Lory State Park is a great destination for trail riding, jumping or hiking. Plan a visit and have some fun!
Plus…mark your calendars, the grand reopening and official dedication of the course is now scheduled for Saturday, September 19, 2015!
I hope you will make plans to attend and ride with your equine friends!
LindaP
By Mick Syzek, Volunteer Coordinator
In January of 2014, the Friends of Lory State Park with Lory Park staff and volunteers began to rebuild the more than 50 wooden equestrian jumps in the South Valley Loop area of the Park that were destroyed by the Galena Fire of March 15, 2013. Equestrians are already taking advantage of the new jumps! The Foundation for Colorado State Parks bestowed grant funds of $8,000 towards the reconstruction efforts. This allowed the Park to hire James Atkinson out of San Diego, a course designer and equestrian jumps builder with international experience, to help us construct portable replacement jumps according to specifications from the United States Eventing Association (USEA).
Lory State Park was able to purchase finished and raw log lumber material from insurance monies received as a result of the fire. James and NOCO local Dan Michaels led several workshops throughout the year, culminating in placing the last of 24 finished jumps onto the field course in late August 2014. Volunteers organized and scheduled by the Friends of Lory State Park devoted many afternoons and weekends to construct, assemble, stain the jumps, help place them in the field, and weed-whack the approaches to the jumps.
Key Volunteer Glen Akins kept track of construction sketches, diagrams, and drawings of all the various jump styles built. Members of the CSU English Riding Club organized by Tiare Santisteven, and the Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) led by Dan Williams, were key to volunteer efforts to completely clean out the charred wood remains, nails, and bolt hardware from the burned jump locations. Boy Scout Josh Knebel organized the volunteer construction of two complex portable jumps for his Eagle Project. We are currently working to get all the pictures and videos of volunteers, as well as jumpers on the course, uploaded or at least linked to the Friends website.
We are now close to halfway complete with the entire project, and existing jumps are open to the public. Starting in May we will be posting scheduled afternoon and weekend workdays. We are scheduling two full weeks from June 7-21 that we will be offering volunteer opportunities daily. We plan to continue constructing jumps throughout the summer as needed to complete another 25 or more. Ideally, we have asked James and Dan to return one or two more times towards the end of the summer to help with jump placement in the field (dates TBD).