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 with Olva Stewart Pharo It is a new year and things are getting back to normal. Competitors are returning to shows and spectators are coming out again. 2023 Pin Oak Charity Horse Show was a 4 week event: week one, the Breed show and 3 weeks of hunter/jumpers. The Third Coast Bank $100,000 Grand Prix on Saturday night, April 15, reminded me of the old dyas of Pin Oak. A crowd filled the stands at Great Southwest Equestrian Center, Katy, Texas, to watch a field of over 20 horses compete for the blue ribbon. It was Nicolas Gamboa and Mr. Darcy who brought it home.  It was a wonderful evening of exciting competition and beautiful horses. A fitting climax to the 77th Pin Oak. Time to award the Super Series Group's trophy for the 3&4 Year Old Freestyle Performance Class Champion, November 2-6 at Great Southwest Eq. Center, Harvest Hunter Jumper Show. The trophy and the take-home medallion will be there.  SEPTEMBER, 2022 Might see you at the 2022 USDF Region 9 Championships, Houston Dressage Society Autumn Classic and Southwest Dressage Classic at Great Southwest Equestrian Center, October 6-9. My last HDS trophy: HDS Autumn Classic Adult Amateur High Point Award has run out of room for plates. This will be the last year for that one. Need a new idea for an award for adult amateurs. Any suggestions?   Third annual Great Southwest Equestrian Center's Texas Winter Series was totaly "sold out" for all four weeks. Inspite of the crazy Texas weather (cold for three days; warm to hot for one day; then back to cold) the competitors were stalwart and cheery. Even on the last night of the $100,000 Lone Star State Grand Prix, the arena seating was packed to watch 18 rouunds over the course. 75th ANNUAL PIN OAK CHARITY HORSE SHOW March 24 - April 11 at Great Southwest Equestrian Center. The 2021 Pin Oak Charity Horse is a wrap. Not so many spectators but lots of competitiors. Breeders and riders were honored. Olde Oaks Farms' Montego was the winner of the Jane QUeener Best Young Horse Award. Australian Show Jumper, Rowan Willis took the $100,000 Grand Prix win riding Ashton Dakota. COVID rules for competitions licensed by the United States Equstrian Federation: No spectators allowed at USEF licensed shows. Following the USEF rules only persons directly connected with competitors: immediate family, trainers, grooms, drivers may attend the show. Everyone must wear masks except when on horseback. You don't have to miss the excitement. Go to the steaming service, Horse And Country and sign up. Horse And Country We all look forward to 2022 when we hope to see a return of normality. But at least the 2021 Pin Oak will go on. Made it out to Great Southwest Equestrian Center To present the trophy for the $100,000 Lone Star State Grand Prix Winner: Daisy Ford on Gatsby Will be out at the Great Southwest Final Chase H/J Show To present a trophy: SSG Texas Super Series 3 Yr-Old & 4 Yr-Old Freestyle Perfromance Champion on Thursday, 12 November, 9AM.
Time for the Great Southwest Monster Mash H/J Show. Come join the fun. Halloween Costume Contest on Saturday, 17 October, 6PM.  the USDF Region 9 Championships and deliver the HDS Autumn Classic Adult Amateur High Point Trophy. It will be retired in 2022. Many horse shows have re-opened. Many shows have been cancelled. USEA cancelled AEC Championships. USEF, USDF, USHJA, & AQHA have COVID-19 protocols. Wear a Mask. Stay safe. Socially distance. No information has come out about Imfections spread at the shows that have opened up. Only time will tell. For now, I am staying home. the USEF, USDF or USEA and related educatiional events have been canceled or postponed through May 3, 2020. Please contact the manager of any show or event you were planning to attend for further information. The 2020 Olympics scheduled for July, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan, have been postponed until 2021. CANCELED!!! 75th Annual Pin Oak Charity Horse Show Was to begin March 18 and run thru April 5 at Great Southwest Equestrian Center, Katy, TX. Benefiting Texas Childrens' Hospital. Three weeks of Premier Horse Showing CANCELED by the USEF becuase of the CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC. Horse shows all across the country have been canceled. March Madness has been canceled. NBA has canceled. SXSW has been canceled. Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo has been canceled. People have been told to stay home. Restuarants and bars have been closed. Hunker down and stay safe. for this 4 week Hunter Jumper Series. Great Southwest upped the ante on their 4 Jumper Grand Prixs - Week I $25,000; Week II $50,000. Week III $50,000 and Week IV $100,000. To mark the occasion a special trophy was designed for The Lone Star State $100,000 National Grand Prix. See photo of trophy. The girls showed the boys how to do it. The winner was 16 year-old Brooke Peterson. like Type specking) but my computer died and could not be fixed so I had to buy a new one and everything had to be updated and so forth. Anyway, I now have something working. No more booths. But I will be at the shows. Mostly doing trophies. I still do portraits. Just email me at portraits@texhorseman.com. Also for trophies and limited editions. Take a look at the bronzes I have for sale. Last week at the Britannia Monster Mash my horse Silver helped out with the Halloween display. There was a dog (and 1 cat) costume contest, a horse and rider costume contest and riders were encouraged to wear costumes. Everyone had a good time. begins March 20 and runs thru April 7 at Great Southwest Equestrian Center. Benefiting Texas Childrens' Hospital. First week includes American Saddlebred Horses, 5-Gated and 3-Gaited, Hackney Ponies as well as Hunters and Jumpers. Week II & III are Hunter Derbys and Jumper Grand Prixs and Amateur, Childrens and Junior rated hunter & jumper classes. Go to: GSEC for more information. Texas Winter Series. Four weeks of top hunter/jumper showing. The weather was up and down but the new footing proved to be exceptional for those fast turns in the Grand Prixs. Final Chase Grand Prix. Matt Cyphert did it again. He won last week at the Autumn Classic, too. Very nice 3 weeks of H/J Shows in Katy. Southbound's Harvest H/J Show is in the bag. Great weather and good fun and some fine horsemanship. All at Great Southwest Equestrian Center. On to the GSEC Autumn Classic, November 7-11. Don't miss the the 3rd annual Great Southwest Golf Cart Grand Prix, Friday, November 9. And $25,000 Great Southwest Eq, Center Grand Prix, Saturday, Nov. 10. See you there. March 21- April 8, three weeks of first class horse show competition. Bigger and better than ever. I will not be having a booth but I will be around the shows at Great Southwest. HARVEST H/J SHOW @ GREAT SOUTHWEST EQUESTRIAN CENTER TEXAS SUPER SERIES HUNTER BREEDING CHAMPIONSHIPS HDS AUTUMN CLASSIC SOUTHWEST DRESSAGE CHAMPIONSHIPS October 5-8, 2017 Adult Amateur High Point Award was Samantha Farrow. It's Rodeo time in Houston! March 7-27. 72nd Pin Oak Charity Horse Show, benefiting Texas Childrens Hospital, Ronald McDonald House of Houston and Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Family Alliance, March 22 - April 2, at Great Southwest Equestrian Center, Katy, TX. Week I is the breed show with Saddlebreds and gaited horses as well as hunters and jumpers. Week II is all hunters and jumpers. See you there. March 23-26, Alamo Arabian Spring Fiesta Horse Show at San Antonio Rose Palace, San Antonio. Go to Texas Horseman's Directory Show Schedule for more show information. Four weeks of Hunter/Jumpers to come at the Tyler Four, Texas Rose Horse Park in Tyler with four shows produced by Southbound Show Management, April 26 - May 29, 2017. February 1 - 26, 2017. Great Southwest Equestrian Center 2017 Winter Series, was a great success. See you there in 2018! Just spent three weeks at Great Southwest Equestrian Center: Patrick Rodes Harvest Show (first time at GSEC), GSEC Autumn Classic and The Final Chase. Lots of horses and lots of people. Have to go to these shows just to know who all the new riders are. Nowadays I am watching their grandchildren ride. During all three shows GSEC was trying out a "Rider's Lounge" in the Texas Children's Hospital Arena Club. Great lunches everyday, professional massages, charging stations, a cool or a warm place to sit and eat or study or get a little business done. In the three weeks we enjoyed the A/C as well as the warmth. Crazy Texas weather. Looking forward to next year. GAIG/USDF Region 9 Dressage Championships/ Southwest Dressage Championships/ HDS Autumn Classic at Great Southwest Equestrian Center, Katy, October 6-9, 2016. Brought along a new "friend" for my booth and did he get some notice. Hope everyone who got a "selfie" with "Bones" uploaded to FACEBOOK.  Photo courtesy of Kayce Douglas, GSEC Director of Marketing. Maybe Bones will have to acompany me to more shows. driving back and forth from Cypress to Dripping Springs. We are finally going to get started on our new home. Finally have a road down to the house site. Now the electric can come in, the engineers can take their core samples, the water well company can drill, the septic people can take their soil samples and the barn builder can mark where the pad will be. All of this was waiting on a road. That's what happens when you build on raw land. I will finally have a view.  May 25, 2016, marked one year since the devastating flood on the Blanco River in Central Texas. April 15, 2016, brought flooding to southeast Texas along Cypress Creek and the Brazos River. Places that had never flooded before had 3' of water in their homes. We paid the cost in human lives, as well as, livestock lost. In the Houston area Hwy. 6 west of town was closed for weeks. Now, barely a month later, Brenham received 14"-18" of rain in one day. Spring Creek rose out of its backs and homes and property that had been flooded only a month before were flooded again. Roads were impassable north of Houston as other creeks and bayous rose. Off Hwy. 290 west of Houston 100's of cattle that grazed along the Brazos Valley were lost or drowned. North Texas has been getting weather we associate with Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebreska: tornadoes and huge hail. This is a time to help your neighbor and do what you can to be safe. But why is this happening here? We have lived on our little three acres in Cypress for almost 24 years. Never have we seen flooding like this. We used to be "out in the country". Few houses, lots of pine trees. The nearest chain grocery was a 20 minute drive away. It didn't bother me. I liked the peace and quiet. Hwy. 290 was still a 4-lane ground level highway with a wide grassy ditch in the middle. There was little past Cy-Fair High School but farms and pasture until you got to Hockley and Waller. Sound familiar? Was your property 'way out in the county? An easy 30 minute drive from town. All that open ground used to soak up a lot of water and runoff. 25 years previously we saw our first 50-year flood of the Brazos River at Richmond. Urban sprawl and lack of zoning brought developers. It was cheaper to build in the county. Lower taxes, fewer restrictions. People loved the beautiful tall pine trees, the quaint lanes through the forest. But they loved their comfort more. They were commuters. They did not stay there all day, tending their livestock, giving riding lessons, caring for their breeding stock. They got in their cars everyday and drove 25-30 miles into the city. They began to hate the narrow picturesque roads and clammered for wider streets and traffic lights. They didn't like having to drive 20-30 minutes to shop so they brought their stores and strip centers and added more concrete. Soon the area looked just like any other part of Houston. Gone were the towering pine trees to make room for wider streets and more shops and more houses. What trees were left, now unprotected by the forest, died in the drought. Now our pastures are flooding. Our livestock is drowning. Because the creeks can no longer handle the run off from acres of concrete and 1000's of rooftops. Virginia passed the Open Space Land Act: "The Act preserves rural areas and combats sprawl by providing a way for landowners to permanently protect the Commonwealth's rural lands from urban and suburban growth." That's in VIrginia. What about Texas? What can we do to preserve our open-spaces and farmland? March 22 - April 3, 2016 at Great Soutwest Equestrian Center, Katy, was an exciting two weeks of breed shows featuring American Saddlebres, Hackneys, Standardbreds, Andalusians & Lusitanos as well as hunters and jumpers. The crowds came out to see the grand prixs and hunter derbys. All for a good cause: Texas Childrens Hospital, The Ronald McDonald House of Houston and Candlelighters.
February, 2016 at Great Soutwest Equestrian Center, Katy, was a success. Good weather prevailed this year.
Missy has become a pampered house cat. I'm sure she will have a better life that way, but I'll miss her at the shows. 
and clinics around Texas go to: Texas Horseman's Directory Show Schedule Equestrian Center's Visitor's Guide. Click Here.  July 2016 issue of Cowboys & Indians. MarketPlace ad, unique handpainted cow skull See more at: Painted Skulls  See my new ad in in May/June 2016 issue of Cowboys & Indians. "Madoc All Dun", Welsh Cobb shown in dressage, owner Michele Miles. Unique patina on bronze, mounted on black marble. 10.5" x 11.5". See more at: Portrait Bronzes See my ad in in Nov-Dec, 2014 Cowboys & Indians. "Csn I Come, Too" - my first "Western" sculpture. A cowboy and his cowdog set off for work. Limited edition bronze mounted on walnut bases. See more at: Limited Edtion Bronzes  See my ad in in Feb-March, 2014 Cowboys & Indians. Two of my painted cow skulls. The exposure in C&I sold "Sunset on Blue", the skull on the right in October, 2014. I offer painted skulls of horses, goats, deer and pig, as well as the cows. Go to: Painted Skulls to see more. Email for more information.  January, 2014 in Cowboys & Indians.  See my ad in in November/December, 2013 Cowboys & Indians. New clay model of a cowboy with his cow dog ready for work called "Can I come, too." Special Pre-casting offer available until 12/30/2013. Email for more information.  See my ad in in April, 2013 Cowboys & Indians.  See my ad in in Spring 2013 Show & Tell. See my ad in in 2012 Cowboys & Indians.  See my ad in in December, 2011 Sidelines.  See my ad in in November, 2011 Sidelines.  See my ad in in August, 2011 Sidelines.  See my ad in in June, 2011 Sidelines - For Horse People - About Horse People,  See my ad in Show & Tell, Spring 2011, the new official magazine of Great Southwest Equestrian Center and in Sidelines - For Horse People - About Horse People, May, 2011 issue. published their first VISITOR'S GUIDE 2015-2016. It was great! See it here.  April, 2010, issue of The Exhibitor, the previous "Official Magazine for the GSWEC". Cover art, commissioned pencil portrait of Dun Gotta Gun, Champion Reining Sire by Olva Stewart Pharo |
The Jonathan Wentz Memorial Trophy 