In From The Range

In From The Range

WORLD SERIES OF MOUNTED SHOOTING
Big Money and Top Shooters Come to Vegas During NFR

Top mounted shooters from around the country will converge on Las Vegas during the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo when the first-ever World Series of Mounted Shooting takes place at the South Point Casino & Hotel, December 12-13. The high dollar competition pits mounted shooting’s best competitors against each other in a two-stage qualifying contest with the finals being part of the World Series of Team Roping on Saturday, December 13.

World Series of Mounted Shooting cinched the support of the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association (CMSA) as one of the top sponsors supporting the historic event, by adding $10,000.00–of which 100% will be paid back to the contestants.  The CMSA joins with Classic Equine, ShootinHorse.com, Western Shooting Horse Magazine and ComputerizedCowboy.com.

This two-day event will feature the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association’s top contestants from around the country.  Current entries include World & National Champions John Clark, CMSA Chairman & Founder Jim Rodgers, Chad Little, multiple NFR Finals Qualifier Mickey Young, Annie Bianco-Ellett, Kenda Lenseigne, 2007 World Champion Melissa Dragoo and many others.  Contestants will ride in a totally new two-stage qualifying format on the evening of Friday, December 12th to earn one of 14 spots in the finals. The finals, part of the spectator filled Saturday night events of the World Series of Team Roping, pits the top seven men and seven ladies, each running for thousands in cash and prizes.  Billed as the richest mounted shooting event ever, winners stand to leave Las Vegas with upwards of $15,000 according to the event’s web site.

For more information about the World Series of Mounted Shooting, visit www.worldseriesofmountedshooting.com or call 931-224-1930.

WRANGLER NATIONAL FINALS RODEO RETURNS TO LAS VEGAS
Everything That is Cowboy Including Mounted Shooting

Every year 50,000 cowboys, country and rodeo fans, and all those in between, stampede to Las Vegas when the city welcomes the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (WNFR). This December will be no different when Las Vegas hosts not only the WNFR, but also the World Series of Mounted Shooting and Cowboy Christmas, Country Christmas and Cowboy Marketplace Gift Shows as well as a stellar list of high caliber Country Music stars - in a way that only Vegas can.

The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, in its 22nd year in Las Vegas, will come to the Thomas & Mack Center Dec. 6-15, showcasing the talents of the nation’s top fifteen money-winners in seven different events as they compete for the world title. At the end of two intense weeks of competition, the WNFR will crown eight world champions in: bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronco riding, tie-down roping, bull riding, and, for women only, barrel racing. Sold-out attendance is expected to exceed 174,000 over 10 days.

What’s at stake: Eight world championship titles – and the gold buckles and saddles that go with the titles – will be awarded at the conclusion of the Wrangler NFR, based on annual earnings, oh, and did we mention, a purse of  $5.625 million!

Some of the biggest names in Country Music hit the stages of Las Vegas during the WNFR. The Hilton will explode with performances by the Honky Tonk Ba-donk-a-donk of Trace Adkins (Dec.6-8); the men dedicated to “saving a horse,” Big and Rich (Dec. 9-11); and the multi-award-winning mega-country duo Brooks and Dunn (Dec. 12-15). Kicking off the two weeks of cowboy culture that the WNFR brings, the Fremont Street Experience hosts a hoedown on Dec. 5, featuring free concerts by country stars Hal Ketchum, Sawyer Brown, and Ray Scott.

Las Vegas during the WNFR is also about shopping. With three separate and enormous shows including Cowboy Christmas Gift Show at the Convention Center, the Ariat Country Christmas Western Gift Expo at the Sands and the Cowboy Marketplace presented by Roper Apparel at Mandalay Bay, you can shop till you drop with tens of thousands of other eager shoppers vying for the perfect gifts in every imaginable Cowboy and Western category.

The first World Series of Mounted Shooting also takes place at the South Point Casino and Hotel Arena December 12-13 as part of the World Series of Team Roping event and top competitors from around the country are expected to compete.
If you can’t find something to do in Las Vegas during the WNFR, you’re in the wrong Las Vegas. Make plans early and take advantage of low room rates when booking online.

WHITE NIGHT PROVIDES LIGHT FOR BACKING UP

Cruiser Stainless Accessories offers the White Night Rear Lighting System to improve safety and provide peace of mind when backing up horse trailers, or anytime pickup trucks or SUV tow vehicles are backed up in the dark. White Night utilizes two very powerful 55-watt halogen lamps, enclosed in a high impact black plastic case, to automatically throw an 80-foot spread of white light behind the vehicle when in reverse gear. Terrifically increasing rearward visibility. Toggle switch on unit also allows manual operation. Can also be used to light up work areas directly behind the vehicle. White Night is compact and mounts to the hitch receiver tube of most class 1-4 trailer hitches. Fixed mount units allow full use of hitch for towing. No drilling required and unique Plug-N-Go feature makes White Night the easiest lighting product on the market to install. Learn more at www.whitenight.com.

MY SHOEZ STOPS PAWING

The original design for My Shoez came from an old-time trick of putting standard horseshoes on a horse’s front legs to keep it from pawing.  As most things go, it worked pretty well but it had some serious drawbacks.  Horseshoes were designed to go on the bottom of a horse’s foot, not around its leg.  Putting a regular horseshoe on the animal’s leg can cause severe sores.  And if the horse paws hard enough, it can fling the horseshoes off via the normal opening.  This means a horse learns that if it paws hard enough it can ‘win’ release.

The basic idea behind My Shoez is simple: if the horse paws, paces or kicks, the weight of the shoes (fitted around the front legs) annoys him.  The more aggressive the horse’s behavior∆44, the more annoying the shoes become.  When it stands still (the desired response), the shoes stop being bothersome.  If the animal shifts its weight or moves quietly, the shoes aren’t a problem.  My Shoez are great because you can leave them on a horse without having to watch and try to catch the horse to reprimand it; you can just put them on and let the shoes do the job for you.  This also keeps the horse from learning that the moment you leave it can resume its problem behavior.

My Shoez is a specially designed and uniquely shaped to fit properly around a horse’s leg. A special coating is used to ensure maximum protection.  My Shoez uses a simple system for securing and removal. Bright colors also keep you from forgetting to take the shoes off! Visit www.myshoez.com to learn more.

WINNERS CROWNED AT MUSTANG MAKEOVER
114 Mustangs Compete for $50,000

Mark Lyon of Arlington, Neb., took the grand prize at the second annual Fort Dodge Extreme Mustang Makeover Legends Finals, September 20 in Fort Worth, Texas, in the event’s most difficult level of competition, after falling from his horse mid-performance. He demonstrated that a well-trained horse doesn’t always need a rider to win, capturing the $12,500 top prize and the hearts of thousands watching his performance on Christian, a three-year-old, bay, Mustang gelding.

Well into Lyon’s textbook perfect performance, which included a ballet of movement including deep stops and picture perfect spins, the crowd’s hearts fell when he leaned to Christian’s side in a tight turn and his saddle slipped causing him to fall. Since the entire focus of the judges were on the Mustang’s ability, judges awarded Christian for his reaction to this unforeseen happening. Judge and famed horse trainer, John Lyons, said, “That was the best part of the whole performance. He did exactly what he was trained to do,” describing how Christian stood and waited for his rider to get back on. Lyons went on to take the horse through his paces firing a pistol at balloons and riding through a ring of fire.

The Legends division represented the pinnacle of difficulty for the 2008 Extreme Mustang Makeover. Trainers determined in which category their Mustangs would compete based on the progress they believe the former wild horses had made in their 100 days of training. A total of 55 mustangs competed in the Legends division, while 45 competed in the intermediate Idols division and while 14 took on the elementary level Stars division.

Taking the Idols win earlier in the day was Careen Thompson of College Station, Texas, and her three-year-old gelding Taz, gathered from Wheeler Pass and earning $5,000 in prize money. Judges Suzy Jean of Valley View, Tex., Guy Woods and Pilot Point, Tex and Lyons selected the duo to win the second most difficult division at the event, which aims to generate awareness about the value of America’s Mustangs and increase adoption of these incredible horses.

The Mustang Heritage Foundation in cooperation with the BLM hosted the Fort Dodge Extreme Mustang Makeover for the second year to increase adoptions of mustangs, like Christian. The event provided the public with the unique opportunity to see how wild mustangs can become trained horses and then participate in a competitive bidding process to adopt one of these treasured animals. This year’s event featured more than 300 Mustangs that were trained by trainers from across 38 states for the last 100 days.

The Longest Continuous Mounted Shooting Horse

Meet Sunset.  She’s a 21-year-old Foundation Appaloosa, born and bred in California. Her first competition: End of Trail 1994, when the CMSA was founded.  And she’s still a mounted shooting horse—making her the longest competing mounted shooting horse in the history of the sport.

Tom Wilson—CMSA #18 and a Senior Men’s 3—has had Sunset since she was born. He trained her to be a team roping horse, but when he was introduced to mounted shooting, he thought they should give it a try.  The horse was unfazed by gunfire and took to the course with no problem.  Sure, they didn’t do so well among the 29 competitors at the ’94 EoT, but they had fun.  So they kept it up.

Over the years, Tom and Sunset have won various California state titles.  They took the Level 2 Championship at End of Trail in ’98.  Mostly, they’ve just kept going to matches for the pure pleasure of it all.

They’ve both slowed down a bit.  Tom is 69 (“Between the two of us, we’re 90”), and last year an injury forced him to learn to shoot with his left hand. And Sunset?  “I don’t know that she could do a three day match anymore.  It would probably tire her out.  But on the one day and two day matches, she’s fine.”

Wilson has been training her six-year-old daughter to be a mounted shooting horse.  That does not mean that the sun is setting on Sunset.  “I believe horses need a job.  I think they’re happier when they have something to do,” says Tom.  “So I’m going to compete off of her as long as she can do it.”

IN PRINT - WAR HORSE

Joey is a warhorse, but he wasn’t always. Once, he was a farm horse and a gentle boy named Albert was his master. Then World War I came storming through and everything changed. Albert’s father sells Joey to the army where the beautiful, red-bay horse is trained to charge the enemy, drag heavy artillery, and carry wounded soldiers not much older than Albert off of battlefields. Amongst the clamoring of guns and slogging through the cold mud, Joey wonders if the war will ever end. And if it does, will he ever find Albert again?

The reader sees the war through Joey’s eyes. His losses and his triumphs are captivatingly detailed. Captain Nicholls, his first rider, dies in battle but not before he paints a portrait of Joey. It is that portrait hanging in a village hall that inspired this tale. Later, Joey and his rider are captured by the Germans and Joey becomes part of the team of horses that pull the ambulance wagons from the battle line. After that he enjoys some loving, tender care from a young girl and her grandfather. That soon ends when he is conscripted to pull a cannon for the German army. The horror of the conditions in which the soldiers live is mirrored in the events of Joey’s life. A meeting between an old German and a young British soldier over who will take Joey provides a thoughtful commentary on the futility of war. This is an eloquently told and absorbing friendship story. Author Michael Morpurgo presents both a fine history lesson and an emotional tale. Scholastic Press 1982. Whitebread Award runner-up.

Get it new today at amazon.com.

AQUA AUTOMATION

In Raymond Crandell’s world, what’s good for the human is good for the horse.

Twenty years ago, he came up with the HydroTrack, an underwater treadmill to help people recover from injuries.  The concept is simple–the buoyancy of the water takes weight and pressure off of the joints.  The water’s resistance strengthens muscles.  And heating the water promotes rehabilitation.

The HydroTrack has been a big seller over the years.

Crandell was also a horseman (he’s a Senior Men’s 3), so the light bulb went on: “I thought, well, if it works for people, why wouldn’t it work for horses?”

But for the most part, ideas don’t become reality overnight.  And for various reasons, it took Ray Crandell about 15 years to get to his underwater horse treadmill.  Then there were a couple of years for design and development and testing, but finally the AquaPacer Equine Underwater Treadmill System was born.  In most ways, it’s just a larger version of the HydroTrack.

A number of units are already being used in real life situations—including at Ray’s place in Phoenix. And just as he suspected, the AquaPacer has been a big success.   “It’s good for a horse that’s stretched a muscle, or for conditioning, or for various foot conditions,” he says.  “A facility in North Carolina is actually using it to help mend broken legs!”

Overall, he says, the AquaPacer cuts recovery time in half—or better.

The unit is available in sizes of 10’x5’ or 12’x5’.  A user-friendly control panel makes it easy to operate; the exercise chamber fills and drains in three minutes.  And a technician helps set up each AquaPacer.

Ray Crandell says he can’t keep up with the orders for the system.  It’s like he says—what’s good for the human is good for the horse.

For more information on the AquaPacer, go to www.fernovetsystems.com.

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