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.

The Passing Of A Fellow Artist

Yesterday I learned of the passing of a dear model horse hobbyist, Kathy McKenzie. I was floored to hear the news, to say the least. Kathy was such a warm person and a true pleasure to deal with. She gained notariety in the model horse hobby a few years back for her airbrushing skills and a talent for handpainted very detailed realistic eyes.
It is such a small hobby that we are a part of with almost everybody knowing everybody else, so when someone is lost - especially such a wonderful artist - it is a major blow for everyone. Her Dragonflight Studio homepage with all of the wonderfully painted models that she has done can be seen here: http://www.dragonflightstudio.com/

There is also a really great Youtube documentary video that has some footage of Kathy and her husband Greg at a midwest show in 2007. It is my favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68hEto84Cu4

A tribute video that another hobbyist has made. I have a very hard time making it all the way through this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUWl48F5Bho&playnext_from=TL&videos=5Q02SZ0OmlU


Kathy and Jet. Photo courtesy of Dragonflight Studio.

Above is a picture of "Dragonflight Beureguard" that Kathy painted in November 2004. I bought this guy on E-Bay from Kathy when he was couple of days old - brand new, fresh from her studio. He stands roughly 4" inches tall. I thought that this guy was UBER cool when I first seen him, because he's the top mount of a trophy originally sculpted by Gladys Brown. Remember the old horse show trophies from the 60's and 70's with the plastic horses on top? This guy is one of those! I couldn't resist adding him to my collection. I thought that it took great inspiration and a very adventurous spirit to cold paint one of these guys. Kathy did an excellent job on him. I'm very proud that he is part of my collection, and a great momento of a very talented artist. Via Con Didos Kathy.

-Shannon.

"Kitchi Esger", turkmen for small soldier. Maggie Bennett's pewter micro mini trotting Teke completed in early 2009. I slightly customized the tiny mane and tail and made him into a mealy bay sabino gelding. (As an interesting side note: I have a pair of Japanese models that are half of this fellows size that I'll hopefully be painting later on in the year.) Micros are a challenging test of skill, but oh so much fun!

Klickitat Trek 2010

June 5th and 6th was the weekend of the Klickitat Trek two day endurance rides.
A view of the Colombia river from the Biggs bridge halfway in between the Oregon and Washington border. There are some great views on our way to the ride.

A photo of the Klickitat River coming down the road from Goldendale, WA. The canyon that the road follows into Glenwood is really cool!

Camp Mayfield. We have a tradition of barbecuing either steaks or lobster tails the night before the rides. Our little cheapo Walmart charcoal barbecue does a bang-up job of sizzling dinners. Craig is keeping a watchful eye on our meal.

Camp Leddy. From left to right: Cathy Leddy, Monica Bretherton, and Wendy Connell. All three ladies rode on Saturday. Cathy did the 30 miler on Galen, Monica went on the fun trail ride with Wendy's horse Taz, and Wendy did the 50 miler on Alpowa. Saturday afternoon I stopped by Camp Leddy and chewed the fat for awhile with all three of them. These gals are great, and I really enjoy visiting with them when we attend the same rides.

The weather was great on Saturday, the first day of the two day rides. Sunny and dry - very nice! =:) Nettie and I set out in the morning for our 50 miler. I decided to try the horseboots out on her to see how well she would like them. She seemed to take to them alright, but unfortunately at around mile 20 she ended up getting a big chunk of gravel stuck in the right front boot. I very quickly proceeded to dismount and yank all of the boots off as we rolled into the first vet check. She vetted through in good shape and I made a decisive plan to proceed at a much slower pace into the next vet check. I was concerned about the rock having a lasting stone bruised effect on her, so I made her go slower until I felt that there was no danger of her getting gimpy. Nettie usually doesn't need any hoof protection at all, and she let me know right away that she was much happier without the boots on for the rest of the ride. After the second vet check I found a very nice lady on a gaited black mare that was chugging along at a slow running walk and we kept pace with her for the rest of the way back into camp.

My main goal on any ride is to try and manage to never get pulled. It would be my own personal "walk of shame" if I could not continue on with a horse. If it means snailing along at a much slower pace, then I'll do it. Nettie vetted through the final check in good order and we unofficially came in 39th out of 60 or something other riders.

Mile 18 of the 50. Photo by Jessica Anderson.

I couldn't help but take a picture of this little outfit on Saturday afternoon. Brenderup trailers are soooooo darned cute! What an adorable little camp.

Wendy and Alpowa taking part in a scientific experiment. There was a lady drawing blood for an educational study of muscle "tying-up" in endurance horses. She had a little table by the rodeo arena and people would come by and let her take blood samples.

Also on Saturday afternoon I made a trip over to Katrin Leaverman's camp to introduce myself and to visit Akpai. Katrin borrowed one of Kerri-Jo's purebred Akhal Teke mares to use in endurance until some of her younger arabs become old enough to compete on. Katrin and I talked for awhile about the differences between the two breeds of horses. Katrin is an arabian afficianado and has 12 horses of her own in Idaho. Unfortunately Akpai had to be pulled on Saturday in the 30 mile ride for a muscle injury. Later on the second day, Katrin borrowed a different horse from another person in camp that unfortunately had some issues as well.

Happy as clams, despite the crummy weather on day two. The start of Sundays ride was rainy, soggy, and very boggy. I strapped the hoofboots on extra tight that morning. The mud on the trail was slippery, yet managable. I was thrilled to learn that I had never been on this particular loop before - it was brand new! What little views of the scenery that I did get to see were spectacular.

Octopelle decided that the two ladies on the arabs in first and second place ahead of us were not going to get away scott free without us breathing down their necks a bit. We hummed along at a great clip of around 10 mph into the first vet check. I waited for a few minutes longer past the hold time for him to eat and get a big gut full of water. Then off we went. I was pleasantly surprised that he kept the same pace back to camp as we had left at, even though there wasn't anybody in front of us for him to lay eyeballs on.

By the time we got back to camp I had rainsoaked tack, clothes, and soaking wet soggy heavy boots from the rain. But it was fun! Photo by Jessica Anderson.

We came in 3rd and tried for BC, although I seriously doubt that we got it. Overall, it was a really great weekend. =:) Photo by Jessica Anderson.
-Shannon.