Taylor Douglas – Working Cow Horse
Raised in a horse training family Taylor’s exposure and passion for horses began at a young age. At only 26 Taylor has had success across Canada and the USA in numerous disciplines including western pleasure, calf roping, team roping, cutting, reining and cow horse. Taylor, along with his wife Tegan, own and operate Douglas Performance Horses, a successful training and coaching facility in south east Saskatchewan. Together they have one goal and that is to provide exceptional horses that the owners can enjoy. Throughout the year Taylor not only trains full time but enjoys teaching numerous horsemanship and working cow horse clinics.
Clinics Offered – Apply for a clinic and participate in the action, click here.
- Reined Work and Robo Cow – in this session you will work on what you and your horse will need to achieve a high score in the dry work portion of a working cow horse reining pattern.The second portion with the aid or a electronic flag (Robo Cow) you will learn the maneuver and positions needed to have the advantage of quietly controlling the cow, in the rail portion of a working cow horse class.
- One on One Cow Work - Now you will move up to live cows and you will learn position and control to show the ability of your horse to be a top working cow horse.
- Fence Work - Lots of action with control of your cow to move it from the boxing or holding position, to taking the cow down the fence turning it correctly both ways. then how to achieve great circles in the center of the arena with your cow , to conclude great working cow horse fence work.
Aaron Ralston – Reining
Aaron Ralston was born and raised on his family’s ranch in Western Colorado. Horses have influenced his life from his early rodeo career to his accomplishments in reining and working cow horse competitions all over the world. Aaron was the 2004 AQHA Sr. Reining Reserve World Champion. In 2006, he was part of Team USA at the World Equestrian Games, held in Aachen, Germany. Riding Smart Paul Olena, Aaron led the United States to a Team Gold Medal. He took the Bronze medal in the Individual Reining Competition.
Offering a Reining Demonstration
Tara Reimer – Vaulting and Certified Horsemanship Association
Tara Reimer BSc. Ag has always been involved with horses including 30+ years of show ring experience. Tara spent 15 with 4-H. From young, she has driven and shown the family’s Belgian hitch and now enjoys her own team at home. Tara and her husband, Derek, own/operate Cloud 9 Ranch near Steinbach, Manitoba where she spends most of her time teaching riding lessons and giving clinics.
Clinics Offered in Vaulting – Apply for a clinic and participate in the action, click here.
Clayton Hawreluik – Mini Chucks
Clayton Hawreluik is the owner of “The Hawreluik Racing Company”. Thanks to his parents at a very young age he became a big fan of chuckwagon racing. He’s been racing pony chariots and chuckwagons since 1991 attending sports days throughout Manitoba and Sask. The spring of 1999 Clayton purchased his first two mini horses which started a hobby of mini chariot and chuckwagon racing. Fourteen years later the team of mini horses has turned into around twenty which consist of four teams of four with a few spares. While attending many fairs and rodeos from as gar west as Williams Lake BC to as far east as ST. Tite, QB, Clayton’s been blessed with a lot of awesome friends and memories. Additional drivers that are involved with “The Hawreluik Racing Company” include his older brother Kelvin Hawreluik of Sheho, SK with 14 years experience; Blair Hardie of Carrot River, SK with 10 years experience; Grant Sinclair of Wynyard, SK with 4 years experience and Buddy Prouse of Invermay, SK with 1 year. Grant has raced pony chariot and chuckwagons for over 40 years winning many championships at fairs and sports days in Manitoba and Sask. Grant has been driving with the Hawreluik Racing Company for just over four years and really enjoying the entertainment. Presently Clayton is a livestock auctioneer and manage’s Heartland Livestock Services in Yorkton, SK and also attends many fairs, sports days and rodeos throughout the season with big teams of pony chariot and chuckwagon teams in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Clinics Offered – Apply for a clinic and participate in the action, click here.
Samara Heinricks – Hunter/Jumping
Samara Heinrichs began riding on her 7th birthday, taking riding lessons at a local western barn. After riding western for several years, from Western Pleasure to Team Penning Competitions, she switched to English and never looked back. Samara began competing at Hunter/Jumper shows in the Brandon area at the age of 13. After spending several years developing young horses to successful show animals, she moved to Arizona to gain more experience. After only one year of competition, she won Champion in the Junior/AO Jumper Division at the Arizona Hunter Jumper Association year-end awards, as well as placing in several other divisions. Upon moving home to Manitoba, she began training with Eric and Danae Martin. This brought on a new phase in her career. After purchasing a show jumper from the Czech Republic, she spent the summer training with Jill Henselwood and competing at Spruce Meadows. She then led the Alberta Show Jumping Team to a 5th place finish at the North American Young Rider Championships in Lexington, KY. Samara relocated to Calgary in 2011 and is currently working for Andrea Harris, at Alpine Show Jumpers, where she assists in riding, coaching and training young horses.
Clinics Offered – Apply for a clinic and participate in the action, click here.
Neil McLeod – Horsemanship
Since 1977, Neil has been the manager and head trainer at Thunderbird Horse Center Ltd., a family-owned and operated equine facility. Over 3,000 horses have received training at Thunderbird during that period. Neil has garnered championships in team roping, team penning, cutting, reining working cowhorse and AQHA Versatility. He has been an AQHA World Show finalist. Neil believes horsemanship is clear and precise communication from horse to human and from human to horse; great horsemanship is the ability to predict what will happen next. Neil has no favourite equine discipline. He believes great horsemanship appears in all disciplines all over the world. He is a fan of it all and amazed at what horses and humans can do. Here are two quotes that epitomize Neil’s philosophy: “If you quit learning you quit living.” And “I don’t want to make a horse do anything; I want to teach him to do everything.”
- Things You Can Teach Your Horse in Five Minutes or Less – Apply For Clinic Here
Life is busy and time is short, and we often think we don’t have enough time to teach our horse anything. But you can accomplish a lot in just five minutes or less. Positive differences can still be achieved in small blocks of time. If you invest just five minutes a day, the cumulative effect of those short sessions can really produce results! Some of the topics we’ll cover in this presentation are:- Looking for choices and changes
- Learning to look for positive signs, signals and gestures
- Finding a place to begin
- Thoughts are things; know what your horse is thinking about
- Little things add up to big things
- Presentation 2: Preparing and Teaching Yearlings
Most yearlings already know a lot about being a horse. In this session, we’ll learn how to teach young horses life lessons about getting along with humans. We’ll talk about how to prepare young horses for a better life, and finding a place between fearful and fearless. This session will help you get the jump on the competition and help you to be more productive in less time. We’ll cover developing a training plan, and we’ll work on the building blocks to success.
- Presentation 3: Defining Modern Horsemanship
In this session, we’ll discuss how the horse sees and experiences the world he lives in and learn to understand equine binocular vision. This will help us to understand why horses can be extremely sensitive to gestures. Because horses live in the present, we need to plan for the future and live and teach in the present. We’ll talk about setting things up for success so we can eliminate discipline and punishment. We’ll learn that when we’re training horses, less is usually more. A quote from the book The Horse Seeks Me by Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling is one of the philosophies that will be referenced in this presentation: ”A free horse that has been effectively and authentically trained by the human is always stronger, braver, more confident, more flexible, of higher status and simply more beautiful than a comparable one in the wild.” Thought provoking stuff!
