Susan FoxTrotter is the name of the first humorous book I wrote. Search for it on Amazon.com. They are also available in Kindle. Many of the early stories in this blog along with other memories have been expanded and made into a books!
I have the "horse gene". I was first a rider at 6 years old during the small town Iowa days of shetlands, large ponies, saddlebreds and horse shows. At age 18, that all went away. At age 48, the horse gene popped out again. Due to instructor, clinician, horse and people trainers, Tony and Jennifer Vaught, I have amazing horses. In 2013, Velvet and Nova won two Missouri Fox Trotter World Grand Championships in Ranch Horse and Versatility Events. Missouri Fox Trotters are the calmer and more comfortable saddle horse for us baby boomers to ride! That's what I do! At the moment I have a project horse named Lucky Star. I borrowed and then bought him. His problem has been the lack of a good work ethic..AKA..moving is an argue issue. It's difficult to train a horse at the speed of a stop. Here it is October 2013 update the profile and Lucky Star has just made amazing progress at moving.
Note: Lucky is now book three, The Horse of No. Read all the stories of all the horses: Velvet, Sage, JR, Sue, Nova, Powder and now Lucky Star. These stories are my life starting in mid 90's to present time!
Here's what happens during a Lucky Star training day at Pine Dell Farm: We go to the round pen and practice impulsion. We ride. We go home. Lucky gets out of the trailer, crosses his front legs and relieves himself! Every time!
Lucky Star and I are coming along great. We've had some great rides in the arena after our months of exile ground work and liberty work. We generally ride in the arena about an hour. This coming up winter, dark and cold stuff going on. I take him over to Pine Dell Farm and we have ground work, online and liberty and then we ride. Fine! Last weekend we had a two day Cow Clinic. The first morning during our non-cow simulation exercises, Tony was trying to get Lucky to…
Here they are: Jennifer Vaught and Miss America! I bet Jenny had no idea about meeting Miss America! Just shows you that "stuff happens"! Day One of a week of natural horsemanship training for the horse that came knocking on my door!
I took about a month vacation from riding and playing with Lucky. (Velvet and I competed in a Seasoned Rider Challenge.) Lucky and I have been coming along like a rumbling freight train since I started concentrating on winning the ground games. Amazing. Tony Vaught once told me that the quality of the ground game dictated what kind of ride you would get. Getting Lucky to move on the ground is key to getting him to move when I'm riding him. Last time I rode Lucky is when he attracted…
Rick Lamb. The Horse Show: Meet the Morgan Horse. The ADM segment was filmed at Pine Dell Farm. The program was aired in 2008,but Dr Judy Reynolds and Rick Lamb filmed at Pine Dell and both Pine Dell and I am in the final credits!! Wowsa! I learned that the Morgan is "The Horse That Chooses You". I now have a Morgan horse that came knocking on my door! Coincidence? I think not! Pine Dell is also the location on the ADM segment called The HayThorn Land and Cattle Co,…
This past Saturday, Miss America became a part of the entire Engle horse herd. She's been sniffing Lucky Star over the fence for more than a month now. I thought she was ready! Since she has been here, she's been turned out only in the non lake part of the pasture. She's been turned out with all the mares who have been shifted from lake to non lake part of the pasture, except for Velvet. Miss America has been turned out with Velvet for the entire time she's been here.…