2023 Tri-Parish 4-H Benefit Trail Ride

The 2023 Tri-Parish 4-H Benefit Trail Ride was held on Saturday April 1 at PJF Farm & Lodge at Cazan Lake in Ville Plate, La. Many Master Horsemen graduates were on hand to assist along with several LEC Board Members, including President Daniel Lyons. LEC board members Happy Broussard and Ginger Schouest took part in the trail ride experiencing the beautiful Louisiana lake-land by horse back with it's moss draped trees and waterways.

Participants enjoyed a beautiful spring day, amazing sight seeing opportunities, and nicely manicured trails from flat to very hilly bordering a somewhat steep incline in some areas, and ranging from easy to intermediate + with a few fun obstacles scattered here and there to challenge and stretch horses and riders along the way. Riders also got to view the nests of Snowy Egrets on Cazan Lake up close and personal by horseback. While no alligators "showed" themselves in Cazan Lake that day, Program Coordinator Gigi Bertrand said they definitely call Cazan Lake their home and serve a very important purpose. Gigi went on to explain that because they are there, the nests of the snowy egrets are inadvertently protected from predators such as snakes and raccoons, who would otherwise climb the trees and eat the eggs. The alligators prowling the waters at the base of those trees with the nests are the ultimate defense. Mother Nature always knows best.

Following the ride, participants were treated with a perfectly seasoned sausage Jambalaya and a divine custard-y bread pudding that everybody raved about! The ride benefited the Evangeline, Lafayette, and St. Landry Parish 4-H programs. Approximately 100 people participated and or contributed in some way this Saturday.

PJF Farm & Lodge does have cabins available for rent, kayaks and fishing. Visit their website for more information or to make a reservation.

Author: Ginger Schouest, LEC Board Member & Marketing Chair

Because Your Kiss is On My List

First things first, if you didn’t read that title jamming along with Hall and Oates,

we can’t be friends. As a trainer/clinician/coach, we pretty much never come

across a performance horse rider who doesn’t need a little more umph from their

mount at times (insert Western Pleasure joke here). In the English disciplines,

you’d commonly hear a trainer yelling, “More Leg,” while sipping a mimosa, pinky

out, and eating brie or caviar on an overly toasted cracker. In the Western world,

you might hear a trainer mentioning to their customer, “You didn’t kick him once.

I couldn’t see your legs moving at all.” Admit it. You sometimes simply run out of

more leg. What to do?

One of the things that I am consistently flummoxed by when working with new

customers is how silent many of them are when riding. Indeed you have two kinds

of riders, those who feel like they have to give the horse a running commentary of

absolutely everything, or those who get lockjaw. There is no in between. They

either completely desensitize the horse to verbal cues, or never give one. I’ve yet

to find a way to cue a horse that is lighter and freer for the horse than verbally.

While I’m not suggesting that every cue needs its own verbal command, there are

a few basic verbal commands that can enhance a lot. The Kiss or Cluck is chief

among these. This will be particularly useful if you have the sort of horse that tells

on your spurs with his tail.

I use the kiss/cluck to mean two specific things. First and most basically, a soft kiss

is a request for their attention. It might be translated as, “Hey!” Sometimes, a cue

given isn’t responded to simply because the horse’s attention was elsewhere. For

many situations a simple verbal wakeup call will bring the horse’s mind back and

their responsiveness returns.

The second way that I use the kiss is to signify, “Move Your Feet, NOW!” Using the

kiss this way begins when we are teaching basic forward motion during ground

work. Through good timing and escalating purposefully, it can easily be expanded

to any cue when I want the horse to add a little more TRY. This aspect applies in

many situations. If they are hesitant to load in the trailer, kiss. If they aren’t

stretching out into that long trot like they should, kiss. If your lead departures

aren’t crisp, kiss. If the side pass is dragging, kiss. If they aren’t backing as hard or

fast as you’d like, kiss. All it means is “Give me MORE!”

A constant in all of my articles is the importance of timing when training a horse.

Going back to that groundwork and forward motion stuff, I’ll assume you have

some sort of stick/whip/rope/plastic bag on a tree limb apparatus that you use to

help you get more umph and move those feet. In behavioral terms, this phase of

training is called sensitizing. If you consistently kissed to the horse prior to using

that training aid, that kiss would become the thing that happens before what

happens happens. Kiss and then enforce the kiss until the enforcement has been

unnecessary for a while. Horse s are great at anticipation, whether you want them

to be or not, and this time, we want them to be.

I find it particularly helpful to have an escalating series of kisses/clucks in my

toolbox. That means that I kiss once softly for their attention. By softly, I mean

that my horse can hear me, but someone 5-10 ft away wouldn’t. Hearing this, my

horse’s ears should come back to me, even if he was nervous at a show and

nickering to his buddy. He should prepare and know that a cue is coming when he

hears that soft kiss. This means that I should be able to give that cue very, very

softly and it will be recognized and acted upon by the horse, but relatively unseen

by everyone else. Sound helpful?

I might also be in a situation where I simply need more from my horse, and, for

any number of reasons, I just can’t kick him harder. Maybe, I have a horse that

has been soured to leg aids and now reacts by swishing his tail like a windshield

wiper. That type of horse will really benefit from having an alternate way to ask

for more that doesn’t involve spurring harder. Hopefully, I have worked at home

on kissing softer, then a little bit louder, now, a little bit louder now, just a little

bit louder now, hey ay a ay, and my horse knows that he’d better get to moving

some feet, or else I’ll have to Shout! Pick my heels up and SHOUT!!! And again, to

be clear, this way of kissing/clucking can be used in any situation. How I have my

body shaped up, whether on the ground or in the saddle, is what will tell the

horse how to move. The escalating kisses tell him to move, NOW.

Particularly when training young/green horses, I find this use of kissing/clucking

to be invaluable. Frankly, I put it in there so strongly that I almost want the horse

to get anxious if I get a few louder kisses in. This tension is what builds that

motivation. It is a valuable tool to help sharpen up skills and get responses

automatic, without thought, now. There is certainly a time when we need to give

our horses lots of time to think. There are also times when they need to simply

obey and move. All horses could use a little more Right Now in them. Indeed, as

this becomes developed, a double kiss becomes my cue for a lead departure. Not

to indulge in hyperbole, but I wrote this article because your kiss, your kiss, is on

my list, of the best things in life.

Author: Daniel Dauphin, LEC Board Member and Volunteer Writer

Scenes From The LEC Annual Meeting

Despite waking up to freezing cold temperatures, many folks from around the state attended the 18th Louisiana Equine Council Annual Meeting. And boy can we say FOOD, LOTS OF IT! Folks did NOT leave hungry! Each bowl of Shrimp Creole was over flowing with shrimp provided by the Louisiana Seafood Board! We appreciate our guests speakers who included Senator Heather Cloud, Senator Bob Hensgens, Dr. Rachael Cesar Martinez, and Bill Rodier. We also appreciate Daniel Dauphin for his bit clinic and Jessie Jordan for his horsemanship clinic. We thank our MANY volunteers who turned out to man booths and help with other various tasks, we couldn't have done it without you! Special thanks go out to The Busy Bees(Youth Brigade) for their service to community today as they worked tirelessly with any task assigned to them! Hats off to board member Sharyon Thompson who did an amazing job in coordinating this year's annual meeting, Robbin Rosalis for acting Master of Ceremonies, Lisa S. Bell for her culinary and kitchen skills, and Danielle Vale for manning the membership table.

If you missed it this year, we hope to see you next year. We also have an upcoming event that will be posted in the next few days. You can re-new your membership on our website by clicking the JOIN NOW button at the top and choosing your plan. All major credit cards are accepted as well as paypal. It even works on your smart phone!

Author: Ginger Schouest, LEC Board Member, Marketing Chair