All about my horses!

Nova

GRAND SLAM JAM!

A group of us showed at the Missouri Fox Trotter World Show this past week. We are all students of Parelli and study with Tony and Jenny Vaught of
“For the Horse” Ranch.
We are Hope Kahout, Mindy B.(I have forgotten how to spell her last name),
Nichole Vaught, Caitlyn Vaught.  We won 19 World Champion Ribbons!

Nichole and Velvet won 13 World Champion competitions and were awarded World Grand Champion Youth Ranch Horse and World Grand Champion Youth Versatility.

That’s Jenny holding the sign. Tony was missing when we got together for this picture.

Nova and I won two world champion competitions and some other places. Nova and I were awarded World Grand Champion Novice Versatility.

Mindy and Caitlyn won the Amatuer and Youth World Grand Champion awards.

We were awarded our reserve and World Grand Champion presentations on Saturday night in front of the crowd that came to see the World Grand Champion performance   horse competitions. They got to see a lot of us Versatility people too!

Nichole and Velvet were presented with TWO GARLANDS! Nichole got to ride Velvet around the arena twice – with each garland.  Nichole got two belt buckles and two horse head statues -gorgeous. They didn’t have a buckle for Novice World Grand Champion, so Nichole gave me one of her belt buckles. Blue ribbon winners also got a nice statue of a fox trotter horse. Nichole could not carry all her 13 boxes at the same time. She needs a trophy room.

Here’s Nichole and Velvet?during an event during the Ranch Horse competition.

http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/storminthenight/MFT%20Show/?action=view&\
current=P1010392.jpg

I’d like to point out that my horses, Velvet and Nova,?won a total of 15 World
Championships and three World Grand Champion awards. I follow the way of natural
horsemanship via the Pat Parelli methods!? Look at how it can turn out!!!

Here’s Nova and I practicing.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/storminthenight/MFT%20Show/Nova8.jpg

Here’s Jenny on the horse that I wrote many stories about in the 8 years I owned him (JR). Jenny got 5th in Open Ranch Horse and 3rd in Open Versatility http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/storminthenight/MFT%20Show/?action=view&\
current=P1010324.jpg

Here’s Tony on Diva – I gave him Diva to start for me and he fell in love with
her.? She has been sold and Tony is her trainer.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/storminthenight/MFT%20Show/P1010180.jpg?\
t=1252980455

YEE HAW!!!

Nova’s Notebook – The Hat

What a good time I had tonight.  I rode two horses at Pine Dell tonight.  That means I got up early enough that I could work 8 hours and still have time to trailer my horses to Pine Dell and ride. That’s a big day for me.
Good times with good people!

I came home so happy, whipped up my gormet peanut butter sandwich..after tearing the moldy corner off the bread.  I mixed the dog’s fasttrak supplement in my water bottle and had a great meal.  But enough of my great cooking discriptions to make everyone salivate with jealousy.

I was done riding tonight at Pine Dell.  I led Nova and Sue out of the arena.  I was helping another rider.  She was having a difficult time with her horse.  My favorite everyday cowboy hat in all the world was hanging on the fence. 

Then I heard the big R I P!

Nova grabbed my favorite cowboy hat in all the world off the fence.  She put it delicately on the ground, stepped on the brim and ripped the top off!  this took place in a nanosecond!

I can still wear it.  It will still keep the sun off my face and neck. I thought my favorite cowboy hat in all the world was pretty distinctive before…now there isn’t one like it in the world!  

My Favorite Hat Keeping Me Dry in the wet Celebration 2008

Above is the before picture of my wonderful hat keeping me dry.  It won’t be doing that anymore! Hat eater, Nova!

Nova’s Notebook – I Started Riding in Fall 2008

Nova got kicked in the knee while in the pasture. She came limping up to Jenny dragging her leg.  We got the vet out, xRays were taken and a splint was put on her leg. They couldn’t see anything, but didn’t want to take a chance.

Poor Nova had to stay in a stall in the hummid summer heat. Barb climbed up on the stall and mounted a fan so it would point down.  Nova laid in her stall quite a bit.

We took the splint off and couldn’t see anything.  Lameness test showed her to be limping.  The vet decided that nothing had been broken.  The diagnosis was that her synovial fluid had leaked out of her knee. We did two or three injections and she was deemed good enough to come home and be free in her pasture.

This put her training with Jenny at 6 month suspension. She was fully recovered in time for Jenny to ride her in the Celebration horse show.

I got Nova to ride after the 2008 Celebration and our riding adventures started!

Nova’s Notebook – The Beginning

Pat Parelli is always telling us how he’s got yearlings on up that have happily learned the level 1, 2 and 3 tasks. Since Nova is at Pine Dell boarding stable, I decided that she should become a level 3 baby. I’ve given Jennifer Vaught this task.

This is what she looks like at 18 months!

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Jenny has fallen into the “I Love Nova” club. Jenny reports that Nova is bright and light. Nova is fox trotting and trotting during her training sessions. We’ve not seen any sign of the dreaded pace. She is doing great in her training. Jenny is going to have her ten year old daughter be the first one to ride Nova. She would like Nichole to start the experience in “starting horses” and Nova is the ONE. Jenny is going to lead Nichole around riding Nova. I wish I were going to be there to watch my baby take her first big step towards “Saddle Horse”.

I was chatting with a women yesterday. Her horse is in the same pasture as Nova. She told me that Nova was a sneaky horse. What? Well, when this woman goes out to get her horse, she’s walking along and all of a sudden she feels hot breath on her neck. It’s Nova. Nova has been following her.

Another couple who have a horse in the pasture have told me how they love Nova. She comes over to visit them. She’s sweet, pretty and friendly. Another person told me when they ride by the pasture, it’s Nova that runs over to meet their horse.

There will be more and more people in the “I love Nova” club as time goes on. The next one will probably be Nichole!

Jenny is Jennifer Vaught, long time friend and Parelli 3 star instructor for 15 years. 

Nova’s Notebook – First Clinic!

Nova and I attended a clinic called Young Horse Development. Both Jenny and Tony Vaught were the clinicians.

The clinic could be called Extreme Desensitizing & Bonding!

Before a horse is ready to ride, can you:

  • Bounce an exercise ball on horse’s back? (Tony told us that he doesn’t start riding a young horse until he can bounce a ball off the horse!)
  • Play goal as you and a friend roll a big exercise ball back and forth between the horse’s legs?
  • Have your horse carry two tied-together garbage bags filled with empty pop cans. Plus Nova was short enough that the garbage bags swirled about her front legs. I had Nova pushing a big yellow exercise ball (with her feet and head) while the garbage bags bumped around her legs.
  • Play kick ball in a circle. You kick to a human and their horse stands behind them. Whoops some of the balls fly thru the air and get past the human!
  • Spray your horse with water in a fly spray container
  • Have your horse walk across a tarp
  • Drag a tarp over your horse including over the head so that they are blinded
  • Can you pretend that you just spent some time in a bar and stagger around your horse
  • Can you skip around your horse? (We call this the gay Cabarello game)
  • Can you touch your horse everywhere…yes, Everywhere!
  • Can you stand quietly with your horse while a madman in short chaps skips around the arena bouncing an exercise ball? I think the humans were more frightened of the cowboy than the horses!
  • Can your horse stand sideways beside you while you sit on a fence? (like this is how I mount a horse!)
    I let Nova wear my hat and she decided to show it off to the crowd. She was proud of her hat!

In the afternoon, Jenny took one group and played “go under the stick”. Two people held a pole and the horse had to walk under it. This meant that the horse had to put it’s head down and walk under the pole. Many horses tried to put their head over the pole and couldn’t figure out why they couldn’t walk under it….or maybe they were frightened to walk under the pole!

Tony took another group and the horse and human walked along the wall while Tony got close and bounced the exercise ball. When we were all OK with that, Tony started throwing the ball at the wall right before we got to the point. When we all lived through that, he started throwing the ball against the wall right over our heads as we walked next to the wall. We were all just a little nervous about this, but managed fine.

At the end of the hot day (it was in the 90’s) we all stood in a circle while Jenny walked around shooting a cap gun. Ya know…no one moved. After having an exercise ball bang against the wall over your head, a cap gun was nothing. 

Tony’s finale was a fire extinguisher. In the American Saddle bred show horse world, a fire extinguisher is used to make the horses scared and more animated. Tony shot the white smoke around the arena and one horse looked at it and actually moved. The rest of us stood there until the fumes made us sick and we all moved out of the arena into the sunny day!

Then the clinic ended.

Do you think I have any worry AT ALL about Nova spooking at something when the times comes that I ride her? NOOOOOOoooooo!

In fact, Nova was the star of the clinic. She did not spook at anything! When the clinic was over, Nova and I loved each other about 50% more than we did when we arrived for the day. The next morning, I came out of the house and yelled her name. She immediately whinnied for me.

Nova is my little pride and joy!

Tony and Jenny Vaught

Nova’s Notebook – Birth Event 2004!

Nova was born in 2004.  I was attached to her legs when she came out.  I’ve been attached to her ever since in many ways!

Baby Nova

I slept in the barn for two weeks.  I slept in the tack room hiding from Sage.  I had a camera and the TV was at my bed in the tack room.  It was cold at night. That’s when God whispered to me these words, “electric blanket.”  Oh how wonderful that was!

 I was teaching a class at work.  I would come in shined up on the outside, but bedraggled on the inside.  After all, I was living in a barn!

This was Sage’s second baby.  I was still filled with fear at the thought of the delivery. Thank goodness the delivery was a fine baby foal.

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