BY LINDSAY VANHULLE
lvanhulle@record-eagle.com
WILLIAMSBURG — Two days ago, the grounds at Flintfields Horse Park were quiet.
A few riders practiced with their horses at the park, a short distance from M-72 in Acme Township. Crews finished preparing the 80-acre site for the start of the annual Horse Shows by the Bay festival.
Beginning today, the public is invited to spend weekends here through Aug. 1. The four-week festival features more than 1,000 horses and their riders in a variety of equestrian competitions.
Additionally this year, the horse park will host the Great American Insurance Group/U.S. Dressage Federation Region 2 Dressage Championships from Sept. 10-12, for riders from seven states, including Michigan.
"It took us two years to do that," said Alex Rheinheimer, co-founder and co-owner of Horse Shows by the Bay, of landing the championship bid.
Horse Shows, in its seventh year, keeps growing. This year's contests feature more participants and a larger pot of prize money — up to $400,000 distributed among all events.
Riders easily can pay thousands of dollars for such things as entrance fees, training, transportation and lodging when competing, Rheinheimer said. She believes her organization weathered the national economic recession well enough to attract new riders from farther distances.
"It's the same quality and the same level of competition," she said. "We just continue to gain in stature and prominence."
The event could make the North American Riders Group list of top 25 show-jumping contests in the country when it is released this fall.
Betsy Juliano and Katie Stanton-Nichols will compete in adult amateur dressage competition this weekend.
Juliano and Stanton-Nichols are new Horse Shows by the Bay participants. Juliano has been riding for 46 years. Stanton-Nichols started riding about 40 years ago.
Both women ride dressage, an equestrian discipline that emphasizes training and movement.
"For me, it was the only way to ride, because after a while, riding for riding's sake wasn't enough," said Stanton-Nichols, of Indianapolis. "I needed something to give me a goal."
Until now, neither had ever visited Traverse City.
Juliano said she was eating at a restaurant in her hometown of Gates Mills, Ohio, when the couple at the next table heard her discussing her plans to visit here. They told her how much they enjoyed the town.
"I was excited to come up and see it, too," she said.
