In the Ranch Horse Training Competion the trainers came to the arena on February 19th, 2010 and drew for pick position. They picked out their horses from approximately 12 different types of horse that were brought into the competition by several different owners. They ranged in age from 2 to 5 years old and none of them had been started except for being halter broke.
On the day of the competition the trainers were asked to do the following:
1. Bring the horse to the center of the arena and turn loose. Walk away approximately 50 feet and return to catch the horse. Lead the horse up before the judges and brush, pick up feet and run clippers on them. They were also judged for condition. They then had to saddle their horse and ride out the end of the arena. (None of the horses were allowed to be saddled earlier that morning so all were fresh....This was done to see if any of them were cold backed, etc.)
There was then a 15 minute warmup period.
2. Each trainer was asked to bring their horses in and perform a simple reining pattern. It included a figure 8 at a trot, two full circles in each direction with a lead change. Three turns, runs, stops and a back up.
3. The third part of the competion was sorting. Each trainer had to ride their horse into a group of corriente steers, cut one from the herd and track them around for a total of two minutes.
4. The fourth part of the competition was branding. Each trainer rode into the herd of corriente steers, roped a steer and drug him for several feet. They were allowed to show how their horse worked steers on the rope buy holding them, letting the steer out and again dallying and dragging, etc.
5. The last part of the competiton was an open class. Each trainer was allowed to show what their horse was capable of and how well broke they were. We saw bull whips, guns, roping, pole patterns, leaf blowers, slickers and horses being led by a front foot and asked to back up with a rope on a hind foot. This class absolutely amazed our audience. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!
Because of the SUCCESS of this event...we will hold another one next Spring. We are going to try to schedule one this Fall with trainers competing for three days total in several round pens in the arena. If you are interested in participating in this three day event, please call us at the arena....all ages and all sexes are welcome!!!
