2005 Spring Fling
a/k/a March Madness
By Jill Frieders
It finally happened-we had "Minnesota Weather" during the MAHA Spring Fling Horse show. The show was literally held during a blizzard. The show started Friday, March 18, 2005, during a record-breaking snowstorm. When it was all over, there were 19 inches of snow on the ground at the Minnesota Equestrian Center, Winona, Minnesota . It was so bad that parts of Interstate 90 were closed.
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| Teresa LeFever and Anne Benson, 2006 Co-Managers of the Spring Fling, thanking Jill Frieders for all her efforts in making the MAHA Spring Fling one of the most successful shows of the region! |
Chris Bickford, the judge, kept reminding the show staff that just the weekend before he judged a show in California and the weather was in the 70's. He was very impressed by our weather.
Most of the horses had already arrived on Thursday and were settled in their stalls before the storm started. There were only two barns that couldn't make it in. One exhibitor hauled in on Friday from Madison , Wisconsin during the blizzard. When she arrived, she claimed that the weather was "no problem". No one believed her!
The show went surprisingly well. Getting to the show from the hotel was hard because of the whiteout conditions on the road between the hotel and the facility. Once we were in the facility, we were fine. We were only aware of the storm when we had to leave the building.
The storm did cause us to start one hour late on Friday. As the show secretary, Mary Tronson, was carrying her printer into the building, a big clump of snow fell on top of it and it refused to work. The show manager, Jill Frieders, had to run to Wal-Mart to buy a new printer. This caused the short delay.
The facility owners did a tremendous job of keeping the parking lot plowed. Shawn Hingeveld had a surprise when the snow fell off of the roof of the building and buried his truck. It took him a couple of hours to dig it out.
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| The Spring Fling Blizzard broke snowfall records. |
The storm did leave us a little light on volunteers. Many just simply could not make it in on Friday. Fortunately lots of people came forward to help out.
Because of the success of the show, we moved to a 3-day format. The show was much more manageable and very enjoyable. People had time to school horses in the ring before and after the show each day. The show ended at a reasonable time on Friday and Saturday evenings. We were done at about 4 :00 p.m. on Sunday.
We had 184 horses compete at the show. (Just 5 horses less than in 2004.) We completely sold out of stalls. Class sizes were great. We even had to split two classes. All and all I think everyone had a good time. Pictures of some of the participants can be found on our show photographer's website at http://www.avalonequinephotos.com/msf05_web/eproofs.htm. Pictures of the Spring Fling winners, courtesy of Avalon Photography.
It is too soon to know the exact profit, but it appears that the show made money again this year. We expect the profit to be less than previous years because of the extra day of show and the additional payback this year.
The volunteers included:
- Cassie Lefever
- Jenna Ball
- Laura Mickelson
- Chuck Biersborn
- Van Jacobsen
- Shirley Thede
- Kristi Thede
- Sandy Feuling
- Laurie Enns
- Dick Ames
- Lollie Ames
- Barb Fisher
- Jill Frieders
- Toni Marie O'Daniel
- Christopher O'Daniel
Editor's Note: The 2005 Spring Fling marked the departure of Jill Frieders as the manager of the show.