THERMAL — As the crowd gathered to watch the $100,000 Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping Thermal Feb. 13, an impressive line-up of horses and riders from around the globe gathered to jump for the final West Coast qualifying opportunity and a $100,000 prize purse.
Filling the last qualifier on the West Coast, riders were hungry for the opportunity to get on board the Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping Final, scheduled March 23-28 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

German course designer Martin Otto had set a course that created excitement for spectators in the stands and challenged the skill of each horse and riders, which would ultimately separate three riders from the field for the jump-off. Tenth to go was France’s Eric Navet and Catypso, owned by Signe Ostby, testing the course of 16 jumping efforts—Navet and the powerful bay gelding took their time on the course as they navigated the track fence-by-fence in a precise, clear first-round.

BURBANK — After a two-hour public hearing on bicyclists’ access to the Mariposa Equestrian Bridge into Griffith Park, the Burbank City Council last month ended the controversy simply: no bicycles on the bridge.

Known as the “swinging bridge” that connects to the Griffith Park equestrian trails, the bridge carries hundreds of horse-and-riders daily and as many as 1,000 on a weekend. The seven-foot wide bridge, commissioned in 1938, was the result of efforts by movie actor Gene Autry, who understood that once the Los Angeles River banks were built out, equestrians would be cut off from riding in the park.

“It has been under intense pressure by a bike club to be declared a ‘multi-modal’ bridge that would include bicycle access into Griffith Park,” said Lynn Brown, Vice President of the Los Angeles Equine Advisory Committee and a champion statewide for equestrian interests.

Sioux Munyon of Lakeside and friends take her team for a driving demonstration, one of many during the Valley Center Day of the Horse Feb. 13 at Star Valley Park.

VC Vaquero photo

VALLEY CENTER — The Valley Center Vaqueros Equine Education Foundation, along with Armstrong Feed in Valley Center, sponsored the community’s Third Annual Day of the Horse Feb. 13, putting on display the area’s vibrant, diverse equestrian world.

“We’re a group of equestrians who all have different interests and disciplines, so the Day of the Horse is a way to embrace that and share it with the general public,” said Julie Picot, a 30-year equestrianne who moved to Valley Center in 2004. “We have members who are into driving, and others are into cowboy challenges or drill team or dressage. We kind of showcase that diversity at the Day of the Horse, and its important for the community to come together.”

A while back, I gave a lecture to a small group of horse owners. I started the talk with a question. I asked,”Who here has herpes?” As expected, the room was silent. I explained that most everyone in there should have raised their hands. Ebstein-Barr virus, Chicken Pox, and of course sexually transmitted herpes are all examples of herpes viruses. Once you get them, you have them for life. In horses, it is the same. After a little explanation, everyone was laughing.

As of right now, there are 9 identified equine herpes viruses(EHV) in horses. The ones typically associated with disease are EHV 1, 3, and 4. EHV-1 , commonly called Rhinopneumonitis, can cause respiratory disease, neurological disease and abortions. EHV-3 is sexually transmitted and has symptoms similar to the dreaded venereal herpes in humans. EHV-4 is mostly just associated with respiratory disease, but can also cause abortions and neurological disease. The one everyone is talking about right now due to the recent outbreaks is EHV-1, so that is where we are going to focus.

Open Champion
Horse: Designed With Shine
Rider: Riccardo Nicolazzi
Owner: Julie Ridgeway
note: co-champion

John O’Hara photo

RANCHO MURIETA — With warm weather and lots of qualification points at hand, the West Coast Reining Horse Association Affiliate 1 and Affiliare 2 shows on Feb. 4-7 attracted a competitive field to the year’s first big reining.

“The show was very well attended, and you could sense the excitement in the exhibitors,” said Michael Silva, WCRHA President. “For many of us, this was our first opportunity to show our horses since mid-October of last year. And, for many members, this was the first opportunity to perform with a new horse of theirs.”

In the past two years, some WCRHA members gave this first show of the year a the nickname: “Reining in the Rain,” because of weather that hit the event. This year, however, featured cool mornings and abundant sunshine that provided warm days for early February.

“I saw many of our members in short sleeves in the afternoon warmth,” said Silva. “Everyone was enjoying the fantastic weather after a rather rainy January.”

He said he believes the warm weather led to a very relaxed atmosphere for this first show of the year.

A few spots remain unfilled, but they aren’t expected to remain that way long for the Buck Brannaman clinic in the Los Angeles area April 1-4 at the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center in Lake View Terrace. Brannaman will be offering two classes: Foundation from 9 a.m. to noon, and Horsemanship 1 from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. To bnook your spot in the clinic, call Sally at (323) 662-8085, and see the ad on page 62. Spectators are welcome to watch this remarkable teacher at work, and no reservations are necessary for that. More info is also available on the trainer’s website.

After focusing on the head and neck with lateral and vertical flexion, Les takes us now into control of the shoulders.

Our objective in these exercises is to learn to isolate and control your horse’s shoulders. As with all these exercises, the effectiveness of your hand and leg cues will continue to improve and get more subtle, and you will learn to guide your horse and change direction by moving only his shoulders.

Although no maneuver is initiated with a shoulder, there are many where it is critical to keep the shoulder out of the way. By learning to control the shoulder, you are learning how to keep it out of the way too. Specific maneuvers that this apply to are departures and lead changes.

Another common problem that requires shoulder control is when a horse tries to “drop a shoulder” or lean into his circles. We’ll cover this in future lessons, but you’ll need shoulder control to fix it. Shoulder control is also a fundamental part of creating pretty “shoulders up” circles and stops.

Cowboy Mounted Shooting offers something for everyone. The sport requires training for the horse and rider just like any other equestrian sport. Kenny Lawson of Silver Dollar Ranch believes a training program should meet the horse and rider at their level of education and grow from there. His program is designed to help with all the elements of Cowboy Mounted Shooting: from purchasing the right equipment and understanding the rules, to course management and taking his clients all the way to the competition arena.