January 10, 2007

Traverse City, Michigan's Horse Sports By The Bay, Inc., Secures Horse Show's Future

Traverse City, Michigan: Horse Sports by the Bay, Inc. together with Karin Flint of Wellington, Florida have insured the longevity of the Traverse City, Michigan summer equestrian festival through the purchase of 84 acres in Acme Township. Official closing documents were signed on Friday, January 5th securing the property for the future horse park. “This is truly a dream come true,” remarks Alexandra Rheinheimer, Horse Sports by the Bay, Inc. co-founder, “and we can’t thank enough all of our sponsors and fellow horse show enthusiast Karin Flint.”

Flint, originally from Harbor Springs, Michigan realized that the future of the shows rested on finding it a permanent home. “In light of what happened to the old Motor City shows plus what’s currently going on here in Wellington, I thought it was critical for these shows to find a permanent home,” explained Flint. “I’ve been in this industry for so many years now and have seen how important it is for the shows to control their own destiny.” Flint currently owns four horses which are under the guidance of Olympic veteran Lisa Jacquin plus has previous horse show management experience from when she used to be in charge of the old Bloomfield Open Hunt’s Detroit-Motor City Horse Shows. “Karin’s taken such an interest because she’s experienced first hand what it’s like to work so hard on a project and then see it all disappear to land development; since we were on a year to year lease with the Chum’s Corner site we just couldn’t plan for the future and now we can,” explains Rheinheimer.

Plans for the property include constructing four full size show arenas with corresponding separate warm ups; a fifth work space for longing and lessons; graded and raised tent pads able to accommodate 1000 stalls; wash racks; manure bunkers; gravel and graded roads and parking lots; lighting; full electric and water plus areas set aside for vendors, shade pavilions, golf carts, etc. “This site will be ready for the summer” states Rheinheimer, “and as matter of fact the engineers are out there as we speak staking the property to establish the clearing limits.”

The site is located in Grand Traverse County just north of M-72 approaching Traverse City, MI. Neighbors include already developed five and ten acre horse farms and a working cherry orchard. Rheinheimer adds, “The land is very picturesque and couldn’t be better suited for the horses. We are much closer to all of the East Bay hotels than before plus we’re close to several area golf courses and RV parks.”

Horse Shows by the Bay Series I, II, and III and Zada Enterprises, LLC’s Dressage by the Bay Series I and II will operate from July 18 through August 5th this year. All five events are sanctioned by the United States Equestrian Federation which is the National Governing Body for all Equestrian Sport. The series offers over $340,000 in total prize money featuring a weekly Show Jumping Grand Prix, Welcome Prix, Show Jumping Hall of Fame Junior-Amateur/Owner Prix, Classics for Adult and Children Jumpers, Young Jumper Qualifiers, and a whole host of hunter classes, equitation and non-rated hunter/jumper events. In addition several special hunter classics have been recently added to coincide with Series II’s World Championship Hunter rider status. Special Charity Events and a comprehensive Kid’s Day are also scheduled. For more information and a list of 2007 sponsors please see www.horseshowsbythebay.com or call 561-723-6287.