reinersblog.com

Brandy (Sweet Donna Twist, AQHA) and I made the Heidi Green reining clinic on Saturday. We got there early because I knew Brandy would be wanting to look at everything. Seems most mares are like that. And I was right…after getting tacked up we went and looked at all the spooky stuff, snorted at some things, and squealed to all the other horses.

I started her in the shanked snaffle. Didn’t take long to figure out that wasn’t going to work. With only about 2 weeks in the shanked bit, it was just too much with all the happenings going on. Pulled that off and went back to the plain snaffle. I put the training fork on and everything was back to good. Just things she was more familiar with and more relaxed in.

Then into the indoor arena for the clinic. Only 5 riders, including us. They all had pretty much finished reiners.

We each took turns running a sort of pattern and Heidi gave us some tips and comments. Brandy and I were called upon toward the end and she was getting fidgety waiting. First off we went to lope a right circle. What we really did was buck when I gave her the cue and take off like Secretariat on steroids. Nothing crazy, she actually did do a large, fast circle. Key word here being FAST. So we just kept going in the right circle until she settled down. Only took 3 laps. Then we were fine.

Then the spins. She actually did quite well. As expected, her left spins need work. Heidi noticed some things and gave me some good exercises to work with her.

Then a few rundowns and stops.  Sure was nice to be on some good ground. As expected, our rundown was a little squiggly. Only so much you can get done in a month of serious training. But she did real well with her speed build up and the stops were great. I was ready to pull her into the ground, thinking with all the excitement she’d run through the whoa command. Never happened though….just sit on down and say whoa and she put the brakes on. She does have a good natural stopping form and likes to do it.  That proved itself when Heidi asked if she was in sliders…and I told she was barefooted…not even regular shoes.

I felt I had a darned good horse under me.  The clinic really helped us with some things that are hard to pick up on when your in the saddle and training. And Heidi’s showmanship experience in the reining arena really helped me to show my horse to the judges.

Anybody else wanna stick their hand in my wallet and pull out whatever they darn well please? Pretty much seems how things go nowadays anyway.

Gas prices, grain prices, hay prices, food prices, land prices. Everything that has anything to do with the horse business is through the roof. I don’t make my living off the horse business but I sure enough am getting whacked every step of the way this year. Anybody that can say they are making a living off the horse business this year has really got to be at the top of their game way I see it.

I feel bad when I quote prices for horse transports because of what we have to charge. Almost seems like I’m making mistakes in calculating when I first see the price myself. Feel even worse when I realize I’m making Chinese prison labor wages after paying for fuel. But this year every little bit helps.

Sure don’t see us doing much showing this year. Just too many uncertainties that we’ll have to be prepared for if things get any worse. But there’s a saying I picked up somewhere that kinda fits here. “Are you gonna cowboy up or just lay there and bleed?”

Well there’s a show grounds about 15 miles from us. Can get there mostly by the back roads. Who needs ethanol? I got the best grain to fuel refinery known to man. We’ll be saddled up and leave a little after sun gets up. Get there in plenty of time and not have to rush. Did it that way 30 years ago for my first show and I suppose history repeats itself.

They don’t do any reining there but they got a pretty good trail class that’d be interesting. Maybe enter a pleasure class and scare all the slow horses. And they draw some good hands there so the practice arena will be a good place to have a little fun and do a little showin and watchin.

Actually kinda lookin forward to it. Maybe sometimes things get too complicated. Maybe this here will put some things back in perspective.