Conrad Schumacher--Part 5 (Final Post)

This post concludes my notes taken at the Conrad Schumacher symposium a few months ago. I hope you've enjoyed this series.

Training the Upper Levels, Preparing for the Show

Classical riding enables us to work the in a horse-friendly way in harmony. Classical riding makes horses equal in temperment. Thoroughbreds and hot horses cool down, warmblood’s heat up. Dressage has nothing to do with head and neck position.

At horse shows, classical riding is not enough. You have to do quality preparation before and at the show grounds.

• Ride the test at home over and over.


• Train for the movements at home.


• Ride the horse other places.


• Put markers on the ground where each piece of the test is ridden.

Commitment

It takes a dressage rider twenty years to get there. You must have a lifestyle that you are on your horse every morning in the same mood. When you aren’t in the same mood every day, your aids are different in subtle ways, such as timing or intensity.

You need quality preparation. You must be secure in the saddle. The body part of the sport is the horse. The mental part is the rider. Everything is linked together by a training system.

Warm-up

Train at home with a warming-up concept and train it over and over. Make the horse ready for the work. The warm-up needs to make the horse excitable but controlled. You need to know what do I do, when and how.

Ride slowly in the warm-up. Ride for position first then ride for expression. The test at a show is not the place for schooling. You can only just “ride.”

Train the test until it’s perfect. Ride as good as you can.

The correct focus is mental fitness.

Wrists rotate in when ears come up at canter

Upper level Exercises to get the haunches under:

• To raise the head use only the snaffle, one sharp snap, then stop.


• Ride shoulder-in, move to inside track, still in shoulder-in, move back to track in shoulder-in (slowly almost reining back in trot to come back to rail).


• Do the same but in renver.


• Do the same in Canter shoulder-in


• Reinback then forward w/o halt


• Canter, make a square, (half-halt, turn).


• Diagonal in Shoulder-in, then change at wall.


• Changes: Four tempis: Say "1-2-3-I will."


• Do 4 tempis on a circle

Classical Structure of the Dressage Lesson

Warm-up, preparing for the work phase.
Put the horse on the haunches to make them controllably excited.

Phase 1: Warm up the Muscles

• Walk for 12 minutes first


• Move on and trot slowly


• Deep trot to help back for 2-3 minutes


• Canter—medium to working canter, back and forth then more precise (10 strides med. 10 collected).


• Back to trot, working trot to halt.

Horse should get in a more active mood.

Working Phase

Use the power of impulsion to achieve your goals.
When horses are relaxed in the minds, they can listen to the aids

• Turn on haunches, trot, med. Trot.


• Halt-RB-Canter


• Short canter, bigger canter, short canter. On the spot canter, med. Canter


• Medium canter. On the spot canter, medium canter.


• Down long side HP left


• Four tempis, start with collection finish with medium canter.
  


• Canter Pirouettes (the pirouette is a Half Pass in a turn):


• Ride half-pass around instructor. He taps hocks and croup with butt of lunge whip then let horse stretch down after about 3 or 4 of these.


• HP to Pirouette, ride back(wards) and turn.
  


• Down diagonal at medium trot. Halt @ X. Medium trot, Halt in corner.
  

Exercises for a big, lazy horse

Keep your hip in front for changes.
For a horse who is a bully and doesn’t listen, use shorter diagonals and bend/counter bend.
In half-pass point the neck where you need to go.

Exercises:

• Shoulder-in in medium trot.


• Haunches in, rein back on centerline, haunches-in.


• RB 5 steps, one step forward, pirouette immediately.


• Turn on haunches, immediate reinback (more control and improves walk).


• Trot, reinback, trot.


• Medium canter long side, halt.


• Medium canter to collected canter.


• Volte in corner, show diagonal, change at wall (keeps horse from running in the changes.


• Half-pass, correct bend and counter bend of neck in half-pass.


• Half-pass in canter, 8 strides in, straight strides, 8 back, change.

Q&A

How long do you ride your horses: 20 minutes of warmup, 20 minutes of work, and cool down phase.

At Conrad’s barn: We don’t turn out horses but give them chances to move. Go outdoors to ride whenever possible.

Stretching: You should be able to stretch whenever you want. A horse full of confidence takes the rider’s invitation to stretch.

Hips in Front: Bring your hips forward, without leaning back. Scoop with seat.

A horse with tongue out has a lack of throughness and not giving in the neck. A very few do it by nature.

A horse with an open mouth gives in the mouth, not the neck.

To straighten the canter ride shoulder-fore.

For flying changes the hip in front keeps the horse straight.

Wide hands: Should be as natural and easy as possible. Keeping hands together tightens the shoulders. An open upper body makes it easier ride without stiffness.

More Preparing to Show

Drive forward only when you have a rounded neck.

Two traps at shows:

• Open space makes the horse more forward than at home. Collect in warm-up more than needed.


• Two-minute before the test: Don’t just ride around. Do something.

Pre-warmup routine: What works best for his riders is to learn to mediate the test. Sit somewhere, shut your eyes and ride the test in your mind five times the hour before the test. Live in the feel of what you want in the test. Feel your leg on the horse, his back underneath you, etc. When warming up have a clear plan. Find out what works best for your horse.

The Way to the Grand Prix Level

The main differences in Grand Prix are the piaffe/passage and the one tempis.

Work from the ground: Don’t need to do as much as the Spanish Riding School as we aren’t training the airs above the ground. Start at 3rd level. Use side reins so the horse stays round. Take the outside rein over the poll and through the bit ring. Frame the horse next to the wall with your body and the whip.

Piaffe/Passage

In-Hand

Think of it like teaching a dog to sit down.

First start with a nice collected walk in hand. Moving backward is the sign of a blocking neck.

Practice 2-3 times a week but for not very long.

Under the rider:

Volte in walk
Flex to inside
Strighten and piaffe
Volte (volte is the reward)

Passage:

Walk, Leg Yield, Passage (Makes horse flexible in the spine)

One-Tempi Changes

Start with nice 2Xs
Counter Canter
Go down longside and do inside bend of the neck, outside bend, inside (get the first change in a corner, then change back in a corner)

Canter Pirouette

Canter Pirouette to Halt to Canter Pirouette

Unfortunately, as the symposium went on, I got more and more tired of writing notes. If none of this makes sense, let me know. I'll be glad to elaborate as best I can remember.

Changing Hats by Janet Huntington

My life with horses has taken dramatic twists and turns. I have jumped through hoops to keep them with me and have always felt the sacrifices were worth it.

I have had some wonderful horses in my life, some through success in the show pen, some through success in simply helping me become a better person.

Even the imaginary horses I rode as a wild little girl helped me grow. Watching the beautiful black stallion who ran with our car on endless family road trips not only kept me from getting car sick. He also fueled my imagination and fed into the stories I made up as the miles flashed by.

That imaginary black horse taught me patience and helped me develop an iron bladder that I still maintain today.

My first horse, Mort, unlocked the desire to train and a fierce sense of competition. He also gave me my first sense of responsibility. If I didn't work he didn't have hay. If I didn't come to feed him, he didn't eat. If I forgot to fill his water he didn't drink.

He was my entry into the basic elements of adulthood. Food, drink, shelter.
I learned what the payback was for being solid in my commitment. A warm, silky coat under my hand, an incredible sense of power and strength when I raced my horse through the trees and a welcoming nicker as I walked up to feed my friend every day.

I have always been willing to make the trades that come with horse ownership. I rarely have new clothes, the Salvation Army and the Ark are my friends. I almost never take vacations or go out to eat. My cars are old and are rarely in the same decade as I am. I have a nice truck and a serviceable trailer though.

I raised my daughter with the same intensity I have with my horses. You would have to ask her if she appreciated it or not. Who needs quality when the kid is getting quantity?

I made my life work around her well being. When I first had to face the fact I would be raising her alone, she was four years old and had always been home with me. I got a job at a daycare and brought her with me to ease her transition into our new life. I stayed at the daycare until she was in the first grade, then I became a full time horse trainer. I took her with me.

If my daughter hadn't loved horses I probably would have done something else. As it was she got to spend her days with friends and a beloved old mare. My desire to learn kept expanding the level of my riding and the kind of horse I rode.

I changed barns five times in the progression of my career and I took my daughter with me. At one point in time she was being groomed to be the top in the horse show world. Her talent is immense and she was poised to jump.

I was proud and amazed to watch her surpass me in so many ways. But she stopped. The life wasn't for her. I was able to handle her pulling away because of what I had learned from the horses I rode. Patience, watching, silence and thought.

She had learned many of the same things. She was able to help me sort out the right and wrong of the horse show circuit. She helped me figure out what I really wanted and where I needed to go.

She made it clear she is happy with one little sorrel gelding. She would like to compete again, but only on the horse she loves. The most important part of owning a horse to her is watching her boy throw his head up and trot to the gate when he hears her car. His long happy nicker when he first sees her is all she needs.

So I have changed hats again. My daughter is grown. My world has turned upside down and I am no longer training. I write for a living now. Often about horses. I still sacrifice more than I should to give my horses the basics.

But I know the trade has been fair. I see the kindness in my daughter's face, the grace and strength in her movement and the goals she has set for herself in the world she in entering as an adult. I know it comes from what I've been able to give her and the lessons I've been able to share. It all comes from our life with horses. I wouldn't change a thing.

Colors

By Laura Crum


OK, I have a silly confession. I have been guilty of buying several horses because I liked their color. And not buying other horses because I didn’t like their color. Recently I’ve been emailing back and forth with Janet Huntington about our favorite colors when it comes to horses, and it made me realize just how strong my predjudices are.

I know that to some people this won’t seem silly at all. There are folks all over the place who feel perfectly justified in selecting a horse based on color. Heck, there are whole breeds that are based solely on color. That’s fine, I guess. But I was raised with cowboys who were fond of saying they didn’t care what color a horse was as long as he could get the job done (though I noticed these same cowboys forbade me to buy a leopard Appaloosa when I was fifteen—based only on not wanting that loudly spotted horse on the ranch). Still, I was taught from the git go to look first at what a horse could get done as a cowhorse or rope horse, second at his confirmation, in the sense of soundness and athletic ability, and only last at whether he was pretty or not (and I was always told that the only point to a pretty head or a pretty color was resale value). It was sort of a sin in the crowd I ran with to admit that you wanted a pretty horse, or a horse of a certain color. You were supposed to want a good horse, and a sound horse, and the hell with color and pretty.

To some degree, I still believe this, so have had a hard time admitting that I do have predjudices when it comes to color. But its true. If you ask my favorite color I have no trouble responding. Bright bay. A bright sparkly red bay.

The first bright bay I bought was Burt, a horse I owned for thirty years. He died Dec 2007 at thirty five years old, and I did buy him partly because I love that color. He turned out to be a good horse and a wise choice, but hey, I didn’t know that when I fell in love with him and offered to buy him (I’d never ridden him or seen him ridden—I just liked his looks). So you can see what a sucker I am for bright bays.

I’m also a sucker for horses with a big blaze, of almost any color, including paint horses. My beloved horse Gunner also happens to be a bay (I’ve owned a lot of bays, naturally), but his big blaze was what caught my eye. In Gunner’s case, though, I can say that I bought him after being his trainer for six months, and I knew what a nice horse I was choosing.

I’ve always liked roans, particularly strawberry roans, but I’ve never owned one. And I’ve always liked palominos. So when a horse that fit my needs as a trail horse turned up for sale a little over a year ago and he happened to be a shiny gold palomino, what do you suppose was the clincher?

That bright gold color, of course. And I have to say, I’ve enjoyed Sunny’s color very much ever since I’ve owned him. It cheers me up just to see him standing in the corral.
Now, those are my favorite colors. On the other hand, I’ve never been crazy about grays—everybody else’s favorite color—though I will admit that my boarder, Twister, was a pretty attractive gray when he arrived at my barn five years ago. But he’s a lot whiter now, as is the nature of dapple grays.

Neither do I care for black or dark brown horses, though I’ve ridden some good ones. But the one color I actively avoided was sorrel, particularly a light orange-y sorrel, a color that is really common in the cowhorse bred QHs I’ve always owned. If I was looking for a horse and just the right one happened along and he was a sorrel, I’d find a reason not to like him. Until Henry.

When I was desperately looking for a horse to replace Toby, my son’s pony, who died Oct 07 of cancer, the one horse I knew of who would truly fit the bill was Henry. I wasn’t even sure if Henry’s owner would sell him—I was reduced to begging, playing the pity card, and offering more money than Henry was worth to clinch the deal. Obviously, I wasn’t going to let a little sorrel color stand in my way. And the funny thing is, Henry’s deep copper red is really growing on me. He’s not a washy light-colored sorrel, he’s fire-red, like the bright bays I love. OK, he doesn’t have those striking black points. But he has brilliant red sparkles in the sun.

Anyway, one of the things I’m learning as I get older and a little freer of my conditioning (hopefully), is that its OK to pick a horse partly because you like his looks. My little palomino gelding makes me smile every time I see his bright gold shape in the corral. Maybe that’s silly, but its true. I don’t think I’m ever going to become someone who buys the “wrong” horse for my needs because I fall in love with his looks or color, though. I value Sunny most of all for his reliability as a trail horse and his confident nature (see my two previous posts).

Anybody else have any favorite colors they’d like to share?

The Confident Horse

By Laura Crum


Someone asked how to make a confident horse on Janet’s mugwump chronicles blog the other day, and it got me thinking. That phrase, “confident horse” means something different to me than it might mean to others. I’ve trained quite a few horses in my life, some for myself, some for others. I’ve never made a horse that I consider a truly confident horse. On the other hand, I have owned three horses that were very confident horses. I asked myself what the difference was.

Of the horses I trained for myself, there were three, Burt, Gunner and Plumber, that I owned all their lives. (Burt is dead, Gunner is retired, I’m still riding Plumber at twenty years old.) I bought Burt and Gunner with thirty days on them, Plumber I broke myself. I did all the training on all three horses. All three of them won at various events, both with me and for others. All three were cowhorses. Burt won money at low level cutting and reined cowhorse, team penning, barrel racing and goat tying, Gunner at reined cowhorse, cutting and roping, and Plumber as a team roping heel horse. I have trophy saddles, buckles, blankets and headstalls aplenty from these three. They were and are good horses, who came through for me, and other riders they trusted, over and over again, whether that meant handling a tough steer, or the end of a twelve hour cattle drive in the face of a howling gale. I am absolutely proud of them. But they weren’t/aren’t what I call a confident horse.

Burt, Gunner, and Plumber, all three, trusted their rider to take care of them. They obeyed directions no matter how tough the going got. They stayed broke under stress. But that isn’t what I mean by a confident horse.

Last week I posted about my trail ride on Sunny, my little ill broke palomino plug. A lot of people wrote to say how rare and valuable these “solid minded” horses are (I’m quoting Janet here). And this, for me, is another way of describing a truly confident horse.

To my way of thinking, a solid minded horse, or a confident horse, has confidence in himself. He doesn’t so much trust his rider to take care of him, or obey his rider (though he may/does do both these things) as he has confidence in himself to deal with whatever comes up. His main distinguishing trait? He is not anxious.

I have been privileged to own three confident horses in my life (Flanigan—see my post, Flanigan’s Story June 08-- Henry, my son’s trail horse, and Sunny, my current trail horse). I did not train any of these horses. They all came to me as mature, broke horses.

So what does this tell me? That I’m not a good enough trainer to train a confident horse? Maybe. But I think the answer is a little more subtle. I’m going to try to explore it here, and I hope you will all chime in with your ideas.

My three confident horses had/have some things in common. All of them came up the hard way. Flanigan was broke by some midwestern cowboy (unknown to me). The horse was cinchy and apparently the cowboy tried starving him into submission. The horse trader we bought him from told us it took six months to feed the horse back to a decent weight. Flanigan had known some hard times. Sunny, my trail horse, came from Mexico, where, so I was told, they rode the H-E-double hockey sticks out of him. Hard times again. Henry, my son’s horse, was a team roping horse his entire life, and though I have no reason to think he was treated harshly, a team roping horse tends to get the rough corners rubbed off over the years.

Besides having come up the hard way, all three horses were/are essentially lazy horses. At the same time they were/are all what the old cowboys use to call hard-twisted—they can take a lot and not get rattled. I am willing to bet a lot of money that Flanigan and Sunny, at least, would have been pretty broncy when they were started.

So what does all this tell me? That the confident horses that have come my way have a certain “picture”. I don’t think I would have chosen any of them for myself as a green horse, or to start. I tended to look for more mallable, sensitive, responsive horses. I did not choose horses that wanted to buck. The three horses I mentioned earlier, Burt, Gunner and Plumber, were just that. Sensitive, willing, no buck. They made good horses. But not tough, solid minded, confident horses. They weren’t the type.

So, here’s my theory. Confident horses are often horses that, contrary to what you might expect, have been through some adversity and come out the other side. They have proven to themselves that they are tough enough to take what life dishes out, even when its not easy. This gives them confidence in themselves. The kind of horse that can survive this way and be all right is a tough minded, hard twisted personality to begin with. If Burt, Gunner, or Plumber had been subjected to that kind of start, they would, I think, have ended up blown up and worthless. But the ones who have what it takes to come out the other side can become confident.

Given a sympathetic owner who appreciates them and can get along with them, these confident horses really shine. No, they are not usually sweet. They are often grouchy, or at the least, standoffish. But they know how to take care of themselves and will take care of you right along with them. (See my last post, “Trail Ride”). I needed to give my well broke, sensitive horses confidence—and they would come through for me. I could/can draw confidence from my confident horses. I could take from them rather than give to them.

Yes, you still have to be in charge. But you can tell a confident horse what to do and let him take care of the rest. You don’t need to babysit him. No horse is perfect. My confident horses would/will all spook, for instance. But they don’t spook often, and when they do, there’s a legitimate reason. They make one jump, take a look, realize its not a problem and that’s that. They don’t prance around like anxious ninnies for no reason. They don’t bolt. They aren’t worried. They are confident in their ability to handle the world.

So, I’m curious here. I’ve put forth one theory about confident horses and how they get that way. Its fits the confident horses I have known. I also feel that I’m having a hard time describing exactly what I mean by a confident horse. Again, to get a better picture, read my “Trail Ride post. I’d love to hear anybody else’s ideas on this subject.

Happy Memorial Day!

Guest Blogger--Heidi Thomas--Cowgirls Compete with Men

I'm very happy to introduce Heidi Thomas, who has made Equestrian Ink one of her stops on her blog tour.

Please leave a comment of substance to be entered in a drawing from today’s blog stop. Check back tomorrow to see who the winner is, give us your mailing address and wait for your prize!

Cowgirls Compete With Men

A petite young woman mounts a 750 to 900-pound steer, and hangs on to nothing but a rope tight-wrapped around one hand. That she stays on this bucking, twisting, snorting beast for ten seconds, eight seconds or even two seconds, seems a miracle.

This is the intriguing picture of my grandmother I have carried in the back of my mind since I was a little girl.

My grandmother, Olive May “Tootsie” Bailey, grew up the daughter of homesteaders during the early 1900s in the Sunburst-Cut Bank area of Montana, near the Canadian border and east of the Rocky Mountains.

Although she no longer rode in rodeos when I came along, “Gramma” was an avid horsewoman and ranch wife, equally at-home on the back of a horse as she was in a dress and heels. She and my grandfather, Otto Gasser, were partners in rural Montana ranching as well as an urban family of friends.

The 1920s were the heyday of rodeo, where the cowgirl was as much a part of the festivities as the cowboy. The first cowgirls learned to ride out of necessity to help on their family ranches. At an early age they learned to ride horses, rope cattle, and stay in the saddle atop an untamed bucking bronco.

In 1885, Annie Oakley, a diminutive sharpshooter in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show, paved the way for other women to be recognized in the rodeo arena.
Two years later, Bertha Kaelpernick was allowed to enter a horse race in Cheyenne’s Frontier Days only because the arena was so muddy the cowboys refused to participate. To entertain the crowd, she was coerced into riding a bucking horse.

Despite the terrible conditions, she managed to stay in the saddle, and put the men to shame. She continued to compete and often beat such legendary cowboys as Ben Corbett and Hoot Gibson.

Following in Bertha’s footsteps years later, Prairie Rose Henderson of Wyoming forced the Cheyenne organizers to allow her to ride. She went on to become one of the most flamboyant cowgirls of the era, dressing in bright colors, sequins and ostrich plumes over bloomers.

Lucille Mulhall, whose father, Colonel Zack Mulhall, ran a Wild West Show, was described in a 1900 New York World article as “only ninety pounds, can break a bronc, lasso and brand a steer, and shoot a coyote at 500 yards. She can also play Chopin, quote Browning, and make mayonnaise.” Both Teddy Roosevelt and Will Rogers have been credited with giving Lucille the title “cowgirl.”

Between 1885 and 1935, many women proudly wore that title and competed with men, riding broncs, steers and bulls. They also roped and tied steers (usually wearing long divided skirts) alongside their male counterparts.

In early rodeos, women and men competed in the same arena, drawing from the same stock. Women rode broncs, steers, bulls, and did steer roping as well as trick riding, Roman races and relay races.

I know that my grandmother, Toots Bailey Gasser, rode steers in small Montana rodeos. Other cowgirls, such as Marie Gibson, also from Montana, rode steers, bulls and broncs throughout the US, Canada and even London. While each cowgirl had her specialty, most participated in multiple events.

Vera McGinnis, Tad Lucas and Fox Hastings were probably best known for trick riding. This demonstrated numerous types of stands and vaults, performed while the horse was galloping at top speed. Other maneuvers included crawling under the horse’s belly, hanging just inches from the mount’s pounding hooves.

In the Roman race, the cowgirl would stand with her right foot on one galloping horse and her left foot on the other. (The horses would have had to be very well trained to stay together, and the rider obviously had great balance and strength.)

The relay race required three laps around a track, and the rider had to change horses, and sometimes saddles, after each round. If they weren’t required to change saddles, many cowgirls perfected the “flying” change, leaping from the back of one horse to the other without touching the ground. Vera McGinnis is credited with inventing this move.

After Bonnie McCarrol and Marie Gibson were killed and several other women badly injured in rodeo accidents, cowgirl bronc riding became increasingly rare in the West, leaving only relay racing open to women competitors. But women’s rodeo gradually eroded nationwide for several reasons:

Small, local rodeos were no longer financially lucrative and livestock was in short supply in the 1930s, leading to the demise of the Wild West shows.
· Men held the central control of the sport.
· Many well-known women rodeo stars retired.
· World War II, with tire and gas rationing, did not allow travel as in the past.

From the mid-1930s until the late 1940s, cowgirls became mere props in rodeo, “glamour girls” whose beauty and attire were emphasized instead of athletic skill. In 1948, 38 women formed the Girls Rodeo Association (GRA) to give women an opportunity to compete in calf roping, barrel racing, and trick riding. In 1968, barrel racing finals were finally included in the men’s Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) National Finals.

In 1981 GRA changed its name to Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) and today has more than 2,000 members. It sanctions 800 barrel races a year in conjunction with men’s PRCA rodeos. But women still do not compete with men.

As an entity of its own, Professional Women’s Rodeo Association (PWRA) puts on events in women-only rodeos that include bareback riding, breakaway and tie-down calf roping, bull riding, and team roping.

It’s been a long time coming, but as Rene Mikes, a corporate accountant from Denver and a bull rider, says, “It’s not a guy sport anymore.” But despite the heroic efforts of many women, including Cowgirl Hall of Fame and world champion bull rider Joni Jonkowski of Montana, women for the most part still do not compete with men.

Cowgirl Dreams is available at http://www.heidimthomas.com/ (for autographed copies) or from http://www.trebleheartboks.com/SDHeidiThomas.html
Join me on my next stop tomorrow at Jean Henry Mead’s “A Western Happening” http://awhh.blogspot.com/ Please leave a comment and at the end of my tour, I’ll enter your name in a drawing.
For the itinerary of all my stops on this tour and a list of prizes, go to my blog http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com/my-blog-tour/

Query Letter Connection

Hi Everybody,

As promised in my last post, I have some information to share from last year's Backspace Writer's Conference on writing query letters. Since I am focused on fiction, these notes are specific to fiction queries. There are a couple of general items that apparently happen quite frequently. One is that the query letter is titled Dear Sir/Madam or some other generic format. Agents prefer to be addressed individually and although it's fine to query more than one agent at an agency, it is best to query only one at a time.

The second point is to research the agents preferences for submissions. Their preferences vary. Some want only the query letter, others prefer to also have a certain number of pages of manuscript as well. Most agents now accept email submissions and some only email submissions but it's always good to check. I always start with the agency's web site for genres they represent and and then also There are some great sites to gain information about agents and the types of work they represent. These sites often also include submission requirements. I always check The Association of Author Representatives at http://www.aaronline.org/mc/page.do as well as Publisher's Marketplace at http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/.

Often, if you write in a particular genre there will be an organization of writers in that specialty which will include lists of agents. For example, Romance Writers of America has a list of agents representing romance.

The agents who spoke at last year's conference varied to a degree in what catches their eye in a query letter, but there were a some general themes that stood out. First, state up front what your genre and word count is. Then, succintly describe the novel. Here is where your writing style needs to shine. I've heard people say this section of the letter should sound similar to back cover copy. It needs to catch the agent with not only the content, but the strength of the writing. They also often said no 'What would happen if' statements and if there's humor in the book, reflect it in the summary.

It is helpful to include a brief statement about your previous experience as a writer if it is applicable. For example, I included the titles of my two novels but not specifics about the medical writing I have done beyond a brief statement I have expertise in that area. If you have expertise in the area about which you are writing, this is great to add. For example, horse people writing equestrian fiction write compelling narrative because they've lived it.

Well, folks, I'll be flying to New York next week to sit in front of between 12 and 18 agents. I'll post their comments on the query letter when we get back. They say to be prepared for open, honest feedback. Okay, here I go...

Cheers,
Mary

Scattered . . .

by Kit Ehrman

Sadly, I’ve been offblog for a while. My husband and I are trying to sell our house, and it’s been frustrating and hectic and time consuming. I believe this will be our twelfth move. Except for the townhouse we rented when we first got married (and our current house) we’ve always lived on horse farms, and to my mind, there’s no better place to be. I love living in the country. I love looking out the windows and seeing pastured horses or, at times, horses in the backyard, putting my birdfeeder at risk. I especially loved having the horses close at hand where I could check on them day and night.

And like the humans in our family, my horses were accomplished at relocating. My worst move was one where I wasn’t personally involved in transporting them. I had three horses at the time, plus my sister’s horse. Four horses to move six-hundred miles, and I wasn’t going to be there when they were loaded into the trailer. Instead, I would be flying with my six-week old son, lugging his baby bag and car seat through Chicago’s O’Hare airport with mere minutes to catch my connecting flight.

Meanwhile, strangers were loading the horses onto a trailer. I figured my horses would load okay. After all, I’d loaded them singlehandedly numerous times. But still, you never know what unforeseen circumstance might make a horse balk. Then, the hauler would have to find my parents’ farm to pick up my sister’s horse, and he could be a bear to load. But he was in the barn alone, and I hoped the desire to be with other horses would come into play. Apparently, it did because the horses arrived in Indiana twenty-four hours later, none the worse for wear. It was such a relief to get them off the trailer and into their stalls.

This move, if we succeed in selling the house, will be a short one, as we’re only moving a couple of miles away. Too bad I don’t have any horses to move this time.

For an interesting article on the ultimate in horse transport, visit:

clipped from www.nytimes.com

First-Class Treatment for U.S. Team’s Horses

Tim Dutta has learned that satisfying his well-heeled clientele means attending to the smallest of details. One of his frequent fliers loves orange Gatorade, for example, but turns up his nose at lime. Another drinks water only if it has been sweetened with a touch of apple juice. Some ease their nerves by nibbling on wet hay, while others take it dry.

His clients, of course, are not human but equine — Dutta is a shipping agent for the United States equestrian team, responsible for flying the team’s horses to Europe for the first leg of their trip to the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Kit Ehrman
www.kitehrman.com