Saturday, December 31, 2011

Oooo faux-pas!!

I like blogs.  I'm not very good at it, but I sure enjoy other people's.  I have a couple of very good friends who do blogs here on blogspot.com, and some I've never met but sure enjoy the read.  Then there's the big one, fuglyblog!  It's recently gone through 3 sets of hands and all have been unique in style and opinion.  The ladies who currently have it are doing a great job and I can relate to their point of view much better as they have H/J and dressage background.  Today's topic: Confirmation messes in WARMBLOODS!  (dun dun duuuun!)  And not only are they picking on (and apart) WARMBLOODS, specifically American and CANADIAN WARMBLOODS!!! 

Now, I had researched warmblood registries quite a bit before I took Ritchie out and had him inspected and registered with a specific verband.  I had thought long and hard about simply going Canadian Warmblood with him, but something in the back of my head kept saying "look elsewhere" and I'm really glad I did.  Now, I have a LOT of respect for Chris Gould and the other executives who have worked tirelessly to make the CWB grow and flourish but my feeling is also that they let a bunch of junk in that really won't "benefit the breed".  That's just my opinion.  There is also quite a feel of Eliteism that seems to follow the CWB (again, my opinion).  I had decided finally to go with the Rheinland Pfalz Saar International (Zweibrucker) for my own animals.  They are under direct management of their parent organization the PRPS in Germany.  My horse is inspected by the same inspector as in Germany, and is branded, as in Germany, and has German registration papers.  Since things from Germany seem, for some reason, to have better international standing in the dressage/equine sport world, that's what I wanted to do for my horses.  And not just for the German line, but the organization has always made me feel like a welcome member, even just being on the ground level.  No question was silly, they have time to answer my questions and explain how things work and, most importantly, they really like my colt!  They also offer annual tours for members to go to Germany to be a part of the German stallion inspection and gala evening with auction.  Imagine that, offering to give a chance for your members to be further EDUCATED!  For me, I really think it was the best choice.  And following that, I will get back to my origional point. 

In my own opinion, a lot of CWB horses that have been turned out are CRAP.  It talked a lot about T-bred influince on fuglyblog's post today, but I won't agree with that totally.  I've seen some lovely T-bred mares, likewise I've seen some FANTASTIC Standardbred mares (but Standardbred mares are poo-pooed by the CWB - although not by the RPSI!) but truly you need a balance of nice horses on both sides to produce more nice and nicer horses!  Blood lines alone just don't do it!  

Fuglyblog today got really close to home.  They posted pictures of a couple of local horses, one of whom I believe to be bred by one of the CWB executives, a prize horse.  The girls called a spade a spade and I do applaude them!  I never understood how people could have a whole field of 2 or 3 year old colts and point to any one of those NOT halter-broke, nearly untouchable horses and tell you no less than $15,000!  I don't care who its parents are, or what it COULD do, I buy a horse on what it looks like and what it CAN do right now.  If I can't walk up and put a halter on it, it's worth as much as what old Ives at the auction mart will pick it up for.   

Anyways, that just me and my opinions...  Have a great new year! 

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas

Well good day!  And welcome to my Christmas blog. 

It was certainly a beautiful one today!  We started a brand new Christmas tradition, one I hope to continue in the future, as long as we have the weather for it.  We had a Christmas lunch time hot dog roast!  It was sure a treat to be able to sit out by a little fire and watch the horses and munch on some open-fire cookin!  Even Grif (our resident confused dog) enjoyed the food! 

Got the COOLEST gifts from my dearest friends!  They gave myself and Al matching horsey toques, no not toques with horse print on them, like horse TOQUES!!! 
Like this, but in bay and on me and Al, not some model who looks a little less than happy to be wearing such a cool hat.  I've been wearing mine all over for a week, Al's been so jelous, she wanted it.  When she got hers today, she came RUNNING to show me that she had one too!  Best gift! (and the ears on the hat flop when your head moves hehehe!)

My big win for giving gifts this year was for my mom.  I found her a lawn and garden Mule from Home Hardware.  The girls in Morinville are awesome!  They had it located and me in and out of the store and loaded in the car in a total of 5 minutes!  Mom LOVED the Mule, she forgot she'd asked for one.  I'm looking forward to borrowing it for the Mane Event in April!  Bet it's going to help a lot! 

All in all a lovely day for my family, hope it was the same for yours!  Another week and we start the new year and the new show season kicks off at Amberlea in February!  I think I might go out for a training test or two then.  We'll see what ol' Norton has to say about that.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Why Not a Standardbred??

I just made some super yummy shortbread and I'm trying not to eat it, so I will type instead :)

Why not a Standardbred?  Have you ever played with one? 

My dearly departed and much beloved Sam was out of a Standardbred mare, Chris Dundee.  She had the BIGGEST heart of any horse I'd ever met in my life.  Old pin-fired-up hocks, she'd hobble around with a disabled kid on her back while her young son was screaming in the stall, Chrissy was amazing.  It was because of her that I wanted Sam (Smirnoff).  I thought if he had half his mom's heart, I'd have one hell of a partner.  He did and I did <3 I miss him so much still.


So, when it came that Ritchie's very bestestest friend Spud relocated to Ft. McMurray, it quickly became obvious that he needed a new play buddy and FAST!!  The bred mares were not very happy about his play antics.  I looked at a friend's dad's 2-year-old stud colt who was going to be just a pasture pet, had an injury on a leg quite early.  He wasn't handled and he wasn't free... I wasn't interested. 
I went to the auction in Westlock and thought I'd maybe save one from the meat man.  Again, not gelded colts, not handled, not vaccinated or dewormed and exposed to everything that an auction's horses brings into it... Hmmmmm what else could work??
Then the word came around about a 3-year-old gelding, Standardbred, who wouldn't pace and needed to be relocated before the end of the month when the rest of the stock headed to BC.  Hmmmm, a nice colt who's already gelded, been in a barn, handled, farriered, dewormed regularly, vaccinated and HANDLED?!?!  Gotta check this out! 
He ate cookies right away and learned how to smile in about 2 minutes....
His registration was not completed, no need to for a horse who won't race, but his name would've been Vegas Black Jack.  That's all well and good but Jack isn't quite the Spanish compliment for Ricardo (Ritchie as in Valens) so his name is now José Jalapeno (on a stick!) and he came home this afternoon. 

Richie was SOOOO HAPPY to have a friend to play with again!!  I think this was likely the best Christmas present I could've provided :) 
So what's the plan for José?  Well, like everything else out here, if it's sound and can be broke to ride, it gets broke to ride.  He's already been in a full racing harness and pulled the "bike", been in a barn, etc, etc, so I don't think it's going to be a huge streach to have him become a riding horse.  I'll just work on some trick training and some basic in-hand stuff and see where the summer takes us.  I believe this guy's going to top 16+ hh and he's got quite a big TROTTTTT already!  I personally love these horses and would really like to see him go and do something one day, whether with me or one of the PC kids, or whomever.  I will give him an education to be a success in life regardless :)  Welcome home José Jalapeno.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

What's In a Name

Let's be honest, it is a pretty bad name. 

There are LOTS of really bad names for successful barns out there so I don't feel very bad about it, but here's the reason why Shimmer-E Equestrian is Shimmer-E Equestrian.

For us ladies, mid to late 20's, maybe early to mid 30's, you will likely remember a set of books from when you were younger, the Serindipity books.  A whole series of story books done in the late 70's and early 80's for children.  I bet your favorite was the same as mine, same as many of my friends, and I bet you forgot...

Uh huh!  You've seen it haven't you?  Shimmeree lived in the crystal land with her crystal friends and found some dirt and a seed and it changed everything colour!  Everyone wanted to destroy it because it was different and skeery but Shimmeree hid it and then it turned into a beautiful rose.  Moral or story: Don't be afraid of something different. 

And so when it came time to name the business, my darling mother offered me the suggestion of taking my favorite childhood book (and yours too, you know it!!!) and modifying it a little.  Being un-wed at the time of naming, my maiden name was Enmark and thus Shimmer-E made sence.  Now with the breeding program, we give all of our offspring the suffex SE, of course short for Shimmer-E, but it's also a nice tribute to my mom, who's been my biggest supporter, Sonya Enmark (yaya see, her initials, on every horse...)

My sister is pretty darn artisitic, she's the designer in the family.  I asked her to help me design the logo kind of inkeeping with the whimsical theme of Shimmeree book, but something simple as well.  So we came up with our current logo, 5 simple lines, a horse in piaffe.
So there you go, it's not a great name, I'll totally agree with that, but it's me and it works and I kinda like it :)

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Best Wishes!

My family's been down with the flu for the last few days.  It's been an ugly one for sure, Al's had it the worst.  Today my good friend Heather came to pick up her gelding she recently bought from us, Encore Performance SE (Spud).  Spud is the only half Arab by Eastern Ruler.  I bred our mare Bardo Bay Barb to him because I thought it would be a really neat compliment and I'd end up with a tall and talented half-Arab sport horse.  Well I did!  And people liked him so much that I thought the smartest thing to do would be to sell him, and Heather liked that idea too.  At just 2 years of age, he stands approximately 15.2 in the front and 16 hh + in the rear.  When he levels out he's going to be GINORMOUS in the show ring, I can't wait to see them there! 
I felt bad because I kept trying to stay away from Heather as I was sick, but I just couldn't help myself.  Heather is due to deliver her first baby in 4 weeks and I just HAD to rub that baby bump!!!  It's just so beautiful <3 
Anyways, to Heather and Brent and soon to be baby Nev, all the best wishes for your future together with that beautiful new horse of yours!