3-Ring Circus at the Carriage House Farm in Hugo

On Sun day, Aug 7, Brendan Hollenbeck, Kelly O'Rourke, Jennifer Finch, Jerry Kleffman, Peg Powers and Shaina Botka, Mark and Katie enjoyed a great show, jumping & dressage!

Videos posted by Kristin Bordanea

Dressage photos -- Angela Schroeder's gallery.

Directions (google map)

Wonder and Jet Get Ribbons June 4 and 5.

St. Croix Dressage Show June 4.

Katie and Wonder scored nearly 68 on their first First Level Test 1 and took home a blue ribbon.

Combined Test at Carriage House June 5.

Katie and Mark competed on Wonder Girl and Jet in dressage and jumping at Training Level (3'3"). Mark and Jet took home the third place ribbon. Picture of Mark and Jet to come!

Otter Creek Farm Spring Horse Trial, May 20-22.

Mark placed third in his Novice division, riding Jet in a 3-day event.

See Photos (3 mb .pdf slide show)       (Same photos in larger format -9 mb)

An Eventing Trial includes:
Dressage
Cross Country
Stadium Jumping

Schooling Show -- Sunday, May 15th

The annual Marcia Ward Memorial Schooling Show had a great turnout on a beautiful day and was a big success. See Photos by Amanda Plucker.

Drill Team Pattern for 2011

The manuevers for this year's Washington County and MN State Fair perfomances are drawn out in this .pdf file (2.84 MB) .

More numbers will be added later, so check back here in a few days for the latest version.

Trail Rides for WRR lesson students (only)

The sign-up for trail rides begins Sunday, April 3rd. Sign up for one each time on April 3, April 17 and May 1 and as many as you wish starting May 15.

See Details

Contact and Connection Clinic

On March 6th and March 27th the Education Committee of the Windy Ridge Riders Horse Club sponsored a clinic by Alison Sader Larson on becoming a better rider through understanding contact and connection. Alison (of Sleipner Stabels) is a dressage instructor and trainer. Mark, Katie and a few other WRR riders have taken lessons with her. On March 6th, Alison had demo riders and handouts showing what different types of contact look like – from beginners to advanced; from western to hunter to dressage. She talked about the progression of horse and rider to true contact and connection. Pictured at left is one of the demo riders, eventing trainer and rider Liz Lund, on her well-connected horse, Lucy. On March 27th Alison gave 9 club-subsidized private lessons to club members. Everyone learned a great deal!

Vet Clinic

Sunday, March 20, The Education Committee of the Windy Ridge Riders Horse Club sponsored another a clinic concerning horse health care.

From the clinic: Three videos show lameness checks and bandaging.

Equine Health Evaluation and Lameness Checks. How do you determine a horse's basic health? Learn to take the horse's pulse, respiration, gum refill rate. How do you know if your horse is lame, and if so, what foot or leg is sore? Dr. Genevieve from Stillwater Equine filled us in!

Valentine Fun Show Feb 13

The Windy Ridge Riders Horse Club enjoyed their warmest ever winter fun show.

Here are 800 photos posted by Amanda Plucker.

And 900 photos posted by Joe Macc.

Here's a photo of Newton ready for rope-race take-off!

Our Winter Carnival Parade Units Had a Great Time

The Windy Ridge Riders Horse Club was awarded the Vulcan Crowd Pleaser Award

12 horses and riders performed drill maneuvers in both the Grande Day and Torchlight Parades.  The weather was comparatively balmy and the crowds were appreciative.

See Photos of Penny in the parade.

Christmas Caroling Horseback Ride, Dec 19th

Our Woodbury neighbors were thrilled to see a long line of 45 horses parading through the neighborhood on our annual Christmas Caroling ride.
Joanne Thibault took a quick video of the line of horses.
Karen Graves has a photo gallery of our festive riders preparing to bring Christmas cheer to the neighborhood.
Here's a map of our Route.

How the Horses Fared During the 12/11/10 Winter Storm

Lots of people have stories after yesterday's storm. We thought we'd share what it took to take care of the horses yesterday. Read about Mark & Katie's day.

Horse Skeleton Game

A good test of your horse anatomy knowledge. Good Luck! (And try to beat Mark's time.)

Other anatomy quizes: main parts    skeleton   

Cow Sorting!

For extra fun, several horses and riders from the Windy Ridge took cow sorting lessons.

(Summer 2010)

Dinosaurs at the Windy Ridge Ranch!

For Halloween 2010 the Windy Ridge Riders Horse Club held a fun show with over 60 riders participating.  The highlight of the day was the costume event, in which top honors went to a pair of dinosaurs, a bingo board, and an Indian princess.

Some very professional photographers were present.  Joe Macc has provided this gallery of photos. Kathleen Smith captured everyone in the costume event with these images --in a 13MB .pdf slide show (for which the WRR has high resolution copies if needed by anyone).

Also, check out photos in facebook albums by Amanda Plucker and Kristen Bordanea. Amanda has 600+ photos of the show in 6 albums.

And don't miss the photo of our own club president, Helen Krone, finding Zip's neck a secure landing place after a jump.

Finally, a quick video of the costume event is on you-tube.

175 Windy Ridge Riders, Friends & Family watched the movie Secretariat!

Tuesday, Oct 26 , 2010

The Windy Ridge Riders held their own showing of the movie at the Woodbury Theatre. All WRRHC members and WRR lesson students -- and their families --were invited to join in.  Cost: Club Members Free, Non-members $4.00.

It was a great opportunity to watch such a fun movie with a group of horse enthusiasts.

Christina Zurick, a WRR rider who knows a lot about thoroughbred racing, gave us a great introduction to the movie.

And remember, our own Racer and Stormy are great-grand children of the most famous thoroughbred race horse, Secretariat!

Windy Ridge Riders Horse Club Halloween Fun Show

Sunday, Oct. 31, at 10:00am at the Windy Ridge Ranch

Show Bill

Come watch the show, especially the first event, horses in costume!

WEG 2010

Mark and Katie traveled to the Kentucky Horse Park to watch the world's finest equestrians compete in the World Equestrian Games.  In Eventing, we rooted for our favorite, Becky Holder, who was third going into the jumping phase, but had to withdraw due to a lameness with her horse Comet. German rider Michael Jung placed first.  A video of his stadium jumping is on You-Tube.   And the USEF website has a series of videos showing WEG eventing. A video of Becky Holder's cross-country ride is here.

2010 Otter Creek Fall Horse Trials Sept. 24, 25 and 26. Mark Ward (on Jet) and Katie Clapp (on Wonder Girl) competed in the Novice level (jumps at 2'11"). A horse trial consists of three phases: Dressage, Cross-Country, and Stadium Jumping.

We each got a fourth place (in different divisions -- we didn't compete against each other!)

Click here for a wonderful photo album from the cross-country rides -- thanks to Angie Schroeder!

Watch a video of Katie Stadium Jumping last spring.

Bingo -- our new pony!

Click the thumbnail image. Bingo!  -- a photo of our recent addition to the Windy Ridge Ranch schooling string.  Bingo has a sweet, inquisitive, gregarious personality that will win him lots of attention at the WRR. Bingo is a mixed breed pony gelding, 3 1/2 yrs. old. He is in basic training for riding and driving and shows excellent tractability.

Drill Team and JETs Performed at the

Washington County Fair on Thursday, Aug 5.

Photos & videos soon.

Drill Team

Our 2010 Drill Team Pattern won 2nd place at the State Fair.

Click the image to open a .pdf file showing the pattern details.

Valentines Fun Show

Over 40 contestants made it a fun day at the WRR. Our "show in the snow" went well.

Here's a photo gallery. (Thanks to Karen Graves for some of the photos).

Here's a quick video review of the Rope Race, Ski-joring, the Parade of Hearts, and Bobaloosa carrying three riders. (Updated, 2/18/2010)

The Windy Ridge Riders performed in the Winter Carnival Torchlight Parade, Saturday, Jan. 30th.

Check out these official Winter Carnival parade photos.

Justin is still going strong at age 26!

Becky Holder Clinic at Carriage House Farms attended by Mark & Katie Jan. 2 & 3.

Tessa Andrews Receives a $500 Grant from the MN Horse Council for Her Girl Scout Gold Award Project

The Washington County Fair Board agreed to match the grant. Tessa will work with volunteers to install a new wash station at the Washington County fairgrounds the spring of 2010. Let Tessa know if you'd like to help!

MN Horse Council Scholarship Winner
(Jan 2010) Ellie Voss received a second Minnesota Horse Council (MHC) scholarship for $3,000 to continue her college pre-vet program. She will receive the scholarship at the MHC Annual Meeting on Jan. 16th. Ellie credits her daily work with Nanibou (after Nanibou broke her leg) for her inspiration to become a veterinarian.

Watch a video of her 2009 award presentation.

Keeper, Clown of the Herd

Keeper was euthanized Saturday, Nov. 28, after to a sudden illness. Keeper was a 14-year-old Quarterhorse-Arabian, uncle to Wonder Girl. His registered name was Broadway Gold Impress. Read more...

The University of Minnesota pathology lab identified liver disease as the cause of death. The lesions on his liver were severe and rarely seen. One possible cause could have been long-term chronic ingestion of, and a unique sensitivity to, pyrrolizidine alkaloid (PA) toxins from plants, but the list of suspect plants are mostly unseen in Minnesota (and do not occur in the WRR pasture). The pathologist said we'll never really know why Keeper's liver became diseased and there is nothing that could have been done to treat it.

New horses at the Windy Ridge Ranch

Izzy and Remy are our two new horses.

Izzy is a 5 yr. old thoroughbred mare (dapple grey) and Remy is a 5 yr. old Kentucky Mountain Horse gelding (chestnut). After additional training, they will become WRR schooling horses.

Larger photo.

The Windy Ridge Riders Horse Club 2009 Halloween Fun Show
was a huge success, with 65 participants. 23 competed in the costume event.

Here's a photo gallery of the costumed riders.

(Thanks to Kathleen Smith for the very professional photos.)

It takes Talent!

Read about Lynne Mentureck's 2009 State Fair ride.

Drill Team wins 2nd place at the 2009 Minnesota State Fair! And gets 1st in the Stable Appointment Awards. See a video.

See the full list of awards for the events WRRers were in.

Washington County Fair, July 30th

The Drill Team and JETs performed at the Washington County Fair Thursday, July 30th.

See the video of the Drill Team performance!

WRRHC Dick Kachel Memorial Fun Show, July 19

See Bob Krone's Photo Gallery

See Joe Macc's Photo Gallery

The herd enjoys their first outing into the big pasture last May, 2009

When the Sci-Girls crew filmed a show at the Windy Ridge Ranch, TPT videographer Michael Phillips caught this video of the entire herd running out into the pasture.

See the video. (At left Rosemare leaps over a gully. Watch for this moment in the video -- near the end.)

Old News & Events

Click here to see a history of more Windy Ridge Activities