Big Sky Fox Trotter Association

Minutes for the February 17, 2007 meeting,

12:00 p.m., Jerry & Gen Christison’s home, Helena, MT

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Mark Goss, clinics chair, reported that there is a showmanship clinic scheduled on March 4 at the Womack’s indoor arena at Bearmouth, MT.  Chris Brown will teach showmanship skills and she is a premier trainer in the area of showmanship.  Cost is $30 each for five or more participants.

Shelley Scott is teaching two different trail class clinics on March 24-25 and April 28-29 at Goss’s arena.  This is good preparation for novice riders in the novice trail classes at the Helena show on May 11-12.

Alma DeMille, a Utah foxtrotter gait clinician recommended by Catherine Hanson, is booked through September except for the weekends of Washington’s show and the weekend of our Helena show.  Mark will follow up on this with Alma for a possible late September or early October clinic, and the emphasis of the clinic will be on trail riding gaits, not show gaits.

People from California are coming to teach ranch roping in July, and they are the best in the world.  Mark will provide information on this for interested riders.  This is not an official BSFTA clinic.  

Jerry Christison said that he and Mariann Wheat will teach a trail class clinic in his arena if someone will schedule a clinic.  They will hold this clinic before the May 11-12 show.

Mark would like to see more clinics in the central and eastern regions.  Contact Mark at 406-961-3119 or mrg1947m@netscape.net if you have clinic ideas or you want to register for a clinic.

Thea Gervais, trail rides chair, reported Gary Becker has organized the 2007 co-hosted National Trail Ride in the Sunlight Basin area of Wyoming.  It will take place August 17-19, with the possibility of more rides planned in the days following for interested riders.  For more information, contact Gary Becker at gtbecker@tctwest.net or 307-765-2020.

Kristina Tracer, western director, will organize a trail ride on June 9 at Lost Horse Resort, south of Hamilton, MT.  It has a nearby camping area for those who want to stay overnight.  Lunch is available at Lost Horse Resort.  The ride will organize at 9:00 and start at 9:30.  Contact Kristina at 406-642-6464 or foxtrotters@gaitedt.myrf.net if you are interested.

Mary Greene, central director, volunteered to lead two smaller rides: June 30-July 1: Weekend trail ride along the Rocky Mountain Front west of Choteau, MT (Green Gulch Campground) near Headquarters Pass and Ear Mountain.  August 11-12: Weekend trail ride in the Bob Marshall Wilderness; west of Choteau, MT (West Teton Trailhead) on Bruce Creek Trail to Crazy Creek Pass.  For more information, contact Mary Greene at 406-431-6830 or mfngreene@gmail.com.

Thea is looking into the Indian Meadows Campground area for our second National Trail Ride.  This area is in the Scapegoat area, about five miles north of Lincoln.  It has 12 and 20 mile loop rides. 

Mark Goss reported on the Arizona ride which was attended by riders from all over the U.S., including many BSFTA members.  He showed name tags, hats and t-shirts from this February ride.  It had 78 riders and 55 trailers.  They charge $150 per person for the ride and that included the items he showed, food, good organization and entertainment.

Contact Thea Gervais at 406-642-6546 or mtgervais@hotmail.com if you have questions or other trail ride ideas.

May 11-12 Helena Circuit Show: Mary Auger, co-chair, displayed a sample of the ribbons she will order, and she reported that she received donated trophies that will be “refitted” for the show.  She sent around a sign-up sheet for volunteers to work at the show as announcers, gate people, ring stewards and people to set up trail class obstacles.  The name is the Big Sky Spring Round-Up (submitted by Gary Becker), and it will be held at Rea’s Arena.  Costs are $15 for outdoor stalls, $20-25 for inside stalls.  Class fee is $10, cattle fee is $40, arena fee for the day with cows is $200 and for the versatility day is $150.  Rick Padgett and Bob Womack are sponsoring the arena fees for both days.  The judge is Joe Ruiz from Utah, who is strong on ranch and versatility, and Mary is checking on the best plane fare for him.  Jerry is working on the motel for the judge and will organize the volunteers.  Bob asked Helena area members to find sponsors to help with this show.  Mary Greene volunteered to contact local horse businesses regarding sponsorships to pay for posters advertising the show.  Thea reported that radio and television stations and newspapers should be contacted.  Mark suggested inviting media folks to participate in a “celebrity” class.

Bob reported that the Pacific Northwest Fox Trotter club is working hard to improve their versatility competition, and they want to co-host a performance and versatility show in Spokane next year.  They also emphasized that the Fox Trotter horses need to know how to fox trot, even in versatility classes, and they will reinforce that point with judges.

Bill Free requested that the show chairs add two-gait and three-gait classes to the Big Sky Spring Round-Up ranch and versatility show.  After lengthy discussion, Bill withdrew his request.

2007 BSFTA Points and Circuit Show:  Show chair Rick Padgett reported that the show facility is Sapphire Event Center, on the Eastside Highway, north of Corvallis, MT.  Dates are July 5--6 p.m. for model and showmanship classes, July 6--9 a.m. for performance classes, and July 7--9 a.m. for versatility.  Sapphire Event Center staff will take care of food concessions, stalls, and electrical hookups.  Stalls are $25 per night and that includes shavings and cleanup.  Elmer Scott is the judge, Donna Goss and Karen Philips are taking care of sponsorships, Donna Goss, assisted by Bobbi Dyrud, is show secretary, Mark Goss is announcing, Dave and Jodie Odegard, Tony Dees, and Ken Snodgrass are handling gates, Thea Gervais will take care of publicity, and Rick still needs volunteers to help set up and take down trail class obstacles and other versatility equipment and with other tasks.  There will be a dinner on Friday night, with food provided by the Sapphire Event Center staff.  There will also be fun classes on Friday night.  Bob noted that this is a premier facility with an outdoor arena for warming up, and we are paying the same price as we did at the fairgrounds.  Mark will cancel our tentative date with the fairgrounds next Monday.

Rick suggested that we book the 2008 date now at Sapphire Event Center.  Pete Peterson moved and Mark seconded that we book the show at Sapphire Event Center now for 2008, preferably for July 17-19, 2008.  This would involve a $100 fee to book it ahead.  Motion passed. 

Thea asked for a calendar of events so she can plan trail rides around already scheduled events and so members can make plans for the spring, summer, and fall.  She asked that we publish our calendar of events in our newsletter.  Karen will pull this together.

2006 Affiliate of the Year Scrapbook: Annette still needs pictures and stories in order to do this; she can’t do this without them.  She won’t start on the scrapbook until the Helena show program is done.

2006 Show Results: Pete wrote a story on the show results, and Annette sent it in to Journal, along with a CD of pictures.

Foxtrot USA as vendor at the show: Jack has called them several times and has not received a response yet.  He will keep trying.

Raffle Item for 2007 Show: Cathy Olson can get four National Finals Rodeo tickets for four people.  Karen recommended that we split the tickets so there are two packages of tickets for two people on two nights.  We need someone to take on the job of selling raffle tickets and taking care of the money.

Clothing: Mary reported that we need to spend $50 to have the logo digitized, and she circulated a catalog of clothing choices.  She suggested we add $5 to the price to go toward the club.  Ole moved and Mark seconded that we allocate $800 for purchasing shirts to sell to members.  Motion passed. Cherry Moon volunteered to be in charge of this project.

Utah Club:  Bob contacted the president of the Utah club, Dennis Bromley, and invited them to join our circuit.  Dennis told him he appreciated that very much, but they have a third club joining them which is Colorado. Dennis felt that having two separate circuits in the region was better than one larger one, and it will hopefully get more people to Ava.  Bob emphasized that they are invited to join our circuit, and we don’t want any hard feelings based on rumors that may be going around that we were excluding them.  Dennis said he appreciated that but that there never were any hard feelings.  He invited all of us to their show and said they will be at our show.  It was his feeling that everything is moving forward positively.

New Software: In the interim period between the January 13 meeting and this one, Karen circulated an e-mail message to club officers and directors asking them to approve the purchase of two software programs, which they did.  The programs are Filemaker Pro (to be used for sponsorship and membership data) and Adobe Acrobat Professional (to allow publishing of the newsletter on the club’s web site--bigskyfta.org).  Annette will e-mail members to see who prefers getting their newsletter that way.  Pictures will be clearer and in color, which is an advantage for some members.  It will also save postage costs.  For members with dial-up Internet connections, however, the download time may be very long. 

Bylaws: Bob spoke with Ross regarding the bylaws and the need to update them. Pete volunteered to head the committee to review and update our current bylaws.  Karen will get them updated with all amendments included and in a word processing format. At this time, there are only paper copies of the bylaws.  She will send that to Pete when it is done.

Horse Expo at Sapphire Event Center--March 30-April 1: Annette said we have been invited to have a booth there and perform on Saturday afternoon.  Mark moved and Annette seconded that we pay $50 to set up a booth at the expo.  Jack and Bob Womack, Thea Gervais and Bill Free volunteered to show their horses on Saturday.

MFTHBA and Judges’ Clinics:  Bob contacted Joyce Graening, one of the MFTHBA directors, about having MFTHBA pay for the judge’s air fare to put on a clinic after our show at Sapphire.  MFTHBA is having financial problems, and Joyce that will be hard to get that done.  MFTHBA also received correspondence about our show last year that said the clinic wasn’t done as well as it should have been, and the MFTHBA board was disappointed to hear that.  The MFTHBA board said maybe we shouldn’t even have a clinic out here.  Bob has submitted the forms to get a judge’s clinic on Saturday after the show, which means MFTHBA pays his air fare.  However, that may not happen.

Letter to MFTHBA Regarding Canter Rule: Bob asked Joyce Graening about the letter Ross sent to the board requesting that the MFTHBA Board of Directors enforce the rule which prevents excessive pumping of horses in the canter (Rule III. Standards of the Fox Trotting Horse, Section 4. Canter--page 8 in the Revised 2006 rule book: “... Excessive pumping of the horse will be penalized, by lowering the horse’s placing, when being judged.”).  She had not seen it and didn’t know anything about it.  Pete said to send a copy of the letter to every officer and board member.  Bob will send copies of the letter again.

Budget: Donna asked that each committee submit a budget.  Bob requested that members who need to spend money, bring a budget to the next meeting, which will be a show committee meeting, on March 4 at 3:00, after the showmanship clinic at Bearmouth (Womack’s arena).

Web site information: There is some incorrect information on the site and Annette will contact Lauren, our web master, to get that changed.  However, Lauren and her husband CJ are in the middle of a major move from Idaho to Montana, so she has her hands full right now and may not be able to deal with this right away.

Member News: Ole asked for prayers for Ken Legan, a Missouri rider who has attended our trail rides, who will undergo major heart surgery.  He also thanked everyone for their support and prayers for his wife Shirley who is getting hospice care now and on morphine every couple of hours to keep her comfortable.

Trail Rides: Kristina circulated flyers for miscellaneous trail rides.

Next Meeting: Show committee meeting on March 4, 3:00, after the showmanship clinic at Womack’s arena in Bearmouth, MT.

Meeting was adjourned at 2:39.

Karen Philips, Secretary