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| Background: Gold
Coast members, The Jim Roberts Family, annually sponsor a silver
belt buckle "Sportsmanship Award" in honor of Vanessa Forgnone
who was lost in a car accident in August of 2002. Fred and
Kathy Forgnone, Vanessa's parents, and her sister, Alexis, watch
exhibitors at the annual Gold Coast Arabian Horse Show(s) the
first week of August to find the Youth who best resembles
Vanessa's kind spirit and attitude towards their horse, fellow
exhibitors, parents and trainer. Zak Blumenfeld - Zak, 17 years old, is a student of trainer, Brooke Carlson. Alexis, Fred, and I first noticed Zak on Friday in the Youth Arena at the Annual Gold Coast Classic and All Amateur Show the weekend of August 3rd-5th, 2007. An Arabian horse was proving a challenge for a young man in a Western Pleasure class. Undaunted and patient, Zak, continued to methodically guide and work the horse, knowing he would obviously not be placed in the class. The judge seemed impressed however, and mentioned it to Fred who was the ring steward. Kathy (the announcer), and Alexis were watching equally impressed with Zak's seemingly tenacious resolve to do the right thing ribbon or no ribbon. For two days, we kept a close eye on Zak and a few other young riders. But by Saturday evening, we felt we had our 2007 Candidate picked. Our interview with his trainer Brooke Carlson, soon confirmed to us we had made the right choice. While Brooke recovered from a knee injury, Zak was dedicated to helping her at her facility. He was given a 10 year old horse to train from the ground up. Zak took on the challenge, and has become a very good equestrian. His parents and brother and sister were there when we announced our winner Sunday after a class Zak had finished. He had taken 5th Place, and the horse spooked at the ribbon and it landed in the dirt. As I bent over to pick it up, I smiled to myself, knowing he was about to get a better award! Tiffany Makinster, our 2005 Sportsmanship Award recipient, presented it to Zak, who was obviously thrilled with the buckle. Zak leaned over to me and said he was so sorry about losing our girl, that he wished he had met her - well he can feel as though he knows the kind of girl she was, as he represents those qualities. Lots of pictures were taken with family, us, and the whole Brooke Carlson Training Center! It was a very happy time for us all and we thank the Roberts Family (who were away at Youth Nationals), for their generosity. Each year they oversee the designing and order the buckle from a maker in Nevada. They select the stones to be placed in it and this year the stone was "blue". Blue was appropriate as Zak is our first male to be given the buckle! Kathy Forgnone P.S. On a sad side note, our hearts went out as well to our show photographer, Kim, who also lost a son, the same age (16 years), in a car accident. |