Long overdue update

Well, the shorter days mean I may get back to this blog a bit more often! An update on Smart Little Cayenne's progress in life is in order. I used her in the Trainer's Challenge at the Horsin' Around Horse Expo in Sandpoint, Idaho in June '09. The challenge was to bring a youngster with no more than 40 rides (I think I had about 35 at that time), use them for demos on your training techniques thoughout the weekend, and then compete against the other trainers. There were four trainers and we were judged on rail work, pattern work, and an obstacle course. It was lots of fun, a great weekend, and Cayenne and I won it!

I hauled her to Townsend, MT to ride in a 2 week seminar with Pat Wyse at the end of July. She did wonderful and showed some talent towards reining. I took her to a trail competition in Idaho later in the year and she did great on the obstacles but got buddy sour towards the end and kept calling for the horse ahead of us and not paying much attention to the course. She didn't even care about seeing a llama for the first time.

I hope to ride her regularly all winter, even if it's just slogging through the snow and keeping her in some kind of shape. Other than round.

I also took Cayenne's sire, Smart Little Sign, to Townsend. "Smarty" was his typical laid back self. I think he accels more in extreme trail than in reining. Or I do! He won the Xtreme Trail Challenge at Ride the West in May so I'm pretty proud of him! He had some time off after Townsend as I had other horses to ride but I rode him yesterday and today. He's the same as ever and happy to be worked again.

I started my 2yr old, Willie B Smart, last month and have a handful of rides on him now. I hauled him to the arena several times and rode him in there. He walks over tarps, bridges, and drags a short log under saddle. He has been really quiet but I know he's a fireball under that facade! I don't call him "Blaze" for no reason! Smarty is his sire so he has to have some level headedness to him. Blaze picks up on new things ok. He turns on the forehand and can "get" a couple steps of leg yield along the fence at a time. He's a good project. Hopefully he turns out nice after a year or two of riding.