Trail Riders United, also known as TRU was formerly America's Trail Ride Association, which was also known as ATRA. Life is always full of surprises!!! Twists, turns, new opportunities. So much time has passed and so many things have changed since Kenney Gladden first established America’s Trail Ride Association. Because of this different direction his life has taken, Kenney has made the decision
to resign from ATRA and appoint (me) Jamie McCain as President, and Dwight (Papaw) McCain as Senior Official. This change is taking effect for our March Ride at Seven Springs. This is just our cup of tea and we are super excited for this opportunity Kenney has given us!!! We have a great foundation established for us to build on….a brilliant concept and an amazing group of people. Our goal is to revitalize the association and renew its reputation so we can change and grow with the times. For those of you who aren’t familiar with me and my family….I was born and raised in the North Alabama/Florence area. My dad, brother and cousin have been involved with our rides for a while now and will continue to be. My sister, nephew, niece, and numerous other family members also help with the rides when they can. Over the years we have owned, rode, broke, trained, traveled with and lived horses and trail riding. Horses and trail riding are something we love…..it is in our blood. My daughter, and mother and father-in-law are also part of our rides and will be helping. We have several other people who help host these rides, and while they may not be related by blood, they are definitely FAMILY and we would not do this without the help from everyone. When I am not hosting a TRU Trail Ride I am probably working for another trail ride, campground, or rodeo somewhere. I am a Freeze Brander and I also work for Tim Hill with Valley Tack on occasion. We will remain a family oriented trail ride association that travels throughout the eastern (mostly southeastern) United States to different campgrounds/horse trail riding facilities hosting organized trail rides, allowing people from all over to come together and celebrate and share their love for horses, camping, and trail riding. We do hope to grow and are always looking for new people to join us, but we will remain a manageable size and provide friendly service. Our rides will continue to have 4 days of guided rides (you can still ride on your own if you prefer), Thursday night bingo, door prize drawings on Friday and Saturday nights, Church Service on Sunday morning, and more. Current negative coggins are required for all equine attending a ride. We will continue to strive to give everyone the attention and service they would expect from family, because we are family. AND…..you can also expect some bright and colorful much needed changes!!!
***We will have a Suggestion/Comment Box available at each ride. We care about what you have to say. We want you to let us know what we are doing wrong, and what we are doing right, as well as changes you would like to see made. Suggestions and comments can be made anonymously or not. We do encourage you to make all suggestions and comments in writing for us, so we can make sure they are all given the proper attention and consideration they need. This is generally not possible during the hustle and bustle of hosting a ride, but WILL be done afterwards. OF COURSE….any issues requiring immediate attention should be brought to our attention during the ride.
***Deposits required to guarantee campsites will increase to $40.00 (forty dollars) per campsite. Deposits for cabin/silo rentals will remain $100.00 (one hundred dollars). Deposits can be made with a credit card over the phone, or you can mail a check. If you mail a check, we will hold your reservation for 10 days for receipt of check. If your check is not received your reservation will not be valid. Deposits are NON-REFUNDABLE. Deposits can be rolled ONE TIME to a future TRU hosted ride if cancellation is made at least three weeks prior to ride. Considerations will be made for extenuating circumstances. Considerations will not be made for weather forecasts.
***When making reservations for a TRU Trail Ride, we will need to know how many people are in your group (how many are staying in each campsite), and if you plan to purchase meal tickets or not. We understand this information may change, but we would like to be able to get a better idea of how many people to expect so we can plan accordingly.
***There will be a $30.00 service charge for any returned checks. There will be a 3% (three percent) usage fee for credit/debit charges.
***There will be a $5.00 per equine (horse/donkey/mule) fee charged for clean-up. This fee will be charged per animal, not per stall. Fee will apply to picketing also. It is very important that we stay in touch with all of our riders/members. We want to make sure you all have our new contact information, with the hope that we stay in touch and can introduce you to the changes and updates we are making. We also want to make sure we have your correct contact information so we can keep you updated on changes and upcoming rides. Jamie’s Cell- (256) 483-2859
Facebook- Trail Riders United/Formerly A.T.R.A. We are working on getting a website built, and will update everyone once it is ready. We would like to be able to host at least five rides next year (2017), and hopefully some of these rides can be at some campgrounds we haven’t been to before or in a while. All input and suggestions on places y’all are interested in going to is greatly appreciated. We hope you all share in our excitement about these changes, and will continue to attend our rides and support and promote our organization. Without each of you, this would not be possible. We want to thank you so much for your past and future years of friendship and support.
