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!