Submitted by:
Kelsey Beers
Everything Little Farm (Zone 11)
Coach of the most awesome 41 equestrians
A year ago, a rider on the Everything Little Farm IEA team was standing in the snow in 20 degree temps at a local IEA show, saying she wanted to do a horse show in Florida. Knowing how expensive that was, I told her that would be out of the question. I went home to thaw out and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if we did it through IEA that it would be a really inexpensive way for these kids to get to compete at an away horse show and still get the same feel of having fun with friends and competing without the expense of stabling and shipping horses down.
So we set the plan in motion that the next IEA season we would participate in an IEA show in Florida. That summer and Fall of 2019, the kids raised approximately $11,000 in fundraising. More than enough to cover the house, the parents covered their flights and tickets to Disney, etc. I started contacting farms and settled on competing at Wendover Equestrian in Orlando, Florida. Owner Wendy Trocano was the most gracious coach, offering advice and answering any questions we may have had. In November of 2019 I sent her my entries for the Everything Little Farm team from Pennsylvania.
Twenty eight of the Everything Little Farm IEA teammates made it down to Florida in January for a long weekend. A total of 78 people total including siblings and parents. With the fundraising money we rented a huge 28 bedroom mansion in Orlando, the mansion had two themes - Music City and America the Beautiful. Each bedroom had murals that went along with the theme. It also had a pool, arcade, movie theater, large great rooms, and bowling alley!! The kids never had to leave if they didn’t want to! They had many days of fun with their teammates going to Disney, bowling, swimming, staying up all hours of the night, watching movies together, filming house tour videos and more! The parents had just as much fun spending time with one another.
On Saturday Jan 18, 2020, we showed up at Wendover Place for the IEA show. It was such a great experience to show in the presence of palm trees while back at home we heard all about the snow that was falling. The Wendover team made us feel welcome, sharing their tent for us, giving the girls food and drinks, asking if we needed anything, answering any questions we had so that we understood how things worked a little differently down south. The Everything Little Farm girls met some new friends, and loved showing at a place totally different than they are use to. The Everything Little Farm created a basket for Wendy that included all kinds of gifts and food unique to the Philadelphia and Bucks County area. It was a day of making new friends. That night the kids had a team meal together back at the mansion and swam the night away. By Monday we were all on flights home again, back to the cold.
What started out as a crazy idea from a 13 year old girl, wound up being 5 days of the most amazing memories. Every single child left saying they were so sad it was over. We had our end of horse show huddle and I told the girls, in the end you won’t remember that you made it to regionals today, or that you rode an adorable pony, or that you forgot a lead or diagonal. What you will remember is all the fun you had with your 28 of your horse friends for a few days in Florida and IEA just helps to facilitate all those amazing memories. Looks like we will be going back next year to do it all over again!
One of the kids said, "Next year Hawaii"! I had to break it to them that there is no IEA in Hawaii. So thank you IEA for giving these girls even more opportunities than you realize on the surface. Now, I have 28 girls that can say they got to do a Florida horse show.
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