Northernhorse.com Blog

Steve Rother of Oregon took home the Championship trophy Sunday for the second year in a row at the Mane Event Trainers Challenge at Red Deer’s Westerner Park.

“I was nervous as usual,” said Rother, after accepting the special edition Mane Event trophy from Canadian Cowboy Country Magazine representative Terri Mason. But he said his horse felt the same in the large arena where the Finals were held as she did in the round pen where the four training sessions had been held over the 2 ½ days of the Challenge. “Very rarely do I get that feeling,” said Rother. “My horse had an open mind for everything I threw at her.”

Drawing last in the order of go for the Finals in the larger Lammle’s Arena, Rother completed all the required elements. After dramatically standing on top of his horse cracking a whip, he trailered his horse – while mounted – and left the ring with five minutes to spare in the allotted half-hour. Continue Reading »

We have heard so much positive feedback from those who attended the Mane Event. It was the biggest event yet.  It took all 3 days just to check out all the booths and trailers and demos. Then there was the Trainers Challenge and then there was the clinics. All day, every day. The quality of the clinics was outstanding.  Perhaps my friend Laurie sums it up best as she shares her experience in the following article which she has so kindly offered to let us reprint:

Why do you pay good money and invest your valuable time to see go see a clinician or other equestrian celebrity? You can acquire knowledge from their DVDs, their books, their magazine articles, what is the charm about seeing them live? What is the point? Continue Reading »

The Trainers Challenge at the Mane Event in Red Deer continued Saturday with the trainers each having two round pen sessions with their horses. At the end of the day they all declared satisfaction with the progress they had been able to make with the two-year-old fillies.

“The horse is pretty nice. She’s gentle, she’s willing,” said Steve Rother about Shay, noting that his biggest challenge was getting her to free off her left shoulder. Continue Reading »

The Mane Event Education & Trade Fair ended Sunday having had over 42,000 people come through the doors to take in over 100 hours of clinics and presentations, and shop at the over 400 trade fair booths. As the doors closed on the Event’s second appearance at Red Deer’s Westerner Park, the general consensus was that attendees left the Event feeling they had learned something, or at the very least, had a really good time. Continue Reading »

RED DEER, AB – Recent heavy snowfalls in Alberta didn’t deter thousands of horse enthusiasts from lining up in unprecedented numbers to take in the first day of The Mane Event Equine Education & Trade Fair at Red Deer’s Westerner Park. And there was standing room only at the arenas and demonstration areas as attendees took the opportunity to access the expertise of some of the world’s top horsemen and horsewomen.

“We’ve been really well received. People are really friendly and very excited about the information,” said NRHA reining champion Stacy Westfall, who is making her first appearance in Western Canada and is one of the clinicians filling the stands at the Event. Renowned for her bridle-less freestyle riding, Westfall said she is trying to cover a lot of topics in her clinics over the 2 ½ days of the event. “ I’ve broken it down into lots of steps and stuff that I know that a lot of people get a lot out of,” she said. Continue Reading »

Three top trainers had their first encounter with three unbroke two-year-old fillies as the crowd favourite Trainers Challenge got underway at the Mane Event at Westerner Park in Red Deer Friday.

Jon Ensign from Montana entered the round pen first with Jose, one of the registered Quarter Horse fillies supplied by Lukacs Farms of Olds, AB. The horse, which was assigned to Ensign through a draw, appeared to be soft minded and willing, but the more resistant of the three horses supplied by Lukacs Farms of Olds, AB. Continue Reading »

Would you like to participate in a research study about heaves? Andrea Wasko (Graduate student) and Dr. Renaud Léguillette from the new Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Calgary (UCVM) are conducting exciting research in Alberta on Recurrent Airway Obstruction (also known as heaves). Continue Reading »

We have had repeated requests for ad space on the front of Northernhorse.com and we have decided to give it a try. We are limiting the ads to 5 at a time as we see on the comments on the April Draw that we still have a lot of regular visitors who use a dial-up connection. This reminds me of a good tip for website owners: You should look at your website on dial-up once in awhile just to make sure you aren’t eliminating a big percentage of your potential clients by making it too slow. Continue Reading »

We received this update from the Mane Event Organizers:

Hi Everyone,

I think this is a cruel joke from mother nature with all of this white stuff. I feel like I should be saying hohoho Merry Christmas!!!

Well I have had a serious talk with mother nature and she assured me that the weather is going to clear up for the weekend and that she was just testing us to see how much extra stress we can all handle. It appears that we have all passed and spring will arrive shortly!!!

All kidding a side we are in Red Deer setting up and we are expecting the weather to break and we will have a GREAT weekend.

Remember drive safe and keep it between the white lines (I don’t mean the ditches).

See you all soon.

Thank you

Mahatma Gandi once said “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. Although we still see way too many examples of animal abuse in this country, I do see some very positive trends happening.

One group that is working hard to set up reasonable, workable rules is AFAC - Alberta Farm Animal Care. Their tagline is “The livestock industry working together for responsible animal care”. Continue Reading »