Appaloosa News Monthly – April 2022

Alida Burkholder – Lower Hopewell Farm, Lititz, Pennsylvania

Alida Burkholder, of Lower Hopewell Farm in Lititz, PA, had been the Intercollegiate coach for the Penn State Harrisburg campus so was familiar with the format of the horse shows.  Her long-time client, Kara Grube, came to her one day and suggested that she start an IEA team at the farm.  Alida agreed to have a team if the kids got the paperwork together.  They did so and Lower Hopewell Farm has had an IEA team for about 5 years. 

Alida sees several benefits of the program.  For her lesson students, the ones are never likely to own their own horse (for whatever reason), the IEA program gives them a chance to experience horse shows and see if they like showing.  It is an affordable way for these kids to get a taste of horse showing with a relatively low financial investment.  The classes are about $45.00, and they can show in 6 horse shows a season. For Alida’s die hard horse show students, the IEA shows allow them to continue to show all year, even after the breed shows in Pennsylvania have stopped for the year. 

One of Alida’s students, Aspen Grube, made it to the National Show in 2021.  This was held at the Paint Horse World show in Fort Worth, Texas.  The IEA makes a big deal out of the shows which is great for the kids. 

For Alida, she sees an additional benefit for her riders.  The format of the shows really builds the confidence of her students.  They end up riding a lot of different horses and must quickly figure out how to get them shown since there is no warmup time.  It builds their horsemanship skills and their confidence.  As for Alida, she really enjoys working with the kids.  She also occasionally provides horses for the shows and one of her Appaloosas has won the best horse award at some of the shows.