Missouri Fox Trotters came out in droves today to help people learn the smooth signature gaits of the breed. We had two beginners ride two World Grand Champion horses to really find out how to get the horses to do the flat foot walk and fox trot. Nichole Copple has taken Velvet and Dusty through the World Celebration Fox Trotter Horse show and won the two youth World Grand Championships in Versatility and Ranch Horse. So Dusty and Velvet got to help people new to the breed learn to see and feel what the gaits are.
That’s pretty darn cool. In addition, I had Nova, Tony had Diva and Jenny had Slinger there. We all got to whip around the arena while the students watched. We had a little contest with the students trying to name that gait! That was fun and Nova and I got to show off quite a bit. Later we got to show off our canter too.
We had a Rocky Mountain horse in the clinic. His and his rider cantered in an arena for the very first time. That was cool to watch the process. Turns out, he has a really really nice canter. The rider to remain nameless is my riding buddy, so we’ll be trying to canter in the arena in the future!
Additionally, we had an Andalusian horse, half and full Arabians and a paint horse. Gaited and non-gaited horses had a great time.
After our arena time, we went up to the 40 acres and played with the obstacles on the playground. We ended the day with a simple trail pattern that involved figure 8’s, going thru a “car wash”, backing the “L” and going thru a gate.
You really get your money’s worth in a clinic with Tony and Jenny Vaught! We were scheduled to have a three hour clinic starting at 8:00am. When I got off Nova and managed to walk again, the time was 1:30. Since I have been off riding for more than a month of horrid heat days, this was a long day of riding!
Nova and I had the best time. She did everything I asked and mostly she was looking quite sexy!