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Dedication
of the New Wing is Accomplished at the VFW Retirement Home Ft McCoy. County Commission Chairman Stan McClain
and Hollywood Star Kay Stevens lead the effort. Representative Charles Van Zant Sent Warm Regards from Legislative Session
in Tallahassee.
Save the Date, Next Event Contact Gera Judge Deputy Director/Community Coordinator “Taking Care of Veterans” 2nd Annual Department
of FL VFW Retirement Home’s Veterans Horse Festival Saturday, March 5, 2011 from
11am – 2pm Location:
13005 NE 135th Street, Fort McCoy, FL 32134. For information call 352-236-0823 or check out VFW Retirement Home HorseFest at My Ocala, for details and photos from last year’s event and what is coming in 2011. The event is FREE and Open to the Public!! Food
and beverages available.
In 2010 Fantasy Arabian Riders members were introduced to the men and women of the Veterans Of Foreign Wars Home. They were delighted and began to share their experience with their horseman friends and organize the first VFW Horsefest.
It was a success with over 500 persons from the community, along with the veterans celebrating the beauty of the horse. These
ladies, Judith Hamlett, Cindy Harding, Theresa Posthuma, Barbara Smith, Yuliya Silanskas, and Betty Wolff, originally worked
together to showcase the purebred Arabian horse. Together they make up a precision drill team and have been performing in
central Florida since 1998. They have performed for the Symphony of the Horse, Florida Carriage Museum, the Deland Museum
of Art, and the Lady of the Lakes Renaissance Faire to name a few. Each lady is mounted on a purebred Arabian and performs
intricate routines to music in costumes bedecked with jewels and glitter. Now, not only
are they performing but they are also organizing and presenting the Annual VFW Home’s Horsefest. Of course, they will
be performing but they will be only one of many outstanding acts. Among the 2011 performers will be: The National Champion
Cowboy Shooter, the Paso drill team Paso Elegante, in dressage; Greta Wrigley, winner at Arab Regional competition, and Kristen
Petzold from the World Cup competition in Kentucky, and The Marion County Sheriff’s Posse under direction of Wayne Vaught. This year will also show some of the many breeds of horses used in riding and driving. Some of the breeds presented
will be the Shire, the Gypsy Vanner, the Irish American Hunter, New Forest ponies, The American Drum Horse and the versatile
Arabian in harness.
Western enthusiasts will thrill to the cutting horse working with the artificial cow, a reining horse
working patterns and a true Native American Apache, Wahaia, telling a story from her childhood on a New Mexico reservation.
The list of performers also includes,
Carole Fletcher, with the trick horse, Jen Hall demonstrating training techniques and Chris Crowhurst demonstrating the lost
art of long line training.
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