Cheezburgz Kitties

Muddy Frog Water Parade

On Saturday morning the 21st, my mom and I took part in the Muddy Frog Water parade in Milton-Freewater, OR. It is a really fun little parade with a fair amount of horse entries for the festival. The parade winds roughly 10 blocks through the old part of downtown main street.

My mom was riding her two year old gelding Dollar, and I was riding Nettie sidesaddle. We were officially the "Palomino Riders" for the parade. Dollar did really well for being a two year old green colt! Nettie was fairly calm and patient for the most part, so it helped Dollar to relax and take things in stride. He was great, and I was very impressed with him for making it through a parade - being it's his first, and he's only a two year old..!!

Mom and I with smiles.
Nettie was looking less than thrilled... She has been through the Round-Up parade before, so she knows what's in store for her.

We decided to get a little bit floral for the parade. It was a nice touch for that long ol' mustang mane to get some pretty flowers put in it.

Both my mom and I had a really great time, and hopefully we'll be ready to do the Round-Up Centennial parade this year. Pendleton is celebrating it's 100th anniversary of the rodeo, so the parade coming up next month is gonna be a big one! The Muddy Frog Water was a great warm up for what's ahead next. =:)
-Shannon.

Spit N' Polish

On a whim, I entered the Union County Fair Open Horse show today. It had a sidesaddle class - so I was sold on going to it. (Even if I got there to enter just that class alone, I was going.) But, I figured if we were making the trip over the mountain to LaGrande, might as well do a few more classes when we got there as well...

There's been a really low number of schooling and practice shows in our area this year. Hardly any at all. I haven't been to a horse show in a few years, so I wasn't quite too sure how things would go today. (I would've preferred to get more practice in at some smaller schooling shows before going to an open show, but there just aren't any around.) But, it proved to be a useful tool to get my horses used to public places and experience new things. The carnival was setup and there was lots of noises and commotion and strange horses and running children..... But my two little backyard troopers took things in stride. I was quite proud of the girls! Suzette has only been to one schooling show as a baby yearling, and Nettie the mustang has never been to a show in her entire life. Fun stuff!


All in all, everything went really well and we came home with a few ribbons for our efforts.

Suzette winning 1st place in light breed mares 4 yrs. and older.

The judge thought that she was cute, and we did okay with our showmanship. We entered the green horse and green rider showmanship halter classes and got two third places. I messed up the pattern just a little bit on the green rider, and Suzette wasn't quite as polished on her haunch turns for the green horse class. But, we did our best.
Walking the pattern. For a young horse she did really well and stayed very calm, something we've worked diligently on no matter where we go. I'm guessing that by the next show we'll probably be doing some saddle classes together, hopefully.
Nettie and I in the sidesaddle class. The judge loved it. She had never had anybody in a sidesaddle class before, so we gave it a go. Nettie nailed both loping leads too! Woot!!!! God, was I ever proud of her for that... We were sporting the old single post 1905 western Congle, made in Portland, OR. The seat's a bit beat-up on it, but it's still sound enough to ride in.

We had lots of questions from fellow showers about the saddle, and if it was a hard thing to ride. My reply was - it just takes practice.

Folks have gotta love the sidesaddle classes and support them, or else they will be dropped from shows. I was really surprised to see it listed at his show, and I went specifically just to ride in that class. Come hell or high water, I was going to be there to ride it!

Nettie doesn't have the greatest headset for sidesaddle, but she's learning. I just need to keep at it with her. It's hard to keep her squeezed with the leg to round her frame up to get the head down when there's nothing on the other side to squeeze with..... But she's improving every time we ride aside, and that's what matters.
Our blue ribbon. Not too bad for a scrubby little rangebred mustang! It's hard to believe that I use this horse for endurance too. Today was the first time that she's ever had a curb bit in her mouth, and she handled it very well. I usually just ride with a bosal everywhere.
Next was green horse and green rider english pleasure, and we gave it a go. There were five entries in the first class and four in the next, and we placed second both times. I really need to work on my posture when I'm riding english. It's pretty obvious from the photos that I always look like I'm riding western no matter what.......something I need to work further on in the future.
But sometimes riding in a western position isn't always a bad thing.....

This was a funny shot above. The judge asked us to halt from a canter, and Nettie did a sliding stop like a reining horse! I had to laugh. It was a hoot. Craig was giggling too. It's probably a good thing that I had my feet forward and toes out, or I would've been eating an english mane sandwich.
Our second place english ribbons.
Last, we entered the green horse and green rider western pleasure classes. Our first class we did great in, winning a first place out of six entries. But, in the last class Nettie was getting hot and tired and bumbled her leads a little bit. We got a fourth place. She let me know that it was time to pack the trailer and head on home.
Overall, a very fun day!
-Shannon.

The Tevis, and Tommys Rear Cinch Day

John Crandell and his horse Heraldic have made history once again. Winning the western states Tevis Cup - yet again. Not only finishing first, but coming in almost 2 hours ahead of the nearest competition. (The second place horse that finished right behind Heraldic was John's horse as well.......) What athletes! I would love to know the training techniques, feeding formulas, throw of the dice luck, and whatever else goes into winning such a challenging race like that time and time again. He's obviously got the right recipe for success going.

I've been having a great time browsing the photos and stories on the Tevis website and also on Endurance.net. Some great stuff on there:

http://www.teviscup.org/

http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2010Tevis/

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.....

Tommy got his first taste of a back cinch today, much to his dismay. I told him that he had to put his big boy pants on, and this is what everybody gets around here when they get started. I know from his past history that he has had a saddle on before, and also a few rides - so I didn't need to spend too much time sacking him out for the rigging. But, he let me know right away that he was less than impressed with a western saddles rear cinch snugged up around his gut. After doing a few crow hopping laps in the sand, he lined out pretty well and proceeded to wear his outfit like a trooper. It's not going to take very much to get him used to this sort of stuff. It's around 100 degrees this afternoon out in the round pen, so we only worked for a little while. He is a good boy and is learning things fast.

Awwhh........isn't he pretty? I can't help but love this guy.

When he lines out and decides to move forward freely, his frame rounds up and he starts using his hip very nicely. It won't take very much to get a good top line developed.
" That's cold!" After a nice little workout in the blazing hot afternoon sun, Tommy got a good hosing down. The water was a bit chilly for his liking to start with, but.......
By the time the second photo was snapped, he was a happy camper to be cooled off. =:)
-Shannon.

Asil Tumay - a.k.a. "Tommy"

On sunday the 4th of July, Craig and I met up with Cathy Leddy and her husband Larry at their Cascade Gold Akhal Teke farm in Snohomish, WA. where we were introduced to Tommy. Tommy is a young four year old purebred Akhal Teke gelding by Astrachan and out of Anastasia.

I was all set to take pictures of Cathy's farm and her horses, but amidst my rampant talking -my mind became lost, and I forgot the camera in the truck. Dang! Her stallion Salam and Astrachan are well worth making the trip up north to go and look at.

At the Klickitat ride in June Cathy and I talked about leasing one of a few of the young geldings that she has for sale. Tommy is a good candidate for endurance, so I readily agreed to take him on. He's a smart young fellow, and has no problem catching onto new things in a relatively fast manner.

Tommy sports the metallic bay sheen and has a very cute little lip spot. I love that little spot!
Meeting new friends.

" What's THAT!?!?!?" Tommy thought the turkey was a feathered alien from Romulus.... I sometimes forget that other horses have never seen such a menagerie as we have. Let the desensitizing process begin!
-Shannon.

Renegade Rendezvous 2010

Once again, the time for Renegade Rendezvous has rolled around. Where did the month of June go? It seems to have mysteriously vanished before I could even begin to get a tiny grasp on anything...

On friday afternoon July 2nd we packed the trailer up and headed out for Naches. This time, the weather was very pleasant. On saturday morning it was brisk, in the high 50's - and the rest of the day kept to a pleasant range of 70's and low 80's. Much better than last year, when it was like riding in a 110 degree boiling pot on the top of a mountain.

This is known to be a very technically difficult and challenging ride (nicknamed "the little Tevis of the North"), so I opted to enter Ox in the 25 instead of the 50. I had high hopes of doing his first 50 this year, but I had to seriously reconsider about it happening at this gut buster. It was a good decision, because he was tired enough by the time he was finished with his 25. We also encountered problems with hoof gear, so it was a wise decision not to push it.
Watching other riders ford the creek ahead.

On this particular ride, our two back hind Easyboot Gloves became somewhat of an annoying plague. The very first thing that Ox did was slide down the enbankment into the creek and rip a big piece of the gator off of his right hind boot. It got caught on a tree root that was sticking up out of the bank, and he later proceeded to step on it and rip it even more when we turned around to head back up on top to pull it off. The gator was completely shot and the boot would be of no further use, so I yanked it off and we proceeded onwards. From the previous year, I had seen a lot of people having problems with all types of boots on this ride - and there were quite a few riders that came across the finish line with horses that had a few bare feet. Little did I know, that was to be our destiny as well...

After we had forded the creek and made our way into the ride about 5 miles, the left hind boot started giving us problems. During some steep rocky switchbacks, it wouldn't stay on and was dangling along like a passenger on the back leg. I stopped to clean it up and strapped it on tighter, but it didn't matter. Somewhere along a big switchback climb, it came off and there it remains, lost forever. When we made our way into the vet check at mile 10, we were officially barefoot on both hinds. I have come to the conclusion that Renegade boots are probably going to be the only ones we will use in our foreseeable future. Gotta start shopping E-Bay again...
Craig caught a ride up with Alex Rivas, who was going to crew for his wife Shannon at the vet check. After a few wrong turns, running the truck over a log, and trying to figure out some chicken scratch type of directions - they managed to find their way to the check. I was very surprised to see Craig there, as he has never met me before at a check. It was kind of nice having somebody there to hold your horse while you run to the porta potty. I usually opt to tough it out for the entire ride, and wait on those things until I get back into camp.
Coming into the check.
Getting the sponge. Ox is slowly but surely becoming much better about water in general. We have practiced going across the Umatilla river at home and other bathtime rituals. He is getting much more tolerant of letting me sponge him down at rides, which I'm very happy about. His mother isn't very fond of water as well, so I guess it runs in the genes.

The rest of the ride back into camp went really well. I met several nice new people while riding, including a local gal from Paso astride a 25 year old arab gelding. Since Ox was hoofin' it free as a bird in the back, we slowed down quite a bit and took it easy. We ended up coming in 24th, which isn't too bad. Craig and I enjoyed a really great salmon and pork rib dinner that Gail and her husband barbecued for the entire ride camp, and then we hit the sack. Sunday morning was the start of our mighty trek up north to visit Cathy Leddy and meet Tommy at Cascade Gold Akhal Tekes.
A view of Mt. Rainer state park. The road going up north towards Seattle was very narrow and winding, and there wasn't a place to pull over and take pictures, so I just snapped a few from the cab of the truck. Craig's trusty GPS in the window led our way.
Neither one of us had been to this park before, and there were some really stunning views of the mountain range.
Dropping down onto the other side of the park there was lots of snow - even in July - and there was this really cool lake that was starting to thaw out. I can't remember the name of it, but it was very neat to see.
-Shannon.

"Strawberry Daquiri", a red roan sabino mare. Carol Williams Matriarch resin recently completed in my studio in June 2010. The western pleasure set is part of my personal collection, made by Dawn Brown of High Desert Saddlery. Daquiri is owned by Karen Holland.