Dr. Thomas Lees Memorial Award Volunteerism – 2009 – Liz Spangler & Bob MacGregor

 Well, HTPEI doesn’t normally give this award to out going presidents but this year, there is no one more deserving than Liz Spangler and her husband Bob Macgregor. Together they have tirelessly kept the cross country course at the Strathgartney Horse Park in top notch shape.

Liz has been working on becoming a certified cross country course designer, of which we have very few in the Maritimes and Liz will be the first on the Island. This year, she has put on a fantastic jump building clinic where we replaced several older jumps and given the course more diversity in the process. The improvements have made our course more technically challenging raising the level competition and in turn, making Island riders more competitive off Island. Liz has also been instrumental in making both our Horse Trials run so smoothly.

There is no one who loves his chainsaw and tractor more than Bob. Without his drive, many riders would have gotten a face full of branches in the back fields, brush jumps would not have looked so full and jumps would have taken days instead of hours to build.

You could drive by the park at any time and not be surprised to see either of them there dumping found island stone for next years projects, repairing damaged jumps or just making sure the park was safe for riding. These two have planned, heaved, hammered and dug their hearts out at the park and without their effort, we would not have the horse park that competitors from all over the Maritimes come to ride and locals have the privilege to school over regularly.

We thank you Liz and Bob for all you have done for our club and our playground.