Friday Standing Ovation, Presented by Ovation Riding

Earlier this month we previewed Oxford Feed & Lumber’s Pink 50 Poker Prance, a benefit for breast cancer awareness and research held Oct. 12 at Fair Hill in Elkton, Maryland. Today we’re following up on how it went!

The event sounded like so much fun that we asked Nancy Johnson, who assisted us with the original story, to send us some photos! She did and says that by all accounts the fifth annual Pink 50 Poker Prance was a success.

An unprecedented 388 riders hit the trails and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. The ride wasn’t timed or competitive, just a leisurely hour to hour-and-a-half long hack through the autumnal countryside. Each rider received five cards along the route, a “poker hand.” The five riders with the best hands received gift cards to Oxford Feed & Lumber or the Drennen family’s other stores, Brandywine Ace Pet & Farm in West Chester and Pets & Friends in Jennersville, Pennsylvania. Five additional winners, drawn at random, received five bags of Purina horse feed.

So much pink!

There were other prizes, too, including five gift cards awarded to the “Most Pink” horse and rider teams. Each year, more and more of the participants really go all out on their costumes. Many horses were painted or dyed pink — in some instances its mane and tail and in others, the whole horse! Pink polo wraps and bell boots were popular and dozens of horses donned pink braids or even tolerated pink hats or big tail bows.

Pink pony power!

Melanie Guerrera aboard “Breena” with an imaginative use of pink.

Best friends Aimee Hall of Middletown, Delaware and Gina Kisielewski of Chesapeake City, Maryland, went thrift shopping for their costumes. “Absolutely everything that we and our ‘grooms’ are wearing came from Goodwill, so we are entering their Halloween Costume contest as well,” said Aimee. The woman both dressed as brides in full length pink gowns and the horses were the grooms in tuxedos! Gina explained their theme. “Horses are the only ‘stable’ men in our lives, so we decided to put them in tuxes and make it official.”

The women were participating in the Poker Prance for their first time – but they are already planning to ride again next year. Aimee’s sister is a breast cancer survivor while Gina’s friend Sue Goodman is currently battling the disease. Lynn Ashby, a trainer at Delaware Park, is also fighting breast cancer and she was in the thoughts of both Aimee and Gina at the ride. “This is just a great way for us to support our friends and families,” Sue said.

Aimee Hall and Gina Kisielewski dressed their horses as “grooms” and themselves as their “brides.”

There was also a raffle for prize baskets filled with donations from sponsors, each valued at several hundred dollars or more, and participants received pink tee-shirts and their choice of a goodie bag or embroidered saddle pad. And after the ride everyone was treated to a barbeque lunch.

All this and lunch too.

Many thanks to Nancy for the report and great photos, and a Standing Ovation to the Oxford Feed & Lumber’s Pink 50 Poker Prance! All proceeds went to benefit the Pennsylvania and Delaware Breast Cancer Coalitions to advance their breast cancer awareness and research programs.

Keep an eye out for info about next year’s event at www.oxfordfeedlumber.com and the Pink 50 Poker Prance Facebook page.

Go Riding!

Many thanks thanks to Ovation Riding for their support of both Horse Nation and individuals and organizations that are doing good work in the horse world. If you know someone who deserves a Standing Ovation, we would love to recognize them in a future post. Email the name of the person or organization along with a message about the good work they do to [email protected]. Photos/videos are always welcome, and include a link to their website if applicable.