Paint Horse community supports
injured Florida trainer with on-line benefit auction

FORT WORTH, Texas—Members of the Paint Horse community have united in a collaborative effort to raise funds, through a benefit auction on HorseCity.com, to help David Kirk of Oxford, Fla, who suffered extensive injuries in a serious riding accident recently. Kirk is a well-respected and successful trainer of American Paint Horses.

David Kirk. Hirez TIFF (8.75 mb) Hirez JPEG (2.74 mb)

HorseCity.com and several of Kirk’s friends and fellow Paint Horse enthusiasts are teaming up to host an on-line auction March 20. The auction will feature a wide variety of donated equine items. Log onto horsecityauctions.com on March 20, and click on the heading “David Kirk Benefit Auction” and make your bids to help support this cause. To preview the auction items and get an update on Kirk’s condition, log onto www.davidkirk.info. These links will be active prior to the auction, so check back frequently in the coming days.

Long-time friends Debi Musgrave, of Troutville, N.C., and Mike Hachtel of Collinsville, Texas, are spearheading the fund-raising effort through promotion and coordination with HorseCity.com.

Hachtel suffered a serious injury of his own last summer.

For more information on how you can help support this effort or to offer your item or services, contact Debi Musgrave at (386) 405-4228, or by e-mail 1painthorse@excite.com. Cards and letters may be sent to Kirk at 13526 County Road 245 East, Wilwood, FL 34484, or via e-mail to david@davidkirk.info.

An admirable person and trainer
Kirk, described by the Paint Horse Journal in its September 2005 issue as a trainer with a “good natured sense of humor and gentlemanly manners,” began training horses at age 15 and has been competing in such diverse events as cutting, jumping and dressage ever since.

He competed in his first World Show in 1997 and, since that time, has been a devoted competitor, exhibiting his client’s horses to several top five and top 10 placings. At last summer’s World Show, he won two World Championships, in Junior Western Pleasure and the Bridleless Western Pleasure Sweepstakes.