When The Horse Goes Down

The 2017 Anoka County Fair was going to be my best fair yet. Vegas and me were working so well together, in pleasure and games. He was ready to do his best and so was I….until about 1 hour before the show started. This blog post is all about how the fair went for my horses and me, how I dealt with it, and how it came together.

Monday night the horses arrived and they were all ready for the show. They were settled in their stalls and fed for the night. I went to bed. The next morning I got Keeno out of his stall and lunged him to get his energy out. Then I bathed him and put him in his stall to eat. Next I got Vegas out and started bathing him. I was washing his front leg when I noticed it was really swollen. I immediately knew he was hurt and could not be ridden. Oh, no! What now? I had a guaranteed state trip with the Dan Patch Youth Leadership Award but needed to ride a horse and get blue ribbons in order to compete at state. Now what should I do?

I had one hour to get my back-up horse to the fair and ready to show. The only horse I thought of was Winchester, my three-year-old quarter horse whom I bought last fall to train. With only one hour, the clock was ticking. Here is how it went. I ran to get our pick-up truck while Steve Falkers (Vegas’ owner) worked on finding a trailer and hitch to use. We ended up borrowing one family’s hitch and another’s trailer. Steve drove to my house to pick up Winchester. I still had to show my training horse, Keeno, though. While I was showing Keeno, Winchester arrived and I had one class to get him ready.

Thanks to the best support group ever—when I came out of the arena with Keeno, Winchester was already getting clipped. I got the show halter on and started training him to square and pivot. I had about 10 minutes.

I walked him into the Showmanship Class and showed as hard as I ever had before. It didn’t go as planned but I never gave up showing, even when things didn’t go so well. I dealt with all of this like it was just another day. I told myself  “just because things aren’t going as planned doesn’t mean it won’t be fun”. It is hard not to panic in a tough situation like this but I told myself: this is all fun, not a competition. It turned out alright in the end.

A little background: Now you need to understand that my only intention that I had for Winchester this year was for roping. I never worked on barrels and never even thought about slowing him down! But now what?

I have a horse at the fair that has not done any of this before. Well, all I heard was Vegas in my ear yelling at me for giving up. So I never gave up. I went in the show pen and rode Winchester like I would have ridden Vegas. Each time I walked through the gate I did two things.

·      The first thing I did was thanked the Lord that I had a horse to ride.

·      The second thing was telling myself how much fun I was going to have.

I did this the whole three days of the horse show—every single time. Every time I entered the arena, Winchester stepped up to the plate and performed like a champion. We placed higher than 3^rd blue in all the pleasure events and received blue ribbons in every game, except poles.

Coming off a really good fair last year with Vegas when I got all around high point of the county, I felt like a lot of other 4-H’ers were watching me with high expectations. When Vegas went down, I was so close to crying, until he gave me “the look”. Vegas has always given me this face, whenever he wanted to challenge me. For example, when I first started riding him, he would just stand at the gate and not move with this expression. When I saw his face, I knew that he wanted me to do the very best I could do, even if it was on a different horse. That is exactly what I did! Because of it, Winchester earned himself the 7^th State Trip of Anoka County, which I didn’t need to accept because I had a trip with Dan Patch. This fair will stand out to me not because I did well and not because I had the best situation coming in, but because I made a bad situation into a good one. I made the best better.

I Attended a Pleasure Clinic

I did not know what to expect going into this clinic. I was told we were doing Showmanship at Halter, Western Pleasure/Horsemanship, English Pleasure/Equitation, and Bareback Pleasure. I decided to bring Winchester, my 3-year-old Quarter Horse, just to get him out of the yard. I am not planning on showing him in pleasure but I thought it would be fun.

The morning started out with halter. I have never worked on halter with him so was just kind of there. He learned to square and pivot within an hour.

Then we did Western Pleasure and Horsemanship. The biggest thing we improved on was collection. I have taught him to collect at home but never made him stay collected the whole time I was riding him. But I needed to improve my slow lope.

After western there was English. I have never ridden Winchester in English before; heck, I ride English like 4 times a year and that is it. I was a little nervous but saddled up and rode anyway. The clinician told me that Winchester is such a good mover. She also said he could be a dressage horse; I bragged about that compliment for the rest of the day. Haha! English went well and I learned a lot about my seat and hand placement.

The last thing was bareback. Bareback was just plain fun. Feet position is really important, along with a good seat.

I am super glad I want to this clinic. My young horse listened well and I learned a ton! I would definitely go again.

Trixie

I purchased a horse named Trixie at the end of February. With purchasing this horse, I have learned a lot and am not done learning yet. I am going to tell you what I have learned. I will start with my intentions and goals, then talk about how far she has come, and finally I will share what I have learned.

I like to set goals for myself and for my horses. When I was thinking about purchasing Trixie, it was hard for me to create a goal to work towards. I did not know if my goal should be running barrels or just riding or maybe something as simple as catching her. After getting her home, I soon figured out what our goals should be. Here is the list of goals:

1.     Walk up and catch her with minimal effort.

2.     Teach her to walk into the trailer.

3.     Teach her to lead by your side at walk, trot, and back.

4.     Saddle and ride her.

5.     Desensitize her to guns, whips, tarps, etc.

6.     Teach her everything a horse needs to now.

Most of these goals have been reached, but there are still a few we’re working on. The end goal for me is to sell her to a caring home that will love her for the rest of her life.

From the day I brought her home till today, the journey has been long but fun. When we went to pick her up, it took my dad and me over 30 minutes to catch her, and that was in a very small pen. Then it took over 2 hours to load her in the trailer, because she was untrained. The one thing I like about her is she doesn’t forget. After getting her home, it only took one trailer loading session to get her to load like a champion. She remembers everything we work on. She is a nice horse to ride but really likes to go fast. She is working on slowing down. She has improved the most with grooming. She did not know what grooming was when I got her. She would hunch her hind-quarters or quiver when touched. Now she is like an angel and will stand loving every second of attention she receives.

I have learned a ton from this little 3-year-old bay mare. The first thing she taught me was to wait and think about the decision of buying a horse. During the pre-sale check, I noticed that she had really bad rain rot. Once I got her home, I had to treat and take care of a horse with rain rot. Training wise, I have learned about young, un-handled horses. Starting horses may be my occupation; so I am getting started as early as I can.

Trixie still has along way to go but she has come so far in the last couple weeks. I got her as an unbroken 3 year old and am turning her into a well-trained horse. If you have any questions about Trixie, feel free to ask at any time.

Trixie with a new rider.

First day

Meet The Newest Herdmember

This is Winchester. He is a 2 year old Quarter Horse. He has never been ridden and has barely been handled. I got him so I would have a horse for roping and ranch riding. Here are some pictures of him, and of course some of Keeno.

Keeno and Winchester  the next morning.

Winchester and Keeno meeting.

Me and Winchester the second day.

A Yearling Takes Grand Champion

As most of you know, I took two horses to the State 4H Horse Show. Keeno was entered in the training project level one. Vegas was entered in everything except poles. I was not sure what was going to happen at state. I did not know what the competition was like, or how my horses would react to the new surroundings.

When I unloaded the horses and walked them to their stalls: Vegas spooks, Keeno’s fine, Vegas jumps away, Keeno just walks, Vegas won’t step in his stall, Keeno jumps right in. That is what it was like leading two horses through rows of stalls that were filled with other horses, tack, wheelbarrows, people, etc. Now I suppose I should tell you what I did after the horses were settled in.

I walked Keeno in the arena that he would be competing in from 10:00 to 11:00 pm. Then I got up at 4:30 am and walked him till 6:00 am. Next I bathed him and then got ready to show. I was going to be the first one to show at 7:00 am but then got bumped back to the 8^th person to show. I walked around the Agstar building rehearsing the questions that I thought I would be asked. Then I was called in. I walked to the judge and asked Keeno to stop and square. He did. The judge asked me the first question and Keeno started moving in circles around me. I explained how I was going to correct his nervous behavior. I answered all of her questions plus every other thing I could possibly think of. She told me to stop talking because it was taking too long. She asked me to do some maneuvers with Keeno and  then tie him up. When I was done I did not know what the judge thought of me. I must have done something right because I got first place out of a class of 17 people. I could not have asked for a better way to start the show.

Then to top that, I got a 9^th and 10^th with Vegas in Western Horsemanship and in Western Pleasure. It was a great first 4H State Horse Show. Hasrd work really does pay off.

Why I Set Goals

            Why should you set goals? That is what we will be talking about today. We will go over setting goals, working on achieving them and then achieving them. Are you ready? Let’s go!!

            When you think about setting goals, most people think long term. There are different types of goals. There are long-term goals and there are short-term goals. Setting both will make you and your horse the best you can be. When setting a goal, be realistic with yourself. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Make it challenging and something that you will be proud of. I like to set one or two long-term goals for the year. My long-term goals this year were to make it to the State 4H Horse Show and be able to do a flying lead change. I have achieved both of these. I also set short-term goals for every riding session. These goals are like teaching collection or running a personal best in barrels. A short term goal can be achieved in one day to a week. Setting short-term goals should help your quest to achieving your long-term goals.

            Now that you got your goal or goals set, it is time to achieve them. Find out what you need to complete your goals.  Do you need a new piece of equipment? Do you help gaining more knowledge on what you are trying to do? Books, youTube videos, or knowledgeable horse people can increase your knowledge. Don’t over work your goals. Keep it simple and don’t take short cuts.

            The best feeling in the world is achieving your goal. My long-term goal was to make it to the State 4H Horse Show. I worked every day on this goal. When it came time for the county fair, both of my horses were ready. Keeno and I won a state trip in the training program and will be competing in the Agstar arena at the state fair September 16^th at 7:00 am. Me and Vegas did not just get a state trip—we accumulated the most points over all of Anoka County horse program members. We will be competing at the state fair September 16^th through 19^th. You can come support the Anoka County 4H horse state team at the state fair from the 16^th to the 19^th. I have never been happier than when they announced my name on the loud speaker for state trip winners.

Those are a few reasons I set goals. As we start the school year, I’m setting a goal to write more blog posts about my horses. Now just remember: set your goals, work toward your goals, and be proud of when you achieve them!

Trail Riding manners

It is time to hit the trails, but before you do make sure you have good trail manners. Today we will discuss polite trail manners so you can be part of a happy trail riding group.

The leader of the group is in charge of the whole group. The leader needs to make sure every one is in line and no one is being left behind. He/She watches every one making sure that they stay on the trail together as a group.

            A very important thing to remember is horses are herd animals. Even if you can ride out alone doesn’t mean every horse is comfortable being alone. If anyone stops, stay with him or her. Here are some examples of when you need to stop for other people: getting a gate, going to the bathroom, crossing over a bridge, wading through water, and/or stepping over a fallen tree. Just wait for others and it will make the whole trail riding experience better.

            To sum it all up, just remember stay as a group. I hope you learned something. If you have any more rules or trail manners, please let me know.