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~