Oakland Equestrian Coalition Update - August 2007
Hope everyone has had a great spring and early summer. The heat and the bugs are bad, so time to catch up on news.
Rose Oaks County Park: Great news! The 3rd Annual Ride the Rose sponsored by Headwater Trails, Inc. and Oakland County Parks as a fundraiser for equestrian friendly trails in northwest Oakland County is coming up on August 26, 2007. The flyer, registration form and pledge form are all attached to this email and are downloadable. The Great News is that August 26th will be the grand opening of the trails at Rose Oaks to equestrians. After this day, the trails in the park will allow equestrians as one of their regular users. Yeah! There will be limited trailer parking until they construct the trailer staging area, but at least riding will now be available. Let’s show up, help Headwaters Trails and show Oakland County how much we appreciate the opening of these trails to equestrians.
Website Update: It’s that time of the year and I had to renew our website hosting. The annual cost is $95. We have had a classified ad from Sue Donaldson for her farm which has boarding openings. From Wind Swept Farm, 3580 Childs Lake Rd., Milford, Mi. 48381, you can ride to Proud Lake and Kensington Bridle Trails. No mares and no cribbers. Call Slue at 248-684-4117 to arrange a visit to the facility. Thank you, Sue, for your support of the Oakland Equestrian Coalition website. That leaves $75 that we still need donated or payments for classifieds. If you have a boarding facility, are a trainer, or have a horse or other item for sale please consider placing an ad on the website and I will send out a description to all my email contacts (over 200). Thanks for any help you can provide.
Modern Horse Campground for Southeastern Michigan: At a meeting in June at Pontiac Lake Recreation Area, the DNR announced it plans to have a trial modern horse campground. It was announced that they would like to try this at Pontiac Lake. The details are still being discussed and the Pontiac Lake Horseman’s Association is working with the DNR to make sure that it is done correctly. When details are known I will send them out. I understand they are using Indiana’s modern campgrounds as an example. They hope it will operational sometime in 2008.
White Lake Township is pursing grant monies for trails including a connecting trail between Pontiac Lake Recreation Area and Highland Recreation Area. A part of this trail is a planned wildlife bridge across M-59. Our thanks go to Caryn Robinson for all her hard work on this project. More to come.
DNR Trail Survey: The DNR is asking for trail rider input for the Department of Natural Resources Planning Dept. Jeff Johnson, the contact person for the DNR is gathering information regarding equestrian facilities and trails. The information will help us plan and organize improvements for everyone to enjoy. The survey questions follow:
1. Contact name and number for the trail rider or trail rider association.
2. Likes and dislikes of the Trail
3. Likes and dislikes of the facilities
4. Suggestion for improvements
We appreciate you taking the time to complete this survey. However, if you would like to speak with me directly…my office number is 269-685-6851 ext. 145 Jeff Johnson, DNR
Please take a moment to share your ideas with Jeff.
Oakland County’s Townships Requirements for Horse Keeping: Attached is a list of township requirement regarding acreage and setback requirements regarding number of horses allowed. Please look this over and send me any information you have that may conflict with the information I have collected. Thanks for your help. This information will be placed on the website shortly.
Hope to see you at Ride the Rose and the Grand Opening of Rose Oaks Trails.
Merle Richmond
Coordinator, Oakland Equestrian Coalition
