Update on Smart Little Cayenne

Cayenne has been doing a bit of everything this past year.  She placed 4th in a 25 mile limited distance endurance ride, Home on the Range, near Washtucna, WA last spring.  More importantly to me, she took the Best Condition Award at that ride.  Cayenne liked the endurance as she prefers to get out and cover ground and has a wide competitive streak in her.

I rode Cayenne in two weekend clinics with Pat Wyse.  One in Sandpoint in April and one in Montana in May.  She has a lot of talent but I am working on getting good enough to ride her to her full potential!

I competed in a couple small trail challenges, did some gaming, competed in our first (and second and third) Competitive Mounted Orienteering rides, and moved cows a little.  We had a lot of fun and did well!

In Novemeber, I hauled Cayenne and her sire, Smart Little Cayenne, to Eugene, OR for the Northwest Mountain Trail Championships at the Oregon Horse Center.  Cayenne took 5th in the Novice Horse class.  She was the only horse to score a "10" on an obstacle all weekend in her class.  That obstacle was the ground tie.  All that practice paid off!  Cayenne did better than I expected competing there but Smart Little Sign was my rock star.  He came out of two years of no competition and took Reserve Grand Champion in Eugene!

Another Quarter Horse

I've added another Quarter Horse to my herd. She may not have spots but she's certainly worthy! It has been tough to find a suitable Appaloosa broodmare I wanted, especially in my area, so I went AQHA. "Jessie" is a daughter of Freckles Flynn, whose NCHA earnings are over $100,000. Her dam is a daughter of an NRHA money earner and Topsail Cody bred. Jessie is bay with black points, about 15-15.1 hands, and easy on the eyes. I will breed her to Smarty for a 2013 foal. That seems like a long way from now but time flies!

Smart Little Pistol

He's a pistol! Annie and Smarty's colt is weaned now. He's pretty smart and thinks he's something special. I'll wait to make that assessment in a couple years when I'm riding him! First two pictures are of Smart Little Pistol and the last is of his sire, Smart Little Sign.

Welcome Scrappy

**Check out the updated pics below!**

I needed another horse like I needed more barn cats. Scrappy is a yearling AQHA filly. I went to look at Scrappy on a whim (and under pressure from my mom!) because I liked her bloodlines and was interested in buying a riding prospect. She was also about 10 minutes from my house. She was definitely a "prospect" but quite promising. I saw her sire and dam on the premises and picked out her 3yr old full brother as my favorite on the place before I knew his relation. Her sire has won about $30,000 in NCHA cutting and her dam is by an NCHA money earner.

I think that Scrappy will be fun to ride in the Pat Wyse clinics when she grows up. She is eating me out of house and home and getting up to speed on her schooling. She is more challenging than my point and shoot Smarty foals but is coming along.

I bought Scrappy April 13th, 2011 (13 is a lucky number, right?). The first picture is Scrappy the day after I brought her home. The head shot and picture at the hitching rail were taken a few weeks later. The picture of her grazing was taken after about six weeks.

**Update**The 5th and 6th pictures were taken in September 2011. Scrappy now fits in with my herd even though she's a bit small for her age. My other yearling, Peppy, is definitely the ringleader but Scrappy has emerged from her shell quite nicely.
 



**Another Update**
Last pic is of Scrappy saddled upon December 31, 2011.

Sold Horses

I sold a few horses since last fall. Turbo, my 2008 gelding, and Dusty aka Frosty, the grulla 2010 filly out of Barts Quincy T, sold to Janice and Roley Schoonover of Western Pleasure Guest Ranch. They've done a great job starting Turbo under saddle and I got to watch him show off his moves at the Pat Wyse clinic in Sandpoint in April. It has been determined that Turbo should have been named something else because there is not a fast bone in his body! Turbo is sired by Dreams Reward (by Dreamfinder) and out of a mare I used to own, Quincys Sparkee (by Stardee). Frosty has changed colors from a black/grulla with spots over her hips to a brown roan. I imagine she will end up a varnish roan like her dam. Frosty is by Smarty and her dam is a daughter of Mighty Black Bart. If all goes as planned, Turbo and Frosty will eventually end up in the guest string at Western Pleasure.

I sold Blaze (Willie B Smart), my 2007 red roan blanketed gelding, to Tami Moyer. Blaze is by Smarty and out of a Geneo JJ daughter. He had about 70 rides on him when Tami took over. She intends to barrel race Blaze once he has some more miles on him. Tami holds various Omoksee speed records on her current Appaloosa gelding, Rocky, and now races him in 4D barrels at the age of 18. When Tami and I started communicating about Blaze, neither of us knew that her Rocky was a colt that my mom raised and I rode to win a 2yr old Western Pleasure Futurity back in 1995! It really is a small world and it was wonderful to see Rocky after so many years!

Pictures are of Rocky and Blaze tied to the trailer (talk about a nearly matched pair!), Frosty at 5 days old, Turbo tied to the hitching rail as a long 2yr old on the day he was picked up, and Blaze alone tied to the trailer.

Smart Little Colt

Annie (An T She Sweet) foaled a smartly colored colt by Smarty (Smart Little Sign) on May 20th. He is Smarty's only foal coming in 2011 and he's just perfect! He is not for sale as I can't wait to put a leg over him!

Cayenne's 2nd Championship Buckle!

My Little Cayenne won herself another buckle! We actually got a break and she got to compete in a class for horses 4 years old and under. I guess that's where she really belongs so it wasn't really a break, just out of the norm for us. The event was the Inland Empire Back Country Horsemen (IEBCH) Trail Challenge at Busy Bee Arena near Airway Heights, WA on Saturday, September 18th. We won the green horse class and took 2nd in the open class. I'm not sure how many people were in each class.

There were many obstacles on the course and each class rode the exact same thing but were, of course, only competing against the others in their respective classes. The course was broken down into four sections with one rider on each section at a time. That made it faster to get everyone through. After each section, you rode a short distance to wait at the next section. I thought it was very well organized. I rode the whole course twice since I signed up for two classes. I competed in the green horse class first. I figured Cayenne would do better the second time through but she did not!

Here is a breakdown of each obstacle in each section:

Section#1
A: Walk to and over bridge
B: Trot up to and around a stump, trot down and back to bridge, walk over bridge and walk to C.
C: Step over log, sidepass to mailbox, get map out of mailbox, sidepass back (log was marked where you stepped over & exited it)
D: Pick up left lead & lope to log
E: Walk over log & up hill to exit

Section#2
A: Walk up trail & around camp site (yellow dome tent)
B: Walk down trail & over logs
C: Walk between trees (next to deer spinal column on ground, fox pelts hanging on a rope & fake deer standing nearby)
D: 90 degree forehand turn, back through "L," 270 degree haunch turn
E: Walk into box, stop, turn 360 degrees, walk out to exit

Section#3
A: Open gate, go through, & close gate
B: Walk to log, drag log to post up the trail, hang rope on the post
C: Walk up hill to cone, turn 180 degrees on haunches, back up hill to next cone, & stop.
D: Walk down hill to post with log, drag log back to 1st post (log on left of horse this time)
E: Work gate again & exit

Section#4
A: Walk up steep hill
B: Move bag of cans from tree "A" to tree "B"
C: Walk to slicker, take it off tree & put it on yourself, take it off, & place it back on tree
D: Walk under tree arch
E: Walk through deadfall to the exit

One nice thing about having 20 obstacles judged by 4 different judges is that if you mess up on one or two obstacles, you can make it up on other obstacles, or if one judge doesn't care for your style (or your horse's style) their opinion won't ruin your whole score. Most of the obstacles were natural and it was a typical trail ride setting. My horse didn't even know we were actually "doing" anything on some obstacles like walking over logs or up and down hills.

Cayenne didn't actually do better than she did at the last two events we've been to. She was a bit edgy and worried about other horses she could see through the trees on various parts of the course. The "bad" things she did on course were:

Section#1: Stepped off sideways at the end of the bridge on the first crossing instead of straight off the end. Wiggled a step while I was folding up the map at the mailbox (I erred in judgment on this as I knew she was nervous & should have kept her moving rather than try to take extra time standing still), broke to a trot before I asked her to stop at the log (the second time through she gave me a nice sliding stop at the log).

Section#2: Didn't respond perfectly to cues on where to put her hind end on the "L" back through. She did "okay" the first time but was a total brat the second time as she switched her butt back & forth at the entrance, overreacting to cues to take "one" step over with her butt & knocked the "L" logs around. All the while tense with her head up trying to look for another horse!

Section#3: Perfect the 1st time but the 2nd time she was a little impatient but pretty good.

Section#4: A bit distracted the 2nd time so had to be cued too much to sidepass over & hold still to pick up & put down cans. Wiggled several times while I was putting on the slicker & looking through the woods for other horses. I should have been able to let her have a slack rein while standing there but that would have resulted in her walking off! I think she nickered once each time in this section, too.

The very good things she did on the course were:

Section#1: Trotted down the hill even though the ground was rough & had a good stop from a lope the 2nd time through
Section#2: Didn't bobble at all over the tent, deer spine, fox pelts, or fake deer. Good pivots the 1st time through
Section#3: Absolutely flawless the 1st time, perfect gate work, great log drag, perfect back up on a fairly steep hill
Section#4: Good with cans the 1st time

Overall, she did a good job but I need to work on her concentrating when distracted. She rides alone wonderfully but it's when she sees other horses through the trees that she thinks she needs to keep an eye on them or call to them. Part of the problem there was that she's been turned out "being a horse" for two weeks without her red raspberry leaves (drugs) so she's being a snot. Most people couldn't tell she was being bratty, except for the 2nd time through the "L," but I know her and she wasn't on top of her game. I get nervous and she feeds off of me, too. Just more to work on!

Thanks to IEBCH for a great event & to Aslin Finch for sponsoring the Montana Silver buckles! The 2nd place saddle stand was hand made by a member of IEBCH and is now proudly displayed in my living room with the saddle Mr (my gelding) won at a trail challenge in Santa, ID a few years ago on it. Photos of me riding Cayenne were taken by Laura McConnell. Thanks Laura!