An evening social and change of executive...

Sliders members got together last night to hang out, finalize some of our CRUZ CLINIC details, and to elect a new president, as our current president, Dawnna Robertson decided it was necessary to step down, due to the heavy demands of her current schedule. We would like to extend a big thank you to Dawnna for filling our president role for the last two years, and welcome Elli Meinert  into the position.  

 
Our new president, Elli Meinert

Elli has been a club member since our inception and will serve as a great ambassador for our club. She has been increasingly involved in the sport of reining, and has worked with a number of outstanding professionals to build her own knowledge base. Elli competes at many of the major reining shows throughout the province, and has recently purchased a young mare from Websters Performance Horses, to show in reining and working cow. We are all excited to see her and "Porsche" in the show pen this year.

Elli's new show prospect, Porsche

Elli also helps in the day to day operation of her family's EASY GO RANCH in Lac La Hache, and as a club we have been able to benefit from using their beautiful facilities to host a number of clinics. As well Elli and her mom have launched a new business this year in 100 Mile. THE LOG HOUSE, (website still under construction) tack, harness and western ware store opened it's doors in November.

It is a beautiful log house, and they carry all the popular western styles, quality tack, western decor and have great prices. If you are traveling through 100 Mile House, be sure to stop in!

I just wanted to thank my viewers! Over the weekend the Sliders Blog passed the 10,000 views mark. Since I only started the count this past fall, that means all of those views have been in the last eight months!!
However, you are a quiet bunch! I rarely receive comments...which in my mind would make this blog truly successful. So I invite you, especially if you are a regular reader, to help make this blog a good place for people to "join the conversation". Start with this post by telling me who you are, what you like about the blog, what you would like to see more of, or any other tidbits of information you would like to share!

Gus Clinic Follow Up

Last weekend, we had the extreme good fortune to work with reining trainer and AQHA horseman, Gus Evangelopoulos, at the beautiful Easy Go ranch in Lac la Hache.


Gus was quickly able to hone in on each participants individual needs and work with each horse rider combination to help them achieve their goals for the weekend.

Nicola & Bart

Nicola brought Bart the first night in the hopes that Gus would be able to work with him to make him a more willing and responsive partner for her on the trail. By the time Gus was finished with him on Friday night, we were teasing Gus that Bart was ready to be his next reining horse prospect!! Under our noses, and almost without us realizing what was happening, Gus was able to get Bart into a willing frame of mind, going from being aggressive and pushy to being light and responsive. The next day, Nicola rode Bart and was able to get him into a walk, trot and lope on a loose rein, as well as picking up some riding tips from Gus.

Don and

Don came to the clinic hoping to build on his horsemanship skills. Gus was able to give him a few subtle tips that helped to transform his relationship with his mare, again, making her more light, willing and responsive. Don was impressed by how a few minor adjustments could make such a big difference in how his mare responded to him.

Val and

After watching Gus work with everyone on Friday, Val made the decision to come out and ride on Saturday. After recovering from a serious accident, Val was hoping to rebuild her confidence on the back of a horse. Gus was more than impressed with Val's courage, and reaffirmed that she is indeed a good rider and with a lot of skills and knowledge.

Casandra & Cee

Always happy to take the opportunity to ride with Gus, Casandra made the trip up from Kamloops and was more than happy to put a ride on "Cee", Don's young filly, that she put some time on last spring. Gus has been a strong supporter of Casandra over the years and she was glad to spend some quality "horse time" with him again.

Tanya and Monty

Tanya came to the clinic with the hopes of learning the skills to be able to get her gelding, Monty to pick up the correct lead going to the left. Her continued persistence paid off, and by the end of the weekend, she, most importantly, had the knowledge to be able to continue to work on Monty to help him become more consistent. Those of us on the ground were able to watch and learn as well, and will hopefully be able to support Tanya, as she continues to work with Monty.

Tiffany and Gypsy

Tiffany came to the clinic with her newly acquired gelding, Gypsy,which she hopes to show this year in reining and working cow. Gus reaffirmed for her that she "has a lot of horse". Her gelding is an incredible athlete with a big motor. Tiffany came away from the clinic with some tools to help keep him calm and quiet. We are all looking forward to seeing them in the show pen!!

Mandy & Frenchy

Mandy brought her up and coming 3 year old prospect looking for some tips and ideas to move forward with her training. Gus was impressed with the work that Mandy had accomplished so far with the filly, and was able to give Mandy some tools to help her to get to the next level with Frenchy.

Dawnna & Moke

Dawnna and Moke? Well, lets just say they had some "issues" to work through. Gus's belief that you face issues and work through them, ending up with a better partnership with your horse, proved to be a philosophy that we were all able to embrace by the end of the weekend. Dawnna and Moke persevered, and by Sunday, you could see that they are a going to be strong contenders in the show pen this season!

Bella & Chico

And that leaves..me. After realizing that my own horse Jewel was still lame and I was not going to be able to ride her, I was extremely grateful to the numerous individuals who made me offers of horses I could ride in her place. I ended up riding Chico, Mandy's lovely gelding. It turned out to be the right horse for me for the weekend. Being the perfect gentleman, Chico allowed me to focus on my own riding and horsemanship skills. Riding without a sturrip, and without rein contact, trying to find my balance, Chico never took a wrong step. I'm not quite ready for a bridleless, saddleless freestyle yet, but hopefully I came away with a better feel and a better seat, and as a result will be a more confident, balanced rider.

On behalf of all the participants, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Gus for coming to the Cariboo, and sharing his skill and knowledge with us. We all came away with some new knowledge and skills and that is the ultimate accomplishment for any clinic.
For any of the participants, I would welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section below!
I would also like to thank Pete Mclennan for taking all the great pictures. I have CD's of ALL your pictures for each participant.

Carl Woods Clinic Follow Up

The success of the Carl Woods Clinic at Easy Go is easily seen, when he is already almost fully booked to come back on June 11-12th! Carl's easy going manner, and ability to focus in on the individual needs of each rider, is proving to be a winning combination. Many thanks to Easy Go Ranch for bringing Carl to the Cariboo! And a special thanks from me (to Easy Go) for giving me a stand in horse to ride, as my mare Jewel, has come up lame :(

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BOOK A SPOT IN CARL'S NEXT CLINIC AT EASY GO, CONTACT ELLIE AT 250-396-7556

Photos- My Apologies for the poor quality...My camera doesn't like indoor arenas...

Amber Crutchley and her lovely gelding...

Ellie checking out the flag

Kim McDonald, riding a mare brought up by Carl

Tina Chestnut, and Roo? (by Genuine Jeepers) getting some pointers from Carl.

Laura Sperling and her new mare, Gypsy

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.

2nd Annual 100 Mile Horse Bazaar is a success!

PICTURES:

#1, AND 2 Clinician Dale Shel, explaining and demonstrating the finer points of cutting

# 3 Clinician, Sharon Gates explaining the finer points of reining

# 4 Casandra, Bella and Kim manning our "Sliders" booth. Thanks also to Tiffany and Shelly for putting in some time in the booth this weekend!!

# 5 Dawnna-our club president, also putting in her time, while she "multi tasks"!!

# 6 Clinician and local farrier, Ron Burfoot and his horses, demonstrating how to play "teeter totter"!! How cool was that!!

IF YOU WERE ABLE TO TAKE PICTURES DURING THE WEEKEND, PLEASE FORWARD THEM TO ME, AND I WILL POST MORE HERE....

Congratulations and THANK YOU to all those people who helped to make our Second annual Horse bazaar a success. Despite the smaller venue, we still had a pretty good turn out especially on Saturday, and those who came were treated to a number of great horsey related booths with local club information, tack, art work, farm equipment, and riding apparel. As well, we had numerous awesome demonstrations on Saturday, and Sunday including reining, cutting, packing, driving, roping, and crowd favorite, our own local farrier, Ron Burfoot, "playing" with his horses. On Saturday, we got a look at some spectacular stallions in our stallion showcase, and on Sunday, we saw a number of quality horses for sale at the Sale Horse preview.

Saturday Night, we had a small crowd come out to the Farrier Pub for a dinner and auction sale, that was a lot of fun! Many thanks to all those who donated items to our sale, and to those people who bought from the auction. 

Events like these are vital to our "Horse community" in 100 Mile, and they don't happen without a lot of time, effort and commitment from many people, including the organizers, donators of their time and items offered to the auction sale, the use of the facility and  the generosity of the demonstrators who are willing to come to our community to showcase their knowledge, skill, and their fine quality horses.

ONCE AGAIN-THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!