The Clark State Forest hosted a dedication ceremony for the new horse camp recreational facility at Deams Lake, located in Southern Indiana, on June 28. The weekend of the grand opening had all 68 Class A horse camping sites in the facility fully booked. This was a big event!

The guest speaker was the governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels. Mounted on his own Harley Davidson, the governor drove through the horse camp in a motorcade of motorcycles and waving flags. He was careful not to spook the horses and just rode at a crawl through the camp -- but all the horses seemed to take it in stride.

Walt Zak, land manager and head forester of Clark State Forest, teamed up with the local distance riding organization, the Daniel Boone Distance Riders, in asking AERC for a $5,000 grant to help in building one of the seven barns planned for the new site. Each barn will have 12 10x12' stalls. So far the project has one barn totally completed and two more under roof with four more scheduled to be built this summer.

AERC partnered up with the State of Indiana and the Indiana Trail Riders Association in the building of this new horse camp facility in the Clark State Forest. This forest has been the host to endurance rides for more than 15 years and has excellent training trails for local trail users.

Walt Zak suggested that future endurance rides could be hosted from this new facility. The three rides that are held annually in the area, along with this year's AERC National Championship ride, are hosted on Bill Wilson's farm located in the center of the Clark State Forest trail system. Bill's farm is the camp of choice for the rides at the present time but it is great to keep the doors open for other possibilities.

Getting involved with this project has not only helped form a stronger relationship between the distance riders and the land management team but has also helped build better relations between the endurance riders and more casual trail riders.

Representing AERC, I was able to say a few words about helping with the project, as was Greg Hershberger, president of the Indiana Trail Riders Association. Greg expressed his gratitude to the governor and his administration for the wonderful cooperation between them and the horse community. I conveyed to the governor and the state forest land managers that AERC was pleased to be able to be a partner with the Clark State Forest in the development of the horse camp and hopes to be able to continue in the relationship with helping to maintain and build new trails in the forest.

The governor spoke about working together with the horse community to get projects like this completed. He said, "God made the land for us to enjoy and we need to manage the lands in a manner that others may enjoy for many years to come." He was very gracious with his time, speaking with all who wanted to talk with him before taking a tour of the campground in a horse-drawn wagon.

While on the tour of the campground it was pointed out to the governor that each of the horse/trailer rigs brought in thousands of dollars for the state and that the horse enthusiasts were still coming to camp in spite of high fuel costs.

Rob Carter, director of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), stated that he would like to have more horse trails and camps built throughout the state and with the horse people's willingness and enthusiasm to help as they did on this project thought there would be more to come in the near future. He also said that he is working on getting the trails to a point where they would be maintenance-free. The distance riders were eager let him know their availability to help when it comes to building sustainable trails.

The Indiana Trail Riders have been very involved with the planning of this campground. It was great to be able to come together for a common goal and show unity among equine trail users. The state hosted a great luncheon for all the horse people and Indiana state officials in attendance. Indiana State Representative Paul Robertson and head of the Indiana State Forest, John Seifert, were also in attendance.