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Winners
of the top Standard Breds in Darke County were honored Saturday
at the Annual
Darke County Harness Horseman's Association awards
banquet Saturday at the Turtle Creek
Gold Course in Greenville. Alan
Riegle and RC Bowling were not on hand to receive their awards.
CNO
photos submitted by Debbie Nisonger
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Buchy talks
about horses and Ohio Agriculture
The two go hand in hand
By George Starks
GREENVILLE- When State Representative Jim Buchy addressed the Darke
County Harness Horseman’s Association Saturday night at the Turtle
Creek Golf Course, he spoke of the future of harness racing in Ohio and
the impact that casinos and racinos would have on the industry.
He also spoke in detail that all Equine can benefit by the future of
the casinos.
“We want to promote all Equine segments of the sport in Ohio,” said
Buchy. “I don’t care if it’s Standard Bred, Through Bred or the Quarter
Horse Congress. Any horse activity, it makes no difference, we want to
be the ambassadors for horses. We want to increase every activity
that’s related to horses. We want to promote because it’s the rising
tide that lifts all boats. Going into this year, the Equine industry is
worth over a billion dollars to the economy to the State of Ohio. We
want that to grow.”
At that point. Buchy tied Agriculture into the horse industry.
“When I speak of the growth of the industry, it really impacts us here
in Darke County,” Buchy pointed out. “It’s not only good for us in the
room here who are actively involved in the sport but its good for all
of agriculture. It related to every ancillary service like hay, oats
and veterinary services. You name it and it’s involved with
agriculture. It all adds up to agriculture growing and agriculture in
the aggregate was 108 billion dollars last year in Ohio and we want to
see that up to 110-120-130 billion dollars. Right here in this room,
(the banquet hall), we are contributing to that. It’s unbelievable that
what we have before us is a huge opportunity.”
If the horse industry is to prosper in the future, Buchy said it all
starts with one word.
“We have to have integrity on the track,” said Buchy. “We have to be
good citizens and here in Darke County and across the state, we have
that and it’s getting better all the time. The racing across the state
is getting better and it has to stay that way because a lot of fans can
be lost just as fast as we are getting them if we lose that integrity
and the quality of the racing were to go down. If the fans don’t
believe the sport is honest, we can lose them just like that. We have
to be good citizens in whatever aspect of the sport we’re involved in.
We have to promote and communicate. We have to be involved and be
ambassadors of the sport because there are a lot of people out there
that doesn’t know what we’re about. This is called selling retail. You
have to go one on one with people and tell them the goodness of what
this sport is. ”
Buchy ended by speaking about what it all boils down to.
“We are a family in this wonderful sport that was given to us by our
farmers 150 years ago,” said Buchy. “We have a commitment to our young
people. Several years ago, we had a 4-H Standard Bred Club called Silks
and Sulky’s. We need to re-institute that here. A guy named Jeff
Nisonger (Greenville) started in that 4-H club. When he got into that
club, I’m told he didn’t know the front end of horse from the back end.
Now, he’s one of the rising stars in the business. Kayne Kauffman (FM
Grad), won the Jerry Kaltenbach Driving Award in Columbus as the best
driver in the State of Ohio. We have Gavin Bixler, Mandy Jones, Tyler
Smith and Chris Hope. All local products and all up and coming stars in
this sport.”
Buchy also pointed out Arcanum native Ryan Brehm as being the world
champion in America in quarter horses.
“A Darke County boy that works with Gavin Bixler,” Buchy pointed out.
“We have unbelievable youth in this county that are coming up in this
sport. These youngsters are the next successful trainer, drivers and
owners. We have to get the youth involved. Mandy and Ryan are going to
re-start the Silks and Sulkies 4-H Club. On day, I would like to see
the Horse of the Year in this country come from the State of Ohio and
possibly even Darke County.”
Buchy concluded by saying that because of all the hard work put in at
the wilderness level, we are about to cross over into the promised land.
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Darke County native Kayne Kauffman won the Jerry Kaltenbach Driving
Award in
Columbus as the best driver in the State of Ohio.
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