First Show of the Year Coming Up!

By Patty Wilber

The New Mexico Buckskin Horse Association banquet for 2022 was last weekend and Heidi and Penny won Youth Buckskin Rookie of the Year and High Point Buckskin Youth, taking home $400 and a buckle.  She also won High Point Appaloosa Youth ($175), and High Point All Breed Youth with the NM Paint Club (buckle)!  They had a very good year!

Heidi and Penny, 2022

For 2023, she will be concentrating on Appaloosa with LUCY and preparing for  cow horse in the High School Rodeo season. And she was elected to a director position with the National Appaloosa Youth Association!!

Heidi and Lucy! It was windy at Heidi’s, of course!

Lucy and me took home the All Breed High Point with NMBHA and $400, but the timing of her tweaked suspensory took her out of Appaloosa and Paint all breed year ends, though she had been in the running!  I am really looking forward to working with Heidi and her for this year.

Our first show of the season is a NMBHA training show this Sunday.  Our line up is Heidi and Lucy, Faith and Romeo, me and Rip (owned by Whispering Spirit Ranch), with Gette and LT coming to the show for practice and helping out.

Are we ready?

Faith has been blanketing Romeo, so he looks slick and shiny, and he is working well for her.  He prefers ranch over western pleasure but he can do it all. And so can Faith! Even trail!

Faith and Romeo. Romeo says” “i can rock western pleasure if i  want to, but i really prefer ranch!” Photo by Mandi.

Lucy was working quite well for Heidi last weekend, until Heidi asked her to move out to get a cow, whereupon Lucy said “yeehaw! i feel great!” and leapt straight up about three feet off the ground, kicked her hind feet out and then gave a few extra bucks.  Heidi hung on!  We may need to lope a good bit before putting her on cows at the show and not believe her lies when she claims she is warmed up and we are asking her to move too much!

Substitute Lucy and Heidi, and this is what it looked like!  Photo from here.

LT is coming to help hold herd for cutting and to keep Gette company at the trailer the rest of the day. She is a shaggy shaggy horse.  And a bit dirty.  And it is too cold to wash her, so good thing it’s a training show and we are not actually showing!

Gette is coming to hang out and maybe get ponied around.  I have sat on her, but have not ridden her, yet. I am super thrilled with what I see.

Gette says “i think there is a crack in one of your camera lenses. just sayin.”

I am liking her trot! And she watches where she is going over logs, too! At least when being lunged.

I have had Rip for about a month and he is a blast.  He’d had a few rides before he arrived but only walk trot.  Now he can lope and do most trail obstacles. He is also good on a real trail.  He is still very green but because he has such a low key personality, I feel he will have a good experience at the show.  He is unlikely to be competitive in his classes, but our purpose is to find out where he is at away from home, give him new things to see and do, and help him have a good time.

He has not been on cows yet, but that will be soon!  He will go in Walk Trot Trail (he is not ready for lope over logs and we have not practiced the log drag so we will aim for Ranch trail next month), Ranch Rail (and see how he likes a crowd…), Ranch Riding (he has both leads but the left lead is harder to get), and Stockhorse (still working on extended gaits, but he has the potential for good stuff at all gaits!).

He is learning about balance and seeing the world on the trail. He has the talent line up that I really like: good outside the arena, good inside the arena, athletic, and bred to watch a cow. Plus he is a grulla, which is a very cool color! And an Appaloosa, even though he has no spots.

Rip says: “i am getting pretty good at climbing and descending steps. i am not in love with mud, but i learn really fast and try hard.”

I wanted to get a side shot of him but he kept doing the Gette thing and sticking his face in the camera, so I had him walk around me. The two of them might be hard to teach to ground tie. LOL.

Looking cute on the trail! He is not spooky and is willing to try, with very little drama, when asked. He is going to be a dynamite all-arounder!

It should be a fun show, and the weather looks WARM!  High of 63!

Cancer treatment update: Only three more of this round of chemo.  Then surgery, radiation, and maintenance chemo. Cystitis getting better!  Neuropathy getting better and I worked THREE horses on Thursday.  White blood cells still low but up from last week!