Tales from the Trail

A note from Brenda....
As you all know from our past story, Beth and I took Rio and Dancer to Equine Affaire for some clinics last year. We had so
much fun, we are going to try to go again this year. The process is pretty simple. You need to send in an application and a
five minute VHS tape of you and your horse along with checks for the clinics you are hoping to be chosen for this year. You
will be notified by phone if you are chosen, if not your checks will be returned by mail (this may take a few weeks).

I am hoping to take my Spotted Saddle Horse to a gaited clinic and maybe some general horsemanship clinics. Beth is
focusing on getting into Craig Cameron's Extreme Cowboy Race (see more details below). For those of you who don't
know this is like a trail course on steroids. It usually takes 3-4 minutes to complete and can include anything from cantering
bareback to standing on your horse to touch a tennis ball hanging from above.

As you can imagine, training for this has been interesting. Beth has already mastered standing on Rio, is great at sidepassing,
backing, cantering and mounting from the offside. The big things left are jumping and roping/cow work. We have been
working on ground poles and crossrails this past week, and Rio can easily clear 1 foot rails. Beth also went to a clinic today at
Black Creek Ranch and got Rio over her fear of cows.
Stay tuned for more info. We have a lesson at our barn tomorrow...

January 2008--Extreme Cowboy Race: The plan...
I have decided to enter the Extreme Cowboy Race at the Equine Affaire this year. Let me just say first of all that we have no
idea whether our application for the race will be accepted. We do not know whether we will be chosen to compete (we really
hope so!). Part of the process is to send an application and video for Mr. Cameron’s consideration. The video deadline is
Feb 28th. I'm not sure when the final entrants are notified, but since the race is on April 12th, there will not be a lot of
advance notice. We are training now for the expectation that we will be in the race. (think positive thoughts for us!)

There is much I could write about what a journey this year has been for me and Rio, but that is almost its own story. We are to
a point where I am completely confident in her abilities, her willingness and athleticism. Now, we just need to make sure that we
train and plan for the obstacles that we think might come our way. We will not know the exact course or the obstacles until the
day before we have to compete.

The race at EA in on April 12 and 13. There will be 40 competitors. 25 will compete on Saturday. 15 will compete on Sunday
morning with the top 10 and a wild card coming back to compete on Sunday afternoon.   If this race is anything like the ones
that have preceded it, the finals race will be different than the “qualifying” round. The finals round is always more challenging,
taking the competition up a few notches!

The race is a series of judged obstacles. In addition, the entire run is timed and given a point value. The team of horse and
rider with the highest point value overall is deemed the champion.

You can view the latest installment of the Extreme Cowboy Race V on RFD-TV. For more information on the Extreme
Cowboy Race in general and to view the previous races that were televised, check out horsetv.com.

Additional information on this year’s Race and more at Equine Affaire.

Training plan:

I have watched all of the televised ECR’s so far on RFD-TV. Based on what I have seen, the obstacles and skills that we
expect we may need to demonstrate are as follows. Any combination of these could potentially come up as part of the race.
The object is to move fast but also to perform the obstacles on a loose rein. The judges are looking for a true partnership
between horse and rider.

1. Jumping- logs that are 2 feet high or so…usually 3-4 in a row
2. Backing through an obstacle:   Like a chute or in an L-shape
3. Ride through a tunnel
4. Ride through an obstacle that has things hanging down from it—like streamers or plastic bags
5. Crossing a bridge
6. Sidepass over poles
7. Ride up and down 2-3 big loose dirt hills
8. Open and close a gate: hand cannot come off of the gate….go through the gate
9. Move cattle within a pen
10. Jump over a ditch
11. Roll-back
12. Move through and around barrels/poles
13. Spin in both directions within a box
14. Grab a tarp and ride quickly to next obstacle with the tarp flapping
15. Canter on the correct lead
16. Perform lead changes while cantering (flying lead change preferred)
17. Saddle/Unsaddle the horse
18. Drag a log or other heavy object
19. Ride Bareback: Various gaits, may need to perform obstacles, mount bareback
20. Shoot a gun and pop balloons
21. Ride through dead falls
22. Cross water
23. Bend down to a cone, pick up ball off of cone, ride to another cone and replace ball
24. Stand on horse’s back and hit a hanging tennis ball
25. Load horse into trailer
26. Pony another horse
27. Pick up another rider and canter
28. Rope an object, horse or cow
29. Jump up/down an obstacle

The items I highlighted in bold are the things I know we can do at this point. We will need to make sure we practice them, but
they are not things we need to spend a lot of time on. Right now, I am most concerned about 3 primary areas: jumping, cow
work and bareback cantering.   We also need to work on lead changes, spins and rollbacks.

We have started jump training this week using ground poles. We have been trotting over four in a row. The last two days, we
have elevated the last "jump" to about a foot or so (using cross-rails). So far we have had no problems. Rio has been a willing
participant.