The count down has started for the annual Light Hands Horsemanship Event held May 20-23 at Art Perry’s beautiful Interpid Farms in Santa Ynez, CA. This is a one of a kind event unique in presentation and concept.  If you want to learn more this is the event for you.  It is all there from entertainment to education and a whole lot more ! Join horsemen,  Dr. Robert Miller, Jack Brainard, Rick Lamb, Jon Ensign, Lester Buckley,  Eitan Beth-Halachmy and 2009 Road to the Horse champion Richard Winters for a memorable and exciting weekend. Visit www.lighthandshorsemanship.com and blog.lighthandshorsemanship.com for more information and latest updates.

Hi everyone

I was just wondering if anyone went to the Light Hands Clinic down at Art Perry’s home.

How it went and what you  thought of it.

I heard it was the best ever and about 200 people attend.

On May 16th and 17th, Ultra Morgans will host a clinic with trainers Tim and Shirley O’Gorman,Garn Walker and Steve Smith. The O’Gormans will work with saddle seat horses, Garn Walker will work with hunters and western horses and Steve will be working with the weanlings! Space will be limited. For those attending both days, Ultra Bed and Breakfast will be available. For more information contact 419-261-8341. Check www.ultramorgans.com after March 8 for additional information!

Eitan will be doing a clinic in PA July 25/26 of 2009. Please pass this on to anyone who may be interested. Happy Trials. – Debbie Beth-Halachmy

July 25/26, 2009
Cowboy Dressage Clinic
William Wise VMD and Pam Buterbaugh
Beaver Run Arena
3460 Rt 410 Punxsutawney Pa. 15767.
Contact Info : Pam Ph # 814-939-9178
E-mail williamewise@wildblue.net

Watch for March 09 Release of new DVD
“Poetry in Motion”
“Understanding the Horse from the Inside Out.”
Debbie and Eitan Beth-Halachmy
Cowboy Dressage at Wolf Creek Ranch
Home of Santa Fe Renegade
www.cowboydressage.com
www.lighthandshorsemanship.com

Comfy Cowgirl Camp is being offered by Carole Mercer and Nancy Hazelwood Savage. Spend three nights and three days having fun while you learn the fine art of long ling and riding.

Room for  six “cowgirls.” Total cost not including your transportation is $900.00

Go to www.carts-carriages.com and click onto Cowgirl Camp for complete information

The next Equine Affaire will be April 2-5, 2009 in Columbus, OH.  So far, the only Morgan event that I know of is that Chris Cassenti will be a clinician.  Chris was so well recieved at the Massachusetts event that the coordinators have asked her to participate in the Columbus Equine Affaire.  (I can’t believe I missed her in Springfield.  I won’t miss her this time!  I’m marking my calendar now.)  Chris is looking for horses and riders to participate in her clinics.  She will need at least 3 saddle seat riders who can do equitation patterns, and 3 up headed and fancy horses that can show a good demonstration of natural motion and the conformation needed to show English Pleasure.  Anyone who is interested should contact her by following the “Contact Us” link on her website, www.chrislar.com.  Who knows?  This could be the start of an annual Morgan presence at the Columbus event.

If there appears to be significant interest in having a larger Morgan presence at the Columbus Equine Affaire, I might be talked into trying to organize something similar to what was done in Springfield by Morgan owners in the New England area.  You can comment here if you are willing to spend some time and money to promote Morgans to the masses.

While on the subject of the Equine Affaire, I want to apologize for the lack of video that I had promised.  The technical difficulties just could not be overcome.  I also want to acknowledge that Nancy Caisse of Townshend Farm was the director of the Morgan breed demonstartion that was on the video.  She is the one who organized the participants and wrote the script.  She made sure that everyone got into and out of the ring in the correct order.  It really was impressive and I’m sorry that you can’t see it. 

One last note.  Marge “Shortie” Cutler of Townshend, MA (”sidekick” of Randy Jane Crosier) passed away in September.  Shortie has been a well-known face and supporter of the Morgan World for many years.  My condolences to Randy Jane and to Shortie’s family and friends.

Diane 

While at OKC this year I had the opportunity to meet Debbie Beth-Halachmy and learn of her and her husband, Eitan’s off season activities. Many of you may already have heard of their Cowboy Dressage program at their training facility, Wolf Creek Ranch in Grass Valley, CA. For those of you who haven’t, Cowboy Dressage is a riding discipline that combines Traditional Western Riding and with Classical Horsemanship. It is quickly becoming popular with Western riders.

During our conversation, Debbie told me of a very prestigious invitation that Eitan received and accepted from Olympic Equestrian Coach, Conrad Schumacher. I emailed Debbie after I returned home to learn more about this honor and she replied with this information:

Eitan and Santa Fe were invited to be part of a clinic/symposium with famed horseman and Olympic coach Conrad Schumacher. This is quite an honor for us and we are greatly looking forward to it. The point of having Eitan and SF there is to show that dressage is for the western discipline as well..it makes a better horse. We were asked to bring a second horse and rider and Julie Adams of Futurity Farms will be joining Eitan on BEEF Ivan who Eitan trained and is Eitan’s open horse this year. Julie showed him at OKC in the World Western Class and did an excellent job. She will be showing him next year but he will remain in training here. Ivan is quite advanced in dressage and we think he will be a very good Cowboy Dressage Horse in the near future. He has lots of talent for sure. You can go to www.conradschumacher.com and read about the event.

I think it is great to see how Morgans and their trainers branch out, showing the great versatility of the breed as well as finding new avenues for them to excel. Congratulations to Eitan and Debbie on this honor and their continued success!

Join us for Octoberfest on Sunday October 26th from 12-5pm!!  All are welcome and bring friends!  We are a short distance off the NYS Thruway coming from the west or east, located in Sauquoit NY. 

Open house, refreshments, pumpkin carving, snacks, tour the facilities and meet our equestrian friends of course!  For more info email Michele at horseluva90@hotmail.com 

Check us out at www.reindancestables.com

I have been waiting for permission to use the video clips that will accompany this piece, and getting everything at home ready for me to leave for the next horse show – the Gold Cup Regional.

After Dr. Miller’s presentation it was time for Jon Ensign to demonstrate starting a 2-year-old colt using natural horsemanship techniques. His objective was to take this Paint gelding that had not been imprinted at birth and had minimal handling since, and prepare him to be saddled and mounted. I was impressed by the fact that he did not guarantee that or even imply that he would be able to ride the colt by the time he was done. He said that he had no agenda and that it would all depend on the horse’s responses. (For me, the hardest part would be letting go of my agenda and goals.)

His tools were a rope halter and 12 ft. lead rope (no gloves,) big sunglasses (to make his eyes look bigger,) his hands, a 3 ft. stick with an attached plastic flag, a grain bag half full of hay, and a lariat. He held the rope loosely, often simply hung over his arm. The horse was allowed to move all around the round pen while Jon worked to desensitize him to the flag, followed by the bag of hay, the lariat around his girth and flank areas, and finally the saddle blanket and saddle.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/sGsIciKEmDw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /] 

Tightening and loosening of the lariat around the girth and flank had 2 purposes. First was to desensitize him to cinching a girth. The second objective was to teach him to move forward when touched on the flank. Jon never forced himself on the colt and frequently reassured and calmed him by stroking him while looking down at the ground. If the colt tried to move away or turn his attention away from Jon, he was brought back with brief, firm tugs on the lead rope.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/PZFt8me3jck" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

The bag of hay on a long rope was used to desensitize him to ropes around his legs, things dragging behind him, and things being thrown across his back. The colt was repeatedly exposed to stimuli and reassured for an hour and a half on both Saturday and Sunday.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/NTD0SQDGqKI" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /] 

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This is a continuation of my post on the Light Hands Horsemanship clinic that was posted on June 3.

Saturday morning started with cowboy coffee (including the grounds), biscuits and gravy, and breakfast burritos; all cooked over a campfire of Kingsford charcoal. The seminar started with a presentation by Dr. Robert Miller, DVM, talking about “Natural Horsemanship.” According to Dr. Miller, the natural horseman understands the behavioral psychology of the equine (including mules) and uses the instincts natural to Horses rather than the instincts natural to Man, to train horses. Understanding the horse’s psychology and instincts allows us to be light, rather than coercive, in our interactions with them. This does not refer only to light hands on the reins, although that is a part of it.

He demonstrated lightness with a video of Portuguese bull fighting, something that I had never heard of, although I have seen live bull fighting in Spain. Portuguese bull fighting is done from horseback and although I have never thought of myself as having a poetic nature, there is no other way to describe the movements of the horse and rider as they faced and avoided the bull. It was poetry in motion. This is something that I would love to see live as it is practiced in California where the bulls are not actually stabbed, killed, and dragged away as they are in Spain. In California, the bulls wear a cork saddle that receives the blows and the bulls are lead away after the fight.

During Dr. Miller’s talk, Monty Roberts, the man who listens to horses and is a neighbor of Art Perry’s, made an appearance. [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/yuF5jv3DMZg" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /] Later that day I was seated at the same table as Mr. Roberts for lunch, but was too shy to speak to him. I did however eavesdrop as he told a story about being recognized by the girl behind the counter of a burger joint in Finland, but is never recognized in the town where he currently resides.

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