May - Puddles New Tricks

I have been working on a lot of things with Puddles. The May clinic at the farm with Tommie was awesome. Now Puddles will bow on on leg and then two.....this was a while coming. His laydown is getting better and better. He is also sitting up nicely. The biggest new trick is he now will bow with me on him. It is really cool. We have started to teach him to sitt down from a standing position. This is a difficult trick to train, but he is doing great. I will keep you posted with his progress.

Lizzy

May - Tommie Turvey Clinic at Carousel Farm

Tommie came to Carousel Farm to do a clinic. The clinic was completely filled. Tommie showed everyone how to teach your horse to bow and laydown. We also set up an obstacle / sensory course. He taught a variety of other tricks as well....like smiling, saying yes and saying no. Everyone in attendance was awesome. Ron and Rosario brought a wonderful paint mare and mini. Jen and Jen brought some Chincoteague ponies. Chuck brought a big appaloosa. Judy Jenkins came just to get away. And there were others in and out over the weekend. I had a great time meeting everyone. Tommie worked really hard to help lay everyones horses down. everyone seemes to have a great time. Lizzy

May - Sensory Clinic

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The day after Night of Amazing Horses, we did a sensory clinic with Karen. When we travel to a shows, we never know what else will be going on .....strollers, loud music, smoke, balloons, umbrellas, anything goes. When I was performing in Chicago, our warm-up area was about 200 feet from a railroad track with frequent trains. Unfortunately, Toby was not very happy about the trains. On the opening night, the train came right before we had to go in the ring. I had a challenge riding that night. Toby was really excited, but we did well! At the sensory training, we try to expose the horses to everything we can think of......fire, blowers, tarps, bridges, flares. The hope is they will become acclimated to all of these things and not be scared when they have to perform. It was a great clinic. Thank You Karen! Lizzy

May - Night of Amazing Horses in Chicago

We had a wonderful show........Rich Bruner and TJ came in to do a shooting and sword performance. Anna debuted with a liberty act. Laurie did an act on her horse Tonto. Ben, Laurie and Anna did a fire act with juggling and bolos. And of course ......Tommie did all of his acts including the Roman Riding, Riding Instructor, Liberty and closing Roping Act. Toby was wonderful and layed down his act like a seasoned performer. Matt McGlauglin was supposed to make the trip, but was unable to come....so mom was asked to do a bridleless routine wth some jumps on her favorite horse "Jacquoe". She only had a day or two to work something out.....so she kept it simple and rode t0 "The Climb". She did pretty good ......even know she prefers doing props! Lizzy

May - Back Flip

One of the goals I have is to do a back flip off of one of my ponies. I now have a tramp at home to practice, but haven't tried one on the tramp yet. While in Chicago, they put a weight lifting belt around my waist with several ropes. I tried a few back flips off of the pedsestal.....but I need to work on it a lot more. If they had not been spotting me, I would have fall on my heads a time or two. I need to keep working on the "ole" back flip.....but we'll get eventually! Lizzy

May - Rosin Back Riding & Vualting

In May, we traveled to Chicago for a Night of Amazing Horses performance. We traveled early to do some training. One of the things we worked on was vualting and rosin back riding. We rode a big creamello draft horse named Sugar. Sugar was donated to the equine extremist organization by Chris Penrod. Creamello is a very rare color for horses. When we were riding, we wore a belt around our waist attasched to a cable. A spotter controlled the cable and caught you, if you fell. I had ridden Puddles standing up on a vualting pad, but Sugar is much bigger with a much bigger stride. It was really cool. Thank You Tommie & Thank You Chris Penrod (for providing such an awesome horse!)