BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Bradford Riding Club members are petitioning the county commission for space to rebuild what they lost when they were “kicked out” of the fairgrounds.
That’s what Nikki Carlton told the commission Jan. 16, that the club “completely got kicked out” when the fair association decided to demolish the horse arena as part of the plan to rebuild the fairgrounds.
“We were told it was supposed to be temporary, and then they basically told us we had couple days to take pictures for sentimental [reasons] and that was it,” she said.
According to the fair association’s Bob Milner at the time, the 50-year-old arena was showing its age and was only used by a few people. The association needed the land as a borrow pit to help elevate the midway to withstand heavy rain. The Riding Club disagreed with that assessment and remains upset that they have no facility in Bradford County for their activities, which center around youth.
Carlton said they heard land had been donated to the county, so they wanted to know if the county would donate land to them or allow them to use county property to build an arena for the children.
“I was riding up at Bradford since I was five years old, and I still have continued riding since I was five. Both my children … have been there since they were born, but they have been riding since they’ve been old enough to ride,” she said.
Carlton said they now must travel to other counties to ride and cannot make their own schedules. She said if the county could provide the land, then the club could look for grants to build an arena for riding, rodeos and more.
“We are hoping maybe we can get a club back together in Bradford, so that we can allow the kids to have somewhere that’s family oriented and safe for them to go, because that’s what we were all about, was the family and having family fun,” she said.
Louette Smith is another member who had been riding at the former arena since childhood. She said her grandfather was one of the club’s founders. As a member of the Bradford Mounted Posse, she said she spoke to a girl during a recent parade who had ridden her horse uptown just to participate. The girl told her she had been riding in Lake Butler, but her family could no longer afford it.
Those are the kids the riding club used to be able to help. They and many more are missing out, she said. It was free to come and watch, and people did, she said. They would get interested and there would be extra horses for kids to learn riding.
“Some kids that come up there had never been able to even see any horses,” she said.
Others joined them in speaking about the history and service of the riding club, including Kimberly Reinhard.
“It was a family. We treated each other like that,” she said. “If something happened to one of us, we were all involved, and we need that in this community. And one thing that has not been brought up is the revenue that riding club brought people in when we have NBHA shows or frolics. We did benefits for the Boys Ranch that came. They used to get a really good check from us because we had those big events, and we were able to help them. Bradford County was able to help them in that way. We’re not raising that money anymore for the Boys Ranch, and we’re not having the events that are bringing people from other counties and people from this county together, that will leave and stop by somewhere to eat or stop somewhere and get some shopping done that they need to. That’s revenue for Bradford County, and I know that’s part of the bottom line when it comes down to these decisions, so I just want to make sure that I added that in.”
Commission Chairman Danny Riddick committed to investigate what the county could do to assist the club.
Afterward, there was a question about what land club members were talking about. Smith was later able to clarify she had heard about additional acreage behind the Douglas Building, the former state surplus property site on U.S. 301. Bradford County, through the work of Manager Scott Kornegay and others, was able to acquire the property from the state. The building was to be leased to MHD Rockland, but that arrangement fell through. Subsequent attempts to find a tenant have not succeeded.
The parcel is nearly 31 acres, only a portion of which is occupied by 104,000 square-foot warehouse. Smith also mentioned land at the Keystone Height Airport available for lease. She said they are not concerned about the location so much as finding land in the county to build their club back again.
