The Times They Are A Changin....

The big talk these days on the forums is the economy and how it affects the horse industry. I just got off the phone with my mom after discussing my current financial dilemma – I owe money to Social Security. Without getting into too much detail, Social Security paid me survivor benefits after the death of my husband in 1990 to the year when my daughter turned 16. They are now claiming that they overpaid me and I need to reimburse them some $13,000. It’s useless to try to fight them on this, so I have asked for a low payment plan. We’ll see how that pans out. In the meantime, I was talking to my mom and she suggested (in a way only mother’s can) that we be very frugal with our money and limit our spending. I told her we were and that after our last show in December, I may not even show Art next year. I think she probably thought I shouldn’t even do the show in December, but we are up for the Ultimate Yearling Award and we’ve worked hard all year for it. I do believe that I won’t be showing Art much next year due to financial constraints. It’s just too expensive to show at breed shows these days and I just can’t do that to my husband (this SS payment and my impending Student Loan payment is enough for his lifetime). Next year will be my year to start Art under saddle and bring him along nice and slow and solid. By the time we step into a show arena, I want him to have experienced as much as possible – from light trail riding, to picking through a trail course. I may just rope stuff off of him and drag stuff around. I want him broke, but sane. I want him to enjoy our times together and not feel intimidated. I want to enjoy my horse while I save money for our future World Shows endeavors. The times they are a changin’ and sometimes that’s not such a bad thing….

Love The One You're With.....

I have a really bad habit and it started about 10 years ago. I am a chronic changer. In other words, I have been unable to stick with one thing over a long period of time – whether it be a particular horse, style of dress, even my hair has morphed from one end of the spectrum to the other. I’ve come to the conclusion that when I feel bored or unhappy, I try to change something in my life to make things exciting again. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve moved in my life.

So now that I have confronted my problem and have settled down with my husband, who is very stable, I’ve come to the conclusion that my hair is just fine brown and I’m the most comfortable (thus happy) when wearing my jeans and boots, and there is no reason to go on Dreamhorse.com to find my next great thing. I am really starting to settle in with Art and I can imagine owning him for life.

My change of heart came about slowly after I met and married Dave. He was more than happy to keep things in the “status quo” which at first drove me crazy. What kind of life is that? Always the same? Yuck! But then I started to see the positives of keeping things the same – stability. I can always count on Dave. Always. So then I started to look at my horse life with regards to the “same old thing.” Art and I could become the perfect partnership. We would know each other backwards and forwards. We could learn new skills together and I could count on him. Always. Of course my mind will always wonder over to Dreamhorse to see what’s new out there. I will dream of owning a reiner/cowhorse/cowboy shooting horse and feeling more respected as a rider (Western Pleasure & Hunt Seat is just so wimpy to most horsemen). But I will stick with Art and he will stick with me. And we will be very happy together.

Hi, my name is Rosemary and I’m a recovering changer…..

Art's a Breadwinner!

Art is finally contributing to the pot with his 2nd place finish at the Futurity. We came in 1st under one judge and 2nd under the other two. We came away with about $270 and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I was actually the reason we didn’t win (of course) as I got nervous through the back through and wouldn’t let Art do it himself, even though he was on auto pilot. I stopped him and tried to inch our way around the “L” which caused him to spread his back legs and tick a pole. Otherwise, he was absolutely perfect. The rest of the show went as well if not better as we came away with several wins and 24 more points.
So Art has a big lead for the Ultimate SPB Yearling award and we only need two more judges to qualify (you need to show under no less than 10 judges to qualify for the award). So that means either the November show or the December show. I think it might just be November since December, though a really big prestigious show, is pretty darn cold that time of year – plus it’s ran during the week. Not good for us working people.
I’m also starting to think about Art’s schedule for under saddle training. I will be starting to throw a saddle & pad on him to get him used to the feel and weight as well as start driving him on and off the property. I don’t see me stepping aboard until after the first of the year. I’m excited to see him under saddle – he is really a special horse and I just know he is going to be something else. I was originally going to use my tax refund next year to put him into training for 60-90 days, but I’m thinking that I most likely will put that into savings or buy a good 2 horse trailer, plus I really want to keep things slow and simple and I know that I can start him without blowing his mind. I will start him with the thought that his first real show won’t be until the September 2009 futurity. Of course I will take him to open shows to walk around and enter here and there, but nothing to stressful.
Art is too dang cool!

Charlotte's Web

There’s a lot of talk these days on the net about rescuing horses that are going to slaughter and retraining them for a new home. I’m actually doing that right now and her name is Charlotte. Charlotte is a 6 year old registered APHA mare and she’s a whole lot of mess. Her one saving grace is that she is a really cute color (minimal bay tobiano) and has the biggest doe eyes I’ve seen on a stock horse. This is one sweet little gal, but she has some major downfalls – her back is slightly bowed, she’s toed out in the front and just a mess in the back and her bottom lip droops when she’s relaxed. Her mane is very course and frizzy and her tail has been eaten off (probably from the last mutant she foaled – yes someone decided she was worth breeding – oy vey!). On the positive side, she has a really nice neck and just the sweetest face. Her jog is really smooth, but her lope is still pending evaluation as it’s nothing more than a leaping gallop that breaks into a trot every other stride.

I own this mare in a partnership with my friend and we’ve decided to try to train her and resale her as a nice trail mount. My main goal with her was to practice my starting skills again so that I’ll be prepared when Art is ready for training. What I didn’t expect is to fall in love with this little mare, which is slowly happening, ride by ride. I wish I could keep the kind ones like this as I hate to send her back out there with the possibility of abuse again.

We were not sure of Charlotte’s under saddle training, so like the chicken I am, I did a ton of ground work before the initial ride. She accepted the saddle just fine, but treated the snaffle like a foreign object. I could tell that something happened in this mare’s past that made her a little afraid of people (one tip was that she has white hair on her back that are not natural spots – most likely from an ill fitted saddle rubbing her back raw), but she so wanted to be our friend that she came around to our gentle handling methods very quickly. I made sure that I was always very quiet with her and gave her a ton of praise, even for the littlest of things. When I finally stepped in the saddle, she was ready to trust me, but I still spent the first couple of rides being walked around by my friend until I felt that I could trust her not to break in half. So now, after a month or so in the round pen, we’ve ventured out into the arena and walking from the arena to the barn. Again, she has never done anything to show me that she will be silly, although we are working on getting her to pay attention to me when we’re outside the arena. The biggest problem right now is that she won’t listen to Whoa when we’re out because she’s so concerned where her buddies are that she has a hard time concentrating on me and the matter at hand. It may be a while until we hit the trails. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy each and every accomplishment we obtain. Tonight I’m going to work on getting her to lope (and stay loping) in the arena. She’s got the 100 mph trot down pat.

HEAD GAMES

So my futurity is in 10 days and I’m having issues. Nerves. Now I don’t normally have a big problem with nerves before a show, and certainly never two weeks prior, but here I am practically doubled over with stomach cramps just thinking about my class. Art is working wonderfully – doing everything I ask of him and he normally acts the same way away at a show as he does at home practicing. I have no doubt that he will do fine – as long as I stay out of his way and don’t screw him up. I’m suddenly panicked that I am showing against trainers and the top RR yearlings. I can’t help it – I’m becoming my worst enemy.

And the one thing I keep rewinding back in my head? Last year’s futurity. Let’s see, I was just fine, no worries until it was announced that the class was being held outdoors. Now all the other futurity classes were held in the indoor arena, but we’re being regulated to outdoors – and it’s windy. I just bought a new blouse to go under my very cute western blazer and the thing is too big and made of very light material. The collar kept flying up and whipping me in the face. That was driving me crazy as was the fact that my hat felt like it was going to blow off any second. I just couldn’t concentrate while practicing on the course before my class. Then to make matters worse, I was standing by my friend and her family when Ziggy supposedly tried to bite this girl and she whacked him really hard..IN THE FACE! Well that totally did him in and he threw his head every time I tried to turn him. Arrrggghhh! The piece de resistance was during the pattern when for some reason not even known to me, I decide to “jump” the X trot over and totally freaked my gelding out. Blew my class – last place.

I am repeating this scenario in my head over and over and over again. What if the Perfect Storm happens again and I blow the class? I know Art can win this thing if I can just relax and work the course like we always do. Maybe I should have a beer or glass of wine before the class – maybe the whole bottle. Maybe I should do breathing exercises like I do in yoga class. Maybe I should just tell everyone that we’ll be last and be pleasantly surprised if we come in somewhere in the middle.

Ugggh…I need to go throw up.

There's No Place Like Home, There's No Place Like Home....

I don’t own horse property – at the present. My husband and I live in a nice little house in a nice little neighborhood and I pretty much hate it. We’ve talked about buying horse property, but have decided to put it off for a couple of years so that we have plenty in savings. So in the meantime I board my horses at my friend’s ranch about 10 miles away. She has a beautiful set up and I should be very happy to keep my guys there, but I’m not, I’m miserable. I want to walk out in my backyard and see my critters staring at me, waiting for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I want to take care of them the way I feel they should be taken care of. By keeping them at someone else’s place, you’re at the mercy of how they do things. Not that my friend doesn’t take care of the horses, she’s takes excellent care of her horses. I just don’t know how to explain how I feel when certain things are done with my horse(s) that I wouldn’t do myself. None of these things ever hurt the horse physically or mentally, only me. For example, Art has decided to be very itchy this summer, so he is rubbing out his tail and mane. We have a futurity in two weeks and he’s freaking me out. I would have him in a stall with climbless horse fence on the runs so he can’t stick his head between the pipes to get the last bit of food on the ground and I would double up on the flaxseed, grinding it first, to help with his itchiness. My friend has over 20 horses and no one stays in the same stall two days in a row – this would be an inconvenience for her and I just can’t ask it. My husband’s mare Ginger got hurt and she is treating her in the barn and she thinks that Ginger needs her best girlfriend in there too, so now Art doesn’t have a stall. He’s regulated to the pasture until Ginger is better and can go back out with the broodies. That’s great, I appreciate all her help with Ginger, but Art has a futurity in TWO WEEKS (can you guess I’m freaking out about our futurity in two weeks? LOL).

The only saving grace I have is that once the futurity is over, I don’t plan on showing him again until next year as a two year old under saddle. And that probably won’t be until this time next year. So after this show, Art can go out in the pasture and get sunbleached, and rub out his mane and get noogies from the other babies and just hang out and grow up. Then I’ll bring him in sometime next year and put the plastic bubble wrap back on.

Where it all began..

So just a little more information on me and my horse experience: I’m in my 40’s and have been riding since I could basically climb up on a horse myself – which according to my dad was about the age of 3. My dad is an old time “cowboy” in the sense that he loved horses and the cowboy life, but was stuck running an office in Burbank, California. We’ve always had a couple of horses in our backyard, mostly mutts – one actually from a circus that would sit down on his haunches if you tried to ride him. My favorite horse in the beginning was Ringo, a black Quarter Horse type that was basically ridden by everyone in our family (a family of 7 kids – poor horse). We also had a buckskin grade named - wait for it, wait for it…..Buck. Not a whole lot of imagination back in the ‘70’s. Ringo ended up dying from a colic impaction and that led to the purchase of an off the track race horse named Blue who seemed to hate everyone but me. After Blue was my first pony – Toby. I ended up with a shattered nose riding Toby one day as a 9 year old. We were trotting along on a paved road down from my house (not the smartest thing to do, but I was a knucklehead kid) and as we turned a corner, Toby slipped out from under me, I ended up going first, hitting the ground with my face and smashing my nose right down to the ground – SPLAT! I gave all the neighbor kids nightmares for years after they got a look at me, LOL. Toby and I were just never the same after that and he went on to a new home. My next horse was the horse that would change everything for me. My dad took me to a horse trader (THE thing to do in the 70’s) and in this big corral, like a shining beacon, I found my next horse – Comanche! Comanche was approximately 7 years old and a palomino overo pinto. He was the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen and couldn’t believe when my dad bought him for me (and him – as he ended up using him as a mounted posse & parade horse). Comanche and I did everything together, including launching my show career. With the help of some local trainers that I would ride to, I eventually started showing Comanche at local shows, becoming good enough to show at the famed Del Mar show in Del Mar, California. Comanche stayed with us until his death at the age of 25. What an awesome horse he was. From that time on, I’ve trained and ridden some really nice horses that took me far in the open and breed circuit. I finished Top Ten at the APHA World Championship in Novice Hunter under Saddle (HUS) with one gelding I trained in ’96. I showed another gelding at the ApHC WC in 2001 – we came in 11th in Novice Western Pleasure.

My horses have gone on to successful show careers with their new owners, mainly because I could not afford to show them to that level. Now here I am with my latest prospect and I truly want to train and show him to a World Championship level myself. And just so there are no misunderstandings, I do all my own training, but I also get help here and there from wonderful trainers who allow me to haul in or ask questions at horse shows. I really appreciate all their help. I also have the support from my wonderful husband – first by buying Art with me when we were just dating – to putting up with me being horse show crazy. He has his own horse, an American Quarter Horse mare named Ginger, but this is his first foray into the horse show world. God help him…..

My Very First Blog.....Awwwwwww

So this is the beginning of my blog entitled “DESTINATION: WORLD SHOW CHAMPIONSHIP.” I am the sometimes proud, sometimes disgusted owner of a Sold Paint Bred yearling gelding. I am proud because he is AWESOME! He is by Artful Investment and out of a Dirty Sonny mare. He is dark bay, almost black with two hind socks and a blaze. He is super fancy mover and my goal is a World Championship with him. I’m disgusted because his lack of qualifying spottage makes him an outcast in his breed (APHA). This is an awesome gelding and he’s considered a second class citizen. Oh well, on a positive note, his dam and her side are up for their Quarter Horse papers so it looks like he will be double registered sometime in the future.

I’ve owned Art (CEO Solid Investment) since August 2007. I found his ad on Dreamhorse when I was curiously searching for a breeding stock to show at our Arizona APHA shows. My friend Sherry had a breeding stock and her boarder also had a breeding stock and we were discussing how we could help promote SPB in AZ. So with the help of my then fiancé, I purchased Art for the cost of a couple months’ board. I already had a colored Paint yearling that I was showing, but he wasn’t turning out to be show quality, so I decided that if Art had the goods, then I was going to sell this gelding and concentrate solely on him. Art ended up having the goods and more - so bye bye colored gelding (he’s now living life as a riding horse for a rancher’s grandkids – much better fit!)

So here I am with my SPB gelding and I’m starting to have visions of grandeur…..I think he might be World Championship material. I know it’s hard to tell with a weanling, but there is something about this guy that has me all doing the happy dance.

So now Art's a yearling, he’s been gelded, been shown at a couple of Arizona Paint Horse Club (APHC) shows and keeps proving to me that he may just be my next World Champion. He's been winning all his In Hand Trail classes and in two weeks will be our first Futurity where he will be showing against regular registery (RR) yearlings as well as SPB's. I'm really starting to get nervous, which is unusual for me. I just really want him to do well, which I totally believe he will - I'm more worried about me. I ended up making some really novice mistakes last year while showing my RR gelding and I just don't want to end up doing that again.

Well, time to go to the ranch. Until next time - happy showing!