As the June issue hits mailboxes, we take a look back at some of the horsemen who have graced the magazine’s pages in the past.  

Blake Schlosser on a freshly started colt at the Horsemen's Reunion. Journal photo.

Last month, as I prepared to attend the Horsemen’s Reunion in Paso Robles, California, I was excited about the chance to watch so many good horsemen starting colts under saddle. There’s nothing better than watching those young minds soak up so much knowledge, presented in such a way they can understand.

As I went down the list of horsemen who would be there starting colts, the “reunion” theme rang even truer. Many of these horsemen were longtime friends, as you can read more about in the June issue of America’s Horse. And, over the years, many of them have introduced to AQHA members in the pages of the Association’s membership publication, America’s Horse. For me, it was going to be a fun chance to re-introduce myself to people that I first met and did stories with as many as 10 years ago.  

It’s a great chance for you to meet them, too. After all, for some of them, it’s been a while:

• Blake Schlosser and his Canadian ranching family were featured in the May 2003 America’s Horse in an article titled “Growing Up on the Rocking P.” The toddlers in that story are half grown now, but the family still centers its life around horses.
• Thomas Saunders’ family has been ranching in Texas since 1850, and their story appeared in the May 2006 America’s Horse.
• Aspermont, Texas, horseman Joe Wolter was featured in the magazine more recently, last December, when he offered advice on how to pick up the correct lead. When that story appeared on America’s Horse Daily, it was the most popular post of the month. Joe had previously written a training column for us. Read the rest of this entry »

It was a long battle against a nasty fungal infection, but “Sooner” was successful. Read her story in the May America’s Horse.

It was back in the summer of 2010 when I first blogged about discovering some knots on my mare’s chest. She was quickly diagnosed with sporotrichosis, a rare fungal infection of the lymph system, and we set about treating it with the able assistance of veterinarians at Oklahoma State University.

At the time, I promised that I’d follow her case with a story in the print version of America’s Horse magazine. After all, if I was gaining knowledge about a horse health condition, I’d might as well share it with our readers, in hopes that someone else might find it beneficial. But I didn’t want to write the story until my mare’s health had resolved – one way or the other. There were lots of possibilities, some of them grim. The infection was a serious one and was difficult to treat, and I was about half afraid I’d be writing a post-mortem case study.

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Thinking about horsemanship can teach us a lot of lessons, in the arena and out.

Holly Clanahan

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only horse person out there who relates normal-world stuff to the horse world and vice versa. An example: During a recent late-night plane trip, I ended up sitting in the first row of seats (there was no first-class section in this plane), so I had a front-row view of the flight attendant’s safety presentation.

As she stood in front of me, going over what passengers should do in the unlikely event of a water landing, her words spilled out in a rushed but exceedingly bored monotone, spoken so that even if someone were trying to pay attention – an equally unlikely event – it would have been difficult to glean much meaning. Her uninterested tone spoke volumes about so many things that had nothing to do with seat cushions.

Then, spiel over and microphone off, she muttered, “Nobody ever listens to me.”

I kept any smart remarks to myself.

But it made me think about advice I’ve heard from more than one horseman, about how we can give our horses so much white noise – random movements of the reins that we don’t intend to mean anything, for example – that they start to tune us out. I imagine them hearing that flight-attendant monotone and realizing that it doesn’t matter if they listen or not. If there is a water landing – or if their rider suddenly does want the reins to mean something – they’ll be given an unpleasant wakeup call, sometimes in the form of an unnecessarily harsh cue. Had there been good two-way communication going on, it might have instead taken the lightest of cues.

We, as riders, need to make sure that when we say something, with the lift of a rein, the press of a leg, that it means something. We shouldn’t be a Charlie Brown teacher. Read the rest of this entry »

When horses are part of the job description.

I think my mare, Stop Drop And Roll, would have a good time riding pens. My not-a-cowdog, however, should probably stay at home. Chad Hendrix photo.

My niece, who’s 8, and I spent the better part of Saturday at a cattle sale, and we’ve both decided that when we grow up, we want to ride pens at a sale barn.

We watched as men on foot tried to shoo an uncooperative bull down an alleyway, away from his buddies and toward a chute where a veterinarian waited to check him out. It didn’t work.

“I’ll go bring him,” said a woman on a stout gray gelding, trotting into the fray. They had the right combination of assertiveness and common sense (knowing when discretion was the better part of valor), and in just minutes, the bull was in the chute. Going to the next job, the rider took her right foot out of the stirrup and slid halfway down her horse’s left side, reaching for a gate latch that hadn’t been built with horsemen or -women in mind.

Later, we saw another couple of horse people, one sweeping out the back of her trailer while another was getting ready to mount up. We told him of our imagined future careers, and he chuckled. Some days, he says, are better than others. Saturday, an overcast but warm spring day, was a fun one, but wait until July, when it’s 110 degrees.

Tripp Townsend, a top competitor in the versatility ranch horse arena and one of the owner/operators of Sandhill Cattle Co. in Earth, Texas, knows something about that. He and I have talked about how a blizzard can have that same effect on job satisfaction. But snow or shine, the cattle have to be cared for. And, just like at the sale barn, it takes horses to do it.

I’m working on a story with Tripp, talking about how he trains his horses while riding pens at the feedlot. He takes advantage of every opportunity to get his horses more flexible and more responsive. Even those of us who don’t have that opportunity to work cattle in such a setting can still put some of his principles into play. You won’t want to miss his advice in a future issue of America’s Horse, which is an AQHA member benefit.

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Who says cover models have attitudes? The current issue of America’s Horse and the one we’re working to put out now both feature some genuinely nice guys.

Caton Parelli and his dad, Pat, did a meet-and-greet at the AQHA booth during Road to the Horse. Journal photo.

There’s just one way to describe Caton Parelli: He’s a hoot.

At our request, he came by the AQHA booth at Road to the Horse a couple of times to sign autographs of the March-April issue of America’s Horse, which features him on the cover. I’d been teasingly referring to him as our cover boy, but he corrects me. “Cover man” would be better.

“You could do a follow-up story on me, you know?” he says. “You could call it ‘The Colorado Cowboy.’ ”

Alrighty, Caton … here it is. You deserve it.

One of his autograph appearances came shortly after he and his dad, Pat, had performed a father-son pas de deux. Each of them held the end of a string – and I suppose you could make all sorts of analogies about the connection that implies – as they loped around the arena in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and even did a conjoined sliding stop. At one point, Caton put his horse, Liberty Major (the cover horse!), into a reining spin, as Pat, still holding that string, loped a circle around him. Then they switched places, with Pat, an AQHA Professional Horseman, doing the spin on KR Scoot N Slide as Caton circled him.

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The latest issue of America’s Horse has some people in it you’ll want to meet.

Here at AQHA, we’re gearing up for the Road to the Horse colt-starting championship, March 9-11. As sponsors of the remuda, we’ll have a booth there, and Quarter Horse Outfitters will be selling logoed merchandise to the throngs — and I do mean throngs — that will be crusing the concourse during breaks in the action. I’ll be there covering the event, so look for regular updates on Facebook and Twitter, as well as here on America’s Horse Daily and in the print magazine.

One of the things I’m most looking forward to is meeting our March-April cover boy, Caton Parelli, in person. He’ll be there with his dad, Pat, who’s a competitor on the U.S. team with Craig Cameron, vying against teams from Australia and Canada. As a demonstration, Caton and Pat will perform together in a father-and-son reining pattern.

In doing the America’s Horse story on Caton, I just spoke with him on the phone. He was actually working one of his horses when I called, and his dad simply handed the phone to him on horseback. When we got through talking, I understood completely why so many of  his fellow horse-show competitors have adopted him as family. He loves to talk about his Ford truck and his American Quarter Horses, not necessarily in that order, and he’s passionate about competing and breeding better horses. It’ll be fun to talk more in person.

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Honoring horsemen of the past and helping horses of the present and future.

Reata Brannaman reassures her colt during the Legacy of Legends clinic this past weekend in Las Vegas. Scroll to the slideshow below for lots more photos and descriptive captions. Journal photo.

Among the things Vegas is known for is the endless buffets, the all-you-can-eat offerings of just about any kind of food you can imagine.  But February 3-5, there was an even better smorgasbord … of knowledge. The Legacy of Legends clinic brought together students of Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt to share their teachings with the next generation.

The demonstrations, of course, focus on education — to give spectators some nuggets of wisdom they can take home and apply. The clinic also served as a fundraiser for scholarships given to young men and women who never got the chance to study with Tom or Ray before their passings. The scholarship recipients receive funding so that they can study with some Dorrance or Hunt proteges, sending the knowledge into the next generation.  

There was way too much information from the clinic for just one blog, and too many clinicians to do them all justice. So, for this first post, let’s take just a few pointers from the colt-starters: Buck Brannaman and his daughter, Reata; Peter Campbell and his niece Megan; and Martin Black and his son Wade. The younger generation did most of the hands-on work, with Buck, Peter and Martin helping as necessary and providing commentary.

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Who would you rather meet: a famous name or an incredible horseman?

Here, Bill Van Norman takes his horse down a hill, something he said helped a horse learn to naturally get his hindquarters up underneath himself. Journal photo.

I’ve been asked a few times: Who’s the coolest person you’ve ever interviewed?

And I’m sure the people expected me to rattle off some celebrity’s name, because I’ve interviewed a few famous names (all very gracious people).

But reflecting on it, the person I usually name is Bill Van Norman. He wasn’t a household name but probably should have been. He came from a long line of horsemen, and he married into another one, becoming Ray Hunt’s son-in-law. I only got to visit with him a couple of times, but what impressed me most was the way his horses acted around him. As he trained them in the vaquero tradition, they relaxed in his hands and seemed to draw confidence from him, as if they knew they were in the presence of someone who spoke their language. (That, my friends, is way, way more impressive than someone who can memorize lines for a camera!)

I wish I’d gotten to know him better, but he died much too young in 2006. It saddens me to see the list of esteemed horsemen shrinking. Ray died in 2009, and I had always meant to get to one of his clinics. I missed my chance.

But as with anything in life, you can’t go back and ask for a re-do; you only learn your lessons and keep moving forward. In this case, I’m trying not to miss any more chances. One such chance comes this weekend, with A Legacy of Legends clinic, which is a tribute to Ray and his mentor, Tom Dorrance. Ray’s wife, Carolyn, together with Buck Brannaman and Martin Black, wanted to honor the men and keep their training methods alive.

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Meet some members of our Quarter Horse community in the December America’s Horse.

Ralph Shebester at the head of Bugs Alive In 75. Journal photo.

I remember, as a kid, thumbing through The American Quarter Horse Journal and being awestruck by the trainers and horses I saw there. Shebester Stallion Station, with its beautiful interstate-frontage paddocks, was the stuff of more dreams for me  — it was, as the sign out front proclaimed, home to Bugs Alive In 75, winner of the 1975 All American Futurity.

One day, worn down by my begging, my parents stopped in at the Wynnewood, Oklahoma, farm and asked if we could meet the famous stallion. Someone — maybe the farm manager? — ushered us right in. Talk about a dream come true.

Now, lo many years later, it was my privilege to write a story about some barrel-horse breeders in Oklahoma who were using the “Bugs Alive” bloodline in their program. One of their foals, Yeah Hes Firen, was named the co-barrel horse of the year by AQHA and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Phyllis Wells and her husband, Tommy, had been in the business since the 1960s.

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Two horses, one 500-hour award in the Horseback Riding Program.

Marilyn Wegweiser and Blazin Bitzy. Photo by Holly Clanahan

It was 2005 when I first met Marilyn Wegweiser, and we hit it off immediately. Of course, riding through Yellowstone National Park and later the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming, there couldn’t have been a better, more relaxing setting for a bond to form over our common love of horses.

Marilyn navigated those trails on Blazin Bitzy, a beautiful chestnut cutting mare she had bought just the year before. “Bitzy” was 18 then and in fine form to help Marilyn as she hosted that AQHA trail ride in Yellowstone.

As Marilyn and I kept in touch after that ride, I loved living vicariously through her as she went on frequent wilderness rides through the mountains. The pictures she’d send showed vast panoramas that made me itch to go back to Wyoming. Of course, it was a natural for Marilyn to enroll in AQHA’s Horseback Riding Program, and she and Bitzy racked up hours and hours of saddle time.

If you’re not familiar with the Horseback Riding Program, it’s a pretty simple concept. Once you’re enrolled, you just log the hours spent riding, whether you’re trail riding, showing or training. If you prefer to drive your horse, those hours in a cart count, too. Awards start piling in at the 25-hour mark. AQHA also has an all-breeds Horseback Riding Program, and Marilyn has taken advantage of that, too.

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How donating to the American Quarter Horse Foundation can heal yourself and others.

April 19, 1995, was a day that so many — myself included — remember as the day of the Murrah Building bombing in Oklahoma City. It was also the day Lark It Or Leave It, a little steel-gray colt, made his entrance into the world, born in Wichita Falls, Texas, with me and my husband at his side.

He became my best friend, the one whose shoulder I could always lean on, and who bookended my days — no matter how busy the day had been, morning and night feedings were always paused, just for a few minutes, while ”Junior” got some personal attention. He was a great ride: light, responsive and just opinionated enough to keep things interesting. And as flighty as he could be with me on occasion, when he filled his role as a little girl’s therapy horse, he became a solid rock, again offering a steady shoulder on which to lean and a magical back on which to fly.

You can imagine that we were all more than a little lost when he left us February 28, 2011, after a short fight against enteritis and colitis. Hopes and prayers and the best veterinary care we could find couldn’t kick-start a digestive system that simply quit working. Read the rest of this entry »

Praying for rain, preparing for drought.

Abandoned Oklahoma farm in the Dust Bowl era. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, part of the Library of Congress collection.

I remember the photos of apocalyptic dust clouds, iconic and frightening images of the Dust Bowl that overtook parts of western Oklahoma in the 1930s. What wasn’t covered by those clouds was still stricken with severe drought. My dad, born in 1926, remembered neighbors lining up arms’ lengths apart to walk through pastures, shooting the jackrabbits that were thriving in the desert climate. They were eliminating varmits and feeding their hungry families. My grandmother talked about putting wet towels around her windowsills and still having to sweep out piles of dirt. The crops, the cattle … none of it fared well. To say it was tough times is hardly enough. And to say the people who endured it were tough … that’s also an understatement.

The Oklahoma soil, originally covered by shortgrass prairies, had been cultivated to death. Robbed of its protective cover and subjected to a harsh drought and howling winds, the topsoil picked up and left. Some of it, quite literally, landed in Chicago. Some of the people, too, picked up and left, and many of them landed in California where they became migrant farm workers. John Steinbeck wrote about the emigrant ”Okies” in his book “The Grapes of Wrath.”

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