Just got back from the AERC convention. If you
couldn't make it here is just a brief overview of what we saw. The lectures were
wonderful and there were great deals at the trade show. I saw Homeys for the
first time! Just on a hanger (unfortunately)...They had a really
good band Friday night and we all danced from 8-12 pm, even our handsome
Frenchman, Michel Bloch, who's broken shoulder is still healing from his
last terrible accident. Trilby Pederson ( among others) was dancing on the
tables, she is an amazing incredible woman, I wish I had half of her
energy! And there was a young ( 10 yrs old maybe?) possible future
endurance rider, with short brown hair, didn't catch her name, doing cartwheels
across the dance floor. Very impressive. Unfortunately, Potato did not come
because he had an accident on his stallion and injured his back.
Hopefully he'll be riding again soon...Meet 'Team Slow Poke' at the Tevis
lecture. Very nice people. Long, tall Steve Elliot was there, minus his
viscous watch dog ( the 2 pound Chihuahua). Four top Tevis
finishers lectured, Hal Hall, Julie Suhr, Roxanne Greene and Barbara White. Very
informative. Interestingly, most of them said they do 'not' use pads on Tevis,
except Hal who's horse has "thin soles". The main advice for Tevis from
this lecture seemed to be; 'ride your own ride', pay attention to your
horse, be prepared, don't 'race', take care of your horse and yourself also, and
as Jamie Kerr said, basically (can't remember he exact words) , "Try to
think of this as though it was just another ride... in other words,
try to be relaxed about it, because if you're tense, your horse can feel it
also." Very good advice. For someone his age, he is just so wise ( oh,
and did I mention, cute too? ) : ) Then they talked about the
trail. The bogs, the canyons, the swinging bridge, the river, etc... They said
take your time coming out of the vet checks, walk for awhile to give your horse
time to digest the food it just ate. Stick to the right as you go up the
ledge on Cougar Rock. And for those of you who haven't done it , don't be afraid
of the swinging bridge. On a personal note, I've ridden almost every part of the
trail and I read so much about the swinging bridge I was scared to death the
first time I went up to ride it. Then when I saw it I felt so relieved. It's a
little 25-30 foot bridge maybe 15 feet above the river. No big deal at all! Go
across 1 horse at a time and it doesn't even hardly move. My horse who is a
major psycho, went across it with no problems. It was a very encouraging
lecture. I'm signed up to do Tevis again and hopefully my big boy (15.2) has
finally settled down enough to drink this time and not get dehydrated. The
convention was sooo much fun. Hopefully those of you who couldn't come
this year can come next year! : )
