Riverside Equestrian Center at Sonoma Horse Park
7600 Lakeville Highway • Petaluma, CA 94954
(707) 328-2959 cell
hugh_white@msn.com

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Northern Winter Classics Kick Off 2012 Season

Just in case the Mayans are right, HWTS wasted no time kicking off the 2012 show season with trips to the Northern Winter Classic III and IV at the Murieta Equestrian Center. NWC III Highlights include a win in the 3'3" Performance Hunters by Hugh on Private Capote, and 6th in the NWC Grand Prix aboard La Princesa. Hugh also won a 1.05m Jumper class with Fan Fare. Joan Pont showed Private Capote in the A/A Hunters, taking home 2nds and 3rds. She also rode to 2nd place honors out of 17 entries in the Cloverleaf Equitation on Private Capote and won her Adult Equitation Over Fences class on U-Princess.

At NWC IV, Hugh won another 1.05m Jumper class on Fan Fare and several 2nd places in the Pre Green Hunters with U-Princess. Next up: The Capitol City Spring Classic at Leone Equestrian Center, where Private Capote will be making his debut in the Hunter Derby and Hugh will be making his debut in a properly fitted, coordinated show outfit that cannot be carbon-dated to the pre-civil war era.

The Capital City Classic show (week of April 9) was punctuated by rainstorms, wind, and vast accumulations of mud. Hugh and Private Capote debuted in their first Hunter Derby (video to come soon!) Hugh was much more amenable to wearing his new black hunt coat than Capote was to getting his tail braided. Meanwhile, Joan Pont highlighted her week with a 2nd place finish in the $500 Childrens/AA Hunter Championship on U-Princess.

Horse Show Expense Checklist

Horse shows are expensive. Along with the obvious costs, there are lots of extra expenses you may not be aware of. We hope the following reference will help you budget more effectively for show season:

Horse Show Fees:
1. Hauling (your horse, your tack trunk, your trainer and his beer supply)
2. Schooling your horse
3. Re-Schooling your horse
4. Re-training your horse after schooling and re-schooling
5. Grooming
6. Day Care
9. I entered all the 8am classes and my stupid horse needs to be lunged at 6am fee
10. I entered the last class on Sunday fee
11. Entry Fees
12. Late Entry Fees
13. Post-Entry Fees
14. Scratch Fees
15. Accidentally Scratched and need to be re-entered fees
16. No, I Guess I Really Meant To Scratch fee
17. Member Fees
18. Non-Member Fees
19. Can't Remember If You're A Member Fees
20. Office Fees (to pay people for collecting other fees)
21. Drug Testing Fees (thankfully, drug testing applies only to horses)
22. Stall, bedding and Feed
23. Medication (pharmaceuticals for horse, caffeine/alcohol for trainer)
24. set-up fees ( for setting up all the grooming, tack and horse stalls)
25. Per ride fees - paid to trainer for each class he shows your horse
26. I forgot my checkbook fee (fee for not paying other fees on time)

Sonoma Horse Park 2012 Show Schedule schedule, class list, entry form | online entry | results | SHP website Horse & Hound Spring (A) May 9 – 13, 2012 HMI Equestrian Challenge (A) May 16 – 20, 2012 HMI June Classic (A) June 13 – 17, 2012 HMI Equestrian Classic (AA) July 24 – 29, 2012 Giant Steps Charity Classic (C) August 1 – 5, 2012 HMI August Classic (A) August 22– 26, 2012 Strides & Tides (A) September 12 – 16, 2012 Results for the 2012 Show Series will be available online at showgroundslive.com Sonoma Horse Park ad design by Jody Werner and Misfit Designs.

 

 

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Find out what's REALLY been happening int he barn. Happy, sad, embarrassing or incriminating, we don't care. Email news and gossip to us here. If you can't think of anything newsworthy, just make something up, our fact checkers suck.

Kiara and Grayson

We are very sad to have said goodbye to two of our furry barn friends - our barn cat Grayson and Sheila's dog Kiara. We will all particularly miss seeing Kiara faithfully following Hugh to and from the arena, and her love of fishing cat foot tins out of the trash and methodically lining them up on the lawn before licking them clean. Hugh has planted a Dogwood tree in front of the barn her honor.

New Furry Friend

Welcome to our newest furry friend at the barn. Ruff is a terrier mix of unknown origin adopted by Pippa Murray and family. She has already learned how to chase the cat up a tree, make June Bug snort, and pee on Hugh's paddock shoes.

"In her defense," Pippa commented, "Hugh's shoes probably smelled like lots of things had already peed on them. Or died in them. Or both."

Fortunately, Antonio was able to take care the soiled shoes the way he takes care of most problems - by them into the washing machine with a lot of bleach. "Muy Blanco!" he stated. We're not sure if he was referring to the shoes, or to Hugh.

Ranch Fouled After Rainstorms

Recent rainstorms have wreaked havoc at Riverside and have left behind a muddy mess. The photo at left shows a pair of mallards enjoying a swim in Lake Turnout, which is is conveniently located behind the barn, adjacent to scenic Lake Pasture, which is next to Lake Arena, which feeds in to Lake RoundPen. It's a great time to take a canoe ride out through Lake Horse Park, where you can watch as a variety of marine life and half a million bucks worth of footing from the Grand Prix arena make their way down the Petaluma River.

 

Bizarre Behavior Raises Suspicion

Like "Gym teacher" and "pedophile," no combination of words summon frightening imagery quite like "Hugh" and "chainsaw."

An anonymous photographer captured this image of Hugh using a chainsaw to dismember ...something... beneath one of the Eucalyptus trees. When questioned by the photographer, Mr. White responded by waving the chainsaw in the photographer's direction and yelling, "This is none of your business. Get the hell out of here. And get that camera out of my face. And while you're at it, get me another beer."

It's rumored that the photographer had been out to "get dirt" on Mr. White for some time. "I was hoping to catch him peeing in June Bug's stall, or wearing a hunt coat from 1952, or drinking a beer before Lent was over," she told us excitedly, "but this is waaaay better!" Another unidentified observer commented, "It could have been much worse. His pants could have fallen down around his ankles."

Mr. White declined to respond to our repeated inquiries asking him to explain his actions.

In a possibly related story, the disappearance of several beer delivery truck drivers from the Petaluma area remains unsolved.

Jubal Conquers Fears Thanks to Unique Solution

Jubal's fear of going...well, pretty much everywhere... has been solved by nailing his feet to a platform with wheels. "He goes all over the place now," current owner Kelley Wick stated proudly. "We just hook him up to the tow hitch on the back of the dually and pull him anywhere we want him to go. Sometimes we just leave him places overnight. Since he's attached to the platform, he has no choice but to stand there and deal with his fears. We've already de-sensitized him to plastic bags, strange-looking fruit, and Kleenex. Loading him in and out of the trailer is a breeze. And we have absolutely no problem getting him in to the water now."

This approach, (which Ms. Wick calls the "No Choice" system) has worked so well that she is now going to start gluing her students to their saddles.

New Arena Scene of Mysterious "Accident"

The new indoor ring was the scene of an "accident" that occured when Hugh's stirrup leather (see red arrow in insert) mysteriously "broke" during what was termed by witnesses as "just one of Hugh's horse's everyday, dumbass bucking incidents."

The arena was temporarily closed while police investigated the scene and witnesses uploaded photos and videos of the embarrassing incident to YouTube. A copy of Chronicle of The Horse from 1957 that Hugh still had stuffed in his back pants pocket somewhat broke his fall. He is unable to explain the reason for the equipment failure. "That leather was perfectly good," he insisted. "I've had it since 1967 and it's never given me any problems. And I've never mucked it up by putting any of those silly leather cleaners or conditioners on it."

Meanwhile, small toothprints on the broken leather lead investigators to Hooligan's stall, where a leather cutting tool was discovered buried in the shavings.

Hooligan had already become the focus of another scandalous investigation after June Bug's breastplate was found hanging, trophy-like, on his bridle rack in the tack room. Hooligan refused to comment other than to point out "If they didn't want these kinds of things to happen, they should have named me Wussy Wittle Good Boy."

The Horse Rider Weight Loss Plan

Don't you HATE it when your non-horsey friends claim riding isn't a workout because "the horse does all the work?" We've compiled the following chart to show those doubters exactly how many calories one can expend performing horse-related activities.

Activity	Calories Expended
Mucking Stall	354 calories/hour
General horse riding	236 calories/hour
Making June Bug walk briskly	3 calories/hour
Making Murray walk briskly	752 calories/hour
Riding horse at the trot	384 calories/hour
Riding horse at a gallop	472 calories/hour
Horse Grooming	354 calories/hour
Looking for fly spray	90 calories/hour
Lookiing for Antonio	430 calories/hour
Catching Mo in the pasture	325 calories/hour
Chasing Rhapsody away from Mo	400 calories/hour
Chasing Sly after he gets out of the pasture while you were trying to catch Mo	525 calories/hour
Walking, 4 MPH	236 calories/hour
Walking, carrying case of beer	370 calories/hour
Cleaning your crossties	We don't know, as this has never happened.

 

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ARE YOU A FAN OF THE HW JUMPING CLINIC?
We've created a compendium of all your favorite columns. Click here for The Best of the Hugh White Jumping Clinic in PDF format.

I'm a huge believer in the concept of "bail before it gets worse." However, the success of such a decision is entirely dependent on your timing, which, in this case, sucks.

Last time I saw a dismount like this was at the Bronc riding event at the National Finals Rodeo. I have to admit that your athleticism is impressive. It looks like you're going to actually be able to hurl yourself clear of the inevitable pile of splintered brick wall panels and flailing hooves. Your untimely exit is probably also increasing your steed's chances of survival - he'll stand a much better chance of pulling himself out of this mess without you clinging to him like a 200 pound barnacle. As a bonus, falling from this height will splinter you in to so many pieces that the ring crew can just drive over you a few times with the harrow and work you in to the footing.

It looks like your turnout was put together by the same committee that built this butt-ugly faux-brick fence. If the message you want to send is "I dress about as well as I ride," then you've really hit the mark with the casual rolled-up sleeves and no gloves look. If your horse's view wasn't obstructed by the ugly shadow roll on his bridle, maybe he would have seen this disaster coming and just propelled you over the fence without him.

At any rate, all the King's Horses and All the King's Men are gonna have their work cut out for them with this one. Nice going, Humpty.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE CONSIDERED for future installments of the Hugh White Jumping Clinic, email photos to art@misfitdesignshq.com. If you would like a big black box put over your face, include $50. If you want to be assured that you will NEVER appear in the Hugh White Jumping Clinic, send $1000 in small, unmarked bills. Sorry, no checks or credit cards accepted.
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Hello, people and horses! I am thrilled to have my very own column in the HWTS Newsletter. In each issue, I will take a look at the fascinating origins of everyday things that both horses and humans take for granted. You may be surprised. Or not. I really don't care what you think. What's important is, I have my own column!

HAY - It's What's for Dinner (And breakfast. And lunch)

You've heard the expression "eat like a horse." But do you know how much hay horses actually consume? Horses eat 2-3% of their body weight in forage per day. That's 1000 pounds a month, or up to six tons of hay per year - EACH.  Add some high fat, high protein grains (no, beer doesn't count, even though one could argue that it is merely "liquid grain") for additional athletic demands, and you would need at least an acre per horse to grow enough food.  

Horses that are pastured (not to be confused with "pastuerized", something you DEFINITELY don't want to do to your horse) are not just turned out and left alone. In our climate, pastures require irrigation for 6 months of the year.  Horses must be rotated among pastures so that they are not grazing in a freshly irrigated one until the top 2 inches of soil has dried out.  They're also rotated out before they graze grass down to a stubble.  Stream beds crossing pasture land require a "buffer zone" around them to protect the aquatic environment - horses are not allowed in this zone. Many fences are required for this level of land management.  

Growing enough hay to maintain the number of horses that board at Riverside requires nearly year-round production. This involves seeding, harvesting, baling and transporting, which is turn requires a dizzying array of trucks and farm equipment and expertise for each task.  It takes some muscle power as well to stack those bales. Depending on how densely it is packed, a bale of hay can weigh from 60 to 130 pounds. Storing the hay and twice-daily tailored delivery to each animal is the final step in the long process.  While most of us take it for granted, we should in fact marvel at the hard work and coordination of effort that goes into...hay.

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2012 Horse Show Schedule - Updated April 2012

Once again, Sonoma Horse Park will host 7 horse shows, including the AA-rated HMI Equestrian Classic and the Strides & Tides show (featuring the NorCal Equitation Classics and Hudson Medal Finals).

Check out some of Northern California's popular show facilities by clicking the blue links below.

Murieta Equine Complex, Rancho Murieta, CA	Woodside Horse Park, Woodside, CA
Starr Vaughn Equestrian, Elk Grove, CA	Leone Equestrian Center, Sacramento, CA
Pebble Beach Eq. Center, Pebble Beach, CA	Menlo Charity Horse Show, Atherton, CA
Brookside Equestrian Park, Elk Grove, CA	Sonoma Horse Park, Petaluma, CA

                      2012 NorCal Horse Shows

Newsletter designed and written by JL Werner and MISFIT DESIGNS.

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