Paso Fino Wins Extreme Cowboy Race at Canada's Outdoor Equine Expo
Reprinted from Gaited Horse News
Can I get a woop-woop?!? Last week Craig Cameron, founder and host of TV's Extreme Cowboy Race, hosted an ECR competition at Canada's Outdoor Equine Expo in Burlington, ON. I entered with my Paso Fino stallion, Mercenario, and felt rather out of my element on the only gaited horse, with the only dressage saddle and the only helmet, in a sea of big Quarter Horses, Appaloosas and Paints with western saddles, cowboy hats and big shiny prize belt buckles! First round of competition was Friday June 10th, and involved a timed race through multiple obstacles, including, jumps, drag, bridge, backing, flag, pole-bending, etc. We went pretty fast, but had a few bobbles in the obstacles, and were happy to finish 7th, with the top 12 invited back for the finals the next evening. Saturday's course was all new, and as usual you only get a quick walk-through to learn it. It involved a large stretch of free ride (flat out gallop basically around the huge ring a couple times), a jump over barrels, dismount leave your horse and crawl through a tunnel and re-mount your hopefully waiting horse, through a REALLY tough pole gate, gallop to bridge, over a pattern of three connected jumps, sidepass a pole, 4 roll-backs, pick up and move a 30lb sandbag from one cone to another, leave your horse at a cone loose and climb a ladder 20 feet away (this is where Tim Fortune's horse made a dash for the exit gate... they were having a great run), remount and gallop over a series of 10 logs on the ground, free-ride, dismount and run with horse through finish line. I was hoping we would finish in the top 5... was STUNNED when we won first place (and $1500!). This was a great opportunity to show the crowd that Paso Finos (and gaited horses in general) can not only compete with the other breeds... they can win! Yay pasos! We had a blast and would definitely do it again. Pics attached here. also links to videos from friday and saturday run below:
preliminary round: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewzjapjmgSQ&feature=related
