Tour Guide

Last Friday the 13th we had the privilege of hosting a tour for the Texas A&M Chapter of the National Block & Bridle Club. Block & Bridle is a club that's dedicated to the promotion of agriculture on campus, encouraging higher scholastic standards among ag students, and enhancing professionalism of students who will one day be leaders in the ag industry. These students were part of over 650 undergrads that attended the National Convention for Block & Bridle in San Antonio. Students could choose from different tours and we were honored that over 80 students chose to come see Circle Y. We showed them all of our operation: tree making, leather cutting, saddle and tack assembly, and the shipping department.

The group seemed to be diversified with horse people and cattle people. Even some of the students with cattle backgrounds thought the tour was interesting so that was neat. The horsemen of the group asked some tough questions which was great because that meant they were actually thinking about what we were saying. There's so much that goes into making a saddle that I guess it really can't be appreciated until you've seen it first hand. Just because more than one person builds your saddle here and not one person from start to finish, it's still our daily pursuit for perfection to create the best saddles in the world for a variety of disciplines, riders, and horses. Photo: Mark Jemelka-General Manager of Circle Y, Texas A&M student hosts, and Yoakum mayor Annie Rodriguez.

Riding my gelding has steadily stayed on the back burner but with the days already getting longer, it will soon be time for the spring tune up. I am beginning to feel spring fever and ready to spend some time in the outdoors with my fuzzy, attention-deprived gelding. (I know for some of you this is still a long way off seeing most of the country is still covered up in snow!) I have set my riding goals high this season with having a much more broke trail horse by the end of summer. I plan to use a lot of Julie Goodnight’s DVDs to help me get a willing partner and become the leader with ‘ole Copper. We will continue to have our lessons with Anne, who works here and is my gaited horse instructor, who will continue to teach me and Copper the proper gaits of a good Walking horse. There are only a few more weeks until daylight savings time. I groan at the thought of losing an hour but at the same time, it’s more riding time in the evening. At that thought, the daylight will be a welcomed time to really ride and build a better relationship with my horse. Happy Trails.