Expo Likes and Dislikes

It took a week to recover, but it was a lot of fun...the 2010 NW Horse Fair and Expo. Friday, three of us headed down and hit Steve Rother talking about body control. Next we went to Al Dunning talking about Western Dressage. Then it was off to shop. I bought a few things, a Courbette dressage bridle, a dressage pad, and a cool bag.

Sunday..we hit Steve Rother again, trail obstacles. Then it was the "Mustang Challenge." We did a little more shopping and decided to head back into Portland.

Things I liked about the Expo:

1. I went with a fun group of friends, interested in learning and exploring.
2. Steve Rother is coming into his own as a clinician. He did a nice job this year.
3. People were willing to "wheel and deal." Got some really good buys.
4. Parelli had a booth and I got to catch up with Ann Kiser.
5. Ansur Saddle was there. Beautiful saddles, and nice to see a big presence.
6. Mustangs that were auctioned off seemed to be going high. Great to see the demand for these horses and love that the program is gaining popularity.


Things I didn't like about the Expo:

1. A lot fewer vendors this year.
2. I liked Al Dunning, but wish he would have taught us about Western Dressage instead of giving us his resume. He started showing us some patterns with about 15 minutes left in his hour.
3. Tired of the ya-hoo's that do Mustang Challenge and place high even though they are just jerking their horses head all over the place and forcing their horses into maneuvers. Top two were said "ya-hoo's". I prefer watching trainers with softer hands and have a more willing partners.
4. Tired of judges who still give high scores to ya-hoo's.
5. They schedule it the same weekend as Canby tack sale. Boo!

I can bad mouth "ya-hoos" because I was one once...thank you Tom Dorrance for changing my ways.

Dude, Where's my Forest?

What a great horse weekend in Oregon! We had the "NW Horse Expo" along with the "Mustang Challenge" down in Albany. On Saturday, we had the famous "Canby Tack Sale," the biggest tack swap meet in the country. We also managed to squeeze in one heck of a ride.

The only bad news in all this...they are cutting our trees! Well, not our trees, BLM trees, but they felt like "our" trees. We headed towards a trail with a decent water crossing and found our route was no longer. All the trees were down. If you watch the video clip, even the horses looked stunned. We knew they were planning on cutting portions of the forest soon. It was sad to see our routes decimated. We're never afraid to blaze a new trail, so my riding companions searched for any possible way of getting through but the trees were stacked too high. We found a way around it by going back out on the road. We rode long enough for me to be sore the next day. Sucks getting old. Anyway, the expo was tons of fun, even if I was hobbling around on Sunday. I will post some highlights and some disappointments later this week.