2015 Ride A Curly International Competition BEGINS January 15th! SIGN UP TODAY!

ARE YOU READY!??? RAC 2015 IS HERE!

Wow! RAC's 7th year! After a year off, I hope you are ready for a year of challenges, FUN, sharing and promoting our Curly Horses!

REMEMBER, THE ONLY REQUIREMENT is that you RIDE A CURLY!!!

Registration papers NOT required!!

The RAC is all about promoting this rare and wonderful breed, the Curly Horse as well as joining together the curly community to have fun, share, inspire and motivate each other.

RAC Summary for 2015

Competitive and Non-Competitive Teams

Fun Curly Games planned throughout the year
Free T-shirt 
Invite to post & share on the RAC Blog

The Competitive Team: "In It To Win It!" ($38.00 entry fee) This team will consist of those that wish to compete and win prizes at the end of the year. This team will log their time under saddle or driving (not ground driving) and submit those log forms at the end of the year. There will be two divisions, UNLIMITED Curly Horses and CURLY & ME. Two GRAND PRIZE winners at the end of the year. View Prizes! (there will be no exclusive youth divison this year, I am sorry. Adult and youth will compete together)

NEW for 2015! - We are going to have two NEW divisions in the Competitive Team. TWO WINNERS.

Division 1: Unlimted Curly Horses - In this division, you can ride whatever curly you want and count your time. You are not restricted to riding just 1 curly horse throughout the year. This is great for breeders or those with multi curlies.

Division 2: Curly & Me - In this division, you select 1 curly you want to ride throughout the entire year. And you can only count points when you ride that 1 curly.

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The Non-Competitive Team: ($30.00 entry fee) This team will consist of curly owners that just want to be part of the team but have no desire to log time, turn in points and win prizes. They will have all the benefits that come with joining, including blogging on the RAC blog, a free t-shirt and participating in the games. This team can include both riding and non riding activities with their curlies.

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Curly Games: Instead of mini contests (as we have done in the past) , we are going to do "games." These games will be announced periodically throughout the year and will be a way to motivate riders to challenge themselves and their curlies as well as promote and share. New FUN ideas for 2013!! Wait and SEE! No prizes will be awarded for games.

Free T-shirt: When you sign up, everyone will receive a free t-shirt. This year you get to pick from a couple of color choices, yay!

Blogging: One of the highlights of the RAC is the blog. This is a great way not only to share your journey with each other, but also share with the world this amazing breed. The RAC blog is ranked top in the search engines and draws people in from all over the world that are interested in the Curly Horse. Sharing stories is a great way to show how amazing the breed is as well as inspire and motivate each other. Each participant will be invited to join the RAC adventure blog. There are strict rules regarding blogging in that it must be about riding/promoting/working with your curlies. Any off topic posts will be filtered.

SPECIAL NOTE TO CURLY BREEDERS

This contest is great way to promote your farm/horses and at the same time get your horses ridden. If you don't have time yourselves, it is acceptable to sign someone else up to ride your horses for you. You may have a horse savvy young person around that would love to participate in the contest, but they don't own a curly. You pay their entry fee and they get to ride, log points and win great prizes! This would be a win-win for both of you -- your horses get ridden and the rider can enjoy and have fun! ;-) Also, what is also cool is that via the RAC Adventures page, they can share as much as they want - and I would gladly include a link to your farm with the post. Pretty nifty, eh? Maybe it is a horse you plan to sell eventually, what a great way to promote that horse and get it in the public eye and also show what a special curly he/she is! --- I really want to do what I can to help Quality Curly Breeders out there as much as I can.   AND also remember that the idea is to get out and promote the breed, so although arena time is fine, it is important to advance to public outings, shows, trail etc., to do this.

COMPETITIVE TEAM - Details

Year End Points will be tallied TWO ways:

A. FOUR points for every hour ridden, either on the trail, arena or driving!
These points are based on the Participant's time (you the rider), and you can ride as many curlies as you wish!

B. 20 points for each event. ie Parade, Clinic or Show
You receive 20 points per event where you take at least one curly with you. If you take 2 curlies, you still get just 20 points. The points are based on the rider, not on the horses present. An event is any activity that enables you to promote your curlies. If your barn is holding a public clinic and your curly is participating, by all means, count that event. How grand that you can promote without hauling somewhere! If you do a fundraiser trail ride and there is an opportunity to promote your curly, again you get 20 points. For events that are more than 1 day - you receive 20 points for 1st day and 10 additional points for each consecutive day after that.

*Please note: You can not count points for giving lessons on your curly. You can not count training a curly if you are getting paid. This contest is targeting NON-Professionals.

For more information visit:  http://curlyhorsecountry.com/rideacurly.htm

Grand Champions Announced 2013!!

It's time to announce the 2013 Grand Prize Winners! Adult & Youth!!

But first I want to thank EVERYONE for participating this past year, you are ALL winners in my book!

With each RAC season, I know every one of us sign up as a means to spending more time with our curlies.

No matter how big or small, if you took a step forward, you deserve a pat on the back. 

So kudos to you and THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for joining, promoting and having fun with us!

And a special thank you to those that blogged this past year! Without you, the RAC would seem rather dull! Because of you, we are inspired, motivated and encouraged! It is especially fun seeing pics and video from around the world, knowing we are all sharing in the same love, that of the curly horse. It is by far, my favorite part of the contest. =]

Oh, and lastly, Thank you to those that took the time to turn in your logging forms. I know it takes alot of work logging all year long, but you did a great job. I love the ones that come in with scribbles and coffee stains!! They are the BEST! =]

Ok drum roll please....the winners are!

GRAND PRIZE WINNERS:

ADULT: Marion Huurman of Hidden Cave Curly Ranch in KY

YOUTH: Ashley Ostman of Mackinac City, Michigan

There will be no RAC for 2014. But will resume for 2015! Stay tuned for details this coming fall.

However, rest assured I have plans for some fun things thsi year!! So stay tuned to http://curlyhorsecountry.com to see what happening!

Or stop in and visit my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Curly-Horse-Country/175404272469906

Enjoy those Curlies!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! I'm a little late in sharing wishes! We've been very busy this winter. And, so sadly, my riding dropped to about zero at the end. I want to thank RAC for a great time, and a fun program! It has been a blast, and I will have to try and work harder next time! Shine On, our youngest, will be starting his training in 2014. He will be 3 years old in August. He's already as big as Rescue Me, his mother. Clooney's work will go on, and I just recently got Philippe Karl CDs to work on new classical training methods, so I'm inspired.

At the end of October, we took a trip to visit horses we had sold, including a lot of our babies. We travelled from Bavaria where we visited four different owners all the way to northern Germany, above Brussels. It was wonderful to see them again, and they all recognized us. We didn't get to see all of the offspring of our horses, but many. I even got to ride one, our loving Geenie (sadly no image of me on board). And, I got to do ground work with Joe, a son of our stallion Billy Jack and the mare we imported from Montana, Montana Blue Magic. Magic we got to see also. She is retired, 24 years old and living in Bavaria.

Here's an image of Geenie before riding, and one of Joe while I'm working with him in his owner's roundpen. Geenie and Joe are from the first foals we bred, and left us at 8 months of age. They are now 8 years old. It was a very wonderful experience to see them, work with them, and see how well they are doing.



Geenie, a daughter of Clooney and DKH Glory, and Karen just before mounting.



Joe and Karen in the roundpen.



Good old, retired Magic.



Pharoa, a stallion from Billy Jack and Lark, in Bavaria.



Jomai, a gelding from Billy Jack and Warrior White Moon, in Bavaria.



Shine On wishes everyone Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Ashley Ostman

Happy New Year! I am finally getting back to riding after my knee surgery. Today I rode Feefer for 45 minutes, it was -5 outside but it was a nice easy fun ride. We have quite a bit Of snow so Feefer got a good work out today which she could defiantly use lol I hope every one had a good year and I am excited to start RAC 2015!

Happy New Year in 2 different time zones

Our hard working trailhorses and my best friends.

First of all HAPPY NEW YEAR. I wish you all health, happiness and all you wish for.

It has been a great year for us. First 4 healthy beautiful foals. Lots of Curly promotion. Lots and lots of rides and fun with my beautiful horses.
Our B&B did great we had over 130 reservations and many trailrides with guests.

I just came back from the last round checking the horses and spend the evening with them, saying Happy new Year to them...all 22 ;-)
The air is crisp the stars are out it is a beautiful night.
My parents are here spending the holidays with us. I sold one of the foals and got my parents a ticket so they could spend Christmas and New Year with us in KY. Last week they rode our horses Jake and Freedom. They have never been on a horse before and they are no offense in their late 60-ties so I was very nervous. But of course my two boys took really good care of them and my parents had a ball.
At 5 PM we already celebrated New Year because then it is 12 in the Netherlands. We called my sister. And now we are waiting on KY time for a Happy New Year.

Well my fellow RAC-ers and all the reader and followers and last but not least DENISE!! Thank you for this fun year. For sharing your adventures and stories, your ups and downs, your failures and success.
May all your dreams come true in 2014!

Marion Huurman
Hidden Cave Ranch, KY

My Dad on Jake and my Mom on Freedom

Hopefully we have 5 healthy babies in 2014