4 minute read
OHA Fun Days
Submitted by Mae Yoder
Saturday August 19th the OHA Fun Days were held at Andrew & Linda Yoder's in Apple Creek, OH. The day welcomed us with chilly temperatures and cloudy skies, with a short rain shower before we departed for our morning drive. Typical Ohio weather though, the sun was brightly shining an hour later and we set out for a lovely stroll through the woods, farms and back roads of Wayne County. We had 7 driving turnouts, 3 singles along with 4 teams and 7 riders, arriving back at Twin Maple Farm around noon. After all the horses were settled in, everyone had brought their own lunch so after some noontime R&R the real fun began!
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The games began with the riding obstacle course complete with pole bending maneuvers, a wooden bridge to cross over, going through a rope gate, transporting a tennis ball from the top of a cone to the other without getting off the horse (this is where a small, short horse came in handy!) a water hole and some speed to the finish line! All the final times were very close with only a few seconds between 1st and 5th place! In the end a clean course by Robert Eicher and 15 year old Fascara WSF his Gold classified mare came out on top!
Next up was the cart obstacle. Every year this is probably the most competitive course at Fun Day. This year we had 15 entries, everyone giving it their all for bragging rights for the next year! If you would classify a “skilled driver” as a driver who will basically stop at nothing to go faster and outwit the other competitors to win, then there is a great deal of skill involved in the cart obstacle. To the rest of the people, you might just call them crazy. The funny thing is the horses seem to have the exact same mindset as the drivers do. They dig the speed and competition every bit as much as their driver does, which makes it all that much more fun to compete as well as watch! The course started with a full out gallop around the perimeter of the course then a few poles to weave in and out of, crossing the wooden bridge, a back up and the most exciting water pit!
The most challenging part of the whole obstacle was after the full speed run around the course you had to get your horse to come back down to maneuver all the smaller obstacles with “fast” still on their mind. Dan Yoder and his gelding Maple Grove Nate beat out 2nd place Betty Miller and her mare Cinderella CHF by 7 seconds. There was only 1 second between Betty and 3rd place! The top 3 placings completed the course with zero penalties.
The last course of the day was the team marathon. Mostly the same course as the cart obstacle but doing it with a team rather than a single horse as we did in the cart obstacle. This is always fun to watch and is just as crazy! With 6 teams taking the course,
Andrew Yoder's team of mares, Florella DCH and Cordella, had the fastest time, but had one teeny tiny penalty. This moved the second fastest time to 1st place, that being Robert Eicher driving Fascara WSF and Damita WULF, as they drove a clean course.
We had a few passing rain showers throughout the day but for the most part we had the perfect day with near perfect weather. After all the games were completed everyone gathered for dinner, where all the day's events were analyzed and dissected, along with lots of reminiscing of past Fun Days and what crazy happenings took part - some are pretty crazy! Winners were announced, and prizes were distributed. The high point horse of the day was Maple Grove Nate, owned by Dan & Deb Yoder! I think it's pretty safe to say that everyone, in every aspect of the words, had a “Fun Day” of friendly competition and fellowship with friends, family, and our beloved Haflingers!! Thank you to everyone for coming, and hope to see you all again next year!
