Minnow goes to Camp
KD pictured on the right riding Niatross during a drill team exhibition at the Ludwigs Corner Horse Show
Recently I fell back in contact with my long-time childhood riding coach – an FEI rider specializing in Dressage Training. As a youth I attended camps and lessons at her local farm – where I had help training 2 of my horses, Oopsie Daisy and Niatross. Oopsie was my very first Dressage mount who always seemed to be in the ribbons with his cute fluid gaits until I moved up to my much larger mount, 16.3 hand Nitro. Nitro was a difficult ride, but with the help of my instructor I was able to school him up to 2nd Level. With a local team we pulled together we even competed in the Region I USDF Championships in 2000 and 2001 – earning Reserve Champion Overall. We did extensive drill team work as well, and we were one of the first groups in the area to be involved with drill team demonstrations. Pictured above is a photograph from a drill team exhibition we did at the Ludwigs Corner Horse Show several years back. I had to manage riding my handful of a horse, Nitro, while wearing a full daffy duck outfit – complete with giant duck butt – I’m not really sure how I managed to stay on…let alone do a sitting trot.
I ran into my old instructor at the Devon Horse Show this year – where she mentioned she had heard of my trick ponies and was interested in bringing a group of her campers to see them. We have since organized two dates where the campers will come to watch the ponies perform, and then afterward Minnow will paint each of them a t-shirt. I plan to go over a little bit about clicker training as well – I always jump at the oppertunity to teach new people about this amazing training method. It should be a fun time, and I know the ponies will love it – they love to perform, Minnow always becomes such a ham infront of crowds.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
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