Bolender Horse Park News

Hello everyone.  It has been a great year thanks to everyone.  I never thought we would be so busy.  What fun.  I will try to keep everyone up to date on what is going on each month with the event calendar. 

Big and good news!!  We are building a major mountain trail course where the jumps are.  We will have pits, step ups, water, logs, rocks to name a few. It seems more and more of our customers want good good trail horse and horse to compete down at the OR trail championship challenge. 

Thanks Mark 

Oct 29th 2007

The mountain course is done.  Wow Three trenches, one 32' bridge that you can ride under, pond, many step ups and downs, rocks and logs. It is a major hit with the first week bringing in riders from OR to Seattle.  It should give everyone a large advantage for the show in OR next month.  We have 19 going down so it should be a fun busy time.

Make sure you buy a pass for the winter so you can get out of the weather. A one month pass is $100.00

Nov 1st 2007 

Our barn manager Amy Johnson is going to follow her love and that is train ex race horses to be endurance horses.  See is moving to Adna where she has many miles of trail to train on.  We wish her the best of luck.  She will always be welcome and will be back from time to time.

Nov 13th 2007

Wow what a show and what a great time we all had down in Eugene OR at the Nal't extreme trail challenge.  See OR Horse Center for all the details.  Betsy, Carroll, Doc Lee, Barb, Wanda, Lexi all had great rides.  Great moments and things to work on.  Thanks so much to everyone for all your help.  We could not have done it without all of Steve Baxters hard work and help.  Thanks.  See the pictures that Cheryl took.

Nov 19th 2007

We are having a barn Christmas party Dec 8th.  It starts at 1:00 pm.  Mickey would like a gift exchange and is suggesting a $20.00 limit.  We will have a blessing of the animals at 4:00.  This should be a great time for all.  Call for details. 

Remember we have gift certificates for presents.  Ask for details and I will get you the whole page.

August 28, 2008

Wow - The days just fly by. So far a very busy good year.

Carroll O'Conner won the Amature and Novice horse on Charo at the Nal't trail challenge in April.  Great job.  She ale so did well at the other shows she attended.

The clinic this year went very well. 

Lynn Palm and her husband Ceril were great as a team. They will be back next year at the end of June.  Get signed up now.  Lynn wants an extreme trail course like the one here so several of us will be flying to FL in mid Nov. to build it.  A real honor for the park.

Clinton Anderson's clinic was also full and well attended.  A great time was had by all.  It sounds like they will be back in July 2009 so whatch their web site and get signed up early.

We are getting ready for several shows.  The first is the NW congress and the big one is the Nal't Championship show in Nov at the OR horse center.  We hope to have 19 horses under the barn name and all will have a great time.

Two weeks before they have a clinic and mini show to get ready for the big show.  This year I am honored to be one of the Clinicians for it.  We will go over the new rules and what we want to see.  I will be taking Checkers and Hummer.  (If hummer is not sold)  Hummer is owned by Rocky Allen who breeds top end show quaility QH.  Hummer is a two year old who has just been started but has the type of mind we are looking for in a show horse.  I will use him to demonstrate what we expect at this young stage and how we train them. I will use Checkers to show what we want with the end product.

We have a trail clinic here on Sept 27th and 28th so we can get ready for the big one.

Mark and Kim Bolender

Oct 6th 2008

Well this year has been great. We moved three buildings and really opened up the park.  It looks great.  We have added runs and pasture for turnout.  The extreme trail course was expanded with a number of items.  I will be building one for Lynn Palm in FL come November. 

We have 20 horses going down to the Show in Nov.  Everyone is excited and working hard to get prepared.  Come join us for the fun.

It is Nov 6-9 2009.

The barns are full and we have had some wonderful horses to start this year.  Thanks for everyones support and help.

Kay Sides our barn manager has done a great job and has a lot of horse savvy.  What a blessing to us and our customers. 

Mark

An update on the Nal't Trail Show in Eugene OR. Nov 25 2008

Everyone had a great time and all did very well. The barn had 114 classes per day so everyone was more than busy.  Thanks to Sherry Wright, Peter and Peter show things went well.  Some changes are to be made so things will go even better for the next show according to Mickey Lofgren.  I had 52 rides per day but do not plan for that again.

 Cherly Momuszko had some great rides on Scout.  He will be a contender and a horse to watch in the coming shows.   He is a very fun horse.

Amy Neilsen had some great rides on Artie and never had an issuse with ground clearance since he is 17'2 hands.  We found some holes to plug but for his first show he did great.

Doc Lee Brock provided excitment with him and LaForge.  LaForge is a great horse and will be one that can do it all if he is in the mood.  He gets a 10 for looks and Doc gets a 10 for sticking with it.

Jo Frey and her little Arab Bey were just the cuttest pair to walk into the show ring.  That horse gives Jo her whole heart.  She gets my award for best smile.

Joanne and Tobie were a great pair and Tobie will also be a contender for this show in the future.  He gave it his all and did great for his first show.  Joanne - go for it girl - you can do it.  Love the smile and all the help her husband Peter gave us.

Mickey Lofgren and Milo.  What can you say about Milo other than he was the show stopper.  He may be a mini but there is no mountian that he can not climb.  He was in the winners circle Sunday Morning with proud Mickey standing with him.

Tag the Gypsy Vanner is as cute as they are made.  Just full of life once coming out of the ditch.  (Just checking out his springs) He then settled down to have a near perfect run and was great the rest of the show.  For a two year old he did great.  I am sure that we will see Holly Rydman riding and showing him in the future.

Beamer another two year old did great.  Steve Baxter is a very proud owner and I am sure we will see him in the future. Steve gets the award for having the sweetest gelding.

Hummer another two year old owned by Rocky and Ron Allen did great.  He ended up the second weekend 3rd for novice horse.  He had the best water work of any horse.  He was fun to show.  He is for sale and will make a great show horse and or family horse.  Just a great disposition and quiet mind.

Scooter another two year old from San Franscio was so fun. Vallen Cooper had done a great job in starting the colt along with her other two year old Jackson.  Both were a joy to train and both did very well.  She took 5 first out of 7 goes the second weekend and ended up 7th for the big show.  Not bad for there first show.  Good Job Vallen.

Amy owned by Cheniaya King was not shown due to a hauling injury.  But she will be back in the future.  It was a heart break for she was ready.

CC ? a big Tennesse Walker did great for Krista Anderson.  This was his and her first show but he showed that with a little work he will give Checkers a run for his money.  She added alot to the whole show and had her daughter watching her intead of vis versa.  Good job Kris.

Cherly Dickerson who took all the pictures will be riding Prince next year but still had fun helping and watching.  Her travel trailer made a great place for a celebration party Sat night.

Margreat D'Alessandro came in 3rd in her age bracket on Rockie a horse she has been working with.  She did a great job and is a very good rider.  This will be a pair to watch in the future.

Barb Baxter riding Max had some great moments.   Max is not an easy horse to ride but when he walks in the ring everyone notices for he is stunning.  As he is trained he just gets better and better.  Give this team a few more years and watch Barb smile as she sits in the winners circle.

Carol O'Conner just gets better and better with Charo.  She good so many awards and can't keep track of them.  She and Charro have turned into a team that is a joy to watch.  Great job and keep up the good work.

Kristie Staub from Vancouver had a complete turn around from the April show.  Tears of joy instead of tears of frustration.  She was in the winners circle Sunday with her horse.  Her mom Susan was indeed a proud mother.

Kalle Wright and Cotton had moments of greatness and moments of agony.  Here at the park I thought Cotton would be the horse to beat but you never know about a horse show.  I am sure she will come back and show us how it is done.

Checkers - What can I say.  He Won the Nal't Title of Grand Champion Overall.  He did it all bridle-less.  Belt Buckle, ribbion, and jacket.  Yea Haw.

Will add more later.

Christmas party on the 6th of Dec at 12:00.  Hope to see everyone here and we will see a slide show of the year.

 We added to the trail course - one 32' long bridge with a pond under it, two Texas two steps, an elevated 360 turn around box, added to the rats nest, a 24" step up out of the water, and more logs.  We also landscaped it.  We will have our first show in Jan and Feb.

 We (Steve and Barb Baxter, Kim and myself) will be flying down to FL in Jan to build Lynn Palm a course like ours.  I will try to get the pictures on the web.

Dec 29, 2008

Wow where has the year gone????  We have two small trail shows coming up here at the park.  Jan 24th and Feb 28th.  You need to be pre approved in order to show.  It is $25.00 and should be a great time.

Jan 26, 2009

 What fun the trail show turned out to be. We had several more riders than expected for the turnout which was really fun.  Mickey Lofgren did a great job on judging.  Tough but fair.  The big surprise was the ground was dry and not muddy.  Tell your friends for the show on Feb 28th.

Jan 26,2008

Well another year has gone and it is tax time.  From looking at our books you our customers made 2008 a record year for income.  Both Gross and net were up but pressure from fuel, increased insurance cost, hay and grain have put a squeeze on the future outlook.  We will do our best to bring you the best for 2009 and hold our cost down.

Check out the pictures on Activities for the new pictures of Lynn Palm's tral course.  It will be fabulous when it is landscaped. 

We may build another large one in Tenn. soon.

The Craig Camron ECR was a blast.  Learned all the rules and getting ready for next yr.  Came in 13th and rode it bridle-less. 

We are planning on have Craig Camron here for a clinic.  It may be in 2010 but if we can find a date we will have it this year.

Another trail show has come and gone.  Wow what fun.  The riders just keep getting better and better.  It is so fun to watch a horse see an obstacle for the first time.  The horse is trying to tell the rider that the best is any way but this way while the rider is mystified why the horse will not listen?  Then we can see the learning begin with the horse and rider while coming to an understanding.  Keep watching the web for the next show.  The pictures from this show are under events gallery.

April 30, 2009

We have added another attraction to the Extreme Trail Arena.  A suspension bridge.  It will be a great training tool.  

May 4, 2009

The clinic over the past three days was the best ever.  It was so fun to see everyone progress in the three days.  The last two days the riders were videoed and the last day a horse judge (Mickey Lofgren ) evaulated the riders.  This gave feedback to the customers which was well recieved.  We had some very good riders on some great horses.  Most had been to many different clinics so we were able to step it up on the riding part.  The clients were from OR, WA and Wisconsin.    Watch for the next one. The suspension bridge turned out to meet and or exceed all expectations for training the horse and rider.

May 11 2009

Wow another open house and what fun.  Everyone was great and the food and weather was perfect.  Can't wait untill next year. 

We have a new DVD coming out and it should be on the website and Utube soon.

We need the riders for the Craing Camron Extreme Trail Race to sign up by June 1 for the June show.

Happy riding.  "EXPECT MORE"

July 17th 2009  My birthday - Yea Haw

The Lynn Palm clinic was the best ever this year.  12 very good riders and horses.  We had a great time with them before and after the clinic.  I am working with Lynn on a joint training DVD for the extreme trail course.  This is a great big breakthrough for me and a real honor. 

WE HAVE EXPANDED THE EXTREME TRAIL COURSE. IT IS NOW THE BEST EXTREME TRAIL COURSE IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!

Mount Kimberly with Whyatt rock on top is off the charts.  I gives us many more training options.  The whole course is now very 3D.  You must see it to belive it.  The Backcountry Horseman were the first to use it in a clinic.  It will challenge the very best of trail and show horses.   We have one more major expansion planned for this year.  Stay tuned.

We now have Brock Ridge (in memory of Dr Lee Brock) which turned out fantastic.  The large rocks give us steps and many more training tools.  Brock Ridge also has another bridge and water fountain in it.  Great for the hoses.

Dec 8th 2009

We took 16 horses down to the Nat'l Mtn Trail Challenge this year.  Many smiles, ribbions, lots of fun and a good time was had by all including the horses.  What fun.

The second weekend Carla took the high point and Cheryl took the Res high point.  The first weekend we had 5 horses in the awards program on Sunday.  How fun.  So proud of the horses and of all the hard work the riders put in.

Checkers won the high point and the open aged horse futuritity to win the Nat'l Championship for the second year in a role.  I did it again bridle-less.  You can see his fist go on You Tube. 

Cashel supplied some great looking blankets, signs and splint boots for all of our riders.  They looked great and a big thank you.  They also sponsored part of the show along with Bolender Horse Park.

Everyone is excited for next year.

Feb clinic was great.  Packed full with a waiting list.  Everyone learned much and had a great time.  We had the head judge from the OR Horse Center be the judge for the mock show at the end of the clinic.  With Cheryl filming the show it has turned out to be a high-light of the clinics.  The weather turned out to be great.

May

Wow the clinic was great.  I am amazed how the weather turned good.  Everyone is ready for the show.  Yea Haw.

June 1st

Wow where has the year gone to.  Crazy busy and fun.  The Spring Mountain Trail show went great for everyone down at the OR Horse Center.  Nancy, Carla, Cheryl, Carol, Taran, Andrea and myself all had a great time.  All did well and were happy.  Checkers won three jackets, two blankets and three backpacks by winning the High Point for logan and silverado arena.  He did not win every class but enough.  :-)  Great riders and great trainers down at the show.  He won the open 50 and over, ride one lead one and in hand.  So much fun.  

 Next clinic is in Palm City Fl on June 12 and 13.