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Idlehour McHenry's Year in the words of Cindy Bank, illustrated by pictures of some of their successes!

IdleHour McHenry (PB 3854), a 11 year old gelding by Rambler’s Renown, out of Kee (TB), started his new career as a volunteer Mounted Patrol horse/ event horse in the fall of 2005 after a very successful career as a Fourth Level dressage horse.

I had decided to bring Hen home because I wanted to start to work with him and do some other activities that being a full time dressage show horse wasn’t allowing me to do. It was my intention to start his new job with the Lake Metroparks Volunteer Mounted Posse with lots of park patrols and add in other training sessions over the winter (nuisance training, crowd control, Drill work and Musical Ride). With the help of barn owner and friend Mary McKeon, we started to teach him how to jump and it was my ultimate goal to compete in some unrecognized events in the summer of 2006 while Mary would do a few recognized Beginner Novice events as well as some Hunter/Jumper shows over the winter. A bad fall during a ‘vehicle extraction’ exercise at a Mounted Police training session in March resulted in surgery and changed my summer plans, but worked out well for Mary and Hen.

Hen is a quick learner and quite athletic over fences. During the winter months Mary and Hen took jumping lessons from local professional Jeff Taylor and worked on her dressage with Charlotte Bayley. We gave Hen the mileage we could with local Hunter shows and finally in April started him in a few Jumper classes. He did well and always came home with ribbons.

Due to a very wet spring, when eventing season started in May Hen still hadn’t seen a cross country fence and it was at his first event in Kentucky where he learned how to gallop and jump at the same time. His first outing wasn’t great, but he had a super dressage test and went clean show jumping. He didn’t understand the water, but a loophole in the rules allowed us to give him the confidence and experience he needed to go clean. By his third event he was winning consistently- often with dressage scores in the low 20’s and more often then not having the lowest dressage score of the entire event.

Hen and Mary qualified for the American Eventing Championships in Raedford, NC in the fall of 2006 and we went. It proved to be a worthwhile trip as they came home the Beginner Novice Champions, finishing on their dressage score of 24.8 out of 52 horses, winning close to $7,000 worth of cash and prizes, including a custom Stockhouse Cross Country saddle. This score was the third lowest dressage score in all divisions and by the time the last horse had gone show jumping, they moved up to having the lowest score of the entire show. The AEC’s had over 550 horses entered this year.

Henry’s eventing season was good enough to enable him to finish fifth at the National level for Beginner Novice with the United Stated Eventing Association (USEA) and Reserve Champion for Area 8. He also finished Reserve Champion for Novice in the Performance Horse Registry (he won one Novice competition in August), as well as Performance Horse Champion for both ‘Eventing’ and ‘Hunter/Jumper’ and ‘Reserve Champion’ for Versatility with the Cleveland Bay Horse Society of North America as well as winning the “Forbes Trophy” for highest placing part bred Cleveland Bay gelding.

Over the summer and Fall I also continued to work with Hen and his mounted patrol work. Most of our unit’s responsibilities revolve around park patrols and giving demonstrations to the public about what we do to help the Ranger department. We also train with various nuisance obstacles teaching the horse to trust that the rider won’t put him in a dangerous situation and strengthening the bond between horse and rider. We work with them using things as walking over tarps- eventually covered in cans, plastic bottles and various other noisy trash items, pushing through a gauntlet of pool noodles, walking through smoke or bubbles (this is extremely valuable when it comes to parades that may have smoking manholes or kids with bubbles and balloons), carrying flags (I often carry the American flag as lead rider for Drill Team) and working in close quarters in Drill formations for both performances (both Drill and Musical Ride) and Honour Guard details. Other unit responsibilities include parades and parking details for various special events.

In August Hen and I participated in the National Mounted Police Colloquium at the Kentucky Horse Park with over 100 other mounted police- both commissioned and volunteers (approx. 15% of the participants are from volunteer units). Hen tried everything I asked him and even did better then some of the commissioned horses. He got really involved in the ‘Crowd Control’ scenarios and didn’t care that crowds were screaming and pushing past him while tennis balls were thrown at us.

In the individual nuisance competition I asked him to at least try 8 of the 10 obstacles and he did. Obstacles included walking past a running auger, walking over a stack of mattresses, backing through a narrow set of cones while I carried a large flag (a control type situation). Most obstacles had a choice of 5 or 10 points and to give him the best experience possible; I opted for the 5 point options wherever possible. Out of a possible 65 points, we got a 43 and finished 60^th overall in the competition. I was beyond pleased as I wasn’t sure if I could even get him in the arena alone.

I also rode him in his first parade and participated in both Musical Ride as well as Drill Team for “Country Lights”- the holiday festival at the Lake Metroparks Farmpark this past December. He was a star for everything and even has learned to enjoy the small children patting him at the end of each performance.

Hen’s plans for the upcoming year are to teach me how to event again (I seem to have become a chicken over fences in my old age) and do some unrecognized events this summer. Mary plans on making the move up to Novice and participate at the AEC’s at Lamplight in Chicago (he’s already qualified from a win in August at Novice) this September. I will also continue with his mounted posse training. Mary also wants to get her Bronze Medal from USDF and if I can I would like to finish my Bronze Medal as well next fall.

Foxhollow Windward aka Something In Red (Scarlett) is a 1999 17'3 hand purebred mare. She
was started under saddle as a four year old and ridden on trails until she turn five. She then
started her dressage training with Tedi Rae Passch once a week along with her stable mate, String Of Pearls.

At six she was started over fences with our resident Olympic rider Kevin Freeman of Portland, OR. Last year was spent riding first level dressage, jumping, eventing with some hunt seat ring classes to broaden her all round skills.

Scarlett will enter the world of recognized eventing in 2007 with her owner/rider Tina Anderson under the guidance of Anna Collier.

This past 2006 show season will be a memorable one for the Douglas household. Heart O'Bruce ("Bruiser"), a CB Sport Horse gelding by Forbes Native Statesman out of the TB mare Filly Grande, completed his last season of strictly in-hand competition. Although we had much success and only a few embarrassing moments, the most treasured is the blue ribbon won at the Upperville Colt & Horse Show this past June. Any ribbon from Upperville is special, but having won it in a class of nineteen against other well bred Cleveland Bay Sport Horses meant something even more.

It seems like it was only yesterday that we were helping Bruiser out of his dam. Now a big, strapping, four year old, he is ready to move on to being a riding horse. We wish the best of luck to everyone in the coming year.

aka "The Coachman" (PB 3727). They took Honorable Mention in the Hunter/Jumper category.

Chase has had a stellar year in 2006! He has been in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky showing and competing waving the Cleveland Bay Sporthorse flag. This past year he has competed in Eventing, Hunters, Jumpers, and a Dressage schooling show, as well as appearing at the Hoosier Horse Fair in Indianapolis, Indiana with Donna McDowell’s mare, Maidstone Julia and Tracie Travers’ stallion, Stainmore Wolfhound.

Chase is a very talented jumper and has really excelled in all jumping disciplines. This year he had a great showing competing in the Large Working Hunter (3’3”) and Regular Working Hunter (3’6”) divisions as well as the Training Jumper (3’3”) and Combined Jumper (3’9”) with his owner, Christine Neff. He was also ridden by a 16 year old girl in the Junior/Amateur Owner Jumper (3’6”) division when another horse was needed to help fill the class.

There are hopes to have him compete in 2007 at some “A” rated Hunter/Jumper shows as well as the local H/J circuit shows. It is also possible that Chase will compete in a Jumper Calcutta class in the summer with some prize money available!

On the eventing and dressage front, Chase is doing very well. Since he has extraordinary jumping abilities, the cross country and stadium jumps are very easy for him. Sometimes it’s keeping his attention galloping to the jumps that can be a problem! His dressage work is really coming along and only continues to improve his jumping as well. The plan will be to qualify for Region 2 Dressage Championships, as well as the American Eventing Championships in 2007 as they are both taking place at a nearby venue.

In the meantime, Chase enjoys keeping his herd of geldings in order and loves flirting with the mares. He is a very kind and gracious teacher giving lessons to students of all ages and abilities including Chris’s little 5 year old student doing walk/trot on him. He is worth his weight in gold, and we are so lucky to have him.

We hope to continue promoting the Cleveland Bay breed at competitions and expos in 2007, both with Chase and our new Cleveland Bay Sporthorse filly, Tipperary Peyton. May they be great ambassadors of the breed and make us all proud to be a part of this excellent breed.

(113USA). They are the Reserve Champions in Hunter/Jumper for 2006 and also winner of the Thomas Webster Memorial Award (for high-point purebred).

Idlehour Naivasha debuted at schooling dressage shows and schooling horse trials in the spring of 2005. By June she had competed in recognized dressage shows and a horse trial at beginner novice. By July 2005 she had qualified for the USDF Region I Training Level Lundquist finals as well as the USDF Training Level Championships and the USEA Area II Beginner Novice Championships.

August, 2005, Naivasha won the USEA Area 2 Beginner Novice Championships on her dressage score of 24 (equivalent to a 76 %.) She capped her dressage season at Morven Park Dressage in November 2005, moving up to First Level tests 1 and 2 and earning a third place in each class with scores in the mid sixties. Naivasha earned multiple CBHSNA Performance Awards for 2005.

In February, 2006, she took up residence at Wilde Fields, a hunter barn in Hunting Valley, Ohio where she is in training with professional, Elizabeth Porter. Naivasha has competed in 26 and 3 schooling classes at 6 shows since March of this year, going champion or reserve 4 times. She was always in the ribbons. A solid 3 show hunter now, Naivasha has packed kids around at 26. She is eligible Pre-green.

I can no longer be involved in horse sports that involve jumping. That is why this talented mare is for sale. Naivasha is a beautifully trained versatile and successful purebred performance horse (Sparks Mean Kinship Band E.) Just over 153, she is super sound, a comfortable ride, easy at the shows and trail rides on the buckle. Although the asking price for Naivasha is $38,500, I will reduce the price to $32,500 for a member of CBHSNA who is interested in breeding, as well as showing.

In the summer of 2004, I was looking for a new eventing partner. My thoroughbred and I had competed together for several years but had reached the limit of our potential. I wanted to be more competitive at Training level, so the search for a new horse was on! My trainer and I found Clifton Trooper at a fellow competitor’s barn. We instantly loved him for his gentle nature and his obviously honest character – not to mention his gaits and a jumping style that were just beautiful. I knew nothing about the Cleveland Bay breed and when the sellers mentioned he was an unregistered part bred CB imported from New Zealand, it meant very little to me.

Once I bought him, I did some research about the breed and realized Trooper is a very special horse. I contacted the CBHSNA and with the tireless help of the Lost CBs committee and their overseas contacts, was able to trace Trooper’s lineage to a registered PB Cleveland Bay stallion. His red book came shortly after.

We finished our fall season in USEA Area V last November and were ranked for the first time. As we learn more about each other and grow our partnership, we’re having a great time and Trooper is performing wonderfully as an ambassador for the breed!

Legacy Laurie, aka Winston, is a registered 7 year-old part bred Cleveland Bay by Forest Fellow out of Dynamic Bold (TB), bred by Linda Yaciw. I purchased Winston as a yearling along with his two year-old full brother Legacy Clive. Purchasing these two young fellows sight unseen at the time was a bit risky, but my gut said go-for-it. Good friend Gayle Heiring turned me on to the breed at the time I was retiring my old event horse. She said “you should really look into a Cleveland Bay for your next event horse.” Not really knowing anything about CBs, she gave me a quick education about the breed as I listened with great interest. So not only did I get one, but two! I told my husband that if we got two, that some day Winston would be his horse to ride. Winston has been a dream since day one. Gentle, kind, handsome, intelligent, bold, loves his work and puts his heart and soul into what ever it is I ask. Winston began his first show season out with an unrecognized mini event before taking him to his first recognized beginner novice event. After only one beginner novice event, he moved up to novice. I have to say as much as I loved my retired event horse, that out of the 12-years that I evented him, I never had a ride like my first novice cross-country ride with Winston. I never had to work so little -- it was like he had been doing this for years. He had never schooled this course and he jumped it as though he’d seen those fences a hundred times before. He acted so nonchalant about the whole thing. It was almost like he was showing me how it was supposed to be done. As if to say, ‘now you just sit there and be quiet.’ I literally felt like that was my job not to get in his way and tell him what to do, but to just sit and be quiet. I have always loved eventing, but I never dreamed it could be this much fun. I am having the time of my life with these horses. I have a feeling there’s a whole lot more to tap into with Winston. I’m just enjoying the journey and I feel so blessed to have this horse a part of my life.

Diamond X Irish Créme is a 19 year old partbred mare by Fryup Marvel out of Edandot Sioux's Dawn, a Morgan. Irish has shown extensively on the highly competitive Southern California dressage circuit for the past five seasons, and has successfully ended this past year at Third Level, where her 2006 California Dressage Society - Pomona Chapter Year-End accolades include: Third Level Adult/Amateur Champion; Dressage Seat Equitation Adult/Amateur
Champion; three Top Five Score Adult/Amateur Awards for Second Level, Third Level, and Dressage Seat Equitation; and winner of the TK Year-end Adult/Amateur Equitation Award. These accomplishes are impressive for a horse that began schooling flying changes at the age of 17! Irish's calm temperament and outstanding work ethic make her everyone's favorite both at
the barn and shows. She continues to be an excellent promoter of the Cleveland Bay breed.

They are Honorable Mention in the 2006 CBHSNA Dressage category.

TBF Winner’s Court

Big Red is a 1999 ¼ Cleveland Bay, ¾ Thoroughbred gelding. Red was the first Cleveland Bay cross I bred and is the grandson of the beautiful Rambler’s Renown.

This year was soaked up with my wedding, a new job, a move, selling a home, and many other commitments that often come before the horseshows!

Red and I did make it to a few local shows this year and traveled long distance for several other shows. We may not have had a lot of exposure in the ring but I do enjoy every moment I get to share with him. I’m sure that in time I eventually have the time to commit to him he will exceed my dreams. (If we’re not both too old!)

For now we are content to spend a lot of time out on the trails. Some times we take it slow and enjoy the scenery, other times we go fast and chase the deer and coyotes! One time he even rolled in a lake with me!

Regardless of the number of ribbons we may or may not win, Red is a horse that I value and love.

IdleHour McHenry (PB 3854), an 11 year old gelding by Rambler’s Renown out of Kee (TB), started his new career as a Mounted Patrol horse/ event horse in the fall of 2005 after a very successful career as a Fourth Level dressage horse. I had decided to bring Hen home because I wanted to start to work with him and do some other activities that a full-time dressage show horse wasn’t allowed to do. It was my intention to start his new job with the Lake Metroparks Volunteer Mounted Posse with lots of park patrols and add in other training sessions over the winter (nuisance training, crowd control, Drill work and Musical Ride). With the help of barn owner and friend Mary McKeon, we started to teach him how to jump and it was my ultimate goal to compete in some unrecognized events in the summer of 2006 while Mary would do a few recognized Beginner Novice events as well as some Hunter/Jumper shows over the winter. A bad fall resulting in surgery changed my summer plans, but worked out well for Mary and Hen.

Hen is a quick learner and quite athletic over fences. During the winter months Mary and Hen took jumping lessons from local professional Jeff Taylor and even worked on her dressage with Charlotte Bayley. We gave Hen the mileage we could with local Hunter shows and finally in April started him in a few Jumper classes. He did well and always came home with ribbons.

When eventing season started in May, Hen still hadn’t seen a cross country fence and it was at his first event in Kentucky where he learned how to gallop and jump at the same time. His first outing wasn’t great, but he had a super dressage test and went clean show jumping. He didn’t understand the water, but a loophole in the rules allowed us to give him the confidence and experience he needed to go clean. By his third event he was winning consistently- often with dressage scores in the low 20’s and more often then not having the lowest dressage score of the entire event.

Hen’s plans for next summer are to teach me how to event again and do some unrecognized events, move up to Novice and participate at the AEC’s at Lamplight in Chicago (he’s already qualified from a win in August at Novice) and continue with his mounted posse training with myself. Mary also wants to get her Bronze Medal from USDF and if I can I would like to finish my Bronze Medal as well next fall.

Cleveland Bay/English Thoroughbred cross) while on a horse hunting trip in Florida in January 2004. She was just out of quarantine, having been imported from England by Ruthie Harbison. Before crossing the pond, Carrie led an active show life in eventing and dressage. For me, it was love at first sight and, for her part, Carrie seemed quite happy with her new "dad." We had a successful first year competing in eventing and dressage but were then dealt a tough hand when Hurricane Katrina hit. I won't recount all the gory details but suffice to say that we've had an interesting adventure over the course of the last 18 months or so. As an aside, we still laugh that Carrie's stall has more square feet than the trailer my wife, Lolly, and I lived in for the first four months post-Katrina. Since then, we have moved our horses to our farm where we can watch them play from the front window of the house (well, trailer really - we're still trying to find a reputable contractor to build our house). It's a totally different lifestyle for us but one which we have really come to love. From a competition perspective, we managed to finally get to some shows in 2006 and Carrie really seemed happy being back in serious work. We placed 6th in the USDF Region 9 Championship at 2d level and 8th at the USEA Region III Championship at training level. We also placed well in our local GMO year end awards in eventing and dressage as well as placing regionally and nationally in the PHR's Silver Stirrup Awards program (again in eventing and dressage). That said, placing well in the CBHSNA's Performance Awards Program in the Versatility group really topped it off for us. All in all, things are definitely looking up and we are looking forward to a safe and sane 2007. As for Carrie, I wouldn't trade her for anything and I just hope she continues to be as patient with me as Lolly has been over the last 35 years. Congratulations to all award winners!