Western

Conveniently enough, the Farm and Ranch Show was taking place last weekend at the convention centre just a few train stops from my work. G and I had tickets for the rodeo, but I`m getting to be a softie and felt bad for a lot of the animals. I can admire the amount of talent and hard work you`d need to even think about being competitive, but I was left feeling a bit blah about the whole thing. On the plus side, my lack of interest left us tons of time to check out the trade show and all the super nice trucks and trailers. A lot of it was more ranching related than horse farm related, but I got some nice ideas for stall fronts and feeders and of course saw some beautiful tractors!

These will do nicely, thank you!
http://www.morandindustries.com/horse-stalls.html

The horse breed demo was the Friesian, and there were some lovely ones in attendance. We checked out the horses available in the performance horse sale as well, and I have to admit to falling in love with a couple of them. We didn`t get to stay to watch the horses go, but if it was anything like the one I went to last year, it`s a good thing. There`s one horse I still can`t get out of my mind! Last year they did a halter type class, then got on and rode a pretty difficult pattern complete with lateral work and flying changes, then on to a trail course type thing, then went and cut some cattle, then did some roping. At the end of all that, they picked up feet and  loaded and unloaded the horses so you could see how they were on the ground. The judges scored and placed them on conformation and performance, then they had the sale. I got the feeling these were truly well rounded horses you`d expect to do well in any environment. They also sold for decent money - $10 to 20k.

My 2014 favorite ``MCR Simply Chips`` I have no clue about quarter horse breeding, just thought he was cute :)

Since I absolutely love the welshies, it`s unlikely I`ll end up with a quarter horse at home. I have tons of great friends who love all things AQHA, so it would be great that way, but somehow I`ve just never had the same level of interest. So, every time I attend a western type event, I get interested in trying it with Ginger. Not so much the straight up reining patterns or speed events, but maybe reined cowhorse would be cool. When we first started Ginger, I had a trainer who trains arabians and part arabians in reined cowhorse ride her. She`s amazing and did so well with Ginger, but she moved on to bigger and better things very quickly and competes in the US and Canada quite successfully now. Ginger LOVED the idea of pushing cattle around and having a `job``, and of course sensitive mare really liked me riding her more off my seat on a looser rein. Believe it or not, she also has a jog to die for.

I`m lucky to be living in an area that is hardcore ranch country but is also close enough to Calgary to be hugely influenced by the dressage and show jumping scene there. I admit to feeling a little lost right now as far as my horsey goals go, but thankfully there`s no shortage of inspiration all around me.