Purina Dreamride in the Flint Hills

It's been a busy fall so far, and it's hard to believe that we're only a month into it! Karen and I had a wonderful time on the Dreamride in the Flint Hills, one of the Pink 50 events here in Kansas (even though we got pretty wet on the afternoon ride - I'm still working on conditioning the saddles!). Then came the trip to Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington to spend time talking to horse people from all over the world about feeding horses, and watch the eventing, of course. Next was the Veterinary Conference that we host in St. Louis every year, and finally RFD TV Monday Night Live in Nashville. After all that whirlwind, it's good to be back home working on formulas, tags, writing, proofing and editing, posting on Facebook, and all the other regular day to day activities.

Back to the dreamride - this was the 11th annual Purina Dreamride, and I believe the 7th ride that I've been on. It's always a great time - seeing friends, eating great food, talking to horse owners (about feeding their horses, of course!), and riding through the tall grass prairie in Kansas. There's only about 4% of the original tall grass prairieland left in the US, and it's a rare privilege to be out there on your horse enjoying some of the most beautiful landscapes in the midwest. On top of all that, this year the ride went pink for the Purina Pink 50 Campaign. So the theme of the ride was raising awareness and support for breast cancer research, and there was pink everywhere you looked! Shirts, hats, bandanas, saddle pads, even polo wraps and boots on some of the horses were pink! What a great event. I was so proud to be associated with Purina and this important campaign, and also appreciative of the work that our own Ernie Rodina does to put on this wonderful event every year.

If you have not had the opportunity to attend one of the many Pink 50 events throughout the country, you can check our website http://www.horse.purinamills.com/ to see if there are any more scheduled in your part of the world. And if not, you can still participate by purchasing a pink bag of Strategy, Omolene 200 or Equine Senior. I'm thinking I might have to go buy a couple of pink bags just to have the bags (we feed bulk Strategy at our barn, so I don't usually have any bags), and maybe have someone make totes out of them! I saw on FB that people are doing this - some folks have such good ideas.