2010 Can-Am Equine Emporium

We went on Sunday, the last day.

This means that all the vendors were tired, and just wanted to go home.  So, the trade-show part took about 1/2 an hour to walk through.  Fastest time ever, for me.

But, Sunday also meant that it was the Wind Rider Challenge Finals. which I wanted to see.  So.

I’ll start at the beginning.

You’ll have to excuse the photo quality… My camera HATES indoor pictures, and the flash only works when it feels like it.

We made it in time to see the Equine Chiropractor do his demonstration, and his little spiel.

Very cool.  He showed how to assess your horse, and how to do stretches, which, of course, I already knew.

Then we met this guy, a Gypsy Vanner.

Isn’t he cute?  A lot of horse people mock the Gypsy,

but this guy has decent conformation.  I thought he was cute. 

He’s from Waterloo.

Then we saw these gals, they’re from Chatham.

The Canadian Cowgirls!!

Here they are, waiting to come in…..

 

And here they go!!

They do all sorts of cool drills, like the Musical Ride. 

Not many of my pictures turned out.

Their last trick was neat,  this weaving of the banners thing.

Yay!  They were a little too chipper, ya know?  Like cheerleaders. 

But, I enjoyed them.

And next up was the Wind Rider Challenge Finals!!!

The Wind Rider Challenge does not focus on any one breed or particular discipline, but is open to all horses and their riders.  And that’s what makes it cool.  It’s all about the relationship a rider has with her horse..

Here are the Finalists:

This is Megan and Ben.  Ben is a Shire Thoroughbred cross. 

He was massive.  Megan is involved in Natural Horsemanship.

This girl we saw in Clinton.  Do you Remember her, Linda?  She’s on a Quarterhorse, I’m pretty sure.  Her back-ground is Hunter/Jumper.

 

And then we have this teeny little guy, a Paso Fino Stallion.

He was a hot stepper.

That song kept going around in my head the whole time I was watching him.  She totally should have used that song for her free style.

Isn’t he cute?

 

On to the challenge!!

The first task was to canter down half the length of the arena, and then stop your horse inside this little square.  Pax could do this. 

Then you had to back your horse about 30 feet,

and then do three complete turns on the haunches, so basically, the horse’s front end travels around his back end.

Then you had to side-pass or leg-yield to the right, then to the left.

Then do a rollback, which is the horse spins 180 degrees on his back legs,

go straight into a left lead canter, and canter around the arena, take the 2’ jumps, like so,

 

And stop your horse right after that, here at the pole.

After all that excitement, your horse then had to stand real quiet while you put a coat on and off.

Then there was this.  This was impressive.

They had to sidepass around this whole square.

This little guy danced his way around.

 

And big Ben stepped oh so carefully.

 

All the way around.

The last task to complete was to take this flag and do a barrel dash, so basically run the length of the arena, around a barrel, and back the other way.  When you got past that little orange cone, your time stopped.

The Hot Stepper had the best time, he danced every where.  So he got an extra point.

 

After all three competitors completed the tasks, it was time for the musical freestyle part.

She did hers to Michael Jacksons “Thriller.”  Notice her horse has one white wrap?  Like Michaels glitter glove?

She did the task part really well, but her freestyle was boring.  Even if she was wearing a Michael mask.

The little Hot Stepper’s freestyle was kinda boring, with bits of brilliance.

His feet were a blur!!!

Her freestyle rocked the house.

Notice no bridle?

 

Check it, she walked him up to these barrels, stopped him, and then he lifted up his front end from standing and straddled these, without going all the way over.  Cool.

She did a bunch of cool freestyle work with him too.

It was just cool.  Really neat.

Then it was time to announce the winner, who will go on and compete for Canada in the States, at the Mid-West Horse Expo.

 

It was The Hot Stepper.

One comment I heard, “So it’s like figure skating.”

Yeah, I figured Ben had a lock, as Hot Stepper made a few mistakes in the task part, and refused a jump and so on.

Ah well, done is done.  But it was disappointing.

Even with the disappointing finish, it was a fun day.

I would like to thank all those that made it possible.

Thank-you and Goodnight!