RHR Weanling Challenge

By Melody Garner-Skiba | Photos by Red Dog Imagery

Ladies love babies! Especially when those babies are horses. This year’s Rocking Heart Ranch Weanling Challenge in Fort Macleod was no different as five teams of ladies were chosen to be partners for the 2021 foal crop. Mentorship, friendship, and horsemanship were the themes of the annual event hosted by the ranch.

Grand Champions Laurie and Maggi with Angel Garner (in green) and Melody Garner-Skiba (on right)

Reserve Champions Hannah and Jocelyn with Angel T he combo is simple; two weanlings and two trainers travel home together to start a journey of fun and foundation. By using this equation, Rocking Heart offers the chance for people who want to learn more about working with a young horse by partnering them with a mentor. To see people sharing their knowledge and helping encourage people to get engaged in the industry gives the ranch hope for the future of the industry.

A shining example was the team consisting of Laurie Messner and Maggi McIvor. Laurie owns Winning Strides (in Nanton AB) and wanted to offer her clients another level of experience by adding a couple of foals to the barn. Maggi wanted to expand her knowledge, so the team worked together on their weanlings Merlot and Cosmo. The result, AMAZING! The team ended up being the Grand Champions of the event. Mentorship is not just for the humans, it is also helpful for the young horses to have a buddy to be partnered with during this phase of training. They can learn from each other and be calm as their buddy is right there with them.

Friendship abounds at the Challenge with many of the partners being friends already or developing friends throughout the course of the weeks leading up to the Challenge. This year we had two total strangers connect to become partners and the combo was outstanding. Tara Powell and Chera Uschenko trained Mojito and Sangria. Unlike their weanlings, Tara and Chera met only a month before the Challenge as they were both looking for a partner. The ranch introduced them and the rest is history as these ladies worked together and gave these colts a fantastic start.

Hannah Ingram and Jocelyn Giesbrect, who had Guiness and Sambuca, were friends before the Weanling Challenge and this helped them have lots of laughs and work together to put their little colts on the path to success. Their friendship landed them the position of Reserve Champions.

It was the same with Isabelle Wiggins and Natalie Kowalenko, who wanted to spend more time together and could do so, through working with Pinot and Bellini as their project horses. This dynamic duo took home the Runner-Up spot. This was an element to the Challenge that the ranch had never truly understood until this year, the power of the friend, whether you are a horse or a person!

Horsemanship is the final element that the Challenge showcases. The Challenge asks that each pair of trainers set up the weanling for success. They must train the weanling to be led at all gaits, have their feet picked up (this is for our farriers), touch the mouth for de-worming, back-up, and load into a trailer. All the basics that these horses will need over the next couple of years as they spend time being horses out on pasture, yet are still very manageable when brought in for their regular farrier and health checks. The trainers must be tuned into their animals and watch for the slightest amount of resistance or in some cases an injury.

Heather Gagne and Nicarra Ensor exemplified this over the course of the Challenge as they worked with Whiskey and Moonshine, two little stud colts. These two babies were the most cautious when loaded onto the trailer at the beginning of the Challenge but by the end of it, kids in Heather’s reading program were hanging out and being read to.

A big THANK YOU to our two judges, Kayla and Kara Zielke, a dynamic mother/ daughter duo who have won the Weanling Challenge in the past for several years. Every year we are amazed by what the trainers do with these babies while they respect their age and mindset. It is definitely a highlight for the ranch.

If you are interested, make sure to check out our website a www.rockingheartranchltd. com for details in 2022 on how you can become involved in this Challenge.

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