Thank you to our 2009 Bluebonnet Rescue Training Challenge Judge Becky Strassner. You can visit her website at www.naturalhorseway.com. Thanks also to Kathy and Kaylon Sullens who also served as judges. We're looking for judges for the 2010 Bluebonnet Rescue Horse Training Challenge. email Jenn for more information.

About the Bluebonnet Rescue Horse Training Challenge

The Bluebonnet Rescue Horse Training Challenge is a competition in which volunteer foster homes and professional trainers work with a Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society foster horse for three months (starting in early July 2010) and will compete in the Challenge at the 2010 Bluebonnet Horse Expo on October 16, 2010.

The goals of the Challenge are to:

• Introduce the public to talented rescue horses
• Showcase the training abilities of Bluebonnet foster homes
• Produce horses who are ready to go to work for their adopters

The competition is open to any BEHS member who applies to foster and is approved, as well as professional trainers whose property is inspected and approved. If you are not currently an approved foster home or BEHS member, join the rescue and download a fostering application and we’ll get you set up to go.

The Bluebonnet Fostering Coordinator and the Challenge organizers will select a pool of eligible horses. Participants will apply to compete in the Challenge by June 15, 2010 and will be able to list their top three choices of a horse to work with. BEHS foster homes may compete with a foster already in their possession as long as no professional trainers have handled the horse in the six months preceding the Challenge Competition (held on October 16 at the Bluebonnet Horse Expo in Austin, Texas). If you wish to compete with a foster horse already in your possession, note that on your application.

Horses will be assigned on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. Each participant will be responsible for picking up his or her horse from its foster home between July 1 and July 15, 2010.

Each eligible horse will come with a current, negative Coggins and have current vaccinations. His/her previous foster home will also complete an evaluation sheet assessing the horse’s abilities and training to the best of the foster home’s ability.

When the participant picks up his/her horse, he/she will have one week to turn in an evaluation worksheet to the Challenge organizers. He/she will have up until the competition on October 16, 2010 to work with the horse.

The Challenge will include the following divisions:

• Professional trainer - anyone who is paid for their training services
• Experienced foster home – someone who has been a foster home for at least two years
• Novice foster home – someone who has fostered less than two years
• Youth – participants 17 and under as of January 1, 2010.

If a foster home chooses, he/she may pay training fees to a professional trainer for a Challenge-eligible horse. That horse and trainer will then compete in the professional trainer category.

Horses in the professional trainer division will compete under saddle. All other divisions will compete in either an under saddle subcategory or an in-hand subcategory.

At the Challenge, all horses will compete over an obstacle course and will be allowed an additional 10 minutes for a freestyle presentation. This may include tricks, presentation of “before and after” history, etc.

The contest will be judged by a panel of equine professionals. Each horse/trainer combination will be scored on:

• Improvement from initial assessment
• Condition of horse
• Obstacle course
• Presentation/freestyle

Scores will be tabulated. The highest two scoring horse/trainer combinations in each division will be named Champion and Reserve Champion for their division.

The division Champions and Reserve Champions will then do another 10 minute presentation, after which the Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion will be chosen.

The horses who participate in the Challenge will not be available for adoption until the end of the Challenge. All horses will go up for Adoption the day of the contest. Horses who are not broke to ride will be offered for adoption for $300. Horses who are broke to ride will be offered for adoption for $750. Pre-approved adopters may adopt and take home the horse after the Challenge. If more than one pre-approved adopter wishes to adopt the same horse, they may bid up the adoption fee and the highest bidder will adopt the horse. Adoption applications will also be accepted the day of the Challenge but those adopters will not be allowed to adopt until their property is inspected and approved.

Additional rules:

• All participants must be professional trainers or current members of Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society in good standing.
• Foster horses may not be handled/trained by any other individual or trainer from July 1 – October 16, 2010
• All foster homes who compete must sign a contract stating that they agree to foster the horse for three months after the Challenge is complete (unless he/she is adopted beforehand) or forfeit their winnings. This rule does not apply to professional trainers. If you prefer, we will make arrangements to transfer your horse into a foster home after the Challenge is completed if he/she is not adopted.
• Competitors will be responsible for the cost of feeding their horse, shavings/bedding, and farrier work during the Challenge and the foster period after the Challenge. Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society will reimburse $10 of every farrier visit, paste de-wormers, pre-approved veterinary care, and pre-approved corrective farrier work and medications.
• There must be at least two people signed up per division in order for that division to be offered.

Prizes:

The Champion in the professional trainer category will receive $250 cash prize as long as there are at least 3 participants in that category. Prizes for the Champions in other categories are TBA. The Grand Champion will receive a $500 cash prize, and the Reserve Grand Champion will receive a $250 cash prize.

Apply to Compete in the Bluebonnet Rescue Horse Training Challenge

We are accepting entries for the 2010 Bluebonnet Rescue Horse Training Challenge officially through June 15, 2010.

download THE application.

Horses Competing in the Bluebonnet Rescue Horse Training Challenge will be listed closer to the Challenge's start.

Participants Competing in the 2010 Bluebonnet Rescue Horse Training Challenge

Professional Category:

Experienced Foster Home (fostered at least two years)

Novice Foster Home (fostered less than two years)

Adopt One of the Bluebonnet Rescue Horse Training Challenge Horses

All horses will go up for Adoption the day of the contest. Horses who are not broke to ride will be offered for adoption for $300. Horses who are broke to ride will be offered for adoption for $750. Pre-approved adopters may adopt and take home the horse after the Challenge. If more than one pre-approved adopter wishes to adopt the same horse, they may bid up the adoption fee and the highest bidder will adopt the horse. Adoption applications will also be accepted the day of the Challenge but those adopters will not be allowed to adopt until their property is inspected and approved.

If you would like to be pre-approved to adopt a horse from the Bluebonnet Rescue Horse Training Challenge, please ">download an application. Complete it and send it in by October 1, 2010 to be approved in time to adopt the day of the Challenge.

Schedule for the 2010 Bluebonnet Rescue Horse Training Challenge

The scheduled will be posted closer to the date of the 2010 Bluebonnet Rescue Horse Training Challenge.