On Tuesday December 15, I went to the U of M large animal hospital to halter break a MN Hooved Animal Rescue Yealring Stud Colt that had been brought in the week before.  The little guy, Earl, wouldn't let anyone touch him and offered his heels if you thought you could do it anyway.  I was able to help him come out of his shell without any damage to either of us and I'm happy to report we were able to halter break him, teach him to lead and get blood drawn so that he could find out what was wrong with him, if anything, and get him on the road to health.  If anyone is interested in fostering Earl contact MHARF.  Chris Vinson

Earl and Chris at the U of M.  Earl will make a real calm, willing horse once he gets some age and training on him.  He's only a yearling in this photo.

Dr. Tinkler watching Chris and Earl get to know each other.  After the training session Dr. Tinkler was able to draw Earl's blood for the tests necessary to make certain he's healthy. "W-O-W,I was quite impressed! Good job!" said Dr. Tinkler when asked what she thought of Chris's training methods.  Dr. Tinkler is a resident physician at the University of Minnesota's Large Animal Hospital, dealing, in this instance, with the Rescue horses that need their health evaluated when they have been confiscated from cruel, abusive or unhealthy environments.

World Championships in Topeka Kansas

Craig, Lisa and me at Craig's booth at the Livestock Arena Building where the event was held.

We’re home from Kansas safe and sound albeit pretty tired.

We had a wonderful time, Lisa Killinger and I rode down together on the fastest trip to Kansas except for time travel I’m told. No speeding just cruising’. The weather was fine and the roads were good, we missed all the traffic wherever we went.

We left at 6:30am from Baldwin and drove straight through except for pit stops and arrived at the Expo Centre in Topeka at 3:30 in the afternoon.  Frank came off the trailer a little shaky and drawn up.  I put him in his stall and watered him and gave him a small amount of hay then left him alone to relax.

I went back after registration and took him for a walk around the facility and let him stretch and graze he was much better after the walk and I literally watched him let his muscles relax.

We went to our hotel and checked in and unpacked and went to have something to eat and then went back to the barn and I rode Frank in the warm up pen for a while and he was doing very well so I bedded him down for the night and turned in myself.

The next morning we headed out to the barn I worked Frank for quite a while he was pretty calm and willing for the most part.  We then went to watch the Young Guns, Youth, Novice and Ride Smart divisions which was all day Friday the 13th.  They had some very talented riders from all over the country. 

Saturday was our day there were 37 Non-Pro riders and 33 Pro riders.  Non-Pro ran first and then they switched the course to the Pro’s.

Our first course consisted of a free ride to the right all the way around the arena, followed by two barrel jumps one right after the other, we side passed both directions over a log and then went through the cowboy curtain with a blue tarp on the ground, then we had to back around 5 poles in a serpentine and then to my favorite part mounted shooting, we had a colt .45 loaded with blanks and we were instructed to shoot 3 balloons, Frank side passed about 10 feet on the first shot and then cowboy’d up and let me get two more shots off without loosing his mind.  We than cantered through trash alley no problems there and then a sliding stop in front of bales of hay stacked to make a tunnel, Frank was supposed to ground tie while I crawled through the bales but…he decided to meet me at the other end instead, at least he didn’t run off!  I then got on him again and cantered to the opposite long rail of the arena and performed 4 doubles into the fence and then proceeded to drag a railroad tie about 20 feet, which we did, Ol’ Frank had to put his shoulder into the pull though a railroad tie is pretty heavy.  We then had to perform 3 jumps on a half circle, the jumps are placed touching each other in a Z pattern, you must jump the first one in the correct lead to be able to make the turn/circle to the second jump where you switch leads and proceed on the other lead to the third jump pretty cool!  Well Frank plowed right through the first one jumped the second and knocked down the third, onto the final free ride and then a trailer load.  We were told not to showboat unless we were absolutely certain we could pull it off otherwise a major deduction would be awarded.

Our second run went to heck in a hand basket, Frank decided he’d had enough of the Extreme Cowboy Racing for the day, we ran at about midnight on Saturday.

The course consisted of a Daisy Chain at a lope, a daisy chain is three pole weaving poles standing in a line with one pole on each side it kind of forms a cross, you must canter around the middle pole to the left and every outside pole to the right going back into the middle each time, this was followed by pulling a pallet with four orange cones on it one of the cones had a tennis ball balanced on top, then onto the mounted shooting of 3 balloons, with another jump in the shape of a Z, a free ride to 4 rollbacks or in our case rearing backs, then jump two rows of barrels followed by the hay bale tunnel crawl and then standing on my horse,  we ran over the teeter totter bridge and then went to a cone with a tennis ball on top I had to remove the tennis ball and ride to the next cone and place the tennis ball on it then down to panels set with alley ways where you had to do flying lead changes inside the alley of the panels then a free ride to the trailer load.  It was quite a challenging course.

All the divisions had the opportunity to run twice, they changed the course for each run the scores accumulated and the top 10 from each division were invited back on Sunday for the Final Runs.  Many of which will be televised on RFD-TV.

Check the TV schedule to see the Final Championship Runs which were held on Sunday and see Lisa Killinger and I behind Craig Cameron shouting our heads off.

What a great time we had, I can barely wait to go again!! 

CONGRATULATIONS You are all winners for showing up and challenging yourselves and your horses!  Great job everyone!!!!!!!!!