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* TFC horses may be performing at the Mane Event, trying to consolidate this.
* 2007 Fiesta performance video link coming soon
Subject: TFC Newletter , Cinics, Trip to Oregon Coast-WILD BEACHES
Wow does time fly. Could have sworn we just finished the July week clinic, did exhbitions in Summerland, finished the Festival of the Andalusian in July, went to Del Rey Beach in Oregon, showed at the IPE, wrote a bunch of articles,taught some clinics, prepped some performance horses...........uuuuurks set up for the Mane Event coming up. Ok this is the condensed version but it sure make me feel like I need atleast one night of extra sleep just thinking about it. So now I will try to slow it down!
It started with a great week clinic where we got to do some serious fooling around with some absolutely great people. We tested what we knew in more depth in the roundpen,also really tried to grasp an understanding of how to control the bend and gain control over the release of that illusive poll. Of course while pursueing this we learned to play with space and how we can influence it. Then we got into all kinds of playing with levels and props. In the evenings I prepared two of our performance horses for a last minute exhibition to suppport the South Okanagan Riding Club fundraiser. Padrino was out with his cough so I had to see how I could do something with ljibbe and Rocket. This was a bit of an experiment to prepare for the Fiesta exhibitions. Of course doing this at the last second just made for longer days. It was fun preparing in the evening and riding with week clinic participants who played with their horses and helped them pursue some of the fun things they liked to do in a laid back atmosphere. The exhibition in Summerland was ok but the night wasn't long enough for the exhibitions they had planned.
We were then off to the first Canadian National Andalusian Show where most of the folks I saw had a wonderful time. I was pleasureable even though I didn't bring my dessert ride Padrino because of his ongoing cough from his spring time bout of influenza....talks too much (that is Padrino not me, right) actually he screams. So Ljibbe and Rocket had to pull up the slack in demos. Played a bit of soccer in a mini clinic, watched Acacia smile and ride a trillion classes......then the Fiesta. Even cajouled Acacia to helping out in a demo. I knew this all along I just didn't let her in on it so she couldn't flinch. The puppies were also entertaining in their first time out.Then we hung out with the nicest bunch of horse people you could get together with. Before we knew it was over and we were on our way back home.
Seemed like right after the Andaluisan show all we did was pack-up for the Oregon horse trip to Del Rey Beach. It was just a blurr getting roofing contracts in before we left, pack and run.....Or so it seemed. Paul thought he had done really well by putting everything into the truck the night before so we could get an early start. WRONG, left two things at the door, my briefcase and my bumbag. Looks like I managed to see the brief case but not the wallet in my bumbag. Left at 5:30 am thinking, wow nice early start we will make Astoria at a reasonable hour. Not to be. Paul shows up at the US border to find no I.D....this sleeping smarty pants is now an illegal alien. They gave me lots of the red tape then called the Canadian border saying they were sending a guy back without I.D. and they sarcastically wished me luck saying if I thought this was fun just wait till I try to get back into Canada now. Needless to say they were right. The welcoming party was not very sympathetic and was enjoying giving me a hard time......till finally one of the offiicers in the background came running up from behind laughing saying I had just won the lottery. She then explained to the others that I was who I was saying I was because she had seen me perform my exhibitions at the Fiesta the week before in Chilliwack. She then asked if I had the horses with ...YES..well then they got the red carpet and Paul got to go back and get his I.D.. Got my I.D. partway back thanks to Mary one of our barn gals who ran it to me half-way, and we tried this again.
Finally we crossed the US border at 1:30pm rather than 9:00am. We thought the worst was done. Not so, when we stopped near Seattle only to find out we were missing Tache my Aussie. Her collar was hanging tied to the tether on the top of my tailgait. Our hearts dropped to the pits of our stomach. It was pretty quiet after that for the rest of that day and night. Figured she had bailed somewhere near Omak or Wenatchee. Didn't appear to be enough length in the tie for her to do this but she must have launched her body, then getting turned around by the tie and slid out of her collar. Hopefully she did this in Omak when I took the milk-run through town rather than around the perimeter with several stops and starts.
When we reached Astoria at 11:00pm we were welcomed by Karen one of the folks on my email list. She was very kind despite her own hardships at the time (just lost her mother-in-law that week) . She chatted with us for a bit and set-up our horses in a great paddock. The boys were thrilled to be out in space and a chance to graze. We then left to go find a motel...NOT! There wasn't a room to be found nevermind trying at 1:00am. By this time we were so tired we found a quiet street and crashed in our truck. We must have been tired as we actually slept till past 9:00 am. I woke up because sleeping with my Dane in the back of my truck was not the best idea. Ever sleep with a Dane? They think they're people. Taquine had stollen my sleeping bag and half my mattress and my face was pushed into the fender well by her streching her legs out.
After a good breakfast life was better again. Picked up the horses after another chat with Karen and off to the beach we went. As we drove onto the beach most of it looked like it did almost 8 years ago. More grass on the dunes but still a great longgggggg beach. We unloaded the horses after parking on the beach and rode and rode and rode some more. It was so much fun. Blasting down the beaches, into the shallows, then into the surf (body surfed on horseback), and we cantered under the para-gliders. We jumped and climbed big driftwood trees, we played in the dunes, hit a few coastal trails, and then beach and more beach.Barbecueing on the shore and then sleeping in the horse trailer on the beach. Of course Acacia kept waking me up asking me if I was sure we were far enough from the tide. I just told her the only thing we had to worry about was a Monsoon or Sunami -this comment was always met with sarcastic thanks for the reassurance.
We would sleep-in watching the beach in the am. then have some breakfast. Well actually we would wake up to the boys clanking their empty alfalpha cue buckets wondering when we might be able to fill them again (next time padded pails for sure), or Rocket standing at the back of the trailer looking at us like " Are you up yet?" When it warmed-up we would ride and ride some more. Of course we would come back for a barbecued supper, then the great evenings coaxed us to go ride one more time. Both Acacia and I did some exciting photo shoots with our horses on the beach, it was so peaceful. Although we nearly literrally caused a few people to drive into the ocean with their vehicles as they were driving along the beach and would see us playing around doing all kinds of silly antics that TFC people and horses do. The horses had also settled in, sleeping in the sand tethered to the trailer, eating every chance they had as we might just go for another ride. This was so exciting think we could have easily done this a few more days... Guess what? We are going back to Del Rey Beach again early August 2008 and more people will join us....INTERESTED?? After looking at our slide show of the beach shots (which will be up on the site if I can manage it) I decided I had to go back. That kind of unobstructed beach will not be around forever.
As we drove back we made a few more contacts on the way hoping to put out some feelers for Tache in case someone had found her. We also met some great people at a GM dealership in Wenatchee when my oil line came loose squirting oil all over the truck, trailer and highway. Again we had some people go a bit more out of the way to help (lucked out more horse people). The trip back was much quicker and less eventful but never without some sort of excitement.
We were almost in a stuper on our arriva, but one phone call from the barn gals and the mention of the IPE show and they were off again. Acacia, Ally, Mary, and their horses were very busy preparing to go show in a multitude of classes. This was going to be their first real try at some Western classes. They had their doubts of how Rocket the Azteca and two Thoroughbred mares with attitude would do. Well surprise surprise they all did quite well for their inaugural western rides. They even gave Reining a shot. Of course anyone ever having seen Rocket do the exhibitions with the Garrocha already knows this is up his alley just a difference of degrees in collection. I am sure these three laughed till their sides hurt all week. Now these gals were pretty cool in the big costume class. Acacia won first with Rocket dressed as a spider and she as spiderman. Ally won second with her as a scuba person riding her mare dressed as a shark. Suprisingly the other horses did pretty good around them as they were definitely very eye catching. Now both of the girls never cantered their horses as this may have caused several of the other contestants to leave rather quickly. This time around the IPE had more wonderful Iberian owners to also hang around with. Then before you knew it time to pack up and go home once again.
Acacia had originally decided to sell Rocket after the Andalusian show in July, then was having more second thoughts after the Del Rey Beach ride. Coming back from the IPE she asked me if I could pull him off the sales list as she couldn't sell him as she couldn't imagine being without a horse like him that she could do anything with. She explained that everytime she thinks she has done just about everything she could want to do with him she finds something else he does well at. This doesn't come as a surprise to me. I just keep reminding her she is just seeing the tip of the iceberg. So often people want to change their horses instead of maybe evolving with their approaches and attitudes.
Right about now I felt it was time for a bit of an equine slow down. NOT to BE. Clinics scheduled, articles to be written and then a last minute decision to do some Exhibitions at the MANE EVENT in Chilliwack in October. So it looks like we worked out some decent times for exhibitions, therefore I will be coming down with 4 TFC performance horses as well as helping man the PAALH booth there. This time around Acacia will be doing a more formal exhibition along with me. She will try her hand at the Garrocha/Liberty/wo tack and we may even be having one of the first Duelling Garrocha demos. Acacia will ride Rocket and I Padrino who although young and green fakes things very well. ljibbe will do some tandem long rein, some classical and try to follow whatever Padrino does in the liberty section as well as a few stunts. Padrino will see what he can do, and it probably won't be boring. Although a brat he has an undeniable nack for doing movements with virtuosity. With a bit of luck he hopefully won't aggrevate his respiratory track still on the mend. Then lastly I will have my Blonde Witch Hurrican who will show all of the various gaited possibillities of a Paso and some, all of this with ATTITUDE of course.
This trully has been a real busy time trying to set up clinics in Langley, Kelowna, Sherwood Park, Arlington, Nanaimo, Olds.... and a few other places writing more articles (anyone not having access to the Saddle-Up and NW Horse Source magazine articles, contact me and I will put you in touch with them) that needed to be written and shared. Then train performance horses into the dark. Oh yeah did I also say completing some roofing contracts. It has almost been a working blurr. Last week I had to step back as I reminded myself of that old WORK ETHIC creeping into my training. I gave myself a good bonk on the head with my red plastic bat (ok 2 or 3)and went back to playing with my horses in a more constructive manner. Think I had started practicing killing the fun in what we were trying to improve on. Anyways the big bat fixed me good! This week I had the best ride ever with Hurrican and also Padrino. Ljibbe showed me more zeal in his Passage when I reminded myself he is a Friesian and not an Andalusian, he is what he is, play with it!!~!!~ I actually think we are on track to have a good time at the Mane Event doing our one hour gig on Friday noon and then a bunch of breed exhibitions throughout the weekend, as well as 2-5 minute performances on Saturday night evening Exhibitions. It will be once again a busy time....atleast doing what I like to do with some great company! Hope you folks will come and join us there and say hi. There will be a pile of horse people having a good time.
Paul Dufresne
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Hi Everyone!
