September 15, 2005

Horse Affair Auction Set for October 8th

The culmination of the summer-long Horse Affair event will be held at the Equinox Resort and Spa on Saturday, October 8 from 5 to 7 p.m. when 19 artist-painted, life-size thoroughbred horses will be auctioned. Manchester auctioneer Eric Nathan will lead the event.

Beginning Tuesday, October 4 the horses will be transported from their current locations about town to the rear of The Equinox. Here the standing, grazing or rearing horses with names such as Glory Rose, Sea Horse, Garden Majestic, Parallax Pinto, Phlox Trot and Godspeed will be on display behind and around the Avanyu Spa and the lawn area by the Rockwell Room through the auction event.

As A Horse Affair comes to a close there are four enticing prizes being offered through a Raffle, available at one ticket for $5 or three tickets for $10. Prizes include a full-color 11" x 28" framed poster of the painted horses with framing donated by Wendy Comar of Jenner Graphics. Additionally, posters are available for $25 each at the Manchester and the Mountains Regional Chamber of Commerce office on Main Street.

Two other raffle prizes include a sleigh ride for two by Lively's Livery in Shaftsbury and a Baccarat crystal horse clock donated by Steve Nichols. The fourth prize is lunch for two in the VIP tent at the Vermont Summer Festival Horse Show 2006 Grand Prix.

Raffle tickets are available at the Chamber, from committee members and at the door on the night of the auction. Raffle winners will be drawn at the auction and you need not be present to win.

Admission to the auction is free; there will refreshments and a cash bar.

Funds raised from the auction will benefit the Manchester and the Mountains Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Manchester Area Arts Partnership to promote the area. Absentee bids are accepted and there is no minimum bid.

June 1, 2005

Winning Horses Announced

Manchester Center, VT – The prize trout at the Orvis flagship store shared the spotlight for a few days over the holiday weekend with nineteen spectacularly decorated horses as the herd arrived for the kickoff of “A Horse Affair – 2005.”

The Manchester & the Mountains Regional Chamber’s public art project got its official start Thursday as nearly two hundred people gathered around the Orvis pond to welcome the finished products of some of the area’s leading artists. As resplendent as they all are, three were singled out by a panel of judges as being the Most Creative and Imaginative. The judges were Vivian Patterson, curator of the Williams College Museum of Art; Susan Farrow of Castleton’s Farrow Gallery and Stephen Perkins, newly appointed director of the Bennington Museum.

First Prize was awarded to Scott Lenhardt’s “Silent Flight,” sponsored by Hand Motors, Second to Jinna McHugh for High Country Interior’s “High Country Equine” and Third to “Galloping Gallery,” sponsored by the Southern Vermont Arts Center and created by fifteen of Betsy Hubner’s talented Burr & Burton Academy students.

The horses are now viewable at their respective sponsors’ locations. Information on locations is available online at www.ahorseaffair.com and by phone at 802-362-6313