Every Day Something New

We are back to the usual routine on the farm. Feed the animals, watch the cows for calves, watch the mare for signs of impending birth etc. But as a break from the routine of the day to day work, I paid a visit to the Van Bert Farm and Cool Shade Mountain Horses this past Monday. I was delivering two mares for breeding. One mare will be bred to an exciting young stallion, Blue on Black. He gave a great performance in the show ring in North Carolina. He has good conformation and a steady gait and personality plus.

The other mare, Mt Girl which was my first horse, will be bred to Ventures Black Fury. He walked out of the Championship Class as Grand Champion Stallion. in North Carolina and had a great season in the show ring in 2008. He has a wonderful personality and an awsome gait. Judy Brummer always gets that "Fury grin" when she rides him and he has show winning offspring on the ground. So we are excited to get to breed our mares to such fine stallions.

This time next year will be exciting as we watch our new foals running in the green pastures of our farm in Kentucky.

But there was also work involved during my visit to Van Bert's. Larry Patterson is teaching me to handle my yearling colt for conformation classes. He is a hard task master but also very patient with me. The Dericksons, Tiptons and Pattersons make it look so easy when they are in the show ring in conformation classes. The colt, Spirit is showing what good training he has had. I on the other hand have much to learn. So I will be in the show ring with WOFs Mountain Spirit. We will see how well I do. I know he will do fine. But the trick is getting us to work together as a team.

I always learn so much when I am at the farms in Stanton. Recently, H T gave a clinic for my sister and me on riding and training. He went through his training session with the mare he was riding and explained why he did each thing and what he was going to accomplish. From the results at the North Carolina show and his rides on Dressed for Success he accomplished all of his goals in an outstanding way.

This past visit, Larry gave us a clinic on showmanship at halter. He went through each step of how he trained to set up for conformation judging. How to get the results he wanted and when to stop asking. When to start asking. And then as a grand finale, he ask Spirit to walk from one end of the barn with him to the other end with the lead line across Spirit's neck instead of in Larry's hand. As an encore, he ask him to walk through the plastic curtains to the assistant who would take him back to his stall. Spirit responded correctly to each thing Larry ask of him.

I hope to do that good when I start actually showing him. This was my second lesson on showing in hand. Larry showed me how to lead Spirit. And always gave me the whys of the way I ask Spirit. By the end of my lesson, I was understanding and trying to make my mind and body work together. In the previous lesson, I learned how to lead him through obstacles.

I am really excited about the obstacle training. I believe that is one of the best tools used to get a horse ready for trail riding. And most of the Mountain Horses that show are also partners on the trail. It is fun to show. But the whole purpose of all of it is to make a great trail partner that one can trust and have fun on. I am now in my late 60s but I hope I never stop learning new things and wanting to do new things. To me that is how the mind stays young and how to slow down the aging of the body.

Later everyone. God Bless you and keep you in his loving care.

Happy Easter. Christ Jesus is risen.