November 22, 2025 – President’s Report

Another ride season is complete. The season started in Belair forest with a successful ride, but forest fires, smoke, and trail closures changed things quickly–so quickly that we weren’t even able to get back into Belair to de-mark our trails. Trail closures also meant no Birds Hill Park ride at the end of May, but we were able to reschedule it for the end of the season.

Souris Bend in August marked our return to the endurance trails with our fourth annual Runner vs Rider race. This is always such a great event–not only are the trails and scenery spectacular, but it’s so cool to see two distance sports come together. I see great admiration expressed for the horses and riders from the runners, and I know I’m in awe of what the runners are able to accomplish. This event brings people together and brings appreciation to the different sports that love to spend hours and miles on end in nature.

Stargazer’s Endurance Ride was a new ride this year, hosted by Kara at the Canoe
campground in Spruce Woods Park. Kara hosted a 75-mile course (our first since 2022) as well as offered our first sanctioned EC ride in many years. It was exciting to see 6 horse and rider teams attempt the 75 and all 6 complete. Between our 75-mile and 50-mile completions, things are looking good for Manitobans getting qualified for Nationals next year. I believe we have the horses and riders capable of competing on both 100-mile and 50-mile teams, and I’d like to encourage our riders to strive towards that goal.

The end of September brought us back to Spruce Woods–this time to the Equestrian campground, and our season ended in Birds Hill Park in October.

Other events of note were an intro to distance riding luncheon in the spring co-hosted with MTRC that was very well-attended, our annual Tack Sale fundraiser, and the Poker Derby Fundraiser in support of the travel fund and Elsie’s trip to Chile for her 2* FEI event.

This season had many rides approaching our maximum number of registrants, and it was wonderful to see new people introduced to the sport and get hooked. One of our new riders rode her first intro ride this year and finished the season in Birds Hill Park completing her and her horse’s first 50-mile ride. We saw some new volunteers, new junior riders and riders traveling in from the states. We had everything from little ponies to tall thoroughbreds and built friesian crosses competing this year. We were commended on our teamwork to put on our events and the welcoming nature of our club–for both riders and volunteers.

It’s been a year of growth. A year of trying new things and learning.

Thank you to each and every volunteer working both behind the scenes and with feet on the ground to make this club run successfully. Thank you to our vets who love this sport and are willing to put in the long days, thank you to our ride managers, day managers, trail markers, scribes, and timers for giving of your time and weekends so that we can ride. Thank you to my board–Andy, Wendy, Suzanne and Natascha–who keep the club operations running smoothly. Thank you to Kelli and Darice for all your advice and help–your wisdom as past presidents and years in the club have been invaluable. Thank you to our riders who, for some reason, do the early mornings and long days in the saddle for fun because there’s no place we’d rather be than on the trail. And last, but certainly not least, thank you to our horses, who carry us all these
miles. Each mile with our equine partners is a gift, and we couldn’t do this without them.

Christine Steendam