Day trip to Hopkins

Joni, Tammy, and I took the "kids" to Hopkins Demonstration Forest. It is about 15 minutes away, so we thought it would be a good training trip to gear up for summer. I was working on trailering, Tammy worked on keeping her mare responsive, and Joni wanted to hit some water. We did all that and even managed to climb some stairs. Hopkins is a privately owned forest that is open to the public. In years past, lots of the trails were open to equestrians. This trip, we noticed more trails that are off limits to horses. I get bummed when I see these signs.We hit some trails outside of Hopkins and when all was said in done, we were in the saddle for about 3 hours. I was pretty happy with Maddy. She kept her cool in the trailer and came in and out calmly. My two weeks of intense work paid off. Below is a picture of Tammy and Joni enjoying a little break on "Lost Lane."

Splash

My friend Joni and I hit the trails for a quick ride on Wednesday. It was nice and sunny. In Oregon you have to take advantage of those types of days. Joni, or as I like to call her "Trailboss," is a human GPS. I am so envious of people that don't get lost out on that BLM land. I lose my bearings quickly, and can only explore on days I don't have to get to work just in case I get lost. Joni took me to a new area that I am trying to map out mentally. It helps to have her connect the dots. As a bonus, we found a pond with a shallow edge that Maddy could go splash in. She loves the water, Skye the big palomino, thinks it is going to swallow him whole.

Some day Skye will have the courage to go in. Joni is working hard on getting him used to water, so maybe by the end of summer he will splash in with Maddy.

Walkabout Tour 2010 Redmond

I had a weekend away with the girls down in Redmond, Oregon enjoying the Clinton Anderson tour. This is my third time going to see the Aussie. I headed down Saturday morning, the girls were a day ahead of me, so they enjoyed a day of shopping in the lovely city of Bend followed by a night of wine and hot tubing. As I rolled in Saturday, I met my crew headed out for their lunch break....Joni was grinning ear to ear. She just won the grand prize ($800 value) "Fundamentals" program. High five! Guess who is going to borrow that:-)
I missed the morning session, but arrived in time to watch a ground work session with a beautiful, but pushy, dominant buckskin named "Leroy." I took away from this session that I should strive for a "higher grade" with Maddy. She does most of the things I ask, but does she do them enthusiastically or the speed I want...sometimes, but not always. So I am going to raise the bar. I need to raise my expectations and get my horse out of kindergarten.

After that Clinton rode Diez, his quarter horse gelding. Diez looks like a body builder in the horse world, compact and muscle bound.

We stayed with Jim and Shoshana Buckendorf of Suite Escapes. They have a beautiful, jaw dropping property they rent out. We enjoyed the western themed decor, gorgeous copper accents, and big cozy rooms with fireplaces. It was so nice. I feel inspired to re-decorate after staying there. It was amazing.

We stayed up drinking wine and talking horses. We could have talked horses until dawn, but we had a clinic to get to! Sunday we watched advanced ground work, work under saddle, and trailer loading. When it was over, we went down to get our picture with Clinton. Of course, we had to torture our barn owner Tammy who couldn't come due to a agility dog trial. We got Clinton to sign a calender that says "Tammy, Where were you?" Clinton. He was happy to play along. He is signing her calender in the photo below. We missed you Tammy, but Clinton promised to return to Oregon on his next tour.

Save the Mounted Patrol

Nine horses in Portland may be out of a job. The Portland Police Bureau is looking at $3 million dollars in budget cuts and the Mounted Patrol is on the chopping block. The unit costs a mere $570,000 a year. Not bad in the realm of public safety.

They are responsible for crowd control, public relations, and downtown patrols. They average about 150 arrests a month and they have a huge presence at downtown protests. In Portland, you know we have lots of those! The Mounted Patrol is solely responsible for moving crowds in these big events. It is pretty amazing to watch. The horses even wear face masks so they are not subject to the pepper spray.

I know they do a lot of dressage training and recently had Ken Mcnabb in for some instruction. They really are a great group of people and I think it would be a huge loss to the city of Portland to have their unit dissolved.

The Friends of the Mounted Patrol has a Facebook page...if you would like to join and support them.

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.

Ride with Cliff

Maddy is looking over at Freebie thinking "I wonder is this old red roan can keep up?" My step-dad Cliff is out visiting from Minnesota and I was hoping there would be a clear day so we could hit the trails together. "Freebie" is the barn husband horse, the pack master, otherwise know as "the couch." She is the kind of horse that takes care of her rider. After brushing about two pounds of hair from her, we hit the trails. I promised a short ride so Cliff wouldn't be too sore tomorrow. We had a great time and the mares trailed so well together. We even got some good glimpses of Mt. Hood. I am really glad I talked him into saddling up with me. Even if it was a western saddle...Cliff was a dressage enthusiast back in the day. As we left the barn for our drive home, he said, "I hope this doesn't give me horse fever...." Cliff, by the look on your face...I'd say your temp is at least 104.