Equine Affaire is right around the corner...

Yes, I know we have at least three long months until spring arrives. I am trying to grit my teeth and bare it but I can't help daydreaming a little about all that spring brings. Since I have had my horse, spring means HORSE SEASON>>>>!

Equine Affaire is sort of like our official start of horse season around here. We have participated in clinics for the last two years.

In 2007 we were picked to be with Suzanne Sheppard and Bob Jeffreys. I was so nervous I thought I was going to throw up everywhere. I had no idea how Rio would react in that crazy atmosphere. There were tons of other horses, flags blowing, golf carts motoring by and lots of people. She could have cared less! She was awesome the entire time.

Last year, we were with Julie Goodnight and Craig Cameron. I learned the most from Craig’s session but Julie was very nice and very approachable. I ran the Extreme Cowboy Race too. Most of the time, I was just focused on practicing for that as much as I could. Once again, Rio was great…..she is very flexible and will settle down wherever I bring her.

EA is a lot of fun. When you bring a horse, you really get a feel for the behind the scenes stuff. I hope that one day I can see what goes on behind the scenes for all the clinicians and such. That seems like it is pretty intense but probably fun too.

We’ll apply again this year to participate in clinics if there are sessions and clinicians that fit us. The list of clinicians and presenters isn’t normally finalized until Dec/January. Last year, the clinician list for participants did not go up until really late. That is a little frustrating as they don’t give you much time to get your application and video in when they do that. Not to mention that you don’t know if you got picked until late March/early April. Sometimes not until EA is only 1-2 weeks away.

All that aside, the experience has been a good one for us. Its a lot of work, but fun and educational. We always run into people we know from our various horse adventures. Last year, Tom Seay (who we rode with on the Best of America by Horseback ride in Ohio) was there. We spent some time with him and Tommy Garland who was there just hanging out. We also chatted with Ryan Gingerich (on HDTV) for a while and got a chance to talk to Clinton Anderson again for a bit.

Pics from 2007

2008

Extreme Cowboy Race!

Julie Goodnight Clinic

Yep, its WINTER in Ohio

Yes, it's cold outside..bitterly so. Every year, I wonder why I am still in Ohio, where not only is it colder than I like, but cloudy alot of the time too. I do know why I am still here...its for the kids and their "other" parents. I hope to get the heck outta here once they all go off to college. I am careful not to wish them grown quite yet though. They are already growing too darn fast in my opinion. So my toes freeze, but I cherish their kid years...its a trade-off.

Not much horse stuff going on. I have been riding about twice a week or so. Still working on steering and getting control under faster speeds. We have both been a bit lazy as the weather and the holidays make us tired. We have been dreaming of some good weather....

Oh, I forgot to mention that my friends over at Great Lakes Appaloosa Horse Club (link here), put a profile of me on their site. The president, Chuck Schroeder is a dear, kind friend. He is the wonderful person that sold me Rio three years ago. He also happened to help Brenda find Doc too. The club is a very active one for Appaloosa owners. Lots of nice people. I wish I had more time to be involved with them. I was going to show in their Quadarama this year, but I didn't have the guts. My horse just isnt the slow moving, western pleasure type. Plus, what would I wear??? (always a good/poor excuse). They put on a GREAT swap meet in February.

I have been procastinating making changes to the website (http://www.centralohiohorse.com/). I really kind of hate the template/layout, but I haven't had any time to make changes. I also really need to add the trail maps and new links. I am determined to make changes/updates to it next week when I am on vacation. I could at least update the darn calendar, right???

I have been reading lots and lots of horse blogs lately. I love hearing all the stories from fellow horse lovers across the country (and some even from other countries). I even met a displaced Buckeye who lives in Louisiana...her blog is swampsurburbia...love her pics of her totally cute kids. Hi Andrea!

Next post, I'll put some links to my other personal favs.

Reindeer Games and Party Favors

New Barn
In early December, Brenda and I moved barns. We moved back to the barn where we were boarding last year. I haven't blogged much about it because our decision just made sense to us. Not much to say about that really.
There are six horses there currently, including our two. All the boarders are super nice. It truly is like a family and we missed it. The biggest drawback for me is that we went from full board to partial ---we have to clean our own stalls. We devised a stall cleaning sharing arrangement with one of the other boarders so we don't have to go every day. Its still hard getting used to it since we didn't have the think about it at the other place.
The plusses make up for the minuses though as the horses get great care and are watched over by everyone. Not that our old barn was bad...just not the personal attention or the connection with the other boarders. The other boarders at the old barn were...well....just plain crabby.

Party Fun
We had our barn Christmas party yesterday. We lucked out as it wasn't that cold..rainy and windy but we were inside so that didn't matter much. We started our party with "reindeer games"...fun stuff on horseback. Jane was so generous and had "valuable" prizes for all of the winners. We started out w/egg and spoon and progressed to the dollar bill ride with fake 100's. After that we did a version of musical stalls and an obstacle course. Rio and I came home with some very nice prizes!
We had a gift exchange and then pigged out on all the great food everyone had brought.
I didn't take one picture as I was too busy stuffing my face or opening presents.

New Camera
I have a NEW CAMERA and I have been busy trying to figure out how to use it. It is a Canon Rebel xSI. Lots of controls and technical stuff. So far, my pics have come out okay but I have a long way to go to really figure out what I am doing with it.
I am hoping to get some good equine shots and be able to take better action photos. I am hoping Santa brings me a really cool new lense.
Stay tuned for lots of picture posts as I figure things out~

Rest in Peace Casper

A good and kind horse passed a couple of days ago. He was owned by Sarah and boarded at the barn where we used to be (and are going back to in a week or so). I didn't know either one of them terribly well as Sarah is the quiet type and kept to herself alot.

I do know that she loved and cared for Casper with all of her heart. Casper was up there in years. He may have been around 25 or so. I am not entirely sure. Even though he had Cushings, he was active and relatively spry for a guy his age.

Even with his advanced age, he ran the mares around and liked to kick up his heals. He always nickered when someone entered the barn. He took care of his rider as much as she took care of him.

My heart goes out to Sarah for her loss. It was Casper's time but that doesn't make it any easier for her.

Somewhere in time's own space

There must be some sweet pastured place

Where creeks sing on and tall trees grow

Some paradise where horses go,

For by the love that guides my pen

I know great horses live again.

~Stanley Harrison

A lesson learned the hard way....

It was a beautiful fall day yesterday, so Brenda and I decided to pack the horses up and head over to Alum Creek for a little trail riding. We decided to try the northern trails again as we had a good ride there a couple of weeks ago.

When I got Rio out of the field, I discovered that she had lost a shoe AGAIN! No idea how or where...sigh. There was an extremally twisted nail sticking out of the side of her hoof..this was all that remained. Brenda managed to get the nail out. We tried to see if Brenda's new Easy Boots (bought at QH Congress of course) would fit Rio's foot, but it was too small.
We decided to go anyway as it was one of the last remaining nice days predicted for this week. Rio would be fine as the trails weren't rocky and would most likely be somewhat soft.

Once we got there we tacked up and got ready to head out. Last time we went we got to the other side of the trail by going over a roadway bridge where cars go somewhat fast. This bridge goes over part of the river. We went down to the river to see if there was a way to cross over and get to the other side by going through the water. The water was low and not very deep. We figured we could do it...plus it was a bit of a challenge to see if the horses would cross it without a fuss.

The lesson here is that looks are deceiving...the banks of the river looked to be solid...but the water was down and the sides were essentially deep, sandy mud. We got down to the river and walked over to the side to try and enter the water at the shallowest point. As Rio and I walked over to what I thought was solid ground, she sunk up to her hock....it was like quicksand. Needless to say, she tried to get out of there as fast as she could and headed for the bank. As she tried to scramble up the bank, she sunk deeper. She could not get her back or front legs under her to get up the bank. She tried (for what seemed like an eternity) as I hung on and gave her her head as best I could. At one point she was essentially down on her knees, ready to fall over on her side. This is when I dumped over her right side and landed on the ground.

Rio managed to get up the bank and out of the "quicksand". She was right by me and could have easily landed on me (or fallen on me) but she saw me there on the ground and stopped moving. She stood there calmly, breathing a bit heavily as I got up off the ground. I landed on soft ground and really didn't fall far since she was already halfway to the ground, so I was fine.
Rio was favoring her back leg at that point...not putting too much weight on it. I was worried that she had twisted it coming out of the mud.

We walked her a bit and she was still favoring the back leg. We decided to head back to the barn and see if it got any better with some water therapy and liniment. I gave her Bute before we got back in the trailer. She was still as calm as could be and didn't seem fazed by the incident...what a good horse. The positives are that we were not far from the trailer when it happened and that the barn was five minutes away.

Once we got her home we put water on the leg for 10-15 minutes. I rubbed liniment on it and then turned her out with Doc. One of the other horses in the larger field keeps chasing her around. I didn't want her to be chased around if her leg was injured, so we turned her and Doc out into the side field. They were content and happy when we left.

So the moral of the story is to always check the ground around a stream/river bank before you try and cross it. We really came out of it as positively as possible. If she had panicked, we could have been in big trouble. She could have injured herself in a worse way or have fallen on me trying to get out. It all turned out well..the trail horse angels were looking out for us. I am thankful that we all came home safe and sound. What a weird thing to happen on just a routine day.

It was a Giddy Up Weekend!

Here are the Giddy Up Girls on our ride yesterday at Smoke Rise. I'll post more about our fabulous weekend later.

QH Congress is here!

Congress started last weekend. We are planning on heading down there on Saturday. Most of the show events are Hunter-Jumper so not sure how much of that we will watch. Definetely up for some shopping and gawking at all the bling.

Brenda and I went and rode Alum Creek on Sunday last week. We parked in a different place than usual. There is a little trailhead with parking about 5 minutes from our barn. It is off of 521, in Kilbourne. We saddled up and headed out on the trails East of the river. There were large amounts of downed limbs across the path. The path was pretty overgrown in spots too. I don't think the trail maintenance crew has made it over to that side yet. We traveled a while and then turned back when we came to a fairly steep decline. We couldn't see where the trail was headed and didn't want to start down and then come across a downed tree in our way.

We went over the bridge on the roadway and went to the West side of the river. These trails had clearly been tended to recently. (thank you Delaware County OHC). They were very nice, wide and clear. The trail went through woods and some field. We had a little creek to cross, some fairly good ups and downs and a wooden bridge to cross. Doc and Rio did it all without a fuss. It was a VERY nice ride...hardly any mud. I would label this an "easy to intermediate" trail because of the creek, wooden bridge and the roadway bridge crossover from the parking area. It is also my guess that it would tend toward the intermediate side after a good rain. We came across several other riders who seemed to be enjoying the day and their ride.

Rio managed to pull her shoe off halfway. It was still on her foot but she had bent the nails so the shoe was somewhat off over to the side. I figure she caught it on a root or something. We decided to turn around and go back since we didn't want to come across any hard obstacles with a shoe half off. As we got further, the shoe got twisted even more. Finally I dismounted and pulled the shoe off by stepping on the part that was sticking out and lifting her foot. She showed some tenderness on that foot but seemed to be much happier with the shoe off.

Monday we went over to Terry Myers and had him trim both horses and replace Rio's missing shoe. Got to ride some as Doc was being trimmed. Rio was a complete angel that night. She stood still as a statue in the cross-ties in the barn. I thought that was pretty impressive considering she was in a strange place surrounded by strange horses. We took the horses back to my house to spend the night since it was pretty late by the time we were done.

Not much else going on horse-wise. I haven't been able to get back up the barn all week due to all the kid running around I had to do this week. We are busy getting ready for the GiddyUp Girl Roundup at Smoke Rise Ranch next week. Imagine I'll get some quality horse time in then!

My Favorite Things-1

In no particular order

My Justin Boots--I bought these in 2007 in Chicago at Alcala's Western Wear. It was boot heaven there.

I love these boots. I wear them all the time. They never hurt my feet and my feet don't get that "tired" feeling if I have to walk around all day. These have seen me through days and days of walking at Equine Affaire, horse shows and other marathon, on-your-feet occasions.

Pics from the weekend

Turns out I don't have any pics on my camera of myself. Guess I ought to give the camera to someone else every once in a while. I have enough of me anyway but it would have been nice to get at least one! I'll have to check and see if the KCHP has any.

I did get some good pics of Brenda and Doc and a lot of various random people that I don't know.

Brenda and Doc getting ready to go

Off they go...

Up the last big step

This is my friend Carla on Rio...she was riding her around for a while. Note Rio looks half asleep.

Okay, maybe fully asleep...doesn't she look sweet?

Fall is coming!

I always approach fall with mixed emotions. I love pulling out my sweaters and my favorite jackets. I love the crisp air and the change of colors. Football, pumpkins, Halloween, no bugs, chili, cider, candy corn...ahh, fall.
What makes me shiver in my boots is that fall means winter is close behind around here. Uck. The holiday's are great..Thanksgiving and Christmas and all they bring but then BAM! here stays old man Winter for four more freakin months. What a drag. That means ice storms, slush, grey skies, cold toes, runny noses and a woolly beast that used to be a horse.
We still ride in the winter come rain, sleet or snow. Our barn owner thinks we are nuts. We are very grateful for the indoor arena in those months even though going in circles makes us a bit crazy.
The first Annual GiddyUp Girls Roundup is in 16 days. Plans and organizing are already underway. It is going to be a great trip. The leaves should be changing by then. We were down there last year in the fall and it was quite spectacular.
Not much horse stuff to report other than that we ran the Cowboy Challenge on Saturday. Both or our horses did quite well. Doc did better than we could have hoped for and took it all in stride. Rio hesitated and tried her spin around techniques at least three times toward the woods. I just stuck with her and got her to move forward without too much of a fight. The rest of the way she took willingly. The gate proved to be a problem. I am still not quite sure why.
I'll post some pics I took when I get them loaded onto my computer.

Introducing the GiddyUp Girls

The "official" riding season is winding down around here. The events page on the website is getting smaller and smaller with each passing weekend. That doesn't mean the end to riding, just an end to formal, organized stuff around here.

We are planning on heading over to the Knox County Horse Park on Saturday for the last Extreme Cowboy Challenge of 2008. Brenda is planning on running the course with Doc--yeah! I am not sure about bringing Rio. She still doesn't like going down the big step down and was a chicken to go into the woods last time we were there. We'll see what her mood is on Saturday. It might be fun just to go and cheer for Brenda and not worry about my somewhat nutty mare for once.

Quarter Horse Congress starts the following week--October 4th-26th. That means lots of chances to go down and watch all the competition. Last year, we scored tickets to the Freestyle Reining competition held on Saturday evening. Stacy Westfall performed bareback and did a routine with two horses--moving in sync with each other. It was pure beauty to watch. We also got a chance to watch her warm up in the warm up area before the show. She was in there riding bareback with lots of other horses going in various directions. She never lost a beat and just kep cantering and cantering.

On the 17th, a bunch of us girls are heading down to Smoke Rise Ranch for what they are calling the "Best of Ohio Ride". We have a big cabin rented for the weekend. Not sure what the ranch has planned, but we plan to ride and just generally have a great time. A couple gals are renting horses. We are bringing Doc, Rio and Dancer and (hopefully) Karen's horse Blue.

I have decided that the girls in my riding circle definetely need a name..you know, like a club name. So we have tentatively decided on "GiddyUp Girls". The second choice is "Sisters in the Saddle". If you have a favorite either way, let me know.

The founding members (and my initial names for each) of our little group are:

• Brenda: "Sister Never Lost"
  
• Liz: "Sister Stay in the Saddle"
  
• Jane: "Sister Rides Many Horses"
  
• Laura: "Sister Niceness and Light"
  
• Carla: "Sister Where is the Wine"
  
• Karen: "Sister Jumps HIGH Things"
  
• Me (our unofficial Team Leader): "Sister Sidepasser"
  
  

Liz, Brenda, Jane and Laura at the Polo Match

Karen

Carla

So, the October trip will be our first "annual", GiddyUp Girls Round Up. I am thinking we can have some fun competitions and maybe some prizes....I'll have to put my creativity cap (the one that only comes out once or twice a year) on. Its a given that we will be eating and drinking plenty.

My Horse History

I have been thinking lately about how far I have come in my horse owning journey. When I look back to that first year in particular, I cannot believe how far we have come. I have to say I am proud of what I (we) have accomplished.

A little background
I have had Rio for over two years. In case you don't know, Rio is a nine year old Appaloosa/Quarter Horse mare with champion quarter horse bloodlines. Her sire is out of Zippo Pine Bar and her dam is out of Mr. Conclusion. She is registered with the Appaloosa Horse Club.

We mostly trail ride but want to continue to develop skills in other areas. We competed in our first show last year, taking home two blue ribbons.

I spent a good part of the first year working on control on the ground and establishing respect and trust. We made some tremendous accomplishments in our second year. Last spring I was terrified to go out on the trail. I was fearful of the unknown and unsure how she would react to the many “terrors of the trail”. My fears were unfounded as she proved to be level-headed and calm. Each ride built my confidence and comfort level. Now we go out without any problems, sometimes tackling tough terrain and sticky situations.

Our riding highlights of 2007:
-Richie Wingfield Clinic –Oct. 2007
-All Horse Parade Sept. 2006-Jane riding
-Equine Affaire-demo horse/rider in two Suzanne Sheppard and Bob Jeffries clinics
-3-day Horsemanship Clinic w/Clinton Anderson
-Ohio Quarter Horse Association Charity Trail Ride
-National Day of the Cowboy Horse Parade
-All Horse Parade-Delaware Ohio Sept 2007
-Standardbred Horse Show Sept. 2007
-Best of America by Horseback Grand Tour Ride-Smoke Rise Ranch, Ohio-October 2007

Highlights of 2008 (so far!)
-Equine Affaire-Demo horse/rider in Julie Goodnight, Craig Cameron
-Craig Cameron’s Extreme Cowboy Race-April 2008—12th place!
-Hunter Pace in Urbana-May 2008
-Not So Extreme Cowboy Race-May 2008-Wooster
-Best of America Ride-Midwest Trail Ride-June 2008
-Smoke Rise Cow Clinic
-Shaun McBride Clinic-Feb 2008
-Kerry Kuhn clinic – Aug. 2008
-All Horse Parade-Sept 2008
-4H advisor Show-July 2008
-Hunter Pace-Rocky Fork Hunt Club-August 2008
-Standardbred Pace-August 2008

Wow, quite an impressive list if I do say so myself!

What we are working on
Due to the weather in Ohio, we do to get to spend as much time outside as we would like in the winter months. We typically spend a good part of the winter, working inside the indoor arena. I don’t know much about her past training, but many times when we try something “new”, she seems to know it already. We are currently working on refining the canter and softening and suppling. I feel that I am still very heavy in the bridle and would like to learn some techniques for refining my cues (both leg and rein) as well as my seat. I don’t feel as balanced and under control as I would like, particularly at higher speeds.

Dorothy, we're not in Kansas--or are we?

I am sitting here in the dark..well almost dark. We have no power--thank goodness for my wireless modem and a decent laptop battery. We have had no power since about 5 or so.

We are experiencing hurricane forces winds...in Ohio...yes, Ohio. They expected winds to be about 20-40 miles an hour with gusts up to 70 mph. I can attest that some of those gusts were very powerful. All of my patio furniture is now safely on its side, having blown over a while ago. We chased the trash cans for a bit but managed to get them secure in the garage. I cannot even imagine what those crazy people who stayed behind in Texas went through. Now, I do feel sorry for them. I would never want anyone to be hurt or worse. The ones that had never been through that before definitely had no idea what they were in for. But there were people there that had been through this more than once. I cannot even imagine. God bless the people who are trying their hardest to rescue the people in need of help. I imagine it is a bit hard to not say ...dumb ass, told you so.

After an almost completely horseless weekend, I was really looking forward to riding today. I went up to the barn after Quinn's football game. The wind was already picking up. I had no idea how bad it would get! Brenda was already out on Doc, working in the round pen and riding in the fenced in area. I went out into the pasture to get Rio. The wind was gusting very heavily by then. I am very suprised I didn't get blown over. Rio looked at me like I was nuts to want to walk back to the barn facing the wind. She didn't put up too much of an arguement though and followed along. About halfway to the gate, a huge gust of wind came. I looked up and saw several shingles start to peel from the barn roof and fly through the air toward where Brenda and Doc were. Brenda quickly got them to cover. The other horses in the field finally figured out that this was a bit more than usual and started running toward the gate. Rio quickly whinnied and clearly wanted to be with them more than me at that point. I let her off the lead rope and she ran to her friends. It was interesting..the horses all lined up together in the field....not nose to nose, but right next to each other in a row. They were pretty calm considering.

I made my way outside the fence avoiding the side of the barn where the shingles were flying from. By the time I made it back to the barn, Tim (our barn owner) and Kelly (his girlfriend) had headed out to bring all the horses in. We all managed to get them in with a bit of chaos, but nothing too bad. Tim also works as a fireman/EMT. He had his radio on and you could here all sorts of calls going out. No doubt, he got called in to help tonight.

It was a scary ride home as there are alot of trees down and some low hanging power lines. It has been pretty much non-stop wind since I got home. It seems to have died down a bit now..or maybe I am used to it. I am hoping the barn stayed in one piece.

Rainy Day Plans

After so many weeks without rain, I don't feel right complaining about it, but darn it, why does it have to rain on the weekend? All weekend? At least its not cold (yet)!

Our vet comes today to give the horses fall shots. I can't remember which ones we get this time of year. Think one of them is Flu for sure. I will also have her listen to Rio to see if she can come up with any cause for the weird cough she gets from time to time. It is infrequent and mostly occurs when she is working a bit harder than usual. I never heard it at all when she was at home in my pasture. It is very strange and deep sounding..like she has something lodged in her windpipe. The worst time was at the 4-H advisor show a couple of months ago. She actually coughed up some substance that looked like compacted hay--but darker..almost dry manure looking. I have read some things on the internet about coughs caused by dust from barns and allergies. We'll see what the vet may think it is.

No big horse plans this weekend. We may go up to Knox County Horse Park on Sunday if the rain lets up. Brenda and Carla are going down to the Fairgrounds to see the Dennis Reis, No Dust Tour. He is here on Saturday and Sunday. I have a whole bunch of things to accomplish around the house on Saturday, so I won't be joining them. Normally, I love those types of things, but I would much rather be riding than listening to someone talk about it right now.

The Rocky Fork Hunt scheduled for this weekend got moved to next weekend. We were going to attend the Medina OHC Over the Top Obstacle Ride next Saturday, but decided the $50 entry fee along with the gas to get there (1-2 hour drive) was a little steep for us right now. Perhaps we will run the pace instead. At some point, we should start to get better, right? If we don't do that, perhaps we will go up to Mohican and ride the longer trail.

I am working for a non-profit I support during the Little Brown Jug Race on Thursday. I did this same work two years ago and it was a blast. The non-profit is a no-kill cat shelter (Cozy Cat Cottage in Powell). During the harness racing held as part of the Delaware County Fair, we work one of the bars (yes, bars that sell alcholic beverages). All of the proceeds and our tips go to the shelter. It is a huge money maker for us--especially on Jug Day. If you have not been, you must go! The Little Brown Jug is run annually in Delaware. It is a prestigous race for the sport. The race attracts a huge crowd all day. This crowd really knows how to have fun. We keep quite busy at the bar..starting at 9 when we pour our first Bloody Mary.
For me, it is a way to help the shelter, have some fun and get to be near horsey things...pretty good combo.

Parade Pictures

Here is the link to the Delaware County Fair website and all of the pictures from the parade on Sunday. My personal favorites are 203 and 204!


http://www.delawarecountyfair.com/2008%20All%20Horse%20Parade/Photo%20Album%201/index1.html

Note how we are surrounded by the little horse/pony carts. HMMMMMMMM.

A parade, 3 ambulances and a mare in heat

Yesterday we participated in the Delaware (Ohio) All Horse Parade.
Brenda picked up Dancer and brought him over in the morning to get ready. We clipped, bathed and shined up all three horses. As much as I hate doing so, I even banded Rio's mane.

Rio was being a bit of a pain in the rear as she has been in heat the last couple of days. Once Dancer got on the scene, she got even worse...she really has a thing for him! Lots of calling, not standing still and general mare in heat behavior...big sigh! Of all days...

We loaded the horses and headed to the fairgrounds which are about 15 minutes away. We borrowed our friend, Karen's trailer as we had three horses to haul and Brenda's trailer is a 2 horse. We loaded Dancer by himself and Rio and Doc together. I drove Doc and Rio. Brenda drove Dancer. Along the way, my trailer was rockin' and rockin'. Rio was not happy to be separated from Dancer. I prayed that we would make it to the fairgrounds without any major mishaps. I was gripping the steering wheel so hard, I had to peel my hands off from time to time.

When I walked around back after parking, the back trailer door on Doc's side was slightly ajar and the bar that holds the door shut as bent outward. This was a new bar that Dave had replaced the other one with due to a similar situation. Wish I had taken a picture because it is quite a sight to see. Hard to believe a horse in a trailer could kick back that hard to bend that thick piece of metal. We managed to pound the metal back into place (with Brenda's handy hammer), and get the horses out.

We met some friends of ours there and chatted for awhile. We had parked in the back away from most of the other trailers. There were ALOT of other horses there. There was a big, mule drawn, covered wagon that came close by to us. Doc had never seen anything like this before and reacted accordingly. I especially felt bad for two ladies who had their horses tied to their trailer. Everytime a wagon drawn by horses or mules went by, their horses would rear and pull back. We saw this happen at least three times. We could not understand why the wagons wouldn't slow down when they could clearly see that their presence was freaking these horses out.

When the wagon was nearby, we took our horses around it both ways, to see how they would react. They were mostly calm (Doc somewhat less so). Rio tried turned butt and tried to kick the mule team at one point..ahh, a mare. No contact was made and we hightailed it out of there. She really does not like mules or donkeys.

Here we are ready to go out....
There were about 115 "team" of riders in the parade. A team can be a horse drawn carriage, a mini-horse pulled cart (or several of them) or several horse/riders, so it is hard to tell how many actual horses were in the parade. The organizers estimate over 550 horses were there. Our little team consisted of just us--3 horses/3 riders. We were number 107...yes, almost the LAST group. More on that....

We used to have a friend. This "friend" was part of the committee this year that picked the line-up for the parade. This "friend" knows that Dancer doesn't like mini-horses and carriages. This "friend" put us smack dab in the middle of mini-horse and carriage hell. Now, I don't know about you, but we believe that is pretty mean spirited. It was mean enough to put us in back of the parade but then this person purposely endangered us by putting us in a potentially dangerous situation.

It got worse as we found out that 108 was a pair of little horses and little carts. One of the little horses was a feisty stallion. Yes, a stallion following my mare who is in heat...nice. We went up to met them to see how our horses would react. Rio immediately pinned her ears as the little stallion went crazy. Uck.

Meantime, ambulances were on the grounds at least three times. While we were lining up, one was called to attend to a 12 year old that had been stepped on by a horse. Apparently, the child had a deep head laceration. The squad came barreling in and then a huge firetruck came in right after. At least they had the sense to turn their lights and sirens off once they were on the grounds. You could hear the poor child crying...this did not help calm our fears to say the least. The good news is the child is expected to be just fine. We don't know any more details or even how it happened, just that.

When we finally got lined up, we managed to change our spot in line and follow some mini horses. Behind us was a couple and their horses. They were very nice and very understanding. They stayed nice and far away from our rear ends. So all good at this time. As we got ready to leave the horse-drawn wagon two teams up starting playing their music. It started with that Rocky Top Tennessee song and went downhill from there...gotta love a parade. Here is my view from horseback....

Once the parade got started though, things started to look up. The weather had been a bit iffy but the sun shinned the whole route. We rode for 1 1/2 hours without incident. There were hundreds of people lined up on the streets. People that have houses along the route, have parties and set up tents. People clapped and waved at us. I had a permanent smile (no, it was not a grimace). That part was great fun and made the rest of the day fade. The three horses were just excellent. No shying or spooking at the crowds.

All Horse Parade

Just a reminder that the Delaware All Horse Parade is on Sunday, September 7th starting at 3pm. Recognized as the largest and most unique, non-motorized parades, the event features over 550 horses. There will be horse drawn buggies, carriages, multi-horse teams and individual riders as well as marching bands from area high schools. If you love horses and everything to do with them, this is a great time!

Brenda, Liz and I (along with Doc, Dancer and Rio) will be riding in the parade. I believe we are toward the back of the line so you'll miss us if you don't watch the whole thing! This will be Rio's third year in the parade, although Jane has ridden her the last two...so my first year. Dancer is an old pro..only freaks out a little at carts and mini horses! Hopefully we won't have any of those near. Brenda is not sure if Doc has done this type of thing before but she is willig to give it a try. He should be just fine as long as Rio and Dancer keep it cool.

Is it Monday or Tuesday?

I truly wish every weekend was three days. I was able to get alot of stuff done and still fit in some relaxing, fun time with friends and with the horses. And the weather cooperated!

I worked part of the day on Friday, but threw the towel in early as there was no one around. I didn't even have any meetings scheduled. Connor and I ran some errands after his doctor's appointment in the morning. I got busy around the house. I finally got around to trying to organize the mountains of stuff in my office. I got so busy that I didn't even ride that night. I knew if I left it halfway finished, it would be another 6 months until I had the heart to tackle it again.

Brenda brought the horses home after their farrier visit in the morning. My neighbor Karen brought her horse and her daughter's pony home for the weekend too. The three of them rode on Friday night while I toiled away in my office.

Saturday morning was full of football practice and some running around. Brenda and I had another lesson with Terry Myers at 1pm. We got the horses ready around 12 and headed over there. The lesson day was pretty good. We mostly worked on moving off of the leg and our hands and seat. I feel like I am making progress but it is frustratingly slow. I am definetely more aware of what my hands are doing. I am trying very hard to be light in the hands but I still pull back way too much. I can't even imagine what Terry will say when he sees us canter. I better practice some before that so that he doesn't give me too hard of a time.

We joined the Standbred Pleasure Horse group for their hunter pace at Taft Reserve on Sunday morning. We headed over there around 8am. Taft Reserve is about 1 hour from us. The horses were really good for the whole thing. We joined the "Go, Horse, Go" group. This is the slower of the three options. After the last one, we knew our horses (and us for now) are better suited for the slow group. The trails were well marked and mostly dry. There were slightly over 20 jumps. We jumped a couple of small ones. Brenda and Doc walked over five or so. There were a couple jumps that were quite tall. I am amazed at the bravery of the people that ride these trails really fast AND jump the jumps. Talk about NO FEAR!

There was one area of very deep mud with a bit of water in it toward the end. Rio walked through it with no problem. Brenda had a bit of a harder time as Doc rushed through it. A horse can really hurt themself if they go too fast through deep mud. Luckily, no major events and no injuries were reported.

Taft Reserve trails were wide and easy to ride. There was a good mixture of woods and open fields. It would be fun to ride there again. The SPOH group did a nice job of organizing the event. We had to leave around 1 so I could get to Quinn's football game. When we left, there were still 3 slow teams out. As of the time we left, we were in fifth place--we were 10 minutes too fast. The course was a little over 5 miles long. We ran it in 1 hour 8 minutes. Guess we should have walked more~!

The horses spent the weekend at my house. They had a third horse join them as Karen brought down Blue to spend the night last night. They all got along well...just the usual running and kicking at meal time. Doc ran Blue off a couple of times, but otherwise they got along just fine. I love my new fence. Now if only a barn would magically appear.....

What a week

I am posting this on MONDAY as I got busy Friday and never finished this post. Do I really ever finish anything anymore???Uck.

Yes, it is Friday and yes, I am VERY glad. Not that I worked all that hard this week. I was off on Wednesday....if only every work week was four days. Oh, and with the same amount of $$ coming in. It's my blog...I can fantasize if I want to.

Had some pretty great horse time this week. To begin with, my fence was completed last Friday. So what do we do Friday night? Bring the horses home for a visit of course. We brought them home and introduced them to their new deluxe space. I don't think I have mentioned this before but Rio and Doc are not turned out together where we board. When the ladies are in heat, Doc will oblige and try to mount if he can. This is most likely due to his late in life gelding. He is never mean or agressive about it, but some of our barn mates took offense that their mares were potentially getting more then they are...(oooh, did I really say that?) So now when he is turned out, he has to be by himself. I mention this bit of background to give you an idea as to what transpired almost immediately when we put Rio and Doc together. Rio shamelessly threw herself at Doc and he proceeded to do what nature programmed him to do. We were actually a bit amused but then realized the neighbors with kids might not be. Since there really wasn't much we could do other than separate them, we let it be and hoped things would slow down.

Its not like the horses went at it ALL the time. No, they would graze a little, heat up a little, graze a little...you get the point. Just when I thought they were over it...boom, there was Doc up in the air yet again. Horse porn in its finest form...sigh. I just hoped the neighbors weren't at their windows at that particular time. What did they expect when they moved to the country?

We kept the horses home until Monday. We got the chance to ride around the neighborhood some on Friday. No major incidents or mishaps.

On Saturday, we joined the Rocky Fork Hunt Club for a Hunter Pace at Longhill Farm. We decided to join the "moderate" speed group, thinking if we jogged most of the way we would be okay. It was a gorgeous day and a tremendous turnout. There were over 100 riders. Our friends, (real fox hunters) joined us as well. They went in the fast group. Here is Rio waiting to get all dressed up for our ride.

There were 22 teams in our "moderate" group. The optimum time was 30 or 40 minutes to run the entire course..doesn't really matter which since we were SO far off the time. We mostly trotted but cantered along the way as well. Apparently still not fast enough. You know we spend all of our time trying to slow our horses down when we are training...its tough to speed them up for this type of thing. Rio's lope is about as "fast" as Doc's current trot. We are thinking we need to be in the "slow" group next pace. Also, many of the other horses are long-legged, fast movers..not like our slow-going quarter horses.

I think we came in last...sigh.

Karen and Holly on the other hand, came in second in the fast group.

Here they are after the ride. Holly is on the left and Karen on the right.

The next pace with this group--Rocky Fork Hunt Club in on September 13th. More information is available on their website.

On Monday, we took a lesson with Terry Myers. Terry is a well known Western trainer who has trained many, many winning horses. His place is located in Ostrander--about 20 minutes or so from us. Brenda and I got there at 7pm and didn't leave until after 9pm.

Rio was a bit hopped up as there were scary cows with big horns out in the fields. Terry said next time we come, he will put the cows in the arena with Rio and that will get her used to them in no time. Oh, and I won't be on her for that exercise!

It was not one of our better evenings horse behavior-wise. At least not for me. Rio did not listen very well. Terry told me I was to "hyper" and was signaling her to go faster. He encouraged me to slow my breathing and to breath "out loud". Now, really I don't think I am hyper in the least...scared maybe but not hyper. Maybe I am a bit type A, although not compared to some type A's I know. Brenda says maybe he can tell something about a person right when he first meets them. hum....

He DID point out that I was in her mouth too much (duh) and gave me pointers on pulling up instead of back. VERY helpful. I have been really struggling with the whole mouth thing and would agree that I use my reins way too much. He said she was rather "sticky"...meaning she was leaning on my leg and was not as responsive to me as she should be. Well, yeah...she was in a terrible mood that night.

Brenda had the opposite problem as Doc didn't want to go much. She really had to keep alot of leg on him to keep him trotting. Terry gave her some good information and pointers too. He focuses alot on your seat and how the rider is using her aids. I really didn't listen much to what he was telling her since I was sort of mad at Rio, but it seemed as if it was helping. We definitely plan on going back for more lessons. Terry also spends time training the rider at first rather than the horse. This will be very helpful as we continue to progress. Frankly, I have no idea if I am a bad rider or a halfway decent one. I just know I stay on most of the time. Maybe I look really stupid doing it...how would you know unless you take some lessons?

Just when you think we could not possibly cram any more horse stuff into one week, we had a clinic on Wednesday with Kerry Kuhn. An all day clinic focused on riding and horse behavior with a very, very good clinician...heaven! We first met Kerry during the Best of America ride at Smoke Rise last year. We then met up with him again for another BOABH ride. This one was at Midwest Trail Ride in Indiana. I posted about Brenda's great experience working with Kerry during that time. Brenda had just bought Doc and was having all sorts of problems on the trail. Particularly with crossing any type of water. Kerry lives in Kansas, but was going to be in Ohio for another clinic so we arranged to have him come to our boarding barn to conduct a clinic. There were four clinic participants in addition to us.

We spent the morning working on ground work. Mostly lunging and keeping the horses out of our space. The participants were all levels of riders. I would say that Brenda and I were the most experienced (well, we have been to the most clinics for sure). People had different things they needed to work on and different goals for the day. Most of what I worked on was staying out of Rio's mouth and working on more response to my legs.

It was a day well spent. We started at 10am and did not finish until well after 5pm. Kerry has a very direct manner and spent a ton of time working with each individual. Kathy from Smoke Rise helped out and provided great training along the way. She also has a kind manner and a way with horses. We are going to ride with her again at Smoke Rise in October.

Kerry travels the country with the Best of America by Horseback group. You can see the show on RFD-TV. Kerry also conducts a variety of clinics and participates in horse expos. This week he is in Illinois for a colt starting contest that is part of the Illinois Horse Fest. Best of luck, Kerry!

Having fun at the clinic! Notice Laura's footwear!

A preview of our new website feature

Hopefully you know that I in addition to this blog, I run www.centralohiohorse.com. I am in the process of adding a new feature to the site. This new page will be a one stop spot for trail information in and around Central Ohio. I have had the best intentions to create this page for along time but other obligations have gotten in the way. Well, yesterday when Brenda and I wanted to go someplace different to ride, I had to wade through five different sites to find the information we were looking for. We ended up going to Carriage Hill Park outside of Dayton, but more on that later.
So I started a map that has all the places (public) to ride. These place include Metroparks, State Parks, State Forests and anyplace else that is open to public riding. Future enhancements to the page will include trail descriptions along with our own editorial assessments. We are hoping that people will also provide us with their opinions, their experiences and reviews. This information will help all trail riders make better informed decisions when looking for a new place to ride.
Here is a preview of the map. I'll continue to make improvements and have it posted to the site sometime soon.

CommunityWalk Map - Ohio Bridle Trails

Always Waitin' for the Weekend

Seems like anymore, I spend a good amount of time wishing the week would go faster. My weekdays are filled with work, laundry, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, football practices, dr's appointments, and soon enough, kids homework, school activities and football games. You may notice something missing.....horse stuff! The daydreaming about horse stuff is about the best I can do.
Now, don't get me wrong. I like my job...really. It's just that I would rather be outside traipsing down the trail then sitting in the office under the florescent lights. The fact that suffering through the work day inside then allows for me to enjoy the things I want to when I am not here, is very front of mind. I try not to forget that I am truly blessed with many things. It's just that is is so darn nice out today....sigh.
We have some good stuff planned for the weekend. We will be attending the Rocky Fork Hunt Club Hunter Pace on Saturday. A couple of friends of ours belong to the Hunt Club and will be going as well. We haven't decided if we will go in the moderate or slow group (the scenic cruisers!). You run in teams of 2-3 and try and get as close to the pre-set optimal time as possible. Part of the challenge is that you don't know the optimal time until you find out eh results in the end. Thinking we might try the moderate but not sure what the creek crossings may do to our time. Maybe we'll just go with the slow group this time out to be on the safe side. Whichever we choose, it should be fun.
We have tentative plans to do some training with Terry Myers in Ostrander on Sunday. Terry has trained world champion horses and still trains and conducts clinics. He has an obstacle course set up at his farm, too. He gave a clinic during the National Cowboy Day celebration at Rod's Western Palace last month. He talked alot about rider positioning and balance. I am hoping that he can give me some pointers on my seat and on our control/collection at faster gaits. (specifically the lope). Rio is coming along nicely in the trot but we fall apart some at the lope. Have I mentioned that I have almost no steering capability at the lope when I ride w/one hand? I am hoping to learn how to use my aids, including legs and seat, more effectively.
The fence we are building at home is nearly complete. Over 1000 feet of Electrobraid fencing. It is basically the whole perimeter of my back two acres...the field we never mowed. We spaced the posts 25 feet apart and also put in a 12 foot gate. This is going to make it so nice when we want to bring the horses home for a weekend. It won't solve the issue of what to do with them if a storm pops up since I don't have the $$ for a run-in yet. I guess there is always the garage if it gets too bad. There is a big tree they can stand under for shelter if need be.

Cow Continuation

I ended my last post rather abruptly because 1. I got tired of typing and 2. I had to cook dinner (ugh). I thought I would take up where I left off last and that is with the cows being brought in...

Everytime we circled the end of the arena that was open to the pastures (where the herd was), Rio looked at it suspiciously and tried to avoid the opening as much as possible. Instead of joining most of the brave others in bringing the cows in, we decided to hang back at the other end of the arena. Rio typically does not like cows in a crowd and especially thinks horned cows in a crowd are to be avoided at all costs.

The first phase was to only bring one cow in at a time. This did not seem to bother Rio (or Doc for that matter) very much. Lynn taught us how to move the cow around and how to keep the horses on the cow's tail in order to move it and stay with it. The hard part was keeping the rein hand very loose and low. I tend to pull in her mouth too much and not use my legs effectively. When you watch good cow horses and riders, you can see that the rider really trusts the horse to go after the cow. In many cases, the rider is just holding on while the horse does the hard stuff.

Doc took to this very well. Seems like his "cow pony" ancestry really shows up when the cows are around. He chased the cow and did'nt seem bothered. He also seemed like he knew what to do. Sometimes all a horse needs is a job to make them very responsive and energetic.

Rio did okay too. It was fun (and a bit of work) to work the cow. You really had to concentrate and try to keep the horse focused.

We worked the individual cows and then brought the herd in so we could learn a little cutting. We first practiced loping around and around the herd. This helped the horses become accustomed to the cows moving around and gave them a way to move their feet. Rio was not as enthused about going into the herd to try and cut out a cow. This was definetly not her favorite part of the day. As usual though, she didn't spook or anything. She just got a bit more goofy than normal and tried to avoid the moving cows.

Toward the end of the day, we worked with a remote controlled, mechanical cow. This was FUN. The "cow" is attached to a line that runs the length of one of the walls of the arena. The cow can be stopped and turned around by the remote. I found this very challenging but a great way to teach the horse what to do. Rio really figured out what to do about 1/2 way through and was rolling back and f0llowing the cow like she had done it all her life toward the end.

I can't wait for our next chance to work with cattle. Lynn at Smoke Rise ran a very nice clinic. We learned quite a bit and had the chance to work on things we needed work on. It was a small group so we got lots of attention and riding pointers. Lynn taught us how to use our spurs the right way and helped us understand a bit more about leg pressure and balance. Unfortunately, Brenda and I had to leave at 4pm as I had to get back to get the kids to football practice. Otherwise, I think we would have stayed until midnight!

Horses in the garage and cow fun

We brought the horses home for the night on Monday since we were planning on leaving very early on Tuesday to drive down to Smoke Rise for our clinic. We have a temporary corral that the horses hang out in since neither Brenda nor I have a barn or fence at this point. Since we have no shelter for them, we try to avoid bad weather days.

Around 2am, I woke up to flashes of lightning. It was like someone was flicking a light off and on outside of my window. The lightning was frequent and bright. I thought "hmm, maybe its just lightning in the distance, it will probably pass". As the minutes ticked by the lightning became more frequent and the thunder started to boom. I couldn't get back to sleep. I kept wondering if the horses were freaking out. I knew Brenda would be up and would have checked on them. I didn't want to leave Brenda on her own to have to deal with two horses if the weather really got bad and if the horses really got bothered. So, I got up and called.

The horses were fine. Just standing together in the corner apparently oblivious to the inclement weather. As I was downstairs, the wind picked up and the rain started to come down. I decided to go over to Brenda's to get the horses out of the weather. So, in my pajamas and looking quite glamorous, I drove over there to figure out how to get them into shelter.

Our only option for shelter was the garage. Brenda and I ran down to where the horses were. They looked at us like "what the heck are you crazy, hooded women doing here in the middle of the night? Leave us alone, we are sleeping". We grabbed the lead ropes and lead the horses up to the garage. Rio looked at the garage floor and mats rather suspiciously at first but then walked in quietly. Doc followed behind.

So picture two wet women in various sleeping fashions, a bedraggled, sleepy husband and two confused horses standing in a garage with a storm raging outside at 2:30 in the morning. It was quite surreal to say the least. We gave the horses some hay. They munched happily like they always hang out in a garage in the middle of the night. I have to say, I was very proud of them. They were not bothered in the least and really took it all in stride.

We hung out in the garage until the storm passed. When we thought it was safe, we put them back out in the corral. I drove home and went back to bed.

Bright and early the next day (as in 6:30am!), we got ready to leave for our two hour trip to Smoke Rise. Brenda's alarm didn't go off so she had to spend the whole day unshowered. She still looked glamorous and honestly, no worse for the wear. We were both certain that the night in the garage had been a dream.

Brenda and I joined our friend Sue and her pal Tracy, for a cow clinic at Smoke Rise Ranch in Glouster (near the Hocking Hills). It was Sue's birthday. Lynn from Smoke Rise ran our clinic. There were a couple of other Smoke Rise folks in our clinic as well. It rained the whole trip down. We were discouraged with the weather and hoped it would clear up. It ended up being somewhat cloudy most of the day. We spent the day in the indoor, which is huge has very nice footing.

We started in the morning by working on turning on the forehand, stopping, backing up and roll backs. After we were warmed up, the cows were brought in.

HOT & HUMID
Now, I am not one to whine when the weather is hot but I just have to mention that it has been rather sticky and steamy lately. I much prefer this to snow, sleet and rain but a little bit (just a little) would be great. The other thing that comes with this type of weather that I really don't like is the bugs. I have been scratching a darn bite on my thumb, of all places, all day. At least that bug didn't live to see another day as I smacked it into oblivion after it got it's bite in.
If I am whining about the weather and such, that means I have had a chance to get outside.
We spent most of Saturday at the Knox County Horse Park observing (that means we did not enter), the Extreme Cowboy Challenge. It was fun to watch and not have be nervous about competing. They had tons of new obstacles this time. Most of the riders did not pick up much speed since there were so many obstacles fairly close together. Let's see if I can remember all of them.
0. Go down big drop off.
1. Pick up a jacket off of a pole. Get red ribbon from pocket of jacket.
2. Back through a hay tunnel--almost every horse had problems with this. I am a little surprised with how much the backing obstacles mess people up.
3. Put the jacket back on another pole.
4. Trot/canter to tree and tie ribbon (from jacket pocket) onto string hanging down. The tricky part here is that alot of the horses did not want to stand still. Oh, and there was a fake deer standing there too.
5. Cross over a tractor tire on the ground. ---this was REALLY scary for most...the horses must have thought something would eat them from within the tire.
6. Go up the hill and then over four log jumps and through the cowboy curtain.
7. Go to mailbox and take out mail
8. Cross big ditch filled with water and cross two big mounds of dirt.
9. Go and ring bell hanging from post
10. Pick up tennis ball from one pole, pole bend four poles and put tennis ball on last pole.
11. Move through wooded area that includes turkey decoys and rough terrain.
12. Jump up the first big drop.
PHEW...it tires me out just typing all that. Really it looked like a lot of fun. They had about 25 riders. It is only $15 to enter and the winner gets a nice belt buckle. They seem to improve the event each time. They had a fun raffle for stuff (I won two things!) and a really nice concession stand. Brenda even tried fried bologna for the first time. My only criticism is that the announcer is hard to hear and could do a better job getting the crowd excited about each rider. Maybe I am too used to Craig Cameron and his blend of funny comments and educational pointers as each rider is riding. The experience would be really good for the audience too if they had an announcer giving some riding pointers along the way...and praise for good horsemanship too.
We rode at Glacier Ridge on Sunday for a couple of hours. The trails are easy there. There are no big hills or scary water. Most of the trail is through fields with some woods. The only thing to look out for is an occasional deer or two (or several as we have found out in the past). Most of the time the horses don't care, but if they are running it tends to spook them some. Rio and Doc did very well. Rio didn't want to continue in the lead early on but then decided it would be okay. No major horse misbehavior.
We stopped at our friend Liz's house afterward for lunch. She now owns Brenda's old horse Dancer. Dancer was besides himself that he had friends coming to visit. When he discovered that one of them was Rio, he nearly went out of his head. Rio, who had been fine up until then, went into heat at the sight of Dancer. She proceeded to perform all the lovely mare in heat signals, slighly shocking the new horse owners in the crowd. We had separated Doc and Rio from Dancer but that didn't work well as Rio and Dancer wanted to be together and Rio kept kicking Doc. Apparently she was trying to tell him to back off, Dancer was the one for her. So we put Rio and Dancer together and all was fine. They didn't leave each other's sides. Dancer threw a fit when Liz and Brenda went out for a ride (I had to leave for a little bit and was gone). All of his previous buddy sour behaviors came out in full force.
The rest of the day was uneventful...just HOT!

Summer Riding
I just got back from vacation. A week of sun and sand at the Outer Banks. It was great but I seriously went into horse withdrawal. It was really strange to have all that free time and not spend it in the saddle. Needless to say, I went right to the barn as soon as possible yesterday.
Rio was great yesterday. She came right to me in the field and was relaxed and listening the whole time. I have been working on directions--moving off of my leg and steering at faster paces.
I feel like I need a specific goal in order to make sure I am working on things that will improve our riding. Rio was different today--a little more bent out of shape about being taken out of the field and away from her buddies. She settled down and listened but I still felt like I didn't have a specific goal in mind.
I haven't written about some of our rides prior to our vacation. Brenda and I participated in a horse show sponsored by the Franklin County 4-H advisors. It was held at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in June. We entered several classes. We figured out that FOR SURE neither of our horses are Western Pleasure candidates! They both behaved very well but we were definetely out of our league in some of the classes. I ended up with a couple of ribbons. We didn't do as well in trail class as I would have hoped. The lope portion really created problems....did I say we needed to work on steering??? No doubt!
We also took a trip over to the Knox County Horse Park to goof around on the Cowboy course and ride the trails. It was a windy day but nice overall. We rode the trails and were doing fine until we came upon a slight incline. Rio was in the lead and decided that a bear would eat her if she went further, so she proceeded to whirl around and try and go back. I kept keeping her toward the trail and even got off and walked her down the trail to try and ensure her that there weren't any monsters laying in wait. After much persuasion, we eventually got the horses down the trail. The key is patience and a willingness to let your trail partner work through the issues.
We went through the obstacles on the Cowboy course with relatively good results. The horses were a bit spooky--especially at the very DEEP and muddy water crossing.
We eventually met up with some other riders and rode some trails for awhile before heading for home, barely missing a BIG thunderstorm. Rio was a pain as she tried to eat everything in her way. It didn't help that we were in a big field and that everything was at mouth level for her. It would be like us going through a big field of chocolate lollipops and not being able to eat (or taste) them. I didn't let her eat as that is one of my rules when she is under saddle but boy, did I feel bad for her.
Next week we are on to one of the Cowboy Challenges-not sure if it will be Wayne County of Knox County, or even if we will bring the horses. Sometimes it is just more fun to watch others suffer through--I mean have all the fun!

Kerry Kuhn Rocks!

A note from Brenda regarding her training experience with Kerry Kuhn last weekend.

The two hours I spent training with Kerry Kuhn last weekend were the BEST investment I have made in all my years of horse ownership. I took my new horse, Doc, to the Best of America by Horseback ride at Midwest Trail Ride in Indiana. It was a 5 ½ hour drive, but every minute was worth it for the help I got from Kerry. Doc was a balker/jumper at water crossings. I have only had him a few weeks and was already terrified every time I approached a water crossing because of the huge jumps he had taken in the past. Luckily the ride was delayed Saturday morning due to rain, so I used the extra time to do a training session with Kerry. There were plenty of puddles around, so we started with those. At first I couldn’t get Doc near the water, he would just veer off to the side and go around, so Kerry ended up standing on one side of the puddle and my friend Beth stood on the other side. It’s funny how motivated you can become to keep your horse straight when people you like could get run over if you don’t. So with the help of my spurs I started to at least get him across, but he was hurrying or jumping every time. Next we worked on getting him to walk through and stay relaxed. Every time he hurried through I would immediately turn him on his hindquarters 180 degrees and go right back through. If he went through nicely I’d let him rest on the other side. Eventually he figured out which way was easier. We moved from that to more of a ditch and basically started over and eventually got the same result. At that point it was time for the trail ride. I still wasn’t completely convinced that Doc was reformed, so I offered to let Kerry risk his neck on the trail that morning. For some reason he agreed to do it, and he worked Doc through creeks and muddy areas on the trail. I took Doc out later and couldn’t believe the difference. We even walked in deep water down a large creek! Kerry taught me just like he wants me to teach Doc, calmly and assertively. I know now that if I use that same approach with each new thing I teach Doc, that I will be successful. I have done much longer clinics with everyone from Brenda Imus to Clinton Anderson and they were great, but my short time with Kerry Kuhn did more for my confidence than any other training has ever done. I wouldn’t hesitate for a minute to recommend a clinic with Kerry to anyone.

Best of America by Horseback Ride

We got back last night from our weekend with the "Best of America by Horseback" Grand Tour of America. The ride was held at Midwest Trail Ride in Norman, Indiana (south of Indianapolis). It was a great weekend. The trails were really nice, no one got hurt and the horses behaved themselves wonderfully. I'll provide all the details and pictures in my next post. I am back to work today and need to catch up!

Our First "Hunter Pace"
Brenda, Doc, Rio and I spent the day yesterday (my birthday!) with the folks from the Miami Valley Hunt Club. They held their annual Memorial Day Chase and Pace in Urbana. The event had different divisions. Some were only open to people that are members of a recognized Hunt group (those that have the guts to fox hunt on a regular basis). Brenda and I joined the open division as you could ride in non-traditional wear (Western in our case) and didn't have to be hunt members.

The course is approximately 6 miles through woods and mowed fields. There is an optimum time determined--you don't find out what it is until the end. The objective is to come as close to the optimum time as possible. We trotted almost the whole time with some short canter stretches. We could not believe that our horses kept up that pace. They must be exhausted today. They just kept wanting to go and go. The trails were very nice--nothing too tough and not any hills to go up or down. We decided to pass on most of the jumps. Where there were low ones, we walked over them.

Doc is learning to overcome his fear of crossing water/mud. He has a tendency to want to jump over any of the water areas or to go really quickly through very muddy spots. Brenda got off to lead him through on the first three crossings. Toward the end he was at least going through them with little hesitation, but still jumping to get over most of the time.

They gave out ribbons to the top 8 teams. We came in FIFTH!

Horse Behavior
Rio had a very good day yesterday. Normally, she does not like to lead on the trail but she took it in stride and stayed calm throughout. Now that her weight is back on, she has ALOT more energy. I am having to adjust my approach with her and lunge her pretty agressively before we ride. This seems to work somewhat as it makes her respect me more and to focus better under saddle. We had a much better ride yesterday than we did on Saturday at Alum Creek. At Alum Creek she did not listen well and was generally a pain in the rear. I am going to change her feed back to regular sweet feed (and not much of it). She is currently getting Strategy along with lots of pasture and hay. It is very high in calories and in my opinion, more than she needs right now. I am not riding her all that hard or as often as I was when we were in training.

Doc is loading into the trailer very well now. He hestitates only so slightly but gets in with no problems. He and Rio are getting used to each other but that will take some time. Rio has reverted back to her old kicking the trailer behavior. At least the fits are not quite as bad as they were last year.

Doc is being kept separated from most of the herd during turnout. He is turned out with another gelding in a separate field. Turns out Doc wasn't gelded until he was 6. We discovered this after he mounted just about every mare in the field last week. He doesn't exhibit any other real stallion like behavior except for clearly loving the ladies. They don't seem to mind as he is very gentle with them but we decided to keep them separated so that no one would potentially get hurt.

Extreme Cowboy Race Video...

New Horse and general news

Brenda is now the proud owner of "Doc". I'll post some pictures as soon as I get some. Speaking of pictures, Stephanie Moon (photographer extraordinaire in case you don't know her--www.stephaniemoonphoto.com), came and took a lot of pictures of Rio on Tuesday. I can't wait to see how they turned out. Rio was running around the paddock with her head held high, posing like a supermodel. The weather cooperated for once.

We also worked on loading Doc into Brenda's trailer that night. Although he is a very calm horse, he was not a big fan of getting into the trailer. He didn't really rear or dance around like some horses do when they don't want to get it. He really just sort of stood there stubbornly. No amount of pulling or butt-tapping seemed to work. Finally, we found a system that worked and we got him in and out of the trailer several times. PHEW!

Extreme Cowboy Race Wrap Up

We got our score sheets in the mail the other day along with the final rankings of the participants. We are proud to report that officially we were TWELFTH, yes that is TWELFTH!

We were really 14 based on the first round..two riders were disqualified in the finals. (see my note below). Even though they placed the rider that fell off in the finals, they ended up retracting that and restacking the placings. Still...four away from the top ten...not bad for such a chicken. I am VERY proud of our performance.

Check it out here if you liked to see us in all our glory...good parts and not so good parts and yes, we were really that slow...slowest of the day!

Fun Stuff
We spent last Saturday (in the rain) with our new friends from the Wayne County Saddle Club in Wooster. They have a variety of events at their location The Hollow, throughout the year. Its a nice set-up with trails, an outdoor arena and food facilities. They were holding their first ever, "Not-so Extreme Cowboy Race". They had a series of obstacles set up on the grounds and then part of the race was run through the woods-through the creek, over a log, and down a big muddy hill! They had judges stationed at each obstacle (including the big muddy hill!)
It was really fun in spite of the rain drenching us at times. We had 11 riders compete. Rio and I came in 6th. Not too bad considering the conditions and Rio being a little less cooperative than usual.
New Horses
Brenda has sold Dancer to a good friend of ours. Those of you that know Brenda, know that she has been struggling with the idea of selling him for a while now. Dancer was Brenda's first horse and was perfect for a first horse and for building Brenda's confidence as a horse owner/rider. She is really ready for a new challenge and is looking for a horse that is more versatile--great on the trails but can be shown some too.
Her first try was a Paint mare named Raven. She brought her home a couple of weeks ago on a vet check contingency. It turns out that there were some issues with her hooves and some other confirmation concerns. Brenda ended up taking her back on Saturday.
Second try is a gelding tentatively named "Doc". He is a seven year old, Quarter Horse with good cutting horse bloodlines. She went and rode him on Sunday. He is quiet and seems very willing and nice. Vet check was decent. She now has him at our barn on "trial" until Monday. His feet need some work, so our farrier is going to assess him on Monday and provide an opinion on how much work might be needed and identify any potential issues. Brenda also wants to trail ride him a bit and further assess his temperament.
Brenda has promised to write an article on her site detailing her horse buying experiences. This will be valuable for anyone looking for their first (or second, or third...) horse. She created a buyers checklist that should be very helpful to anyone in the market for a horse.

Our Extreme Cowboy Race Review

Although we didn't win the race or even end up in the Top Ten, we had a really good time. The team that won was a mule and his rider, Lori. They were quite a team and rode very, very well. On top of it, Lori is a very nice person. The two of them exemplify the partnership and trust between horse and rider that is very much part of the race.
The course:
1. Mount your horse
2. Free ride around the perimeter of the arena on the right lead.
3. Jump 4 jumps-two low and two higher
4. Pole bend in both directions
5. Back through an "L"
6. Ride over a jumble of poles on top of a tarp
7. Pick up a tennis ball off the top of a (very short) cone---place the tennis ball on top of another cone 8 feet away.
8. Traverse 3 big mounds of dirt.
9. Travel on the left lead, circle around a cone on the left lead, perform a lead change to the right lead and circle around another cone.
10. Go through the cowboy curtain--bright green, blowing streamers
11. Travel around (free ride) the arena
12. Load horse into trailer and shut the door
13. Run to the finish line.
Quite a few people were very fast but not very precise. You lose alot of control when you speed through the course. The environment of the arena and the crowd was a bit much for some of the horses as well. Our strategy was to stay slow and steady and try to make up points on the obstacles.
Just as I feared, we had a bit of trouble on the first big jump...I lost my balance and almost came off. Rio took care of me though and made sure I got back up so we could jump the last jump. Her pole bending was pretty good and our backup, log jumble and tennis ball obstacle were just about perfect. We had trouble on the second dirt mound as I did not steer her correctly nor did we make the lead change. In hindsight, I wish we had gone faster on the free rides. Craig did make some nice comments about her and even about my riding. He said something like "everyone would want a horse like that". Cool.
I am so very proud of Rio and her level headedness. Just as I expected, she did not get crazy or spooky. I accomplished what I set out to do and that was to get through the course and do well where we could. She is as good as I thought she was and then some.
Friends I made
I had the best time getting to know some of the other riders. On the first day, I met Mike from Canton and Luke (don't remember where he was from). Both are great guys and had not been in the race before. I also met Dale who was an older gentlemen who still competes on barrels on his quarter horse. There was Jennie from Missouri (a past racer) who was an awesome rider and very nice too. Last but certainly not least, is my friend that I first met over the internet-Jennifer Alcott. I studied her video from last year over and over. She contacted me after seeing my application video on YouTube. We stayed in touch via email prior to the race and finally got to meet in person on Thursday. She and her husband Ron were so very nice and so helpful and supportive. Jennifer's horse Zorro is truly amazing and Jennifer is a great rider. She and I rode in Craig's clinic together on Saturday. She was the model rider and I was the one that got used as an example of what not to do! Unfortunately, she did not race this year due to her horse coming up sore at the last minute. We were all very concerned for him. He seemed better toward Sunday but for his sake, she did not ride him in the race. What a disappointment that must have been for her.
Controversy
I would be remiss if I didn't mention something that put a bit of a damper on the whole thing for some people. I am still not quite sure about telling many people about this but since this is my place to share my experiences and views, I am going to do so in what is hopefully an objective manner.
There were at least five race participants that had been in the top three in other races. In fact, Lori and her mule had just won the top spot in Indiana last month. This was not the issue in the least, although it was a bit intimidating. The information on the race clearly says that all participants are lumped together....in other words, there are no "pro" or "novice" divisions.
The issue was with one rider in particular. This rider was participating on two horses, which the rules clearly allow (you would have to pay two entrance fees). So again, not an issue. It turns out the rider is a friend of Craig's. This guy worked Craig's booth during the four days and the rumor is he has a place in CA where Craig does clinics sometimes. This rider happened to have come in first in Buckeye, AZ and has participated in several other races in various venues (including the National Finals in MO in 2007). So again, no big deal....the assumption is the race is judged fairly since Craig does not judge..he has two "independent, impartial" judges that score the contestants.
When a rider is riding, Craig makes comments along the way, offering his opinions on how the rider is performing. Supposedly, these comments are not to influence the judges in any way. When the rider from CA was announced, Craig talked about the fact that he was a former champion, etc and then proceeded to provide commentary on his ride. This is where the controversy begins. In short, Craig was overly complementary to a rider that did not deserve it. An example is when you mount the horse in #1 the point is for the horse to stand still while you mount and not walk away with you. When the guy got on his horse, the horse jigged all over the place. Craig's comments were "look at the horse stand still for mounting". Seriously, someone in the stands said "is he looking at a different horse?". The horse was a young horse that was spooky at most obstacles. The horse and rider were clearly not a partnership as the rider was in his mouth most of the time. Was he a good rider that could go fast? Yes. Did he deserve a higher score than some of the other riders? No.
The same thing happened on the second horse on Sunday. Again, not a good ride but the ride was praised up and down. Now, you might think that I have sour grapes because of how I placed. Absolutely not! As I have said, there were clearly riders there that are far better, braver and more experienced than I am. The expectation is that all riders will be judged fairly and scored according to the rules, not subjectively depending on someone's relationship. You might say that "Hey, its Craig's race, he can do what he wants". Maybe so, but be up front about it and don't put up the pretense that the race will be fairly and impartially judged.
By now you may be thinking, "whats the big deal". Here it is....the CA rider made it into the Top Ten with BOTH HORSES! Yep, he got two chances to get in the money based on two rides that were not that good. It gets better....during his first ride he FELL OFF. According to the rules that we were given in writing, a rider who falls off will not be allowed to re-mount and will be disqualified. There was another rider that fell off as well. The absolute worst part of this story is this.......out of eleven riders, he placed ninth and fourth...yes, he was placed higher than another rider who did not fall off and frankly, had one of the best runs of the day.
Other riders have since asked for their entrance money back since it was felt that the race was misrepresented as being fair and impartial. Other riders indicated that this was not the first time that controversy has arisen over Craig's obvious favoritism toward this rider. There were issues in Missouri and Indiana recently that were along these same lines. Our plan is to write to Equine Affaire to state our views on this and I will be asking for my money back as well.
The shame about all this is that I really liked Craig Cameron and like his approach to horsemanship and training. He also has a great sense of humor and is a nice, approachable person. Perhaps he doesn't realize how much this hurts his integrity and the integrity of the competition. I would most likely never enter an ECR again if I didn't believe that this type of stuff would stop.
I am looking forward to continuing to work with Rio on the things that need refinement--like neck reining and gaining more control at the higher speeds. We will show a little this season and trail ride as much as we can. I am so happy the weather is finally better so we can get out of the arena.
Our plans for our next show are for April 26. The Standardbred Pleasure Horse group has an open show that we participated in last year. They are a good group of folks who welcome all breeds and just like to have fun. Trail class should be a piece of cake after all this race stuff!