NAPHA Zone 2 High Point Award winner is....

MCD Coronado+! The award winners were announced yesterday and Coronado has won yet another high point award! Zone 2 region is one of the most competitive areas (Southern California/NV) so its a great win.

Weaning the foals

NOT fun! I separated the foals from their mothers about 10 days ago, by putting them in a smaller corral sharing a fence with the dams. That worked well - everyone was comfortable. On Saturday I started trying to work with them - they figured out pretty quickly how to use each other to escape being caught! So....I decided it was time to learn how to tie. The corrals are set up under the oak trees, which make great tie hitch from above! After stringing up some ropes from the branches above, I caught Elegido and clipped him up. He figured out pretty quickly that pulling back didn't do anything but put some pressure on his head, and when he walked forward it went away! A few times doing that process, he just hung out pretty relaxed. The great thing about tying from above is that they really don't have anything to pull against, no sitting back and being able to break the lead or hurt their poll.

Tentacion didn't catch on as quickly. She kept pulling and jumping, pulling, rearing, etc. After a few minutes she caught on like her brother and they calmly sat there for about an hour.

Newest MCD Coronado+ foal!

Cynthia Gasman had a chestnut filly yesterday from MCD Coronado+ x Victoria Bonita. As soon as they send pictures I will post them here! His first east coast baby.

2009 Gold Rush Classic

I think I'm finally recovered from the Las Vegas trip. Before we even got going, my truck blew the water pump, literally in my driveway the night before we were leaving! Thankfully, the mechanic was able to get it in at 7:30 am and fix it up quick so we were on the road by 1:30 pm. We had a great trip and arrived to Las Vegas around 8:30.

The show was tons of fun as usual! We started off Friday morning in the Amateur Stakes class. I rode Coronado, and my friend Dianna rode Sedona for me. Coronado was 1st for the CSPHC, 3rd for the RGPHC. Sedona placed 2nd for RCPHC, and 5th in CSPHC. It was great competition and a huge class. In the afternoon, Coronado and I won the champagne class once again! Out of 10 years of the GRC, I've only lost champagne once!

I was very excited to show Sedona in a large show like this one to see how she placed with out of state competition. We qualified for the Amateur Performance Mares championship and the AOTR championship. She was the 2009 RGPHC Champion Amateur Performance Mare! Very exciting since there was some awesome competition there!

Coronado won his first regional Laureado for the CSPHC Amateur Champion of Champions Performance Stallion! This is his 3rd year in a row, and he is now a laureado or retired with honors from the CSPHC show.