More than 140 people packed Bristlecone Pines Country Club for the Knollwood Knockouts Annual Banquet Saturday, January 24 to celebrate their 2008 show season and gear up for the 2009 campaign.
The group gathered for social time prior to enjoying a delicious buffet dinner. While guests were finishing dessert, Knockout president Emily Wiersma reviewed the club’s 2008 activities which included a rose sale to benefit Saddlebred Rescue, fund raising at our two in-barn shows, a car wash benefiting the ASAW Scholarship fund, painting the new fences at the farm, adopting a family and a nursing home for the holidays, and the Spring Premier academy show which also benefits the scholarship fund.
Nancy Turner, the group’s advisor since its inception 13 years ago, made announcements about upcoming events, and then handed out championship and reserve championship awards for in and out of barn academy show categories as well as for the ‘A’ and ‘B’ circuit riders. She then introduced the 20 ASHA academy award recipients from the 2008 show season.
Following the awards, Nancy introduced the slide show that has become a semi-annual tradition. Tremendous effort and creativity resulted in a memorable multi-media display of Knollwood’s many personalities, both human and animal, from the recent and the not so recent past.
After the slide presentation, Scott Matton provided his year in review, commended his troops and introduced some of the new combinations that will be showing under the Knollwood banner in 2009. These include Alli Gutenkunst who will be graduating from the academy ranks and debuting in pleasure equitation on the talented CH Louisville Lass, Emily Mayer who will also be leaving the academy world and showing the personable CH Callaway’s Don’t Panic in pleasure equitation, and Shelby Hader who will enter the show horse world aboard her mother’s ambitious horse, Summerize.
The evening concluded with more visiting, and an encore performance of the slide show. It was a great year, and the Knockouts wish everyone a tremendously successful show season in 2009.