Day 8: Concluding Our Clinics

Today we got up earlier than most because we had our clinic outside. Abby and Frankie demonstrated halter breaking with a 10 month old colt in a round pen. They showed the proper ways to approach your young horse and explained body language in accordance with round penning and catching. Once they showed how to catch your horse, they went over how to build a solid foundation with your horse when he is young so he will be able to overcome obstacles easier in the future. They explained the importance of imprinting as a new born which helps halter breaking the foal. Abby also provided examples of how to avoid accidents when working with young horses. Frankie was the speaker while Abby demonstrated on the colt.

Abby with the colt

Frankie explaining what to do

 Hannah and Lyndi stepped in to discuss and exhibit groundwork. Lyndi described proper release as the colt moved off pressure from the halter. Hannah demonstrated how to handle the colt and showed how to de-sensitize using the lead rope by throwing it around the back, hip, and legs of the colt.

Lyndi explaining what Hannah is doing with the colt

Lyndi showing how to flex your horse

Hannah working with desensitizing the colt

As Hannah demonstrated this, Lyndi was explaining to the crowd what Hannah was doing and about the colt's reactions. They stressed the importance of having your colt used to things around its legs and eventually carrying a saddle. Lyndi then moved into the round pen and showed the safe and correct place to stand while teaching the baby how to move off of side pressure. She did an excellent job showing the correct time to release the colt's face and how to ask the horse to come forward with his shoulder and move his hip away from her body.  The clinic drew the attention of the nearby horse show and cattle show.

Questions were raised about different bending techniques, as well as current problems attendees were having with horses. Finally, a long discussion about tying ensued in which lots of thoughts and experiences were exchanged between the NMSU group and the APCM group.

Dr. White signing completion certificates for the participants in the clinics

After the clinic we toured a local stable.  It was a very nice stable complete with beautiful barns, manicured lawns, pristine arenas,  and a lot of very large bulls.  The facility also collects bull semen and ships it all over the world.

The collection packing room

One of the many large bulls

The front of the facility is an auction house also. This place was quite large, and housed many animals, but was right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Asuncion.

The main barn

The announcing stand at Las Talas

The beautiful arena

Dr. White helping a few of the clinic participants examine their horse

We also learned that this barn will be hosting the 2012 Futurity which is a huge excitement for all Quarter Horse people in Paraguay. We will get a presentation about it on Saturday. As we were leaving, we saw a friend we had made at the clinics bringing his horse out to ride.  Before getting on, he bent and stretched his horses neck, just like Lyndi had taught him that morning.  We were so excited to see our efforts already making a positive impact.

 Driving with everyone and all the traffic was starting to become easier to handle as the days went on... Until today. Then gentleman that drove us to the farm, Nico, was very nice. But his driving was crazier than most. He was starting out very good, until we got behind a few busses which is when he started zooming in and out of them. We got closer to the hotel and he decided to take us on a short cut through this very bumpy road. Hannah told Dr.White , "Well we got to go off roading in Paraguay." we weren't too sure if he knew where we were going so we asked and he said yes at which time him didn't stop and cut off cars to make a left turn. Then he realized the hotel was in the other direction so he did a u turn very quickly cutting off more cars. There was a sign in our lane saying we couldn't go any further in that lane but the car he cut off wouldn't let him in, so he had to slam on the brakes before he hit the sign. It was quite an experience... We were all ok and joked about it afterwards... After all, he had just said he was the safest driver.  That evening Marcelo, Paci, Juliana, and Dirce took us to a little cafe where we got to try empanadas and other tasty dishes before we went to a local night club. We were all very excited to experience the local Paraguayan night life that everyone this week was talking so highly of. It was very fun, yet different, but overall  a great time! The night club was very posh, with topiary bushes hanging upside down from the ceiling, velvet couches, and a huge chandelier made from champagne glasses. Needless to say this was fancier than clubs in Las Cruces. It was again a late night for us but we all enjoyed the experience.