PNER Convention 2017

What a great time this weekend at the PNER Convention in Portland, OR! It got my brain dug out of 3 ft of snow and got me pumped for this up and coming ride season. Good friends and a whole weekend of horse talk, how could you go wrong?

Friday and Saturday were filled with all kinds of speakers and talks from Essential Oils for Horse and Rider to Rehabilitating the Sport Horse. I particularly enjoyed the two hour talk on Conditioning for the Higher Level. It provided a good over view on how to safely bring a horse along into the next level of conditioning after a 1-2 year base of Long Slow Distance training has been completed. I thought it was a great reminder that it takes years to build bone density, years to strengthen tendons and ligaments, and don't get fooled into too much speed work too soon despite what your horses' cardio tells you. Even though these talks were geared towards the endurance horse, I think a a lot of the information can be applied to almost all horses and disciplines.

We got to talking with some great people from EDRA (Equine Distance Riders Association), about hosting an Endurance 201 clinic at Elk Haven! Sounds like this should be a go, and we are hoping to get something scheduled for early Spring. We are thinking about covering topics like conformation, movement, hoof maintnance, and conditioning/riding strategies for the endurance rider and horse. This would include actually being outside looking at several different horses, how they are built and where they are in their career. Exciting!

There were some great vendors at the Trade Show and I am pretty sure we all walked through it like 20 times! It was neat to see products 'hands on' that maybe you had heard about but never have seen in person. There were tables filled with raffle items that had been donated in support of PNER. I couldn't even begin to name them all, but they were all items I think any horse person would be happy to win! It seems it was a great way to raise funds for PNER. Ginni won a free ride entry to Bandit Springs Endurance Ride in Central Oregon! and Paige won some cute earrings, socks and horse shampoo. I wasn't as lucky to win anything, but did find a couple items to buy at the used tack sale. So I am a happy girl with some loot too.

Saturday night wrapped up convention with a great dinner, drinks and 2016 PNER awards. Prom dresses and over the top outfits are the theme for awards dinner, and although we did not go to that extreme, we had fun with our custom "Wild Women" shirts and boas. Bring it 2017!