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If there is one thing
that is the hallmark of HITS horse shows nationwide,
it is the consistent excellence of its footing. The HITS Saugerties Spring Horse Show Series
has borne that out as the rings have ridden well
through sun and rain the past two weeks.
HITS recently completed a conversion to EuroFelt
in all of its ten showing and six warm-up rings
at Saugerties and the effort won high praise from
Olympic athlete McLain Ward.
"The footing at the Saugerties show
grounds is the best in the country; those of us
heading to the World Championships in Achen in August
will make HITS Saugerties our last stop on the way
to Europe," Ward said last week.
Ward was one of four Olympic Team Gold Medalists
at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
The
HITS formula for footings success is deceptively
simple. "We build a 6”-10” well-compacted base
of stone dust, topped with about two inches of
sand to which we add a carefully designed mixture
of rubber and EuroFelt," noted HITS, Inc.
President, Tom Struzzieri.
"The secret, however, to our nationwide
success is that we custom design the final footing
mixture to match the exact microclimate of each
of our show grounds," he said. This fine tuning to local weather conditions
including temperature, rainfall and sunlight is
what separates HITS rings from its imitators.
"We couldn’t have achieved our level
of footings success without our close working
relationship with Wayne Gregory and his company,
Footings Unlimited," Struzzieri added.
"HITS
was the first U.S. company to adopt European Footings
products and expertise and then adapt them to
the wide variety of U.S. horse showing conditions,"
said Gregory.
"A perfect example was HITS use of
EuroFelt as the specific synthetic fabric additive
of choice," he said.
EuroFelt is a shredded synthetic that is
added to the top dressing of sand and functions
to knit the footing together.
The specific final mixture of EuroFelt,
sand and in some cases rubber additives must be
custom tuned to the local environmental conditions
at each show site. "Textile-type additives have been used
for years in Europe, but their performance has
met with only mixed reviews by U.S. riders when
used here in America,"
Gregory said, "because many of these fibers
were suitable only to European sand and weather
conditions."
"In
addition to environmental conditions at the show
site, the other major concern is the specific
equestrian use that the show ring is being designed
for," Gregory added.
"It is a question of analyzing the
required combination of concussion reduction and
footing stability," he said.
"EuroFelt’s unique ability to provide
concussion reduction while binding the riding
surface together in a stable footing is what has
gained rider acclaim nationwide," Gregory
concluded.
The
HITS Saugerties show jumping season continues
through June 11 and then resumes in mid-July.
In addition
to the regular HITS A-rated Hunter/Jumper seven-week
season, HITS Saugerties will host two USEF-recognized
special competitions—the National Junior Hunter
Finals, July 24-26 and the Maclay Region 2 Finals
(Equitation) on Labor Day, September 4.
In addition, the Marshall & Sterling
League Finals will be held at the Saugerties site
September 14-17.
"Every
single one of these competitions will be held
on EuroFelt footing," Struzzieri added proudly,
"because that’s what we have!"
Struzzieri noted that the company is not
resting on its EuroFelt laurels. "We are thoroughly investigating the next generation of synthetic
footings, particularly polymer-coated sand.
We will use the same region-specific approach
to the integration of polymers into our program.
When we are sure it will work and work
perfectly and last for years, then and only then
will we go forward with a polymer-enhanced footing
system. We don’t want to put in a trendy ring that
fails under local weather conditions," he
said. "The cookie-cutter approach doesn’t work for us."
For
more information on HITS Horse Shows visit their
website at www.HitsShows.com, email them at info@hitsshows.com
or call their corporate offices in Saugerties
at 845.246.8833.
For more information about Footings Unlimited,
the world's largest supplier of arena riding surfaces
and national supplier of EuroFelt, and more than
sixty other footings additives, contact Wayne
Gregory, President, at 800.972.7251 or visit their
website www.footingsunlimited.com.
©Lili
Weik Photography
2006
McLain
Ward Clears a Jump at HITS Saugerties
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