Horsemanship students dismayed to find arena gates locked
By Steve Moyer
Nevada Daily Mail
With a competition coming up Saturday those youth in 4-H horsemanship classes find themselves locked out of the arena located at the Vernon County fairgrounds, and that has some parents less than happy.
Tracie Mays and a group of concerned participants and their parents met with Vernon County Commission members Tuesday to try to resolve the issue quickly.
"It helps to have a safe environment to ride in," Mays said. "Since the arena has been locked there have been kids who have ridden along the roads and that isn't good."
According to Mays none of the Vernon County Youth Fair board members knew the arena had been locked up. The bathrooms and the switches for the lights had been locked up before, but the arena had always remained available for the use of those participating in horsemanship classes.
"I talked to the Youth Fair board members and none of them knew it was locked," Mays said. "I talked to Tracy (Pitts) myself and he said he had talked to Neal (Gerster, Northern Commissioner) and got permission to lock it."
Gloria Greenstreet, a mother of one of the participants, said that there were a lot of temptations for area youth and getting her child involved in horsemanship was one way she could help keep him away from a myriad of negative influences.
"You know what it's like, there's sex and drugs and other things out there," Greenstreet said. "The open ride night gives me, as a parent, an option to get my boy involved."
Presiding Commissioner David Darnold said that the commission wanted as many Vernon County residents as possible to be able to use the facilities at the fairgrounds but there are some concerns.
"If the lights are on, that's quite an expense," Darnold said. "We just want the Vernon County groups who use it to know where to go to get a key and what to lock up after they use the arena -- lights, restrooms, whatever."
Mays said that she was told Pitts had gotten a phone call complaining that some out-of-town people had used the arena, turned on the lights and left, leaving the lights on until 2 a.m. She said she doubted the story because the lights were so rarely used and they were locked.
Southern Commissioner Bonnie McCord stated that she was unaware of any problems at the arena and Mays responded that it had never been locked before.
Another parent, Cindy Irwin, stated that the group helps maintain the arena by discing the arena and mowing the grass and weeds around it.
Irwin was also concerned that problems accessing the arena might discourage area youth from participating in the horse program.
"It's not right to punish us for one instance -- if it even happened," Irwin said. "Horse participation has gone down each year and if this keeps up we could lose them all."
Commissioners are studying the issue and will render a decision later.