My Days are Special – Emma, Cisco and Fancy

October 26, 2018Posted inCISCO, City Dog, Emma, EPM, Fancy, Missouri Fox Trotter
I just got pictures from Florida showing Cisco's arrival! Cisco just traveled 1300 miles in a trailer. Tony Vaught made a special trip to get him. Cisco had gone into laminitis danger with his weight gain on the high sugar grass in Missouri. Horses get a version of sugar diabetes by eating too much sugar which is rampart in Central Missouri grass. This is called insulin resistance in horses.  Horrible pain called laminitis can result which heats up the bones in their foot to the temperature of a 400 degree…

Powder and I Epic Spring Show Adventure -9

June 28, 2018Posted inMissouri Fox Trotter, Powder
Yes, the shower stories are finally at hand! For waiting all this time, you get two shower stories! The Saturday night performance championship horse show started. I have a job. At the end of every class, I help Marty Maynard get the best picture of each champion and reserve champion horse. My job is to get the horse to put their ears forward. A horse looks fabulous when the ears are perked forward. I am the “Ear Perker”. I failed only once, a new record. The evening weather was fabulous.…

Powder and I Epic Spring Horse Show Adventure -8

June 27, 2018Posted inMissouri Fox Trotter, Powder
The Stake Race was next. I knew the pattern. It is easy-peasy. I was just too darn smart to look at the posted pattern or chat with anyone about it. I know that easy “piffle” pattern...half of a figure eight is all it is. It is so simple that it is difficult. Yep, I turned my nose up a little. I felt “snooty” inside. snort You might feel a little confused when you look at the pattern. It is confusing because you can enter the pattern either to left or…

Powder and I Spring Show Epic Adventure -6

June 26, 2018Posted inMissouri Fox Trotter, Powder
Are you ready for the shower story yet! Sorry, it is still a far place away. There is a lot that happens in these few days at a horse show, including heat, humidity, exhaustion and sweat It is now time for our volunteers to set up the reining pattern! My favorite event! I live for reining.  If I were 16 years old, I might turn into a full-on reining competitor. Thank goodness I never heard of reining until my second childhood! Powder is an experienced show horse. She has competed…

Powder and I Spring Show Epic Adventure -7

June 26, 2018Posted inMissouri Fox Trotter, Powder
Barrel racing! You have all seen those horses going 100 mph run around the barrels. Yep, Powder and I are signed up for a race! Back in the 60’s and my life with horses was as a young thin girl.... ahem. Back in the 60’s it was time for me to graduate from large pony to horse. Unknown benown to me, my mother did not want me to become a barrel racer. She thought it was too dangerous. My mother told me this in the last decade of her life.…

Powder and I Spring Show Epic Adventure – 5

June 25, 2018Posted inMissouri Fox Trotter, Powder
Western Horsemanship Class. This pattern looks simple, but it actually is difficult. Non horse and non canter people can just ignore this next sentence. Firstly, we start out with a counter canter. I hate that. It takes a well educated horse who knows your cue and body position to pick up the “wrong lead”. We have now went from “B” to “C”. Oh but it isn’t that simple. You have to transition from canter to stop. You have to be in a place where ou can turn without stepping on…