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Twenty one horse/rider combinations saddled up to tackle a tough and technical Grand Prix course at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center’s Winter Series II “A” show, held on Saturday, February 12, 2011  and set up by course designer Michel Vaillancourt.

First on the course was German born rider Christian Rogge aboard Carl Loui TSP, finishing the course with only 1 rail down.  This score would hold the lead through past half of the field, as rider after rider found themselves with multiple faults due to downed rails or refusals.

The triple combination at fence 7 (two verticals with an oxer at 7C) proved to be a challenge, with many riders leaving rails on the ground. Immediately after this difficult combo, Vaillancourt set up a hard right to a narrow vertical at fence 8 that also saw many downed rails.

It was not until teenage rider Jordan Appel and her horse Einstein (13th in the jump order), who managed to put up the first clean round of the evening. It is worthwhile to mention that she also held the distinction of being the youngest rider in the field!

There were several riders who would eventually finish with 4 faults total, including Stephanie Tropia and CR Napoleon, Rogge, and Erin Davis aboard Alamo. They would go on to claim spots 3rd through 5^th respectively. The crowd in attendance had to wait until the very last rider to find out whether there would be a jump off. That last rider was Heineking on the irons of his second mount of the night “River of Dreams” owned by Kai Handt. The dapple grey and his rider putting a classic clean round, well within the time allowed, to earn the second and last spot on the jump-off.

So that left only NTEC’s Heineking and his student Appel on the jump-off.  Jordan was the first to go, and put a quick round of 48.084 sec. but had an unfortunate rail at the last fence, and thus would claim second place overall. Heineking, her trainer and competitor was next, and put in his second clean round of the night, stopping the clock at 47.560  to claim the blue ribbon.  Overall, a great evening for North Texas Equestrian Center (NTEC).

By Janice Terra

The Lady Horse Whisperer

Cactus and Dhan Zhao are two friendly Appaloosa’s with magnificent track records of dealing with cancer.  Janice Terra, The Lady Horse Whisperer, owns these remarkable horses (though she feels it is more the other way around) and conducts seminars teaching others how to enlist the aid of horses in returning humans to a state of balance & harmony.

Margaret Bear is a school teacher from Tomball, Texas.  This mother of three has a beautiful three year old little girl named Rebecca who has Bilateral Retinoblastoma ~ a virulent rare form of childhood cancer which develops in the cells of the retina of the eye.  This little girl had already lost one of her eyes to the disease, and Margaret was desperately trying to save her remaining eye, which had bleeding behind it.  If the bleeding did not stop ~ she would lose her other eye. Margaret had been taking her daughter to a specialist in New York City every 4 weeks. 

A relative of Margaret’s had attended one of the “Medicine Pony” seminars, and told Margaret about how the horse helped restore humans to health.  Encouraged by what she had learned from her sister, and not willing to leave any stone unturned in her pursuit to help her daughter, Margaret made an appointment with Ms.  Terra.

Bekah (Rebecca’s nickname) came for a therapeutic ride on one of these amazing horses at the Tomball location.  Bekah soon made it known that she preferred to ride without a saddle – so that was an easy accommodation to grant.  The next day Margaret flew to New York with her daughter for their appointment with the specialist.

The next week when Bekah came for her session, Margaret was overjoyed to report that the bleeding had stopped!  The bleeding had stopped!  (Just had to repeat that.)

Bekah continued to come for her riding sessions once a week.  Four weeks later Bekah and Margaret returned to New York City for their regular appointment.  The tumor had shrunk considerably ~ there was no bleeding ~ and the seeding from the tumor were gone.  The doctor said that they needed return only every 6 weeks now instead of the 4 and ….he said….”Whatever you are doing … keep it up…. Because whatever you are doing …it is working”.  These words coming from the lips of a renowned expert in his field of medicine!

When asked about success with other forms of cancer, Ms. Terra  spoke of two ladies, each in their 50’s, with late stage ovarian cancer:   One called the day after her first session saying that the swelling had gone down ½!  The other woman, who, after 2 sessions, said that she did not have any adverse effects from her chemo, and that her marker had gone down 200 points,!

Such are the miracles and magic of using horses to help humans.

If you are interested in contacting Ms. Janice, you can reach her at janiceterra@comcast.net  or check out her websites:

www.janiceterra.com  and  www.theladyhorsewhisperer.com