THE NEWS from 2009...(from Fina Vista Farm reporter, Camilla Willings)

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2004 NewsPage

2005 NewsPage

Open Gaited Show at Round's Ranch: May 23rd, 2009, was the date of the first open gaited horse show at Round's Ranch, in Elmvale, Ontario.  This is a lovely farm, great setting for a family fun day, with a petting zoo, loads of horses, huge climbing structures, a barrel train and even a go-kart track. To learn more about Round's Ranch, go to: http://roundsranch.com/ There were gaited classes for Tennessee Walkers, Rocky Mountains, Paso Finos and Icelandics.  As well, there were all sorts of fun classes, including timed obstacles, jumping, water glass, pole bending, barrel racing, and a ribbon class.  We also were treated to a lunch time demonstration of the gaited Hoofbeats Drill Team. The day was topped off with a great trail ride through their wild woods. Fina Vista Farm was represented by 2 horses, Mercenario deLa Libertad (Camilla riding) and Querica with owner, Victoria Poe, riding. It was a great day for FVF, too, with our two horses taking home Champion and Reserve Champion of the show, along with lots of beautiful prizes and ribbons.  We also gave some Paso Fino test rides, always great fun!  In fact, I was a little worried after letting show organizor, Domenic Duvall, ride Mercenario in a few classes that I would not get my horse back! LOL Thanks to Mercenario and Querica for doing your best to represent the breed (along with Diane Vollick and her lovely mare, Delesandra).  Thanks to Domenic and Round's Ranch for putting on a fun day! Special thanks to official photographer, Leslie Town, for doing her usual miracle of taking hundreds of fantastic pictures... See them all here: http://myhorse.ca/RoundsRanch2009/index.htm

CCPFHA GAITED HORSE CLINIC WITH MARY RIZO-PATRON The Central Canada Paso Fino Horse Association hosted another successful Gaited Horse Clinic this year with Mary Rizo-Patron returning for the 3rd time from Ohio, USA. Mary is the part owner of Hacienda La Amistad and is a knowledgeable and respected breeder and trainer of Paso Fino horses. Everyone was really happy with what they learned from the clinic and grateful to Mary for her generous sharing of experience.  She is such a delight, both as a person and as a teacher. Thanks Mary! We had ten horses participating this year, eight Paso Finos and two Peruvian Paso Horses. Saturday Claire Christo put on a fabulous barbeque at Tailwinds Farm. Thanks to all who worked so hard to make this happen, Bob Darling and Claire Christo especially! Janet Grant (Crombie) took some fantastic pictures at the clinic.  to see them, please follow this link: http://www.centralcanadapfha.com/2009WellandClinic.html

Young FVF Riders Update: For anyone wondering about whether my dream of having at least one of my boys developing a taste for riding, here is the update. Nate, who just turned 4 years old, is displaying definite signs of having the knack for riding.  I am almost afraid to write these words, for fear of jinxing it. Suffice to say, that he is riding... like a pro... on his own... on his 14yo Paso Fino mare, Pianola.  He does not get on very often, but it is quite a sight to see him just take up those reins and take charge.  May, 2009, saw him out in the big field steering her around the barrels, the cones, back-ups etc.  More reminders of why Pia is a golden horse. What about 5 year-old Finn, you ask?  Well, the training wheels are off the bicycle... so he is doing some riding.  And he loves giving treats to the herd... so, it's all good. :) Here's some pics from FVF gal, Jennifer Tarrant, who has .boarded her own golden horse. Dama, here since around 1999.

2006 NewsPage

2007 NewsPage

Working Equitation Clinic with Kimberly Garvis May 31st, 2009, saw three Paso Finos with 4 riders from Fina Vista Farm attending the Working Equitation Clinic at Winsong Farm, in Nobleton.  Kimberly spent several years in Brazil first learning and then competing in this challenging and super fun sport.  Working Equitation was originally devised as a way to test the horse's ability to handle bulls, but in a show format.  The sport has 4 phases (usually only the first 3 are performed in most events).  Phase one is a fairly simple dressage test, phase 2 is an obstacle course of 10 elements (including items like a bridge, a jump, a gate, cones, jousting (with rings or a ball), back-up elements, etc), phase 3 is a slightly different and very fast obstacle course that is timed (performed mostly at canter with single-hand reins), and phase 4 is cutting cattle. Kimberly is a wonderful and patient instructor and lots of fun was had by all.  The horses all rose to the challenge and the riders learned a great deal.  This sport is well established in various European and Latin American countries, and Kimberly is working to see teams established from United States and Canada.  We will be building more obstacles here at the farm and hopefully will be ready when the games begin! :) Photos by Ann Clifford:

Photos clockwise from top right: Kimberly instructs  the three pasos, Mercenario, Kitani and Querica; Mercenario and Camilla navigate the gate; Kimberly coaching farm owners, Winnie and Bill Stott on their Lusitano geldings; Katharine Creery all smiles on her mare, Kitani.

lCheck out Domenic's big paso grin trying out Querica!

THE 2009 HORSE FRIENDSHIP FESTIVAL Hosted by: PPHAO On Sunday, June 14th 2009, the Horse Friendship Festival was held in Black's Equine Centre in Hamilton, Ontario. The weather was great, one of the first nice days of the warm season and there was a decent turnout for the festival. This event was hosted by the Peruvian Paso Horse Association of Ontario, and was intended to draw Canadians with South American Heritage and Horse lovers alike to the show. Carlos and Carla Escudero's young filly Dama del Peru represented the gaited Peruvian Paso breed. These horses have been bred for hundreds of years in Peru to carry riders long distances over rough terrain at a smooth, comfortable and ground covering gait. Many of our CCPFHA members and friends attended as exhibitors, Camilla Willings and her Paso Fino Stallion Mercenario, Jeannie Harris and her new Paso Fino stallion Cavaliero de Vez, Muriel Chestnut on her gorgeous Andalusian Stallion Soberbio XII and the Hoof Beat Outriders drill team. A pretty buckskin reining Quarter Horse ridden by Dean Brown was a crowd favourite and a demonstration of dressage completed the horse demonstrations. here were colourful dance troops representing Columbia and Peru, a talented pair of Flamenco dancers and a handsome Mexican singer. Thanks to the PPHAO for their hard work in putting together this day's event. See the Photo Web Gallery by Leslie Town

CCPFHA OPEN HOUSE AND FIESTA at Forest Gait Paso Farm, Fergus, Ontario (below is a letter to CCPFHA members...) Hi there, I just wanted to take a moment to thank all the wonderful people who helped make the CCPFHA "Open House - Meet the Breed" event at Forest Gait Farm such a success. First of all, I'd like to express a huge thank you to The Harris family (and I do mean the whole family! Jeannie of course, but also Gord (my kids love you!), Eric, Ingrid, Cathy, James). Forest Gait Farm is absolutely beautiful and I know how hard they worked to get it ship-shape for this event. It was a big undertaking, and then also to throw a lovely potluck dinner at the house afterwards was icing on a great cake! Thanks also to all the hard workers that day, especially MaryJane McElvey (who made delicious wraps and goodies which she sold along with drinks, to help pay for our fantastic DJ!). Thanks to our wonderful announcer, who sounded great thanks to the DJ's sound system, Jan Kay. and our great DJ, J.P., who made it a party with fabulous Latin Music. Thanks to the demo riders and their horses, including Jo Seggie and Fiesta (pictured right), Lynda Smith and Alondra, Katharine Creery and Kitani, Jeannie Harris and Cavaliero, Diane Vollick and Delasandra, and Mercenario and Pianola from Fina Vista Farm. Thanks to all the members who came and helped out... like Janet Grant, Leslie Town (the photographer) and Casey O'Sullivan, Richard Roy, Victoria Poe, Margaret Lauber, Kate Smith, Denise Chandler, David Ross, Jan Kay, Mary Schweyer, Tara Jenkins, Gaye Spicer, Klara Latif, I am sure there is more than my addled brain can keep track of.... thank you thank you! Thanks also to all the other folks that came and pitched in, like Cathy and Karen from Forest Gait Farm, MJ's friends Sarah, Adrienne, Gracie and Cassie and everybody else... thank you!!! We had loads of happy paso smiles going around. The weather certainly did not put anyone off... It seemed liked everyone wanted a test ride! My personal fave was the lovely 88 year-old gentleman (pictured right on Pianola)  who talked his son into letting him have a test ride on the lovely Pia, even though he last rode a horse 70 years ago in Holland! He had a huge Paso grin and said it was one of the best days he has had in ages. :) We had lots of demos, lots of test rides, lots of pony rides, showed gaiting, versatility, jumping, pole bending, champagne class, ribbon class, and even played with horse soccer ball (Cavaliero was awesome at that! Pia even started giving it a pretty good kick). Fun day and as the mission was spreading the word about the wonderful Paso Fino Horse... Mission accomplished. :) good work everyone. Camilla Willings - 2008/2009 President of the CCPFHA Fina Vista Farm Damascus, Ontario link to loads of pics from the day: http://www.centralcanadapfha.com/CCPFHA_OpenHouse/index.htmlCCPFHA

2009 PERUVIAN AND PASO FINO HORSE COMBINED SHOW The Ontario Peruvian Horse Association and the Central Canada Paso Fino Horse Association held a combined show on July 4th, 2009 at Black's Equine Centre in Hamilton, Ontario. Karen Cabic, a PFHA judge from Rochester, New York, travelled north to act as judge for the show. See the class results See the CCPFHA Web photo gallery (pictured right: Camilla Willings and Katharine Creery with Bella Forma winner, Finola de Herencia

CCPFHA 2009 GAITED HORSE FUN SHOW Erin Fairgrounds, Erin, Ontario - August 16th, 2008 We had a very hot August day for the annual CCPFHA Gaited Horse Fun Show! We had lots of gaited horses and even more riders.  A highlight for Fina Vista Farm was seeing our very own Pianola take High Point Horse of Show with her riders, Victoria Poe (pictured right) and my 4-year-old son, Nathaniel Meakins, (whois Pianola's owner).  What an exciting day!! View full Class results View All the beautiful Fun Show pictures You may contact Leslie Town to order photos from the show.

THE WINDRIDER EQUESTRIAN CHALLENGE - NORWICH REGIONALS Fina Vista Farm takes Champion and Reserve Champion! (Exerpt from the Can Am report, read entire document here PDF Report from Can Am ...) After the first round on Saturday, the participants were informed of their scores and the top three returned for the next day’s Final. After a last obstacle course and a musical freestyle presentation by each of the riders, the judges tallied up their scores. The three Finalists in Norwich were: Champion, Camilla Willings of Kenilworth riding Mercenario deLa Libertad (aka Mercy), an 11 year old Paso Fino stallion; Reserve, Victoria Poe of Kenilworth riding Pianola, a 14 year old Paso Fino mare and Third was Heather Gill riding Justin, a 3 year old Appaloosa gelding. Congratulations to all three riders! Part of Camilla Willings’ prize as Champion is a free spot at the Can-Am Wind Rider Challenge Finals, so we will be seeing her again in London, Ontario; March, 2010. (Exerpt from Camilla, taken from an email...) "It did get super busy on Sunday with the rodeo. amazing to see the kids roping. It sure was a learning experience for all the horses... with everything going on from Bulls to Bouncy castles. As you know we all did a 12 item obstacle course on Saturday with the top 3 scores moving to finals on Sunday. Mercy and Pia and the Appaloosa were the 3 that moved on to the finals on Sunday. Saturday we had the obstacle course with a generous time limit. On Sunday we had a new course, a bit harder, and now it was timed with the fastest time earning a bonus point. Mercy and Pia were both a bit more wired on SUnday for some reason. There was a jump again, but much bigger this time. The Appaloosa was much steadier on Sunday and the course was perfectly designed for him. lots of cantering in circles, etc. he did the course perfectly. Course on Sunday was: halt in a box, canter depart left lead slow circle, left lead fast circle, flying lead change in the box, canter right lead to a stop pole, 2.25 turns on the haunches to the right, trot or gait over pretty big jump (not allowed to canter, argh!, but all three of us cleared it, Mercy from fino), proceed at gait/trot to a hula hoop on ground, 360 turn on the forehand with front feet in hoop, take sword with apple in cup on top in one hand and gait/trot in circle over 3 trot poles without dropping ball, return sword to Bob and take a javelin in same hand, canter across ring and throw javelin at a canter at target on hay bales, round a barrel to left and gallop back across finish line. pretty tough course! The Appaloosa did everything right, only flaw was slowing to a simple change of lead, not a flying change. Appaloosa even got javelin in centre of target - really hard! Mercy got the flying change, and did most things fast but ok, except messed up the turns on haunches at the stop pole- way too wired. pulled off the hula hoop one fast, but ok. I think we got the fastedst time. I did not see Pia as I was changing for the freestyle, but Victoria reported that she was really wired and flubbed both the turns on forehand and haunches, but got most other things, including jumps, nice circles, good javelin and a flying change that was late, but did it. Afterwards we all had to perform a freestlye routine to music. Luckily that is where our Pasos kicked some butt. We had costumes, and the horses looked lovely. Victoria looked beautiful in Spanish lady attire, with black skirt and shawl etc, and flowers in Pia's mane. SHe performed to latin groove number with garrocha pole and it was very pretty!! Pia was relaxed and they both had fun for sure. beautiful sidepasses. I wish I had video! it was beautiful. It was super windy all day, too. Mercy and I went more manly, in bolero tux with gold trim, a lovely valu village gold necklace on him and flowers in his mane and tail, with his Spanish headress. We came in carrying champagne glass and performed to a fast paced Gyspy Kings medley with lots of quick fino work, jumping, sidepass box, pirouettes, etc. at one point this crazy balloon sculpture with legs and eyes flew into the ring and everywhere we turned it seemed to be right in front of us, we practically had to jump over it to get to jump! so crazy... with cows and bulls lowing in pens all around us, a lawnmower race going on in next ring and much crazy stuff in very windy outdoors mucky rodeo ring. what an experience. The appaloosa's freestlye was very simple, clean but not much wow factor. In the end, we all got big fancy ribbons and the Appaloosa was 3rd, and got $100 and a bucket of prizes, Pia and Victoria were 2nd and got $200 and a bucket of prizes, and Mercenario and I got 1st, $500 and a bucket of prizes. Mercy and I also got a free spot into the Can-Am Wind RIder Finals (costs $200) in March, 2010. Yikes... now we have a lot of work to do! we made lots of mistakes and competition will be tough, but very exciting. Victoria said she has never worked soooo hard for a ribbon and I have to agree! It was a lot of work, but our horses were great troopers and we all learned a lot! Winnie and Bill Stott had their Lusitanos there for the Saturday, and they can testify to the crazy atmosphere there... and the size of the bulls in pens around the ring! Afterwards we were invited by a local lady to trail ride at her farm. had a great ride with storm clouds but no rain. the pasos were both still full of beans after that ride and would have gone again but it was time to get home. It was such a great training opportunity and definitely similarities with Working Equitation, with a bit more flexibility and focus on learning. The organizors, Suzanne and Bob, are very supportive and helpful and approach the whole thing as an educational experience, disguised as a competition. Victoria and I are both super indebted to Jeannie for lending us the truck for the weekend for 2 trips to Norwich... thank you Jeannie!!!!!!!"

SUTTON FAIR GAITED HORSE SHOW In August, Camilla was joined by Darcy Grube and Jaclyn Shoub in her trek to Sutton Ontario for the August Fall Fair Gaited Horse Show.  There was a good turn-out of horses and the foul weather mostly held off, so we had a lovely day.  Jaclyn rode Mercenario and Darcy and Camilla took turns on Destino. Overall, we had a really good day.  Destino even did his first trail class and was very good!  Highlight was winning the Champion and Reserve Champion in the Battle of the Breeds with Destino and Mercenario, respectively... way to go boys! (pictured right: Jaclyn on Mercenario and Darcy on Destino)

CCPFHA WEEKEND RIDE AT MANSFIELD October 2 to 4 2009, Mansfield, Ontario. The CCPFHA held its annual trail ride this year in October instead of the spring. The weather wasn't great - but everyone still enjoyed themselves. We took 5 horses from Fina Vista Farm, Camilla on Pianola, Margaret on Kitani, Leslie on Teo, Jen and Janet shared Dama and Tadora with her new owner, Angie.  This was my first time being able to go for the whole weekend and I had a great time!!  The forest is beautiful and the trails nice and sandy.  Looking forward to riding there again soon. Photo Gallery by Janet Message from Wendy Webb, OCTRA's photographer (who took some shots of us as we crossed paths with an OCTRA Race).... "It was great to see such a happy group of people enjoying a beautiful day with their horses ... and such a variety of horses! Here is the link to your viewing gallery, once opened, the gallery view can be changed by clicking on the options found in the lower left hand corner of the screen. The images have all been colour corrected on a colour calibrated monitor, if the images seem too dark, too bright, or odd in colour then perhap s your monitor requires calibration. Additional information such as the price list can be found on my web site, we look forward to your order. http://gallery.me.com/funwithhorses#101190 Enjoy your images, Wendy Webb LPPO 519-924-3940 funwithhorses@me.com or www.WendyWebbPhotography.com

GUELPH SANTA CLAUS PARADE We had so much fun last time that we had to do it again!  In November, 3 horse and riders from Fina Vista Farm gussied up their ponies and headed down to Guelph for the Santa Claus Parade.  This is always a very well-attended parade, but I think this year was the best for floats and bands and stuff -great parade, great times! The best part is always being able to just ride our way through the streets of Guelph and have a canter in Exhibition Park on our way back to the trailers after the parade is done.  Yee-haw! (pictured below are Leslie Howarth on Teodosio, Camilla Willings on Mercenario and Donna MacFarlane on  Kitani).