The Pleasant Valley Horse Club in Houston is starting to see some fun jumping days but would not be battling it out in the park during these already-tough Covid days.
With Covid, a lot of events, activities have seen cancellations all over the world and the Pleasant Valley Horse Club (PVHC) was not spared by these cancellations. The club had to cancel several of its pre-planned events for the year said Jay Gregorowich, the club treasurer and one of the organizers for the events.
“The club was affected a lot. We had to cancel May day, we had to cancel three events and now it is too late in the season to do any high points activities,” he said. “This year is kind of a write-off. We are still going to do fun events, but we are not competing for prizes.”
The club hosted their first gymkhana on July 18.
“The Pleasant Valley Horse Club used to be The Bits & Spurs so the gymkhanas have been happening for about 40 years,” said Gregorowich.
The gymkhana was followed by a wiener roast and a meeting where their next event, a driving clinic for August 21,22 & 23 followed by a gymkhana on August 23rd was decided upon. However this year, the club won’t allow any drop-in riders.
“People from the public can come and watch but if you are going to be riding, you need to be a member and you need to have a B.C. Horse Council insurance,” he said adding that the club used to have drop-in fees, so if you didn’t want to be a member but wanted to compete just for one day, they would have that option. “But we are not doing that because this year, because of Covid and all the restrictions, you have to be a member to ride.”
The Four Seasons Park has been open for around a month for individual riders, according to Gregorowich. However, the park was officially opened on July 15.
The club is also ensuring that they have proper cleanliness and social distancing measures in place.
“We have all our Covid safety stuff ready to go. We have spray bottles for bleach solutions for the bleachers and the bathrooms, we have hand sanitizers at different stations, we have marked out with paint in the park to do proper distancing and we have gloves and masks,” said Greogorowich.
Gregorowich told Houston Today that the public is always welcome to come and watch and the club is open to people wanting to join.
“Our club members were so excited to do the gymkhana this Saturday and we had a great turn out with 15 riders,” said Greogorowich, adding that there were also quite a few spectators for the gymkhana.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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