Bill and Becky Chase, owners of Caballos De BBC, are long time members of the Copper State Peruvian Paso Club. Bill recently reported that their summer volunteers completed a “crash” course in Clinton Anderson’s groundwork while they helped out at the ranch during a three-week working vacation.

Bill commented, “Melodie Riedy and her daughter Savannah Parish found our web site and contacted us. They asked if we could use some volunteer help for a few weeks before Savannah returned home in mid-August.” Savannah, who lives in Arkansas, was visiting her mother, a Surprise resident.

The Chases set up a program where Melodie and Savannah worked with two of the ranch geldings. The program called for grooming of the horses and doing the Clinton Anderson groundwork exercises three mornings a week. Savannah worked with 16-year-old CCF Cimarron and Melodie concentrated on the 6 year old BBC Centauro. Lending them Clinton Anderson’s 4 DVD set on “Ground Work For Respect” along with his book, Downunder Horsemanship, gave the ladies the background to succeed.

This proved to be an intensive course getting through all 17 groundwork exercises in a little over two weeks. Even though both of the horses had completed most of the exercises in the past, it was still much harder to actually do them than it appeared on the DVDs. Melodie and Savannah would study a couple lessons at home and then go to the ranch and try to execute them with the horses. Bill helped with pointers but, mostly, the ladies worked it out by helping each other and referring back to the book during their lessons.

Savannah is looking forward to going home and using her newly found knowledge with her own horses. As a special treat for her diligent work, Bill gave Savannah two lessons in the art of riding Cimarron, a Peruvian Horse well known for many show ring wins. While Savannah is an experienced rider, she had never ridden a gaited horse before. By the second day, she was not only gaiting on the rail but also doing circles, figure eights around cones and serpentines through cones, all in gait. As Savannah left the ranch to go home, she said that some day she wanted to own a Peruvian Horse like Cimarron. We’ve included a picture of Savannah riding CCF Cimarron through the serpentine cones. Note the smile on her face! That happens every time someone new to the breed experiences that wonderfully smooth ride.



To see pictures of the ranch and the horses that reside there, or learn more about Caballos De BBC, please visit their website at www.caballosdebbc.com.

For more information on the Copper State Peruvian Paso Club, go to their website at www.csppc.net.

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