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Horse
Sports by the Bay, Inc. Press & Photo Archives |
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I thought it was interesting that this kind of a horse show was being held in Traverse City, about a three hour drive from our home. Traverse City has long been a place of fascination for me. When I was a kid, everyone around here associated the name “Traverse City” with psychological instability because it was home to a large state hospital. “Hey, what happened to our teacher?” “They had to send her to Traverse City because we were bad.” “Yeah, fourth grade is tough on educators.” It was only as an adult that I discovered that Traverse City, Michigan is an utterly cool place. My photographer and I started going up there in the early 90’s, having discovered an awesome bike trail which ran along the bays. For us, Traverse City means bike riding, hiking and the downtown brewpubs. Throw in a jaunt up Old Mission Peninsula to partake of its rural charm and vineyards, and we can have a great week-long vacation without even trying. But last Wednesday, Traverse City was all about horses. That was when Horse Shows by the Bay opened its brand new permanent facility, just three miles east of Grand Traverse Bay. The photographer and I happened to be in town, so we thought it would be fun to drop in for the ribbon cutting ceremony. According to my sources, the old site at Chum’s Corner was available strictly on a year to year basis and show organizers and supporters didn’t find that deal all that chummy. The new facility is impressive. There are four main arenas, each with an adjacent warm-up ring so there will be no excuse for missing one’s turn. Each pair of rings has an accompanying shaded pavilion with tables and chairs for the comfort of those not currently on top of a horse. There is a separate ring for lunging, wide pedestrian pathways connecting the arenas and about a gazillion stalls. It’s all new, all very nice and all set on a gorgeous piece of property with the soft rolling hills that are typical of my native state. The whole atmosphere is pleasant and inviting, rivaling even that of the downtown brewpubs. A big Michigan thumbs up on this one.
As I walked away from the introduction, I was left to ponder what this woman’s property in the index finger knuckle region had to do with this wonderful new facility. Some people are important no matter where they go, I supposed. Later, I found the answer in the program from last year that Jamie had given me. Under the “2006 Show Sponsors – Grand Prix” was the name of Karin Flint from D-BRAIDER. Forgive me, but I have no idea what D-BRAIDER is, but it sounds useful. Anyway, that’s when it all came together. The awesome facility we had visited had been built on Flint Fields and the glowing lady I had met was the owner of the property. And she did indeed just have a baby. A healthy, happy baby with all its parts working nicely. My photographer and I spent the next couple of hours roaming around Karin’s Flint’s new baby, taking pictures and watching the hunters do their thing over fences in the warm northern Michigan summer sunshine. The photographer commented that it was a lot more relaxing since we didn’t have either of our “brats” competing. We plan
on returning for the last weekend of the show. The state hospital is gone,
but Traverse City is still good therapy and Horse Shows by the Bay gives
us another reason to go for treatment. |
| Scott
Lau, Designer to the Stars Elise DeVoe for PhelpsSports.com, Friday, July 20, 2007 Scott Lau of Bradenton, FL, has been designing flowers for 25 years, but these are not just your typical centerpieces. Lau has been the creative force behind the beautiful and mostly artificial scenery at some of the top horse shows in the country: Capital Challenge, Washington International and the World Cup in Las Vegas, just to name a few. For the past two weeks, Lau has been in Traverse City, MI, arranging and maintaining almost 2,000 silk flowers for Horse Shows by the Bay. This afternoon, I was able to sit down with Lau and talk with him about his amazing resume and what it takes to be a designer to the stars. ED: How did you break into the horse show world? SL: The first show I ever did was in ’89, the World Cup in Tampa. I worked with Richard Jeffery there and at that time he was also course designing and doing the flowers for the Washington International Horse Show. So, he asked if I could come do the flowers while he did the courses and from there it just blossomed. ED: I’ve heard you have quite an impressive resume. What other horse shows have you done? SL: This will be my nineteenth year doing Washington. I did the American Jumping Classic in Cincinnati for 15 years. I’ve also done the Olympics in Atlanta, four world cups in Las Vegas, the Olympic trials in San Juan Capistrano, Oaks Blenheim and also Del Mar. I’ve done the CSI classes in San Juan Capistrano, a couple of those. I’ve done the New Albany Classic three times. Also, Capital Challenge for a number of years and the Vermont Summer Festival, [among others.] Since I started, I’ve done almost 60 shows in eight states and the District of Columbia. ED: And what goes in to designing all the arrangements for a horse show? |
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ED: Do you design your arrangements prior to a show or once you arrive? SL: I usually sit down and talk to the [horse show management] prior to getting to the show. I’ll ship flowers from all over the country because to get the quantity you need for horse shows, like I said we have almost 2,000 flowers here, and to get them matching and to get enough I usually end up calling around the whole country trying to get wholesalers that have 180 or 360 matching something so that when I get [to the show] it doesn’t just look like one of these and one of those. We definitely discuss it ahead of time so I can see what they’re looking for. The great thing about [Horse Shows by the Bay] is that it was important to Alex and Dean [Rheinheimer] that everything look really nice and they were willing to put the money into it, which a lot of shows are not. They wanted to make sure things all matched and looked good together, that the rings all were very appealing, and I think we’ve accomplished that. ED: What has Horse Shows by the Bay been like for you? SL: The first five days, when I was putting everything together, were probably 13 to 14 hour days because everything had to be finished before the start of the show. And now it’s basically just at the end of the day when they are rebuilding the courses for the next day, just to make sure that everything looks right, the things that got smashed during the day and dirtied up need to be sprayed off with a hose and straightened back up and made to look like brand new. For this show, we’ve done 1,960 silk flowers around the show. We have 96 hanging baskets, 80 greens ground lines, 60 flower ground lines, 120 pots of flowers for around the jumps, flowers for two dressage rings, some small arrangements for the tables in the VIP tent, 8 large arrangements in the VIP tent, and those are all silk so they look good from start to finish for three weeks. So, that’s what we’ve done here. ED: What is your favorite show to design for? SL: Well, Horse Shows by the Bay is great because normally I’m in to a horse show and gone before the show even starts. This has been fun because Alex [Rheinheimer] wants me to stay. I loved doing the World Cup in Las Vegas. It was a lot of work and the hours were long but it was great. It’s been on TV, and I go home and everybody else is watching the horses and I’m watching the flowers [laughs]. The nice thing about horse shows it that you can step back and really see your work. In an arena like Las Vegas it’s like a huge centerpiece. ED: After this show, where are you off to next? SL: I go back to the silk flower shop in Tampa and then I’ll be at Capital Challenge in September and Washington International in October. ED: Thanks for your time. SL: Thank you. My fingers are feeling a little arthritic because it’s a lot of fluffing [laughs]. But it’s been a lot of fun. |
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