2012 Texoma Horse Expo-Breed Alley

Its that time of year again! This past Saturday, October 20th, Pie and I attended the THIRD annual Breed Alley during the Texoma Horse Expo in our “hometown” of Wichita Falls, Texas. This event, if you are a new follower of our blog, is an event that I organize each year thru the area horse committee in conjunction with the expo. The goal of Breed Alley is to introduce folks in our area to the “lesser known” breeds that live in our area, which is traditionaly Paint Horse and American Quarter Horse Country.

Each year we learn abit and improve. This year, breeds represented in the alley included Chincoteague Pony, Gypsy Horses, Tennessee Walking Horse, Arabian, Missouri Foxtrotter, Foxtrotter Pony,Peruvian Paso, and Freisians.

Each breed is alocated booth space, a stall and also gets time in the arena to showcase their breed’s unique attributes.

Pie enjoys going to this venue, but, without fail, each year, by Saturday evening, she is ready to go home. I think it takes every ounce of self control to stay clean and confined to a stall all weekend. 🙂

We arrived Friday afternoon to set up, get Pie settled and work her. She worked well..one thing I can always count on is her not being goofy in new places..that is why I love her so much. After, I got her settled in her stall and got to work on the booth. I think this was our best design yet!

Then outside for some graze time for Pie mental wellness.

We also caught up with our friend, Michele, who runs Underdog Ranch, a new horse rescue in our area. Kate, the worlds first painting border collie, was donating a painting for the rescue to sell. We had photo ops, shopped thru Underdog Ranch’s used tack sale (’cause you never can have to much tack!), fed Pie and headed home.

Saturday went extremly well..everyone’s demos in the arena went well and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. Pie did some nice things during her exhibition and , as always, loved getting on her stool. A Professional photographer got some AWESOME pics of us!

 

 

 

 

 

A Video of our demo!

And the expo participants

We then, as last year, got our picture taken with the horse expo banner..Fletcher came with me on Saturday and of course, had to be in the picture. It took about 20 tries to get the perfect picture..trying to get a Border Collie to stay put and Pie to put her ears up proved to be quite the task!!! 🙂

As always, I enjoy tremendously talking with folks about Pie and the Chincoteague Pony breed. Ive said, it is wonderful to see folks walk up, read the info and slowly a smile starts to spread across their face..you can tell they remember the book..THIS is a pony from their childhood, standing before them, real. 🙂 Pie never ceases to amaze me in how adaptable and amicable she is. She is so incrediably special.

Saturday evening, we headed home..and Pie was finally able to get dirty again..:)

Another expo in the books! til next year of course! 🙂 Thank you to everyone who brought their wonderful horses, came out to see the alley, came to the expo, offered support and help..you are appreciated more then you know!

 

P.E.T.S. Pantry Fundraiser

If you know me..or even follow the blog, you know how passionate I am about animals. So when Pie and I (and Kate!) were invited to the second annual P.E.T.S. Pantry fundraiser on November 5th, I of course said yes.

P.E.T.S. stands for Preventing Euthanisia Thru Sterlization. This is a non profit group that offers low cost spaying, neutering and vaccinations in my area. The Pantry is a new endevor that P.E.T.S. is doing. By pairing with Meals on Wheels, they are providing pet food to families in our local area who may not be able to feed their beloved family members, if they are on fixed income or experiencing hard times.

This fundraiser raises money and accepts donations of dog and cat food.

Pie was quite patient on the trailer til her time to come out and perform. This was her first time doing her presentation on grass. Now Pie likes grass..alot..so I wasnt sure if I could hold her attention. She stayed super focused and performed very well.

She obliged a hoof shake

And then she met some of the people who saw our presentation..Pie was her usual social self..even though no one had any cookies for her (she did triple check!)

Diane (who bought Kate’s painting she did that day) poses with Pie

Pie gets a kiss…

Makin’ new friends

With the P.E. T.S. Pantry coordinator’s grandson, Elijah. He LOVED Pie so much, he kept trying to take her lead rope from me and walk her off. 🙂

Then Pie shook hands with Diane. I have never had her perform her tricks for anyone but me..and sometimes Casey. Diane asked for a hoofshake..Pie took just a minute and then offered her hoof! I was so proud of her for doing her trick for someone other then me. I am a firm beleiver it shows how well you’ve trained an animal when they perform for someone other then you cueing them.

And Elijah had to shake her hoof too..(yep, I helped with this!)

And, as I mentioned above, Kate painted a unique piece that day, which benefited the P.E.T.S. Pantry.

 

The Pantry raised over $1000.00 and almost 2000 pounds of pet food that day. I am so proud of both my girls for giving up their Saturday to help this cause!

Newspaper Article-Bringing a Book to Life

Pie makes the front page!

Afew weeks ago I was contacted by our local newspaper, the Times Record News, about Pie, how I got her and what we do together.

The story ran last Thursday, we were on the front page!

Read the article and don’t forget to check out the video too!!!!

Pie’s newspaper article

It’s always great to share Pie with others!

Day Z Farms Horse Camp

I feel sometimes I need to get Pie her own day planner to keep track of all her functions!

Fresh off of our summer camp presentation 2 weeks ago at Christ Academy, we went just a bit down the road to Day Z Farms and did a small presentation for the Summer Horse Camp!

Despite the heat, we had clouds that hung around for a good portion of the presentation..which kept it somewhat bearable.

A few of the girls had ready Misty, Stormy or Sea Star, so it was neat for them to put real people, places and ponies to the stories.
The girls then got to meet Pie, who was so happy to get off the trailer and be “part of the action”. She willingly showed off her tricks while we went over some Chincoteague pony traits and talked abit about Pie herself, her presentations and her being trained as a reining horse.

Then the girls got to each sit on Pie while she stood on her stool, a very special treat for all of them.

They all got to meet her as well, which she thoroughly enjoyed, as she always does..lots of mane braiding and scratching. 🙂

I was told their favorite part was when Pie gave me a kiss. 🙂

Casey also got to participate by showcasing Pie’s quietness.

Afterwards, we had a trivia game of sorts..up for grabs was a copy of Misty of Chincoteague!

It was an elimination type game and the winner won by answering correctly “who wrote Misty of Chincoteague?” (pssttt..it was Marguerite Henry!)

What a great day sharing Pie, Misty and Chincoteague with others!