My Diverse Denver Diaries: Rocky Mountain Horse Expo

Yesterday I headed off to the Rocky Mountain Horse expo here in Denver. I was looking forward to watching some great horsemen (and women) and wanted to head watch with an open mind.

I met up with a friend from here in Colorado, she's the lovely girl who let me know that Ruffcut was with them in Ken Caryl and arranged for me to start working with him. We definitely sat through a huge mix of methods and styles. We started with some 'Ride From Within' type stuff which was a bit 'hippy' but with some good tips about breathing and balance. After that, we headed off to watch Steuart Pittman. It was pretty cool as the girl that Angela is a working student for was riding her TB in the clinic so we got to watch her too. She works with Canter Colorado who retrain racehorses from Arapahoe and other tracks and had her mare in the clinic (who is also competing in Colorados Most Wanted Thoroughbred Competition today)! The clinic was really helpful and fun and I loved listening to Steuart. After the clinic we got chatting to another of Ashleys students, he just started riding a few months back and as the announcer at Arapahoe Racetrack he remembers announcing RuffCutt last year! Small World ay.

Next we watched Justin Dunn who is Western but rides bitless and spurless and had some great stuff to say about really listening to what your horse needs. In sharp contrast, after this we went to watch the Colt Starting http://www.coltstartingchallengeusa.com basically there are eight colts in round pens in the arena. The 'trainers' get an hour to work with their colts and see how far they can get them in that time. By the end of the hour, all bar two of the 'trainers' were riding the colts (They weren't even halter trained at the start). Of course, most of its not too great, flooding until they give up is basically how it works. Some of the colts responded quickly and one or two were pretty tough and just wouldn't quit in (especially a certain Palamino)! Most of it was pretty tough to watch but we could learn something about desensitization with our English ridden ponies, one colt was pulling around ground poles and poles by the end of the hour. Now I don't agree with the way things are done but they sure end up with unspooky horses so maybe less time working on the perfect trot and a little more time desensitizing in the RIGHT way would sometimes be a huge benefit!

We then watched Steuart again demonstrating with a groups of riders some different disciplines that Thoroughbreds can have off the track. He also spoke about conformation and selecting your OTTB and we got to see Jonathan riding Ashleys TB (so brave, new rider in front of Steuart and a audience) and she rode her newest horse off the track. His name is Burgenland and he is truly something special. I really must stop falling in love with all these horses.

So, I headed off home for Chipotle and a glass of wine after a tiring but brilliant day spent around a huge mix of horses and disciplines. I still giggle every time I see an 'actual' cowboy!

Heres some photos and video to give you a taste of the expo crazy mix.