Fall videos in the can

*C-C Heartfires Spark

*C-C Henri

*C-C Hanalei

As our days turn shorter and nights longer, we have had some spectacular fall days. The last two weeks have been our most enjoyable weather of 2010!

I took the opportunity, even with my old painful body, to do some new photos and video of some of our youngsters. I had not watched Hanalei too closely at the trot, she really prefers to canter alot of the time. I was very thrilled to catch this shot, which shows proper DAP. DAP is when the hind foot, lands before the front foot hits the ground at the trot. Good DAP is essential to a dressage prospect, as the more natural it is, the less you have to train for it. It shows that a horse is indeed using his/her hind end to propel themselves forward, not drag behind being heavy on the forehand.

Henri was a whole lot of fun to video and photograph. He is so kind and willing. He is going to make someone a wonderful riding buddy. He too, has a wonderful forward trot with good DAP.




My best surprise of the day was "Spark".....I know she is a wonderful mover, powerful and forward, excellent DAP! but the pics really show her ability off. Spark is also a willing gal, she tries very hard to please, even if she is hesitant about something, perhaps thinking us humans are plumb crazy wanting to 'wash her face" as seen on the video. Here I caught her with all four feet off the ground in a moment of suspension.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d1ShqDp-pE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63GhTfF4zn0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LowHHIOzVyE

I had to spread my work load over several days, just too much for me to them all at once right now...and then 4 hours of creating, editing and posting video, and now I can rest a bit...perhaps? and perhaps get BACK to blogging on a regular basis.

Fair Bounty

AHHH !!! Time again for the Nez Perce County Fair! This year our photo entries were limited to 4...down from the usual 8 allowed...sure makes it tough to chose, but it seems I chose pretty well. My beloved pic of Hattie ( foal ) and Darryl ( young lady ) got 1 st place, and Best of Class in the Human Interest category. My silhouette pic of Nicole accomplished the same thing in the PEOPLE category...a widely entered category...I also entered my album I had made of my Dad's WWII pictures...doing the best I could without names of place or dates....I compiled the few facts I did know, along with the pics and some letters to home he had written and we took home Blue, best of Class and a judges award..the "Award of Merit"......so, I feel really honored with my winnings this year..the competition is always very tough, and I love to compete :-) Thank you judges at the Nez Perce County Fair.

Interview day

Interview day.....when the phone rang yesterday, I was completely surprised to find on the other end..the weekend style reporter from the Moscow/Pullman Daily News...."Christina" ask a few questions about our horse breeding operations, then asked if she might in fact, come and visit and potentially do an article on our farm......yahoooo !!! my answer, of course, was YES !


I am all about details, and I never let the opportunity for a first impression to be less than top notch...
So, at the crack of dawn I was up...first the house had to be cleaned up a bit....then out to the barn to do chores, straighten the barn, tack room and the area close to our arena up a bit....Next was a bath for HeartBreaker....he is always a bit less than receptive on the whole bathing issue, but he takes it never the less ;-) scrub, scrub...out with the dust and in with the clean! I put HB in the stall to dry, rushed up for lunch and showered just in time to see Christina pull up the driveway.

Christina came inside and we did a bit of an interview....she then wanted to see the horses, so off we went....HeartBreaker was more than happy to be a perfect gentleman for the interview, and frankly, he looked just dang handsome. When I was putting him away in his paddock, another car drove in, the photographer...so, I caught HeartBreaker again, and we took him out for a few pictures.

Next we visited our weanling foals..who are being supervised by Kallie. I took out Kallie for a few pics, and we then moved on for a bit more conversation. Hanalei and Henri were right in the mix of things too...curious minds you know

It was a wonderful visit...Christina is new to horses, and I am afraid I have spoiled her a bit..she now thinks all stallions are as mannerly and as kind as HeartBreaker...perhaps someday in the future, when she interviews another horse breeder, she will find her first exposure to a stallion was an exceptional moment.

The thinking horse vs the listening horse

The thinking horse vs the listening horse. Quite a few posts have been floating around some of the groups about how folks love their "thinking" horses. Sure we want our horses to think, but what I want, is my horse to listen. A fine example I can share happened yesterday. I have been training Kallie to drive...each step has gone well and she is now pulling my custom made travers with ease. while I drive her. Yesterday, when I went to unhitch her, the travers move a bit and startled her. I could see her mind working...she really wanted to escape, and escape fast...BUT....my whoa command, was met with just that...a WHOA ! I was actually a bit surprised she responded to my whoa command as quick as she did..I was actually planing an escape route so I would not get plowed over by the travers. Kallie whoa "d" and she relaxed and we went on to unhitch with no problems. Hitching and unhitching is a bit of a challenge alone, and a real recipe for disaster if you have a horse that will not listen..... For me that is a true relationship .....a willing partner that follows the lead of the herd mare (me) yet does it willingly and without question. Thank you Kallie! you just added a feather in your cap ;-)

The wrong Turn

When you live with a large acreage a herd that plays together, stays together is a thing of beauty. Every one knows the rules..you can wander off grazing, but you best be ready to move, when your herd leader says MOVE!

As a horse owner when you do not have complete access to your horse's pasture within a sight line, a lost horse, away from the herd, can only mean one thing....trouble!

After being gone to town, when I returned home today, my mare herd contained 5 horses, not 6. This is NOT good news...it generally means one thing...someone is hurt and can not travel with the herd....other things come to mind, none of them pleasant....SO, I fed the mares/youngsters and rushed to the house for a quick change of clothes and a 4 wheeler ride to find my lost soul ....Flame.

Lots of things went through my head....where was he ? was he stuck in a fenceline somewhere? had someone shot accidently shot him?( we have an elk season going on ) was he on the other side of the perimeter fence and I would need a miracle , with fence pliers to get him back through the fence?

I was TOTALLY relived to find out that Flame had simply taken a wrong turn...LOL...he was with the herd, and followed one of their "horse trails" but the herd took the other trail instead...and there was Flame, really only 50ft from the trail that would lead him to the herd, but since he is a youngster, and could not see it, and did not know it was there close, from years of experience, there he stood, waiting for help ;-) He was perfectly fine, and downright happy to see me ;-)

WHEW !!! I put my heart and soul into my herd, and never want to see one injured in any manner...this time we got lucky!

Kallie at work

Kallie has been working! I am starting Kallie in harness, soon to be put to a cart....and I finally found a suitable cart for us...a heavy duty training cart with thick, nobby motorcycle wheels...Kallie has shown a stellar attitude in all her lessons, I attribute this to her early training with Trainer Mike ( Mike Kincella- Deer Park, WA well respected dressage trainer ) He found Kallie's work ethic for us, and she has not failed to step up to any challenge I give her.



My process of cart training has been as follows....there was not a whole lot of ground work I still needed to do with Kallie..she even ground ties! so, intro to harness, wearing her harness while lunging, long linning, ground driving, into to blinkers, working with blinkers while long linning, with me out of sight, into to the travers, dragging the travers beside her, travers work with 2 helpers ( Kallie in travers, but not hitched to it ) hitching to travers....


NOW..we start, travers and long linning, travers and blinkers, more long linning, travers and driving OUTSIDE the arena....up, down, over gravel, on the road edge ( I have a huge advantage, we live on a noisy county road, BUT I have a safe place to work a driving horse along side of the road, including room for a travers, and esp using blinkers.

and soon...I will hitch Kallie to our cart...the "keen green" LOL...it screamed NAME ME !!! and we start the whole process all over again ;-)


stay tuned!

Tiny Bundle...HUGE miracle

Our tiny miracle

James and his Son...."AJ"

For those who say miracles do not happen in this day and age, I say to them...you are most certainly wrong!

Last January, my Son James informed me I would be a Grandma. He and his fiance' were surprised with this news themselves. "Elissa" the Mom to be suffers from Rhuemotoid arthritis, for one...and has not been in good health the last couple years. The chances of her carrying this baby to full term were slim...and that was before the problems started.

Elissa spent the majority of her pregnancy in the hospital...she could not take her RA meds, putting her body in severe pain. Seizures resulted from that pain, and meds, meds and MORE meds were given her....seizure meds are NOT what you want to be taking during a pregnancy, the risk of birth defects or the loss of the baby were very real. Many, many times through out her pregnancy she would start having contractions. First we hung on to hope she would make it to 32 weeks, the point of which the local hospital could handle the baby if he came at that point...then we hung on to hope she would make it to 33 weeks, 34, well, you get the picture. We were indeed waiting for August...her due date was August 21st.

After much of Feb. most of April, all of May, June, and 3 weeks of July, Elissa was released from the hospital....she headed home and took things easy. We rushed in a baby shower, and I spent a day organizing the nursery......we soon would see a real life baby arrive...several questions still remained though...could she delivery him ? or would there have to be a C section ? and the big question...would he be alright?

Last Tuesday, I was to meet up with the kids and drop off some more baby stuff at their house..when I got to their house, there was a note on the door....Elissa's water had broke during the early morning hours and they were at the hospital....I headed there.

I really had not intended to be there for the birth of my first Grandbaby...but once I got there, I just could not bear to leave, and frankly, no one asked me too ;-) It was Wednesday afternoon before the baby arrived, but I treasured every moment....My Son was "going" to video the whole thing, haha! but in the last hour he panicked and got way too nervous and scared....I don't blame him at all!

Elissa had a tough last hour, the baby lodged on her bad hip and she could not get him moved for quite a while...but then, almost before the doctor could get in the room, our first Grandbaby arrived.... I cried, James cried !!! Elissa beamed !!!

and...our baby was not only healthy, but handsome too! his name is "August James" he weighed 6 lbs 13 oz and was 20 " long....he is perfect in so many ways...his name was chosen in honor of his two Great Grandpas....and August means "determined" that would certainly describe what he went through to get here...and you see...after all that...we really WERE waiting for "August"

The best news is...his Mom is feeling REALLY good, and is taking excellent care of him...his parents beam when ever they see him ;-) course, his Grandma probably does too. Hours and hours of prayer were spent..and we appreciate everyone who prayed, stressed and cared along with us. THANK YOU !!!