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Show Riding Club Gives Resume of Past ' ! Year's Activities, Accomplishments Submitted By A Member At the start of the year 1949, the Hobble Creek Riding Club vowed to be one of the outstanding clubs in Springville. The first desire of the club was to install the in- organized, it has sponsored a Ro- deo and each and every year they have had to build an arena in which to have the Rodeo and we don't have to elaborate on the tremendous tre-mendous job it is to build a complete com-plete arena every year from the ground up. This year, our plans called for a rodeo grounds which we could build and keep intact for ! future years and in which we could have our annual rodeo. Through the co-operation of the city, the club and the city purchased pur-chased a piece of property on which to build a permanent rodeo grounds. The deed for said property prop-erty was in the city's name and the city in turn gave the Riding club a lease to said grounds. Due to the early part of the year and the severe winter weather, wea-ther, it was impossible to do any work on the Rodeo Grounds. So to keep the members active and the outside people interested in the club, we sponsored a dog derby for the younger boys and girls in our city -and those kids really got enthused and started training their dogs for the derby. The dog derby turned out to be a success and with weather conditions permitting, per-mitting, we plan to make this an annual affair for the kids. It is clean fun and interesting as well and is another activity to keep our young people busy. With the interest of the club members at a high pitch and with the growing interest in the club from the citizens of our city, it was decided to prepare the plans for our rodeo grounds. Our membership mem-bership at this time was 40 members mem-bers and was increased to 44 members, which was our total membership for the balance of the year. It was not an uncommon thing to see more than 90 of those members out working on equipment were furnished and used, welding equipment was fur- ! nished and hand tols by the truck j : load were furnished by the mem- ' bers and not a cent was paid for labor. If there was room, we would i like to mention every person who j helped the club build the rodeo ' grounds. They just came down to the grounds and wanted to work. They felt the club was building a worth-while project and wanted to be a part of it. That was real interest in-terest and was the thing that spurred the members of the club on and on. It was not an uncommon uncom-mon thing to see the club members mem-bers working until 2 a.m. and the kids were interested too; they came by the hundreds and their parents soon found that if the kids were gone and they could not find them in the neighborhood, they were at the rodeo grounds. Those kids are our future citizens and I club members and we want to i j build their interest in the club and j j what it stands for, thev cost us j extra work and money, but it was worth it for the interest they showed. As the month of May rolled around, things began to take shape at the rodeo grounds and it was decided that every thngr would be ready for a rodeo by the 4th of July and it was decided at this time to ask the City and the City Recreation Board for the 4th of July celebration. The plans were to take the complete celebration, a parade, entertainment and prizes for the children, a program for the adults, the decoration of the streets and all the trimmings that go with such a celebration, and at last; but not least, the big rodeo. This we ask of the city without any cash outlay from them. We sponsored a beard growing contest at this time and the Mayors-issued Mayors-issued a proclamation proclaim I ing the beard growing contest and the types of beards the different j J, clubs, organizations and the gen- ; eral public was to wear, also the I ' rules to govern the contest and the I jj fines. Most of you still remember i j the type of beard the Riding club i members were to wear one side ! smooth shaven and the other side the untouched wooley. The climax of the beard growing contest was ', the 4th of July when the prizes ' for the different types of beards were presented. To take on a task such as this j took not only the efforts of just a few, but the support and efforts j of the whole club, our friends and . loyal citizens. ! As the first of July rolled around things were really humming and those long hours of working and ' ! planning were beginning to tell, ! the members were on edge and ! keyed to a high pitch. More than ; once anger was aroused from un- ; thinking remarks. All joking was ' put aside, the test was here. It i was "to make" or "to break" and ' it had to be "to make." The Rodeo was a two-night showing. Saturday, July 2nd, the first showing was held here and ' we decided to let all children 12 years of age and under in free. They are future customers and we want to build their interest and support, but boy oh boy, you would never believe there were so many kids under 13 years of age in any town anyway not Springville. Well the advertisement said "free" all children 12 years of age and under Saturday night and thev said they were under 13 years of age; sp they got in free. Anyway, they bought pop and candy from (Continued on Page Eleven! terest in everyone of the joy and pleasure of the Western Riding Horse and western riding equipment. equip-ment. It was the endeavor of the club to participate in any civic or Community Com-munity affair that was asked of them and to let it be known that the club was willing to participate as such. The first activity of the club was the annual dance, sponsored by the club and it was the desire of the officers of the club to make the dance a real success, the sole purpose pur-pose of which was to create interest inter-est and activity among the members mem-bers of the club. The reason for the interest and activity within the club members was the first move with which to create interest from outside the club, which without the club would hold no civic place in our community. Our aim for this year was not for a big membership in the club, but rather an active membership. We felt that with a membership of 45 and a 90 activity was far $ better than a membership of 100 members and only 417c activity. Our club by no means has set a number for membership, but we do insist on interest and activity. By so doing we feel that with an active club we will create interest outside the club and they will in turn want to be members of the Riding Club. To get back to the Gance, every member had. some part to play in making the dance a success. The dance was a success and the interest in-terest from outside was even greater than we anticipated and the interest and activity within the club was a hundred per cent. Since the dance, the members of the club have participated 95 in activity and attendance at all club meetings and activity. The outside interest has been on a steady climb up and other local civic clubs have asked to work with the Riding club on civic projects. pro-jects. Every year since the club was the rodeo -grounds. When you consider con-sider that the members are from all walks of life and must make their living many different ways, we find it hard to believe that we could get such undying faith and attendance from the club members. mem-bers. The rodeo grounds to begin with was a jungle swamp and the first thing was to set regular work days. As the big majority of the members had Sundavs and holidays holi-days off, it was decided that those days would be the club work days and everv member lived with that in mind. The members who did not have those days off came and worked on their regular days off from their every day jobs. Such faith from the members of the club is what made onr project possible pos-sible and successful. To build a rodeo grounds is a big job under the best of conditions, but as mentioned, men-tioned, before, the rodeo grounds was a jungle swamp and that called for more extra work. Before Be-fore we relate farther, we must say that this ground was not chosen cho-sen at randum, but was carefully thought out. First the City Planning Plan-ning Commission was contacted for their recommendation on the location and the possibility of such. Their recommendation on the grounds was very favorable and we proceeded to work from their recommenation. Drains had to be put in completely around the grounds so that we could bring 1 heavy equipment in to clear the i grounds. The city cooperated with ! us 100 and the City Engineer and City Emplovees worked with the club untold hours on their off i time. The club furnished all the j material such as drain tile, fence posts and fencing for the arena j and the corrals and all the lum-t lum-t ber which goes into such grounds for the arena and chutes, etc. The city furnished the electric light poles and the club members, with the help of the city electric con-i con-i struction foreman, placed the poles l in the ground. The club furnished the lighting fixtures and the city ! electric department installed them and also furnished the wire, etc., and made the grounds ready for j night activity. Every concern or j company that had equipment that ' we contacted, offered their equip-' equip-' ment to the club free of charge. ! Whiting & Company Construction ! Company furnished a caterpillar ! tractor and bull-dozer with which to clear the grounds and level, G. Lowry Anderson Inc. furnished a Ford tractor and post hole digger ! to dig the post holes, A. O. Thorn ! Construction Company, Deal Men-! Men-! denhall Construction Company and the Ralph Child Construction Com-j Com-j struction Company furnished j trucks to haul sand with which j to' cover the grounds, the Thorpe ' Sand & Gravel Company furnished trucks and a caterpillar loader to ! load trucks. The city at different ! times furnished a back-hoe., patrol, ' trucks and a bull-dozer. Without ! all this help we would still be working and it would have taken j several years to complete the job, j but as it was. we were able to ( have it ready for the 4th of July, j Don't think the members of the J club didn't have to work, they had 1 to operate all this equipment and ! members who had equipment of ! their own furnished it. Trucks, j tractors and various pieces of farm Riding Club Resumo' s Continued l'Yom Thro Ton) tlu stmi'l Inside the Rrounds so fj wo Know It- wns OK nftor nil nml & wo still htnl enough cash paying J? oiisloiuors nl'tor wo checked up to f (.ll,',,r expenses for that night. Not juittinjr it niidly, wo wore mighty jilonsl il,ul r,m' to go for the w biir iln.v of Uu ",th- Sunday, July 3rd. wiis another busy day making final arrangements for the 4th and then -at daybreak on the 4th sa- Elites got us out of bed, that is, nil except the ones that were setting set-ting thorn off. Man! Oh Man' What a busy start for a day the eonoos.sions at the City Park were ol f to an early start and the people wore coming- by the hundreds. Main street was decorated with the typical rodeo banners and lined on both side by Old Glory. The children games started in the morning- and ran until the early afternoon after-noon and every child that partici-pated partici-pated in the games got a prize. After the childrens' games, there was a program for the adults and the Mayor and Councilmen gave the club a great send-off. There were musical numbers, and dancing danc-ing numbers and just plain fun numbers on the program and all were received by a large audience with sincere appreciation. After the program came the beard growing grow-ing contest. Now it was getting time to get the big parade going. It was called for 6 p.m. sharp and we wanted it to be right on time. The Cars had hppn rnmi r o- fni. several hours and by 5 p.m., there were hundreds of cars along Main street. By 6 p.m., there were more cars along Main street than had ever been in Springville at one time. The parade started at 6 p.m. sharp with a score of floats competing com-peting for the trophy and 3 cash prizes. There were the Rodeo Queen and attendants, Riding Clubs, Industrial Section, Novelty floats and all that goes to make a successful parade. Our help to get this parade going was tremendous. tremen-dous. Various persons would come and ask if thev could help in some way to handle traffic or anv duty you may wish. You would see some person and would ask 1 him or her if they would do some task and thev would pitch in and work as if the whole parade depended de-pended on their task and don't let anyone fool you it did. That is the unselfish support we received right along to make a success of all our doings, and God bless them for it. After the parade came our big feature the Rodeo. The stands were packed. Rieht here we must pause to thank the Diamond Fork Ridine club for their generosity in letting us borrow their bleachers bleach-ers for our show, also the Springville Spring-ville hisrh school. The Rodeo went along in a beautiful rhvthm and the novelty acts and the clown? (all club members) filled in all the gaps, which helped to make the show a real success. Springville in the past has been called a poor rodeo town, but we believe now that we have the interest started for bigger and better rodeos. Now came the test, "did we" or "didn't we," well as we predicted before, "we did." We checked up, paved all our bills and we were not in the red. in fact, we still have a bank balance. Do you know that through all this, the club participated par-ticipated in parades at 'Salt Lake City, Spanish Fork, Payson and Orem as well as two in Springville. change is as good as a rest. Now it is time to prepare for the District meet and members fly into this with a new life, the meet is a two-night show, one night' at Payson and) one night at Spanish Fork. The : members worked hard and earnest for the district meet and after all the dust had settled he Hobble Creek Riding club took nine of the 14 first places, two second places and one third place, for which we were mighty happy and proud. . The State meet followed the district dis-trict meet and it was held in Pay-son. Pay-son. By this time, the members were getting a little tired of the long grind, but all those who were eligible, went to the State meet and were lucky enough to win one first place, two seconds and one third place. The State organization is a new organization and it was at the State meet where there was a difference of opinions as to how to judge the different events and more than one club at this time was ready .to leave the State organization. or-ganization. We are sure these differences dif-ferences will be worked out in the future and there will be no gness work, but strict rules govern the events and all clubs will be judged by the same rules and interpreta- I tion. Shortly after the 4th when the club had a little party in Hobble Creek at "El Rancho Peays" and the report on the 4th of July was given, the tension was all gone and it was back to 'joking. After all this work and before starting any more, it was decided to have the annual over-night party in Wanrodes at the Child ranch for the the .members and their partners and what a snap to plan such a party after the long grind. The horse back ride in the hills is far different from the drills and parades oh well a The inter-state meet was held in Idaho, but due to the already long season and the long distance from home, the members who were eligible to go, felt it would be impossible im-possible for them to participate, therefore we did not have a representation repre-sentation at the inter-state meet. After as long a season of activity ac-tivity as this, you would think it would be enough, but we still have the annual over-night party at the Fred Averett ranch in Hobble Creek. This is generally the last club ride and thev really enjoy it because after that we have to forget for-get the club while we go hunting, you know we even take our horses on the hunt, not tired of 'em yet. We are planning- on sponsoring some winter activity at the rodeo grounds and with the help of the Lions club, we are going to sponsor spon-sor skating for the younger folks and this work is all ready for the cold chill. Now last, but not least, is the annual meeting and election of new officers. We can't wait; for the new ones to get in because we know that next year they will really be doing something. |
