Friday 2010 at the Mane Event

Time flies on the wings of Pegasus at The Mane Event. There is so much to do and so little time. I even set up a little “schedule” on my iPhone (love that thing) so I wouldn’t miss anything. I didn’t allow for chance meetings of old friends and shopping and literally getting lost in the trade fair but I still managed to see a lot of interesting stuff.

Linda Snow from Westwind Ranch Colt Resort gave her presentation on “Does my horse cheat on me” early in the day.  She provided information on how to recognize when your horse is showing you disrespect and gave some helpful techniques to eliminate some of this disrespect.  Lots of great ideas that could help to keep you safe.

Mike Boyle is Past President of the NRHA, a top reiner and a successful coach. He showed us a series of drills to improve the turn around using six different horses with different levels of experience and their riders.  Watching how well his drills worked to improve the different horses made me want to go home and try them on some of mine. Isn’t it funny how you can watch and read some things many times and then one day something just “clicks” and you get it? I think for the horse that I am personally working with right now (Keeper) that his drills are going to be a big help – we got to see a balance of relaxation and pressure that was certainly effective for the different horses that worked in the presentation.

I was a bit late to come to watch the first contestant in the Trainers Challenge, Brent Trout. It was standing room only and it was even hard to find a place where you could stand and see.  There is a lot of interest in this competition. There is so much to be learned from these skilled horsemen and they are so generous in sharing their ideas and experience. What an opportunity for horse people to gain knowledge. I wish there had been a Mane Event when I was young. It is such a wonderful souce of information for horsepeople.

Jonathan Field is such a nice guy. There is always a crowd around him and he seems to have no end of patience in answering their questions and helping folks improve their relationships with their horses. Today we got a little impromptu demonstation of his athleticism when one of the demonstation horses took the opportunity to buck while Jonathan was standing on his back. While this would bring a lot of fear rushing through most of us, he calmly decided which way to jump, landed on his feet, calmly walked back over to the horse and went about showing the horse that this really wasn’t any kind of problem that they couldn’t work out together and worked it out. It was a great demonstration of an unplanned resistance and how to deal with it. His sense of humor really adds to his demonstrations.

Tom Forehand and Ken McNabb both worked their horses in the Trainers Challenge. I was a bit late getting back once again and once again I could get even a good place to stand so I gave in to my urge to shop. Even though I kept up a good pace, I didn’t come close to checking out all the booths. I will have to return tomorrow when my credit card cools down. LOL

I must get to bed. So much to see and do and I am sure tomorrow will go just as fast as today. If you would like to read more about the Mane Event you should go to http://maneeventexpo.blogspot.com/

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