May 2o, 2008

Dear Darren,

I am hoping this email finds you well. I have been keeping close tabs on you and am looking forward to the time when you are back in Ocala. These last few weeks have been very busy, and more than once I thought, "where is Darren, I could really use his help" or "Darren would appreciate this". In any case, I thought you might be interested in a play by play of the Festival of the Horse weekend from my perspective. Mind you that I had very little time over the course of the competition to watch rides or pay too much attention to standings, so this account will have much more to do with the social aspects of the weekend.

THE OPENING CEREMONY—Wednesday, April 16, 2008 5:00pm
Connie Duff Wise, a State Farm agent in The Villages organized the Opening Ceremony for the competition. It took place under the "Day at the Park" tent near the polo field. Gloria Austin, driving one of her beautiful carriages escorted Olympic hopefuls Laine Ashker and Amy Tryon onto the polo field. Gloria and her team were magnificent. Laine and Amy were driven around the polo field waving. It was very cute. Rebecca Morse, a friend of Connie's with a beautiful voice, sang the National Anthem. Then, Craig Bachrodt spoke on behalf of the Park. He did an excellent job. The entire ceremony was accompanied by The Villages Concert Band. The next day, really nice articles came out in both the Villages Daily Sun and the Star-Banner. It was a great start to a great event.

PEOPLECHASE—Friday, April 18, 2008 6:30pm
Jennifer Hoyles, who organized the PeopleChase, did such a good job. She works for Franck's Pharmacy, is an avid runner and a former Eventer. She was the perfect person to organize the race. We had about 150 people register and everyone had a great time (Craig Bachrodt ran)!! Jenn really paid attention to the details: she had live music at the Post-Run Party, Ann Scott from the Misty Morning Hounds led the race, and the runners wore cross country pinnies to keep everything in theme. The race benefited the Park and raised about $3,000 and got some great new faces out to the Park and generated some great press. It was awesome.

Day at the Park—Saturday, April 19, 2008
I have to say, Darren, that you would have been proud. We ended up having about 19 tables full. Both Brooke Crozier and Ann Glaus took an Afternoon Polo Team, Golden Ocala and Palm Chevy were Morning Polo Team Sponsors and Bellechase was a Jump Sponsor. Brooke and Cathy Kenney (from Ayers, Cluster) really stepped up and made the auction great. Les Cohen jumped in at the last minute, too, and helped a ton. Ann donated several things and her mother donated a lot of jewelry. The guests seemed to LOVE the event. Bruce Ekstrom came up to me as he was leaving and said that this event was top notch and that he was not one to compliment something if he didn't think it was great. Jo Ann Smith and Eleanor Green also seemed to really be impressed.

COMPETITOR/VOLUNTEER PARTY
John Marinovich and Greg Miller cooked for about 200 people and made this party into a fundraiser for you. Because of John and Greg's efforts, we are able to send about $2200 to the EAF. They are two of the nicest men you could ever meet.

SUNDAY
The tent looked for the Sponsor Luncheon looked beautiful. I brought over the centerpieces from Saturday. They were gorgeous. It was barely windy the entire weekend, which was such a blessing. Brad Rogers and Patricia Teal from the Star-Banner came and gave out awards. Brad told me that he would like to meet with us soon because he wants to write more editorials on the Park. He has been a very vocal supporter over the past six months. He being there really made my day.

Peggy Litt, volunteer extraordinaire, organized the best breed show ever! I know it is terrible, but as soon as it started, all the show jumping spectators picked up their chairs and moved over there. There were about 12 different demonstrations culminating with a drill team with 16 horses. It really was magnificent.

Susan Parks and her friend and colleague from Ocalahorse.com, Tami Bobo put together the best Vendor Village ever! We had almost 50 vendors! They were well-organized into a village that was very shopper-friendly—we got rave reviews. The shuttles were running on Saturday and Sunday—and they were full! And, we had a great gate crew who brought in almost $8,000!

All in all, the weekend was a success. It would have been complete if you were there to see the fruits of all of our labor!

Margaret Rowell
Director of Development
Florida Horse Park