Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 44

The show ring at the MFTHBA headquarters in Ava plays host to numerous seminars, shows and clinics, including the Spring Show and Three Year
Old Futurity Show in June and the World Show and Celebration in September.
members and their team breed, raise, train, rent and
sell Missouri fox trotters near the Ozark Trail that runs
through the Mark Twain National Forest. Their 350-acre
operation is comprised of Valley Springs Fox Trotters (barn
and training facility), Valley Springs Youth Camp and
Brushy Creek Outdoor Adventures (lodge, resort, cabins
and campgrounds).
JoAnn claims the draw to the fox trotter is almost like
an addiction. " They are so easy to work with, " she says.
" I love their personality and disposition; the more you do
with them, the more they love it. " She fondly recalls years
back when George demonstrated the horse's steady gait by
getting a cup of coffee at a drive-thru while on horseback.
Friends on other mounts, she says, attempted the same
but only George didn't spill a drop.
Such testimony is mirrored in the moniker of the
MFTHBA itself: " To ride one is to own one. " For a horse to
be an official fo trotter it must descend from a registered
stallion and mare and undergo DNA testing. Three characteristic
gaits including the at foot alk fo trot and canter
are considered standard for the breed. These three- or
44 RURAL MISSOURI | OCTOBER 2023
four-beat deliberate, diagonal gaits are unique in that the
horse always has a foot on the ground.
Continuous footfalls yield the steady ride by eliminating
moments of suspension followed by the jolt of paired legs
hitting the ground.
Trainer Mike Meizler of Rafter M Training Stables in
Thayer is one of just 27 clinicians worldwide to be featured
in this year's Art of the Horseman online equine fair. The
Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative member works primarily
ith trail horses but knos firsthand ho versatile fo
trotters are. He sold the winning cattle-sorting horse he
rode in 2018 to a man who now uses it to play polo.
Another horse Mike raised went on to be among those
ridden by the " Saltwater Cowboys, " who herd hundreds of
Virginia and Maryland wild ponies and their foals in the
waters between the Assateague and Chincoteague islands
each spring.
" These horses are doing incredible things that nobody
ever thought a fox trotting horse could do, " he says.
He's equally enthusiastic about the National Trail Ride
program, which grew exponentially while he was MFTHBA

Rural Missouri - October 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rural Missouri - October 2023

Contents
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - Cover1
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - Cover2
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - Contents
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 4
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 5
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 6
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 7
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 8
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 9
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 10
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 11
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 12
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 13
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 14
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 15
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 16
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 17
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 18
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 19
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 20
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 21
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 22
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 23
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 24
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 25
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 26
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 27
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 28
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 29
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 30
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 31
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 32
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 33
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 34
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 35
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 36
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 37
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 38
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 39
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 40
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 41
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 42
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 43
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 44
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 45
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 46
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 47
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 48
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 49
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 50
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 51
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 52
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 53
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - 54
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - Cover3
Rural Missouri - October 2023 - Cover4
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