Washington State Horse Expo....

We arrived at the Horse Expo at @ 9am, to watch the extreme Cowboy race. There were only six riders in Sat. mornings go, and we only got to watch 3 of them, after we waiting in the long long line for our tickets and walked out to the arena. This arena has never been the best to watch stuff from, the large beams are always in the way.

This cute little pinto mustang did pretty darn good.

This gal had a little more problems with her grey, but they did fairly well too, she was just a little squirrely.

After that we watched the youth and mustangs. A yearling is given to a High School kid for 3 months to gentle and do ground work with, then I believe the horses are sold at auction. The kids get awards for how good they have done with their horse. It sounds like a wonderful program if you have the facilities for it. Needed it a 6' fence and the same requirements for adopting a Mustang.

Here are the five youth that were there, they had some really nice looking horses too!!

Here are a couple of untrained yearlings up for adoption.

They had four yearlings there. The little Cremelo/Perlino caught my eye.

He/she was defiantly no a palomino like the one in the neighboring pen. I thought it was interesting that you can see his blaze, usually the white blends into the cream and you cant tell, I am guessing that this one is Perlino, being darker cream. My Mom has a Creamelo, when he was born we had to do some research to figure out what color he was. She got him by breeding her buttermilk buckskin mare to a palomino stud. I have learned a lot about equine color genetics from researching this color, its pretty cool!

There was shopping too! I didnt find anything to buy though. Now that the girls are gone, I have found myself with just about three of everything! LOL

I want a pair of chinks for my trail riding!! LOL Along with new boots, a cinch and probably a new saddle pad LOL LOL

Found a couple of ugly used saddles! This one looked worse in person, I am not to sure of the two tone, I dont like the black pommel!

OK I have never seen an all pink saddle! Very well made, but pink. I am not a pink person at all. There were bridles and breast collars to match too!!!

There were these natural graze feeders too, very interesting. It would be nice to have some, but they are very expensive. You can see the lids there on the left, the barrel and....

This inside them. If you had a horse that was stalled all of the time, they would be great! They had a nice video showing horses knocking them over and standing them back up to eat out of them. You fill them with your hay and they simulate the pulling and eating of grass, by pulling the hay through the holes.
Interesting, total with the lid and the barrel and center piece they were $249. each!!! Way out of my league. We seen people walking out with them two a a time though!!!!

We listened to a clinician, by the name of Mark Bolender, I really liked him. He was sensible, easy to listen to, without being boring at all. He does extreme trail challenges and trains colts. I am going to research him a little bit and see if he is doing a clinic in this area. I liked him that much. Here is a link to his website Mark Bolender

Marks gelding is named Checkers, LOL he is a big horse, 16+ hands. I really liked Marks philosophy, attitude and way of relating to people. He has had some horrendous wrecks on horses in his learning journey! He was open enough to tell everyone about them and answer questions.

We watched another of Marks seminars later. Here he was "Cutting" his assistant. Checkers doesnt like Cutting and Reining very well Mark says, but he is one hell of an Extreme trail horse! He rides him bridleless most of the time, with just a latigo around his neck, even out on the trails. They have won Extreme Trail challenges, bridleless, three times.

We watched Craig Cammeron too. I wansnt real impressed with him, he was loud, made a lot of jokes about women and just wasnt too pleasant to listen to. He did seem to handle his horses well. I dont know if it was just because of the Expo or if he always is like that, but he seemed to rush a bit.

Well thats all for today! We were there for 14 hours! LOL I love my friend Carol, just as much of a diehard as I am!! LOL We both missed our friend Judy! She went up to Yakima for some Cowboy Poetry!! More tomorrow!!

Horse Expo!!!

I amhttp://www.columbian.com/news/2011/feb/18/riders-take-reins-in-ridgefield/ going to the Washington State Horse Expo Saturday!!!! Hope its good! It is the first year that this company is hosting a horse expo here.

Washington State Horse Expo

I want to see lighted dancing Friesians!!!!
We are going early to watch the Extreme Cowboy Race!
So we will be there from 8:30am 'till 10pm most likely!!!
A day of all horses!!!!!!!
I WILL REMEMBER to take my CAMERA!!!!!

I won a drawing!!

I won a great goodie bag from Gundivas Blog! Goodies from the Shot Show!

I love the 911 sticker!!! The earplugs are great, shaped like bullet shells!
I have a funny little story to tell about these goodies while they were still in the envelope!
I had the envelope sitting beside my chair, so I could take a picture of my goodies. I went in to take my shower this morning and when I came out, it was missing. I looked around the living room and found it in Dublins bed, Max had taken it, opened the envelope, he actually chewed just the flap, and took out the byrd knife bag! LOL little goofball! he didnt chew on anything, as you can see, but GWG must have dogs cuz he thought there was something interesting in there! Anyway I gathered it up and got my picture before he could steal it again! Max is a bit of a clepto, he is always running off with socks or towels out of the laundry, or will try to take the newspaper or magazine you are reading!!! LOL
Thank you Gundivas!!!!

NW Sportsman Show, Portland Or.

We had a good day last Saturday, when we finally got into the show. Traffic was horrible and I think it took us 45 min. just to get into the parking lot. We finally parked and walked into the show, thanks to Wilco Farm stores, we were able to purchase tickets for $6 ea. instead of the $12 regular charge. It was $8 to park!!!

The Crew, Hubby, cousin Matt, his boys, Zac and Steve, and Steves girlfriend Jordan. Checking out all the quads.

The boys really liked these quad tires! and the skis for the snow!

Checking out the boats at the Cabelas booth. There were a lot of boats and campers and trailers! etc.

The Army booth, these guys were having all the kids do push ups for prizes, LOL it was entertaining!

Here is one doing the push ups.

Cousin Matt liking this boat!

Cute little John Deer bicycle, which is all I would have been able to afford! LOL LOL

I love the log furniture!! Steve and Jordan are checking it out.

The dining table is pretty cool, to big to fit in my house though.

There were some BIG 4x4s too!!

The show displays all the record mounts from the NW. I really like this curly antlered buck.

Below him was the strangest set of Elk antlers that I have ever seen, probably an old revert.

They called this a black Mule deer.

This was blurry, but a black Coyote also. Looked like it had some dog in it to me.

Washington State record White tail deer. There were so many people that pictures were really hard to take.

These are mounts brought in by locals to be measured.

Antler chandeliers.

There were a lot of African mounts too. This Giraffe is huge!!! Can you imagine taxadermying that thing!!

This is a Red deer, they have the coolest antlers! Most likely from New Zealand.

Ooops, LOL, this guy has ears and horns! LOL LOL

We came across these cool hunting wheelchairs for the disabled! Expensive but they look like they would go anywhere!!!!

The Wilco booth where Meghan worked on Thurs. of the show. Bonnie wouldnt let me get her picture! LOL LOL

Seen a lot of Zebra. There were horns everywhere too!!

The Giraffe again from the other side.

That about all the pics I got, of course I left out the blurry ones, well most of them anyway! LOL
We went to dinner at Red Robin after the show. It took us around 5 hours to walk the whole thing!
It was a pretty good show.

Sunday stills....Spring preview....

Oh I cant wait for Spring flowers again!!! Here are my favorite Blue Daddy Petunias.

The Rhodies with their copious about of flowers, you always know its Spring when they start blooming!!

Pretty blue Pansies, my favorite flower color is blue!

For more Sunday Stills Take the link!!! Enjoy, dreaming of Spring!!! I cant wait to get my new Dahlia bulbs that I ordered last Summer!!

Sunday stills....emotion....

OK so this first picture, is a photo of our youngest daughter when she was about 5, it does inspire much emotion in me, mostly humour!!! It cracks me up when I see it, Meghan has always been such a ham!

This is a really hard challenge!! For me, I couldnt find anything else that I thought may work, hmmm. Anyway I hope this is as amusing for my viewers as it is for me! For more Sunday Stills take the link!!!

If you listen, they will tell you....

CCC left a comment on yesterdays post. "But I think I've learned most from the horses themselves. If I listen, they tell me.

This wonderful statement made me think about a couple equines that were not mine, that I connected to.

I was at our little county fair with my girls one year. Our horse barn was small at the time and there were tie stalls on the outsides of the old barn, boxes down the middle. This horse belonged to someone that I am friends with, but they were not in my 4-H club at the time. She was an old, jug headed, piebald, red roan mare. She was kind with her little rider and did her best. Despite her looks she was a kind dependable little horse. One of the afternoons, I walked by her stall and she looked at me. Really looked at me, and pawed at her hay. I looked and it was poor hay, it looked moldy, and she clearly wasnt happy. She looked at me again and pawed at her hay again. Oh I wanted with all my heart to give her fresh clean hay. That is one time a "connection with an animal hit me with a force I can not describe" I did go and find her owner and told her about the hay, I believe she got some different hay for her. I learned a few years later that the mare had gotten into the barn and some how got herself impaled on the forks on top of  a CAT blade, that was parked in the barn. I was really saddened when I heard about how she passed on. I will never forget her for "telling me" something was wrong.



The other equine, was a 17 hand red dun Mule. A friend owned her and two others. He asked me if my daughter and I could go up and clean up the Mules, as he had someone who was interested in buying them. He even offered to pay us to do it, so we thought OK, cant be to hard. The Mules were in a small muddy pen, looked like they had been in there for awhile. I found out later that it was because they kept going through the barbed wire fence and wouldnt stay in the pasture. Thats mules for you! We had been up there before and my daughter and friend had ridden the mules, after I had helped him get them all outfitted with tack. He had bought them to use for hunting, and did take them a couple times, but didnt use them the rest of the year. He did keep them up to date on hoof trims and stuff.  I didnt connect with her that first time, but this time, Molly looked me in the eye and told me she wanted out of that pen, and even tried to show me where to let her out, it was the darnedest thing. My daughter and I we did the best we could, but they really needed out of the pen, and a hose to get them cleaned up, and we couldnt get the gate open to get them out. She was a pretty mule, big! I had seen her move in the pasture on a different day, when they wouldnt let my friend catch them, she looked smooth, for such a big girl.  She too had an unfortunate end. My friend sold the mules to an outfitter in Idaho, his dad hauled them all the way over there to the new owner. My friend told me a year later that one of the outfitters, hired hands, had taken Molly through a creek with a tie down on, an drowned her. At this point I could really say a whole bunch of expletives, but it wouldnt do her any good. She is the one mule that I would have liked to have owned.

I had to share these stories, I have been carrying them for a long time. Animals really can talk to you if you really listen. I always pay attention to my horses little nuances, its how I caught when Mickey had a colic episode one time, and was able to get her through that. thats another story, but with a happy end. It takes me about two seconds to flick my eyes over each horse and access their condition, it something I do without thinking about it.

Have you had moments, times, when you have had some inexplicable connection with a horse?

Horsemen you have learned from....

This post Buck, the Jurga report. Made me think about this.

What horseman or woman, has influenced you in your journey with your horse?

I have a lot of books, I have been to a couple of reining clinics, participated in 4-H horses, took a few riding lessons as a kid. Lately I have been learning from Pat Parellis' teachings, he has given me some tools and understanding that I havnt gotten elsewhere.

I absolutely adore Tom Dorance, had a chance years ago to go and see him live, didnt go, still kicking myself. Bill was great too, but Tom was extra special! Sad that they are gone now, and I do have both of their books.

I have bought and read Buck Brannamans books, great story, good reads both of them, other than the Horse Whisperer, and from his books I havnt studied him very much. The movie will probably be really good though.

I went to a Pat Weise clinic with a friend, learned a lot, bought his book and a video tape of me in the clinic. Learned a few more tools from him, one of them being the "drop to trot" lead change, a great precursor to teaching your horse the flying lead change. Pat influenced me in what curb bit I use on my horses.

An old friend of the family has influenced me too. A quiet unassuming man, who has raised good horses, and competed in Cutting, and given riding lessons to children. This man I first met when I was around 8 years old, when my Dad shod his horses. We would go with Dad and watch. This man is Dick Osborn.
He isnt famous, he hasnt won copious awards, although he probably has a few trophies and ribbons under his belt. He has shown patience and compassion, with a ready smile, even now at, I believe, very close to 80 years old, he is a good hand with a horse. He has an 80 plus horse boarding stable.

Those are a few of the people that have influenced me with horses.
I hope that there will be more, as I figure out and continue my journey with my horses.

How about some of your favorit horse people?

Worlds smartest Horse....

Worlds smartest horse

This is really worth watching. Dedication and training, does wonderful things!!!

Dreaming of Spring.....doing Winter horse chores....

These are archived pictures. I didnt want to take the camera out, to muddy and cold. I cant wait for Spring!!

Warmer days when its more comfortable to get outside and get things done, would be nice!

Emma looks warm and content, and NOT muddy here! I hosed her off this morning when I went out to feed. She enjoyed the grass while I got the mud off of her!

This is the scene for trimming hooves! Emma got her toes clipped today, I waited way to long, she was pretty long. But she is all better now!! Now I have to get the other two done! They are not near as long as Emma was! I did pretty good today, went out and a little after 1PM and was back in the house at 2:20PM!! I trimmed Emmas feet and cleaned the three stalls!! Pretty good for a fat old brain tumor survivor!! LOL (oh and at my last Doc appt. I have lost 15#!!!! I am down to 178# wow!! without trying LOL. I just dont eat as much as I used to anymore. At my heaviest I was up to @ 230#. so that is a lot!!! When I got out of the hospital I was 183# so..... I feel pretty good, and would like to get down to around 160#, I think that would be comfortable!!!)