As some of you may know, my cousin Jenn moved to Vermont a few months ago.  I was so surprised to get a package from her for Tiny a few weeks later!  Apparently she ran into this adorable 10 year old entrepreneur – Emma –  at a local feed store, and the treats she was selling looked so good that Jenn was inspired to pick some up for Tiny.  These delightful treats came bagged with a cute tag and a note describing Emma’s venture.  This little girl is a true animal lover!  Her goal is to get a lap top so she can expand Emma’s Sweet Nibblets beyond her local market.

For the record, Tiny (and I) gave these treats two thumbs up!  They were chewy, tasty, and healthy.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a photo of Tiny devouring them because they were gone in the blink of an eye.  But they were definitely well liked!  I hope that Emma succeeds in her venture and is able to get a laptop and expand her business.  I’m always appreciative (and amazed by) kids that are so talented and show so much initiative!  If you’d like to contact Emma about her treats or her business, please let me know and I can give you her email address.

Thankful Thursday is going on hiatus for a little while, but will be back soon! Stay Thankful!

I was wandering through the displays at the Equine Affaire in April, when a large poster caught my eye. Of course, being a spot lovin’ Appaloosa girl, the photo of a striking blue roan horse with a distinctly patterned coat attracted me to the booth. However, this was no Appaloosa group – it was the Nokota Horse Conservancy. I’d never heard of the Nokota horse before and was intrigued, becoming even more so as I read about this fascinating breed.  Nokotas originated in North Dakota and have survived for more than 100 years in the Little Missouri River Badlands, dodging government sanctioned roundups and culls.   Eventually several bands of Nokotas were accidentally trapped in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park during its creation, and thus the unusual breed has been preserved.

These mares exhibit typical Nokota coloring; Photo courtesy of François Marchal

Nokotas are a variable mix of blood.  Some of these beautiful horses descended from horses owned by Sitting Bull, the famous Sioux Indian chief.  Nokotas have been crossbred over the years to a variety of horse types; including draft, Thoroughbred, and stock horses.  As a result, they vary in size and type.  Colors vary and can include any shade, but blue roans are the most common.  This is also one of the only breeds (the only one I know of) that can include horses with spots (a la Appaloosa patterns) or Paint markings.  This likely results from the interbreeding of the feral horses with Indian ponies back in the 1800’s.

In the 1980’s, the National Park Service began removing the last remaining Nokota horses from the Park and, for the few that remained, introduced several new stallions to the herd in an effort to alter the horses’ type.  At this time, two brothers from the area stepped in.  Frank and Leo Kuntz purchased a large number of horses and created the Nokota Horse Conservancy in an effort to preserve this fascinating breed of horse.  Since that time they have created a breed registry and brought attention to the colorful Nokota history.  Another registry, the Nakota Horse Association, was also developed to recognize the breed.  According to Wikipedia, the last traditional type Nokota was removed from the wild in 2000, so the responsibility of ensuring these horses’ futures lies in the hands of organizations like these.  Perhaps I have a soft spot for these little-known equines because of their historical similarities to my much beloved Appaloosa.  Or maybe it’s because I tend to fight for the underdog.  But either way, horse lovers need to hear about these uncommon gems and spread the word.  The sustainability of their future lies with us.

This week’s challenge is to photograph things that start with the letter “B” and I could have gone forever with this one!  Just a few of my many selections…..

A water bucket waiting to be scrubbed

A brush and a bottle of fly spray

Bridles...well, technically headstalls, but I loved the photo

A braided tail

Bits for sale at the tack store

A pair of boots just waiting for a rider

 Check out Sunday Stills for other entries, as well as Laughing Orca Ranch, The Skoog Farm Journal, All Horse Stuff, and Baba Yaga’s Mirror,  all of whom frequently participate in the challenge.

John Lyons discusses collection of the horse at Equine Affaire 2010

John Lyons is a well known clinician and horse trainer, especially in the western stock horse world.  He has been active in the horse show community for many, many years and has won numerous accolades and awards for his riding and teaching abilities.  I was very excited to see the number of John Lyons clinics offered at the Equine Affaire this year.  His “U-Pick” system of training provides a number of exercises geared toward a particular goal and the rider can choose which exercises appeal to and work for each horse.  In addition, each exercise has a few variations that can provide varying levels of challenge as the horse progresses.  There were a number of Lyons clinics I was interested in seeing, including ones for developing better control, controlling speed, and improved stopping.  The first one we made it to was the speed control clinic. 

The arena was packed with spectators, and seating was tough to find.  We were lucky to have some folks offer us their seats as they left and we got front row.  The one hour and fifteen minute clinic began with John coming out and talking a bit about his experience and then introducing the three men that were on horses riding around the arena.  It turns out that they were not “students” as in most clinics we watched – they were John’s two sons Josh and Michael, and a man that began the Lyons training certification many years ago.  John proceeded to talk about the unnatural manner in which we ask horses to remain collected and illustrated his points with a horse he led around as he spoke.  During the entire monologue, his two sons were mounted on horses and were riding around the arena behind him doing their own things.  It sort of looked like a warm up arena at a show, with John Lyons wandering around in the midle with a microphone.  To say it was a bit distracting would be an understatement. 

Finally John mounted up and the exercises for speed control began.  The first one he chose to talk about was doing a directional change – as you walk around the arena and your horse increases speed, stop and do a 180 degree turn and walk off in the other direction.  Each time your horse speeds up, change direction.  Simple enough, right?  Well, it felt like he spent fifteen minutes discussing this exercise, how to increase the difficulty (change gait), or include variety (turn on forehand versus hind).  The whole time he talked, his sons were riding around the arena doing their own thing – reining spins, loping, lead changing.  Finally he finished and moved on to Exercise #2, one of Josh’s choosing.  Unfortunately, Josh did not have a microphone and so John had to translate everything he said to the audience.  This one involved spiraling off into smaller circles if the horse speeds up; however there was some confusion as to how the exercise began.  At one point John seemed to be indicating that the rider should hum to the horse to slow it down.  I found the lack of microphone to be particularly troublesome, as Josh would lope off to demonstrate the exercise, but the audience was unable to have it narrated as it happened.  Once again, the other son was off doing his own thing, adding to the chaos.  I also felt that John wasn’t clearly explaining his techniques to the audience.  Maybe someone that has completed his video series would have understood him better, but I found instructions such as “Move his tail back” unclear and confusing.  This scene repeated for the first four exercises, but eventually I felt that the clinic was not serving the purpose I’d hoped it would and we left. 

In summary, this clinic was not well organized.  All three riders should have had microphones, or at the very least, the one demonstrating the exercises should have been narrating.  All the riders should have been demonstrating the exercises being discussed or they should have been waiting quietly for their turn, in my opinion.  All the activity had the effect of appearing chaotic and was a distraction to the exercises at hand.  Finally, I felt that the demonstration was very commercial.  In his defense, I had that same feeling at several of the clinics we went to and it’s a feeling I don’t recall having had at previous Affaires.  There was a lot of self promotion of the Lyons name and product line, and I felt that took away from the point of the clinic.  I would have liked to see students participate and learn the exercises with the audience, so we could grasp what issues the horses may come up with.  The exercises were that were provided were useful, albeit a bit basic for my own riding level, but a good refresher.  All in all, there was some good information there but I had higher expectations from a clinician of his caliber.

I left the balmy warmth of Florida  and arrived in Columbus, Ohio last Thursday to a dreary, cold day.  My dad had somehow managed to time his arrival by car (he traveled from his worksite in North Carolina) to meet me at the airport and we headed immediately off to the Ohio Expo Center at the Ohio State Fairgrounds to commence the horsing around.  Thursday was the day that Sharon Camarillo was doing a series of clinics on improving barrel racing horsemanship, and I was desperately hoping to make it in time to watch some of them.  Fate was once again on our side and we managed to get to the Fairgrounds, find parking, purchase our tickets, and make our way down the long, long stretch to the Cooper Arena just as the announcer finished his introductions.  Perfect timing! 

Food vendors lined the streets at Equine Affaire

 Thus began our four day weekend filled with clinics, seminars, shopping, and visiting with old friends.  As I’ve mentioned before, Columbus was a frequent horse haunt for my family when we lived in Pittsburgh.  The Quarter Horse Congress, as well as the Equine Affaire, were regular yearly trips where we stocked up on items we needed for the barn.  You can literally find anything horse related you could possibly want at these events.  As soon as we stepped through the gates, I was right back there.  The long road lined with food vendors welcomed us to the event, and the sights and smells continued to draw us further in.  It didn’t take long for us to find the vendor behind one of our fondest memories – the cinnamon bun stand!  I can still remember savoring a warm, gooey cinnamon bun while watching a class at the Congress or even while relaxing after one of my own classes during the years we had the App Nationals there. 

Young riders perfect their technique

Once we made it past the food vendors, the fun really began.  There were clinics and seminars going on simulataneously in no less than eight arenas at a time.  The hardest part was choosing just one to watch.  Throughout the weekend, we caught clinics taught by Sharon Camarillo, John Lyons, and Tommy Garland and presentations on caring for senior horses and equine photography among other things.  There was an entire building devoted to representing various breeds of horse and  I enjoyed wandering through and learning about some horses I’d never seen or heard of before.  The trade show was spread over several different buildings and was just as expected – exhausting and exhilerating.  Any horse person would probably agree that the smell of a tack store is one of the defining aromas in the horse world.  This trade show was no exception – the rich leather, the tang of fly spray, the heady pine shavings.  I was in horsey heaven.  One of the things I love so much about Equine Affaire’s trade show is that it caters to horsepeople, not stock horse people or horse show people.  You can wander through tack stores with draft halters big enough for an adult to step through and peruse the tiny, glittery headstalls that are designed for the always adorable Minis.  Every breed, every discipline, and every horse person is represented there; and for someone like me, that means an awful lot to observe and learn about our four legged friends and the people who love them. 

Wood carving was just one of the crafts on display

Over the next week or so, I’m going to share with you some of the tips and tricks I learned in the clinics, talk about some of the cool new products I saw, and discuss the super exciting Extreme Cowboy Race that we watched.  That spawned some fantasies about a career change for Tiny and I, it looked like so much fun!  In addition, I will be sharing a lot about the BlogPaws convention that was being held simulataneously at the nearby Westin hotel on my other site, The Slobber Dog.  All in all, this was a fun and productive weekend and I’m so glad my dad and I had the opportunity to attend.

Image courtesy of KateMonkey

You got it folks!  April’s Carnival of the Horse is going to be held right here at From The Horse’s Back!  This is my first time hosting, so everyone please submit a post.  Let’s make this a great carnival (especially so Kim lets me host again!) 

Click on this link to submit your post.  You can even send in more than one, if you like!  And remember to check back on April 1st to see all the great posts that are submitted.  You just might find your next favorite blog!

With all of the excitement buzzing around the Pets Blogroll launch, I dropped the ball on this fantastic opportunity to learn more about western pleasure.  Lucky for me (and all of you!), the folks at Winning Horse Training decided to make this online clinic available to view for a few more days.  The clock is ticking, though, so if you’re interested, sign up right away because I don’t know how much longer it will be available. 

So what is this clinic all about?  It is a revolutionary new way of teaching and learning new riding skills via webcast, right from the comfort of your own home.  Participants were able to email in questions to be answered by one of the three trainers participating in the event live during the webcast.  These trainers are the biggest draw for this particular clinic.  Anyone who is involved in western stock breeds, such as Appaloosas, Quarter Horses, or Paints and has any interest in western pleasure will know these famous trainers:  Shane Dowdy, Rusty Green, and Cleve Wells.  They are some of the top Western Pleasure trainers in all breeds and have some of the winningest records of many trainers out there.  The opportunity to learn from them, even via webcast, is priceless.  And at only $20 for the replay, it’s more than worth it!  You could never attend a hands on clinic (even as an auditor) for that price.  Even if you’re just interested in learning more about the discipline, it is worth the cost.

Here is a little more about the trainers involved.  Shane Dowdy is a well known western pleasure trainer and clinician that has won numerous World Championship titles.  His approach focuses on creating a responsive, solid, well rounded horse and he has been known to achieve this by including cattle work in his program.  This unique approach speaks for itself, with a long list of successful horses in his winner’s circle.  Rusty Green is another world caliber trainer, with multiple World and Congress championships to his credit.  In fact, he is the reigning AQHA World champion for 2009 in the highly competitive 2 year old Western Pleasure event.  Cleve Wells, in my opinion, is a legend among western pleasure trainers.  I worked with Cleve many years ago, as I was fortunate enough to have him train my western pleasure mount, Zippo Par Three.  He is a genuinely nice and extremely talented rider and his record speaks for itself.  He has won numerous titles at all the big breed shows, he’s an international clinician, and has a line of books and dvds geared toward sharing his knowledge with others. 

Don’t miss out on this last opportunity to catch the webcast before it’s too late.  Sign up at Western Pleasure Training for only $20 and watch the replay of the event.  As of Monday, the video is still available online but I don’t know how much longer it will be available for download.  At the same link, you can sign up for a free mp3 interview with Cleve Wells, where he discusses some of the great horses he’s ridden.

Once again, it’s time for Thankful Thursday! I hope this post inspires you to consider the things in your life that you are grateful for. If you have a blog, consider posting about it there and link back here. If you don’t have a blog, please feel welcome to comment here on what you are grateful for in your own life. If you don’t feel comfortable sharing, then just take a few moments to reflect on all that you have. If you’d like to tag other bloggers that participate, feel free to do that.

Just one drop can change everything…

Photo courtesy of maddogmarquis, Photobucket

Back in October ‘09 I did a series of Thankful Thursday posts titled “Nostalgia” (you can read them here, here, and here).  I guess I’m feeling a bit sentimental again, because this week I have been thinking a lot about someone who made a big impact on my life many years ago.  He was the man that I credit with developing that competitive fire in me and showing me the fun and social side of horse shows. 

I don’t even remember how my family came to be involved with “Vern,” but I remember our first business meeting with him back in 1990 at a little restaurant in Ohio.  He agreed to bring his burgeoning training operation to the brand new horse farm that my parents were building in southwestern PA.  In a sense we started off together, although Vern had been an assistant trainer for several years and was involved with some very high profile people in the Appaloosa world.  Vern was really the one that steered my family, and me especially, into the national and world arenas of competition.  He was the one that found Tyler for me, the white wonder horse that made me fall in love with riding.  He was the one that brought Icy and Seeker to our show string – two equally dynamic, well known, and talented horses that my sister and I were very fortunate to have the opportunity to show.  I could even thank him for Tiny – because he was the one that chose Super (her dam) to be my very first game horse.  Vern introduced my family to so many people and because of him we got extremely involved in the horse show world.  We became active members of the Appaloosa Pleasure Horse Association, regional Appaloosa clubs, and 4H.  One of my favorite memories was when he and my parents brainstormed and created this incredibly huge Appaloosa show for the now-defunct Pennsylvania Appaloosa Association.  They had jackpot barrels and pleasure classes with money added, sponsors, you name it.  Back in the early 90’s it was quite a feat for a regional club to have such a successful show.  I truly believe that Vern was the catalyst that took us from casual horse lovers to serious and actively involved competitors, and he got the whole family involved in some fashion.  He even spearheaded an effort to have challenged riders classes added to show lists at all the shows so that disabled riders like my youngest sister could be involved too.

We spent five very exciting and productive years with Vern before he moved on to other things.  I wish I could say that I’ve kept in touch with him over the years, but as so often happens we have drifted away to separate lives.  I recently met up with an old friend of his at the Quarter Horse show in Tampa and he told me that Vern is healthy and happy and has a beautiful farm in the Pittsburgh area where he continues to coach youth riders and maintains a successful breeding operation.   I hope to reestablish contact with Vern, if for no other reason than to thank him for being such a great trainer, coach, and friend to me and all of my family during our formative years in the Appaloosa business.

Happy Thursday to all and please visit these other sites that frequently participate in Thankful Thursday:

Akal Ranch, Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch, The Pony Expression, and Tired Dog Ranch.

Liz posted this video today on her site, Equine Ink.  The horse actually FELL OUT of a moving trailer and somehow managed to survive.  A fellow driver caught the action and videotaped it.   It is heartbreaking to watch them try to load the horse back onto a trailer to get medical care.   It is like my worst nightmare come to life. 

Have any of you had a bad hauling experience?  Touch wood, I have been relatively fortunate given the amount of hauling that I’ve done.  We’ve had a couple of close calls, but nothing like this ever before.  I hope they do a follow up on this to determine exactly what caused this unfortunate incident. 

Thanks to Liz for posting on this story!

A couple of weeks ago, Emma and I enjoyed a long trail ride on a lazy Sunday.  I know I’ve done a few virtual trail rides now, but this ride was one for the books.  We looped through the woods and rode down to the lake to let the girls (well, Abby, anyway) enjoy the water a bit.  Much to our surprise, as we approached the lake we noticed many vultures lurking around the water’s edge.  What, we wondered, could be going on?

Well, we never did discover “what was going on”  but there were hundreds of dead fish littering the beach.  I guess Tiny had the right idea wanting to stay as far as possible away from this water body!  For a brief moment, I forgot we were at the sandy shore of a lake in central Florida.  It looked like some rocky Atlantic beach from somewhere up north.  Well, at least until the smell brought me back to the present day and place…..

After we’d had our fill of eau de deadfish, we began meandering back home via the country road.  We were chatting amiably and our lazy girls were focused on putting one foot in front of the other and aiming straight toward home when we had another surprise.  This handsome fellow beckoned us over to say hi!

He and a couple of his buddies live just down the street from the barn and I’m sure we’ve passed him many, many times on our rides.  Never before has he initiated contact with us.  We wandered over to let the girls say hi and things got even more weird!

This little guy had no fear of us or the horses!  His buddies weren’t so sure and kept their distance, but this brave soul came straight over to visit.  Apparently he thought Tiny was pretty cute, and it didn’t take long for him to make his move!

Tiny received her very first bovine sMOOch!  Actually this was one of many, as the boy took quite a shine to my girl.  Not to be outdone, Abby moved in for her turn.  And the little man did not disappoint….

I bet his name is Romeo or Casanova – he has obviously done this before!

What? You want one too?

After we visited with Romeo for a bit we headed home – the girls refreshed from our break and Emma and I having a giggle over the interspecies love story!