My special guests from far away - I mean REALLY far!

This past weekend I had some really awesome guests from MONGOLIA. One of my guests was my best friend, Julie Veloo, she lives in Mongolia with her husband (they are there for work) and the other two guests were a couple that Julie and her husband have become friends with over the years that they have lived there. These visitors from Mongolia have never been on a holiday, never been on a plane, never left Mongolia and now here they are in Canada having an amazing holiday!..... What I can say though is that they CAN really ride horses!

I have to admit that I was a bit apprehensive about taking out these people who don't really speak any English (thankfully my friend speaks Mongolian) and I was also quite proud to be able to put 5 out of 7 riders on Curlies! The two exceptions were my partner Warren (he was on his NSH) and my other local friend who was taking the picture for us (she was on her own horse).

The pictured riders and horses are (from left to right):

Warren on his NSH



Baagii (he is a REAL horseman!) on *Charm

Saraa (Baagii's wife) on *Serenade

Me on *Tessa

Julie (my best friend) on *Cuervo

Anastasia on *Joe

The highlight of the day though, was Baagii asked if he could gallop *Charm and I said sure, so we went to the top of a hill and he came galloping up after us - he was standing up to gallop! (Mongolian style!) on my beautiful Curly horse *Charm! It was amazing and I sure wish that I had managed to get a photo of this, but I will forever have the memory of it!

 

Here are a few more photos from the ride - it was a special and exceptional experience for me to play host to these really neat people.

 

Finally, Saraa insisted that Warren and I try on their Dells (sorry for the likely mis-spell on this!), so Warren and I played dress-up.  Warren got to also try on Baagii's "very' cool hat - wow was that a neat hat!  Left to right are: Julie, Saraa, me, Warren, Baagii.

 

 

Shelly

Curly Standard Place

 

Endurance!

It has been a "very" busy couple of weeks, beginning with our first endurance ride of the season, held here in Summerland on Saturday, June 15th. It all stated out SO well, we arrived Friday evening and vetted our horses in, Warren made me a wonderful camp spaghetti dinner and we bedded down the horses, they were content!

By the way, if anyone notices that *Serenade's tail this year is a bit short.... it is :( The orphan colt that I rescued last year ate the tails off of several of my horses, *Serenade's, he ate at least a foot of it in one night!
Anyhow, a good night's sleep and we were up and saddled and ready to go at 7:20 for a 7:30 start time. Unfortunately, at 7:20, Warren's horse Dakota could no longer stand the suspense of the pre-ride and he took off on his own! He galloped out of there like the devil was on his tail! I got on Serenade and went after him of course, thinking that he would run a mile or two and then stop and eat the plentiful grass, but NO, he was on a race (or so he thought) and I followed him out for about 5 miles, finally catching up to him and then I ponied him back to the campground! We did about 10 miles in about 1 hour and 20 minutes! So when we got back we decided to go out on the ride anyway even though we were at the far end of the riders... To Finish Is To Win.... so off we went on our first loop. The first loop went well and we had our break - here are some pictures of the vet check. These pictures also show a bit better view of our Curly horse shirts :)

So after our 45 minute hold we went out again on our second (my third!) loop but unfortunately, we made a wrong turn and followed the wrong set of flagging and even though we did the right number of miles, (actually about 10 more!) we didn't get a completion on this ride! It was disappointing, but still, *Serenade did well over 30 miles that day and did a great job for us.
Here are a couple of photos of us coming back from the second loop.

So it was a lot of riding, exhausting and yet it all turned out okay - it is always very scary when a horse takes off fully tacked in the middle of nowhere.... so we were very grateful to get him back!

So this past weekend we did a 12 hour drive from our home to the ridesite in Devon, AB (near Edmonton) to do a 25 mile endurance ride. *Serenade was a bit tired after the drive (we took 2 days to get there).

We had a great time at Devon, the people in Alberta are the best! The weather was great, the food and company was awesome! There was no one taking pictures though, so I thought I would share with you our completion certificate and also our vet score card, front and back. As you can see, we were in the top ten, placing 7th, which put us in the running for BC or Best Condition - we didn't get that prestigious award, but I was happy to be considered for it! 

Okay, well, we are pretty tired now! Resting up for the upcoming Calgary Stampede, we are going to be part of the Light Horse Display again this year, July 5, 6, 7, 8, 9th, so stay tuned for our blog about that!

Shelly in Summerland, BC

Curly Standard Place

New Arrival

I am a week behind, but please welcome our newest addition to the farm - this is a colt from *BCF Icon and DKH Lacey.  We are working on a name for him, nothing firm as of yet.  Lacey is known to throw big foals and he is no exception, he was a big boy right from, measuring just about 11hh.

Shelly in Summerland, BC
Curly Standard Place

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe that my last post on here was almost a year ago!  I always have good intentions and then forget or time gets away from me or whathaveyou lol

Well, we have had foals born, horses trained, attended shows and endurance rides - there you are caught up on the past year now LOL

Some highlights - three lovely foals born - two sired by *BCF Icon and one sired by the lovely Arabian stallion Aur Mystique - all three are really spectacular - so pleased with them.  Here are links to their pages on my website:
*Izzabella
*Indiana Jones
*Baron Rouge

*Icon was started under saddle - did fabulous!  Had the winter off and will be back ridden soon - we intend to show him in dressage this year!

Most recently, this past weekend I was lucky enough to acquire one of the smallest Curly Miniature mares in the world! Her name is *Patty Cake and while she does not belong to me (still owned by Mary Stewart of http://www.firesideminiaturecurlyhorses.com/) I will have *Patty here at my farm over the next couple of years for promotions for Mary's mini breeding program and also for my full sized program.

These Curly Miniatures are perfect for an aging horse community that still wants to have horses and would like them for driving or for a pet or for grand-kids!

I plan to take *Patty to as many horse events (and non horse events too!) as I can manage and think of. She is so tiny she won't be intimidating and she is so Curly it is pretty obvious she is a a horse with a difference.

Have a look at the slideshow I put together of her - at one point there were 13 horses lining the other side of the fence all google eyeing her LOL. http://photopeach.com/album/5bmo6j

 

Okay - I will try to be good an update this more often!

Shelly

Curly Standard Place

*Joe

Well, our Curly/Arabian gelding has been ridden all winter and he is really coming along extremely well!  I am so pleased with him.....
In December he was ridden for a month by Trevor Mertes of Horses That Work, *Joe and Trevor did some ring work, but mostly rode out on the trails. 
As soon as *Joe came home from there, my eventer friend Carolin Sherman began riding him - lots of work in the arena and a bit of trails.  We have been lucky with the weather and I have managed to get some great photos of them together.   The first one is with Trevor on the trail... the rest are of Carolin and *Joe working together.  Once Spring is officially here (and my ring clears up more!) there will be a whole lot more to blog about!
Shelly
Curly Standard Place

Got colour?!

Something very new for me is the addition of a really nice PAINT mare. Now this is a first for me as up to now I have not specifically looked for horses with colours.....I admit that sometimes I do get them.... but this is the first horse that has been added to my herd to hopefully add some colour.
So, too back up a bit.

I recognize that people really do like the pinto colour on their horses and now, since I have *Icon and since HE has colour, it occurred to me to be on the look out for a nice (hopefully homozygous) pinto coloured mare. So when Jazzmyn's ad came to me I was intrigued and I decided to go and have a look. I was happy to find a mare with decent size (she is 15.3hh) excellent conformation, known Paint horse pedigree (including some TB!), and that lovely black and white colour, but what "really" sold her to me was her amazing, kind and friendly disposition...... a person would have thought she was a Curly! LOL She will fit right in with my kind and friendly people orientated Curlies and that is just super.

Jazzmyn is a 2003 fullbred Paint mare, no papers (yet) but I am working on that! She is trained to ride, apparently likes to jump! So she will be put back under saddle this spring and she will also be bred to either *Sandman or *Icon - I just can't decide! If anyone were interested in a pre-purchased foal from Jazzy and either of my stallions, now is the time to speak up as you can choose the sire for her foal at this time!

Oh ya, in my search for her pedigree information, it was pointed out to me that she is actually a "tovero" (I am learning) and what that means is that she carries both the overo and tobiano genetics and will have around a 75% chance to throw colour to her offspring, no matter what stallion she is bred to - so not quite homozygous - but still a good bet! So with either of my two stallions she should cross very well!

Below are some photos of her and here is a link to a slideshow of some more - of course, as spring comes and we get new ones this will be updated:
Jazzmyn slideshow
here is a link to her page on my website:
Jazzmyn

Shelly
Curly Standard Place

Sharing *Serenade

Well, it has been almost two weeks since we said good-bye to Cap.  He was a good friend and constant companion to my dear friend Maryan - who is understandably heartsick about losing him.

So, I did quite a bit of soul searching and finally convinced myself that I can share *Serenade with Maryan.  The truth is that I am absolutely loving riding *Serenade and she has been so important in the healing of my chronic neck injury, but even before any of this happened I had already talked to Maryan about her grand-daughter coming to ride Serenade this summer and Maryan already tried her Serenade out.  And, the fact is I won't have the time to ride Serenade as much as she should be ridden and she will really blossom with Maryan!!

Now, I know down the road that Maryan will be looking to get herself another horse and that is fine.  I know my friend and I know she loves having her own horse!  And, like I told her once we put this other sadness aside horse shopping can actually be fun.  But in the meantime, she can lean on *Serenade, spend time with her, dote on her and it will only be very good for both of them.

So here I am lifting my glass to both *Serenade and Maryan - I hope they can enjoy each others company for the time being and we will see what the future holds for us all..... Maryan says she can ride *Serenade in endurance for me this year - that would be awesome!

adendum - I got a few photos of Maryan and *Serenade the other day - along with *Serenade's dam Mirage.  Maryan is going to be helping me out with both of these girls, she used to ride Mirage years ago - before she even had Cap:

Shelly
Curly Standard Place

Good-bye to a friend

Last week our older Arabian gelding Captiwijon (affectionaely known as Cap) slipped on the ice after a night of freezing rain.  At the time he seemed to be okay, maybe a little tender on his back end, but really seemed okay.  We moved him anyway from the icy area to somewhere with good footing.  So a couple of days ago I went out to feed them in the a.m and he was on three legs - his right hind leg was just dangling, looked broken to me.  The vet was called, x-rays were taken and they were inconclusive but it was decided that we would give him a couple of days to see if he could recover from it.  That night he laid down in the deeply bedded stall and in the morning it was clear that he wanted up but couldn't do it on his own.  We have a lot of wonderful neighbours and friends and with about 8 of us assisting him he was able to get up.  He had a pretty good day, lots of drugs to keep him comfortable and his owner (she boards him here) spent the whole day with him and then stayed over night last night with him.

This morning it was pretty clear that his three good legs were just not going to be able to hold him up much longer.  The decision to call the vet back was made and he came out right away and kindly, humanely put the old fellow down.  What a sad sad day for us and especially my dear friend Maryan - she truly and sincerely loved that horse.

Now a bit of celebration of his life. 
We were introduced to Cap 6 years ago when he was an 18 year old stallion.
He was originally purchased out of California by his then owner for quite a bit of $$ - this was during the hey day of Arabian breeding, before the horse market fell apart.  At the same time a lovely little bay mare was purchased, Calika, she and Cap have been together their whole lives.
When he was 18, Maryan and I purchased him as a stallion - we were very impressed with him and his very good manners - but he was not trained to ride and we soon fixed that and had him under saddle before long. 
In the Spring we bred him to *Bijou and ever after that he had a special place in his heart for her - he loved her!
We then decided that he was going to be the perfect riding partner for Maryan so we had him gelded and then they really became fast and close partners.
Not long after that, Calika's owner brought here to board as well - they were reunited!
Maryan rode him all year round - she doted on him, cared for him, just adored this funny old horse and it was mutual - he adored her right back.

Today we said good-bye to him - he fought to overcome this for two and a half long days, but it was pretty obvious this a.m. that there was only one final act of kindness for him.
Good-bye Cap - you funny, silly, brave and very lovely boy.

Shelly
Curly Standard Placw

I forgot about *Tessa!

How could I forget about my main riding partner?!  I have been trying to keep up my training and fitness level on *Tessa, along with riding/training all the other horses that I am currently working with, it has been fun, but also a lot of work!

*Tessa is like my crown jewel - I simply adore her, she is a daughter of my deceased mare *Chip's Barefoot Babe (Babe was a piece of my heart!) and her sire is *Spartacus, so she has really excellent breeding and obviously the ability to go in lots of directions.

I have shown her in dressage and endurance and done some jumping with her and lots of trail miles.  She has had two wonderful foals for us, both sired by *Sandman, a lovely grulla pinto filly 5 years ago and in 2010 she had a gorgeous black filly.

So, *Tessa has always been a horse with quite a bit of "go" and she has a spook serious enough in her that I would never consider her a beginner's horse!  But a year ago when I put her back to work (after weaning her foal) she was just SO much worse than she has ever been - she has been a bundle of nerves that at times has been at best unpleasant to ride and sometimes even seemed to be a bit dangerous, both to me and to herself!

Most cases of horses changing their behaviour so drastically can be pinpointed to being pain related, so I have begun a quest to find out what element has changed for *Tessa - I want my horse back!  I started with treating her for ulcers, and this month I will have the chiropractor look at her, but in the meantime I read something about minerals that sounded like it could be her problem.  You see, when my mares are pregnant and lactating they get a loose mineral fed to them every day to make sure that their foals are getting enough minerals to grow properly.  Once weaned they foal then gets the minerals fed daily until they are about 2 or 3 years old.  Of course *Tessa was no exception, she was fed the minerals until she was 3 and she was bred at that age and continued to get them through her pregnancy and beyond.  Anyhow, when I did all the math, it has been this last year when she has NOT received the minerals that her behaviour became over the top.  So I have put her back on the loose mineral and also on a daily dose of magnesium, she has been on this for about a month now and I think I DO see a difference.  Yesterday I took her out for a VERY pleasant trail ride, best I have had with her in a long long time - I am SO happy to have my horse back!

So the lesson here is that if a horse suddenly changes - there is a reason for it and we need to track it down and "make it better!".

I don't have any current pictures of *Tess as we have been riding mostly solo - but here are a couple from last year - she is like a fairy tale horse LOL.  Well, the first photo is fairly recent :)
Shelly
Curly Standard Place

Its a whole new year!

Yes, 2012 is upon us and if the beginning of this year (weather-wise) is anything like the end of 2011, we are in for a lot of riding!  We have had such a great Fall/early Winter riding season already that I have made a lot of progress with several of the horses that I am currently riding.....

*Spiffy (in my last blog) has gone on to her new home with a wonderful family, they are new to horses but really doing a lot to learn and *Spiff is helping them all she can :)   - in their own words "we are having both a lot of fun and some challenges with *Spiffy), well, isn't that the way it always is with horses?!

*Serenade continues to be a wonder to ride and she is getting fitter and happier to go out each day I ride her - and that is 3 - 4 times a week.  She seems to be completely sound now as well, which we are all thrilled about!

I also made pretty good progress with *'Flame, she is now under saddle and doing well in the preliminary phases.  I think I will put the rest on hold for her though - as she is looking pregnant (gosh, can't wait for her *Icon baby!).

 *Charm has become a very fun and forward riding horse - she will be an amazing endurance horse!  We are really looking forward to this spring and the upcoming endurance season!

And, *Joe.  I had put *Joe's training on hold for a couple of months and then I sent him to the young cowboy trainer that I use locally.  He put 30 days on *Joe for me - mostly on the trail - and he said that *Joe did great.  He said that *Joe is a great horse with a distinct personality" - yep, that describes *Joe.  Now, my young neighbour/friend is going to ride *Joe for me for another 30 days, she is mostly an eventing rider, but she is a very good rider/handler and I know that *Joe will do great with her too!

So stay tuned - there is lots more exciting stuff to come from the Curly Standard Place in 2012!
Shelly
Curly Standard Place Website