Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Rockslide Entry Forms Now Posted


CANCELED...SEE BELOW...




Entry forms for ROCKSLIDE, the first in the WCRA's high point series shows are now available on the WCRA website. This show is always recognized for it's fun, relaxed and supportive atmosphere. There are new beginner classes slated for this year, a silent auction, and a full slate of NRHA classes. It's a long way for us folks upcountry to travel, so if anyone is planning to attend, why not get together and save on gas/ferry prices? Use the comment section below to connect with others...
ENTRY DEADLINE IS APRIL 27th
UPDATE...

We had our Peninsula Reining club Rockslide meeting.. and have decided to cancel Rockslide 2011.

We feel with the lack of riders coming this year, the Prince George show on the same weekend and the economy, it is in our best interest to do so.

We look forward to Rockslide 2012!

Thank you ,

Wilma Yule

Fraser Valley Reining Club Schooling Show



The Fraser Valley Reining Club (WCRA Chapter) are holding a Reining Schooling Show, SUNDAY, APRIL 17 (the same day as our Sliders Schooling Show). Here is another opportunity to get out and try a reining pattern on your horse in a low stress environment, and at a low cost. You can download the class list from their newly revamped website.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

PGRHA "Spring Slide" Entry Forms Now Available!



Entry forms can now be downloaded for the Prince George Reining Horse Association's first of 3 shows. ENTRY DEADLINE IS APRIL 20th. SPRING SLIDE 2011 has a full slate of NRHA classes, as well as beginner classes, and COW HORSE classes on the Thursday. Not many shows hold cow horse classes any more due to the expense involved, so if you are wanting to watch or show in a cow horse class this is an excellent opportunity!!

STALLION SPOTLIGHT # 2-SMART SPOOK


This is the second in a series of stallion spot light posts that I will be making. Smart Spook is still competing, and his offspring are just starting to enter the show pen. There are a number of his babies in Western Canada, and we should start to see them in the upcoming show season. Like a true champion sire, his babies are showing his classic good looks and by all accounts he is passing on his amazing talent.



PICTURES: SMART SPOOK (Taken from Google Images)

The following information is taken from Smart Spooks Website, where he stands at the Sterling Ranch, in Pilot Point, Texas.

Smart Spook is the leading money earning son of NRHA Hall Of Fame Stallion, Smart Chic Olena, who has sired earners of over $10 Million in Reining, Cutting and Cowhorse.

Smart Spook's dam is Sugarplum Spook by Grays Starlight. She is the producer of 9 money earners, winning over $447,622 and 335 AQHA points. She is also the full sister to NCHA Open Superstakes Champion, A Little Starlight who has won $205,000.

Smart Spook has very strong performance genetics on both sides of his pedigree, as well as great conformation and attitude, making him one of the best qualified and most exciting performance stallions of the new millennium. During 2004 Smart Spook earned over $190,000 culminating in his winning the 2004 NRHA Open Futurity. In 2005 he became the first horse in history to win back to back, the NRHA Open Futurity and then the NRHA Open Derby and finished up his year winning the AQHA Junior Reining World Championship. Smart Spook is also the leading earner of FEI Reining money and is the winner of the Open and Restricted World Reining Masters Gold medals in 2007, 2008 and 2009. This incredible performance horse is still showing at selected events and his earnings are now in excess of $390,000.

Here is a You Tube clip of Smart Spook's futurity run

Smart Spooks, 2011 Breeding fee is a cool 5,000.00!!

Problems With Reining Horse Training Few People Understand

I am on trainer Larry Trocha's e mail list and get regular mail outs from him on various topics. I particularly liked what he had to say in his last e mail, and thought it appropriate to share here. I have edited some of the total content but have included some of his most salient points here:

The last couple weeks, I've received a few emails and even a couple visits to my barn, from people wanting to get involved in reining competition.

Without exception, every one of these people were relying on the help of a horse trainer who had never competed in reining.

As a consequence, these folks are going to go terribly WRONG.

Unfortunately, the two who visited my barn, already had. Why?

Because they don't understand there is a whole boat-load of problems and pot-holes that are "reining" specific.And unless you have trained and competed in reining competition, you have NO IDEA what they are.What owners don't realize is that ignorance about this could literally RUIN their competition reining horse or reining prospect.

I'm not kidding. It's that serious.

If you plan on competing in a SPECIFIC event, you need a trainer with EXPERIENCE in that event.

Other wise, he's not going to know how to head-off potential problems.

Here is a partial list of things about reining horses that "non-reiners" simply don't know...

The more you show a reining horse, the WORSE he gets.

The horse gets worse because if he is even half-way intelligent, he will learn the reining pattern and begin to anticipate the maneuvers.

They'll usually start anticipating within just a few shows.

In the show arena, he'll get antsy when asked to stand still, knowing a spin or lead departure is coming.

He'll charge the run-down and SCOTCH the stop.

When executing circles, he'll drop his shoulder and try to change leads whenever he lopes across the center of the arena.

If this pattern anticipation isn't addressed and managed, it will get so bad the horse will become literally "un-showable".

This form of show ring anticipation is called "show smart".

If you are going to buy a trained reining horse, you better find out just how show smart he is or risk buying a reining horse that you can't get through a run.

I had an out-of-state customer who purchased a mare for $30,000. She was a good horse and could really win. However, the owner soon discovered she couldn't make it through a run clean, without three consecutive "schooling" runs prior to the "competition" run. (Throw away 3 entry fees before every run that actually counted)

If you plan on TRAINING a reining horse from scratch, you have to know how to manage the pit-falls to KEEP that horse from turning into something bad.

Below is another big misconception about reining horses.

THIS IS WHAT I HEAR PEOPLE SAY ALL THE TIME...

"I want to do reining but the horse I have now is too much of a DEAD-HEAD".

"I need to buy something with some get up and go".

When I hear that, I know that person has ZERO experience with reining horses.

They don't savvy a reining horse has to be able to go from a big, FAST circle... down to a small, SLOW circle... and he has to do it without the rider using much bit pressure. Only a quiet, laid-back kind of horse is going to do that. If the horse is "hot", once he gets running, he isn't going to want to slow down. Bottom line... you won't win anything.

Here's another point...

It is flat-out EASY to wake a quiet horse up. It is extremely DIFFICULT to slow a hot horse down. My suggestion to you... go with the naturally laid-back horse and learn how to wake him up.

HERE'S ANOTHER BIGGIE...

This one thing has ruined more non-pro reining horses than anything else I can think of. The culprit...

SPURRING THE HORSE THROUGH THE LEAD CHANGE.

When I was doing a lot of reining (I mostly show cutters now), I had quite a few non-pros. No matter how hard I tried to get those non-pros to trust their horse would change leads... they NEVER would trust him. They were so afraid of him not changing... they would use their spur and HARPOON the poor horse whenever a lead change was wanted. Do that at 3 or 4 shows in a row and at the 5th show... as soon as the horse realizes the lead change is coming... he'll grab his butt and CHARGE through the lead change like a freight train. Once the horse starts doing this, it's really tough to fix.

Okay, let's go over some more points SPECIFIC TO REINING.

In most cases, it's best to put the spin on your horse BEFORE you put the hard stop on him. If you don't, he'll be sucking back so much you'll have a tough time teaching him to cross-over in front. He'll be crossing under... banging his legs together and never learn to spin right.

FEW people understand just how SUPPLE and LIGHT a horse has to be to learn to rein. It is an absolute "must" and there is no getting around it. I see countless riders unknowingly TORTURE their horse trying to teach him to rein before he has any foundation. As a matter of fact, it's a common practice with many horse owners.

Here's my best advice...

Learn about training and horsemanship BEFORE you make all the common mistakes that make your horse's life miserable.

If you plan on training your horse for the performance events, learn how to do it right so you don't ruin him before you even get started.


SO-COMMENTS ANYONE?

I just took my 3 year old mare, Twister back to Sherri for training, for many of the reasons Larry has stated above.

Twister getting introduced to..Twister

Back to Work...

I am NOT a trainer, and I want her started right. I figure the best I can do, is to become as knowledgeable as possible and to become the best rider I can. I can only do that by working with trainers that TRAIN reining horses and compete at reining themselves. I feel fortunate to have a trainer I have worked with for years, and who I know and trust with my my animals. It is WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD!

I am SO PLEASED that we have a strong core group of dedicated and enthusiastic people in our club that WANT to learn and are WILLING to commit themselves both personally and financially by attending clinics and meeting regularly in a collegial and supportive manner.

So if you are a beginner, come out and take advantage of the collective knowledge of this dedicated group. We are all learning together, and becoming better and stronger as a result...And if you have the knowledge and skills to pass on, please leave your ego at the door, and come out and share!

100 Mile Horse Bazaar



PICTURES:
TOP- Ellie putting Dodge into a spin...Nice crossover!
MIDDLE- Ellie-the "Queen" wave
BOTTOM- Sliders members hard at work behind the Sliders booth

Congratulations to Ellie Meinhert, of Easy Go Ranch, and 100 Mile Slider Member, for doing such a wonderful job of promoting the sport of reining, and promoting our Sliders Club, in a demo she did at the 100 Mile Horse Bazaar, with her great gelding "Dodge". Ellie had a fantastic season least year in the reining pen and is a great example of the quality of reining in 100 Mile.
Also a big thank you to all Sliders members who came out and manned the tack sale booth, and Sliders table at the Horse Bazaar. It is your commitment and passion to the club that makes us strong.

USED TACK SALE-UPDATE



Pictures:
Top: 100 Mile Sliders Booth at the 100 Mile Horse Bazaar
Bottom: Some of the items from our Used Tack Sale

A big thank you to everyone who donated items to our First Annual Used Tack Consignment Sale. The sale was held this past weekend in conjunction with the 100 Mile Horse Bazaar. We were more than pleased with the amount of quality items we amassed for the sale. We had many buyers and the end result was that we were able to sell a good amount of sale items. We are encouraged by our results and will offer the sale again, with the hope of making it bigger and better.
A special thank you to Sherri Thomson, who generously donated a large quantity of items to the clubs' sale, with all proceeds going directly to the club.

Our 5th Set of photo Contest Winners

This weeks category was "HUMOROUS MOMENTS". Thanks to everyone who submitted pictures of your equine in their more "goofy" moments!
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR FOLLOWING WINNERS!!

FIRST AND PEOPLES CHOICE AWARD
SHARON GATES-"JUMP FOR JOY"


SECOND MANDY PINCOTT "COW HORSE JUMP"


THIRD
CRYSTAL GRIER, "CUTE FACE"


Thanks to everyone for your submissions. You can view all the entries by viewing the contest Facebook site.

Be sure to check out the site for next weeks submissions for the contest. The category will be "Training Moments"



Tuesday, March 8, 2011

STALLION SPOTLIGHT-WIMPYS LITTLE STEP

Given the fact that spring is just around the corner (no, really...it is), and we will soon be seeing new foals out in the fields, I thought I would take the opportunity to showcase some of the reining industries hottest stallions that are currently dominating the world market and setting trends in the industry. Although most of us will never have the opportunity to own any of the get from these stallions, it is good practice to know which bloodlines are currently popular, and if you are in the market for breeding or buying, the closer up you can get these stallions on your papers, the more marketable and valuable your reining prospect is likely to be. The first stallion I chose to spotlight is:

WIMPYS LITTLE STEP

The following text is taken from Wimpys Little Step website:

"Wimpys Little Step is quite simply a reining phenomenon. During his three year old year, this bionic stallion captured the interest of the reining industry when he won both the 2002 AQHA Congress Open Reining Futurity and the 2002 NRHA Open Futurity with Shawn Flarida in the saddle. In doing so, Wimpys Little Step earned over $185,000. He is only the second horse to win both the Congress and NRHA Open Futurities."

In this clip, Shawn Flarida talks about his futurity run as well as his admiration for Wimpys Little Step

The true test of any stud horse is the ability to out produce himself. Wimpys Little Step has certainly proven his ability in the breeding pen.

"Just six short years later, the 9-year-old stallion was the NRHA's newest and youngest Million Dollar Sire.

Wimpys Little Step has stepped up in a big way and, in just his first year as a breeding horse, had sired six NRHA Futurity Open finalists, including a Futurity Champion. The stand-out's first foal crop produced 32 money-earning offspring, bringing in a combined $750,000+

Wimpys Little Step made history at this year’s Carolina Classic Derby, held May 13-16 in Williamston, N.C., when his offspring surpassed $2 million in NRHA earnings. The flashy palomino stallion joins eight of NRHA’s leading stallions as a Two Million Dollar Sire and is the youngest – by a margin of five years – to attain that status.

Wimpys Little Step is owned by Xtra Quarter Horses, Purcell, Oklahoma, and is by NRHA Million Dollar Sire Nu Chex To Cash and out of Leolita Step."


Wimpys Little Step's 2011 Breeding fee is a cool 7,500.00!

Friday, March 4, 2011

Our 4th Set Of Photo Contest Winners!

This weeks category was "FABULOUS FOALS". Thanks to everyone who submitted your fantastic baby pictures! It certainly got me excited about seeing this spring's new crop of babies!!
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR FOLLOWING WINNERS!!

FIRST, CRYSTAL GRIER-MOTHER AND FOAL



SECOND-MANDY PINCOTT-NEW BORN FOAL



THIRD-SHARON GATES-MOTHER AND NEWBORN


PEOPLES CHOICE-THERE WAS A TIE!
LOUISE GARRARD-BABY MULE


SHARON GATES-BABY SLIDING STOP



Thanks to everyone again for all your wonderful submissions. To view all of the pictures in this category go here: Fabulous Foals

NEXT WEEKS CATEGORY IS-HUMOROUS MOMENTS
send us your best shots of your horses in their "goofy" moments!

Looking For a new horse trailer?





Check it out... FOR SALE:

2004 Trails West Goose Neck Weekender
  • 2 Horse Angle Haul
  • Mid tack room
  • Brand new awning, new propane tank, good tires
  • Mint Condition
  • 17,500.00

Contact Randy
250-395-5175

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Industry Ethics-The Story of Guns and White Roses


(ALL PICTURES ON THIS POST ARE TAKEN FROM ROSE'S BLOG OR FACEBOOK PAGE)

We had a Sliders meeting last night to discuss our upcoming tack sale at the horse bazaar and to nail down some details of our upcoming clinic/schooling show with Gus. In the ensuing conversation, the topic of unethical practices in the show industry, came up. It was an interesting discussion. The talk started around the practice of some people drugging their show horses at shows, and evolved into a general discussion about the ethics of the 3 year old futurities and what people will/have to do (trainers and owners alike) to get their babies ready to go into such high pressure situations. We also talked about the "throw away" mentality, that appears to be common in the quest for futurity prospects, and how young horses get pushed too soon too fast and end up blowing their minds and/or bodies, and are ruined for life.
This is such a huge topic, that I could go on at length, and the longer I stay involved in reining specifically and the horse industry in general, the more formed and (in) formed my opinions become. My "reality check" is a daily dose of the Fugly Horse Blog", which I have referred to a few times on this blog before. Her blog IS totally devoted to bad practice in the horse industry, and in my opinion her commentary is right on the mark. I would encourage anyone to spend some time reading her back posts, and some of the hundreds of comments most of her posts generate.
Instead, I thought I would write about one horse's story I have been following for 3 years. This is the story of Guns And White Roses, a sabino daughter of the famous GUNNER (Colonel's Smoking Gun), and out of an NRHA Money earning mare.
I first came across this story when I was perusing the sale ads on Reiners World, a sale web site devoted to selling reining horses. She was listed under the weanling page, and although I can't remember the exact wording it was something like this: "FOR SALE, DEAF, CONFORMATIONALLY CHALLENGED REINING PROSPECT". She was listed at a ridiculous high price (if I recall, over 10,000.00), and included this picture:


It was such a strange ad!! Was this some kind of joke?? I had to follow up. The owner had a link to her blog, and when I went there, this was the story:
She had been looking for a reining prospect from Gunner, specifically, a sabino filly, and had found the perfect candidate from a reputable breeder. The price was out of their budget at the time, but as a birthday surprise, her husband took the plunge, and bought the horse, and had her shipped. Although he bought her without seeing her in the flesh, these were some of the pictures that they were using to make their decision, and the dealers are noted for breeding some of the best reining horse blood lines in the industry.

As you can see there is no evidence of any conformation issues with this filly

Nor can you see any issues in this picture

BUT, conformationally challenged she was! It was a SEVERE case of equine lodorsis. When Rose stepped off the trailer, the new owners were horrified. Upon contacting the breeders, they were met with denial. She was going through a "Growth Phase", they were told, and the "reputable"breeders refused to buy her back. It was a hard lesson in "buyer beware". The family was devastated. All their dreams of a futurity prospect were doomed, and it appeared that their huge initial investment in this filly was unrecoverable. However, what was there to do? Rose, became "one of the family", and quickly won her way into their hearts.
I continued to follow Rose's life on the blog, and watched as the family chronicled her journey.



Here she is as a yearling filly-the Lodorsis still VERY apparent.


Despite her condition, it also became quickly apparent that Rose was a very special horse. Amazingly agile, given her condition, intelligent, and highly trainable, with a quirky personality, the family simply fell in love with her-despite her condition.
As Rose entered her 2 year old year, the family started to investigate if there would be any possibility of even getting her going under saddle. Rose was looking for a "Job" and they wanted to give her something constructive to do (instead of digging for gophers out in the field-a "Rose" quirk) ...maybe driving might be an option. Many consultations with trainers, vets and equine specialists later, they made a decision. They would see about starting Rose under saddle, and play it by ear, taking their cues from Rose herself. Since reining was the discipline for which she was bred, they started a search for a reining trainer that would consider taking Rose. After much searching (what professional reining trainer would take on such a prospect?), they hooked up with Canadian, Francois Gauthier, and the rest as it is said...is history. Rose took to her training like a duck to water. Here is a video of her show career debut. The run is by no means perfect, but pretty amazing considering all the facts!

In fact, she displayed so much talent, that Francois decided to take her to the NRHA 3 year old futurities last November.





WOW!! I got to tune in to see her run on the live feed, and it gave me goosebumps. She didn't win...didn't even place in the top, but it really didn't matter. Here was a horse, that, even by a lay person's standards, would NEVER have been given a chance to do what she had accomplished. This severe conformational flaw would have excluded her from ever being considered as a prospect by any professional in the reining industry, and yet here she was-competing against the top horses in the world, and holding her own.

So why this lengthy post about Rose?
I like this story. In an industry plagued by bad practice, it highlights the fact that there are people out there that still have their morals and integrity intact. That there are people that take their horse ownership seriously and responsibly, and are willing to do the best by their animals under ANY circumstances. That there are professional trainers that are willing to consider the best interests of the horses in their care, and that will work with the owners to help them achieve THEIR goals. AND, I like stories with happy endings...

After the futurities, guess what? The family took her back home-she's having a well deserved break, and will go back to Francois this spring to get ready for the upcoming show season. They are TRAIL RIDING her! and TURING HER OUT WITH OTHER HORSES!! Yes, Rose has a life-and a good one at that!! She is one of the lucky ones!
You can follow Rose's journey on her Face Book page or on her Blog

So if you have made it all the way through this post, now it's your turn. I would love your feedback on this story and your comments/experiences/stories on anything I have touched on in this post.

100 Mile Slilders proudly present a Gus Evangelopoulos Reining Clinic/Schooling Show



CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR A LARGER VIEW

100 Mile Sliders will be hosting a 2 day reining clinic followed by a schooling show. The clinic will be Friday and Saturday, April 15-16, followed by a schooling show Sunday April 17. The event will be held at the beautiful Easy Go Ranch in Lac La Hache.
Our clinician this year is reining trainer and open level NRHA competitor, Gus Evangelopoulos.
The clinic will consist of a 90 minute semi private session (2-3 people/group) on both Friday and Saturday. The Sunday schooling show is geared for beginners with most classes consisting of modified WCRA patterns. Cost for the 2 day clinic plus schooling show is 200.00 for members and 250.00 for non members. There will be a 10.00 audit fee for the clinic. Riders may also choose to just enter the schooling show. Individual class fees of 12.00 (members) or 15.00 (non members) or 50.00 for the day.
For more information, or for application forms, contact Mandy Pincott (mpincott@live.com 250-397-2960) or Isabella MacQuarrie (isabella.macquarrie@sd27.bc.ca 250-397-7770)

Lynda Smith Becomes a Sanctioned Reining Judge!


Photos:
Top: Lynda giving some advice at our Sliders clinic/schooling show April 2010
Bottom: Equine Canada's web site shot

This exerpt below was taken from Equine Canada's Web Site
.
CONGRATULATIONS, Lynda!!
"Following the Reining Judges’ Clinic on January 27-28 at the Equine Canada Convention, Canadian Reining Committee (CRC) pleased to announce four new reining judges in Canada. The clinic was the first one offered by Equine Canada to accredit judges for sanctioned reining competitions. The course educated future judges in the scoring system for reining as adopted by Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI). The curriculum and testing protocols were developed in conjunction with The Reining Horse Association of Germany and were presented by Gary Yaghdjian and Bernie Hoeltzel.

The first reining recorded judges are Sherri Whitworth of Rockwood, ON; Lorraine Gilchrist of Asquith, SK; and Lynda Smith of Pitt Meadows, BC. Beth Hora of Moose Jaw, SK was granted senior status as she is also a National Reining Horse Association judge.

“It was integral to keep the level very high in accordance with the industry standard. Reining has the most intricate and transparent judging system with all score sheets posted for exhibitors to review at the conclusion of each class,” said Yaghdjian, who is also the chair of the CRC. “We are very pleased that the following candidates were successful in attaining the prerequisite 80 per cent passing grade. Congratulations to our new judges.”"

Clink on the Equine Canada link above to view the entire article.