Washington State Horse Expo, post 3

After the Mounted Shooting we watched a Steve Rother seminar on over coming trail obstacles. Didnt really learn anything, he is entertaining, but very repetative. Not one of my favorites, he is a local trainer here.

 They had some neat obstacles, I want to make a few for me to practice with. The tarp is easy, he added rocks and pool noodles. The car wash would be a fun one to do.

 Then we watched most of a Julie Goodnight seminar about horses with bad manners on the ground. The baby she is holding here, was actually pretty good.

 That Grulla paint mare int he background, she was a total witch!!! She sure had her owners number, and the lady was getting really mad at her waiting for Julie to get to her. Julie, of course, got her behaving ok right away, but the mare still was a witch. Julie explained that the mare had her owners number and the mare didnt know what to expect from her, so she was able to correct her more easily.

By now it is around 6:15pm, we decided we had better go to the outside arena if we wanted a spot to watch the Extreme Cowboy Race. The first go was this big pretty bay, who went through the noodles really well. Saturday was the night the men ran. The women ran on Friday, finals were on Sunday.

 There were two mules in the competition, this big red mule ridden by a 73 year old guy. There were a lot of older men in this class, pretty cool!!!

 You had to pick up this water bucket and take it to the other barrel. Easy huh, well it was filled, to the brim, with water!!!! heavy heavy! They said it weighed 40 lbs! LOL A lot of the contestants got wet!!

 That good ol' mule went right over the bridge and through the curtains, which also had a teeter totter in the middle of it!!

 The gate.

 One of the quite a few that tried to jump the pool noodles!!!! And knock the whole thing down!! All but I think two horses knocked them over.

 A tarp, but, it had one of the car wash curtains wadded up in the middle!

There is that curtain obstacle! Didnt know until the first horse went through that it was a teeter totter!

 This was another older guy, 69 I think, he rode in Cavalry uniform! He didnt have his saddle tight enough, so when his horse balked at the first jump it nearly went over its head! He rode the whole course with the saddle over the horses withers! Good horse, it didnt even act up about it!!

 Another flying leap over the noodles!!!

 The only Appaloosa in the group.

 They did pretty well.

 And the only Stallion in the group. Beautiful horse.

I think the fastest time was 3:43 min/sec. It was fun to watch! I would describe the course, but it was crazy!! beginning and ending with a full arena run around the outside!!! I dont know if I could ride like that anymore!! LOL 

And that was the 2013 Hose Expo. Waiting for mid March, there is another one we go to about an hour and a half South of here!! Our favorite one! Have been going to The NW Horse Fair and Expo for about 15 years, or so, now!! It is in Albany, Oregon. Lots of great shopping and my favorite clinician, at the moment, will be there this year, Mark Bolender!!! I so want to go to his farm and attend one of his clinics!!! He has a ladies night where you arrive around 3 in the afternoon and ride that night, it includes camping and a stall, or they have a clubhouse that sleeps 8, then lessons the next morning and you leave around noon. For $175.00. He has an extreme trail course, permanent at his place. Google him if you are interested, they have a good website. Extreme trail is something that Emma and I can do!