Happy 4th of July!

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!!

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...

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.....

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....

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!!

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...

4th of July Parade

Our team penning club was asked to ride in the Turner (about 1/2 hour East of West Paris) 4th of July Parade. My husband took the camera, so today I get to make a cameo appearance on my blog! Can you pick me out of this group of riders? I was so happy to be there - it has always been one of my dreams to ride in a parade!

Bathtime!!

What's the best way to cool off on a hot summer's day? Bring out the hose!! It was so fun to watch each horse's reaction to that cold water - some of them tried to drink from the hose, some of them tried to duck away from it at first, but all of them really seemed to enjoy it! And it definitely cooled them off, which they desperately needed...

All right...we're done with the penning...today is the start of the West Paris Old Home Days Celebration!! This is a wicked fun event that we look forward to each year...I'll be coming home with LOTS of photos to show you how our town has a good time....

Sweaty, itchy, scratchy....

Oh! That feels sooooo much better!!

After a long, hot day of penning, the best reward for any hard-working horse is the opportunity to roll in the sand. They LOVE it!!

Tomorrow I'll show you what happens next....

Pen 'em!!

This is when team penning gets really exciting! At this point tensions are running high and getting those cows into the pen can either be 'picture perfect', as you see here, or one of those riders could be positioned just a little bit off and the cows can run right back to the herd and avoid that little pen! I liked this picture because it really shows all the positions that the 3 team members must take in order to get those 3 cows through that 12 foot gate:

The Palomino is "sweeping", or running around the end of the arena, pushing the cows towards the pen. She has to be able to read how the cows are reacting to her presence - if she hurries them, they could very well rush past the other riders; if she goes too slow, they lose precious seconds on the clock.

The rider on the other side of the pen is in the "hole". There is an alleyway on the other side of the pen, which the cows know gives them a straight shot right back to the herd. That rider needs to block the cows, generally by making a lot of noise, and if the cows really pressure her, by riding forward slightly, encouraging them towards the pen and away from the hole.

The rider on this side of the gate is on the "wing". His job is to keep the cows from doing a circle in front of the pen when the sweep pushes them, and then as they go past him, to join the sweep rider in rushing them into the pen.

Overhead you can see the judge, timekeeper and announcer. The judge is holding up a flag that she will drop when the riders enter the gate of the pen behind the cows, raise their arms and call for time. At that point the timekeeper will stop the timer.

Sound complicated?? It sure can be!! You never know what those pesky cows are gonna do!! ;-)

Take a bow...

This horse performed a trick before receiving his award for winning the Open Ranch Sorting class! What a good boy!! I am determined to teach my horse to do this, so that it will be easier to climb up on her at the end of a long day!! I swear she grows taller as the day progresses... ;-)

Ranch Sorting

Today our team penning club held a Ranch Sorting - 13 cows are put into a 60 foot round pen with a 12 foot gate opening. 10 of the cows are numbered 0 through 9, the other 3 are blanks that are put in there to complicate matters! Each team of 2 riders has either 60 seconds, or 90 seconds, depending on the level of competition. One rider will stand his horse in the middle of the gate, hoping to stop any cows that try to rush out, while the other rider enters the herd and tries to sort out cows numerically, starting with an assigned number. After the rider drives out each cow, he will switch with the rider in the gate. The object is to get all 10 cows of the pen in order, within the time allotted. It's fast paced, WICKED FUN sport!! This photo is of one of our Quebec friends running his cow out the gate. QUICKLY!!

Cowboys

The last 2 days I happened to show you only cowgirls, so today, in the interest of being fair, here is a shot of some of the cowboys! The athleticism of these horses never ceases to amaze me. Look at that horse changing direction and getting ready to leap after that calf. He's right there where his rider wants him to be, with no hesitation.

I also realized that many of you probably don't know what team penning is: 3 riders enter a large arena where a herd of 30 cows is bunched together at the far end. Each cow is wearing a number from 0 to 9, with 3 cows of each number in the herd. Once the riders cross the foul line, the timer is tripped and the judge calls out a number. Before they run out of time, the riders must get the 3 cows with their assigned number out of the herd, (Without letting the rest of the herd cross the foul line.) down the length of the arena and into a small pen. The fastest team wins. MUCH easier said than done!! It is a wicked lot of fun for the whole family! For more information, you can check out Central Maine Team Penning or the United States Team Penning Association.