A Look Back

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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   

Pictures from Alex Thomas

Alex in warm up	Trophies for event sponsors	Event Sponsors	Dressage by Sue	Rachel B in warm up

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pictures from our demo with Dripping Springs 4-H and class with them on 8/8/06..