Florida Sport Horse Club

We’ve gotten into the habit of reviewing our ended club year in August, just to track our activities. COVID-19 put a damper on many of our usual pursuits, but the club still had an active year. Interested in joining us? Visitors are encouraged to ride out with us a few times to see if our… Continue reading 2019-2020 Was Not the Year We Expected

Florida Sport Horse Club Guest Speaker: Polk County Sheriff’s Detective Jay Scarborough, Agricultural Unit February 17, 2020 Jay Scarborough is a lead detective with the Polk County Sheriff’s Agricultural Unit, with many years of experience. He is a certified animal/equine cruelty expert, owns 3 horses, and leads the Polk County Mounted Sheriff’s Unit. He chairs… Continue reading Guest Speaker: Jay Scarborough, Polk County Sheriff’s Detective, Agricultural Unit

If you live in Polk County: its “Agricultural Watch Program” has been embraced by the Florida Sheriff’s Association as a model program statewide. The program was developed as a means to identify ownership of agricultural properties in Polk County, and consists of a “No Trespassing By Order of The Sheriff” sign listing the property/business owner’s… Continue reading Protecting Your Property From Thieves

Did you know that FEMA has a free online course that we, as horse owners, can take to be better prepared for natural disasters?  It’s called “Animals in Disaster: Awareness and Preparedness.”  We’ve posted a print version in the “Useful Documents” section of our web site, or find the online version at  https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-10.a Course Overview… Continue reading “Animals in Disaster: Awareness & Preparedness”

Our club was incorporated in 1988, according to our records. And our logo has undergone a few revisions along the way. We really appreciate Judy Cloninger for sharing the first 2 logos with us!

There was a record turnout at the May meeting to hear guest speaker Polk County Sheriff Detective Laurie Smith, who works in the Environmental Unit with loose/neglected/abused horses, cattle and other livestock as well as to break up dog fighting operations. She is one of 14 investigators who work all over Polk County in 3… Continue reading May’s Guest Speaker: Detective Laurie Smith

Dr. LuJean Waters of Heartland Large Animal Service was the guest speaker at our March meeting. She had a lot of great information for us, including about vaccinations and which horses need them. Some of her points: Only horses who travel generally need the  Strangles vaccines are only good for 6 months; the disease can… Continue reading Guest Speaker: Dr. LuJean Waters

I wasn’t aware that bumper-pull trailer hitches were rated on the amount of weight they could safely carry until I saw a torn, mangled picture of a hitch on Facebook.  The posting warned that horse owners should check their hitches, as most were only rated to 5000 to 6000 pounds.  I checked my own hitch,… Continue reading Replacing My Hitch: Which One is Right?

Last week a rider returned to her trailer only to find that her keys had fallen off some time during her 10-mile ride. It was, to put it mildly, an upsetting situation. And one that all of us around knew could happen to us. Thankfully, somebody actually found the keys and returned them to the… Continue reading Where, Oh Where, Have the Truck Keys Gone?