SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Drawing riders from across the nation, the USEF National Junior Hunter Championships-West Coast event was an action-packed two days of great sport and a chance for the Junior Hunters to stand center stage as they displayed their talents in three phases: a handy hunter round, a classic round, and an under saddle phase. When the dust settles, it is the horse with the highest cumulative score that takes home the title and a year’s worth of bragging rights.

With riders from as far away from the Golden Coast as Texas, Colorado, Arizona and even the U.S. East Coast, it was local competitor Morgan Geller from Manhattan Beach and her Fabricio (an 11-year-old liver chestnut Czech Warmblood gelding) that beat out the competition to earn the 2011 Overall Grand Champion Junior Hunter title with a cumulative score of 255.80. Geller, 16, and her mount earned not only the title, but also the perpetual trophy donated by Show Circuit magazine.

BURBANK – Kelly Trammell and her gelding, Hagans Sugarman, energized the 2011 Pacific Coast Horse Association Jack and Linda Baker Reining Classic Aug. 19-20 at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, pulling out all the stops on a memorable run that earned the 14-year-old rider a prestigious division win.

The venerable PCHA event, in its 21st year, attracted 26 top reiners with a chance to compete and win one of three prestigious divisions: Open, 49-and-under, and Rookie rider. Respective division champions were awarded saddles, buckles and a multitude of other prizes in the two-round event. To win a division, riders accumulated the highest combined scores from both rounds.

It’s that time of year again – Broken Horn Saddlery’s Fourth Annual All Western Sale! Held two days only, Sept. 17-18, from Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The legendary Baldwin Park store is a destination any time of year, but the annual Western Sale is simply a “don’t miss” event. And it’s not just the great specials on Broken Horn’s inventory of horse products, supplies, apparel and Western tack – there also will be hourly and grand prize drawings, including drawings for boots, hats, jeans, shirts, reins, bridles, halters and more! One thing: You MUST dress Western to enter the drawings – for instance, wear your Wrangler jeans, Western boots, a Western shirt or a cowboy hat. Since 1956, Broken Horn has been the West’s largest tack store and a premier manufacturer of quality tack, custom saddles, year-end awards, tack repair and so much more! See the ad on pages 48-49, and call (626) 337-4266 to learn more about the sale!

Fifth in a series
Les takes a look at why a martingale serves a purpose in early stages of training.

I will use a running martingale occasionally, and I recommend them for many riders.

I like a heavy leather one, and I want it adjusted so that the rings of the martingale can go all the way to the horse’s throat latch when he’s standing relaxed. That means his head, or your hands, would have to really get up there before the rings actually pulled on the reins. The martingale is not there to pull your horse’s head down; its main function is to add weight and balance to the reins during the learning process.

The 2011 FEI World Pair Driving Championship are under way this week in Conty, France, and three American drivers are set to make their International Championships debut.

Led by Chef d’Equipe Chester Weber and Coach Michael Freund, the U.S. will be represented by Katherin Dancer of California along with Misdee Wrigley-Miller and Joe Yoder. These three drivers drove as a team at Reisenbeck CAI in July and earned valuable international experience which Weber believes will serve them well going into the World Championship.

BURBANK — The region’s best Andalusians and Friesians returned to the Los Angeles Equestrian Center Aug. 11-14 for the 2011 International Andalusian Horse Show Association Region 1 Championships Show, as well as the International Friesian Horse Association Region 10 Championships.

One of the stars of the event was Tio Pepe, shown by Bill Deeney for owner Nadine Tilley of Tilley Andalusians in Hemet. Tio Pepe showed his Western Pleasure prowess by winning the Western Pleasure Junior Horse Regional title, as well as reserve in the Open. On the Friesian side of the big weekend, Beau, owned by Carol Carfagno and trained and ridden by Lauren La Vine, shined brightly, winning three Region 10 Championships in saddle seat, hunter and Part-bred Friesian.

DEAR DANA: What should I be focusing on with my futurity horse this time of the year?
— Ann Read, Pomona CA

DEAR ANNE: Great question! At this time of year, I like to be hauling my young horses to shows and exposing them to all the different sights and sounds. Keep in mind that every horse is at a different level of training, based on (1) when he was started, (2) his own mental and physical maturity, and (3) the consistency with which he has been ridden. I do have some horses that are really slow learners – they take twice the time as others. I have others that I don’t want to push because of their physical immaturity or weakness.

HEY RAY: Whenever I saddle my horse, he tries to bite me and moves around every time I cinch him up. The only way I can saddle him is to have somebody strong hold him. What can I do?
Romona Johnson, Orange CA

HEY ROMONA: If that is all he is doing, the solution to your problem may be fairly simple if you try this approach. First, begin by tying your horse in a way that if he pulls, the rope will feed with a decent drag so that the horse has to work at pulling away. There’s a few ways you can do this. You can simply throw a long rope attached to his halter over a rail and back to you so that you can control how you feed the line to him. The rail I am talking about is the top rail of an arena wall or pen, the higher the fence the better. You can also throw the end of the rope over the top rail and wrap it around the post directly below it until you achieve the desired drag or resistance. The end should be left on the ground on the opposite side of the fence. There’s also a tie-ring that you could buy at your local tack store that will do the job nicely. This should take care of replacing your helper and regaining focus from your horse back on you.

OS ANGELES – With the cost of water going up — and its availability seemingly going down – the prospect of using less expensive reclaimed water for dust mitigation and irrigation would seem attractive for boarding stables and ranchers.

So thought the Equine Advisory Committee, a Los Angeles City Council-appointed committee, who last summer brought L.A. Department of Water and Power representatives to speak at their meeting to discuss a simple idea: How could equestrians access millions of gallons of reclaimed water for non-drinking purposes?