The Arizona Sun Circuit is in the books. Beverly Sparrowk, Debby Sanguinetti, you are the best travel buddies and roommates ever. Congrats, Kathy Torres, for winning the all-breed versatility all-around saddle. It was a whirlwind trip, but worth it all.
Since I left Chase at home, I was able to focus on this youngster, Cee My Foolish Tangy, at the Arizona Sun Circuit. I was certainly happy with his performance in this large, competitive versatility. There were something like 20 open horses in the all-around. Using the combined scores of the two judges, Carlos was 16th in trail (lots of little penalties, but nothing we can’t polish up), 5th in reining, 4th in cow horse (down the fence in the bridle, caught first loop), 3rd in cutting, and 2nd in ranch riding (loved all the compliments on what a cool mover he is). He learned lots about the whole show scene, eventually settling in and being really solid. Thanks to these folks who made my trip with him be such a success: Debby Sanguinetti, Bee Garcia, Beverly Sparrowk, Kathy Torres, Heather Bryant, Erin Corey. And it was good to see you, Isaac Carrel.
Great day working with John Bishop. We love our Wednesdays. Thanks, John, for taking us on this winter and brushing up our herd work skills. With Kim Donlon, Meghan Graddy Carr, Janet McGarvey, Dawn Poston. Others who have attended so far this winter: Peter Smoot, Kim Smoot, Kelly Norwood Saunders, Jennifer Willa, Gerry Montgomery (or her horse, Lisa). John has a way of sizing up each horse/rider combination and zeroing in on what that team’s focus should be.
We had a good clinic at Trail and Saddle Club with Mr. Eric Thomas. He is a great teacher of fundamentals, working mostly on our reined work here at the club. Eric is clear, articulate, experienced, personable, and entertaining. I am grateful to Susan Neubert for setting up the clinic, and pleased with all the riders from Clifford Horse Training who attended: Erin Corey, Janet McGarvey, Larry Bacon, Pat Grant, Randy Goodchild, Jennifer Harden, Susan Neubert, and myself.
More pictures of Simon and his happy new owner, Olivia. The photo of Olivia Bethe is from last summer when she rocked it at Fandango on her other nice horse, Silver.
Congratulations to the Bethe family, and 14-year-old Olivia in particular, for their purchase of “Simon Says Whoa.” This lovely 11-year-old gelding comes from Paso Robles, where he was raised and owned by Sondra Eade. Thanks to Tina Fry-Robinson of Robinson Performance Horses, and her driver 😉, Tucker Robinson, for great training and making this cool horse, already a proven winner in cow horse and ranch classes, available for us to acquire. The future is bright. Love this video that Olivia made. She is so excited!
I was so honored, upon my return from Red Bluff today, to pull this from my mail box. This is the February edition of Quarter Horse Journal. Thank you, Andrea Caudill, for doing an amazing job of capturing this once in a lifetime horse. I owe him so much.
Winter doesn’t slow us down much. Thanks to Frank Saunders for repairing the water box (modeled here by Kim and Dixie).
And thanks to Suzanne Dorrance for repairing the manure bucket cart. We’re on a “roll.”
It’s been great having Pat Grant and Randy Goodchild’s fine foxtrotters for the past few months. And, as you can see, they’ve added to their family with this great lab pup, JD. Although their horses are going home to Marina, count on seeing them around lots in 2020.
Clifford Horse Training 