On a Roll

Ah late summer... the birds are singing in the trees....
No, the damn magpies and blue jays are fledging their chicks and they won't shut up at 6:30 in the morning!!! Gak.

Sigh, ok, I'm all better.

It appears the horse market is making a come back in Alberta!  Within the last month, I've sold 3 of my 5 sales horses!  Today I will say goodbye to my good friend Khori, BG Khorina.  Khori is a BEAUTIFUL grey purebred Arab mare, 6 years old.  As a child, I always said I wanted a purebred dapple grey Arab mare.  Well she's sat with me for the last 5 years doing little to nothing.  I had her started under saddle with the incredible Katelyn Carter as a 3 year old. You can check for the video on youtube, search BG Khorina.  ...WOW!!!

I bought this princess horse to be my SPORT HORSE/DRESSAG champion!  Her father is phenomenal, talented on all levels and the sweetest disposition!  Her mother is 16 shades of BEAUTIFUL and so light and responsive.  Unfortunately Khori only grew to 14.2 hh and developed movement much more suited to western or hunter pleasure. 

So, my loss is Cathy's gain! 

When I met this lady, I thought "PERFECT!!"  Cathy used to breed Arabs but stepped away from the equine world for a few years.  She called me explaining that she wanted some horsie therapy again, wanted a dependable friend who she could enjoy to the ends of the earth.  Yep, that's Khori.  They seemed so comfortable with eachother when Cathy came to meet her.  It was the right match. 

So now I'll go get dressed as the rest of the famly sleeps, load the good girl into the trailer and deliver her to Beaumont area and have the pleasure of bringing extreme joy to a lady's life.  That is the true gift right there! 

Best wishes!!!

Great News, Congratulations!

Got some wonderful news this afternoon.  My good friend, BG Northstar, has been sold!  Congratulations to Bob and Gail Williams on the sale and congratulations to Betty from Three Hills, AB on her purchase of  the super-talented gelding! 

I had taken "Norton" out last Friday evening for Betty to meet and try out.  They'd seemed to be a really good match.  Betty looked good with him and he was a good, calm (and totally hadsome) partner for her.  She kept him on a trial for a week and I just got word that he passed the vet check with flying colours and will be heading home with her right away!! 


I'm looking forward to seeing the pair in the show ring next year kicking some butt in sport horse and dressage <3  All my best to you both!!

Also!!!  Sumthing Khompletly Difrent SE (Monty) is also sold!  I had a very good friend come out and take some lovely shots with her fancy schmancy camera, put the images up online and by the next morning I had two people ready to pay for him sight unseen!!  Wow! 

Monty will be going home with a good horse family to be loved and adored.  He's been growing like a weed and will be one month on Saturday.  Congratulations to Larry and family from Ardrossan! 

Ritchie has been stood to Bay mare and Stella.  Both foals are reserved!  Got to do a preg-check on Stella in another week.

Now, to get Khori and Tex working and marketed... There is still time this summer!!

Look Who's Here!!!

And now for "Sumthing Khompletly Difrent SE"!!  Monty made his appearance just after midnight June 26.  We got everything we wanted in this breeding.  He's a buckskin SABINO colt (you gotta check out the "lightening strikes" on his front legs!) by the incredible Khartoon Majik CRA (out of our mare Nix).  Monty will be registered as a half Arab with the CAHR.  This boy is TALL and has leeeeegs!  He is going to absolutely ROCK the sport horse divisions. 

This is my favorite picture of Monty's sire "Khenny".  He's owned and trained by the incredibly talented Katelyn Carter (www.shantarabians.com) He made his mark on the Arabian show world with regional and national titles as a 3 year old under saddle! 

See?  Looks purdiful in ribbons and rosettes too!

I'm almost tempted to keep this boy for myself... But this is the same thing I go through every time, there just isn't time for all of them.  Monty is for sale, $1500 CAD; however, if he's not sold by next year, I don't think I'll feel too bad taking him to some arab shows anyways. 

Yeah, someone better come grab him while he's still available...

Now I'm Tired!

Whoo hoo what a whirlwind 2 weeks it's been!  From nothing to everything just like that.

Well I went and picked up Ritchie.  He's just lovely after the work Selena's put on him.  Just like I'd hoped, he is more confident, respectful and makes good choices.  It was a whole-day's travel to get down to pick him up, delivering horses on my way.  Buck's out at Maple Leaf Meadows now trying out their lesson program, and apparently doing well with it! 
I picked up a beautiful little Standardbred mare "Angel" and took her south of Calgary.  Now "Sienna" has settled into her new home and everyone is in love with her.  I got to meet some fantastic people out there too! 
I ended up in Carmangay about 6 in the evening, I'd left home before 7 am.  It's such a lovely little town, about 2 hours south of Calgary.  I travelled through Vulcan on my way so, because the horse trailer was empty, and I was sure the tourist station wouldn't be open on Sunday, I stopped in, picked up some Roctijino and Tea - Earl Grey - Hot - Make it so for my husband, a Vulcan, AB pin for my Dad and a pair of Spock ears for my daughter.  It's geek mecca there. 


I had a lovely visit with Selena!  I enjoy her so much, just wish we weren't a whole province apart (and not the short side either!)  She lives in a beautiful coolee where the Little Bow River winds around.  We got to sit beside it and watched a muskrat and a beaver come to visit!  We pigged out on pizza and beers and watched Twilight before bed.  Wish we could do it again!!!  Ritchie hauled home like a trooper, through rain and traffic.  He was happy to get home, streach his legs and romp around his paddock.  I put Norton in with him to help him settle for the night and both enjoyed the company. 

That was the first weekend.

Last weekend saw us up north in Valley View, AB.  (Check out the distance between the two on a map, that's a LOT of driving!!!)  Valley View was hosting their first dressage show, an EC Bronze-rated show.  Since I have some good friends up there, I thought it would be a good one for Norton and I to head to.  So we loaded up the rig and off we went!  This was only a 3.5 hour drive.  The Ag grounds are not your typical dressage-show setup, but did the trick.  My concern was the stabling.  They had set up panneled pens on grass, but all the pens were connected to eachother so there were no biosecurity measures :(  Norton is currently on quarantine just for caution's sake. 

The judge was Marianne Middleveen of Calgary.  She was just a joy to ride for.  What a kind and sweet woman, not the kind of judge that makes you cry as you leave the ring.  Her scoring was generous, but her comments were pertinent and positive.  Very encouraging and likely a very good introduction for the many people who had never ridden in a dressage show. 

Saturday we rode First level test 1 and Training level test 2.  After a less than exciting warm up on Friday evening, our First-level test was wonderful.  I was so pleased with it, even with the couple of baby bobbles we had.  He ended up with a 65% and a 4th place ribbon.  Our afternoon test we ended up riding an hour early, with 20 minutes to tack up and change.  I was less pleased with that ride, but I'll take it as it's all part of the experience of a young horse.  In the Training test 2 test, we scored another 65% and another 4th place ribbon. 

The show comittee bought pizza for all the exhibitors Saturday evening and Norton and I were asked to do a trick-horse demo.  Course we were glad to!  After running through the tricks and explaining the purpose of doing them, I invited everyone to come and see Norton.  Marianne (the judge) came to see him and shared with me how his personaity was very similar to that of her newly-retired FEI horse!  She felt he has the personality to really be successful in dressage <3  Huge kudos there! 

Sunday morning we rode First level test 2, a test I'd had a bugger of a time trying to memorize Saturday night, but learned it in 5 minutes Sunday morning.  I felt so good about this test and the score sheet reflected it - 71%!  I saw an 8 on that score sheet!  I'd never seen an 8 on my own score sheet before!!  The last test we rode was Training test 1.  After the morning's test, it was a walk in the park, almost litereally!!  The highest score I'd ever received in my own history of dressage was that test, 71.2%!  That landed us another 4th place for First level and a 3rd place for Training!  The placings were so close in most of the tests, 2nd, 3rd and 4th were within 1 full percentage!  Norton was the youngest horse to ride first level, and boy was I proud of him! 

All in all a busy but wonderful couple of weekends.  Had a lot of fun but glad to be having a quiet one to look forward to.

Current events... ooo big ol' nuthin!

My goodness, who's a bogging slacker?!  That would be me! 
Haven't had anything exciting to blog about for a bit though.  Life has been rolling along nicely.  I'd had the pleasure of again judging the Funducational dressage schooling show at Maple Leaf Meadows, along with the lovely Cathy MacIntyre (She's such a hoot!)  There are some LOVELY up and coming youngsters out there.  What a treat to have them in my ring.  It especially makes me happy when their owners tell me they want to compete in DRESSAGE with them (as opposed to JUMPING gak!) 
After talking with a couple of staff at MLM, I've offered to take old Mr. Bucky over for a while to try out as a lesson horse.  Might give him something more to do than sit around at home being board... He can teach kids how to ride tempis!

Still don't have a foal on the ground :(  Nix is holding onto hers, although she isn't quite due yet.  Next week.  She's very soft around the tail, she's bagging up now, but will NOT keep a tail wrap on! 
I had put her and Flo into the foaling pens, get them settled and comfee before foaling time.  Flo went right to the fence where Northstar was and lifted her tail and peed.  She did that for 3 days!!! >:(  No baby for her.  So we're waiting on one.  Will it be the sabino buckskin?  Could happen!  I'm guessing it will be a bay sabino colt.  As long as it's happy and healthy, it doesn't matter what it is though. 

I get to go pick up Ritchie from the trainer's this weekend.  I'm excited to see my baby boy again.  When he comes home, we'll talk about breeding two of our mares at home (one an arab and the other warmblood) and we're looking forward to having some special guests come to look at him too!  I really like to get feedback regarding my horses from good friends and people I really respect in the horse industry. And I like to visit. 
Hopefully the next post will be more interesting!  That's all I've got for now.

A First in a Long Time

I love dressage.  I love showing.  I love having a good horse I can go down centreline with and smile and have a good ride on. 

For the last nearly 2 years, I haven't had that. Last time was the Killerney Canada Day Show with my Sam riding 3rd level!

On May 5, I got to trot down centreline for the first time in nearly 2 years.  Although the day's tests consisted only of Training and First level tests on the Old Man and Norton's very first tests ever, it sure felt good to head down there again!

I was so impressed with Old Mr. Buck.  23 years old and he was convinced he was a youngster!  He was so alert and wanted to go go go!  It was the first time in about 7 years that he had shown.  He was no stranger to the dressage arena, having shown up to 4th level and training Intermediare with me in a prior lifetime.  He still pulled out scores in the 60's for his tests!  Sure his canter was stiff, but he gave me 5 x 2-tempis in the warmup the night before!!!  heheh what a good kid!

Norton was not overly confident in the ring for his first test.  He wasn't interested in really riding into corners or softening and swinging.  That's ok, we have to start somewhere.  His second test was better.  We did get into most of the corners and had some moments of relaxation.  The judge had some good comments for us as well.  She liked him, thinks he'll make a lovely dressage pony in the future too.  <3

Another first in a long time was being in front of the event photographer's camera lense!!  One of my favorite faces to see at a show, Linda Finstad of A Sharper Image Photography was in attendance with her camera.  She did up an edit on facebook just for me! 

Happy to be back!!! xoxo

Mane Event, and a Crazy Good Weekend!

No, didn't get into a clinic, but still took a pony down and still had a rediculously good time!

Absolute highlight of the weekend?  Being able to have long, hot showers all by myself 3 days in a row!!  Being a Mom and a wife, sometimes it's the little things that make the biggest difference.

Anyways, had a retarded good time with my very good friends, Renate, Selena <3, Michelle, and a lot of other people I haven't seen in quite a while.  There were even more that I didn't get a chance to sit and talk with, although I would have loved to. 

Ritchie handled himself like a gentleman, so proud of my little man!  He became good friends with Selena's famous Fjords; Bergen Simon and Bergen Seepo! 

Awe Fjordie love with Seepo! <3

Selena Dickmann had wonderful crowd-pleasing performances with her boys!  Her Roman Riding was just AWESOME!!!  Along with Selena, the X-Dream Team also has Darcy, who is horse handler extraordinaire!  Had such a blast hanging out with these ladies. 

Friday and Saturday nights I went over to my sidesaddling buddy's place for the night (and a LOT of wine) and hot tubbing.  We had a sidesaddle play day as she asked me to bring Plonk (my 1915 Champion and Wilton saddle) with me. 

Sidesaddle kitchen party!

I also had the opportunity to spend some time with the Performance Standardbred booth.  My friend Charlene and her boy Leo (Westosterone) were part of the demos, and also participated in the Johnathan Field clinic series.  It was so awesome to see how far they've come together <3 

And the Jackie Johnson Trick Training Clinics were fantastic, as always.  I got some really good tips on the trick training I'm working on with Norton, and where to go next with them. 

Of course, I'm planning to go back next year.  If you're in Alberta, BC or Saskatchewan, I would recommend you make plans to do the same!