Amazing NCHA Open Futurity Win

Many days in class, I find myself watching cutting horse videos on YouTube instead of highlighting the lecture notes. Although I'm an A student, extremely active in on-campus activities, and love learning, I can never keep myself from being more interested in cutting than Managerial Accounting or Chemistry.

Everyone always says you can reach your dreams if you just persevere and try hard enough, but they always forget the last part of that encouragement-- if you have enough money. Let's face it, cutting is not an inexpensive hobby and you don't just show up at Futurity show. Sadly, there are not many underdog Seabiscuit stories in cutting, but there are many great legends like Secretariat.

This morning, I found myself clicking through cutting horse videos again, and I found one that really struck me as amazing. At the National Cutting Horse Association's (NCHA) Open Futurity in Fort Worth, Texas, rider Kathy Daughn rode Royal Fletch (Jae Bar Fletch x Royal Blue Dually) to a record breaking 229 winning run. I included the video below to show just how athletic, intelligent, and quick Royal Fletch really was.

To me, the sport of cutting is huge in popularity for its consistent ability to keep getting better, to keep breeding more amazing horses, and the endless adrenaline rush that comes with its 2 1/2 minute series of rollbacks, sliding stops, and fake outs between horse and cow. Royal Fletch emulated the purpose of cutting in his 2000 Futurity run, one that will never be forgotten in cutting history.

Watching these videos almost every day makes me wish even more that I could be like Daughn or ride the next Royal Fletch. For now, I'll stick to my dream of writing about these amazing riders and their horses, and maybe one day they'll let me hop on and take their pony for a spin-- literally.

Reflection on My First Week at Horses for Hope

After completing my first week of volunteering at Horses for Hope, I have come away with a deeper understanding of the human-horse bond more so than ever before. Since I have been giving horseback riding lessons for several years, and my brother was in a therapeutic riding program for a short time, I regret to admit that I have never considered what it would be like to work with a child or adult that has special needs-- whether it be physical, mental, or emotional.

Since working with only a handful of children this week, I cannot explain the joy it brings me to contribute to the equine community in such a positive way. Instead of showing off my own knowledge or competing for a ribbon, I am actually using my skills and passion to help others.

So far at Horses for Hope, I have assisted in catching lesson horses out of the pasture, teaching children and other volunteers the basics of grooming a horse, tacking horses both English and Western, leading horses with children and side walkers, and walking down trails with fun obstacles for the kids to interact with as they ride. I don't feel like the tasks I have completed are anything monumental or amazing, but just being able to say things like, "Yes, I taught someone how to tack a horse today," and "I love the way that child smiled by the end of his session today," and especially, "I made a difference today," are priceless rewards.

Craig Cameron Soft Loping Hackamore

Are you having problems with your soft horse becoming more and more stiff? Does your horse chew on the bit when he's nervous or annoyed? Does he hang on the bit when asked to flex? Does he just seem to ignore you sometimes? I had these same problems with my mare Velvet, and I figured out a very simple way to fix it.

When I first brought Velvet home, she was as soft as feather and would react to the slighted movement in my reins, hands, and legs. She was wonderful to ride. But as time went on, I started to notice that she was losing some of her softness, like chewing on the bit when she got nervous, resisting to flex (her head and entire body), and lazily collecting at the pole. I began thinking about the first horse I trained, and how exactly I taught him to be soft. When I was teaching him how to flex I only used a soft rope halter and a long leadrope, and for the first few rides that's all I used as well. I wanted to minimize the pressure on his face so that he learned to respond with little force. So I decided to take Velvet back to square one-- as if she had never been ridden before-- and get rid of the bit altogether.

Even though I always worked Velvet on the ground before riding her, I began working her more effectively. By teaching her to how to free lunge, essentially taking away all the pressure from her face and asking her to react to my body language alone, Velvet became much more sensitive to my movements again. We had finally taken the first step to solving the softness issue.

Then I started making a point to flex her with just a halter anytime I took her out of the pasture, so it became so ingrained in her mind that she would bring her head around as soon I touched the leadrope and stepped behind her shoulder. Once we had made huge progress on the ground, I began riding her with just a rope halter and leadrope. She was a different horse the first time I got on her again. Her softness was not only back, but even better than before. Since she had nothing to chew on, I could work her through any anxiousness or stress that she was feeling in any environment without compromising her softness.

After a few weeks of flexing and riding in just a halter, I wanted to find an alternative to Velvet's twisted wire snaffle. I thought about putting her on a larger, softer snaffle, but I knew that her nervous chewing habit and tendency to lean on the bit would not change no matter what bit I used. One day, I went over to a friend's farm and rode his horse in a Craig Cameron Soft Loping Hackamore. His father had just interned with the famous trainer, Craig Cameron, and brought home the hackamore as a gift. The horse I rode had a tendency to be full of energy, but he was completely under control in the hackamore because he was so soft. And bam, I had found my solution.

Instead of putting something in her mouth, why not continue to work her as if she's wearing a halter? I thought this idea was genuis. When I got the hackamore as an early birthday present from my parents, I was estatic because Velvet and I had a Cowboy Race the very next day. We were going to officially test out everything that we had been working towards in a competition---probably not the smartest plan.

On the day of the race, I tacked Velvet up and worked in the huge arena next to the obstacle course, fully expecting her to be nervous with so much commotion going on around us. To my delight, she never fought my reins, hands, or legs and loped the prettiest circles that I could've asked for. When it was our turn to race, I was worried that she might begin to resist my cues because of her adrenaline to move through the course quickly. Yet again, she amazed me with her softness and her desire to listen to what I was asking of her. We ended up placing 5th out of 16 riders.

Velvet Before, on a twisted wire snaffle bit:

Velvet After, with the Craig Cameron Soft Loping Hackamore:

For these reasons, I 100% recommend the Craig Cameron Soft Loping Hackamore to anyone looking for a simple solution to their horse's loss/lack of softness. No matter what discipline you ride, this bridle can be the solution to your issues. Instead of going back to the old cowboy way of "puttin' a bigger bit in his mouth and he'll stop," I went in the other direction. Sometimes taking the pressure away is all a horse needs, and wants. Going back to the basics is never something to be embarrassed or aggravated about, giving your horse the chance to think instead of constantly performing is key to making them more confident. And a more confident horse is a better performing horse and a better partner overall.

For more information or to purchase a Craig Cameron Soft Loping Hackamore, go to: http://www.craigcameronstore.com/product2.html

AQHA Makes Way for Clones

As the cloning debate seems to be coming to an uncertain close, appeals are on the horizon and American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) officials and members are extremely unhappy. As an AQHA member myself, I agree with the obvious reasons for opposing the registration of clones in the largest, most successful equine association in the world.

Registering clones in the AQHA will do nothing but flood the performance horse market with "unproven" sires, undermine the amazing accomplishments of the original horses, and create unfair advantages for owners of high performing, cloned horses.

I see U.S. District Judge Robinson's final judgement as contradictory, if not ironic: "AQHA violated state and federal anti-trust laws by conspiring to bar clones from its association." That's interesting, because allowing clones into the AQHA registry will only create an oligopoly of horse owners who could end up dominating and controlling the AQHA breeding industry-- the exact opposite of what the AQHA wants. Bloodlines could become so overlapped that the very purity of the AQHA could become tainted.  In addition, clones will diminish the ability for smaller farms and ranches to get their sires names out to the public. Why would mare owners breed to Freckles Whiz Kid*, when they could choose from the many cheaper, readily available versions of High Brow Cat or One Time Pepto* (*purly using as examples)?

I have a personal chord to play in this argument. My mare, Boons Jenny Lee, is the great grand-daughter of the legendary Royal Blue Boon, the greatest cutting dam in NCHA history with over $2.5 million in offspring earnings. This great mare has not been cloned once, but multiple times (how many, I'm not even sure). In the future, I worry that if Royal Blue Boon underperforms as a dam, that my mare will become less valuable. Never say never.

Royal Blue Boon Clones

via confluenceparkfarms.com

AQHA will continue to appeal the jury verdict and attempt to preserve the valuable bloodlines of the horses that make up its multi-million dollar association, but only time will tell if their effects will pay off. Bottom line: blood doesn't make a great horse, the people who raise them, train them, and create a winning environment are the ones that make the horses so valuable, not science.


For more information visit:
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/28088/royal-blue-boon-first-commercially-cloned-horse-dies
http://www.ratemyhorsepro.com/news/aqha-makes-way-for-clones.aspx