My Texas Horses: July 2007

Friday, July 20, 2007

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending my 1st mini horse show. My husband's relatives had a mini-stallion participating in the Family Fiesta AMHA Miniature Horse Show at the San Antonio Rose Palace. I haven't been around minis and I wasn't too sure what all you could do. But what a wonderful experience! I met some wonderful people including Mary Ann & her granddaughter. Mary Ann was able to explain and show to me all the different events and what the judges were looking for in each class.
For Travis & his family it was a learning experience. This was their 1st show with their 1st horse. Harley(the horse)learned what to do and what not to do around other horses. As with all shows nerves ran high when it was Harley's turn to jump in the Hunter class. He had a refusal on the 1st jump, but did jump it & all the others and placed. Everyone took a deep breath when he finished cleanly and prepared for his Jumper class. He wasn't as successful in this class & did not place.When the show was over, everyone was glad to go home.
The only flaw/downside to this show is that they had the youth performance classes at the end of the day. The end of the day was at midnight Sunday! I haven't been in the show circuit in a long time, but for the youth (12 & under) classes to be at the end of a show (Midnight) seems a little extreme.
Overall I had a great time, being with family & horses is the best there can be!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

July 9th Summer Camp

After weeks of preparing, building and worrying we had a successful 3 day camp last week. I had 2 great helpers, Kyle & Kate and 2 fun riders, brothers, Caleb & Noah. Noah has been taking lessons from me for @7 months. Caleb has been coming out and watching Noah during his lessons and decided he wanted to come to camp too.
Monday the boys were able to groom and saddle their horses. Noah, Cowboy & Kate were together and Caleb, Jake and Kyle were partners. They then rode around the arena practicing stopping, turning left & right, walking in & out of the square and weaving in & out of the cones. After riding all morning & after lunch the riders had a surprise activity. They "painted" the horses. They used several colors of tempra paint to paint their favorite pictures, letters and names on Cowboy & Jake. After painting the horses, they got to wash the horses. I think the kids enjoy washing the horses as much as painting them.
Tuesday we started with grooming & saddling then the riders had some new games they played on horseback. One is called "Pony Express", the rider has to mail letters to the horses, another is "Bucket of Frogs", where the rider drops a frog into a bucket. After practicing, the boys had a relay race to see who could get their buckets filled first.
After lunch, Kate had a special surprise activity. She showed them how to make "slime". the boys had a great time mixing glue,starch, water & food coloring into their favorite slime.
Wednesday's camp turned into a family outing. Abel brought his daughter (who comes for therapeutic riding lessons) & wife & his family from Mexico out for riding and games. Several family members rode Jake, Cowboy & Rusty. They were very interested in therapeutic riding and asking many questions because there no programs available where they live in Mexico.
Overall, we all had a great time and we're ready for the next camp in August!