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.....