English to Western

Good Day!

Today on Horse Master, the episode “Turning to Western” is airing in an encore presentation. It features a young rider from Martha’s Vineyard who bought a horse from me a couple years ago—a finished reiner—who she promptly turned into an English horse. He’s a big, scopey horse (much too big to rein) and he has a real Hunter type look to him, so it wasn’t a really big leap.

The episode is about her learning how to ride this horse western so that she can broaden her experience and take advantage of the really well-trained horse that she has. Since the show is so limited in time, we always have to narrow down the topic, and since her horse was a good spinner, we focused on that. Lily is a serious student of riding and quite talented and she took to it right away. Almost immediately, they were spinning beautifully. It sure does help to have a push-button horse when you are learning new skills! In fact, they made the cover of America’s Horse back in January!

One of the most challenging things I ever did in my riding career was switch from English to western riding. There’s a lot of misconception out there that western is easier than English, and in some regards, that’s true. The western saddle definitely gives you more support and knowing that the horn is there for you to grab when things get rough is sometimes a real confidence booster. But what was difficult for me, was learning how to let go of my horse and allow him to carry himself without interference from the reins.

After years of riding English (about 15) and then riding on the race track through college, I had learned to ride with a LOT of contact. I was never a heavy-handed rider, but I was reliant on the contact. Like many riders I talk to today, I thought the horse was reliant on the rider to be rounded and collected, to stop and turn as needed and to perform certain maneuvers. One thing that really attracted me to the western disciplines was watching horses work beautiful with seemingly no rein contact. Imagine a horse that would respond to your seat and legs! But getting myself to actually let go of those reins took some time and concentration.

It took about two years of steady work and concentration, before I could ride a horse well on a loose rein. And then, how my horizons expanded! Since then I’ve come to realize that almost everything we ask of our horse, he is capable of as a natural movement. Take collection, for example. It is a natural behavior of horses and it is known as “prideful” behavior. You’ve all seen it, when your horse arches his neck and struts his stuff in the turnout pen. If he can do it on his own, then he is not reliant on the rider to hold himself in a collected frame—only to tell him when to do it and when to stop.

To me, it’s important to teach a horse self-carriage; whether he’s an English horse or western. Once he does what I ask, he should find a release and should hold that maneuver until I cue him to do something different, like stop. I talked a little about that in this episode, if I recall. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, more behavioral problems in horses are caused by too much contact and not enough release, rather than the other way around. There is a time and a place for everything and I think it is important to learn to ride your horse both on and off contact.

Thank you for all the great comments on my last post. It’s pretty interesting to hear how you see your life unfolding in the next 10 years and I agree whole-heartedly with everything that’s been said so far.

On a sad note, today we learned of the sudden and tragic death of the father of a boy who was in one of our shows last year—Zeke and his rude little pony. I know from what Zeke showed me at the shoot that he has the strength, courage and heart to survive this terrible loss and that he will be okay. But my heart aches for him. I hope he can turn to his pony and cry on her shoulder—I know I have used my horses for this kind of therapy in the past. It is a reminder that life is tentative and we have to live everyday to the fullest and be sure to tell our loved ones how much they mean to us every day.

Until next time,

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

What Does the Future Hold?

Greetings!

I am here in Boise ID for the Horse Affairs expo. There’s been a good crowd here this weekend and although spending is down a little, there’s no shortage of enthusiasm for all things horses. There are several good clinic9ians here and a great educational program, as well as some good entertainment.

It was very fun for me this weekend to finally meet a person that I have admired from afar for the past couple decades—Juli Thorson, from Horse & Rider magazine. You have no doubt read some of Juli’s articles in various horse publications in the past; I have always followed her work and enjoyed her insights about the horse industry. We had a nice dinner Friday night with Stacey and Jesse Westfall and Charles and Anne Wilhelm. It was fun to swap stories about the crazy funny things that have happened at expos and clinics and to laugh at each other’s tales.

Yesterday, Juli Thorson, Richard Shrake and I had a very thought-provoking discussion about where we are headed in the horse industry in the next ten years. How will the recession and the unwanted horse issue, combined with the subsequent kabosh on the breeding industry affect the horse population ten years down the road? What about the move away from the show ring and toward trail and recreational riding? And what will happen when us baby boomers have moved along to more docile endeavors, who will fuel the horse industry then? These are all real concerns and important factors that will influence the shape of our industry in the future. I just wish I had a crystal ball.

Where do you see yourself ten years from now as it relates to horses? What about this summer—will the economy affect the plans you’ll make with your horses? I’ll be cutting back a little on the competitions I attend this year, but not because of the economy—because I have a fuller travel schedule this year and am doing more clinics. I am optimistic that it’s going to be a good year and if our clinic registrations are any indication, it’s going to be a busy summer!

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

Watch and Learn

Greetings!

Today is a travel day for me—and they are never particularly easy. For one thing, I have to leave five hours before my flight because of a three hour, 175 mile drive to the airport (and sometimes in the winter the drive-time doubles). Then there are the three 65# plus bags that go everywhere with me (my beloved saddle, clothes and gear, and products). That’s pretty easy to deal with on the Denver side with curb checking, but getting them to and into my rental car is always a chore. But my drive to the airport is a beautiful one—through the mountains the whole way—through the wild and scenic valley of South Park (yes, there really is such a place). Along the way I see lots of wildlife and many pastures full of horses. It’s amazing what you can observe and learn about horses just by looking at them.

I have spent my whole life observing horses, and I have learned a lot about them in the process. Sure, riding and training horses teaches you a lot but you can really learn about their behavior just by watching them interact with each other and just go about their daily lives. Our house literally sits right in the middle of the barnyard. Out the east window is the main barn; from the kitchen table you look south into the open-sided shedrow; from the living room picture window—looking to the west and the continental divide, we see the arena (and a few 14,000’ mountain peaks) and the on north side of the house is the indoor arena. I’ll never grow tired of looking out my windows and watching horses.

One thing I observed when we first moved here, some 15 years ago, was that the horses in the shedrow would always be in position to catch the very first rays of sunlight every sunny morning during the winter. It is clear that they know exactly where to stand because it hits in a different spot in each of the five pens and the horses will always be standing right in that spot. Horses are well-equipped to deal with all kinds of adverse weather, and one sign of their amazing adaptability is their ability to take advantage of solar heating.

This morning was not that cold for mid-winter—about 16 degrees. But as I headed down the road to Denver, just after the sun was up, I saw several pastures of horses where they were all lined up—perfectly abreast to the first rays of sunlight. Often people ask me, “What do you do with your horses in the winter?” Thinking that living in the harsh climate that we do that the horses must be locked away in a heated barn wrapped snugly in their blankies. But the truth is, most horses in our area are in the exact same housing in the winter as they are in the summer—out in the pasture. The horse’s ability to adapt to its climate is incredible and it is one reason why they have managed to survive and flourish all over the world.

BTW- there’s some interesting information about how horses evolved simultaneously all over the world and how where they evolved dictated their type (which later turned into breeds), in a book on behavior called “Equine Behaviour” by Daniel Mills. It is one of my favorite books on behavior and you can find it easily on Amazon.

Our horses, as I’ve mentioned before, do in fact wear blankets in the winter—but it is for our own convenience, not theirs. We like their coats as short as possible because we ride indoors and otherwise they sweat too much. But even in their blankies, they are standing to take advantage of the first rays of sun each morning. I feel fortunate to have lived with horses all of my life and it’s amazing how much I have learned from just hanging out with them and observing. I spent my childhood doing this—the horses were my best friends and sometimes my only friends and from my tree house in the pasture, I could see a lot.

Soon, I’ll be landing in Boise and I’ll start lugging suitcases. If you are in Idaho and happen to come by the expo, let me know you are a follower of my blog by saying, “Did you see any good horse behavior today?” As I write, it’s hard to imagine who actually reads this blog, but I have been surprised before by people saying, “Yeah, I read that in your blog.” I am reminded of the man who came up to me at an expo and asked me what color my toenails were after I had written about having my first pedicure! Thanks for reading.

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

Headed for the Beach!

Good day!

The warm sunny beach sounds great right now—beats the heck out of the 35 mile an hour wind and horizontal snow that I see outside my office window right now. But this week one of our most popular episodes of Horse Master is an encore airing that was filmed on a warm and sunny day at the beach of Martha’s Vineyard last summer.

It’s about a young event horse (combined training) that is a little spooky and resistant at times. In fact, earlier in the year he had bucked off his owner on a cross-country jump course and broken her collar bone. Since she was still not cleared to ride, I did all the riding on this horse during the filming and our goal was to get him into the ocean—tolerating the crashing surf—for the very first time. I figured if we could do that, she ought to be able to get him over just about any obstacle. And since she lives on the island, she wanted to be able to enjoy an occasional ride on the beach (who wouldn’t?).

But as we approached the ocean, the horse was already balking before we got close to the water. For a few moments, I wasn’t sure if I could get the horse anywhere near the surf. But I stuck with my plan, which was to keep the horse zigzagging back and forth, always turning him TOWARD the obstacle (which in this case was the ocean) and it wasn’t long before we were up to the water’s edge.

Getting his feet actually in the water took a little more convincing. You know how hard it is to get your toes in the cold water? What’s not obvious from watching the show is that the shoreline was actually pretty steeply sloped and the bottom dropped off quickly once you were in the water. There were a few times when both the horse and I were experiencing some vertigo as the waves were rushing out beneath us. You can tell in the show by watching for when the horse starts moving sideways with the receding waves. At one point we were in up to his belly and a big wave crashed right over the top of us. At another point he tried to jump over a wave and just by the skin of my teeth I was able to stay on—I really thought I was going for a swim that time. Unfortunately neither of those cuts made it into the show.

In most episodes of Horse Master, what you see on the show is most all of the training that occurred, but in some episodes, like this one, it takes a little longer to train the horse than we can show because of the time constraints, so some footage has to be cut. In this case, I doubt more than five minutes of actual training time was cut out. Surprisingly, I had the horse in the waves and tolerating it pretty well within a half an hour. It was a very fun ride and one of my favorite episodes to date.

I, like most people, have always harbored fantasies of riding on the beach. How about you? It was cool to be able to have an excuse to do it again. Martha’s Vineyard is one of the few places left where you can still ride on the beach and I hope to go back there someday for another ride—maybe this time it would be okay to ride a horse that was already accustomed to the surf!

Tomorrow I head to Boise ID for Horse Affairs; I think it will be a fun weekend. I’ve done this show several times in the past so I am sure I will see lots of familiar faces there. If you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to stop by and say hello!

All the best,

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

Regular Riding Routine

Greetings!

I am finally getting back on my horse and into a regular riding routine. The time off hasn’t hurt him at all. In fact, he’s put on weight, which is good and he’s gotten a little lazy—also good. Although it doesn’t really surprise me, but it always pleases me to know that my horse (like any well trained, well-tempered horse) can take an extended period of time off and then you can saddle him up and he’ll be as sharp as when he was in steady training. They really don’t forget. As one of my mentors in the business, renowned equine behaviorist Dr. Jim Heird, is fond of saying, a horse has the memory of an elephant, but the problem solving ability of an armadillo!

Winter riding in the indoor arena is a different pace and one that I enjoy—at least for a while. By the time spring hits the Rockies, I’ll be ready to be in the outdoor arena and covering more ground out on the trails. I like to do a lot of detail work during the winter. Lots of schooling exercises, pattern work, refining transitions and challenging obstacles. Today, I spent some time doing small circles at the collected trot with a counter-bend. I’ll start with a small circle right with the correct bend, then guide my horse onto a circle left while maintaining the bend to the right. After a few rounds to the right, we’ll switch to the left. This is a great exercise for body control and helps work my horse’s abdominal and back muscles.

I also did some work leg yielding, or two-tracking. Start at the walk if your horse is not moving off your leg well and come down the center line (the long line in the middle of your arena); while keeping his nose and body pointed straight ahead, ask him to move right—part sideways, part forward—by bringing your left rein in and up toward his withers (indirect rein in front of the withers), opening your right rein, pressing with your left seat bone and reaching back and pressing rhythmically with your left leg.  In the leg yield your horse is bent away from the direction of travel. Release the aids and go straight when you feel him move sideways, then ask again. Once you have your horse moving well off your aids at the walk, you can progress to the trot. This is a great exercise for lead changes, lead problems and just general responsiveness. For more on the indirect rein aids, see http://juliegoodnight.com/questionsNew.php?id=26.

I like to do some fun stuff too—not just collection and lateral movements, etc. Today we dragged the log all around the arena, going in the more challenging direction to the left and also dragging it backing up. It’s fun to see if you can maneuver the log into a specific position. If you’ve never dragged anything off your horse, start at the beginning just getting him used to ropes first then just dragging a rope. Then progress to something light weight—let him follow while someone else drags it, then put him in front and have someone drag it behind him. It’s not natural for a horse to be attached to something following him from behind and many horses will spook at this. So if you try this, be careful and work up to it slowly. But when you can drag stuff, your horse will be better broke. We like to drag all kinds of stuff like tarps, barrels, whatever we can find and can tie onto.

Then I dragged the tarp onto the ground and proceeded to walk and trot over it. That always makes me a little nervous because I think about what might happen if he got hung up on it and it started following him. Even though that’s never happened, for some reason I always picture it, whether it is me going over the tarp or I am watching someone else (mind pollution). But the good thing about riding a very broke horse is even if that happens, it’s not a big deal. For Dually, walking and trotting over the tarp doesn’t even raise an eyebrow (figuratively speaking).

Anyway, I thought I’d give you an idea of some things you might work on while your riding is limited—that is, if you’re in a cold climate like me. People are often asking me what to do in the arena— they get out there, do a little warm up and then can’t think of what to do. That’s why my audio CDs with mounted workouts are so popular. I’m getting ready to record new ones—one will be a fresh horse workout, the other will be a rider conditioning workout. What would you like to hear about in a mounted workout plan?

Until next time,

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

Bad Medicine

Good Day!

Another foot of new snow at our ski area (Monarch Mountain) has left me thinking a little more about skiing than riding today! But the sad truth is that I am so busy in my office that neither one looks like it will be happening. But the alternative, of not having enough work, is not a good thing either. So for now I am content to be busy writing articles, reviewing the editing of the TV show and catching up on general business.

This week on Horse Master is an episode featuring a very stubborn little horse who has learned to make a big fuss out of de-worming or any oral medications. He throws his head up in the air, pulls you off the ground and slams his head into you. He’s not opposed to running you over in the process either. Have you ever had a horse like this? Not fun to work with.

Basically what we did with this little guy was just break down the steps and train repetitiously at each step before moving on to the next one. First we taught him to drop his head on command; then we taught him to accept sticking our fingers in his mouth; then to open his mouth; then to accept the tube, etc. We used applesauce to squirt in his mouth when we got to that stage.

Although we made significant progress with this horse, not all problems can be solved in a half hour TV show! In fact, the more engrained a behavior is, the longer the horse has been acting that way and the longer he has had success, generally the longer it will take to fix it. In this case, the horse was older, maybe 17, and had been doing this forever. Think of it this way, if every time the horse threw his head up and got away from the medicine he scored a point, the score was probably 987 to 5 at this point. Now we have to score 982 points without him throwing his head up before the score is actually even—as if you were starting from scratch. Hence, the repetition.

It’s something to keep in mind as you train your horse. Remember, every time you work with a horse you are either training him or un-training him. And every time he gets away with something he scores a point. That’s why repeating the same thing over and over without success is not a good thing with horses. All you’re doing is engraining the wrong behavior. There’s lots of articles about this in the Training Library on my website, but this article on “Ask, Tell, Command” is a really important concept. http://juliegoodnight.com/questionsNew.php?id=237 .

We did see some improvement on this little horse during the short time we had with him while filming this episode, but most importantly, we left the barn manager, Mary Ann, with a training plan for how she would work with this horse over time to correct his bad behavior. What I remember most about this episodes was some of the behind-the-scenes stuff.

For reasons I don’t exactly remember, we had to do the intro part of the show, where she and I came walking out of the barn together, over and over—like 20 takes before we got it. It had something to do with bad sound quality I think. All I remember is walking out of the barn with Mary Ann, saying our intro remarks again and again. This is pretty unusual because almost all our scenes are shot straight through on the first take. When working with horses and training issues, you pretty much have to do it this way. You can’t just yell “cut” and ask the horse to do it again the same way. Horses with training issues present a unique challenge in filming a TV show!

Until next time,

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

Quick Horse Master Survey!

Copy and paste this quick survey into an e-mail to press@juliegoodnight.com during the month of February and you'll have a chance to win a copy of Julie's new Bit Basics DVD!

1: If you have a television, which do you have, satellite or cable TV? (satellite, cable, none/air waves only)

2: Do you have a DVR? (yes or no)

3: Do you watch Horse Master with Julie Goodnight? (yes or no)


4: If so, do you watch Horse Master live as it airs? (yes or no)


5: If you watch Horse master, do you watch it from a DVR recording? (yes or no)


6: How many times do you re-watch a Horse Master episode before deleting from your DVR? (1, 2, 3....or "I keep them forever")


7: What topics would you like to see covered on Horse Master?

Extreme Riding & Skiing

Greetings!

Today it’s cold and snowy here—a good day to be inside by the fire. There’s a big red fox curled up in the snow bank right outside my office and I’ve been watching him all afternoon. He doesn’t’ seem to be bothered by our dogs at all and they have not even noticed him. It’s great to live in the mountains where there’s still a lot of wildlife. Speaking of wild, our snowcat ski trip over the weekend was quite a wild ride!

Although there’s tons of new snow now, on Friday and Saturday, our days out on the cat in the backcountry, it hadn’t snowed in a week and with warm days and cold nights, the snow was quite challenging! The slopes are very steep out there in the back country but I managed to get down everything without embarrassing myself—actually I thought I did pretty well. We had an incredible amount of fun with Rich, my brother, and a few other good friends. Just being in the backcountry on the Continental Divide is an adventure all its own—you can see forever and everything is totally wild and pristine. Only 12 skiers plus two guides go out on the cat every day—into terrain larger than the ski area itself, where thousands of people are skiing. The Monarch Snow Cat Tours are highly coveted as some of the best skiing in Colorado and the cat sells out for the whole year, pretty early in the season. So you just have to be damn lucky to hit a powder day (not really that lucky when it snows 450” a year). We only missed the fresh powder by two days! Next year  maybe we’ll be a little luckier.

Speaking of extreme, I promised to tell you about the Extreme Cowboy Race (ECR) that I judged in California last weekend. Produced by Craig Cameron, my friend and well-known clinician and TV star, this event was not for the TV show but just a regular ECR competition, sponsored by Equine Affaire. It was held in an arena and the obstacles were all man-made, consisting of things like jumping barrels, pole bending, log drag, galloping around the arena, going over huge dirt mounds, through the “shower curtain”, backing through the narrow “L” made of corral panels, etc.

There were 36 competitors; 18 competed Thursday night; the other 18 Friday night; then the top 10 made it back to the finals on Saturday. It was timed, so the riders were flying around the course, but horsemanship was judged too. Good horsemanship and speed don’t always go together. A lot of riders sacrificed horsemanship for speed, which was not a good ideas since your HS scores were worth a lot more than your time.

Both nights of the preliminary rounds were a total mixture of horses and riders. There were one or two outstanding rides each night, a few more decent rides and quite a few rides that left the judges cringing. Steve Edwards, mule skinner extraordinaire, and I were the judges. Craig did the play-by-play. After the first night, Steve and I felt that there were only a few riders worthy of moving on to the finals, but we didn’t have any say-so other than filling out the score cards. The second night was close to the same with a few more decent riders. But I have to say, the 10 riders that made it into the finals were pretty impressive.

The finals course was quite a bit more challenging. All the obstacles were more difficult, the clincher being that you had to ride the second part of the course bareback, including two big jumps, the free gallop around the arena and the pole bending (which was really more like a slalom course). I am not sure if I could’ve done it, but I am sure I wouldn’t want to!

There were two strong crowd favorites and even though they didn’t make it into the top three in the finals, everyone loved them! One was a 74 year old man on a beautiful Appaloosa stallion. He was an incredible rider and his horse was awesome. And when he rode right by the bareback jumps and waved at the crowd, the crowd went wild! You get a lot smarter as you age, and he was smart enough to know those jumps were too big to be going over bareback!

The other crowd favorite was a 58 year old woman who had just recently recovered from hip surgery. Again, she was a lovely rider and her horse performed quite well. You could see as she ran across the finish line leading her horse (part of the course) that she had a hitch in her getalong but when she told Craig she had recently had a hip replaced, the crowd was totally impressed.

The winner was Mr. Cam Schryver, Director of the Thacher School Horse Program, on an incredible QH stallion named Sticks. They were absolutely poetry in motion and completely unbeatable. You can see pictures of Cam and his gorgeous horse here http://www.thacher.org/podium/default.aspx?t=204&id=xKgqGs7tc4A%3d. Cam is a 60 year old professional, a beautiful rider (I think he may have marked some 10s in horsemanship) and the national ECR champion. His horse was a machine—beautiful and correct and fast. He posted the fastest times AND the highest horsemanship score.

It was really fun to judge this event and although it made for some very long days (after 11 hours of trade show and doing presentations), it was fun to be a part of it.

Until next time, ride hard but ride safe!

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

A Busy Week!

Greetings!

It’s good to be home after a week on the road! Sunny CA was a pleasant break from winter weather but I was cramming and jamming so much, I hardly had time to enjoy it! I was attending Equine Affaire in Pomona and stayed busy Thursday through Sunday doing presentations, visiting people in the booth and judging the Extreme Cowboy Race at night. I had some wild rides, talked with some real characters and watched (judged) some really extreme riders.

On Thursday, I had the very first presentation of the event—not the greatest time slot, but someone had to do it. They like to put their headliners first and last to get people in the doors early and keep them all day. But in spite of the early hour, I had a decent crowd for my clinic on The Natural Ride. Equine Affaire provides me the horses I need to ride in my clinics and in this case,  I had a really interesting mount for myself.

His name was Chance, an 8 y/o QH and champion reining horse (sounds good so far, right?) up until last summer when he was diagnosed (through a MRI) with crippling Navicular Disease. After the owners spent more than $6,000 on diagnostic procedures, the recommendation was to euthanize the horse immediately—nothing could be done for him. But instead of following the vet’s advise, the owners gave the horse to Steve Karshner, http://www.navicular-founder-rehab.com/, a farrier specializing in founder and navicular rehab through natural hoof care. Chance’s death sentence was handed down in July and by September, after intensive treatments from Steve, the horse was serviceably sound and this is the horse I rode.

Apparently Steve did his job a little too well because Chance was not only sound, but totally full of himself, threatening to buck me off several times during the presentation. Without question, a horse sore in his front feet will not buck because then all his weight is on his front feet, so I know Chance was not hurting. Actually, he made the presentation a little more entertaining than I had planned with his antics. Believe me, it was quite a challenge to keep going with my talk while struggling to keep control of this horse. Steve and I figured out later that the horse was probably having flash backs to being shown, since the environment was much like a show with the announcer, grandstands and clapping crowds. No doubt his previous show experience was traumatic since he was probably hurting badly in his front feet for much of that time. So it’s no wonder he was acting out a little. Fortunately Chance settled down and in fact did not buck me off.

After a while I figured out that he only pitched his fits when headed toward the gate and as long as I kept him away from that end of the arena we did okay. But even though the crowd really got a kick out of it (they apparently thought it was a LOT funnier than I did), it did impact what I could do in my presentation, so I relieved Chance of his duties and got assigned a great little cutting mare to ride for the rest of the weekend, thanks to Kelly Baker, http://cowbiz.com/.

Also on Thursday, I was asked to do a TV interview, which of course I was pleased to do. The camera guy and director set up in front of my booth, I was miked up and the news person was in position and we were rolling. “Hello, I’m Chatty Cathy with Channel XYZ, and here at Equine Affaire with me is the famous horse trainer, Julie McKnight.” Cut. Fortunately it was being taped and not a live feed. She said, “what’s wrong?” Now, we were standing right in front of my booth, which has 18” high letters saying my name; so I just turned around and pointed. It was pretty funny and the crowd that had gathered to watch got another good laugh at me that day. So for the rest of the weekend, everyone was calling me Julie McKnight, a famous McTrainer and  teacher of McHorsemanship. Who knows, maybe this will start a whole new trend….

The Extreme Cowboy Race, produced by my good friend Craig Cameron, was an interesting three nights of wild rides. There’s enough fodder there for a whole new post, so I’ll leave that story for tomorrow.

Until then,

Julie