The name “Regional Fox Trotting Horse Foundation” is meant to honor the organizations that inspired the Foundation’s formation.  In the fall of 2015, Amy Stangl, Chris McQueen, Bob Booker and Amber Wilson started discussing the potential of having a show in late September.  The group had the passion to establish the show but needed assistance with the seed money to get the event started.  The group reached out to two organizations: Kansas City Regional Fox Trotting Horse Association and St. Louis Regional Fox Trotters.  The planning team presented them an outline of what they would like to do and asked if each organization would be willing to provide $250 in seed money to get help cover the initial start to the show.  Both organizations happily supplied the seed money and the Region 4 Fall Festival was born. The name of the show is thanks to Chris McQueen. It was a great way to recognize that the show was a collaborative effort of members in northern Missouri and Kansas (the area of membership of the KCRFTHA and St. Louis Regional known as MFTHBA Region 4)

For the first two years, the Kansas City Regional Fox Trotting Horse Association and its Board of Directors had graciously been our host organization.  In the fall of 2017, the Region 4 Fall Festival organizers recognized it was time to establish an organization to manage the show.  The first step in moving forward was creating a focus group made up of individuals from both St. Louis and Kansas City. This group discussed what they wanted to see for the future of the Region 4 Fall Festival and what they would like to see from an organization established to host the show.

On a chilly December morning, four friends met for breakfast to start talking about the process to the focus group’s vision happen.  During the discussion it became clear that the group wanted the new organization to be about more than just a horse show.  We talked about the individuals and organizations all over the United States that had reached out to the Region 4 Fall Festival planning team asking for advice on starting an event.  The group talked about the opportunity we had to help make those events possible.  This was a perfect opportunity to pay forward the generosity the Kansas City Regional Fox Trotting Horse Association and the St. Louis Regional Fox Trotters had shown the Region 4 Fall Festival.  At that moment, the dream of the Regional Fox Trotting Horse Foundation was formed.

Since that December 2017 morning, those four friends with the help of many others that have joined the team started the “Dream. Plan. Do.” process to make the Regional Fox Trotting Horse Foundation a reality.  The first fund we will kick off will be our Event Support Fund.  This fund, and our name, is our way of honoring the two organizations that supported and helped us make the dream of the Region 4 Fall Festival a reality.