Celebrities

This dynamic duo is getting famous! I featured them twice this summer, and this morning they made it into the Kennebec Journal Morning Sentinel. Wow!!

Dixie Dancing

Dixie was one of the horses decked out in pink this weekend. All the way down to her toes! What a fancy pedicure - it sure looked pretty when she was running after the cows.

HOT pink!

As my friend said, "It's a good thing that he's a stallion, or else he might not have enough testosterone to handle all that pink!" As it is, I would say that Zip Me Anytime is definitely 'tough enough to wear pink' and make it look good...

Another Pink Day

Well, I hope you still love the color pink, 'cause I can tell you right now that you're gonna see a whole lot more of it! Yesterday our club held a ranch sorting event at the Bangor State Fair. Again, the riders were all encouraged to wear pink in honor of breast cancer awareness. Anyone who was sporting the color had their name put into a drawing for this pretty pink saddle pad. The rider that has been organizing these fundraising events presented a check for $1600 to a representative of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. We were so proud!!

Bring on the WATER!!

After a hot day of competition, this boy was ready for a shower! We got such a kick out of watching him play!!

Flag Ceremony

The 2 cowboys that presented the flags decided that they were 'tough enough to wear pink'. It was great too see most of our riders showing their support by wearing pink! I know that most men generally refuse to wear the color, so we appreciated their efforts.

Did you recognize Patch? He's always so proud to carry the flag! This year we dedicated our Program Book to this dynamic duo because of all that they have done for the sport of team penning in Maine. Here is a passage from the book:

He has always penned on Patches Moon. In 1992 he bought Patches, a 10-year-old former school horse, for his wife. Patches had been ridden English, Western, done dressage and been used as a jumper. They had also bought another Appaloosa gelding named Big Rig. Both horses were well-trained, but well-behaved was another matter. Big Rig was calm and sedate, while Patches had a hard time keeping his front hooves on the ground. A perfect match was found, but not between he and Big Rig, but between he and Patches. They have been together as a team ever since! “Team Penning is not just you and 2 other riders working as a team, but also you and your horse working as a team. The better you are as a horse and rider team, the better your results will be as a team penning team.”

In 1997, they started team penning - full speed ahead. They have excelled in team penning competition. But their attitude now is slightly different than it was 12 years ago. Their advice to new team penners is, "If your attitude is to win at all costs, you will always be disappointed in some rides. If your attitude is to have fun, you will never be disappointed". Patches Moon is now 27 years ‘young’ and still going strong. We have all witnessed Patches take off when the flag goes down, whether Bruce is ready or not! All Patches needs to learn is what number is called to give Bruce the ride of his life.

Big Belt Buckles

Here are the winners of the buckle run! This team is an example of a professional teaming up with a novice and making it work! The guy wearing the ball cap is a horse-trainer and the other cowboy has only been penning/sorting for a couple of years. The woman on the right, is a breast cancer survivor. She & her husband, the cowboy on the left, donated the buckles.

Ranch Sorting Buckle Run

This was the biggest part of our fund-raising weekend. 30 riders each paid $30 for 3 chances to win a fancy belt buckle. Our cattle provider donated the use of the cattle for this class, so all of the proceeds went to the charity! I've posted a couple of photos of 2-man ranch sorting before, but I wanted you to be able to see the whole scene. So, I took a deep breath, climbed up to the judge's stand and stood on the very edge, with only a 2X4 keeping me from falling a long way down. (The things I'll do for a photo!)

Anyway, here you can see the 'figure-8' that we set up with metal fence panels. The gate at the bottom is where the riders go in; the cattle come in from the other side. They are bunched into the further pen and the riders have to sort them out numerically into the closest pen, without letting out the 2 blank cows. They take turns riding into the herd and guarding the gate. The judges are on either side of the gate, clicking a stop watch as each cow runs out. The team that won sorted out all 10 cows in 66.66 seconds!! It was amazing to watch and I'll upload the video as soon as I can.

Normally, riders sign up for their rides with friends. To add to the drama, we made this class a draw class, meaning their names were all put into a bucket and drawn randomly to make up the teams. (That was my job yesterday!) Some people ended up riding with a stranger, some with a person they didn't really like, and some beginners got paired up with professionals. It made for some very interesting teamwork, because believe me, they ALL wanted those buckles. The really fun part is seeing riders pushing their limits, forgetting their nerves and riding harder and faster than they knew that they could, trying to WIN!

Tomorrow you'll meet the winners, and our very own survivor.....

Pink Ribbon

This weekend CMTPA is holding a fundraising event for the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer awareness. Even the cowboys and horses are wearing pink!! Today's buckle run raised over $1400! (More on that later!) Keep checking back for more pics....right now I'm going to sleep....it was a long, hot day.

The Old Man

I would like you to meet Patches, an Appaloosa gelding. At 27 years young, he is the oldest team penning horse in our club. In his younger days he was a champion showhorse. Regardless of what event he has competed in, he has earned many trophies and ribbons. He and his owner now spend their days teaching rookies how to team pen and they are getting a lot of new riders really excited about the sport. It is great to see such an old horse still going strong!!

Home Away From Home

I took over metal fence panels last week to make a semi-permanent stall for Kitch. He's happy because I connected them to the panels of a couple of my girlfriends', so he has other horses for company. That's Handy behind him, Opal diagonal to him, and Smoke beside him. My father made him that wonderful nameplate! Isn't it great? Although, I am concerned that people will start showing up with plates...

Who's next?

This cow is waiting patiently for the team to cut out the next cow to join him down at this end of the arena. The cowgirl on the left is riding into the herd after the correct cow, while the cowboys fan out the rest of the herd by walking their horses sideways across the arena. Once the majority of the cattle have been moved away, she will be able to safely (without any extra cows) cut out another #6 for them to pen, hopefully before they run out of time.

There goes his hat!

CMTPA held its first team penning/ranch sorting event of the season this weekend. What a great time! I got some awesome pictures, which was exciting. Kitch & I competed and came in 3rd in the Novice Penning class. As I was sorting through all the photos, I was trying to pick the best for the blog. I came to this one, and while it's not the best, it made me laugh, so I decided to use it. I hope it makes you chuckle this Monday morning too....

Ummmm...I think I took a wrong turn...

Have you ever walked into a room and just didn't feel like you belonged? And everyone turned to stare at you? I think that's how this cow must have felt...

Cow Pony

You've heard the phrase "Attitude is everything", right? Well, this little pony personifies it! She's smaller than most of our cows and yet she's amazing at Ranch Sorting. She's not the least bit worried about heading into the herd (Unlike some of our big horses!) and the cows always do exactly what she tells them to do. Her little legs move so quickly that they are blurry and it's awesome to watch her work the cows.

The woman on the right hand side of this photo is the judge. She is positioned right over the gate that each cow has to be driven out of, in order. As each cow exits the pen, she clicks the lap timer on her stopwatch. The team that gets the most cows out, in the shortest amount of time is the winning team. If however, a cow that is not in chronological order should slip out of the gate, she is right where she can see it, and she will raise her orange flag and disqualify that team.

Weekend Cowgirl

The nice thing about team penning is that you can forget your normal life for a few days and pretend to be a cowboy/girl. My friend seemed so contemplative here though, that I wondered what she was thinking about. As soon as she saw me, she lamented that she hadn't been smiling for the photo. I told her it made for a nice image and I refused to take another one. What do you think?

Back off, Brother!

Yikes! This is when 2-Man Ranch Sorting gets really nerve-wracking! Right behind the cowboy on the right is a 12 foot gate that he is guarding, trying to prevent the herd from running through it. The cowboy on the other side of the pen is supposed to only be driving the one cow with the correct number on its collar out that gate. However, he has just given his brother the really tough job of stopping several cows. I couldn't stand the suspense, so I looked ahead and not only did he stop those cows, but the one on the right was the correct cow and in the next picture he was heading out the gate, while the others turned back to the other side of the pen. Whew!!

Charlotte

Teeny, tiny Charlotte is practically our team penning mascot. She is always at our events because her whole family helps out while her 'mother' rides. She is just the sweetest little thing, everyone is always threatening to put her in their pocket and take her home with them - I know that I would in a heartbeat, if I didn't think it would break her little heart. I've never seen a dog that was so devoted to its owner! She roams all over the grounds, keeping an eye on things, but if her mama whistles, she's off like a shot, running to find her. I took the cutest picture of her last year, sitting tall in the saddle...

Cattle Handler

This gentleman is one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet. He is one of the cattlemen that helps manage the herds during our penning events. Doesn't he look like he's having fun?!

Homecoming Queen/Penning Princess

Sorry about the lack of posts over the weekend - I was at a team penning event and forgot the USB cable to my camera, so I had no way to upload images and get them posted to my blog, even though I did have a computer & Internet connection. Today you get a bonus - 3 posts!

You've seen the cowgirl on the right here and here, but this week, our 'Penning Princess' was crowned 'Homecoming Queen' of her high school! We are all so thrilled for her, although we missed her Saturday night when she had to go to the Homecoming Dance, and missed our evening festivities. She is such a sweet girl - she always has a smile on her face. This photo was taken Saturday morning after her team won the Open Sorting class. The woman on the left is her mother and the cowboy in the middle is her cousin. Congratulations!!

Please excuse me for a moment, but I'm going to pat myself on the back here - a photo that I took in July of the cowboy in this picture, is on the cover of the October 2008 issue of The Horse's Maine, a local equestrian paper!!!!!! You can see the image over here on my personal blog...