Calendar Timely Reminders Useful Web Sites Questions & Comments Contact Information

October 17, 2005
Volume 1, Number 6

He is home!    What an exciting day Friday was for the Rodina family.  Our son Luke arrived home after eight months being gone with the Marines in Iraq. Thank you for all of your prayers in helping keep Luke and his unit safe.

Between Luke getting home and completing our 6th Annual Dream Ride In The  Flint Hills last week at the Panther Ranch, it has been quite a week. We could not have ordered better weather for our ride in the beautiful Flint Hills.  The Panther Ranch which is located near Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, hosted this year’s sold-out ride. Thanks to Rusty, the ranch manager, and his wife, Debbie, for being such great hosts. The ride was a reunion for a lot of old friends, along with many new friendships were made. It was a real treat to have my brother, Mike, and my sister-in-law, Pat, join us for the ride this year. Also, a big thanks to my partner, Suzan Barnes, owner of the Grand Central Hotel in Cottonwood  Falls, along with John Deere and all of our other corporate partners. The fellowship, three rides, western music, cowboy poetry, clinics, great food, reception at the Grand Central Hotel, Cowboy Church, wonderful door prizes, and all of the John Deere Gators were “Unbelievable!”

We have some meetings coming up in the next few weeks that we would love for you to join us. Higginsville Feed and Heartland Farm & Lawn are holding one on October 25 at the Heartland facility in Higginsville, Mo. (details are in the calendar). Louisburg Tractor Boyz in Louisburg, Kansas has a meeting scheduled for Oct.27, Thursday evening. Be watching for details on upcoming Equine Meetings scheduled for these dates Oct.14-Grain Valley, MO.; Oct.16-Spring Hill, KS.; & Oct.17th-Cameron, MO.

An opportunity to learn from one of the best! Plan to attend the Teddy Robinson Clinic on Thursday, Nov. 10th at the Royalty Arena in Carthage. Teddy just won his seventh NRCHA Futurity in Reno a few weeks ago.  (See details and flyer in calendar below.)

Craig Cameron will be coming back to our district in 2006! I have Craig scheduled for April 18 thru April 27. You can ride with him in clinics scheduled for April 21st in Ellsworth, Kansas and April 23rd at the Saddle and Sirloin Club in Kansas City. Plans are to have Craig at the “Ranch Rodeo Weekend” in Ellsworth, Rockin V Ranch in Topeka on April 20, and John Deere/Purina Family Night on April 27th at the Saddle & Sirloin Club in Kansas City. You need to plan to attend -- it was a blast last year!

I will be talking to all of you in a couple of weeks and hope to see you at the upcoming meetings. Remember, Purina Mills is the ONLY COMPANY that will feed their products to their own horses, before we ask you to feed it to yours.

Happy Trails!

Ernie

NEED TO RALLY TO HELP !

On Sunday morning, Oct.2, a flash flood hit the Northeast Kansas and Leavenworth area. Our good Purina dealer, Horse Country, owned by Don Brown and Sherry Krieger was hit hard to the extent of in excess of $250,000. Their insurance had the clause in the many pages that it would not cover standing water. They started from scratch and built it up to one of the leading Purina Dealers in the area. If you know Don & Sherry, they are always the first to help others, donate to organizations, and give themselves to the customer.

Our good dealer Kristine from Pleasant Hill Pet & Livestock came up with the idea to challenge other Purina Dealers to make a donation. That gives you an idea of the kind of impact Don & Sherry make on folks along with the kind of person Kristine is. I thought I would also get the information out to folks that know Don & Sherry and might want to help.

Don did not want us to do this, but I know if the tables were turned, he would send the first check. So if you know Don & Sherry and you want to make a contribution, you can make it by sending a donation to: Commerce Bank, c/o Horse Country Benefit, P.O. Box 129, Leavenworth, Kansas  66048 (make check payable to: Horse Country Benefit).

Calendar of upcoming events:

October

November

The Checkerboard Corral Radio Show continues to grow!  Tune in to one of the stations airing our show.
                Sunday      6:00am - 7:00am       WIBW 580am or listen on-line at  www.580radio.com
                Sunday      4:00pm - 5:00pm       KOFO 1220am - Ottawa, KS
                Saturday    6:00am - 7:00am        KKOW 860am - Pittsburg, KS
                Saturday    9:00am - 10:00am      KMDO 1600am -Fort Scott, KS
                Saturday    9:00am - 10:00am      KCTE 1510am – Kansas City
                Saturday    4:00pm                      KFRM 550am - Clay Center/Salina-Wichita                          
                Monday     5:00pm - 6:00pm       KCXL 1140am – Liberty, MO
                Coming Soon! . . . . . . . . . . . . .  KFEQ 680am - St. Joe, MO

                Tune in to  www.horsecity.com  & listen;  Rotated on their program!
           

Horse Management Tip
                                                                                        Who’s Doin’ the Thinking?

A very common problem amongst horse owners and most often the more novice riders is the problem of allowing your horse to make too many decisions. While you want your horse to enjoy their job, you must also establish between you and your horse “Who’s Boss.” To do that, you absolutely must be the one in charge and the one making the decisions about things like “where to go” and “what to do” during your training sessions.

A very common situation where riders fail in this regard is simply asking the horse to walk away from the barn. As you are leaving the barn or maybe other horses, your horse will most certainly want to return to a place that is less restrictive or return to his friends where he can eat and play. As you leave the barn, allowing your horse to turn and head back lets your horse know immediately, “he’s in control.” You must be able to outthink your horse to become a successful trainer. So, how many times is too many times of allowing your horse to turn around before you correct them? Once is too many. However, when you are learning this part of the training process, once is sure to happen before you realize it was a mistake. From there, you must comprehend and understand that each time you leave the barn or his friends, your horse is likely to try it again. Be prepared from the moment you mount up that you are not going to allow your horse to make that decision. Stay two-handed on your reins and look up where you are going and guide your horse that direction not allowing him to turn left or right but head the direction you intend. Lackadaisical riding habits are the most common reason these training problems arise. Not paying attention or not “out-thinking” your horse allows mistakes to happen and keep happening until a simple-solvable problem turns into an uncontrollable horse.

Here is a general rule of thumb in learning and teaching your horse who is in control. Whenever your horse tries to turn right, ask him to turn left instead. If you are headed towards a tree and your horse tries to go left around it—go right instead. If you rode to the end of the road and you had planned on turning to the right and going back but your horse did it first—stop him and ask him to turn to the left to go back. You make the decision of where to go and keep them guessing somewhat so they have to listen to you. Always reinforce that he should not make these types of decisions, especially with regard to direction. If you take this method into your training process, your horse will soon begin to wait for your signal in where to go and will become more respectful of your instructions.

One point to note—if you already have a problem such as this with a horse, remember that safety for the rider is of utmost importance. If problems such as these have manifested into dangerous situations, be sure to ask an experienced trainer to help you and your horse. We’ve seen barn sour horses that had been in control for so long that they would run over anything or anybody, flip over backwards or run through a bit so hard, all of which were their attempts to be in control. Horses such as these quickly become very dangerous to deal with and help correct; however, they are usually resolvable problems. We suggest you look to very experienced trainers to help with horses like these. Most of all, know that it only took “once” to allow this behavior to eventually become uncontrollable.

Remember, ride in control but allow your horse the freedom to do his job on his own—as long as he’s doing it correctly. Don’t pick and pull at him constantly but think ahead of him and guide him under your direction and not his.

Ride safely,

                                                                                        Dawn & Geff Dawson
                                                                                        2 Bar D Ranch
                                                                                        Alma, Kansas

                                                                                        www.ranchcowboy.com

Timely Reminder

If you want to run an ad in our Checkerboard Corral Publication for the 2005 Winter Edition, we need it by 11/15/05. Our publication is in its sixth year, and our circulation has exceeded 23,000, with over 20,000 mailed directly to the horse owner. E-mail us or give me a call at 785/418-6047, and we can give you the details.

Don’t forget, if you are interested in seeing what the Purina Program can do for your horse, take the Purina Challenge. E-mail us, and I can get your Purina representative in touch with you to match the right feeding program for your horse or horses and TAKE THE CHALLENGE!  When it comes to Equine Research, Purina Mills is the company that can say, “WE FEED OUR FEED TO OUR HORSES, BEFORE WE ASK YOU TO FEED IT TO YOURS!”
 

Useful Websites for horse owners:

Questions & Comments:

We at the Checkerboard Corral would love to hear any questions, comments or suggestions you might have, and we are always looking for items to add to this publication.  To contact us, please send an e-mail to Ernie.Rodina@agbusinessmail.net  and have a great day!

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Contact Information:

To submit any information you would like us to consider for publication on our website, in the printed publication or on this newsletter, e-mail your information to associate editor, Joann.Riggs@agbusinessmail.net

If you are not currently receiving the free printed publication of Checkerboard Corral and would like to be on our mailing list, please send us your name and mailing address.  We are always interested in hearing your ideas about the value of this newsletter, or whether you have any problems downloading or viewing this document. If you have additional E-mail addresses of friends or contacts that you would like to add to our subscriber list or names and addresses to add to our printed publication of Checkerboard Corral, please contact: Ernie.Rodina@agbusinessmail.net or surface mail to:

Checkerboard Corral
10715 Kahlmeyer Dr.
St. Louis, MO 63132

Happy Trails Everyone!

Ernie Rodina

(c) 2005-2007  Checkerboard Corral
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