By Dave Dyer

Staff Writer

On Sunday, Oct. 19, racehorse farms from Presque Isle to Hollis will open their barn doors to the public with the third annual “Open Farm Day,” scheduled from noon to 4 p.m. The event will include door prizes, bluegrass music, and tutorials on how a racehorse farm is run.

Public Representative of the Maine Harness Racing Promotion Board Sally Hinckley said the idea behind Open Farm Day is to introduce people to harness racing.

“One thing I’ve noticed is, from little, tiny toddlers to older folks, they all enjoy horse racing the same,” Hinckley said. “For newer people, it will be a chance to introduce them to harness racing. People at each farm will be there to answer questions and explain the process of raising racehorses.”

Don Marean, owner of Lindon Horse Farm in Hollis, said Open Farm Day has been successful in the two previous years.

“Two years ago, we had 500 people in four hours,” Marean said. “Local schools dropped by, we had a live broadcast from WPOR and Bonny Eagle seniors were here selling refreshments for Project Graduation. Last year, we had 400 people come. For this upcoming year, we have the Crooked River Bluegrass Band coming here. We also will have a writing group from Bonny Eagle, headed up by Rick Simon. They will sell refreshments to raise funds to have a book of their writings published. The Standard Bred Pleasure Association will have a tent and sell shirts and hats.”

Marean said there will be tractor rides to see the horses.

“My brother will be driving tractors for people to see the mares and the babies,” Marean said. “We will also have a 50 pound bag of carrots that people can feed to the horses. My brother will explain everything we do here at the farm.”

Marean said he and his wife Linda have owned Lindon Farm since 1988.

“We started out with a couple of mares,” Marean said. “One of them was ‘Ambro Blaze,’ which we raced at Scarborough Downs. We loved what we were doing, so we upped our numbers to 16 mares and four stallions. The wife and I raise the horses all ourselves. I’m 67 now, so we’ve trimmed the number of horses to two stallions and six mares. We raise the horses from when they are babies until they are yearlings, which are 2 or 3 years old. We then either have them trained for harness racing or sell them to good homes. If we can’t find them homes then we keep them here. You could say we’re kind of a harness racing retirement home.”

Maine Harness Racing Promotion Board Chairman Bob Tardy said Open Farm Day is a good way to teach people about harness racing.

“Harness racing is more than just a $2 bet. It’s also about raising horses. If we didn’t have harness racing here in Maine, it would affect the farming industry, from farmers who sell oats for the horses. It would also affect jobs, as there are veterinary services that we use, as well as the people who nail the shoes on the horses. There was an economic study done in 2007 for the horse industry, for both harness racing and standard bred pleasure, and Maine has made $300 million dollars,” Tardy said.

For more information on Open Farm Day, contact Don Marean at 727-5527.