Anyone know the two horses below? They are being held at the Collin County Animal Shelter. They were found loose near Rock Ridge Road and Country Club.

http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/16751255 – for more info

http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/16751275 – for more info

Help reunite the owner with the horses.

Good news. There will be horse parades in North Texas for the 4th of July this year. Plan to decorate yourself and your horse in red, white, and blue. The parades are great fun for both the participants and spectators. A parade isn’t a real parade without horses.

Here’s the scoop on the parades straight from TTPA Parade Chair Tracy Matern. Below is the schedule for the 4th of July parades in North Texas that include horses:

July 3rd – Saturday

Weston Parade start 10 AM Judging 9 AM
Staging in field near intersection of 543 and 455.

Melissa Parade start 6 PM Line Up 5:30 PM
Lighted parade
Theme “Hometown Heroes”
Registration form required and $5 fee. I sent in the registration.
Staging is usually behind Cardinal Stadium on Cardinal Drive.

July 4th – Sunday

McKinney Parade start 1:30 PM Check in by 12 noon.
Theme: Red, White and BOOM!
Staging at former Collin County Court house Parking Lot.
Henry St and S. Tennessee St.
First time they are letting horses participate!
Registration form and $25 fee.

No parade in Royce City this year

Please let Tracy know which parades you plan on attending. ESPECIALLY, please let her know by tomorrow (Wednesday) if you are interested in being in the McKinney parade. Given its time of day, Tracy will not plan to send in the money or to go unless people are interested in participating. Tracy must have the registration form and money in by Friday.

We will ride under the TTPA registration. Tracy would love to have banner carriers for each parade—two per parade—so involve your non-horse-riding friends or relatives.

Here is Tracy’s contact information:
Tracy Matern
TTPA Parade Chairman
bobtracy at dfwair.net
214-495-7493 home
214-392-2288 cell

Want some tips on riding in a parade? Check out our article on preparing your horse for a parade.

Trinity Trail Preservation Association (TTPA) is trying to stay cool by hosting trail rides in the evening hours this summer. We’ve picked three Saturday nights that are either on the full moon or close to it for our designated night rides. We’ll be riding out of the Brockdale Trail head which is in open country so we should have decent moonlight (provided it isn’t overcast).

Mark your calendars with the following dates for evening trail rides:

June 26 – Brockdale Park. Meet at 6:30 for Potluck dinner and educational speaker. After the dinner and presentation we’ll mount up and head south on a evening trail ride. This is a potluck dinner so bring a dish to share and some lawn chairs. Dinner is planned at 6:30 PM.

July 24 – Details will be posted later….mark the date.

August 21 – Details will be posted later.

Join the fun and your fellow horse friends for equine filled evenings. See you on the trail.

Call the AgriLife office at 972-548-4233 by Thursday to make your reservations to attend the annual Lone Star Horse Council’s Horse Tour Saturday, June 19th. This popular tour of nearby horse facilities fills up fast and there are only 45 spaces available. The Lone Star Horse Council is a part of the Collin County AgriLife Extension Service dedicated to promoting and uniting horse people and equine businesses in the nearby area. The cost for the tour is $20 which includes transportation by bus and lunch at Betty’s Café in Aubrey.

Plan to be in the parking lot of 825 N. McDonald Street in McKinney between 7:30 and 8:00 AM on Saturday, June 19th to check-in for a tour which will include Selway Equine Therapy Center in Whitesboro, Babcock Performance and Breeding Quarter and Paint Horse Farms in Gainesville and Valley View, Wilbanks Paints and Pasos in Pilot Point and Green Valley Reining Horses in Aubrey.

To register, contact the Collin County AgriLife Extension Office at 972-548-4233 by Thursday, June 17th. Further information is available athttp://collin-co.tamu.edu.

The Brockdale trailhead will be closed next Friday and Saturday (May 28th and 29th) for the fundraiser for Grace Lake Ministries Therapeutic Riding Center. You can ride at Eastfork or Highland Park (if the HP trailhead is closed you can park at boat ramp or along the road to boat ramp)

If you wish to participate in the fundraiser it is a ACTHA 6 mile Obstacle Course. You can find out the details from their web site.

We have added theTTPA Lake Lavon trailheads to a custom map on Google. Check out the Trinity Trail trailheads.

Feel free to go to the map and leave comments and information about the trail.

Hope this helps put TTPA on the map.

The Lone Star Equine Council of Collin County is sponsoring a trailride on May 22 at the Brockdale Trailhead of Trinity Trail on Lake Lavon in Lucas, TX. Ride out at 10 AM or ride on your own. Lunch will be available at 12 noon for a $5 donation.

The Lone Star Equine Council is a committee of the AgriLife Extension Service dedicated to promoting the interests and intercommunication of all horse-related groups and businesses within the area. Check out their website at www.lsec.homestead.com.

Please RSVP to Donna Carmickle at 214-882-0833 or via email at babycarm@aol.com. Donna is also ready to answer any questions you may haw.

A negative Coggins will be required. Dogs must remain at your trailer and the Council does not provide horses. A map of Trinity Trail and the area can be found at www.swf-wc.usace.army.mil/lavon or at www.trinitytrailriders.org.

From Dallas, go north on US 75 to Allen. Exit on Bethany Drive in Allen and go east. Take Bethany Drive through Allen into Lucas (about 5 miles). Counting the light at the expressway exit, you will go through nine lights. The ninth light is at Bethany and FM 1378. Go straight. In about ½ mile, when the road makes a sharp curve, you will see a stoplight and the Lucas Food Mart and gas station will be on your left. Turn left here on FM 3286 and go less than a mile to Brockdale Park Road. There is a brown Brockdale Park sign on the right just before the turn. It turns off to the right. If you get to the bridge over Lake Lavon you have gone too far. Follow Brockdale Park Road around to the trailhead. You will drive through three 90-degree turns. The trailhead is at the 3rd 90-degree turn on the right and is bordered by white pipe fence. If you get to the boat ramp you have gone too far.

Riders pause by Lake Lavon

New Interactive Map Lets Riders Update Trail Conditions
Thinking of riding on Trinity Trail and wondering what the conditions are like? Well now you can get a report from your computer. TTPA member Mike Churchill recently created an interactive Trail Status map to update the condition of the trail.

The map is located at http://www.trinitytrailsblog.org/trailstatus/. Riders will be able to update the map via the web.

Mike started with the map that Tracy Matern and Carole Kowitt created of the 25.5 mile TTPA trail. Since the trail is so long and trail conditions vary in different places, Mike took the trail map and divided it into six sections to allow for more accurate reporting of trail conditions.

The map will tell you whether the trail (or a section of the trail) is open or closed and the condition of the trail. The Open-Close function will be controlled by Charlie Gaines, the TTPA Trail Steward.

The condition status update can be made by anyone. Riders or hikers of the trail can report their experience when traversing the trail sections. One can click on the “update this segment” section to report on one section of the trail, or use the “update all trail segments’ conditions” link at the top of the page to update multiple sections of the trail.

You can report on the Trail Condition Status (Poor, Fair, Good) as well as reporting on specifics about the trail condition (in a pull-down menu), including:
Muddy
Somewhat muddy
Mostly clear
Clear with great footing
Rutted
Cracks on Trail
Trees across Trail

This Trail Status Reporting form is currently open for all visitors to use. Please respect the goal of this form, which is the open reporting of the trail status to keep the information on the map as accurate and useful as possible.

Happy Trail Riding!

The months of rain have taken a heavy toll on our trails. One of the most popular trails, Brockdale north, is especially in bad shape.

Charlie Gaines has scheduled a Trail Workday to provide some much needed maintenance to the trails on Saturday 10 April at 9 am. Meet at the Brockdale Trailhead.

Please come if you can. There is a lot of work to do. Please bring gloves, weed eaters, chain saws and if someone could bring riding mower it would be helpful. Roger Garcia has volunteered to bring his tractor with loader and backhoe.

Contact Charlie Gaines at 972-824-3369 and let him know if you can come and what you can bring.

Thanks for your support.

Spring Around The Obstacles

Spring Fundraiser for Trinity Trail

Date: Sat., April 17th 2010; Rain Date May 1,2010
Where: Brockdale Trailhead
Time: Registration open 9:00am
Participants and Judges meeting 10:00 am

Cost: Pre-Registration TTPA Members – $20.00
At the Gate for TTPA Members – $25.00
Pre-Registration Non-Members – $30.00
At the Gate for Non-Members – $35.00

Registration form on TTPA web site www.TrinityTrailRiders.org

Categories: Novice – Ride about 6 miles, riding to have fun, and to support Trinity Trail, will be judged
Advanced – Ride about 10 miles, have done obstacles before, will be judged
a little more seriously
Prizes – Novice adult 1st -3rd Youth 1st – 3rd
Advanced 1st – 3rd

Wonderful Concession Stand will be open all day!
• All Contestants should wear a helmet, or sign a waiver.
• Under the age of 16 yrs. must wear a Helmet.
• 16 yrs. and under must be accompanied by an adult.
• Must have negative Coggins.
• Please no Dogs

Mail registration form with check payable to TTPA
To c/o Pat Martin
4040 Avion Dr.
Wylie, Tx. 75098 deadline April 12th Mon. 2010

Any questions contact chairman Berdine at 214-215-6141 or
e-mail bteberhart@gmail.com
Co-chairman Tracy Matern at 214- 495 – 7493 or
e-mail bobtracy@dfwair.net

We woke up this morning, the first day of Spring, to six inches of fresh snow. It was beautiful, but very unlike Dallas springtime weather. What about global warming?????

Here are some pictures from our farm in Lucas, TX

I am feeling like a broken record….

The TTPA Trail Ride that was planned for 20 March is officially cancelled due to rain. Sorry folks, but Mother Nature wins again.

I’m in the market for a new saddle and I’m curious to know what other riders love about their saddles.

Since I like to do long trail rides, I’m thinking the lighter weight of a synthetic saddle might be a big plus for keeping my horse comfortable longer. I know they won’t last as long as leather one, but their ease of care is very tempting.

Here’s an article on the leather versus synthetic saddles debate.

Let me know if there are other reasons you like or dislike leather or synthetic saddles.

Rain, rain go away, come back another day….like in August when we really need it.

The Sweetheart Trail Ride scheduled for Feb 13 is now officially cancelled. We have had so much rain there is standing water on the trails. There is more rain predicted so there is no time for the trails to dry.

Sorry, we didn’t want to do it, but Mother Nature wants us to take a break. We decided it was better to go ahead and cancel the ride now so you could make alternative plans.

No ride this weekend.

Hey Gang,

Due to the weather forecast of 70% thundershowers, they have officially cancelled the Chili Ride scheduled for 23 Jan (today).

At the moment it is still not raining, but it looks like it could any minute. I rode Brockdale north last night and except for low areas, most of the trail was in decent shape. So, unless we get tons of rain, the trail may be okay for tomorrow. I’ll post an update later after we see how the day shapes up.

For those of you who need your horsey fix and don’t want to get wet, you might check out the Mustang Magic show over in Ft Worth tonight at 6 PM. It is one of the programs under the Extreme Mustang Makeover.

Happy Trails