A New approach for a New Year!

2011 brings change for Creekside Curlies. Our decision to retire from our breeding business, due to my health issues has been a journey for us. Our quest for quality, however, has always remained at the top of our goals, and we have several youngsters still here. Some are offered for sale, and as horses sell, others may be removed from our sales list.

I am very excited to pursue a life long dream and move into the world of carriage driving. In addition to driving for pleasure, I discovered, that CDE's ( combined driving events ) offer dressage tests in a driven form. Putting driving together with my past goal of producing top notch dressage horses suddenly came into focus....I have landed in my own dream world! All the years work spent breeding quality horses will now benefit me in the world of driving. Watch us as we get started in the world of driving, we hope to have 2 horses going nicely in harness in 2011. We also have retained frozen semen from our superb stallion "Shadow's Hawk Spirit" aka"HeartBreaker" and will be looking for trades, so we can raise one more foal, this time from a HeartBreaker filly.

Stay with us as we pursue our goals, summer looks very promising around here, but I have a bit of medical work to do before then.....so, stay tuned!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We wish a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to each and all of our dear friends....Creekside horses span the world and we hope that all are toast in their beds and a true blessing for their owners.

Raising horses has been a God give gift to me, the joy of a newborn foal, the pride of seeing a youngster learn and grow, the thrill of a Champion, it all is a treasure I will cherish.

What a better place for baby Jesus to be born, than in a stable manger...all the animals, along with the humans celebrated this new life.

Merry Christmas to all!

Pretty in Pink

Here is my filly "Kallie" !!! Pretty in Pink! Kallie wears pink...Legacy wears purple and the rest of the herd...well, they have to earn their colors so to speak!

I have been having a blast training Kallie...she is one of those horses that just connect in a way that only folks dream about. She is smart, capable, eager and willing..and oh so talented...Trainer Mike says she moves every bit as nice as her Sire "HeartBreaker" or even perhaps a bit better!

Kallie and I are aiming to be a team, a driving team....she has made great progress, and has never made a miss step in her training. Soon, I will be hitching her up, we have just a few things to tweak before we head out driving. I will say, this has been one of the MOST enjoyable journeys in horse training I have even been on...and I hope the same for when Legacy and I become a driving team also.

Happy Halloween!

A whole lot of Halloween fun happened on Sunday evening! AJ, his Mommy and Myself went out for a little trick or treating....( just showing off, no candy involved ) ....what fun! I have to say that the "Cat in the Hat" costume was the absolutely cutest thing I have ever seen! AJ, of course, enjoyed all the attention..course, he always does !

My Grandson

To date I have not been one of those obnoxious Grandmas...You know the type...always sticking new pics of the Grandbaby in your face...always bragging about the new Grandbaby...yadda, yadda....well, I can certainly see where that can happen! but...I will try and control myself and share a pic every now and then.....and to make this "horse related" AJ told me he wanted a pony! so, without further ado...my Grandson Mr. August James VavRosky....2 1/2 months old..and absolutely as cute as they come. This young man holds the keys to many of our hearts...!

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.