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New Spring Fling show adds 25 classes and secures great hotel rates for exhibitors

Mid-America Spring Fling offers exhibitors 25 new classes and great hotel rates for its inaugural run April 2-4 (Thursday – Saturday, but not Easter Sunday) at the brand new state-of-the-art 200,000-sq.-ft. facilities at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, WI. Two short morning sessions starting at 10am have been added to accommodate the additional classes.

Heather Boodey of Franklinton, NC, will judge all classes. Because of Easter, a three-day format was chosen for the show’s first year. If all goes well, when Easter moves off this weekend next year, the expectation is to expand Spring Fling to four days.

New classes include two Open Training classes for two-year-olds in training equipment (full bridle optional), one a walk/trot class and one walk/trot/canter; five Denver Junior Horse classes for five-year-olds and under; Equitation Prospects class, with each rider to bring a pocket workout; Pleasure W/T 12 years and under plus Championship. 

In the Hackney division, Harness Pony Open and Championship classes are new, plus Road Pony Amateur and Open championships and four AHHS Youth Medallions (Show Pleasure Driving and Under Saddle; and Road Pony to Bike and Under Saddle).

The Open Pleasure division (now all-breed to accommodate Saddlebreds and exhibitors’ Friesian and Dutch Harness Horse barn-mates) has separate Open English Pleasure and championship classes for adults and junior exhibitors, Open Pleasure Driving and championship, plus Open Western and Hunter Pleasure classes.

GREAT HOTEL RATES FOR EXHIBITORS

“We’ve negotiated great hotel rates for our exhibitors,” says show manager Joy Meierhans. “$94 at the Clarion Suites, the hotel closest to the shows for a Studio Suite with one or two queen beds for one to four adults. For economy lodging, we’ve got $69.99 at Super 8 Madison South for a room with two queen beds only six minutes from the show. Exhibitors should make hotel reservations early to get these rates before room blocks sell out or expire.”

“Do exhibitors realize that staying at a show’s Host Hotels strengthens our ability to negotiate special exhibitor rates for them next year? If you stayed at other Madison hotels in the past, please consider switching to one of our Host Hotels for Spring Fling,” Meierhans continued.

Updates on the previous spring schedule include seven Jackpot classes requiring no advance qualification, replacing regular stakes; show and country pleasure Limit Horse classes, replacing Novice. (Novice Rider classes remain.)

Two classes added for everyone’s fun are a Costume class Friday night and a first-ever 40-Plus Equitation class for riders 40 years and over who have not shown equitation or academy in the past 10 years.

Spring Fling also has equitation age groups, including adult and W/T, and six qualifiers for national finals. Fourteen academy horsemanship and equitation age groups and championships are in the Friday morning and afternoon sessions.

The new Madison venue provides exhibitors excellent facilities with a 100’ x 200’ warm-up ring feeding into an even larger 100’ x 220’ show ring, plus 500 stalls with 10’ wide aisles – all under one roof, totally enclosed, in the New Holland Pavilion #2 at the Alliant Energy Center.

Celebrating 75 years serving the show horse community, Mid-America Horse Show Association produces three of its own shows and oversees a regional circuit of 26 affiliated shows in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri. With more than 350 individual, family and business memberships, Mid-America is one of the largest charter clubs of the American Saddlebred Horse Association.

For information on the Mid-America Spring Fling Show contact Joy Meierhans, show manager, at 630/557-2575 or JM@TheMeierhans.com. Prize lists are available at www.MidAmericaHorseShow.org.

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