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OC Parks Newsroom
 | | A horse and rider ascend a steep slope at Equi-Fest. (Photo by Bob Worrell for OC Parks) |
Equestrians Saddle Up for Event
Obstacles, quizzes and other activities challenged horses and riders at Santiago Oaks’ inaugural Equi-Fest.
by Jim Simkins, Senior Park Ranger on 11/3/2009
Santiago Oaks Regional Park hosted its first-ever Equi-Fest special event Oct. 17.
This inaugural event, which attracted approximately 275 people, featured a skills competition for horses and their riders. A total of 72 riders tried the obstacle course, which consisted of 10 stations where the horse had to perform a skill and the rider had to answer a trivia question.
The event also had a variety of vendor booths and lots of volunteers on a very hot day.
 | | A horse and rider navigate an obstacle at Equi-Fest. (Photo by Bob Worrell for OC Parks) |
Equi-Fest was the brainchild of Equestrian Park Ranger Maureen Beckman.
“Santiago Oaks Regional Park has a large and local horse-riding stakeholder group with the neighboring Orange Park Acres community,” Beckman said. “We thought it would be fun to have a special day just for horses, and to also try to introduce the park to other equestrians from outside the immediate area who have never ridden here. I presented my idea to the parks management and they were very supportive.”
Obstacle station names included the egg stomp, stair climb, football toss, tarp crossing and ball push. All the riders and vendors received participant ribbons.
When all the scorecards were turned in, there was a first place tie between LuLu Records and her horse Skip, and Jennifer Stockland and her horse Shade. Both riders scored 145 out of a possible 150 points. To determine the winner, they did a horseshoe toss.
Records’ horseshoe came closest to the metal stake to give her the tie-breaker victory. There was also a tie for third place, with 140 points, between Nancy Johnson and her horse Frankie, and Liz Andrews and her horse Apache. Johnson’s horseshoe toss came closest to the pin to give her the official third place standing.
Putting on an inaugural special event didn’t happen overnight. The Santiago Oaks maintenance and office staff spent many hours helping make Park Ranger Beckman’s vision come to life.
Special thanks go to volunteer Vicki Coonradt for developing the obstacle stations and coordinating the volunteer assignments. Volunteer Lynne Hall went beyond the call of duty to acquire donations of great prizes and gift baskets.
Volunteer Theresa Sears was swamped, but survived, the registration booth. And, of course, many thanks go out to all the volunteers who dedicated their time to staff the obstacle stations.
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