancy checked with Jay and he says nothing more can be done. Maybe something can be done Friday evening if it dries a bit, but it is almost better not to work it if it is going to rain again right away.

Roller: Gillian sent out esti-mate on roller, but that has to go on back burner. Gillian suggests getting sponsorships to get it paid for, at least par-tially or in full. This is to help seal arena, also would bridge the arena between polo and gymkhana and makes arena more versatile.

Trainer’s agreement: (Kasey) Approved raising the penalty for training without insurance so that it would not be cheaper to pay the penalty than to buy liability insur-ance. Regarding the $5 fee per rider per lesson, trainers have to sign the form that they did so many lessons. As an incentive to bring students to PVRA shows, we can allow a credit back of the money for each student that they bring to a show during the month. Riders should list the trainer

on the show form. Will write it up and come back to board for review. Also, will clarify membership requirement for trainer.

Membership: (Veronika) 70 members have renewed by now, handful of “checks in the mail.”

Ann Vatet’s new type of riding membership pro-posal: Copies distributed, discussed. No decision yet.

Event report: (Kasey) Ka-sey distributed a form for all shows to record the income and expenses for all shows, and to be turned in with the show box money. This has been in existence for years but hasn’t been utilized.

Adjourned, 9:04 p.m.

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Called to order, 7:09 PM by Nan-cy Kirchhofer.

Pledge.

Minutes: Motion by Jasmine K. to approve March minutes; seconded by AJ. Approved.

Treasurer’s report: (Gillian)

Checking $10,083.00

Money Market: $28,641.79

Total: $38,724.79

Motion to approve by Janice K., seconded by AJ, approved.

Membership: (Veronika) Debra Doerfler is newest WS, will be our new volunteer recruiter/caller. Pat Keith-Leach is NWF. Patrick Glass is social member.

Committee Reports:

Board Member of the Month: March BMOM is Trish Contreras.

Polo: (Gillian) Polo is tonight. This weekend we moved our 3 day tour-nament to Hemet because our are-na is not ready yet after rains; kids won Friday, Saturday, grand prize, qualified for Regional on March 24-25 in San Luis Obispo. MVP was Andrew Scott (Parker’s son), Gwen got sportsmanship, one of the Best Playing Ponies was one of ours.

Pony Club: No report.

Horse Masters: No report, but glad we can ride again (no rain).

Horse Shows:

Dressage: (Janice) Dressage shows falls on first day of Daylight Savings Time. Right now we are borderline between running 1 and 2 arenas; Janice will let Nancy know. Don’t drag warmup too deep; need trail arena (per Nancy, it’s not open yet). Could use ring 1. Need work-

ers. Usually start prep after Pony Club. Dragging needs discussed. Need weeding around edge, raking up leaves, leveling gully around out-side. Have been waiting to order sand and DG until after the rain.

All Breeds: First show of year is the following weekend.

Ink Cartridges: AJ has them, will donate to PVRA. Thank you, AJ!

Old Business:

Horse Show Volunteers Re-cruiter: New Member Debra Dor-fler will be calling for horse show volunteers. If she needs help, she will ask for that.

Chuck Wagon: Still looking for a manager. May just have to find peo-ple for each show.

Event Sign: Wendy Tanzer will be doing event sign out front.

New Business:

Polo Arena: (Janice) Wood is breaking apart, any plans to fix? (Nancy) Yes, supplies are here.

Membership campaign: (Ann) Any ideas? (Janice) (Daniel) Stock Farm is taking down pens, down to 55 horses. (Karen C.) Part of prob-lem is the state of the economy; in 2012 her business tanked. Older horses were put down or given away. Farriers are down to about 30%. This is an industry trend. Business is starting to pick up. Roll-ing Hills once had 180 horses, now down to 80 or more. About 8 horses left Harry’s when he won his judge-ment; boarders were worried about stability. San Diego Polo opened their season, about 15 horses left for that, now going year round so they are not coming back. When Russ died, people became more mobile and got trailers.

(Suggestions raised, in no particular order:) It was suggested we start thinking about children as our future, with cooperation with young polo players, young Pony

Clubbers. People need to be willing to lease out their horses. Maybe have a discounted junior rate for first year for kids starting out in Pony Club? Or an associate mem-bership? Give new members credits toward shows? Military member-ship? Get some data on trending for horse ownership? Have a special column in Horse Tales listing “kid-recommended” horses for sale? Put up a Bulletin board outside PVRA for kids to see when they walk to school, put on our side of the fence? Introductory offer for our trainers to give 3 lessons without having to join PVRA? Set up an open house for right when school lets out, get a hot dog and a drink, charge $10 entry? Would need to get trainers and entertainment and demo’s lined up. Polo has training stations, members in uniform, could let kids sit on hitting horse. Have PVRA applications and brochures availa-ble. Gillian can head up a commit-tee, Ann can help with publications. Ask our membership about horses that are available for lease. City of Poway runs all those summer activ-ities, could we do a camp? The city is very restrictive. Maybe sell train-ers a one week membership to get kids hooked during a camp? Put something in Horse Tales asking for ideas.

Adjournment; Motion to adjourn by Jasmine Kall, seconded by Janice Kall, adjourned at 7:57 PM.

MARCH GENERAL MEETING MINUTES

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April 1 Hunter Jumper Show 2 Rain Date Schooling Dressage Show 8 Gymkhana 23 Pony Club Testing 29-30 Polo Tournament May 6 Mother’s Day Fun Show 13 Gymkhana 20 Working Equitation 21 Dressage Show 27 Russ Sheldon Memorial Polo Tourna-ment 28 All Breed Show 29 Russ Sheldon Memorial Polo Tourna-ment June 3 Polo Tournament 10 Gymkhana 17 Night Polo 24 Working Equitation 25 Hunter Jumper (Tentative) July 1 Independence Day Fun Show 8 Gymkhana 9 Dressage Show 15-16 Polo Tournament 23 All Breed Show 29 Working Equitation & Hunter Jumper Night Show (Conflict: same day) 30 Tack Sale

August 12 Gymkhana 19 Polo 20 Dressage Show 26 Working Equitation 27 All Breed Show

September 9 Night Polo 10 Pony Club Testing 16 CT Dressage and Show Jumping 11 Pony Club Testing 22-28 Rodeo Setup 29-30 Rodeo October 1-6 Rodeo Tear Down 14 Hunter Jumper 15 All Breed Rain Date 21 Polo 28 Halloween Fun Show November 4 Pony Club Games Day (Daytime) Polo Night Tournament 10-12 Polo (Wounded Warrior Polo Tour-nament)?? 18 Turkey Trot Fun Show 19 Polo Interscholastic Youth Tournament December 9 Carols and Barrels 16 Interscholastic Polo

Membership Stays On Course

There has been an ongoing and comprehensive discussion at both general meetings and in board meetings of PVRA’s existing membership structure, in particular the pro-posal from some members to allow riders from families in which only one person rides to belong as single memberships, with reduced dues and reduced work hours obliga-tions.

The Board has listened sympathetically, but practically, to multiple formal and infor-mal presentations. The Board has examined information from other area horse clubs regarding their membership structures, fees, and their facilities. The Board has exam-ined PVRA’s operating costs, income, staffing, and insurance coverage. The Board has a responsibility to keep PVRA viable, as well as safe and attractive to riders, all of which requires a reliable and adequate cash income stream that keeps pace with inflation and rising utilities, fuel, and water costs, and a reliable and adequate work force for its ac-tivities.

PVRA has always offered membership as unrestricted family memberships, with a dis-counted single membership. This not only encourages family participation, but also al-lows PVRA to include all family members under the club’s insurance coverage. It also helps the club assure a certain level of cash income under the dues structure, as well as provides workers for shows and projects. In return, members have use of the grounds and access to subgroup activities and a place for lessons (other than on show days, ro-deo days, and rain days). The grounds provide 14 fenced acres of private property with three arenas, a dressage court, a cross country course, a warm-up area, restrooms with plumbing, a chuck wagon, generous trailer parking, grounds maintenance and mainte-nance equipment, and easy access in the heart of Poway (no trailering 25 miles away and back to ride).

The conclusion is that there is no practical way to offer the family single option at this time. The reduction in income and work hours to the club is not fiscally sustainable. Once such a discounted membership structure were in place for the few asking for it now, many of the current family memberships would likely also want to convert to the lower cost option, which would result in a collapse of the dues income. Family mem-bers not included under such a family single membership umbrella could not come on the grounds, unless as infrequent guests or only on days covered under our insurance as “public event days.” Without having a full-time staff member to “police” who comes on the grounds, this is not feasible to enforce.

In the interests of keeping PVRA in business, with nice grounds in good repair, the Board has decided to keep the current membership structure in place and not offer a discounted “family single” membership.

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PVRA THANKS IT’S 2017 AFFILIATE MEMBERS

Poway Valley Riders Association Primary Business Address

Your Address Line 2 Your Address Line 3 Your Address Line 4

Phone: 555-555-5555 Fax: 555-555-5555

E-mail: someone@example.com

YOU LOGO HERE

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Poway Valley Riders Association

PO Box 77

Poway, CA 92074

General Membership

Meeting

April 4, 2017

Poway Community Center

Bill Bond Rm 2