Springfield Equestrian Club Packs A Lot Of Horse Power
BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
Springfield High School’s newest athletic club may be small, but it packs a lot of horse power.
On Sunday, the six members of the school’s equestrian club gathered at the Harry Hughes Youth Equestrian Center in Swanton for their first show after finally becoming a school board-recognized athletic club.
During the daylong Ohio Interscholastic Horsemen Association event, the teenagers participated in 17 classes such as hunt seat showmanship, saddle seat equitation and maneuvering barrels, flags and poles.
Mariah McNeil has been around horses, but Sunday was her first show, bringing Candy, her Quarter Horse, to compete in five different events.
“I’ve taken some lessons,” McNeil said. “But I’m just here to have fun.”
Having fun and yet showing how it’s a serious sport are two reasons why, as a freshman in 1999, coach Nicki McKenzie initially started the club with her father, Dan Shea.
At the time, Perrysburg and Sylvania were interested in forming an association for high school equestrian clubs, McKenzie said. So Springfield became not only one of the first area high schools to have such a club, but a charter member in the OIHA.
When McKenzie graduated in 2002, the equestrian club was still an unrecognized sport and fell dormant. But in 2007, McKenzie’s sister Rachel Shea started the club again, and it obtained school board recognition this year.
“A lot of our kids are involved in other sports, and some are not. But we want to give that recognition to kids, to show that they’re not sitting around watching TV but they’re working hard, preparing their horses,” McKenzie said.
Freshman Mackenzie Shank spent four hours Saturday evening, riding, bathing, banding and clipping her horse Ned. Shank has grown up in the horse show arena, participating in shows with her sister, cousins, aunt and mother. This summer, she was named grand champion in the Western pleasure class at the Lucas County Fair.
In addition to practicing and grooming Ned, Shank also maintains the many changes of clothes and tack needed for each class. She wore pink finery for Western horsemanship, while freshman Maddie Anderson wore an intricate black and turquoise outfit for the same event.
Participating in several events means club members are changing clothes up to six times during the day, from Western attire to finery, chaps to breeches, cowboy boots to riding boots.
The wardrobe itself sounds costly, but McKenzie shares her lifelong collection of riding wear with her students, including McNeil, who borrowed clothing for every event.
Anderson utilized McKenzie’s miniature horse in Western and saddle seat showmanship. Teens who are interested in riding don’t even need to have a horse, she said, because some horse owners will lease theirs out.
“We’re open to anyone who is willing and able to participate,” McKenzie said. “My goal is to promote the sport and have fun.”
Most of the club members – five of whom attended Crissey Elementary together – became hooked on horses at an early age.
Junior Sam Tolson has been riding since she can remember, taking lessons with Chewy, a Quarter Horse, and participating in horse shows with her sister Celina. Her mother Ceci designs the T-shirts for the OIHA and is active in the club. Sam also plays soccer and is on a national-level hockey team.
Kate Fasko has been riding for nine years, taking lessons and spending a few hours a day at the barn where she boards her horse. Fasko was the only team member to do jumping events.
Junior Garrett Manley has been riding on his own since before he was 2. Manley is also from a “horse family” as his grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousins and dad were all horse show veterans and he spent much of his first six years on the rodeo trail with his parents. Because of extracurricular conflicts, he has not participated in show events until this year. He rode Quarter-Appaloosa Molly in the barrels, poles, relay and flags competition.
Anderson has been riding since she was 5, and was showing Ace, a black and white paint horse. The Central Catholic High School student joined Springfield’s team because her school doesn’t have one. She is comfortable with the group, she said.
“Most of us have shown together at the fair,” Anderson said.
In some ways, team members are competing against each other, McKenzie said of the team events. Sunday’s event pitted Springfield against Anthony Wayne, Notre Dame and other medium-sized teams, while smaller and larger teams competed for points. Competing in the second division, Springfield’s team placed third with 62 points.
Anderson earned the most points for the win with 23 points, placing in five separate classes: saddle seat showmanship, saddle seat equitation, saddle seat pattern, saddle seat bareback and fourth in relay with Fasko.
Shank was a close second with 22 points, earning a first-place finish in hunt seat showmanship, first place in horsemanship and third in Western riding/reining.
Manley won first place in poles, and Fasko earned an eighth-place finish in equitation over fences and fourth in the relay with Anderson. Manley and Tolson also took a sixth-place finish in the relay. The team will compete again on Sunday, September 14 at Harry Hughes.
Anyone interested in joining the Springfield equestrian club should contact McKenzie at (419) 344-8357 or e-mail nsync98dre @aol.com.
Improved Fire Department Response Times Result In Better Insurance Rating For Holland
BY KELLY J. KACZALA — MIRROR REPORTER
The village of Holland’s insurance rating has improved by a point, according to a service that helps determine insurance rates for residential and commercial properties.
According to the most recent rating by the Insurance Services Office, or ISO, Holland scored 4 on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the best score.
Springfield Township’s score remained the same at 5.
ISO evaluates fire departments across the country to determine ratings based on several criteria, including personnel, equipment and communications systems. The ISO ratings last for five years before the department is evaluated again.
Springfield Township Chief Barry Cousino discussed the report at Holland Village Council on August 12 and at a Springfield Township trustee meeting on August 18.
“Our insurance rates are based on what grade your fire department is. Residential, your premiums don’t fluctuate a great deal, probably a few bucks here and there. But if you jump two or three numbers, it could end up being a more significant amount,” Cousino said.
He said ISO collected data over the past three or four months.
“They came out to look at the fire equipment, the fire stations, our training facilities, how we staff the stations, then they went through every compartment in each of the trucks to determine what type of equipment we carry on each of the fire apparatus, and whether it met the minimum amount of equipment that they require a fire department to carry,” Cousino said. “Anything above and beyond what their minimum is, we would get additional points toward the rate.”
The village’s ISO rating over the years has improved from 6, to 5 and now to 4.
Cousino said he had hoped Springfield Township would also rate a 4, because his department serves both communities.
“We’re in the same department and we’re servicing two neighboring communities,” he said.
Holland Mayor Mike Yunker said improved response times in Holland may have played a large role in the village’s improved ISO rating.
The village a few years ago disbanded its volunteer fire department due to slow response times and contracted with Springfield Township’s full-time department to provide fire and rescue services.
The township fire department’s response time to the village has been faster compared to the former volunteer fire department, Yunker said.
Cousino said he believed the township’s rating remained a 5 because there are more businesses to cover.
“What it boiled down to is, it is based on the size of the township, the population of the township and the number of commercial businesses in the township, and that the equipment staffing levels and water supply systems we have aren’t sufficient,” Cousino told the township trustees.
“There are more areas we can work on, in leadership training and the communications system. The township only missed an ISO rating of 4 by just a couple points. For the township, we’re very close,” Cousino said.
Yunker said there are no communities in Ohio that are in class 1, but 24 in class 2, 100 in class 3 and 307 in class 4.
“In the country, there’s only 4,403 communities that have a class 4. So really, we’re in a great position. It’s going to be a huge benefit to our business community. It will benefit our residential community as well. It’s going to be a significant cost reduction,” Yunker said.
These are sample articles that ran in The Mirror Newspaper.
To see what else you've been missing . . .
