Click on the Santa's to hear them sing!
Tuesday, 20 December 2016
Sunday, 27 November 2016
Heart 2 Heart Endurance
I spent some time yesterday making award placques for some amazing kids. Heart 2 Heart Ranch is having their annual awards and recognition party next week and I volunteered to make placques for the Endurance Riding program.
For the past few years the Owyhee Endurance rides have seen a growing invasion of kids on mules. They aren't just regular old mules, they are race bred mules... and the kids aren't just regular kids, they are special needs children who have found a passion and outlet in riding thanks to Trinity Jackson and Heart 2 Heart Ranch. They show up in droves, and they really ride! Trinity usually sponsors the group, but others have stepped in as well. We've always given discounts to Juniors at the Owyhee rides, but this year we're letting Juniors ride free! And others are contributing to the 'Juniors Ride Free' fund, including our favorite ride veterinarian who donated part of his fee to the 'mule kids'. The kids and mules always liven up ride camp and the vetting area! At the recent Halloween ride they came dressed as Dalmations (not quite 101, but still a good showing!)
For the past few years the Owyhee Endurance rides have seen a growing invasion of kids on mules. They aren't just regular old mules, they are race bred mules... and the kids aren't just regular kids, they are special needs children who have found a passion and outlet in riding thanks to Trinity Jackson and Heart 2 Heart Ranch. They show up in droves, and they really ride! Trinity usually sponsors the group, but others have stepped in as well. We've always given discounts to Juniors at the Owyhee rides, but this year we're letting Juniors ride free! And others are contributing to the 'Juniors Ride Free' fund, including our favorite ride veterinarian who donated part of his fee to the 'mule kids'. The kids and mules always liven up ride camp and the vetting area! At the recent Halloween ride they came dressed as Dalmations (not quite 101, but still a good showing!)
In 2008 Trinity received a grant from Zion Bank - the Smart Women Grant Award for 'Small Business Startup and Expansion'. That was the beginning of Heart 2 Heart Ranch.
From the H2H Ranch website: Trinity Jackson is a former special education teacher with heart. Owner of the newly created Heart-2-Heart Ranch in Parma, Idaho, Jackson teaches disabled children to ride mules. Unlike many programs that teach kids how to ride an animal around an arena, Jackson hopes her program will give disabled children confidence by letting them compete at mule rodeos and shows. "We want to teach them from the very beginning to the end, so that at some point they can be a little more independent and maybe own their own animal someday," Jackson says. "This will teach them responsibility and bring them self-confidence and self-esteem." A mother of three, Jackson used grant funds to purchase additional acreage for the ranch near her home and to buy an arena so the kids can receive training year-round. "We are trying to make it very affordable, like signing your child up to play T-ball," Jackson says. "We want whole families to be able to participate." The program will serve children across the spectrum of disabilities and in the future will include curriculum for nondisabled siblings as well. I love it that we can share our sport and our rides with so many different people, and kids. (and mules!) StephWednesday, 16 November 2016
Rapa Nui - looking back
A gray November morning, wondering about the coming winter project (I always have some project going!) and thinking back to the years of traveling around the world. November, six years ago, I was just home from an endurance ride on Easter Island - Rapa Nui - a most amazing opportunity, unforgettable images. I thought it might be fun to look back a bit until I get further inspired for this winter's project.
The story and all the photos are on Endurance.Net at http://www.endurance.net/international/Chile/2010EasterIsland/index.html
This photo is of the wrangler (native Rapa Nui riding in flip-flops ) that helped us select our horses for the race.
Horses are everywhere on Easter Island - very few cars, so people ride horses, and they basically have open range on the Island. Everybody knows whose horses belong to whom and they just graze them wherever it is possible. (for example beside this moai)
It was fun going back and reading the travel notes. While I was down there I had just seen the film documentary "180 Degrees South" - a road/boat trip down the pacific coast to Patagonia. The sound track by Ugly Casanova always reminds me of this time.
Steph Teeter
www.endurance.net
Sunday, 25 September 2016
Mom and Dad
Beautiful service for Phil & Georgie Schroeder yesterday. The entire immediate family, long-time extended 'family' and friends. A Navy gun salute and flag folding, beautiful eulogy, everyone singing along with fiddles-3 and guitar to Danny Boy, Amazing Grace, and Anchors Aweigh. It was sad and sweet and the perfect tribute to two wonderful people whose first meeting was at a USO dance in San Diego in 1943. Love all around.
Friday, 26 August 2016
Dear Diary: Summer is flying by. August 26
August 26
My good friend Christoph Schork is in Namibia this week, for the Walvis Bay Endurance Ride, brings back memories...
In 2006 I spent a couple weeks in Africa - going to this ride, which was the African Endurance Championship, and also the Saldana ride in South Africa. It was a fantastic trip including riding through a game reserve and being chased by a white rhino. (fast horses). Christoph's adventures are going to be equally wonderful, and it's been fun for me going back through my stories and photos and 'being there' again.
For anybody wanting to read my stories, they're at
http://www.endurance.net/international/2006Saldanha/index.html - The South Africa trip, and
http://www.endurance.net/international/2006WalvisBay/ - The Namibia trip. I look back at some of the adventures I've had thanks to the horses, and the sport of endurance riding. Hard to believe sometimes! An excerpt from the South African 'Saldanha Ride' story- The course wound around the bay - a lovely cove with rocky outcrops, sand shallows at low tide, Southern Right Whales spouting and rolling in the water, dolphins, gulls, cormorands, other shore birds that looked just a little different to me. We crossed several flat or rolling sections of flower covered land - big granite outcrops, smooth gray and white stones thrust in every direction, piled on top of each other. and the flowers were incredible. The whole ride takes place in a Nature Conservation area. Preserving the flora - the special coastal plants and wildflowers, the kudu (large african game animal), the tortoises, the whales, - plus a variety of other mammals. Very wild and natural habitat.
Follow on Endurance.Net
http://www.endurance.net/international/2006WalvisBay/ - The Namibia trip. I look back at some of the adventures I've had thanks to the horses, and the sport of endurance riding. Hard to believe sometimes! An excerpt from the South African 'Saldanha Ride' story- The course wound around the bay - a lovely cove with rocky outcrops, sand shallows at low tide, Southern Right Whales spouting and rolling in the water, dolphins, gulls, cormorands, other shore birds that looked just a little different to me. We crossed several flat or rolling sections of flower covered land - big granite outcrops, smooth gray and white stones thrust in every direction, piled on top of each other. and the flowers were incredible. The whole ride takes place in a Nature Conservation area. Preserving the flora - the special coastal plants and wildflowers, the kudu (large african game animal), the tortoises, the whales, - plus a variety of other mammals. Very wild and natural habitat.
Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Tuesday, 16 August 2016
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