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family, camped the same week I did. We had a blast. As you can see in the second picture, granddaughter Addison is quite the rider! She is six years old and is riding her gallant steed Okey. Addison really has a hand for horses. Okey was fabulous under her command! Riding behind her is grandma Marcy and I’m bringing up the rear! A bunch of us went to 10 Horse Cave that week. In the last picture, frontto-back is: Addison, Marcy, me, Madelynn and Shelly!

Our club is riding all over this year. This weekend, as I write this, some are going to Beaver Creek and others are going to Salt Fork. I wanted to go to Beaver Creek, I’ve never ridden there, but two things prevented it. I took all of Dee Dee’s stuff to The New Bedford Harness Shop for some alterations and the items will not be ready for pickup until late Friday afternoon. On top of that, Friday morning I have a funeral to preach for one of my church members. As soon as I get home from the harness shop, Dee Dee and I are headed to Salt Fork. Other places our members are going this year: Hocking Hills, End of the Trail, Elk Haven, Ben’s Happy Trails, and more! Life’s better with a horse! Dee Dee and I hope to see you on the trail!

~Lee Randolph HARRISON

Greetings to everyone from Harrison County. The Harrison OHC started off the summer with our annual Harrison County OHC ride. June 9-11 found us at Harrison State Forest with lots of fun activities and beautiful, dry, revamped trails.

The 11th Annual Regional Ride included many event favorites including the Candy Ride, an ice cream social and Cowboy church held by Chris Boone from Sounds of Grace and Glory. In addition, we hosted a talented, young bluegrass group Blue Diggity

Bluegrass out of Wheeling, WV, on Friday night.

Throughout the ride, a silent auction was held. Proceeds from the auction each year are put towards a youth scholarship with the intention of continuing to encourage younger generations to pursue their love of horses. This year’s winner was Kylie Montgomery. Her scholarship was put towards riding lessons with Justin Dellapenna, a local horse trainer and instructor.

Our ride events also include fun activities for our junior members. This year featured a new event, a pool noodle stick horse trail course, which was quite the hit. We also had pony cart rides and an old favorite, Paint the Pony (or horse—more surface area). Participants always have a blast and this year was no exception. Finally, Saturday night the ride was visited by none other than Smoky the Bear. Our new Harrison State Forest Manager Ryan Zeigler was quite the hit with people from all ages as he put on the persona of the timeless bear, reminding us all to be safe with our campfires. ‘Red,’ who also manages six other forests, has been hard at work reworking our main Blue trail and mowing and cutting back multiple other trails making for a wonderful ride experience. We really appreciate all his hard work and those of all our members who pitch in to help clean our beautiful trails.

September and October will be bringing us two more fun events.

September 16 will be our Fall Fun Show and Oct. 21 will be our Dorothy Glover Ride. Both of them are sure to be another wonderful time for friends and family to come together and enjoy their love of horses. Hoping everyone has a fun and safe rest of the summer.

~Elisabeth McHam

Hocking

Summer is in full swing for those in the Hocking County region. Lots of rides with our pals in the Perry County Group at Hocking State Park, showing at the 4-H point show in Logan and working to get Burr Oak ready for our 4th of July weekend ride. Youth barrel racers going strong! Enjoy and be safe.

~Laura Owings

Holmes

Welcome to the August newsletter. We hope everyone is able to get out and ride this summer. We just returned from the 2023 Northeast Regional Ride at Mohican. What an amazing event. Despite rainy predictions, most of the rain held off and every day was ridable. In fact, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were cooler thanks to the rain. Thank you Wayne County OHC for hosting, and especially to officers for great planning and organization. I’m not sure how many rigs were parked there, but 60 some people attended Saturday dinner. We very much enjoyed seeing Dave and Trudy Schmidt at dinner. They have contributed so much to OHC and continue to do so. Thank you, Dave and Trudy. We rode in the poker run and were no better on horseback than we are off, but it was more fun.

The Elkins ride was another great event. Holmes and Wayne