New England Tack Shop Tour

Our First Day:
Early Monday morning David Royal and I saddled our ponies and set out on our New England Tack Shop tour. Our purpose was to visit some of the premier Saddle and Tack shops in the area.

Our First stop was Green County Horseshoe Supply located in Greenville, NY.

This shop has an extensive offering of saddles and equipment that would appeal to a broad selection of horse enthusiast. Circle Y and High Horse are Green County's premier saddle and tack brands.

The owner, Butch Colbert, has a broad understanding of the equestrian market and uses that knowledge to provide tremendous service to his customer base.

David and I also enjoyed looking at some of Butch's collectibles.

Along with Butch and Steve we also had the privilege of meeting Alyece Russo and her daughter Bonnie Harvey. They are both seasoned and accomplished barrel racing competitors. (Also Circle Y fans!) Bonnie rides a bay gelding named Duelly.


Time to get back the ponies and head East to Westfield, MA.....








Second Stop:




Our second shop to visit was Sackett Ridge Saddlery in Westfield, MA.









Owner Marci Kramer has a wonderful collection of Saddles and Tack that she sells through her store locally and on the Internet around the world. (She carries wonderful brands such as Circle Y, High Horse and Tucker Trail Saddles!!!!)

Sackett Ridge is known around the country for their large selection of Circle Y Arabian Show Saddles and Tack.















Marci is an expert saddle fitter and works closely with her customers assisting them in the best saddle fit possible for their horse. Along with her show equipment focus Marci also outfits lots of trailriders.

The next stop is Uxbridge, MA

The Mane Place in Uxbridge!

The Mane Place is a family owned an operated tack shop located in Uxbridge, MA. Paul, Linda and their daughter have been serving the region since 1988 with a broad selection of saddles, tack, clothing, feed and equestrian supplies.







The Mane Place is a premier dealer of Tucker Trail Saddles.














The Mane Place is renowned both regionally and across the nation for its excellent customer service and product knowledge.

Before we left we had the privilege of having our picture made with Linda and a special friend.

On the road again----PONY TIME!


"WAIT-UP!!!"
















We were determine to make it to New Hampshire before Dark.

Our ponies were a little spooked with the single lane bridge but with some fast moves we were able to navigate through.

Our next stop was the Cheshire Horse in Swanzey, NH.

The Cheshire Horse has been serving horse people throughout New England since 1997. Doug and Mary Anne Hampshaw have continued to grow the business ever since then and now have two locations!
Their philosophy is to offer the best and largest selection possible backed up by knowledgeable staff and great customer service. Their retail stores stock everything you need to equip you, your horse, and your barn. Along with a tremendous saddle and tack offering Cheshire has a wide variety of Purina Mills, Buckeye Nutrition, and Platform feeds at both our locations.




















David worked to assist Mary Anne determining the best product mix to offer the Cheshire customers.

Doug Hampshaw also owns and manages the Hampshaw lumber company located in the Keene. It was a great pleasure to have the oppertunity to learn obout his business and the region.

Hamshaw Lumber Inc.

Our final stop on the New England tour was the

Double G Ranch in Lebanon, Maine.

Double G Ranch has been growing for 18 years and is currently 11,000 sq. ft. of retail space on two floors. They are proud to have over 650 new and used saddles and an extensive selection of merchandise that their customers have come to expect. They stock tack for training, trail riding and showing. They also have barn supplies, fencing materials, supplements, grooming aids, and clothing for both horse& rider from Mini to Draft and Toddler to Adult. Double G has a one of the most extensive selections of Circle Y, High Horse and Tucker saddles that can be found in the entire north east.

Double G is located in some of the most picturest areas of New England surrounded by stone fences and rollings hills.

Gary and Ruth along with their tremendous staff offer their customers an unprecidented level of expertese and service.

Mesa Leavitt-My International Finals Rodeo Experience

I.F.R. 40 had an awesome turn out this year. 15 barrel racers from across the U.S. and Canada came to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for the I.F.R. But there were only 4 who came in search of a world title. Sindy Laliberte, Carie White, Laura Kerley , and me, Mesa Leavitt. I came to the I.F.R. $5,000 behind and had a lot of catching up to do.

This year I kind of had fallen behind because my good horse, Juniors Genuine Doc aka Junior, had to have ankle surgery at the end of July right in the middle of a bunch of really good rodeos. I spent the rest of the season trying new and different horses-some were better than others. Our main concern for Junior was getting him back and ready for the I.F.R.. Junior was off until the end of November and that's when we started legging Junior back up. I had taken Junior to a couple barrel races trying to get him back into his routine of running. Junior has a special way of doing things before he runs and if you don't then you're in trouble.

By the time the I.F.R. rolled around I knew he was gonna be ready to go. I took Junior and my new horse Red to the I.F.R. Red was simply there for Junior if he were to have any problems or for some reason I did not think he needed to run. After 13 long hours of hauling we finally made it to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. When I got Junior in the pen I could tell he knew where he was and he meant business. By the night the first round came around Junior and I were ready. Our first run he didn't fire like he usually does but he still won third in the round. On Saturday there were two rounds, an afternoon performance and an evening performance. The second round was kind of like the first round-it was nice and smooth but still did not fire like he usually does. He placed fourth in the round that night and we were still sitting good in the average. So for the third round I knew we needed to pump up our game and win the round. So Junior and I had a good long talk and stayed by ourselves and I just let Junior do what ever he wanted and be himself. Before we ran I could see that his eyes meant business. He made an awesome run it was smooth and fast and I was so proud of him. Sunday afternoon was the last round and I knew all I had to do was make a smooth clean run. But evidently Junior was thinking the same thing. Cause when he saw that alley way he reared straight up in the air then took off. He won the last round and that put him number 1 in the average.

I was so proud of him, he deserved this title more than any of the other titles he has won. I need to give all the credit to Junior. He is truly a once in a life time horse. I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world. Junior is my baby and always will be. He has brought so much joy to the Leavitt family and I'm sure still more to come. We would really like to go for a 5th world title cause no one has ever accomplished 5 in a row. We have a lot planned for 2010 and can't wait to start going hard again. I need to send a big thanks to Susan, Shiloh, and Richard aka Dad Leavitt for all their help and support at I.F.R. 40. Thank you also Circle Y for all your help and support- you supply me with such marvelous and beautiful tack and saddles I really appreciate it.

Hopefully we will see you down the road.

Mesa Leavitt

Circle Y 2010

This year Circle Y celebrates our 50th Anniversary. Since it's founding in Yoakum Texas in 1960, many changes have taken place. The company has grown, changed ownership, and revamped it's manufacturing process. 2010 also marks another milestone in the history of Circle Y-for the first time the manufacturing, office, and shipping operations are under one roof. Still in Yoakum Texas, the relocation has combined our operations from 4 separate buildings into a single facility. We are loving the new building. It has allowed the manufacturing process to be more streamlined, and has eliminated the unnecessary trucking of materials between buildings. The move took place over Christmas vacation, and as you can imagine, moving 50 years of accumulated stuff is no small feat! When we came back in January we quickly went to work unpacking, organizing and preparing for our first visitor to our new home-Julie Goodnight. Julie was in Texas for a Horsemaster TV shoot, so she came in a day early to visit, accompanied by her Horsemaster associates Heidi and Cheryl. It was great to finally meet her face-to-face, after months of designing and perfecting her saddle line through conference calls, telephone, email, and shipping saddles back and forth! We gave the ladies the grand tour of the saddle making process, start to finish. Technology has brought the company a long way, allowing us to design and create precision parts with computer digitation and computerized leather cutting. But saddles are still handmade one-by-one, and the employees at each phase of saddle making demonstrated their craftmanship. We even came across some of Julie's own Peak Performance saddles along the way. After experiencing the amount of labor and skill required throughout the saddle making process, the ladies vowed they would take better care of their saddles!

HorseMaster Texas Filming

Julie Goodnight is the real deal. They don’t call her the HorseMaster for nothing. Last week she filmed 6 episodes for her hit TV show, HorseMaster with Julie Goodnight which airs on RFD-TV, at the Banshee Ranch in Montgomery, Texas. It was about 3 hours from Yoakum, so I took a little drive to watch, help out, and be the Circle Y rep.
I was really looking forward to meeting Julie. After all, several of us horse ladies here in the office are big fans and have watched and used her training videos. Her demeanor was very nice and all business. She is excellent at what she does and was intensely focused on doing just that. Watching the transformations between horses and riders was especially interesting to me. How many times have we-as riders-tried to teach our horse something and someone who has more experience comes along and says-do this instead and it’s like magic! Our horse amazingly does what we were trying to teach him. One of our own was a cast member on the show. Tina, with her sweet gelding, Buddy, needed some help side passing. By the end of the session, Buddy had a good understanding of what Tina was asking him to do and Tina learned how to correctly ask him. You'll have to tune in and watch the show to see Julie's method for teaching a horse to sidepass! The show airs every Wednesday at 5:30 EST on RFD-TV.
The filming took place at the Banshee Ranch which is a boarding, training, and rehabilitation facility. The staff was friendly and took excellent care of the horses. The barn was laid out well with horse friendly conveniences-not to mention neat as a pin with manure no where to be seen. Julie is having a 2-day riding clinic there in May. Check out Julie's web site for all the details.

Kenda Lenseigne Takes a Tour of Circle Y

After winning the Overall World Championship title in Amarillo, Texas on Saturday, Circle Y Team of Champions member Kenda Lenseigne took a detour to Circle Y in Yoakum before heading home to Arizona. We hadn’t met Kenda in person, so her being in Texas was a great opportunity to take a tour of our facilities and meet. Traveling with Kenda was her photographer Brian, 4 horses including Justin, her champion mount, and her two dogs. Before the tour, she volunteered to give a private clinic to some Circle Y employees and their spouses. Besides being one of the nicest people you could meet, she was a great instructor and entertaining to visit with.

Kenda arrived at Circle Y Tuesday morning. After meeting the office personnel, we started the tour in the Cutting room, where our digitizing and cutting machines demonstrated the technological advances Circle Y has made in the past 5 years. Being able to digitally trace paper patterns and import them into the cutting machine means that we are not constrained by “cookie cutter” clicker dies, or strenuous hand cutting. So we can make a design in any shape we want, tweak them to fit perfectly together on a saddle tree, change or improve designs instantly, and make a safer working environment for our employees. The cutting machine uses laser imaging to lay out and mark the patterns on the hide, then a pneumatic knife cuts the parts, which are popped out of the leather skeleton and put in a box to go the assembly area.
Next we toured the Saddle factory where Kenda watched each operation from the leather coloring process to hand finishing edges, stitching, putting in the groundseat, seat, skirts, and final assembly. Even though technology has advanced saddle making in some areas, saddles are still built by hand, one-by-one, and Kenda was able to witness the craftsmanship that goes into each and every saddle at Circle Y. Kenda even got to see her Quick Shot Mounted shooting saddle in process. Kenda finally got to meet the Design & Engineering team of Mike and Bull. These are the guys that take the first prototypes from start to finish. Bull even talked Kenda in to trying her hand at hand tooling a leather design!
The last stop of the tour was the finished goods warehouse where Kenda got to check out the finished product. Throughout the day Kenda took time to pose for pictures and visit with the employees. Later, she returned to factory to hand out pictures and sign autographs for her fans at Circle Y.

Aspiring Shooters get a Private Clinic

While in town for a tour of the Circle Y facility, Kenda gave some aspiring shooters a private clinic this past Monday evening. My husband Robert and I, Amy, and Tina with her husband, John, met with Kenda for some instruction with the top competitor in the sport. For me, it was a little intimidating at first to be riding with such an incredible horse woman, but in no time at all you felt at ease. She began the clinic with an overview of the sport, gun handling, and discussion of gear. Then we progressed to working our horses through a clover leaf pattern to get them bending and approaching the targets correctly. While doing this, we progressed to dry firing the pistols and getting used to reholstering and pulling the other gun, holding it correctly, and proper firing technique. Then Kenda had us get in a herd and while walking circles around her, she fired the .45 pistol on the ground to get the horses used to the sound. Most of our horses had been exposed to gun fire so it wasn't brand new. Robert, myself, Amy, and John shot off our horses. In addition to providing valuable information, her teaching style was fantastic. She teaches in a way that is easy to understand and it was a lot of fun. Tremendous progress was made with each of the horses and individual attention was paid to each rider with homework assigned. On a personal note, I was so pleased with the progress I made with my gelding, Copper. I began the clinic thinking there is no way Copper is ready to be shot off of, but to my amazement he did superbly. Under Kenda's direction, I shot 4 rounds off of him. He took to the ear plugs too; it didn't take Copper long to appreciate them and not try to shake them out. It was an amazing opportunity to ride with such an awesome competitor that is so nice and down to earth. I really can't say enough nice things about her. If you ever get a chance to attend one of her clinics, don't pass it up! kendalenseigne.com

Kenda Lenseigne is the 2009 Overall World Champion!

Team of Champion's member Kenda Lenseigne took the 2009 overall world champion title at the CMSA World Finals in Amarillo this weekend. She beat more than 300 competitors in the six-stage competition and also took top scores in the Ladies' Colt Eliminator and Ladies' Wrangler Pro with top overall times over the men's categories. Way to go Kenda-congratulations!
http://westernshootinghorse.ning.com/profiles/blogs/kenda-lenseigne-takes-top