Horse Activities This Weekend, April 16 & 17

Twin Tiers equestrians have several horse-related activities to choose from this weekend.  A nice mix of events offer fun, education and competition. 

I'm really surprised at the wide variety available so early in the season.  I better get myself and my horses in gear so I don't miss all the fun this spring!

 April 15-17, 2011 - Athens, Pennsylvania
Jackie Dube Jatzlou Barrel Racing Clinic, Standing Stone Farm, Bradford County, cost $375, limited to 15 students, Deposit of $187 to hold your spot, balance due day of clinic, FMI Connie Schwartz, 570-637-5066 or 570-888-0548 or email E Mail 

Twin Tier Trail Riders

• April 16, 2011 - Dresden, N.Y. Outlet Trail – 10:00 Contact JoAnn Schwab at 607-739-2554 or jnjrockinrranch@gmail.com
• April 17, 2011 – Fair View Farm Ride, Troy, PA – Penny Streeter from Troy, PA has offered to take us on a ride at her barn where she boards. This will be a 2 hour loop in the a.m. coming back for lunch. Then another 2 hour loop in the p.m. after lunch. They have port-a-potty and plenty of parking. Contact Jeanne Root 570-596-3653 or jroot@npacc.net or Penny Streeter 570-297-9018 or pennyspatches@frontiernet.net

NYS Horse Pullers Assoc. "Pull of Champions"

The most prestigious pull in the Northeast and one of the top pulls in the country. Averaging between 15 and 20 entries per class. The finest horses from the United States and Canada competing!

Date(s)	04/16/2011
Location	Coliseum
Time:	12:00 noon
Cost	$10.00
Telephone	607-849-3028
Website	Visit Web Site
Email	hosspowr@aol.com

Judy Richter Clinic

Time	Saturday, April 16 · 8:00am - 11:00am
Location	Elk Stables, 1222 TR Williams Rd, Uniondale, PA
Created By	Elk Stables
More Info	*Please get in touch with us and let us know soon if you would like to ride in the clinic as spaces are filling fast. *We are so very pleased to have Judy Richter come and do a clinic at Elk Stables. ...Credit: National Show Hunter Hall of Fame, National Sporting Library ...Judy Richter, a renowned trainer and author, lectured at the National Ms. Richter was inducted into the National Show Hunter Hall of Fame, which is housed at the National Sporting Library, in 2004. Ms. Richter has been in the horse business for over four decades. In the 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s over 30 horses and riders were in training at Coker Farm, her facility in Bedford, N.Y. Her students were consistent contenders at A-rated horse shows and several have won the National Finals and have gone on to brilliant careers in the sport, including Andre Dignelli, Joan Scharffenberger-Laarakers, Kara Hanly Raposa, Ellen Raidt Lordi, and Peter Lutz. Other horse-related activities engage Judy as well: she has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Horse Shows Association, chairman of Zone II, a licensed “R” judge for AHSA, and a columnist for The Chronicle of the Horse. Her earlier books, Horse and Rider, The Longeing Book, and Pony Talk, which were published years ago, are still in print. Recent books are Some Favorite Days, a memoir, and the instructional book, Riding for Kids. Ms. Richter was also the chairman of the USET Owners Committee and is currently part owner of a Grand Prix horse as well as several prospects. Her son, Philip, competes in the Amateur Owner Jumper division. Ms. Richter is also an “A” Pony Clubber, has her colors from the Essex Fox Hounds in New Jersey, and hunts with the Golden’s Bridge Hounds in North Salem, N.Y. *Clinic will be 4/16 and a second day will be added of 4/17 if needed. Sessions will be 2 hours long with 3 sessions per day. First groups will be 9am-11am Beginners-Intermediates juniors and adults, Advanced-which will include Junior and Amateurs 11am-1pm. And then at 2pm - 4pm the last session each day will be Green horses . (When signing up.....please express what you want to work on as categories may change to accommodate needs of students) *If there is enough people who ride jumpers or ponies - that category may be created. *We will also be hosting a fantastic food vendor Mr. Steven Cintron who has the best Spanish home cooking I have ever had! Breakfest Burritos in the am and some wonderful chicken and pork with rice in the pm....yum! *Audrey from grinninghorses.com will have her mobile tack truck at the clinic filled with great stuff! *Stabling can be available with prior arrangements *Please be sure to have Negative Coggins before coming on to property. Also, be careful and considerate that if your horse may have been exposed to any contagious diseases...that you do not attend. *Fee is $125 per student for the 2 hour session - $75 Deposit can be sent in to hold spot - and/or final payment is due 3/26/11. Checks can be made payable to: Whitney Mulqueen 214 Depot St Clarks Summit, PA 18411 *Auditor Fee: $30 Cash or checks to: Whitney Mulqueen *Please contact: Whitney Mulqueen on facebook or call her at: 570-575-8649 and give us you address so that we can send you registration and waiver forms *Directions: If you have problems locating farm with GPS please call Whitney 570-575-8649 and I will give you more detailed info

Annual Spring Clinic with PJ Crawley

Don't miss the Spring Clinic with PJ Crowley on April 16 and 17, 2011 at the Lycoming County Fairgrounds. Hughesville, Pa. PJ has agreed to come to give participants (both new and experienced) an intensive weekend of training. Learn more about PJ at: www.kendalwoodfarm.com.

Saturday April 16, 2011:

  8:30 AM to 4:30 - PM Individual - approxamitely 45 minutes private lesson (1/2 lunch included in this time span).

 5:00 PM to ? - Mock Group classes - to be critiqued by PJ.

Sunday April 17, 2011: 

 Individual - approximately 55 minutes private lesson.

PRIVATE LESSONS may be available again this year on Friday April 15, 2011 in the afternoon at the cost of $85.00 per lesson. Each lesson will run approximately 50 minutes. Payment due at time of registration April 2, 2011. Payment will be REFUNDED if private lessons are not scheduled.

Reservations for the clinic will be accepted on a FIRST PAID in full - FIRST reserved basis with a limit of 10 horses and drivers. Clinic fees are non-refundable but if we can find a replacement for your registration we can make the exchange. In the event that you need to cancel your reservation contact: Danny A. Harter immediately @ 814-934-8931.

Send registration form and payment to: Danny A. Harter, 353 Penny Lane, Bellefonte, Pa. 16823 - make checks payable to SVWW.

To participate in the clinic the cost will be $200.00 for the entire weekend. This will include 2 stalls, one for your horse (bedding not included) and one for tack. Participation in both Saturday's and Sunday's clinic session, and lunch both days for each clinic participant.

Once imagined. Now Real.

Today it happened, just like I pictured it.  Before we even bought this place, and many times since then, I  looked out at the land here on the hill and said to my husband,  “There we are, Hudson and I.  Can you see us?  We’re riding right down that road and up that hill.  See us?  See us?”

Starting out.  Taken by my husband from the upstairs deck.

 Today, after a long, miserable winter, spring crept out of hiding, and I saddled up my big, black and white riding partner and we went right down that road and up that hill.  

Down the road

By the pond

It was just as I imagined it.  Hudson was excited to be out, but not goofy.  We rode down the road and around the pond, then across the bottom of the pasture and up the pipeline right-of-way, hopping little streams and puddles, Hudson wanting to go, go, go, but I telling her to just walk, just walk.  We’re both out of shape and this was a time to just walk and enjoy the beautiful, spring afternoon in the farming hills of south central New York.

Students Notice Improvement in Kozlowski Clinic

For Jack Walnes, riding with Carol Kozlowski has helped him pursue his passion of training green horses that just might have the physical and mental strength to handle three-phase competition.

Jack Walnes and The Country Gentleman

“I always buy young horses, with potential, in the hope they will like eventing,” Walnes said, after finishing a class in Kozlowski’s gymnastics clinic on April 9 in Avon, NY. 

An Avon resident himself, Walnes said he couldn’t train the youngsters without Kozlowski’s help.  She is experienced in training young horses, and most of those she rides in top-level events she trained herself.

Walnes has ridden with Kozlowski for eight years.  On Saturday he was riding The Country Gentleman, a towering bay thoroughbred, started as a yearling by Aaron and Charity Donnan of Piffard, NY.

“He’s a neat, neat horse,” Walnes said of the young gelding.

Walnes, who started riding in France in the 1960s, rode The Country Gentleman in a late morning class that Kozlowski described as a beginner novice level. 

As with all her classes, from intro on up to the higher levels, Kozlowski started this one with flat work, warming up the group and focusing on equitation and the importance of collection.

“Horses that are strung out become projectiles,” she told the class.

Kozlowski teaches young riders.

While in the beginning lessons, Kozlowski focused mostly on getting ponies over the fences, the more experienced riders in later classes were expected to show good form, proper contact and subtle aids.

“Try to get stride, then ride like a girl,” Kozlowski called to Walnes after he rode a strong line of fences.  “Because you’re a guy and your strong and can go to your aids doesn’t mean you should do that every time.”

Walnes plans to ride The Country Gentleman at an event in Ohio in May. 

He and his wife, Linda, were not the only riders at the clinic who have schooled with Kozlowski for years.  Debbi Busta of Cleveland, OH, trucked in with two Connemaras for the clinic.

“I have been riding with Kozlowski’s for 25 years,” she said, adding she drives from Ohio every other week for a lesson at Mothersfield, Kozlowski’s facility.

Busta on Sandy, waiting her turn to jump a line.

In Saturday’s class, Busta was riding a handsome, 18-year-old gray named Shammer Sandman (“Sandy”) who has competed at preliminary level in the past.  Busta was riding the horse for its owner to help keep him in shape while the owner planned a wedding.

“Carol said, ‘You have to ride other horses,’” Busta said, “So, he’s teaching me.”

Busta said she was pleased with the outcome of the lesson.

Kozlowski watches a student ride a line of fences.

“He changed his way of jumping,” she said of Sandy, after the class.  “Instead of just rushing, he was pushing from behind.”

The clinic continues Sunday, and auditing is free.  

Top Rider and Trainer Carol Kozlowski hosts Spring Clinic this Weekend

If you’re ready to shake the frost off your riding program, head to Carol Kozlowski’s gymnastics clinic this weekend, April 9 and 10 at her Avon, NY facility, Mothersfield.  The riding slots are full, but there is plenty of room to watch, listen and learn – and auditing is free.

Not all Twin Tiers equestrians know that we have a top-level rider sharing her knowledge so nearby, and Carol’s list of accomplishments as both a rider and coach is impressive.   A nationally recognized equestrian, she is renown as the rider who took the great Connemara stallion Hideaway’s Erin Go Bragh to multiple championships in the 1990s, and she has been short- and long-listed for the biggest equestrian events, such as the Olympics and Pan American games, as well as recently earning leading horse and rider honors in FEI area 1.  Her students have also achieved high honors, earning top medals for their area in ’04 and ’05.

Carol Kozlowski and Good Earth Bit O’Honey. Credits to EventingUSA Blog.

Carol Kozlowski and Good Earth Bit O’Honey. Credits to EventingUSA Blog.

As lofty as her credentials are, Carol’s goals for those attending the clinics are down to earth.

“I really try to make both the rider and the horse braver and more confident,” Carol said. “My objective is not to frighten them, or to show them what they don't know, but take what they do know and improve it.”

This goal may be what keeps her clinics full every spring, at a time of year when locals are getting ready for the riding season.  

“I have so many people say, ‘That was just what I needed to get up and running.  I feel so confident and my horse is in front of my leg.’”

Riders of all abilities are the right level for her clinic, and this is a great time of year to get inspired by her training.

“I don’t care what level you are,” she said. “I do everything from intro, where horses are just trotting poles and haven't jumped much, to some prelim horses that are going to get back and running.” 

Those attending the clinic can expect the first classes on Saturday to be the easier level for horses and riders, and as the day progresses, the classes will become more challenging, with more difficult jumps.

"I try to make the jumps interesting enough so the horses will at least look at them,” she said.  “In competition, we are running into more jumps that have the spook factor.  Without scaring the horses, I do like to catch their eye a little bit.  As we go, there will be a need for more accuracy, liverpools, skinnies, bounces, something to give them an introduction to what they'll see in the season.”

On Sunday, the format reverses, with the more challenging classes going first while the jumps are still set up, then decreasing in difficulty as the day goes on.

So, if you are like many Twin Tiers riders and this past, hard winter did nothing to advance your riding skills, get out and audit Carol’s clinic.  It’s just the right time for a little inspiration for those who are ready to ride.  

For information, contact Carol at (585) 226-6287 or mothersfield@aol.com

SIDELINED BY INJURY, KOZLOWSKI TALKS TRAINING, HORSES

While an injury has temporarily grounded Carol Kozlowski, this nationally recognized equestrian is making the best of her recovery time.

She said she felt something strange in her arm a few weeks ago while transferring a crop from one hand to the other during a ride, and although it didn’t feel quite right, she kept working and even rode in the Southern Pines three-phase event, held North Carolina in March.

It wasn’t until after the event that she learned she had ruptured her distal biceps tendon and had to quickly have it surgically reattached or face losing some capability in her arm. The surgeon told her that the tendon had been damaged previously and the small movement she performed was enough to rupture it.

Carol is back in Avon, NY after a couple of months in Aiken, South Carolina where she trains during the winter with international superstars Philip Dutton and Mara DePuy.

Carol said will use her downtime to increase her lessons with her students. She said her training sessions are more cautious than those she had this winter, with Dutton pushing her farther than she thought she could go.

“The lessons I do in Aiken are so mind-blowing,” she said. “I come out the other side saying, ‘I had no idea my horse and I could do that!”

Some of her students are training at the preliminary level and competing well, she said, but she gets just as much satisfaction from watching students of any level have a “lightbulb” moment.

“I like it when people feel confident and happy,” she said. "It's just as rewarding to me to hear a rider say they have developed a skill and they feel happy and confident in their riding as when they compete well.”

When asked about some of the challenges she experiences with students and horses, she said there aren’t many difficult sessions, just occasionally.

“One of the most difficult things for me is having someone come into a clinic when they seem like they want training, but what you're doing is so outside their comfort zone that they don't want to try," she said. “Every now and then I run into a student that just won’t go where I want to take them.”

Another challenge she encounters, but rarely, is the rider who is “over-horsed,” meaning the horse is too much for the rider’s experience level.

“I don’t see that too often. Most people are practical,” she said. “But sometimes someone new might not even realize that they are out of their zone with their horse."

She says in cases like this, she will talk to the student privately and often the student is relieved to hear that the problems she is having is due to not being a good match for her horse, as opposed to some other riding problem.

As for horse-related challenges, Carol said that a problem she sees is pain preventing top performance.

“One thing I run into more often than others is a horse that is struggling to do the job, not because it’s a ‘bad horse,’ but because they are in pain," she said. “Sometimes the rider has no idea. I can't tell you how many people come in on a horse with teeth problems, back problems, hock problems."

She explained that in these cases, often the riders think the horse has a behavior issue, when it is actually a physical problem.

“Horses don't try to be non-compliant,” she said. “If they are disobedient, it's up to us to figure out why. They are incapable of plotting and thinking, but they'll talk to us, we just have to speak their language.”

She said in her experience, about 50 percent of equine compliance issues are behavioral and 50 percent are pain-based. A rider who brings most of her competition horses along herself, Carol said she is currently riding a pony that came to her as a very difficult mount. Treatment from a chiropractor in Pennsylvania helped improve the pony’s attitude.

"He was one angry pony when he came to me, and I treated him fairly and he's coming to the table now,” Carol said, adding that she has high hopes for this pony, called Maestro, once her arm is healed. The delay comes at a tough time.

"The kicker of it is, I have a bunch of young horses ready to go and would have capitalized on the spring events,” she said.

Other horses she will be competing with when she is fully recovered include a 15-hand half-Connemara, half-thoroughbred mare named Good Earth Bit o Honey (“Honey”), an Australian Thoroughbred named Mr. Snuffleuffagus (“Sniff”) and another half-Connemara mare named Hidaway's Ness (“Nessie”) sired, as you might have guessed, from her famous former riding partner, Hideaway’s Erin Go Bragh.

“Holy cow, can she jump!” Carol said of Hideaway’s Ness.

Besides increasing her lessons while injured, Carol’s doing some of the mundane things we all tackle when we can’t do what we want to do, such as sorting out closets and organizing paperwork. With some riders she works with able to keep her horses in training, it’s just a waiting game for Carol as she heals. Be watching for her and her young horses out at some major league events, starting sometime in May.

Horses on the Hill

First, Hudson, leave her with my husband, then Starlight and Stormkite, then Dee and DeCato.   Will Stormkite be OK? Will everybody load?  Will the hay arrive?  Just how muddy is it between the run-in and the pasture?  First, Hudson, leave her with my husband…

This is the litany that has been rolling around my brain for the last few days as I planned the moving of our five horses from their old home in Bentley Creek to their new home on the hill.  

It took three trips with the horse trailer (I’m sure a real horsewoman would have packed all five of them in the stock trailer and done it in one).  The first trip, with my precious Huds, was the most nerve-wracking, and I don’t think the butterflies really started settling until I unloaded the next pair, Starlight and Stormkite.  By the time Dee and DeCato climbed aboard, I could drive the rig without my hands clenching the steering wheel as if rigor mortis had set in.

Except for Hudson, everybody climbed right on board the trailer like she had done it a million times.  In Hudson’s case (she’s the one I take to activities where she actually has to WORK), it took a couple of attempts, alternating with some groundwork, before she decided the trailer was easier than my backing her rapidly all over the lawn). 

Here I'm comforting Hudson before the first trip.

DeCato hasn’t been on a trailer since I brought her home a few years ago.  Before that, she was trailered all the way across the country by the BLM to Cornell University, then to her former home before I brought her home.  I wasn’t sure what she would do.  But, by the time it was this opinionated little red mustang’s turn, she jumped right on as if she was saying, “You ain’t leaving ME here all alone!  I don’t care where we’re going!  You are taking me!”

I purposely brought Stormkite with Starlight, as I was introducing him to the herd for the first time.  In Bentley Creek, he enjoyed their company for the past year with a fence between them.  I decided that, since this place is new to all of them, it was a good opportunity to bring him in on somewhat equal terms.  And I trailered him with his neighbor because they are fond of each other, and she is second to Hudson in the herd, so I thought she would give him some safety.

Stormkite, Hudson and Starlight were doing fine together, but when Dee, his full sister, arrived, it all changed as she decided he was not allowed be next to any horse in the herd, and if he was, she chased him off violently.  Things are settling down, but I do feel bad for him.  I’ll keep my eye on things.  

Here's they are, trying to sort things out.  That's Stormkite on the far right, the anxious looking one.  

They are in a sacrifice pasture right now, a piece of the pasture they can trash as we suffer the freeze-and-thaw and the spring rains.  It’s connected to a run in, which they hate going to because there is a marsh in between it and the pasture (to be fixed). 

Here's Hudson leading the way to the run in, through the swamp.  I hate that swamp.  It must go.

What bothers me is seeing the change from five, comfortable and confident horses to a wild-eyed group who are now dealing with the stress of herd dynamics 24-hours.  I know I can’t judge their behavior based on this first 24 hours in a new place, but I’m already planning a new arrangement. 

One thing for sure, owning horses provides one with a constant source of anxiety, challenge and labor.  But they do it in such a way that you can’t wait to go back for more.