Photo Album

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For the 2010 USEF/AVA National Championships, Lone Star and Gold Star formed a C Team and a Prelim 2-Phase team. These teams practiced together twice a month from January through July in both Austin and Fort Worth. A week before nationals the horses, vaulters and longers headed out to Santa Cruz to stay and train with Nancy Stevens-Brown for five days to both add the finishing touches to the individual freestyles, but also strengthened compulsories and choreographed both team freestyles. I am happy to say that all of our hard work paid off and both teams won their national division titles. Congrats to the individual vaulters as well, and thank you to everyone who helped make this season the greatest success ever! GO TEXAS!

On June 12th the Lone Star Vaulters took part in the annual Sunshine Kids rodeo event. The Sunshine Kids organization is a Texas non-profit dedicating time to children with cancer. Their June rodeo allows these children to experience a real Texas treat in their honor. For the first time, equestrian vaulting was a part of the show. Thank you to all the volunteers who made this possible.

On April 17th and 18th Mel and Alex from Lone Star, and Kim and Tom from Gold Star traveled with Cody and Gus to Georgia to compete in the Falconwood Vaulters Springfest. Congrats to Kim on winning the bronze division and Alex on winning the silver division!

On April 3rd the Lone Star Vaulters were invited to take part in the second Central Texas Horse Festival in support of The Horse Boy Foundation at the Georgetown Sheriff Posse Grounds. The demo was great prep for the upcoming competition that month. Thank you Iliane for inviting us and we hope to see you again next time!

The Lone Star Vaulters annual Austin Rodeo demo on March 16th had a few new elements this year. First Nikki, a vaulter from California, added a new bit of flair and color to the performance. Second the Texas C team performed the FS they had been working on the 2 months prior, and for the first time in over 20 years (if not ever!) Texas may actually have a team competing this season! Thank you to Nimai for taking these great shots. More of her work can be viewed on her website.

For the annual Texas MLK Day weekend clinic, Patti Skipton made the trek down to Texas from Washington state. Her 30+ years of knowledge in the areas of training horses (primarily drafts), coaching and longeing gave clinic attendees the perfect trio. Clinics for longers, coaches and vaulters gave all who attended as participents or auditors a well rounded education. Thank you again Patti for coming out to work with everyone, and thank you to the Gold Star Pacesetters and Welsh Rabbits for hosting Patti and this wonderful clinic.

In November just 2 days before Thanksgiving, we were fortunate enough to get a full day of Mary McCormick's time. She brought with her a wealth of knowledge in putting together a freestyle (or multiple versions for any occasion) to earn the highest possible score. Her input on music and team work within the great state of Texas were inspiring for everyone.

For the first year, the H2Oasis held a barn tour in the Southwest Austin area to benefit the wild Mustangs at which we were invited to do a demonstration at the first stop; Bel Canto Farms. So, we thought it fitting to take our Mustang Vegas for his first solo performance. The weather cleared up jus the day before and the 70 degree weather couldn't of been more perfect. There was a huge crowd and everyone had a great time. We look forward to doing it again in 2010!

Once again the Lone Star Vaulters were invited to take part in the Bluebonnet Horse Expo at the Travis County Expo Center. This is a wonderful event put on by the Bluebonnet Horse Rescue, and 2009 was their third year. The weather was great, the horses were good, and the audience loved us. We look forward to next year! Vegas made his official debut carrying compulsories and freestyle as the trot and canter.

On July 9th-12th the AVA held their first ever competition at the world famous Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. Once again Mel took some of the vaulters to competition and brought home the blue! Alex took 1st in round 1 of the Bronze division, and finished out third overall. Ana finished out 11th place overall in the Copper division. In addition, Alex passed her silver medal test with a commended score. Great job girls! Thank you again to the Golden Gate Vaulters for lending us their horse Sargent! To view more photos, visit Primo Ponies Photography.

On June 6th and 7th Mel took some of the vualters to our Regional Championships in Albuquerque, NM, and coached them to victory. Alex brought home the Bronze division championship, Ana brought home the Copper division championship, and Krista had a very successful freestyle round which earned her second place. Congrats girls! Thank you to the Mile High and Golden Gate Vaulters for lending us your horses. More pictures to come soon!

On June 13th the Lone Star Vaulters participated in the annual Sunshine Kids rodeo event. The Sunshine Kids organization is a Texas non-profit dedicating time to children with cancer. Their June rodeo allows these children to experience a real Texas treat in their honor. For the first time, equestrian vaulting was a part of the show. Thank you to all the volunteers who made this possible.

On Memorial Day weekend (May 23-25) the Gold Star Pacesetters in Burleson hosted a clinic with 25 vaulters from 3 clubs all over Texas. Clinicians were Kendel Edmonds and Mari Inouye. Vaulters worked on both the horse and barrel, on technique and mechanics, and choreography. Some vaulters medal tested as well. Thank you to the Pacesetters for hosting such a great clinic, and for sharing your horses.

On March 16th-18th the Lone Star Vaulters held the first annual Star of Texas Vaulting Festival which consisted of two days of clinics at their facility, and a full day of medal tests and a funfest in conjunction with the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo. This year the dates spanned during spring break. The Gold Star Pacesetters joined in and were generous enough to share their horse Gus for the canter vaulters. The judge and clinician was Sue Detol (FEI O) who shared a wealth of knowledge with all the vaulters and coaches. Thank you to all the vaulters and parents who participated in this great event; the Schaubhut family for hosting the clinics; and Jessie and the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo folks for letting us take part of the best show in town.

On February 21st the Lone Star Vaulters made their annual trek to San Antonio to participate in the educational horse center at the San Antonio Rodeo. Thank you to all the volunteers who made this possible!

On February 2nd one of Melanie's riding students and her mom stayed to watch the canter group practice. She had her camera with her and captured some really cool photos just before dusk with the dust all stirred up. Thanx Robin!

On January 17th-19th the Gold Star Pacesetters in Burleson, near Fort Worth, held their first event. The Hawthorne's from Valley View Vaulters came to do a three day workshop with the Texas vaulters on this holiday weekend. Learning new techniques and making new friends is what these weekends are all about. Thank you to Frank and the Pacesetters, the Hawthorne's and all the Lone Star Vaulters who took part in the weekend workshops; they were a huge success!

For the first time in a few years, the vaulters and horses took part in the Budafest parade on December 6th. We had a blast. An old friend helped out by driving his truck and trailer in the parade, and Vegas made his vaulting debut. He is so mellow, thank goodness! We hope to make an annual event of this because it is so much fun! Here is a video too!

Jeff Moore made the trek to Austin on November 21st-23rd for a combination of things. Rider, clinics, longeing clinics, and vaulter clinics. The information he provided the participants in each area really opened their eyes. We had 14 vaulters, 10 horses, 8 longers, and 5 clubs. There is lots of new action in Texas from Midland to Corpus Christi. We look forward to a busy year of clinics and competitions in Texas and all over the US in 2009. Thank you for traveling so far to support vaulting Jeff!

In the beginning of November we were invited to do a last minute barrel demo in downtown Austin at the grand opening of the Austin Lululemon Athletic apparel store. It was great. We were on the side of the busiest street in town (6th street) and as the cars passed we must of been seen by hundreds in the hour we were set up. Thank you again to the folks who made this happen!

This fall Poncho and Vegas were 'talent' on the television series "Friday Night Lights". Vaulter Rebecca works on the show and arranged for Mel and Alex to bring Poncho and Vegas to the set to be Cash's horses. "Cash" is a saddle bronc rider played by actor Zach Roerig. Poncho was featured and Vegas was pretty in the background. The episode "New York, New York" first aired Nov 19 2008 on Direct TV and will be shown in the spring on NBC.

This October the Bluebonnet Horse Rescue put on their second annual Bluebonnet Horse Expo at the Travis County Expo Center. We were invited for the first time, and took some of our new club members, and our new horse Teddy. The weather was great, the horses were good, and the audience loved us. We look forward to next year! To view more pictures, click here or here.

On September 2nd, FOX news aired a segment on vaulting, starring, us! It was great! They got great footage, and even got the sportscaster on the horse! To watch the segment, click here.

If I could describe in one word our trip to Nationals, it would have to be stressful! But only to me I think. Playing host, coach, tour guide, fun police, and logistical coordinator sure took it out of me. It wasn't physically demanding, but it mentally exhausted me. Everyone who came on this trip had a great time, and did amazingly well. I am so proud of the girls. Everything they did, they did together. It was the best team building exercise we could of ever done. Here are the highlights from our club, and some pics to go with it. On the horse, Alex placed 10^th overall out of 41 vaulters in the copper division and Gibson placed 7^th overall out of 32 vaulters in the preliminary trot division. On the barrel, Alex placed 3^rd for her preliminary canter barrel freestyle out of 29 vaulters with a score of 7.350; Gibson placed 5^th, Julie placed 8^th and Krista placed 10^th, for their trot barrel freestyles out of 50 vaulters. The Lone Starz Trot 2-phase team is made up of Julie, Krista, Maya and Alyssa. They placed 1st in freestyle out of 5 teams with a score of 6.933. Way to go team Lone Star!!!!!!!! For more pictures visit Primo Ponies Photography.

Just before we left for Nationals we had a dress rehearsal/fundraiser at the barn on July 28th. The team did great and we had a wonderful turnout. Probably about 80 or so people. Laurie Virkstis (who writes wonderful articles about us) came and took some wonderful photos. To view them, please visit her website at www.laurievirkstis.com. Thank you for all your support Laurie!

One of our vaulters, Krista, who rides at Bel Canto Farms participated in their summer camp, and took her barrel to show other campers what vaulting is all about. Vaulting is a great camp activity, and does kids a world of good! In fact, the Certified Horsemanship Association (CHA) has recently added vaulting certifications to their line-up of certificates for instructors all over the US.

To gear up for Nationals, Nancy Stevens-Brown returned in June for a wonderful clinic at our facility. The focus was on the training of the horse and general vaulting. We had 25 vaulters, 5 horses and 4 clubs participate. Though only our vaulters went to Nationals, everyone who took part learned a lot! Thank you Nancy for coming and we will see you soon in Cali!

The Lone Star Vaulters take part in many other local activities. We hosted Marbridge in May at our facility (September Song Stables) to prepare for the Special Olympics. They brought over a dozen horses and 40 riders to run through their program for the upcoming event. We also held a fundraiser at the Plum Creek Front Porch Days in Kyle, TX on May 4th to raise money for our trip to Nationals in CA this August, as well as promote the sport we love.

On April 19th, Melanie and Alex and I headed to Albuquerque for the Region IV Aprilfest. This was the first competition for the Lone Star Vaulters. Congratulations to Alex on winning the trot division. Good job Al!!! Expect to see more of us as time goes! Thank you to the Williams family for putting up with us, I mean putting us up, at their place for the weekend. And thank you to Jodi Rinard and the Mile High Vaulters for lending us their horse Amidala for Alex to vault on.

For our next demo on April 6th, I decided to do a different program for the girls. Since it is very expensive for us to travel to competitions, I decided to bring the competition to us. I ordered custom ribbons from Hodges Badges and asked another semi-retired vaulter (Kate) from the Austin area to be our judge. We ran the funfest at the lunch break of a local dressage schooling show. We were the half-time entertainment. Thank you to Kay Skillern for hosting us at your event, and to Ingrid Edison for arranging this wonderful show!

This year we seem to of joined the Texas Rodeo circuit. We started with San Antonio in February, and then did formal performances at the Austin Rodeo in March. We vaulted on the Monday and Tuesday evenings of our spring break (March 10th & 11th) in the horse show arena just before the bull riding began in the rodeo arena. A lot of people were already there for the fair (the monkey riding the dog was the highlight - besides us of course) so we had the stands packed. We look forward to next year. Thank you Jessie and Johnny for letting us be part of the show! Click this link to view a slide show of the excitement from the Austin Rodeo.

Some of the team and I attended the AVA Annual Meeting and Conference in Cupertino CA on March 1-2. Vaulters attended clinics with Megan Benjamin and Samantha Smith. They also attended vaulter meetings and played Jeopardy (like Pony Club Quiz Bowl). Us adults attended horse training sessions, coaches meetings, board meetings and much more. On the 1st there was an awards dinner and we have a great time and great food with great friends. What more could you ask for!?

We started out 2008 with a hard act to follow. The San Antonio Rodeo is such a great time for all involved: The kids, parents, coaches, the audience, and even the horse has a good time. We were in their educational venue, call the the Horse Center, all day on February 9th, and did 2 performances. We also did a little shopping and saw some of the auction horses. Thank you to Darwin and the rodeo's amazing crew of volunteers who make this rodeo one of the best in the nation. Looking forward to seeing you all there again next year! Click this link to view a slide show of the excitement from the San Antonio Rodeo.

Pioneer Farms in north east Austin hosts many educational fairs for kids of all ages. On January 11th they hosted an open house for home schooled children. After-school activities came out in full force to show off what they have to offer. Here are some pictures from some of our team members making new friends (aka recruiting).

Colleen Kelly, world renowned instructor in the field of biomechanics, stopped through Austin while on US tour on November 16th and 17th. We held an evening lecture indoors at Marbridge on the concepts and methods to improving seat and balance, and how the position of your body parts affects your control and strength. We opened this lecture to riders and other interested parties as a fund raiser for the club. Then on Saturday at our barn she gave the team a clinic on the barrel and horse. She implemented the concepts we had all learned the night before, and so many areas of their vaulting improved. Their balance and posture changed completely, as did the horses way of going. He was more relaxed and round for the vaulters. Colleen also gave some riding lessons for vaulters and riders and they all saw changes in their horses way of going as well. Thank you to Marbridge for hosting our lecture, and to Colleen for visiting us and we hope to see you again soon!

On November 8th, we had a special guest instructor, Nancy Stevens-Brown (clinician, AVA President and my step-mom) work with the girls. My parents were in town visiting and Nancy took a few hours to work with the girls on really presenting their moves in a clear manner. Whether it is simple or complex, it needs to be defined. Thank you Nancy for spending time with me here in Austin, and for working with the team.

On October 16th, 2007, the Blanco County 4H had us come to a demo for their lecture of the month. We always enjoy visiting youth organizations and showing them what vaulting is all about. We are in hopes that they will start their own program so that we may soon have enough in the state of Texas to hold our own competitions.

Every year we end the season with a trip to the wonderful Great Southwest Equestrian Center in Katy (near Houston). This year it was for the Southwest Showdown put on by Southbound Shows on September 29th, 2007. Thank you Patrick for having us and we hope to see you again soon! For more pictures, visit Photo Rodeo South. Go to the photo album and click on the link titled SW_Showdown and then go to Saturdays pictures in the menu on the left.

On September 15th, 2007, we were asked to do a clinic for riders and friends of the Austin Equestrian Center. We loaded up the horse and a few barrels for a half day workshop on musical interpretation, conditioning, barrel work and some time on the horse. The team then did a dress rehearsal to prepare for our big demo in Katy a few weeks later. A visiting coach from Mississippi joined us for the weekend to vault with us and learn from our clinic. Her team is just getting going!

Kitchy's trip inspired me to create a trip for the girls. June 26-July 5, 2007, we headed west to work with a hand full of coaches in the Bay Area. My parents invited all 6 of us to stay with them at the ranch, thank you both for putting us up and putting up with us! We worked with Nancy, the Hogye's and Brookside Vaulters, Carolyn Conner and Morning Star Vaulters, Kenny Geisler, and had riding lessons with Sundara at Briarcliff Farms. Thank you all for taking the time to work with us at a very hectic time. We got to watch CVI, see San Francisco, go to the beach and the Boardwalk and enjoy the beautiful redwoods. Here are a few of my favorite pictures. I know there are a lot. But we did so much! I am already planning next years trip!

Mother's Day weekend 2007, we were invited to the San Jaciento Girl Scouts S.P.U.R.S. riding program facility just north of Houston to give over 30 riders an intro clinic to vaulting. The S.P.U.R.S. program is the only Girl Scout riding program of this size in the country. The riders who joined us that weekend were all volunteers in their council who contributed over 100 hours to the program for the year. They chose to learn about vaulting for their reward. Thank you for having us girls and hope to see you again soon!

On April 21st and 22nd of 2007, we had a weekend of clinics and a medal test with Kitchy Burdette. The Welsh Rabbits Vaulters from Fort Worth came down to join us for the weekend. We had a great time and hope to have her back again soon. Thank you for everyone who helped make our first event at "home" a blast. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

This year has really started with a bang. On Mach 3, 2007, we performed at the Vault Texas 2007 Benefit in the Fort Worth area at Stargate Sport Horses. This event was in conjunction with the AVA Annual Conference and raised money for the AVA and Equest. See pictures of our vaulters below and visit these links for more pictures from the benefit and from the conference.

Pictures from Bob Weber

Our first demo of 2007 was a big one! We were invited to perform at the San Antonio Rodeo on February 11th. We had a great time and drew in quite a crowd. Thank you to all the parents for making sure that what needed to get done, got done! And a huge thank you goes to Katie and Darwin of the Rodeo Staff for making us feel so welcome and setting us up in such a great spot. We hope to come back next year. We even got our picture taken with Thor, the tallest horse in the world. He is a 20hh 6 year old Flemish gelding.

As a fundraiser for our club, we hosted a play day with some great games on December 10th, 2006. We did the egg and spoon race, musical corners, the donut race, and of course some pole bending and barrel racing. It was a great time and a great run through for hosting the very first vaulting competition in Texas. Hopefully that will come in 2008! Thank you to everyone who put on this event for all your hard work and dedication.

On November 4th, 2006, we were invited to the Houston Dressage Society/USDF Region 9 Championships in the Houston area at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center. The show was full of amazing horses of all levels. The facility is amazing and I hope we are able to come back next year! More pictures to come soon. Please visit Dave Re Photography to view all 323 photos he took of us.

Tom Hogye of Brookside Vaulters from Santa Cruz CA was in town on October 17th, 2006, for work, so I drug him out to the barn to give my kids a clinic. They had a blast, and so did he. Tom can do the splits better than most of my kids. I was so amazed!!! Thanx again for coming Tom!!!!!

On October 14th, 2006 we were invited to do a performance at Equest's fall fundraiser in the Plano area. We had a blast and the kids performed as close to perfection as I could of asked. Mel hauled the horse and half the kids up the day of and Sheila hauled up the other half of the team. Mel's sister Debbie let us take over her house and were so very thankful. Thank you again to all who drove, braided, fed us and cheered us on. Good job girls thank you for your hard work and dedication!!!!!!!!!!!!!!