Champ sitting on the floorboard of the cart, his tail wagging non-stop over the side. Such a sight of horse, human and canine cuteness!” Sandy Helgeson recently returned to GTC after a decade of showing Saddlebreds. “I met Bob and Val when Bob was a trainer at Cedar Ridge. Bob was my trainer several years before they opened their own barn. I was with them when I decided to pursue a childhood passion of showing Saddlebreds. After 10 years of that, I recently contacted Bob and Val, sharing that I’d like to find a nice Half-Arabian to compete at Arabian shows with and did they have room for me. I was lucky, they had an opening; so, we went shopping. With Bob’s help, I purchased two young prospects. He has also agreed to train my five-gaited Saddlebred and is doing an excellent job with him—he looks marvelous! The future is looking bright!” Cindy Backlund, another long-time GTC client too, looks back, “I met Bob when I took my horse, Key Bob and Sky Witch, National Show Horse Finals. of Hope, for a 30-day tune-up/refresher at Cedar Ridge. An assistant trainer under Ted Gibson, he was assigned to help me. I too, followed Bob and Val when they started their own training barn, and have been a client ever since!” Cindy cites GTC’s equine care and concern, “Not to say that other barns don’t have this, but I have found Bob and Val care for my horses as much as I do. Val’s working at Anoka Equine has a definite advantage in that she is aware of potential health issues that are popping up in the area. And Bob is meticulous in his care and organization of the barn, making theirs the healthiest environment he can.” Cindy examples Bob and Val’s neighborly ‘helping hand’, “My parent’s farm was in the path of the tornados that destroyed much of St. Peter about 20 years ago. We lost two geldings in that storm, and one of our broodmares, carrying a foal at the time, was severely injured. Had Bob not taken it upon himself to come and pick her up, so she could get the medical care she needed, I am certain we could have lost her and her foal as well. They brought her to the farm, made veterinary appointments for her and did all the daily maintenance to clean her wounds and get her back to good health. She did end up foaling, about a month late, but both were healthy and survived many more years. Arabian Horse Times actually did an article on that incident!” Cindy’s first national championship was in 2009 with GTC. “I had just started showing my homebred mare, BA Glory Days,” Cindy says. “She was 5 years old and the local and regional shows hadn’t been going well, but knowing this was her final Junior year, I had Val send in my entries to Canadian Nationals. We ended up with our first National Championship in HalfArabian Country Pleasure AAOTR 40+, despite others telling me she would probably never be National level! Probably the most thrilling thing that has happened to me in the horse world, thanks to Bob and Val.” Cindy concludes, ““I have entrusted GTC with many over the years. They now hold my future show horse in their barn and I trust them to bring her along as well as they have all our horses!”
REGION 10 | 16 | Ar abian Horse Times