2015 Fun Show

It seems like 2014 came and went so fast I didn’t get the chance to post photos from the Fun Show that year. I will not let that happen this year. The 4th of July weekend brought together a family of friends from Louisiana to Oregon to laugh, eat good food and drive horses for a fun and educational event. I took over 2400 photos and will make them available to the exhibitors so they can see some of the mistakes they were making – mostly with gathering lines. Overall – everyone did great and showed a noticeable improvement from the previous years and improvement on Sunday from their Saturday’s drive. We are very proud of all our students who participated in this event.

There were two divisions the HAVES and the HAVE NOTS. The people who HAVE participated in our Fun training show and those who HAVE NOT participated before.  Below is a collection of photos in alphabetical order:

Beth Kendall – Shreveport, Louisiana

Beth came for 3 weeks to help us get ready for the show, drive at the show and get a few lessons in between. We could not have gotten all the work done without her! After the scores were tabulated – we found Beth had won the HAVE division. She has been to the last two Fun shows and has competed in a CDE previously.

 

 

 

 

 

Cindy Brengman – Stevensville, Montana

Cindy has been here for the last three training shows and keeps us all happy and laughing with her pure joy in either driving or being on the back of the carriage with her equestrian partner and friend, Kris Fuller. They own a sweet pair of Norwegian Fjords together and support each other in the events. The faster Kris drives the more yahoos we hear from both of the girls.

 

Don Gardner – Corvallis, Montana

Don was here for the third time also. He competed the first year with a single draft horse cross and is now driving a beautiful pair of draft/crosses. His wife Debby is his navigator.

 

Doug Graves – Belgrade, Montana

Doug has competed at this training show for three years. The first year, Doug and his wife, Eileen Wallin, drove the same pair of Friesian geldings. The second year, Eileen used her young pair of Friesian mares. Now they each have their own pair to drive. Doug was the navigator for Eileen and she navigated for him.

 

Eileen Wallin – Belgrade, Montana

When Eileen started taking lessons here at the Fraser School of Driving her husband didn’t understand the intrigue of driving horses until he came to one of her lessons. Eileen raised her own pair of mares, had them trained and is shown below having a wonderful time driving the courses. This was her third year to compete at the training show.

 

 

Kris Fuller – Stevensville, Montana

Kris has competed for three years and is in partnership with Cindy, in the photos above, with this sweet pair of Norwegian Fjords. Each year these two women bring a lot of fun with their joyful enthusiasm. Cindy navigates for Kris and vice versa.

 

LeeAnn Corlett, Drummond, Montana

LeeAnn is in the HAVE NOT division. She has not been to the training show before. She started taking lessons a few months earlier and at the last minute she was encouraged to compete at the Fun Show. She did a wonderful job driving our little rock star Mya.

 

Linda Fehrenbacher – Terrehoval, Oregon

Every spring since the first Fun Show three years ago, Linda always calls to be sure we are planning to put on another training show… we figure if she is willing to come this far – we had sure better do the show again. Linda is driving her sweet little Rio.  Her grandson Preston is her helper and navigator. Linda’s husband Ty volunteers to be a time keeper and head BBQ’er at the pot luck.

 

Lucie Murphy – Deer Lodge, Montana

This was the first year for Lucie to compete. She took a few lessons with a team of draft horses she and her husband Phil Murphy owned. Lucie decided to train one of her quarter horses to drive (with Alex Fraser’s help). They were both doing so well, Alex suggested she enter the show. Turns out the horse really enjoys driving and Lucie leaned there are a lot of things that can be done with a horse in carriage.

*Note – Lucie’s mare had never seen a bridge with a scary dark mat. She decided she didn’t want to cross it! Lucie asked Alex to walk ahead knowing that the mare would probably deduce, if the human could do it so could she. She was right!

 

Phil Murphy – Deer Lodge, Montana

This is the first year Dr. Phil drove in the Fun Show. He has watched each year but this year Alex talked him into competing with Nikko and Maverick (our trusty pair of draft crosses). I don’t know if I have ever seen Phil with a smile as big! Alex was his navigator.

Alex is pretending to be thrilled that Phil completed the Dressage Phase.

 

Rebecca Beckwith – Gold Creek, Montana

This was the first year Rebecca was able to attend the Fun Show. Alex bought her this sweet pair of Haflingers to fulfill her life long dream of owing her own horses.  She was not sure she would be able to drive the strange and difficult obstacles and hazards but by Sunday Rebecca was having a great time. And I think her husband, Carl, enjoyed it too. Alex drove with Rebecca to help her along. This is one of the great things about a training show – we don’t have to go by any strict rules – because this was about learning and having fun doing it.

 

We are very proud of all our students. Everyone showed great improvement on their driving skills! Everyone encouraged each other – laughed with and applauded each accomplishment! We love them all and look forward to next year.

I was in such a hurry to finish the blog I forgot to mention our wonderful helpers.

Joanna endured the hot sun on Saturday and strong winds on Sunday to be where she was needed.

 

 

 

Joanna also was invited to drive the Cones course and did a wonderful job with Misty and Mocha.

 

 

Talinna helped all weekend also and got the chance to drive Misty and Mocha in the Cones course. She also performed great!

 

 

 

Ty – what would we do without him?

 

 

 

 

Eric and Talinna are escorted to the Cones field by Donika – the superb event organizer!

 

 

Kate, Heather, Debby are also great helpers! Thanks everyone!