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All about horses in northern B.C. Issue # 124: May 7, 2002 Published each Tuesday by Kristi McCrindle, editor, Southbank, BC Wow, what a weekend! I left after work on Wednesday (I do love having a flexible job where I can get someone in to cover for me on my horsey escapades!) and then left Vanderhoof at 5 am in order to make the Ritchie Bros auction by 7 am. I managed to meet up with a farmer, load the trailer mostly full of hay, buy a truck and arrange for someone to take it home to Southbank, and get back to Vanderhoof in time to ride my mare in the reining clinic. Whew! Busy day! After my ride, Valerie Dettwiler (Nechako Equine Reproductive Services) stopped by to see where Tori was in her heat cycle. I thought she was due to come in to heat late in the week but it turned out she came in on Tuesday. That meant the ideal breeding day was Saturday, so Valerie checked her out and then ordered the semen shipment. All in all, a very productive day! Friday was a little quieter - in fact, I made arrangements for someone to feed Tori and slept in, a much needed rest! I rode again at 4 pm and was excited to try some new training ideas on Tori's spins. She has a tendency to step forward out of her spins because she moves her inside front leg too far forward (instead of back underneath herself) so we worked on that for a while. She seems to be getting the idea and I will work on this from now until the next clinic in June. Saturday was starting to get really cold (we woke up to 3 inches of fresh SNOW on the ground!!) but we managed our early morning ride time and by 2 pm, J.P. was done teaching and he headed for home in Alberta. I hope the roads were good for him - that's a long drive in winter conditions! We also inseminated my mare on Saturday after my lesson, so here's crossed fingers hoping she is now in foal! photo courtesy Chris Hassell Sunday was a very relaxed day as I got up a little later and meandered down to the barn to ride before lunch. After a good ride, I packed everything up, loaded the truck and trailer, put Tori in (squashed in beside the hay - she wasn't so happy about that!), and away we went on a very relaxed drive home. Luckily, by waiting that late in the day, the fresh Sunday morning snow had also melted and the roads were dry. Overall, I had a super weekend - it was great to get out there and see a bunch of the regular reining group, as well as to have some guidance on my horse's training. Those are two of the best parts of the first event of the year - meeting up with everyone after a long northern winter layoff, and getting more help! Being back at home I have to start conditioning Raime again, and I am so excited about rising Tori again! Till next week, happy ridin' and slidin'! ~ Kristi :) email to editor: kristi@hiway16.com Photo Show for horse photos Horse articles (word search: horse) Foal Announcements are back ! Add your announcement or check what's new New - we now accept both offers and requests for rides Check our Horse Trailer Sharing Page or... add your listing if you wish to share your horse trailer ride Join us for a discussion about everything to do with horses on Horse Talk Your opportunity to meet horse enthusiasts across northern B.C

	Past articles are all available in the
Foaling Season		Colour genetics 101
Foaling season is upon us now! Don't forget to send your baby pictures in to jim@hiway16.com for inclusion on the Photo Page (photos can also be mailed in if you don't have access to a scanner, please email Jim for details). We also have a Foal Announcement page for those of you who are lucky enough to be having foals this spring! (I'm so envious, I can hardly wait until next year!!) Randy Ophus had a new filly born on Thursday morning and with the cold weather, he moved the filly and her mom down to the barn, where everyone could admire her. This filly is a buckskin tobiano sired by Mr Leo Express, Randy's reining horse. A client of his also had a buckskin tobiano on Thursday morning, but this one is a colt. Randy is seeing lots of buckskins these days! Nathan and Elly Foote have two babies on the ground and one more to come from their Trakehner stallion, Hylee Recommended. These babies are so much fun - they are in the barn at night and out in the field during the day, and all that extra handling seems to gentle them down quickly. These are really nice colts out of the Hunter and Dressage mare Esprit Gris (some of you may remember Raya showing this mare in Smithers and Prince George) and out of Lady, a Thoroughbred mare who used to be owned by Calvin and Brenda Read. Dawn Park is still waiting for Ellie Doc to foal - the Quarter Horse mare is in foal to Bibs Dallaire's Roman Ceazar Czort for a mid-May foal. After a uterine torsion a couple of months ago, we are hoping that everything goes well for Dawn and Ellie. Dawn's daughter Kelly got a new horse when she purchased the bay tobiano mare "Spinner" from Randy Ophus. Kelly plans to use Spinner in reining, penning and gymkhana events - and probably a whole lot more, knowing how dedicated Kelly is! Roxy Bullock has three babies on the ground from Rustlers Image (deceased April 1, 2002). There's a black filly from Cass, her Rock Star mare, a bay colt from her reining mare Tawnie (Tanitas Easy Dun), and a black and white filly (cute as a button I have to add!) from her Two Eyed Jackson daughter Jezebel Jackson. Western, English, Penning or Trail riding, all equine sports have a voice on Northern B.C. Horse	Well, I didn't go to the schooling show in Prince George on May 5th, so if any of you reiners out there want to make a report, that would be great! I did spend the weekend in Vanderhoof at the reining clinic, and really enjoyed myself. Unfortunately we were rudely dropped back into winter - cold winds, lots of snow, and just generally miserable outside - but in the indoor arena and barn, things were pretty sunny. Only eleven people attended this clinic - with the late spring many people haven't ridden their horses enough to consider taking a clinic. There was lots of time spent on a new help for spin problems, and as usual, lots of time spent loping circles and working on fencing (for better stops). The group of people that ride at Riverside Stables is a good bunch - lots of friendly and helpful horse owners and riders - and during this clinic was no exception. When J.P. Forget had one rider doing some particularly tricky stuff on a balky horse, everyone watching was holding their breath until the rider had her horse back under control - and they all cheered for her to let her know she had done a good job. That type of support can really encourage a rider to stick with things even through the tough times. The next J.P. Forget reining clinic in Vanderhoof will be held June 21-23. To sign up for this clinic, please call Randy at 250-567-4269. J.P. will teach horsemanship, western pleasure and barrel racing as well, although his focus is on reining. It should be a lot of fun once again! If you have current events to share with the other readers at Northern BC Horse, please email kristi@hiway16.com with the details.	The colour genetics column is sitting in a stall right now due to the Appaloosa genes. I have contacted five different people for their help with this colourful spotted pattern, and so far nobody has come through. The fellow that I most recently talked to seems possibly interested in writing the column himself and if he will, I will certainly let him - I know very little about the Appaloosa! In the meantime, I will start looking around for other topics to write about - if you have questions, please send them my way - kristi@hiway16.com please put 'NBCH topic' in the subject line). If you are new to Northern B.C. Horse, check out all the previous issues on the Archive page. Kristi is building a great knowledge base about horses, with the emphasis on our area of the world. Northern B.C. Horse is brought to you courtesy of our advertisers including: Burns Lake Building Supplies Griffin Crick Ranch Hoskins Ford Northern Horse Supply Ridennoure Paint Horses The Tack Store Thanks to our advertisers for making this all possible... ...for information about advertising, email jim@hiway16.com
	If you have tips or questions you'd like to share with other local equestrians, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com

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