Saugerties Rides Again

by Amanda Bader and photographs by Fionn Reilly, April 01, 2009

It's not every day that a $6 million investment is made in Ulster County, but that's what Horseshows in the Sun, known as HITS, has done in building their new show grounds in Saugerties, the brand new home of HITS on the Hudson series of horse shows. And, as with any project of this size, it has been hailed as an economic boon, and condemned as an environmental boondoggle.

Championed by HITS president Tom Struzzieri, the show grounds have taken two years to build. The state-of-the-art facility encompasses eight competition rings, two feature arenas, a food court, shops, permanent and temporary stabling for competitors' horses, parking for 50 recreational vehicles (complete with electric, water and telephone hookup), and even a Mercedes Benz dealership, all surrounded by a 2.5 mile path that will be used by horses, walkers, and runners - including the local high school cross-country track team.

Struzzieri is not alone in his assurances that the show circuit will undoubtedly will have a positive impact on the local economy; the project has been welcomed with open arms by local politicians and business owners.

Each of this summer's seven horse shows in Saugerties will bring between 1,500 and 2,000 horses and approximately 3,000 horse people to the area for every five-day show. And, if you know anything about the people who go to horse shows, you know that they're pretty good at spending money, so a substantial injection into the local economy is inevitable. Estimates of the economic impact have ranged up to $30 million for a season.

In addition, the entire gate receipts, projected at about $15,000 a weekend (the shows are free Wednesday through Friday and tickets are $5 on weekends) will be donated to Family of Woodstock, from which HITS leases more than half of the 200 acres of the show site. While the nonprofit agency has federal funding, grants, and private donations (Struzzieri and his family began donating to the agency in 2001), as Executive Director Michael Berg described it, "HITS just made my job a lot easier."