Bluebonnet Horse Expo & Rescue Horse Training Challenge

Bluebonnet Horse Expo & Rescue Horse Training Challenge️ 5 days ago

One of the great things about the Training Challenge (and there are many!) is that it allows us to take in more horses who need help. And we're in that position now. We're going to keep on taking Training Challenge applications until June 1st, and we're going to assign every horse in the rescue to a Challenge spot and still take in more horses who need training to be adoptable. This means if you are a rescue in Texas with an abundance of horses, or a Texas horse owner who can't keep their horse, this is for you: We can take in horses between the ages of 4 and 20 who are sound and at least halter broke. We can't take in horses who bite, kick, strike, or rear. They'll need to have a current, negative Coggins test and if they're coming from outside of Texas, they'll also need current vaccinations and a health certificate. If they're coming from outside of Texas, you'll have to arrange transport. We'll pick up horses transferred to us in Texas. If we take a horse in for the Challenge, you'll be transferring that horse to us - meaning the horse becomes our horse, we'll pick where he/she goes for the Challenge, we'll monitor things, we'll screen the adopters, we'll screen the foster homes if the horse isn't adopted at the Challenge, and the adoption fee will go to us. The horse will become part of Bluebonnet, and we take our commitment seriously. In past years, we've taken in horses from several animal shelters and other rescues as transfers, and they've gotten the training they need to find adopters. If you have questions, you can send us a message. If you have a horse you would like us to consider, please fill out our intake request (more info in the comments). We love having partnerships with other agencies - you never know when we might all need to work together on a neglect case, disaster relief, or something else.

Bluebonnet Horse Expo & Rescue Horse Training Challenge️ 6 days ago

We started the Training Challenge in 2009. At the time, I didn't know of anyone doing anything like that - other than the mustang challenges and they weren't the same. Some people love it, some hate it. But the It has become such an important part of who we are and how we get horses adopted. And so many horses have found their forever homes because of it. I really believe that youc an always improve - even if all you are making is small tweaks some year. Maybe that's because I'm overachiever or driven (which drives people a bit mad sometimes). For me, though, the better we make the experience for the horses, the particiapnts, and the adopters, the more horses we help. And that's why we're here: to help horses. So each year, we tweak or update something - this year we added the Elite Pro Division and removed a couple things we require from the participants and tried to relax other things to make it easier. Right now, we've assigned horses to everyone who has signed up for the Pro and Elite Pro divisions. And we're working on assignments for the Non-pro under saddle and the in hand divisions right now. We have an awesome mix of Challenge veterans as well as newbies. We put a lot of thought into these assignments. In the beginning, we let people pick their Challenge horses. The problem was that most people picked the same 2-3 horses and so some folks were disappointed. And horses who became available later got overlooked. So we had to change that, especially as we grew. Some folks want us to pull names out of a hat/randomly assign horses to Challenge partners. And that would definitely be easier: "You get #12, have fun!" Instead, we put a ton of thought into the assignments: we look at what the participants put on their application and we ask additional questions when we need to to gauge ability and experience. We look at what we know about the horses, any limitations they have that we know about. We also look at location - while sometimes we cannot avoid making someone take a long drive to pick up their horses, we try to avoid that. We ultimately want the very best matches possible so that people and horses have great experiences. And sometimes we are so good making matches that the person falls in love and adopts. This happens a lot. And other times, our matches are a miss. Sometimes that's because we didn't know enough about the horse (maybe he goes lame after being in consistent work, maybe he has an undisclosed medical need or behavioral problem). Sometimes it is because the participant wasn't completely honest about their abilities (Most of us, myself included, tend to think we're better than we are!). And sometimes it just isn't a good match, personality-wise. But we try our best and we truly have the best interest of the horses at heart.

Bluebonnet Horse Expo & Rescue Horse Training Challenge️ 3 weeks ago

The Training Challenge is picking up speed! We’ve assigned horses to all of our Elite Professional Division and our terrific Training Challenge Coordinator Stacy is in the process of sending out Training Challenge assignments to the Professional Division trainers. If you are a professional who hasn’t gotten their application in, you still have time and we still have horses! But get it in so we can make your assignment and get you on the path to being an amazing Challenge trainer. This year’s Professional Division (so far): Megan Bowen – El Dorado, a QH gelding Jessica Dziekan – New intake Arabian/QH gelding (name pending) Addison Hadsell – Laredo, grade gelding Aiden McCarty – New intake stock type gelding (name pending) Margo Mellon – Bandera, a Hackney cross pony gelding Devin Moss – New intake QH gelding (name pending) Kathi Roush – Milkshake, a Paint gelding Randolph Scott Ruiz – New intake QH gelding (name pending) Paige Seymour – Chiron, a QH/Warmblood gelding There’s still time to get your application in for any of the divisions of the Training Challenge. We’ll be accepting applications for the Professional Divisions until June 1 – although the training period starts May 1 for the professional divisions so you’ll want to get your application in ASAP if you are interested.