Akhal-Tekes, Cascade Gold

Weaners

2011-12-06T16:57:00.000-08:00

Reggie this summer, Monica Bretherton photo

It's that time of year...weaning time. I'm actually a bit late this year, as Reggie was born in June and is now almost exactly 6 months old. But, there was no rush and while his mom is certainly ready, his Aunt Addie was not! Annie and Reggie have been out with Addie, who is very involved in Reggie's upbringing. Annie has enough experience that she lays down the rules and then doesn't worry too much. Addie though...well...if she was a human, no doubt she'd be considered a 'helicopter' mom. She herds Reggie around, watches over him while he sleeps (which is cute) and is very, very aware of his every move. This wouldn't be so bad, except that I usually put whatever youngster is closest in age in with the almost weanling (if there aren't two babies that year), so they can hang out together, play and keep each other company. It usually works very well. I tried that with Scooter this year, figuring that as he was Annie's 2010 baby, it would be a no-brainer. Nope. Annie was pretty much ok with the idea but Addie was SURE that Scooter did drugs and watched online porn. Poor kid. First time I turned him out with the other three, Reggie comes trotting up to him, all ready for a buddy. Addie noticed and came charging over, teeth bared, ears back. Scooter, being a reasonable young man, ran as fast as he could in the other direction. Addie cut Reggie away from Scooter's terrible influence and drove him back to his mother's side. Annie watched this entire performance, but didn't really move. She's ready to be done with the whole colt thing this year.

So, I left Scooter out there, hoping Addie would realize he was a good kid. He tried to talk to Reggie a few times, but was emphatically driven off. He stood as far from Addie as he could until I brought him in.

We tried the next day. Same drill.

And the next.

So, I decided to change the game and put Reggie out by himself, next to Annie and Addie. No problem. Addie even left the fenceline with Annie. I guess if Scooter isn't there, then it's ok.

I'll keep them separated but next to each other for a day or so, then start moving them farther and farther apart, until one day, Reggie and Scooter will be happily playing boy games, without female supervision. At that point, Reggie is a 'weaner' (weanling) and will start to learn all the things that a well brought up youngster needs to know.

Social Director

2011-11-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

Now that fall is here, I have to start thinking about where to put everyone when it's raining. Now, here in the Seattle area, we don't just get a little rain every now and then during the winter. We get lots of rain for many, many, many days. That means that horses outside need some sort of shelter where they can get dry, especially on days it's wet and cold. Almost all my horses go out of their stalls for at least 8 hours a day. Two have runs off of their stalls and quite a few of mine live outdoors all the time. This means that they have shelters that get cleaned regularily, but we still have to deal with mud.

So, what is the problem? The problem is space - I have 7 1/2 acres, of which most is in paddocks with shelters. That is all well and good, but right now we have about the maximum amount of horses here (17). The plan (!) had been to sell several over the last year, but that hasn't happened yet, so now I'm playing social director. I have to figure out who gets along with who, who is ok next to someone else and make sure everyone gets their share of food, water and shelter. Sounds easy, right? Well....some get along with just about anyone, they're pretty easy. I have a few others that have demonstrated, shall we say, less than stellar friendliness, over the past years. They get a paddock all to themselves. Then, there is the mare and foal and the stallion and ...you get the picture. It's a big jigsaw puzzle of opinions and personalities. Kind of fun really.

Just one more thing about having horses!

Danny's First Show

2011-10-24T10:02:00.001-07:00

Saturday, we loaded up Danny (Magdan) and Willie, Monica and Bill's TB and drove to Donida for a schooling show. We had no expectations of any glory, it was just a great chance to get the boys out to see a variety of interesting things at a busy barn. The weather was typically October - rainy, a little gusty and overcast. But, that was fine, as there was an indoor warm up arena and the show was run indoors.

There were plenty of things to look at, from mirrors in the indoor arenas, to costumed horses and riders to a very busy waiting area. Both boys did great. Danny was a little tense to begin with, but as Monica rode him around with all the other horses, he relaxed quite a bit and even enjoyed himself a bit. As usual, Dan the Man didn't put a hoof wrong. While no one would say he was 'perfect', as his bending was a little squiggly (bending away from those scary mirrors and door openings), and he wasn't totally relaxed, he got progressively better in each class, really figuring out what it was that he had to do; follow the other horses, listen to Monica and then line up and stand for a bit. All the other horses gave him confidence - there were very few blow ups I saw, even among the greenies. Mostly, it was people having fun and getting some mileage on their horses.

Bill rode Willie and they did a few slightly harder classes (they included cantering), which has been one of Willie the ex-racehorse's 'challenges'. Willie did great, Bill looked good and they ended with a hunter class (I think that was what it was called) that included 2 tiny crossrails. Willie showed everyone else how to do it and got a well-deserved ribbon.

All in all, it was a very nice day, especially for me, as I was the transportation and moral support. Horse shows are pretty fun if you don't have anything to stress about! I was proud of both boys and Monica and Bill seemed to have a good time.

The only thing I didn't do was bring a camera - that is definately on the Christmas wish list this year!

Home from Tevis!

2011-10-12T10:26:00.000-07:00

Jas and Patrick and Steve Hallmark and Tug (in front) finishing Tevis. Monica Bretherton photo.

This year's Tevis was historic for several reasons; first, it was run in October instead of July because of record snowfall. Second, it had to be rerouted 24 hours before start time because of more snow making the high country too dangerous for riding. And third, one purebred Teke and one partbred Teke finished! Yes, Jas and Patrick came through with flying colors, excellent vet scores and a great attitude.

The ride started at 6:30 am on October 8th, in a huge, milling rush. From our vantage point (that of crew), it appeared quite civilized and orderly. We later heard that was a bit deceiving. Horses were very amped up, some riders made unplanned dismounts, and several people ended up riding a much different race than they had planned. After the start, Monica, Alice and I walked back up to the Auburn fairgrounds (and up and up and up) where we were camped. We then broke camp and headed to Forest Hill where the 2 out vet checks were located. We were in convoy with the crew of Linda Fisher's Kenlyn group, who had brought Jas and Patrick with them from Colorado. This was great for us too, as they were a lovely group that most importantly, knew what they were doing. We just helped out as we could and watched and learned.
We watched the front runners come into the ForestHill vet check (Dennis Summers, Rachel Shackelford and Jeremy Reynolds, but don't quote me on that) and watched what their crews did. We had a bit of a wait until our first riders came in. The group of 7 horses and riders had split into two, which made it a bit easier for us to take care of them. The horses all looked good and the riders were very happy (mostly, a few 'bobbles' in there). After they vetted through they had an hour hold. Then, it was onto the 20 mile loop that we later heard was down and up (or vice versa) a canyon. This loop took a toll on quite a few horses and riders. Inde and Monica Bennett were pulled at Forest Hill, although I don't remember if she did the loop or not. Inde wasn't recovering as he should, so they made the correct decision and pulled. He looked great later, so maybe next year!
Our horses and riders came back in, once again in two groups. This time we had it down - tack was pulled at the water troughs before the in-timer, any sponging necessary was done there and then they walked up the hill to the in-timers, pulsers and vet checks. Once again, all our horses vetted through. Another hour hold and horses and riders rested and ate. They left for the ride home in two groups, and Steve Hallmark, on his big arab Tug went out about a minute after the group Jas was with. Once they were gone, we broke camp and drove back to the fairgrounds. We missed the first finishers, but once we were set back up, we watched some happy riders come in. Then, we took a few hours to rest and were back at the finish for our riders to come in. The first group came in somewhere around 2:15 am (not sure exactly) and Jas and Steve came in right around 3 am. The last two came in a little bit later. All the horses vetted through and were fine at their hour check (they did a post-ride check at about an hour after the completion vetting to catch any problems). We then poulticed legs, wrapped those that needed it, made sure everyone had full hay bags and tubs of beet pulp and went to bed. When we got up a few hours later, the riders were tired but looked great and the horses were the same. Amazing after 100 miles!
We went to the awards banquet, watched each rider get their completion awards and heard a bit more about the amazing reroute that had to be done to make this year's Tevis happen. The organizers should be immensely proud that they could reroute a 100 mile ride and get all the vet checks and volunteers organized in such a short time. I heard that their were 4 volunteers for each rider; at 170 riders, that is 680 people to re-organize within 24 hours. That everything worked smoothly was a real testament to organization and hard work. Sunday afternoon, we all packed up and left the fairgrounds, Jas and her group towards Colorado, Monica, Alice and I to Steve Hallmark's driveway for the night. We arrived back in Seattle Tuesday and now have to catch up a weeks' worth of work.
This was a wonderful trip and really made me appreciate the time, dedication and hard work that goes into making a hundred mile horse. I won't say I'll never ride a hundred (never say never), but both Monica and I agreed that we'd like to ride the Tevis trail in much smaller chunks, preferably in good weather, at a leisurely pace. But, who knows what the future will bring?
We also need to thank everyone that donated money and items to Jas to make this trip possible. Without the support of the Teke community and her friends and family, she wouldn't have been able to go and be the first purebred Akhal-Teke to finish Tevis! Thank yous will go out soon.

Trails at last!

2011-09-21T17:34:00.000-07:00

It's been quite the summer, but health issues are now taken care of, so of course, it's time to trail ride! This was my first ride outside the arena since before I had my surgery, August 1st. We went to Lord's Hill between Monroe and Snohomish. You can always get a decent workout there even if you only walk. We took Danny with Monica riding and Susan came along with Capri.

We did a nice hour and a half ride, not too fast, as our horses aren't in great shape anymore (or me, either). Capri had some issues with bare feet and rocks, so we were careful about footing. But, the weather was great, the park was quiet and the grins were wide.

I know how out of shape Galen is as I had to reshim his saddle before riding him - he's lost a bunch of his topline muscle. I did notice that his gut is the same size though. I think I lost some of my 'topline' too. No problem, we'll go slow and both Danny and Galen will be ready for rides next year.

We took some photos - none are great, but that's ok. The grins are wide.

TEVIS!

2011-09-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read that correctly. I am going to Tevis! Excitement, oohs and aahhss...and then, you remember that I've been out of the saddle all summer. How can I do Tevis? How can my horse be fit? Very simply. I'm not riding it.

My good friend Jas Shearer-McMahon, of Livermore CO, has just recently thrown her hat into the ring to ride Tevis. She hadn't thought it would work, but a combination of lucky events (for her), including the date change of the ride to October, made it possible. She still wasn't sure, but I pushed her into it (ok, just a little bit of hyperbole there), telling her I'd work on fundraising and come down and personally cheer her and Patrick on.

Oh, and just to make this a bit more personal, the horse she is riding, Patrickhan, is a son of my dear boy, Astrachan. She bred Patrick when she had Khano on lease quite a few years back and Patrick has proven to be a wonderful mount. He's been brought along slowly and this year the pair has several top tens and at least one BC in the very tough mountain rides they do in the Colorado area. Now, together they've never done a 100, but Jas has and she says it's a go. I believe her. I just hope that I can be that brave in a few years.

So, me and my friends Monica and Wendy (both Teke fans), are going to drive the truck and camper down to Auburn, CA in about a month and do whatever needs doing. We've had a generous offer of a place to park the camper (thank you Steve!) and I've started fundraising for Jas. If you'd like more info on THAT project, you can go to The Breeder's Co-op website, at: http://akhaltekebreeders.com/default.aspx or you can look us up on Facebook at either The Akhal-Teke Breeder's Co-op page or on the Cascade Gold Akhal-Teke page. All monies go to Jas (we're paying our own way) to help defray costs, and anything left over the target amount will be put into a competition/scholarship fund for future high-level Teke endeavors.

I do have one photo that I will post with this - a really great photo of Jas and Patrick at the Happy Jack ride this year. The photo is by Pascal Karl and I think it says it all.

Stall Rest

2011-08-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe it's been over a month since my last post. Of course, we're not sitting still here. I have 300+ bales of local hay in my barn - we picked it up out of the field, which is NOT my kid's favorite task. Even bribed with ice cream, they don't seem to really enjoy it. Go figure. I have about 38 tons of nice, Eastern WA hay in the barn, so it is pretty full. There is really no better feeling to a horse farm owner, than a barn full of hay. Except maybe a barn full of paid for hay! I have great hay suppliers, who allow me to pay over time. This is a life-saver, as I rarely have that kind of money sitting around. This year, I was hoping I'd sell a few of my lovely youngsters and it had looked promising - quite a few inquiries, several visits and rides, but sadly, no one bought any. I can't blame the horses, as they are lovely, well-mannered, nicely started youngsters. I think it's just the economic times - people aren't sure what is going to happen, so aren't adding to their herds. I suppose in a way, this is a good thing, as it's better to make sure all is well before making such a big committement, but a few less mouths to feed and clean up after would be great. Summer isn't so bad, but trying to keep everyone dry in the winter gets a bit challenging. And, every single one wants attention! I walk outside and have 14 pairs of eyes looking at me, hoping that today, it's their turn to play. Happily, Monica is doing lots of the work with the 'kids', as I've been put on stall rest.

That is another thing that has happened this summer: a routine mammogram found a lump, so I've been on a 'medical adventure' the past month or so. I found out that I would need a lumpectomy and at least radiation, right after the Renegade ride. The worst part of it all (from my view) is that it interrupted my ride season. Whine. But, my friends, family and boarders have been great and I've made myself do less. I had my surgery this past Monday and while I feel pretty good, I can tell when I overdo it. So, less horse stuff and more dog and cat on lap stuff. Happily, my case is pretty ho-hum, and I think that after some radiation theraphy, I'll be considered cured. But, it does suggest that a yearly mammogram after 40 is certainly a good idea! I am hoping that I can at least go to the Elbe ride at the end of this month and maybe (!) depending on my recovery, ride a 25 or at least the trail ride with Monica and Danny. We'll see. If I can't ride, I plan to go and cheer the other ladies on. I think that the people at the hospital think I'm totally nuts - I don't want hand holding, I don't want to come in for 'face to face' visits if I don't absolutely have to and I just want to get this over with and get back to riding. I suppose if my problems were more serious, I might be a teensy bit more into all that.

I do have a great photo that Monica took the day before my surgery up on the top of this blog. Galen and I went for a really good (read, pretty fast) ride on Sunday with Wendy and Allie at the Redmond Watershed. We had a lovely time zooming up and down trails. When I first arrived at the parking lot there, there were several aid cars, a hook and ladder truck and two policemen who took off on their 4-wheelers, out onto the trails. Wendy and I met them as we were about a mile out, coming back with someone in a backboard. I noticed the injured person was wearing cowboy boots, so we assumed a horse accident. Hope whoever it was was ok. Later in our ride, Wendy and Allie were in front, we had just gone over a bridge and were going around a very sharp turn with a cliff (as much as you get in the Watershed) with drop off on the other side, when something started to slide down the hill above Galen and I. I didn't have time to see what it was, as Galen thought it was VERY bad news and he bugged out. I didn't know he could dance sideways like that, as I tried to keep him on the trail and not barge past Allie. I could hear some sort of slithering, sliding noise, but we were now around that sharp turn and I just had no desire to head back and see what it was. And, I suspect Galen wouldn't have agreed to go. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a deer, as they are much lighter of foot and whatever it was sounded BIG. We headed back to the trailer at quite a good clip, with Galen watching behind us. Wendy later wondered if perhaps the person we saw being evaced out had come off a spooked horse from whatever the big slither was. I suppose we'll never know, but it sure got my heart pumping! Nothing like a good, fast ride in good company with a good story thrown in. The only thing missing was a beer when we were done! That had to wait until evening.

So, it was a great way to head to surgery - a few minor sorenesses to remind me of that wonderful ride and what I will be doing again very soon. I'm also waiting to see if Astra is pregnant (preg check next week), although her dopey, smiley attitude sure makes me think that she is. I will be back in the saddle soon, although probably no fast rides for a bit. Can't wait!

It's been busy!

2011-07-02T07:23:00.001-07:00

Yes it has. Here it is, already July 2nd and I haven't posted since Reggie was born. Reggie is doing well, growing like a weed. We'll get some new photos of him soon. I think I have a 'real' name for him, haven't totally decided. I'm thinking Sazanda, which means 'musician' in Turkmen. Good name for a competition horse!

Me, Wendy, Monica and Julie went to the Renegade Rendezvous endurance ride last weekend.

We had several Tekes at the Renegade Rendevous over the weekend. This ride is known here in the Pacific NW as the ‘Little Tevis’ and I had never done it before. Now that I have, I understand the nickname! The ride itself is absolutely gorgeous, in the foothills (or higher) fairly near the WA-OR border. It was almost all up and down, through gorgeous stands of trees, through some pretty fast rivers, on logging roads and with some vistas that were made for photo ops. I rode Galen in the 25, along with our friend Julie, who borrowed a mustang mare from Shannon Mayfield, Wendy rode Allie (NP mare) in the 50 and we took Danny (Magdan) for the experience and Shannon brought Tommy (Asil Tumay) along for the same.

We all went out for a nice ride Friday evening, probably about 6 miles up and down and the two young er boys, Danny and Tommy, handled it just right. The rest of our horses had no problems and had vetted in fine.

We woke up Sat. morning to frost and Wendy headed out on her 50. Julie and I left at the very back of the pack around 8:15, as there was a pretty hairy water crossing right at the beginning and we waited until the crush was gone. Our first 11.5 miles was (it seemed) straight up. Both horses did it, but I know that was way more hills than they are used to. We came into the vet check with only 2 people behind us (as planned), vetted through fine and headed out. There were quite a few pulls at the vet check – they had a trailer running up and down the mountain with lame and tired horses. Happily, it was mostly downhill from then on. There were miles of hard packed road that neither horse liked, so we walked quite a bit. Both Julie and I got off and walked too and enjoyed the scenery. Our two followers passed us and the trails were ours. We did run into a whole bunch of people shooting guns (sounded like a whole army), but they did stop…for about 5 minutes as we went past them. Galen wasn’t so sure about that, but Julie’s mare, Nettie, couldn’t have cared less. We were glad to be out of there, as we were still on those hard roads and that bunch was a bit alarming. Even with the guns, the horses didn’t want to go faster. We figured by this time that we were going to be overtime, but that was ok. The horses were doing well, the trail was gorgeous, and my goal was both horses passing the final vet check. We came into camp and the final vet check around 3:15 and yes, we were overtime, but our horses got better vet scores than at the first check (after that 11.5 mile climb!), so it was all good. They both were pulsed down as we came i n, they trotted through sound and then we took them back to the camper and fussed over them. They both looked perky, although a bit tired. Wendy came in from her 50 not too long after us and Allie looked great. Tommy and Danny greeted them all with their in-camp tales and we humans settled down with well deserved beers. Monica was our fabulous camp and young horse sitter, as well as photographer, so I’m sure we’ll have some gorgeous shots soon.

All in all, a very satisfying weekend, an excellent first exposure for our youngsters and tons of fun. Our next ride isn’t until August, and if the weather cooperates, we’ll be able to get some real conditioning in. If we do Renegade next year, we’ll probably have to pad under shoes and I was even thinking about pads in our Easyboots. Those roads were murder!

Today, Monica and I are heading out for some more trail experience. Danny now has Easyboots all the way around, so we're going to Mann Road fairly early, before the heat of the day and before anyone is out with fireworks. She took some more photos of Mahri and Scooter in the last few days, so I'll post some on the sale horse blog. I will post some photos with this blog post that Monica took at Renegade. We should have some more coming from Julie after she gets everything unpacked (she's moving this weekend).

Another busy week

2011-06-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, it was. Annie foaled on Tuesday evening and then there was a day of recovery (for me) and on Thursday morning, Monica and I took Khan and Scooter to Pilchuck Vet Hospital. Khan had his teeth done, which for him is very necessary. Poor guy, at 21 he has the teeth of a 31 year old! I think the early malnutrition he and his dam suffered really did a number on his teeth. He had two teeth pulled (and that didn't take very much) and I was told that from now on, hay is recreational. So, he's now on a few gallons of soaked beet pulp and senior morning and night and daily turnout on pasture. He also gets a small flake of alfalfa for something to chew, although he only eats the soft stuff and leaves the rest.

Scooter is now a gelding. We got to watch the castration, which I always enjoy much to the disgust of most people (men). It was an easy surgery and he's back out with his buddies again. He's ready to find his forever person, so if you're interested, contact me.

Over the weekend, Wendy and I made it to Lord Hill and got in a bit over 2 hours of trotting hills. We timed it just right, as when we were heading back to the trailer, the trails were getting crowded. Both Galen and Allie (Wendy's mare) were happy and Galen would have been easily persuaded to head out again.

Today, I'm doing some catch-up in the barn and house. Maybe tomorrow I'll be back in the saddle.

Annie's foal is finally here.

2011-06-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

Top Photo by Julie Villeneuve, bottom by Larry Brader

Annie foaled last night around 9:30 pm. She had been in labor since around 6 pm the previous evening, so I'm sure she was very happy to be done. I know I was, as I was on foal watch the entire time. I did get some sleep, just woke up every 2 hours to check on her the first night. She was in the arena, which has lights and is in easy view of my bedroom window, so I just look out at night and can see what is happening. Salam had to come up to the big barn too - he usually hangs out in the lower barn, with a nice big paddock and a pasture out front, but he and Annie couldn't stand to be apart, so he has been hanging out, anxiously watching her. Funny thing is, as soon as she foaled, she had zero interest in him anymore, as another handsome black stud has captured her fancy. I hope he understands.

Monica had been here all night Tuesday and back and forth on Wednesday, but had to head out before the big event. Julie was here part of the night on Tuesday and came back Wednesday and got to see the foaling. Kay (one of the boarders) came by Wednesday night and got to see her first foaling.

Annie of course, was a total pro. She's done this 9 times before, so was very businesslike. She had the foal up within 15 minutes, manuevered him into nursing position and expelled the placenta with no fuss. The little guy was running around within an hour and appears healthy and friendly. I think he might be black, but now that he's dry he almost looks like a mousey black, sort of grayish black. We'll have to wait and see what he turns out to be, I guess. He has a bit of chrome - 2 hind socks and a front stocking, along with a tiny star and snip. Very dashing. No name yet, although I think his barn name might end up as 'Reggie'. We'll see if it sticks.

Enough nattering on - I can tell I'm still tired, but I really should get some work done instead of sitting in front of my computer!

This and That

2011-06-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

As usual, it's been a busy week or so since my last post. Danny has gotten out on his second trail ride and is now trying to load himself in the trailer every time he goes past it. As expected, he was a champ and Monica detailed that ride in her blog at http://blog.seattlepi.com/horsebytes/ Danny wasn't the only one that got to go out, as we took Khan (also in Monica's blog posts) and our new friend Julie. Khan was a champ, which isn't a surprise as he has many, many endurance miles under his girth. We've been slowly conditioning him, as he's been a pasture puff for the last 6 years. It has been fairly recently that I decided he needed a little more work than just standing around and supervising (when I lunged him and his entire body jiggled like jello, I decided he needed someone else to dictate his workouts). So, it's been very slow and careful, as his left hind suspensory is suspect from an injury when he wasn't even weaned. He's done very well over the years in spite of that, but when he was retired from competition in 2005, after a pretty successful year, that leg was iffy. So, a few years of breeding, until his fertility went down to zero - probably from a virus picked up during his competition days, the vets said- then not much until this year. He's so non-enthusiastic about arena work that we thought maybe a little time on the trail would be the ticket. So far, it sure seems to be. Julie reported that he 'was a different horse' out on the trail.

Memorial Day, I took my husband out for a trail ride with him on Khan. They both had a great time and Larry said he now realizes why I make him do those boring seat exercises, as there was a lot of mud and he had to really work to stay in the middle of Khan, as he lunged through it. We cut the ride a little shorter than I had planned, as the footing was much worse than expected and I didn't want to competely poop out either Khan or Larry. I think they both had a great time and they both slept well that night. Galen was wonderful, as usual, stopping and waiting when Khan started to slow down. I always get a kick out of how well Galen watches out for less conditioned and green horses on the trail...until it's time for an endurance race. Then, he's all about beating the socks off them. It makes me smile just to think about it.

Our broodmare, Anastasia, is getting close to her due date. I'm very excited about this foal, as we've had to keep her on regumate most of the pregnancy to keep her pregnant. I don't know how this bodes for any further foals (this baby is #10 for her), as she is 20 this year. So, I'm really hoping for a spectacular FILLY, as it will quite possibly be her last. Maybe if I say it enough, it will come true. We're weaning her off the regumate now, so I think it could come anytime after this weekend. I so love the foaling and those foals. It makes all the work worthwhile.

One of these days, I'll figure out how to download photos from our camera (one of the kids lost the cable and we have never replaced it), and then we'll have a bunch of Danny on the trail, so proud of himself.

Danny's first trail ride

2011-05-19T08:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Monica and I took Danny, with Galen as the 'mentor' out on his first trail ride. He had to trailer, tie to the trailer, walk through some pretty deep muddy water and then go on the actual trail ride. We picked Mann Road, as it has some nice, single track trails (not many distractions) and varying lengths of trail. Also, it was a weekday morning, so we were all alone. No bikes, strollers, dogs, etc.

I'm happy to report that he was a total champ. Calm, interested, happy to be out and mostly on a loose rein. He followed Galen, our seasoned trail horse, and pretty much just copied what Galen did. We went through some pretty muddy spots (lots of them), over some rocks, roots and branches and around a lot of trees. We went up a few hills and down a few others and Danny took it all in stride. In fact, his walk promises to be amazing on the trail - that huge overstride will really eat up the miles. We only did around 20 minutes, all walking, and then headed back to the trailer, where both horses got to mow the side of the road for a bit. Then, back home to a well deserved lunch. Next ride will be a little bit longer and we'll introduce a few more things...streams, anyone?

I did take some photos, but need some kids to help me download them. I think most have Danny (and Monica) with a big grin and grass hanging out of Danny's mouth.

Rain, rain, go away.

2011-05-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

It's another gray, blah day, with just enough rain coming down to keep everything damp. I know it's the Pacific Northwest and this is what keeps us green (and brown, from the mud), but now in May, it's getting more than a little tiresome. I'm so ready for some lovely weather for longer than a day here and there! The horses are too. Every sun break we have, the horses are lining themselves up to get maximum Vit. D.

We're planning on heading to Klickitat Trek at the end of the month, but it will be a very slow 25 for Galen and I. While I'm sure he could easily go mid-pack, I'm not so sure about myself. Also, my friend Shannon is bringing Tommy (Asil Tumay) for his first real limited distance ride, and we've promised to ride with them and provide moral support. No doubt Tommy will do great, as Shannon does a fabulous job, but as a proud 'grandma', I can't wait to help out.

Monica and I are planning for Danny's first trail ride. He's more than ready, we just need a little bit of time and some halfway decent weather. He's coming along so well. The younger horses are doing well too, with Scooter and Goshen growing like weeds, the two fillies, Slari and Mahri, maturing and learning new things. Andre is kind of getting the short end of the stick, as he's so easy. Maybe today he'll get a little bit of love.

Salam has his first collection for the year set for next week, which will make him VERY happy. He's looking great and I can hardly wait to see what Annie foals in June, as that is his only foal this year. Next year should be a little more exciting in the foal department.

Well, I've finished my coffee, so I should get my butt out to the barn and start working.

Firsts!

2011-04-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a day of firsts. First day this year that was absolutely gorgeous- 60ish degrees, sunshine and a light breeze. I even put on sunscreen. First day for Andre to be lunged with a rider on his back, both directions and turning. He was perfect. And, Danny did canter circles under saddle in BOTH directions, with almost zero prompting and absolutely floated both ways. Monica (who was riding him), said it wasn't just a rocking chair canter, it was a 'glider rocker' canter. Danny was so very proud of himself, so we then took him to the big field across the road and he walked around a bit, like he's done it a million times with a rider and then finished with some nice grazing. What a couple of champs! I did get some photos of Andre under saddle, but can't quite figure out how to get them up here (yet). I'll have to inlist a kid. It was a lovely day and if I would have gotten to ride (had to do stalls and run kids around all day), it would have been perfect. But, it sure is great to see your youngsters doing so well. I can see Danny with the tri-color ribbon at a big dressage show in the future and Andre eating up the trail miles. Monica says we don't need to try to sell Danny anytime soon...she's really, really enjoying riding him. Our next goal will be to get Danny off the property and doing this well and to keep working with Andre. Andre is so easygoing that he won't need a whole heck of a lot of prepping before he's ready for the trails, but I like my 'kids' to be very well prepared, so everyone has a great time and there are no surprises. Looking out the window, today doesn't look quite as nice, but it's not raining, so I'll take it.

America's Favorite Trail Horse

2011-03-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

I wrote about going and watching a ACTHA trail course 2 weekends ago in my last blog post. I do admit that I'm rather intrigued - I haven't had much time to condition for endurance rides this year and this might be a nice, intermediate thing to do while I wait for my schedule to free up a bit. And then, today, Jas Shearer-McMahon tells me that she's auditioning for 'America's Favorite Trail Horse', a new reality show that will show nationally on RFD-TV. Excitement! Brainwave! Maybe I need to try out too. Of course, I've never done one of these trail courses, so that might be a little too ambitious. Of course, a little too ambitious has never stopped me before. Monica is busy building a bridge for us to practice on (maybe her TB Willie will go too!) and most of the other obstacles can be cobbled together from what is lying around, so we'll see. If nothing else, it looks like good, clean fun and we can show off our Tekes to another audience, while sneaking in a little conditioning here and there. There are auditions coming up in April in Redmond, OR and possibly in Spokane, WA, either of which I could go to. No promises yet! But, you can follow Jas' journey and audition on her blog at Magicvalleyakhaltekes.blogspot.com and make sure to let your friends and neighbors know too - let's send her to the finals in Texas and get more people talking about our great horses!

Trail competition

2011-03-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

I went down to Maple Valley today and helped on a trail competition. I did have ulterior motives, as I'm thinking this might be a fun way to branch out in my competing, especially as I'm not getting the conditioning in I need to do well at 50 mile endurance rides. This was an ACTHA ride at the Danville-Georgetown trail system and although I went to watch, I ended up helping Monica Bretherton at one of the obstacles (and keeping her company between riders - VERY important). As I had no idea what to expect, it was a lot of fun. Our obstacle was a lope between two road cones- maybe a total of 100 feet total. The 'pleasure' horse and riders had to lope this on the right lead canter, and the 'open' teams were supposed to start loping on the left lead, do a simple change (or a flying change if they were up to it) and then switch to right lead canter. There was a wide variety of riding competence - from 'Thank goodness he didn't fall off' to "That was pretty nice" and everything in between.

We didn't get to see any of the other obstacles, but I heard of a gate that needed to be opened and shut, a log to sidepass over and a hat to pick up off the ground. Everyone seemed to be pretty happy when they got to us, so I assume those other obstacles were do-able.

Tomorrow, Monica, her husband and I are heading out for a nice trail ride ourselves, although I doubt we'll find any real obstacles out there, unless bicycles and strollers count. Of course, you never know, which is half the fun of a trail ride.

Maybe Galen and I will have to try one of these trail competitions, although I heard there are no extra points for doing it quickly. We'll see!

Spring is here...at least today.

2011-03-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

The sun is shining, the frogs are croaking, the mud is drying up and the horses are shedding. Could it be spring? At least today it is. Tomorrow, who knows? I can look out the window and see the trees starting to bud and blossom, we have some crocuses coming up and best of all, the mud is starting to dry up.

I am SO ready for spring, after a wet, cold winter. Usually, Western Washington winters are reasonably mild, allowing us to ride the trails most of the winter. This year, not so much. When it hasn't been cold, it's been wet. When it hasn't been wet, it's been frozen. Thank goodness for covered arenas! The first endurance ride of the season is coming up soon, either this weekend or next, but I'm afraid I'm not heading out for it; one conditioning ride just doesn't cut it, even if you ride conservatively. Just to be perfectly clear - it's not Galen I'd be worried about...every year it takes a little more conditioning for me to get in shape for endurance rides and I'm not there yet.

On the other hand, this nasty weather has promoted working with the youngsters - Danny is doing very well under saddle and Andre has had two 'sit-upons' now. We'll do another one tomorrow and see if we can get a few drunken circles in for him. It's always amusing to see the youngster's expression when they realize having someone on their back isn't as easy as it looks. Happily, they figure it out fairly quickly and it's on to less basic instruction.

Enough being inside! Lunch is finished and I'm heading out to enjoy shedding horses and sun.

Whirlwind Inspection!

2011-03-06T07:35:00.000-08:00

My husband and I picked Dr. Tatyana Ryabova and Tito Pontecorvo up from the SeaTac airport Thursday night. Tatyana had flown into Texas a day or so before and spent that time with Tito and his wife Natasha at their Texas farm, AkhalTexas. We already had one outside horse in for inspection, who arrived Thursday, Kuwwat, owned by Erin Heatherstone of Oregon.

Friday morning dawned and people started arriving. We did our regular barn chores at doubletime and put all of my horses outside to make room. Happily, the weather decided to cooperate and it was a nice day. Good thing, as we've had blustery, rainy, sleety, all around March weather the rest of the week! Horses began to arrive around 9:30 - we had Wendy Connell's Nez Perce mare, Alpowa and her Teke/QH gelding Sunny's Tazzy Teke. Sofie Wollhaib brought her Teke mare Meshhurlyk, and a bunch of supplies for our lunch and dinner. Catrina Mettam drove up from the Washington-Oregon border with her colt Suygi and mare Mazaly a bit later in the morning. Some of my boarders came and helped out (thank you again, Alice and Monica!) which made the whole day go much smoother. Shannon Mayfield and her husband Craig drove up from Oregon to watch and participate in the educational aspect.

As this was organized, shall we say, quickly, it was rather seat of the pants. The horses were mostly still in full winter coats, often sporting mud extras (we had LOTS of rain here recently and it is very muddy). In a way, it wasn't totally fair, as very few of the horses were in show condition, but Tatyana is used to seeing horses straight out of the field, so we made do. We all grabbed brushes and displaced as much mud as possible and then we began.

The educational part was that each horse came in and we all would give it 3 scores from 1 to 10, 10 being perfection, on Type, Conformation (Exterior) and Movement. Many of the youngsters did not show well for the movement, as they had no idea what we were asking - trot beside you? What? But, we did our best. Later, we would all sit down and compare our scores for each horse, with Tatyana then giving her scores and her reasoning. If we were really off on our score, she would ask us why we thought that and then explain her thinking. These were not the 'official' scores, as she has to take her scores and measurements, and then apply different formula to them for the official scores. We will get those later on.

So, we began with Erin and Kuwwat. Kuwwat is a young (5?) stallion, that Erin is using for Endurance and also for breeding with Arab and Mustang mares for future endurance horses. He showed very well, being wonderfully behaved. We wrote our scores down and then Tatyana measured him. She measured his height at the withers, from point of shoulder to point of hip, around the girth and the cannon bone right below the knee. These measurements all go into the Main Studbook, along with being used for general breed data. Ideally, each horse would be inspected as a foal and then yearly or bi-yearly afterwards. Unfortunately, as Tatyana is the only inspector in the world at this time, that usually does not happen, at least in the US. Several of my horses have been inspected 3 times now, but for this inspection, it was the first time for many that were ten years and older.

Next we did my 3 and 4 year old fillies, Asalari and Mahri. Both are smaller horses and that is not what Tatyana is looking for. Neither showed well for movement, as they've never been taught to trot in hand. But, they behaved and got their measurements done.

Then, Sofie brought Meshhurlyk out. Diva (her barn name) showed very well and both Tatyana and Tito liked her, as she is a tall mare. Sofie was encouraged to breed her again (Diva has had two colts for me- we were trying for a filly!), but we will see.

Next was Goshen, a year and a half old colt. Goshen was shown by Monica, who has high hopes for him. He belongs to Cascade Gold, but Monica is leasing him. Goshen showed very well and Tatyana recommended that we keep him intact to see how he matures. This has been our plan, as he is extremely personable, amiable and athletic. Good looking too. He was one of their two favorites at our inspection.

We went through the rest of the barn, and Catrina's two, with appropriate comments, measuring each horse and discussing certain aspects. She would ask what the older horses did: for example, what my gelding Galen has done competitively, for this will also be noted in Russian records. Everyone did a fabulous job, Tatyana and Tito worked without a break (not my idea!) and we finished around 4 pm.

After we had finished the barn chores and gotten every horse settled for the night, we adjourned to the house and the dining room table. We got out our notes and then she started the comparing. She would ask those of us who had given scores (some were too busy handling to do much in that way) our scores for each horse and then we would discuss why we thought that and what she thought. It was very interesting, for example: if the horse had pretty good conformation, but one or two flaws (and what horse doesn't?), how do you score that? Her answer was that you have to weigh how bad each flaw is. If a otherwise very functional, nicely conformed horse had very thin bone, you had to weigh that. Or, one crooked leg, or...so we discussed what was very important vs nice. Also, she mentioned that as the population has grown, we can be a bit more picky what we cull from our breeding programs now. Those horses that might have been considered ok 20 years ago, when the population was much smaller, can now be culled from breeding. This is a good trend, all in all, as we hope, as breeders, to make each successive generation better than the last.

We also discussed type, although not in great detail. This is something that is very subjective and is often hard for someone who has seen a limited number of Tekes. And, to make it even harder, different lines have slightly different acceptable types!

Movement was very difficult, as many of the horses did not have the preparation necessary to really show off their movement. But, with a week plus notice, we did the best we could. Tatyana recognized this, especially with the younger horses.

We had a lovely spread of food, which my family will be eating for the next week, including some home grown ham that Catrina brought from her mother's farm. Delicious!

Those that were leaving, left after dinner and then the rest of us talked for a bit and retired for the night, quite early. It had been a busy, busy day!

I took Tatyana and Tito up to the Anacortes ferry yesterday, and they are now at Amrita Ibold's Sweet Water Farm, where they are inspecting all 19 of Amrita's horses and enjoying the beautiful scenery of San Juan! I'm sure Amrita and Jenny will write about their inspection after it is over.

It was lovely to see Tatyana and Tito and all in all, even for a whirlwind inspection, it went very well. I have to thank my family, who really pulled together, my boarders, Alice and Monica, who came and helped so very much, the friends who hauled their horses quite a ways on short notice (thank you Catrina, Erin, Sofie and Wendy!) and of course, Tatyana and Tito for being so gracious, hardworking and amenable.

Today, I'm going riding.

P.S. Here are links to several other blogs about the grading here at Cascade Gold. Both Shannon and Monica did very nice posts with some good photos.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/horsebytes/

http://mayfieldmagic.blogspot.com/

2011 Grading in Washington State

2011-02-20T08:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, you read that right! Dr. Tatyana Ryabova, the head inspector from Russia, is coming to Washington in a few weeks. Tatyana hasn't been here since 2002 (can you believe it?), so I have several horses that need grading and after my place, she is heading up to the lovely San Juan Islands to grade all 19 (19!!) of Amrita's horses at Sweet Water Farm in Friday Harbor.

I consider these gradings as a tool - one of the foremost experts on Akhal-Tekes looks at horses and does measurements and gives her subjective opinion on type. There are a whole bunch of calculations that she does after the grading, using her measurements, pedigrees and I think a few more things that give the final grades. While these grades might not make everyone happy, they are a tool that a person can use to judge a horse.

I was with Tatyana on the 1999 grading tour, on the road for 21 (I think) days, seeing around 155 horses at that time. It was an eye-opening experience and I am in awe of Tatyana's knowledge and tact. That was 12 years ago, so I would think that she is even more knowledgeable now. One of my favorite things she did was to look at a horse, one she had no idea who it was, and ask if it was this line or that line. She was almost always right and could often say "He looks like his grandsire, so and so". There is an article about that grading on this website, under articles, entitled "Walmart across America". Also, all the grades for horses in the 99 and 02 gradings are in the articles section too. Check out http://www.cgakhaltekes.com/index_Page2575.htm

Of course, a grading is not perfect and we all have slightly different ideas of what makes up the 'perfect' horse, but the informed opinion from someone with over 30 years (maybe 40 now) of worldwide experience? Priceless.

The grading will be March 4th, here at Cascade Gold and if anyone wants to come and watch, they are welcome. It will be my horses and some other horses from the Pacific Northwest - mainly stallions, it looks like. It should be a wonderful learning experience and a lot of fun!

Here's the latest: Tatyana will be arriving late this Thursday evening, March 3rd, with Tito Pontecorvo. She'll be here at Cascade Gold on the 4th and will do a Master Class sometime during the day. We will have a few outside horses coming in, although the short notice has made it difficult for everyone to participate. Just not enough time for travel, etc. Maybe the next time she comes, we can get more people involved. Then, on Saturday, March 4th, Tatyana and Tito will travel to Friday Harbor, San Juan Island and spend 2 days up there grading Sweet Water Farms horses. They leave for Texas again on Wednesday, March 9th, so this really is a flying trip. If you want to come and watch, there is no specific time on Friday and we'll be working around the people bringing their horses in, but we will have a buffet potluck dinner, so come and visit! I'll post more information when it is available.

Sunshine and Ice!

2011-02-09T13:15:00.000-08:00

It is an absolutely gorgeous day out, so I hooked up the trailer and Galen and I went for a trail ride. We went to Lord Hill, a regional park that has lovely trails and lots of hills. I figured, as we haven't been on a trail ride since last JULY, we'd do very little, just get our feet wet, so to say.

Good plan, as the trails were almost all either icy or muddy/slippery. Galen had hoof boots on in front and bare behind, but he still slipped a few times. Galen was very happy, as he's been agitating for a trail ride since, well, last July. We will need to get a lot more conditioning in before our first endurance ride, whenever that happens to be.

I did see some really strange fungus/mushrooms on a bunch of dead sticks. It almost looked like snow, until I got a little closer and could see that it was a bunch of tendrils, or skinny stalks. I've never seen anything like that before, so perhaps I'll go look up mushrooms later on.

But, we had the park to ourselves (a few trailers showed up just as we were leaving for home), the sun was shining, the weather was reasonably mild (about 40 degrees, I'd say). Ahhhh....

I did think about bringing my camera, but didn't actually do it and my cell phone doesn't take very good photos, so you'll just have to take my word that it was lovely.

Fotata Awards

2011-02-06T09:49:00.000-08:00

The results of the 2010 Fotata Awards (Friends of the Akhal-Teke), have recently been posted on the Fotata site, which is run by Shannon Mayfield. The address is www.//fotata.webs.com/ The idea of this award is as follows: An Annual Worldwide Award that encompasses a number of riding disciplines for people that love the breed. It was started by Shannon and Lyn Busacca.

Awards-
1st- Jenny Rice
2nd- Kerri-Jo Stewart
3rd- Amrita Ibold
4th- Cathy Leddy
5th-Jas Shearer-McMahon
6th- Monica Bretherton
7th- Wendy Connell
8th- Shelby Ness and Jeannine Duenas
9th- Anne-Marie Rasch and Cindy Sither

I think it's great that people are getting recognized for getting their Tekes out there, as none of the organizations have any awards programs. It probably won't encourage someone to go to one more clinic, or ride or show, but it does recognize the effort involved.

I hope Shannon does this award again, as getting that goody box in the mail is a lot of fun! Thanks!

Thinking Spring

2011-01-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

Although it's kind of cold and dreary outside, I'm thinking spring thoughts. I just calculated Annie's foaling date, which will be June 20th. I'm really hoping for a filly, as always. I just ran the color calculator, and as Salam's colors haven't been done yet, if he's smokey black, we have a good chance of a buckskin (Annie is bay). If he's black, we have chances of bay, black and chestnut. So, a buckskin filly is possible! Of course, this is a large part of the fun of breeding- every foal is exactly what you want, right up until delivery. One of these days, I will have his colors run, but until then...buckskin filly!

I've also been trying to figure out my competition schedule this year. I have much less time for conditioning on the trails, so probably no 50s until at least late summer, but Galen and I have been taking jumping lessons! I used to jump, many, many years ago, but it's sure not like riding a bicycle so far. But, that is one of the great things about horses - there is ALWAYS something new (or sort of new) to learn. I won't say we'll be burning up the jumper rings, but perhaps we'll be able to negotiate a course by the end of the summer. We'll see.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T10:04:00.001-08:00

It's Christmas eve and I'm getting ready to start my last minute running around. My husband and older daughter went to Monroe for some last minute gifts, so I'm waiting for them to get back.

We need to run to Costco for Christmas pies and I'm sure we'll find one or two other things that we must have. The horses will get their very own huge bag of carrots for tomorrow. It looks rather unlikely that we'll have a white Christmas, which is just fine with us. While snow is pretty to look at, it sure makes taking care of a bunch of horses much more time intensive.

Then, we'll start thinking about our goals for next year. This year has been pretty good all around and I think we can have an even better 2011!

Merry Christmas!

All the Young Horses..and the old ones

2010-12-19T14:49:00.000-08:00

I've been spending a lot of time recently working with my youngsters (horses, that is, kids pretty much take care of themselves these days). I have 1 weanling, Scooter, who is a lovely little guy, learning about such basics as "don't get into my space", "give to pressure", "grooming is fun", and "being by yourself isn't all THAT bad". Then, we have our coming 2 year old colt, Goshen, who Monica mainly works with. He's been so easy, but does test a little from time to time. He's recently discovered that he has some power (over Scooter, mainly), so we have to enforce boundries. "No, I'm not holding Scooter for you to chomp on his butt". He's learning things like "cross-tieing", "leading down the road", "beginning round-penning" and Monica is working on various tricks with him. I hear that some other things are in his future too, perhaps some long-lining and in-hand trail.

Next, we have the coming 3 year old filly, Mahri. Mahri has just been growing up, has learned all the basics that Scooter is working on now and we just moved up to "Medium Round-Penning", not to be confused with "Beginning Round Penning". She's doing very well and really enjoyed her grooming the other day.

Then, there is the coming 4 year old filly, Slari. Slari knows all the stuff the younger horses are learning and is moving into the 'riding zone'. This is where she'll learn about lunging on a lunge line (no big deal for a good round penning horse), wearing a saddle, bridle and bit, and we'll get to getting on her by the end of next summer. She's learning about voice commands on the lunge, we'll work on some in-hand work and probably do some trail walks in the great wide world. She is such a pretty, dainty little thing - makes me wish I had a 110 lb teenager to help me out!

Then, we get to the 'bigger boys', such as Andre, who is coming 5 and Danny, also coming 5. Danny is doing well under saddle and just needs miles. Andre was a late bloomer, so we're just starting to get to sitting on him. I expect it will be no big deal and he'll be a riding horse supreme. He looks like he's going to be so smooth that you'll think you're in your recliner in front of the TV.

Then, there are the 'boys in work', Galen and Willie (Monica's horse). Both are doing great, compete and are learning jumping now.

What is left? Well, the 'rehab', Ari, who is recovering from a knocked-down hip sometime in the distant past. He's doing pretty well, but we're going slowly, so as not to reinjure him. He's slotted to be my husband's trail horse. Then, there is Maz, who is a 'been there, done that" kind of guy, who unfortunately has some arthritis issues and some hoof issues. He needs maintenance and light riding. Same with Khan - he's also paid his dues and is deserving a comfortable retirement. I hop on him every once in a while and lunge him a few times a week. Keeps him happy and semi-fit. Annie, our broodmare, gets groomed every now and again, just so we can let her know we appreciate her. Salam, our senior stallion, gets occasional grooming and loves to just hang out.

That's pretty much our horsey family - keeps me busy, Monica helps out a lot and I'm sure not bored. Not enough hours in the day, but that is OK.

Sunny Day!

2010-12-02T17:26:00.000-08:00

Ah, those sunny winter days! So much better than gloomy, dark, winter days. I seem to have 3 times the energy when the sun shines.

So, today (sunny), I went to Costco and Fred Meyer, stocking up for the rest of the month and rode Galen, working on our canter and a few little jumps. Wednesday, (gloomy), I barely got myself out of the house, cleaned the stalls and picked up kids. Hmmm, am I solar powered? You bet. Why do I live in Seattle? I have asked myself that a few times in the past 25 years.

Of course, there are GOOD things about Seattle winters, such as being able to trail ride in December in your sweatshirt and not owning long underwear. Bad things include: not much sun, too much mud and rain. Tradeoffs!

It does bring to mind an episode of "Northern Exposure" from many years ago, where one character had a hat with a full spectrum light on it. I have a full spectrum light right beside my computer and my overhead lights are full spectrum too. (love them!) Maybe all I need to be more productive during our dark winter months, is a light attached to my ball cap.

Hmmm, might spook the horses though.

Of course, they are Tekes, so maybe not.

Coming Home from the WEG

2010-11-12T09:49:00.000-08:00

I had packed up a lot of the booth stuff on Sunday, so Monday morning, Cindy's (our hostess in Lexington) boyfriend Dennis, came and helped me finish packing and load up. Thank goodness for helpers, as it would have taken me much, MUCH longer to get everything squared away. I hugged our neighbors (make sure to watch "The Greening of Whitney Brown" when it comes out) and headed back to Cindy and Dennis'. They were great hosts - I was there the entire time, plus setup (so 19 days?), and they had people coming and going the entire time. Cindy was 'ground zero' for horses and people coming in for the International Equestrian Festival, that took place in downtown Lexington. We had Tekes and Teke people coming and going from October 3rd to the 10th, which is when the IEF took place. It was great fun to see OPH (other people's horses) and get to chat with people I usually only talk to via email or phone. We didn't get to visit nearly as much as I would have hoped, as I was alone most of the second week and off to the booth around 8 in the morning, getting back at 6 or 7 pm. Tatiana Ryabova, Tito and Natasha Pontecorvo, Milena Stoszek and some other people came by the booth the last Saturday night. Tatiana gave a talk during the day on Saturday and did an inspection at Cindy's on Sunday. Unfortunately, I missed both, as I was at the booth, promoting our horses.

Anyway, back to Monday, take down day. Dennis and I headed back to their place and Dennis helped me pack up and I was headed out the gates around 3:30 pm. I decided to drive for 5 or so hours and stop. Silly me. There are NO parks, campgrounds, gas stations, you name it from about 4 hours outside of Lexington heading SW until you get to a park in the middle of nowhere Indiana or Illinois. I was panicking by the time I finally pulled into a gas station at 10 pm at night...I was driving on fumes, starving and so very tired. Happily, I gassed up both the truck and myself and found a campsite at a deserted state park. Locked my doors and went to sleep. Next morning, I tried to find where to pay (never did), so after about a half hour, I headed out. I made it to April Pruente's place around 4 or 5 pm and spent the night, after admiring her horses and a great meal at the local buffet.

Next day, I drove, and drove, and drove. I think I did 15 or 16 hours and made it to Jas and Shannon's place in Colorado. Thank goodness for audio books! I was really wanting to be home, so the very long day was worth it. Next morning, I waited for Tatiana, Tito, Natasha and Milena to show up and instead of heading out as I planned, I spent the day talking and talking. It was lovely visiting with Tatyana, as I hadn't seen her in at least 8 years. We all talked and planned and looked at horses. Then, we headed out to dinner and it was bedtime. Next morning, I got on the road and drove until 6 or 7 pm. I spent the night in Idaho or Oregon...can't quite remember which. I was really itching to be home.

I pulled into my home driveway on Saturday, October 16th, around 6 pm and basically hugged everyone, was leaped on by the dogs and then sat and drank a beer. 29 days on the road...whew. I think I'll wait another 10 years to do this again. Fantastic, one in a lifetime journey, but LONG.

I'm still cleaning up, unpacking (almost done!) and finishing up WEG thank yous and getting back into my normal routine. I have had my butt in the saddle since I got home, almost a month ago, but it's still sporadic. I'm trying to do all the stuff I usually get done in Sept/Oct now, before it really starts getting nasty. Almost there! Galen is sure that he's been totally neglected, as we still haven't gotten out on the trails. Soon...I finally have the horse trailer unloaded completely. My family was amazing - the kids pretty much took care of the barn, poor Larry had to do his job and mine and the boarders helped out too. Thank yous all around!

I'm glad I went, but I'm really glad to be home.

WEG, Part 2

2010-11-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

Photos from top: Tatyana Ryabova, Tito Pontecorvo,their translator (I forgot her name!) and me in the booth on Saturday night before Show Jumping. Next are some of the rivers of children that came by the booth, then a shot of one of the outsides of the booth with one of our banners and last is Jas and Monica setting up the booth in the heat.

The next day, we headed in to finish up the booth. We had done most of the heavy lifting (and building of bookcases) the day before. Now we had to hang, adjust, hang, adjust everything until it was just right. We realized that zip ties are one of the handiest things out there (I bought a huge packet at Costco and thank goodness I did!), that we had planned better than we realized and we had our booth pretty much up and done by the end of the day. It was HOT - both set-up days were around 95 degrees, which I am not used to. Jas had to keep bugging me to drink more, as I was getting quite dehydrated. It was almost like an endurance ride. We finished up and headed out and got to drink beer and chat with Cindy back at the farm in the gazebo. Shades of things to come? NOT!

The first day of WEG was Endurance. Monica was covering it and Jas had tickets, so we had a very long day planned. We got to the park at O dark hundred in the morning, parked in some field along with a zillion other vehicles and headed in. Jas helped me open the booth, while Monica went off to the Endurance start. Not much traffic to begin with, but it allowed those last minute touches on the booth. Jas came and went all day, and we watched the endurance ride on the computer - little green dots following the trail (usually, although a few wandered off here and there, which I think was a tracking glitch, not the actual riders going off course). We were amazed at the speeds they went - at one point, one dot was going 33 kpm. We had people coming and going all day and we started honing our 'speech'. I got it down to about a paragraph by the end of WEG. People would ask about the breed and we'd give our 'speech'. Then, we'd answer any specific questions, hand out informational booklets and if they were interested enough, a DVD. We found the positions of all the surrounding bathrooms and found the nearest food. Food was terribly expensive - later in the week, Jas and I split a hamburger and had a drink each and it cost $17! That was one of the biggest complaints we heard - limited food and expensive. We got to meet some local volunteers and talked and talked and talked. That night was the opening ceremony, so we were supposed to stay open until 10 pm. We didn't make it to 10, as we'd been there since around 6, but we closed up and headed for the truck. At this point, we realized an almost fatal error- we hadn't really checked where we parked that morning and it was dark. FINDING the truck was an exercise in frustration. The volunteers in the parking area knew nothing (although they were very friendly), nothing was marked and we spent at least 45 minutes figuring out we weren't even parked in that parking lot! On to the next, further one, and me with my smart key, trying to get the truck to flash its lights at us. It is dark out, we're exhausted and we can't find our ride. We weren't the only ones either. We heard other people stumbling around in the dark, the occasional beep of a car as it recognized it's key, but we FINALLY found the truck. Later we heard that after the opening ceremonies ended, it was utter chaos. No one had thought to remember where they parked, people were stumbling around in the dark for hours and THEN, they sat in line for more hours trying to get OUT of the one entrance/exit. It was one of the many places that the organizers could have improved - section numbers, colors, something to help figure out where your car was parked. The next day we put a GPS tag on the truck, just in case.

Second day we got there later, and watched some of the best condition judging for Endurance. Lovely horses! We also got to watch some warm-ups for dressage and eventing over the course of the WEG. Fantastic!

After the first day, we settled into a rhythym. We'd get to the booth (later and later, as no one showed up until at least 10 am), open up, get our coffee from our nice next door neighbors, set up the slideshow and DVDs and settle in to answer questions. We had a pretty good flow of people, although some of our neighbors were very unhappy with our location. We were quite a ways from any of the big arenas, there was little to no signage to direct people to the Equine Village, and although I heard that the WEG ended up with around 500,000 visitors over the course of the entire 16 days, we sure didn't get that many in the Equine Village. We had some big clinicians there, who I'm sure were rather unhappy with the lack of traffic. The Trade Show, up by the Main Arena, seemed to be pretty busy, every time I went through it. Maps were terrible - it took us days to find certain booths, and we were 'in the know'. There were events going on all the time in different locations that we heard about after the fact. We did get to get out and see a few of the clinicians and demos- Jas and Monica were great at letting me get out and about some and Amrita and Jenny came and helped out during the Eventing days. Anne-Marie came to help for a few days and
several days we had a few other people stop by and help for a bit.

The weather was usually pretty decent - there was one day that was cold, rainy and miserable. I was freezing and when I got back to the camper, I was asleep in about 30 seconds.

We had people stop by from all over the world. I talked to people from just about everywhere that there are horses and many of them had heard about Akhal-Tekes, quite a few knew a fair amount and an astounding number knew of one, had ridden one, or owned one! As someone who has been involved in the breed for almost 25 years, this was very heartening. I can remember when all I heard was "It's a WHAT?". We also had schools bringing kids by on field trips - rivers of children, all happy to be out of school. I heard that every school in the Lexington and surrounding areas came to the WEG on field trips during the Games. We handed out thousands of postcards - after the first day, we just found the adult in charge and gave them packets of postcards to distribute - trying to give them to the kids wasn't possible with only one person at the booth most of the time.

As to who was interested in Tekes, the endurance crowd was very interested - we had most of the smaller country teams come by after the Endurance and chat. The big guys, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, they have their own breeding programs, but we had team members from several smaller 'powers' come and chat. We'll see what happens in the future, but that was great. We also had quite a bit of interest during Eventing and we played the lovely tribute video to Kandar, that was provided by his owner and rider, Karen Yates. Kandar was an astounding Teke, who was long-listed for the 2000 Olympics in 3-day with Karen. Every time I watched the DVD, I thought, "That looks easy, I could do that". Then, I'd go "HA", as I know what those jumps look like from walking around the course during the WEG. But, Kandar and Karen made it look easy. We didn't get many from the Show Jumping crowd and not many from Dressage, although the ones that did come knew about Absent (Teke stallion that went to 3 consecutive Olympic Games in the 60s for Russia in Dressage and medaled in all Games). We had some vaulters come, although I doubt we'll see many slender Tekes as vaulting horses, some driving people, a few reiners (the Chef d'equipe from Ireland came by - he'd ridden a Teke in Arizona years back and remembered the horse fondly), and lots and lots of people who just liked horses.

We had people come by and take photos of the booth itself, people come and offer to buy the beautiful costumes and rugs (nope!), and people that just wanted to find out more. All in all, a very positive and excellent outcome for our venture.

The last Sunday was very slow and our neighbors had already packed up. I closed early and was able to start packing up. Now, all I had to do was take down and pack everything and drive the 2700 miles home! In the next installment...

Back Home from the WEG, part 1

2010-10-22T08:02:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a whirlwind month (plus a bit). I left WA on September 17th and got back home October 16th. During that time, I clocked 6500 miles on my truck, talked to thousands of people, got a little bit of horsey time in, really learned my camper inside and out, and basically had a great time. Of course, I must say, I don't plan on doing this again any time soon!

I left Snohomish with Monica Bretherton and the time flew until we arrived at Jas' place in Colorado. We stopped at a nice state park in Oregon the first night, spent the next night beside a deserted road in Wyoming and made it to Jas' the 3rd day. Once at Jas' we got to get some horse time in, admiring her herd and meeting my little guy, Stretch (Salam x M.V. Elfia). He's quite nice, with a wonderful temperament, great legs and bone and a very nice shoulder and hip. Lots of chrome too- he looks like he'll be some color bay- maybe wild bay, with lots of white. Jas' husband, Shannon, was wonderful enough to frame in our garden lattice (and thank goodness, as it took him quite a while. I don't know what we would have done without him!) and Jas, Monica and I started off the next morning, heading to April Pruente's place in Missouri, to visit and pick up costumes, rugs, etc for the booth. We stopped at another lovely lakeside state park in Kansas? or somewhere, after battling high winds all day. That really took a toll on our gas mileage...down to 9.4 miles per gallon at one point. Yikes! We made it to April's the next day and settled in for a short visit of visiting, seeing all her horses and loading her costumes and rugs in the trailer. We continued on to another nice state park, in Indiana or Illinois...and drove to Cindy Sither's place in Lexington Kentucky the next day. We arrived in the afternoon and set up our camp, including my gazebo (for all those hours of lounging around, NOT!), and solar twinkle lights. Of course, we spent some time meeting Cindy's herd and chatting with her. She had quite the month planned, with people and horses coming and going.

Next morning, the 23rd, we hauled the trailer to the Kentucky Horse Park. We had been told we had to have a vehicle manifest, which I printed out and left at home on the counter. Happily, Monica was able to get it emailed to her on her Ipad. Of course, after all that worry, the guards at the entrance (National Guardsmen and women) didn't even look at it. Everyone seemed quite confused and there was a lot of building, painting and scurrying going on all over the park. We found our booth, #22 on the side of the Museum of the Horse, and started setting up. As we got going, we realized that it was a good thing we'd given ourselves two days to set up, as it was a LOT of work. We had to park the trailer quite a ways from the booth, so we had to plan what we'd need during the course of the WEG and how we'd get it from the trailer to the booth. The trailer was parked probably half a mile from the booth and our truck ended up being parked about half a mile farther out than that..but more on that later.

We got to see some of the other booths being set up; our neighbors directly beside us were a lovely bunch of young people (they'd probably object, but they were younger than us!) promoting a horse movie called "The Greening of Whitney Brown". Next to them was El Brio Vanners, whose horse starred in the movie. On our other side, around the front of the Museum of the Horse, was Tommy Turvey, who had trained the horse for the movie. It was pretty interesting. We finished up our first day of putting the booth up and headed back to Cindy's for dinner and bed.

More later...

12 days and counting

2010-09-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

As it gets closer to the WEG (World Equestrian Games), time seems to be going faster. There is still a lot to be done and not much time to do it in. I haven't had time (or the energy) to do much with the horses, besides an occasional lunging and neck scratch.

Tomorrow, Monica and I are heading to IKEA to look for a few items for the Akhal-Teke Breed booth. We need some stools, something to put the display table on, once it's done and a few miscellaneous things. Then, I need to build the display table, finish ordering the booklets, fill out the vehicle manifest, get my camper and truck in for servicing, load same camper and truck and also the trailer and get on the road around the 17th. And, Zach starts school next week, so there is a bar-b-q to go to, my husband is in AZ for the week, and we still have all the farm chores to do. Yep, a little bit busy! I think it will be a relief to actually get on the road and drive to Kentucky!

Although this is all very busy and more than a bit stressful, I have to say that I'm having fun. I'd sure hate to do something like this on a daily basis, but as once in a lifetime event...priceless!

Summer Fun

2010-08-14T09:20:00.001-07:00

Well, at least my idea of Summer Fun! Trail Riding! Galen and I got to sneak out yesterday for a rather leisurely ride at Lord Hill. He told me it's been awhile, seeing cougars and bears behind trees. This was probably the hottest ride I've been on (yes, doing kid stuff this summer, almost exclusively!) and we went down to the river, to find...horses tied all along the trail! I could hear lots of laughing and giggling, but wasn't going to run the 'butt gauntlet' to get there, so we turned around and went back. I was a bit disappointed, as the river access is only in that one spot (or, at least access I would be comfortable taking my horse to), and it sure sounded fun.

I don't think we're up to summer endurance rides yet, judging by yesterday. Have to get much more acclimated to heat. Both of us!

I am spending a lot of time at the computer, working on plans, info, etc for the Akhal-Teke Breed Booth at the World Equestrian Games. We're now less than 50 days away from the opening ceremony and we have LOTS to do. Check out www.akhaltekebreeders.com for full details or go to Facebook and search Akhal-Teke Breeder's Co-op. Whew!

Buckskin Filly

2010-07-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

The vet came out yesterday to preg check Annie and YEAH, she's pregnant. I'm sure Salam is a bit miffed that he doesn't get to try again, but I'm sure thrilled. This will be baby #10 for Annie, so she's certainly doing her part to keep the Teke breed going. Happily, all her offspring are very nice, useful, athletic horses, so that is OK.

I just got back from Michigan, where I spent a week with my folks. I brought Seattle weather with me (2 days of rain and thunderstorms!), but we had a lovely time overall. Of course, now I'm catching up at home, for even though the kids and my husband (and boarders) all pitch in when I'm gone, things do pile up. Makes me wonder what will be waiting for me when I get back from Kentucky in October. I'm going to set up and host the Akhal-Teke Breeder's Co-op booth at the World Equestrian Games and expect to be either on the road or in Kentucky for almost a month. If you're interested in that, we have a website at www.akhaltekebreeders.com

So, not much else, but I just had to share that we'll have a foal coming next year and right now it's a ...buckskin filly.

Breeding is hard work

2010-07-14T10:50:00.000-07:00

My vet was out yesterday to ultrasound Annie (Anastasia) to make sure she was ready to breed and that her uterus looked good. As Annie is 19 years old now and this will be her 10th? pregnancy, I want to make sure everything is perfect before breeding her. The vet gave her a big thumbs up and said "Breed her NOW". Salam, was, of course, very enthusiastic about this. I drafted Monica to help me and got all the equipment ready. Now, usually when one breeds horses on the farm, it's a pretty simple operation. Unfortunately, Salam broke his neck several years ago and while he's servicably sound, there are certain actions he has a hard time doing, including live cover breeding. So, we opt for the safer, less frustrating ground collection and insemination. He was taught very well how to ground collect (it's just collecting without a phantom mare, with the person handling the AV standing next to the stallion) and within 30 seconds or so, we had our breeding dose. Monica did a great job handling him, although he's such a gentleman, I'll probably be able to do this without a second person sooner or later. Then, Annie was inseminated and the deed was done. Scooter thought the whole thing was pretty strange and that we were really neglecting him, but he got some neck scratching when we were done.

So now, we wait for approximately 14 days and we'll have Annie ultrasounded again to see if she became pregnant. Right now, it's a buckskin filly....

Trail ride with my Husband

2010-07-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

Yes! Larry has been taking lessons for about a year now (thank you Kay!) and this is our second trail ride in the last few weeks. He has gone out before on Maz, but Maz is only up to a fairly short ride, so now he's riding Taz, Wendy's QH x Teke cross. Taz is pretty well conditioned now, as Monica has been riding him and has done a few rides at our Endurance rides on him. He's also a really good boy!

So, Friday morning, we hooked up the trailer and hauled up to Mann Road. Last time we went to Lord Hill, which is a lovely park, but Larry wanted something a bit wilder. So, Mann Road it was! We got there around 11 and were the only vehicle in the parking area. Got all saddled up and headed out. Lar and I had agreed we'd do around 1 - 1 1/2 hours, as his longest ride has been a hour. No problem, I don't want to scare him off!

Mann Road has a variety of trails, from pretty easy ones to pretty tough ones, but I picked some nice, reasonable ones for us. We went down to the Snohomish River and I got a bunch of photos of them there. We then came back and went over a few bridges, up and down some creek sides, through some creeks and down a steep hill. Taz and Lar did great. We got back to the trailer at right about 1 1/2 hours ride time, which was just enough for Larry. Nice weather, not to hot or cold, no bugs, no other people. Not bad. Then, we headed out for lunch at a lovely little restaurant in Sultan we had never tried before. Wendy had recommended the Sultan Bakery and it sure was great. Really good sandwiches and the baked goods looked fantastic (but we declined). Taz went home with Wendy for the weekend, as she's hoping her honey goes riding with her.

I'll have photos when we find our camera cable to download them!

Fun Day

2010-06-30T17:02:00.000-07:00

Today is Thursday and we're heading into the 4th of July weekend. Summer appears to be thinking about it - I actually took my sweatshirt off for a while during paddock cleaning today. The mud is almost gone now and if we have a few more dry days, the paddocks will be completely dry.

I did get a nice ride in on Galen today. It wasn't a trail ride, as I'm mom the taxi driver right now, but some dressage in the arena was very satisfying. Our crowning achievement today was a shallow loop of counter canter. He held his rhythm and most of his relaxation and I didn't drop the ball either. Big grins all around. I also lunged Danny a bit and will start riding him again very soon. I think he's going to be great fun and arena work doesn't seem to be boring to him (unlike Galen!).

Monica and I are also planning some photo and video days, once we have slightly more sunshine to work with. Have to get some of Scooter before he gets gangly!

I'm hoping our neighbors don't feel they need to have fireworks wars - last year I swear that between 2 neighbors, we had over 2 hours of continuous fireworks. I know small towns without that much! Fireworks don't seem to bother the horses much - they just comment on the weirdness of humans- but they sure stress me out. I guess we'll see!

Working on the website!

2010-06-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

I've been taking advantage of our cold, gloomy, rainy, yucky weather to update my website. It's not quite done, but with over 70 pages on it, changes can take awhile. I'm going to add another blog to my sale horse page, so that I can do updates quickly. That way, when we come out with new photos or videos, I can post them right away. Or, that is the theory!

Galen thinks I should be riding him and even though he's out on a pasture with his absolute best friend, he's let me know that I am sorely abusing him. We'll see what he says when we get back to work (probably, 'it's about time!'). Our next planned ride is Renegade and I hear that it's very hilly. This should be a bit of a challenge for us, as Galen prefers flat land. We've done a lot of conditioning this year at Lord Hill, so we'll see what happens. I'm going to stick to the LD, and we'll go from there. The kids are now out of school, so my time is going to be a bit more limited, but I'm hoping to make it to a few more rides this year.

So, off to pick up kids now and that website update should be up in a day or so.

Klickitat Trek, 2010

2010-06-15T14:16:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it's already been over a week since Klickitat! As usual, we had a fabulous time, although there were a few little blips in the general bliss.

We got there on Thursday, as on Friday we had a date to go see two youngsters that were bred here at Cascade Gold. Suyji was now 2 and Mazaly now 3. We drove down to Glenwood through pouring rain, hoping the weather was going to cooperate for our weekend. We've had so much rain in Western Washington this spring, I think I'm developing webs between my toes. We arrived at camp around 8 pm (had to wait until Wendy was off from work to leave home) and were all set up and in the camper by 9. It was still pouring and we were very, very grateful for the camper. I think tent camping would have been pretty miserable! All night long we listened to drumming rain and the heater coming on. Our horses were out under trees, all with their blankets on. (This is June 3rd!). The next morning, the skies were starting to clear and we got ourselves all ready for our trip to Catrina's place. She and her mother, Mary, came and picked us up, as my truck as pretty tied down with the camper and trailer. We got a tour of gorgeous canyons, rolling plains and windmills on our way to their place. They're in Centerville, WA, which is around 40 minutes from Glenwood. Probably not that far milewise, but the twisty roads make it take a bit longer than you'd think. We admired Suyji, now a strapping young lad and Mazaly, who was telling him where to go and how to get there. All their horses looked as if they were enjoying the huge pastures and after some photo taking, we met a bunch of their goats and learned all sorts of neat things about CSAs and windmills. I expect to see Catrina and her horses out eventing within a few years - they just need to grow up a bit first. We then headed back to the camp, where we vetted in and went for a nice, late afternoon ride.

Saturday morning dawned...sunny! Although we had our rain gear along, I'll take sunshine anyday. I get enough rain at home! Wendy went off for the 50 with our camp neighbor David LeBlanc, and I headed out two hours later for the 30. Until I figure out my problems, I'm going to stick with the shorter distances. We made it about 200 ft and I heard, clink, clink, clink. So, back to camp to change out an Easyboot - the cable had broken. We left again and started our ride. Klickitat is mainly on nice, sandy trails, with some logging roads, very scenic. Quite quickly, I linked up with a lovely lady named Chloe (never did get her last name) and her horse, Monty. We were chatting so much, that we missed a pie plate and probably did an extra 6 miles or so...woops. We weren't the only ones though. No matter how well those trails are marked, I seem to get lost there! At least I didn't do a whole extra loop this time. So, we backtracked and had a very lovely ride, with Monty and Galen moving out very well. We came into the first vet check at 17 miles in a bit less than 2 1/2 hours, so if we did an extra 6 miles or so, we were flying. We pulsed down right away and did our hold. I didn't see my bag there, so Chloe shared her stash and Galen just helped himself to everyone's food. We headed out of the hold and worked on rating Monty a bit, which he accepted. He and Chloe are still pretty new to endurance, so are still learning lots. I had fun being the 'mentor' this ride. We ended up back at camp around 1ish and unfortunately, Galen must have stepped on a rock in the last little bit of trail, as he was just the tiniest bit off. The vet gave us the chance to do the trot out again in an hour, but he had rubs from his Easyboots on both fronts, even with my wrapping and was still just the smallest bit off, so I didn't go back. I felt very badly, as he had done a fantastic job - we found out later that we were about 17th out of 55 or so, so if we hadn't made that detour, (and vetted through!) we might have top tenned.

Wendy came in a bit after 2 pm and while Allie was fine, she was hurting. Monica and Taz had a wonderful time on the trail ride, but we decided that with Galen's soreness and Wendy's knee, we'd forget riding Sunday. We didn't feel too badly though, as the rain started up again.

All in all, a very good weekend, although I wish we hadn't met that rock, but that is endurance! Our next planned ride is Renegade, over the 4th of July weekend.

Scooter Picture

2010-06-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

Busy Week!

2010-06-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

Last week was quite busy here at CGAT. Annie was getting ready to foal and we were really hoping she'd do it in time for us to get to the Klickitat Trek endurance ride. My cut off foaling date was Tuesday, as we were planning to leave Thursday. So, on Monday, I checked her and things were very promising. Her milk was starting to become white and sticky, the foal was in the proper position and she was cranky. I turned her out in the grass field and within the hour she wanted back in. So, we did 2 hour checks all day and by around 4 pm, she had waxed up. Whoo-hoo! We're having a baby! Monica made plans to stay the night (her first foaling!) and we told Annie we'd like to be all done by 10 pm at the latest. Monica and I hung out in the barn until around 11ish, watching Annie have contractions, timing them, getting everything ready. At that point, I headed into the house and just peeked out the window every half hour or so. Around 2 or so (I think - I was pretty tired by then) Monica came in the house and I just kept looking out the window. At about 6 am, my husband was out in the front yard throwing a ball for the dog, when he yelled "I see feet!". Annie had tried to sneak it past us. There was a mad scramble out to the barn and Alex and I caught the foal, as Annie decided to foal standing up. While I'd been hoping for a buckskin filly, we got a bay or smokey black colt, with lots of chrome and a definite urge to get up. He scooted around the arena for a bit, until he figured out his legs and then we moved mom and baby into the foaling stall. Scooter has stuck as his barn name and I suppose I'll need to get moving on a real name soon. He's a nice little guy, very friendly, well put together and FOR SALE.

Annie retained her placenta (probably from foaling standing up!), so we had a vet visit that morning. That turned out ok, except for the bill and they're both doing very well. Annie has a date with Salam fairly soon and I'll do my filly dance again, as I'd sure like a buckskin filly!

Baby Thoughts

2010-05-24T09:56:00.000-07:00

Any mare can foal at any time...those immortal words from (I think!) "Blessed are the Broodmares". As the post title suggests, I've been thinking about babies...horse ones, that is! My lovely Teke mare, Annie (Anastasia) is due to foal pretty soon and so we've been getting the foaling stall ready, dreaming big dreams and trying to figure out when she'll pop. From past experience, she'll pick the most inconvenient time (for me), which means next weekend, when I'm supposed to be at Klickitat Trek. The timing works out too, as she'll be within 2 weeks of her due date, so the baby will be ready to be born. We'll end up making the decision whether to go or not based on what she looks like this week. Right now, I'd say I have between 1 day and 2 weeks, depending on many factors. Mares foal when they foal. I know some lucky people whose mares would foal on exactly the same day of pregnancy year after year. Not so for me. I've had them foal at 318 days, I've had them go past the magical 340 days. In the end though, as long as mama and baby are ok, the rest is just horses.

Why the worry, you ask? Why not just let nature take it's course and wake up to a happy, bouncy foal one morning? Well, most of the foalings here at Cascade Gold have gone without a hitch, but there have been several that if I hadn't been there, the outcome would have been grim, including 2 of Annie's. Most likely, fescue toxicity has been the culprit in most of my troublesome foalings, but at a certain point, you can't do much more. One year, all three mares that foaled were red bag deliveries (most likely the fescue) and one foal ended up not surviving. I won't even go into the vet costs! The mares had been off any sort of pasture for months, on forage that couldn't have fescue, but it didn't matter.

So, why go to all the trouble of breeding and foaling out horses? Well, being a breeder is kind of a calling. I try to produce foals that are better than their sire or dam or both. I very carefully match up horses to (hopefully) minimize faults and maximize excellent traits. It's worked pretty well so far, and in general, I think I've produced horses that improve on at least one parent. There have been some heartbreakers, but over the years, we've done pretty well. There are so many variables that seeing a horse you bred and raised doing well under saddle is a major achievement.

My absolutely favorite part of the whole process is the week before the mare foals. In that week, you can see the end of all your years of hard work culminating in the perfect foal ; perfect conformation, perfect sex, perfect color, perfect temperament. Once the mare foals, you have what you have. But that week before...better than Christmas any day! Running out to the barn to check on 'weird noises' and 'she was restless'. Even sleeping in the barn when you're pretty sure the time is close. It really is a time of wonder. I never get tired of it. Once the baby is born, that is amazing also. This young life, ready to be gently guided into being a partner for some lucky person. Foals know nothing about what we expect of them, so every interaction is so important.

I'll post photos and blog when the baby comes. Right now, it's a buckskin filly.

Mt. Adams ride, May 15, 2010

2010-05-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

Here is the 'official' Mt. Adams ride photo. I think this was after the second loop and I'm still bouncy and smiling. Photo is by Jessica Anderson.

Finish line at Mt. Adams ride, Monica Bretherton photos

2010-05-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

Mt. Adams Endurance Ride, May 15th, 2010

2010-05-17T08:45:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty sure I now know the meaning of 'endurance'. We're back from our lovely weekend on the slopes of Mt. Adams, near Troutdale, WA. Absolutely gorgeous views, snowcapped peaks, tall firs, lovely meadows, wonderful trails, lots of happy horses and riders. So, why the comment, you ask?

At my last 50 mile ride, Home on the Range, I did great until the last mile, where I ended up getting off my horse, putting my head between my knees and waiting until the world quit rushing around. We finished, the horse was fine, but after that I've been doing more conditioning rides and I really worked on what I'd eat and drink at the next ride, so I wouldn't have this problem ever again. Well....

We rolled into ride camp around 3 pm on Friday, got camp set up, vetted in, met some friends, took care of the horses and hit the sack pretty early. None of us slept well, a common problem before a ride - lots of excitement! We were up at 4:45, ate a good breakfast, got the horses ready and hit the trail a little after 6 am. We had a little bit of excited horses, until we got out of camp and then both Galen and Allie settled into their work. Nice loose reins, long, steady walk to warm up and then a good trot up and down stunning trails. Both Wendy and I had to comment on how many trees the ride manager's crew had to cut up - the numbers were amazing! At the ride meeting, they mentioned 80 downed trees cut on ONE loop. I think they undercounted. We started at the back of the pack, wanting to just finish in a reasonable time with happy horses. Our first loop of around 13 miles took us a bit over 2 hours, which was a little faster than we really wanted to go. So, after a short vet check, we headed out for loop number two, where we got into a very nice pace, traded leading back and forth and enjoyed the scenery. This loop was around 12 miles and we did it in around 2 hours again. Lots of up and downs and we trotted most of the downhills. Now, the day was starting to heat up a bit. We had our lunch hold, and the horses both thought they should roll, which didn't work with tack still on. We all had our lunches and then moved out at around 11:30. So, so far, around 4 1/2 hours of riding. We got into the third vet check at 45 miles at 3:34, so now we were really slowing down. I had ridden without half chaps on, thinking they would cause too much heat build up. Bad move, as the trotting downhill was really working my calves and the stirrup leathers were most definately THERE. I'm sure that to save my calves I changed the way I was sitting and then OTHER parts started complaining. Once again, the trails were gorgeous, but this was a very long loop - 20 miles to the next vet check. We had some lovely views of Mt. Hood, met a bunch of snow on the trails (horses thought it was much too late in the year for snow), but now by the middle of the loop I was hurting more than a little. Not too bad until the final 5 of that 20, but we still had one more vet check and then 5 miles in. It was around 80 degrees and the horses handled it beautifully, eating and drinking whenever they could, no problems with them. We got into the last vet check and I crashed. I got off Galen and basically ended up on the ground. Thank goodness for Wendy and for the wonderful lady that gave me some frozen sugar water. I just laid there for a bit, while Wendy trotted out the horses and grazed them. They were fine and after a few minutes, I was able to get up, soak my head, drink more (really, I was drinking plenty of water, had electrolytes, Power Bars etc). We only had 5 miles to go and I had Wendy to drag me in, so we got on and headed out. I'm pretty sure that if I had been alone, I would have pulled at this point, as I basically hung on to the saddle and let Galen follow Allie in. He was great, not trying to get ahead and catch everyone (he's quite competitive), but being careful so I didn't just fall off. I was thinking very hard about pain relievers and I'm sure I was riding like a sack of potatoes. The last 5 miles took almost exactly 2 hours and that was (for me) real endurance. Not fun at all and I did think of telling Wendy to go on ahead, but then decided that would be stupid, as I was close enough to falling off that it would be unsafe. So, even though she was doing pretty good and the horses were fine, we went very, very slowly the last bit. I did make it into the finish line and Monica was there waiting with the camera, a chair and a beer (hail to Monica!) so I crossed the finish at 5:24 and collapsed in the chair as Monica vetted Galen through. He got all As again and gave a little attitude during the trot out (probably soooo tired of just walking!).

So, what did I learn? First of all, being humbled can happen at anytime. I had thought (!) I was conditioned enough for this ride. I was in better shape than at the last ride, my horse was going great, I thought I had fixed the holes in my eating and drinking routine and everything seemed to be going well. I had plenty of time to think during that last 5 miles and I think that the combination of the heat (although 80 really isn't that hot, we haven't had a day at home yet that's over 70 and I've still been conditioing in a winter jacket) and the hills got me. I'd rather it's me that is the weak link than my horse (who was AWESOME), but dang, sometimes getting a little older sucks. The stuff that used to be so easy just isn't any more. Obviously, just (ha!) working on the farm, riding at home and conditioning, is no longer enough to keep me fit. I had thought my fitness was fine, but was very definately proved wrong. Thankfully, I had a good friend that took care of me on the trail (thank you Wendy!) another good friend in camp that took care of my horse when I couldn't (thank you Monica!) and now I have to treat myself like one of the horses and get in better condition. It's pretty obvious that Galen could do much more, but he's stuck with me, so I need to get up to his level, or at least closer to his level.

We're planning on going to Klickitat Trek in 2 weeks, unless Annie decides she will foal over that weekend, and I'm going to be smart and go down to a 30 mile LD. If all goes well, I'll do 2 (it's a 2 day ride). In the meantime, I will suck it up and really start conditioning myself. Sigh. Well, in the long run, this will be a good thing! I'll be in better shape and can do my wonderful horse justice.

Soggy Tuesday

2010-05-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I'm kind of dilly-dallying today. It's been raining, sleeting, hailing and raining again the last day or so, so the ground is soaked. I know I need to get out on the trails, but I don't think today is the day. Monica and I did get out on Sunday, and while it spit rain a bit, it wasn't bad. We were able to head down to the Redmond Watershed, where even if it is raining, the trails are wonderful. We put in a nice ride, the horses were happy, and got home around 4ish, just in time to feed the rest of the herd.

We're getting ready for the Mt. Adams ride. I've never been to this one, but have heard wonderful things about it. I have been to Klickitat Trek, which is in the same area, and it's absolutely fabulous, so I expect Mt. Adams will be just as nice. Wendy and I will do the 50 again and Monica is going to do the 25. Taz' conditioning is coming along nicely and Monica thinks they'll be just fine. Taz has years of conditioning behind him, so even if he hasn't gotten the months of conditioning Allie and Galen have, he'll do just fine for a slow 25. That will give Monica lots of time to take photos too!

I've been working with the youngsters some and I think Danny (Magdan) is going to be a super dressage horse. He is so elegant and his gaits are so nice. Unfortunately, I'm not quite as elegant as he is (he's the slender, exotic type of guy and I'm more the sturdy, easy keeper type), so we'll see if I ride him in any shows. Tommy (Asil Tumay) had some dental work done, so he should be happier about the bit (there was some serious rooting and head-tossing going on - retained baby teeth!). Andre is looking very good and begs to be played with and is so happy and willing when I get to him. Annie (Anastasia) is coming home from Canada soon and will be foaling sometime in June. We have some breedings planned for Salam this summer and all in all, it's pretty busy.

OK, enough putting off, time to go to work.

Cathy

Home on the Range

2010-03-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

It's Monday morning and I'm sitting as much as possible, because I'm SORE! But, it's a good 'sore', as I rode my first endurance ride of the season on Saturday at Home on the Range near Washtucna, WA. We did the 50 mile ride, which was probably pushing it a bit, as I've been sick for (it seems, anyway!) most of March. The kids were very generous in sharing their colds and I got one after another. I think we went out on the trails only around 5 times the entire month, with a few more rides in the arena, so I was definately not quite as fit as I had planned to be. Galen has a pretty good base of conditioning and he's no pasture puff, so I figured I'd be the weak link.

Wendy, Monica and I drove over on Friday afternoon, giving my new truck its first real workout. It drove like a champ and kept us all very comfortable. We didn't even play with all the options, as we talked the entire way. We arrived at Ridecamp around 3 or so and got our camp set up. We vetted in without any problems and then went for a nice ride to check out the trail. Gorgeous vistas, lots of tumbleweeds, some pretty good hills and...badger holes! Lots and lots of them, mostly well marked, although we did hear of a few people coming to grief in them. We got very good at spotting them, quite quickly. Monica had brought a yummy dish for supper and then we went to the ride meeting, where we met the ranch owner, Mr. Beckley, and some of his crew (very nice people, they did a lovely job with the ride) our intrepid ride manager, Gail Williams, who always puts on a fantastic ride, and the vets, who do a super job with very little time off. Off to bed early, although a neighbor near us kept their generator on MUCH too long and a patchy night's sleep with an early morning wake up.

Wendy and I had a start time of 7 am, so we were up at 5:30 to feed the horses, feed us, get tacked up and such. We waited a little bit to ride out, hoping for a loose rein start and a nice slow warm up. Well....the reins might have been loose once or twice that first 17 miles, but both horses were rarin to go and let us know they thought we were being awfully silly to insist on a reasonable pace. Kerri-Jo Stewart and Shannon Mayfield were both in the 25 and took photos of us at the start. You can check out Shannon's blog at http://mayfieldmagic.blogspot.com and Kerri-Jo has posted some photos on Facebook. We didn't take many photos that first loop, as we were too busy holding our horses in. Galen thought we should pass EVERYONE and Allie concurred with him. We finished the first loop of 17 miles in around 2 hours, so we were going a bit faster than we planned. We vetted in fine and did our hold. The next loop was a 9 mile loop and while the horses were still pulling a bit, we were able to slow down some. We had our longest hold after this loop and were able to eat some lunch and let the horses eat a bit back at our camp. The next loop was a 16 mile (now I can't remember if the first was 17 and the second 16 or the opposite...went to check the info and I had just washed it in my pants pocket. One or the other!), and the horses were a bit more content to slow down. We had more riding on a loose rein this loop and got to see some mule deer and some lovely vistas when we were up on the top of the ridges. This loop took us a bit longer, I think around 3 1/2 or 4 hours (my vet card is elsewhere and I'm too sore to get up and find it!) and we only had a 15 minute hold after it. Thank goodness that Monica was finished with her ride and met us at the vet line with beet pulp, carrots and held horses while we dashed to the port-a-potty! Then, we were off on our last loop and both horses thought we were nuts - they went, but kept politely looking back at camp and looking at us and we had no problems with them going too fast. We were all pretty tired by this time, so kept up a reasonable pace to get done. Wendy had forgotten a jacket and it was a bit cooler than it had been, so we really weren't thinking of dallying. We had 9 miles to go and a cut off in 3 hours. We made pretty good time and I was feeling pretty cheerful and smug (dangerous thing to feel until you're done!) that I was not terribly sore and feeling pretty good. Well....about a mile from camp, I started feeling nauseous and light-headed and had to get off before I fell off. I spent a few minutes with my head between my knees and then Wendy gave me some electrolyte water. Galen thought we should just get back to camp, but I couldn't get on. So, bless Wendy, we walked the rest of the way, quite a bit of it with me hanging on to Galen's tail and him pulling me. Guess we're ready to tail up hills now, although I sure hope it's not for the same reason. The electrolyte water did the trick and the roaring in my head went away, along with thoughts of keeling over. We got into the vet check and Monica trotted Galen out for me. He was tired but judged 'fit to continue'. I wasn't....but, thankfully, they don't worry too much about the humans, unless they're a lot worse off than I was. Back to the camp where some food and drink made me feel better, although I sure learned that I needed to take better care of myself! The horses all got a big feed, lots of hay, Galen got his legs poulticed and wrapped and we heard about Monica's ride. I'm sure she'll write all about it in her blog at http://blog.seattlepi.com/horsebytes but she said they had a lovely ride. Off to the potluck for some chili and gumbo and then they had the awards that evening too. We were all too pooped to stay, as it looked like it would take awhile, so we headed back to our camp, popped the champagne open to completed rides and birthdays (Wendy's birthday was Saturday, happy birthday!) and then pretty much passed out, or at least I did. The generator next door didn't keep me up at all, although I think both Monica and Wendy wouldnt' say the same.

Next morning, we met up with Kerri-Jo and heard about her ride - she completed her first 25 on Darginka (probably not Kerri-Jo's first, but the horse's first) and missed Shannon. We picked up our completion awards, although I have no idea where we were in the placings - not the tail enders, but probably near the end. That is ok though, as we went into this with not terribly fit horses and (obviously!) not completely fit humans. I know I'm pretty sore today and although Galen was looking his usual perky self this morning, we'll take a few days off to recoup. Then, it's getting ready for the next ride, which will probably be Grizzly on April 17th near Bend, OR.

Hope we'll see Shannon and Kerri-Jo there too, although it's pretty far from BC for Kerri-Jo. I think she mentioned doing a BC ride next.

Now, off to clean the house and catch up on some chores!

Our FOTATA Awards

2010-01-04T08:19:00.001-08:00

Ari and Galen tied for 4th place in the first annual FOTATA (Friends of the Akhal-Teke Award) and Shannon, the organizer, sent us some lovely halters as prizes. I really wanted the first place prize (Gorgeous, hand-painted plate), but Amrita Ibold certainly deserved it this past year. We'll see if we can start a real horse race for first place this year. I have big plans, but we'll see what really happens. I know that several other Teke people have big plans too, so I suspect I'll have to do lots of competing to even be in the running! That is ok though, as the more we get these fabulous horses out there, the better.

I'll upload some photos of Ari and Galen posing in their halters.

Thanks Shannon!

Cathy

Christmas ramblings.

2009-12-22T11:08:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update on what is going on here at Cascade Gold. My friend Monica and I have been working and now riding the 3 year old geldings, Magdan and Asil Tumay. Both are doing very well and it's so fun to see them figure things out and come along so quickly. It sure looks like Danny will be our dressage star (that walk is fabulous and he is just so dang elegant!) and I bet Tommy will tear up the endurance trails. I've been letting Andre hang out, as he's suddenly growing like a bad weed. He's over 15 hands now and judging by the size of his butt, he has quite a bit more to go.

Monica, Wendy and I all got our awards from 'Friends of the Akhal-Teke', very nice halters. Thanks Shannon! We're also up for some awards internationally (that sounds so important!), the Teke Cup, done by Michele van Kasternen of Belgium. I think it's great that we have people willing to do this kind of work. I have big plans for competing this next year, we'll see how it goes. I also think I'll do some dressage shows, just for fun. Then, we have the World Equestrian Games in September, foals due, breedings...it should be a very busy year.

We're pretty much ready for Christmas, just a few presents to wrap. Lights are up on the house, tree is up and decorated, cards are sent out, Christmas dinner bought...I just need to go buy a big bag of carrots for the horses on Christmas day and we're good! We're also very happy that we don't have any snow. Last year at this time I'd already wore out one set of chains on the car, we were shoveling the roofs, hauling water for the horses and in general wishing for our usual rainy Seattle weather. This year, so far, we're having typical Seattle weather, foggy, rainy, around 45-50 degrees. YEAH!

My husband and I are getting our list of 'things to be thankful for' ready for Christmas dinner and New Year's eve. Every year we look back at our past year and think of what went right and what needs improvement. Every year it gets better and better. One of the perks of getting older, it seems.

Anyway, now I'm rambling, so Happy Holidays!

Cathy

Another rainy day in Seattle

2009-11-23T10:04:00.000-08:00

Yep, another gloomy day when I'm really glad I have a covered arena. I've been taking some dressage lessons along with my friend Monica, and it's interesting how (mainly) positive reinforcement can really improve your riding. I've found that I'm pretty much doing everything as I should, just maybe not quite enough of it! But, in 6 weeks, there has been a rather large change in the way Galen and I are doing in the arena, so that is good. I'm even thinking we might do some small dressage shows next year, in between our endurance rides.

We have a date for our first ride of the year, our favorite ride, Home on the Range! This past year it was cancelled, but the ride manager has found a new place for it, so it should be ok. This is a great ride, as it's in sunny, dry, eastern Washington, over (at least in the past) nice cow paths, not very technical, but interesting scenery. There are buttes, sagebrush and usually cattle, to make it all seem like the old west. Also, good friends, good food and of course some libations. I'm really hoping to get a lot more rides in this next year and maybe even get a few LDs in on the youngsters. We'll have to see though, as they are extremely green and we'll only go as fast as is smart.

We had our first rides (yes, I'm really getting ahead of myself, planning endurance rides for them!) on both Danny and Tommy last week. Both boys were excellent, listened to the reins and legs and seemed to really enjoy the whole process. I need to get moving on Andre too, but he's still growing like a weed, so I'm in no rush.

The kids have a few days off for Thanksgiving this week and next, but we don't have any real plans. Maybe head out and see a movie one day, but mainly I think we'll just enjoy each other's company.

I suppose I should head out to the barn and get to work!

Cathy

What I did on my summer vacation.

2009-09-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

The kids are back in school today and I'm heading out riding! Yeah! We did have a nice summer, got in a few family trips, and got some work done, but now I have time for ME!

One of the things I did over the summer was have a photo shoot for Salam, my new stallion. He is owned by Freedom Run Farms of MI, but is standing here for a few years. I asked local photographer Karen Wegenhenkel (who took the marvelous photos last year) to come out and she did. She got some lovely photos of Salam and a few of us both, although I have to say I like the ones with just the horse better. Nothing wrong with the photos, but I think he's a bit more photogenic than I am.

No foals this year, but we are expecting two next year. Jas Shearer-McMahon and I have bred two of her mares to Salam and they should both have gorgeous foals. So, sometime next summer he'll have two more foals on the ground.

I didn't make all that many rides this year, just the two this spring and I doubt I'll get to another, but I have big plans for next year!

Anyway, I felt I should really update this, as I've been pretty quiet. I'll be updating the site itself soon too - that just takes a lot more work.

Cathy

Milwaukee Railroad Ride, April 25th 2009

2009-04-29T07:57:00.000-07:00

Monica Bretherton and I loaded up ‘the boys’, Galen and Arzuw, on Friday morning, for our trip over the pass to Kittitas, WA for the Milwaukee Railroad Ride. This ride is run on the John Wayne Trail, an old railroad grade for the Milwaukee Railroad (for more info, see Monica’s blog at http://blog.seattlepi.com/horsebytes/archives/166278.asp for a detailed history). This isn’t necessarily a very interesting ride, as it’s pretty much out and back on the same trail, although ride manager Gail Williams did add a nice lower part to the 3rd loop (our second loop), along a stream and through some fields. There was even a patch of mud to make us Seattleites feel at home. It is a fairly easy trail and makes a nice introduction to endurance. This past weekend though, what made it really an ‘endurance’ ride was the wind. We had gusts up to 100 mph in places and were riding into 60-80 mph gusts with a pretty steady wind when those were quiet. We made jokes about being blown off the trail, and as I felt Galen being blown sideways during some canter strides, I made very sure we weren’t too close to the edge. I don’t think anyone was blown off, but we did notice a few bandannas and other implements that probably flew out of people’s hands.

So, Monica and I did the 25, as this was Monica’s first ride and Ari’s also. Ari did do a trail ride a few years back with my daughter, but that hardly means he was a veteran. We have been conditioning, but my work schedule has made it a weekday thing, after I recover from my very busy weekend (I work swing shift over the weekend). Galen has several years of conditioning and rides under his girth, but we didn’t want to overface either Ari or Monica. We arrived in camp around 1ish on Friday and got camp set up, checked in, vetted the horses in and went for a ride. The wind wasn’t so bad on Friday, and we had a nice 5 or 6 mile warm-up. That night, the wind picked up and we both kept waking up every time the camper started rocking. Monica said it was like being at sea. It didn’t seem to bother the boys much, but they were on the protected side of the trailer. Saturday morning dawned, cold and windy. Our start time was 8 am (yeah, limited distance!) and we went out at the end of the pack. Galen walked out of camp on a loose rein, which I found extremely satisfying, as I’ve spent several years trying to achieve this. In the past, he thought we should roar out of camp, pass everyone and show them all his fine Teke behind. Saturday, he walked like a gentleman, allowed gigging horses a wide berth as we passed those less fortunate. We started trotting probably a half mile outside of camp and then passed bunches of people. I do admit we both were probably more than a bit smug on our well-behaved, smooth ATs, passing gigging, sweating, bouncy arabs and arab crosses. There were also a lot of gaited horses at the ride and some did quite well. We played tag with one mule for quite a while. We came to the tunnel at 4.5 miles and all eastbound traffic went up and over this year. There was another 4.3 miles after this that we trotted and cantered. We made pretty good time on the trip out, averaging 8.8 miles (it took us exactly an hour for the entire outward trip). We made our turnaround and found out why everyone coming towards us was hunched over and looking windblown. Galen thought we should just keep going WITH the wind, forget about heading back. But, we turned into the wind and started our trek back. It was amazing! Over in Western Washington, we’re just not used to wind like this – this would have been a huge storm, with trees coming down, schools closed and barns locked up tight. In Eastern Washington, it was just…spring. Give us Seattle people rain and mud and we’re pretty much ok, but wind! We trotted and did some cantering, but the suspension phase of the canter was a little hairy, as I could feel Galen being pushed over in the air. We also slowed down considerably, averaging about 4.5 miles an hour coming back. Then we came to the tunnel. The tunnel is maybe 300 feet long (I’m guessing) and has some light going Westward. There is about 20 feet that is almost pitch black, so the horses must trust the rider. (Or, maybe they can see way better than us and it’s not pitch black to them). Galen had done the tunnel twice before, so I got off and led. Ari was a bit nervous, but he and Monica came through ok. I know some people ride through it, but when I tried last year, I got so dizzy I almost fell off. Definitely better to walk! We mounted up and headed back to camp, where we were pulsed down when we arrived and vetted through fine. Back to the camper for a hold and lunch for all of us.

Our second loop was the opposite direction and Gail had changed the loop so it was more interesting, with part of it going along the river and through some fields. This made for a nice change and refreshed us all. We came back on the John Wayne trail and had one moment when Galen stepped in a length of wire that stuck around his leg for a stride or two. The actual wire wasn’t the problem, but the weird noise it made dragging along was a bit daunting. But, he listened to me and stopped nicely, and we threw the wire of the trail so some less lucky person didn’t get tangled in it. We did more walking this loop, as both boys weren’t quite as eager to move out anymore. We made it back to camp about 1 pm and were pulsed down coming in. We were amazed to find that we were in the top ten finishers for the 25 and both elected to stand for Best Condition. While I didn’t really think we’d win, it’s an excellent training tool and gives you another vet to look at your horse and comment. So, we did our initial vetting and went back to the trailer to clean them up for the final vetting. I was horrified to see that Galen had rubs on both front pasterns from his Easyboot gaiters, so spent some time getting those looking good. Definitely something to work on for our next rides – no rubs! We went back for our final vetting and the boys were pretty good. The vet did ask if I thought Galen was a bit skinny, so I had to tell him a bit about Akhal-Tekes. Next to an arab or a gaited horse, yes, he’s skinny. But for a fit Teke, not so bad. We finished our vetting and headed back to bed the boys down and have a well-deserved libation. We did think that doing more than the 25 would have been too much definitely for Ari and possibly for Galen at this point. Unfortunately, my working has really cut into our conditioning rides. But, they finished with some reserves and we’ll stick to LDs for at least a while. Probably the entire season for Ari, as he doesn’t have the years of conditioning that Galen does. As for Galen and I, well, we’ll see. A lot depends on if I can get more conditioning in. If not, well, LDs finish nice and early, so we can hang out, drink beer (or wine) and watch the longer distances come and go. More time then to visit and tell people about Tekes!

We came in 9th and 10th (although at the final vetting they said 8th and 9th) and were 7th and 8th (or 6th and 7th?) in the Best Condition. There were about 30 odd people in the 25 and I think there were several pulls. I have to say I was busy looking at my vet card and BC card at that point and didn’t really pay attention.

Now the boys get a few days off to eat. Ari is all for that, but Galen was running laps an hour after we got home.

Cathy

For more blogging from Monica and photos, go to :http://blog.seattlepi.com/horsebytes/archives/167411.asp

Another Gorgeous Day in Seattle!

2009-04-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

It's about 65 degrees now, with no end in sight. Ahhh....spring! Wish I had more oomph though. Working swing shift all weekend sure takes it out of me. Anyway, I'm sitting here writing instead of being outside, which really shows my level of energy.

We're getting ready for our first ride this coming weekend, the Milwaukee Railroad Ride. This will be our first of the year and Monica Bretherton and Ari's first ever! Ari did do an organized trail ride a few years back with my daughter, Callie, but nothing organized since. I'm hoping they both are competely hooked (yes, there is a selfish reason - that way I have a riding partner!)

I did my 5th ride on Alav yesterday. She really is amazing. We walked and trotted on the lunge and then I had my ground person, Kay, let me off. Alav acted like she's had a zillion rides. No big deal. I think she is going to be a very special horse. She is sort of for sale...but every ride I put on her, I think, hmmm.... I'm hoping to get another ride or two in this week, but we'll see. Between pasture and farm maintenance and getting ready for the ride, that might be pushing it.

Well, my coffee is helping a little bit, so I think I'll head out and see what I can accomplish today!

Cathy

Spring seems to be here...maybe.

2009-04-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

The weather here has not made up it's mind. One day, snow, sleet and wind. The next, sunshine, warmth and flowers. I think I'll take the second! On those nasty, wet days, I have a hard time getting my butt into the saddle, much less doing farm maintenance. The past few days have been a wonder of work - riding for hours, cleaning mud from paddocks, planning all those barn chores that need to be done and did I mention riding?

Our first ride was cancelled, due to no fault of the organizer, so we're now pointed at the Milwaukee Railroad Ride on April 25th. I think the horses are ready, as we went out Monday for a nice, long ride and both were raring to go (and at least Galen was pretty insistent about it). I'm kind of wondering if a 25 will be enough for him, or if we'll be doing a horse race. He did seem to think that galloping would be way more fun than our trotting. That's all well and good until the trail peters out or the trees close in.

Monica Bretherton and I took Galen and Ari up to Mann Road in Sultan and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It must have been 70 degrees with sunshine. The trails themselves were very good, with only an occasional patch of mud. We did have one little scare, when we were going past a huge deadfall and the horses thought there was something scary. Being big, strong women, we said "No problem", but then the crashing in the woods started...something big and slow and heavy was moving around, probably doing it's version of singing at the top of it's lungs. We hurried past, hoping to find a different trail to come back on. Nope. Had to go past the crashing again. I think all of us (crashing animal included) breathed a sigh of relief after that. I really do need to learn some new songs, as singing campfire songs gets a bit redundant after a while.

We saw a lovely, emerald green pond, probably a beaver pond, across the road at one point. Galen said he WASN'T going in that (no such idea, as I could see submerged logs). Ari thought the whole thing was a good place to stop for a minute and relax. Galen thought we should gallop on to the next scenic view.

We did get the boys sweating a bit this time, but they had good heartrates back at the trailer and would have been very happy to continue on, so I think our conditioning is doing fine.

I'm really looking forward to the ride on the 25th , and I'm hoping I won't spend the entire ride thinking about bigger bits and martingales for my galloping boy!

Cathy

Rescue Horses or The price of being a responsible breeder

2008-10-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

I just got back from 20 hours on the road, going to pick up 2 horses that had been abandoned. One was a colt I had bred and sold 2 years ago, the other a pasture mate of his that I knew. The person who had owned these horses is a decent, hardworking soul, who bought the colt in better times with excellent intentions. Times changed, her life changed and I get a call (very indirectly) from the person boarding them that their board hasn't been paid in 4 months and he doesn't know what to do. He said he hadn't heard from the owner in months, had tried calling, writing and finally got a hold of an old boyfriend of hers that got me through the grapevine. He said he didn't want to send them to auction, as they were nice horses and in the present economic climate that pretty much is a death sentance. His other option was the big cat sanctuary in his area...not so great either. No rescues would take them, as they were in pretty good condition. What to do?
No question, I had a road trip ahead of me. I asked him if I could contact a friend in the area to come pick them up - no problem. My friend picked up the two horses I was taking and saw no signs of the other 4 that had also been abandoned. Not all were from the person I had sold the colt to, although she had a mustang boarded there that I did not want to take, as he was only very green broke and a very difficult horse. 3 others were young QHs that were supposedly out of 'assorted mares by a nice, big stallion', bred by another person who had fallen on hard times. I have no idea what happened to these horses and I just won't think too hard about it.

So, my friend picked them up, took them home and gave me a report. They were thin, looked wormy, but not starving. Their feet hadn't seen a trim in at least a year (not surprising, as that was how long they'd been there). She said the colt was very small and very depressed, but looked nice overall. She dewormed them, trimmed their feet and put lots of food into them for the week or so she had them.

I drove down Tuesday with a good friend and our 10 hour trip flew by. We discussed horses (of course!), husbands, world affairs, breed affairs, and many other topics. We arrived in 95 degree weather, which was wonderful, as Seattle has definately gone into FALL weather. We were invited to eat wonderful organic food and we talked and caught up until my eyelids started drooping. We didn't get out of her farm until late the next morning, as we kept finding new things to talk about, but finally hit the road at about 10:30 am. The two boys travelled like troopers, with Andre (the Teke colt) eating and drinking like a seasoned traveller. Shotzi (the Arab) wasn't quite as happy and didn't drink at all and only ate a little. I wasn't all that worried though, as Shotzi had plenty of reserves and it wasn't very hot. Another 10 hour drive, lots of talking and we arrived home at about 9:30 pm. Both boys were happy to get out into the arena and had a nice roll. Today I took Shotzi over to where he'll be staying for quite some time, hopefully showing a new trail rider the joys of riding. Andre is out with Danny, one of his buddies from when he was a baby, and he has settled in quite nicely. He is a little shorter than Danny and much, much narrower, but I think he'll catch up in time and attain his genetic potential of being about 16 hands. He looks pretty good from the side, just under muscled, but is so narrow it's almost comical. I intend to take some photos tomorrow, then in about 2 weeks and then every two weeks after to show his progress. I groomed both boys a bit tonight and Andre hasn't lost his sweet, friendly attitude and seemed to really, REALLY enjoy the currying and brushing. Danny wasn't so sure that Andre should get any of that, but gave in with fairly good grace.

So, two horses saved, but it really does raise questions about breeding...one expects that when you sell a horse to a nice, hardworking person for a reasonable price, this sort of thing won't happen. Wrong. I have no foals coming this next year, because of several issues, but I will really have to think about the future. I know I'm not the only one that has had this sort of thing happen and when I do produce a foal I commit to it for it's entire life. I've gotten back a few horses, for one reason or another, but I've never had this situation before. With hay topping $300 a ton and me feeding a ton a week, it's very thought provoking.

Anyway, Andre is out in my paddock right now, chowing down on lovely grass hay, just had a nice grain feeding and is warm and dry. Shotzi is over in a big field with a few other horses, with someone that knows and likes him. The mustang and the QHs...I don't want to know.

Cathy

Life on the Farm this summer

2008-08-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

It's August and things are busy, busy, busy here. I've just started a part-time job at our local Large Animal Hospital as a vet assistant, so I'm learning lots there. Our foals are growing nicely and it looks as if Suyji has been sold as a stallion prospect. We've had several visitors in the last weeks to see horses, most of which have seen us at one Expo or another. Karen Wegehenkel, who took the lovely photos at Celebrate the Horse that are on my site, came out and took a bunch more of several of the horses. The photos turned out wonderfully and it makes me wonder how they would have looked if all the horses had actually been clean! There are links to her site on my site, so if you need a photographer, give her a call.

I've gotten some trail riding in - over the last weekend Wendy and I went out and trimmed some trails up at Mann Road in Sultan and then the next day Callie and I met up with the Pomeroys and we did a nice little ride at Lord Hill. Lovely!

We're starting to think about school now, planning our summer vacation and getting school clothes situated. All good stuff!

Cathy

Summer Days

2008-07-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

Summer is definately here and it's great. I am solar-powered, so here in the Pacific Northwest, summer is my favorite season. Lately, I've been outside, cleaning paddocks, working horses, mowing, weedwhacking, you name it, as long as it's outside. I'm not doing all that much riding, as all my kids are home and I feel rather guilty going off and having fun while they're stuck at home doing their chores. And, we're breeding, treating mares, managing the stallion, etc, so that takes time.

I did get in a nice ride this weekend with my friend Wendy. I took my daughter, Callie's horse, Ari, as Galen had a slight stone bruise. He was quite good, although we did have a 'discussion' about leaving the lush grass at one stop. I explained to him that he'd get to eat later on and life was fine.

Tomorrow it's hauling mares to the vet clinic for ultrasounds and treatments. Thursday, we might get another ride in...hopefully!

Cathy

Getting Ready for our Expo

2008-07-13T07:40:00.000-07:00

Here at Cascade Gold, we've put aside competing for a bit and are getting ready to show off our horses at a local horse expo. Celebrate the Horse is in a large venue, so there should be pretty good crowds. I'm taking 4 of my horses (whew!); I'm riding Galen, my daughter Callie is riding her gelding Arzuw, her friend Tayler is riding Mazan and Monica Bretherton is riding Andymn. We've all been preparing for about a month now, as neither Tayler nor Monica had ridden their mounts before. We're hoping that Andy can show off some of his jumping skills and Tayler and Maz will be showing off their developing partnership. We've been hauling out to other barns, going on little trail rides (it's been years since Maz was off the farm!) and working on costumes. I think we will have a decent show - I've told the crew that we're there to show how fun our horses are - we're not going to worry about presenting a perfect dressage test or a drill, but to show people that Tekes are fabulous horses to ride. (and, they're very fancy while doing that!). There is also a Warhorse Challenge going on, that we might try to do. Last year, at Horse N Around days (a similar expo we went to), the Warhorse Challenge group offered to let other horses and riders do their course. I'm sure it was a very beginner one to them, but it looked like a blast. We're thinking that we might try it...we've been knocking buckets off of jump standards with plastic swords (and Ari has helped Callie with this several times - he just knocks them off with his nose before she can with the sword), and we need to set up a ring to spear. We'll see how everyone does at the expo itself, as it will be over the 4th and could be a bit noisy! But, if you're in the neighborhood, come check us out. The link for Celebrate the Horse with more information is http://www.celebratethehorse.org/clinics/breed_demos.phpI'll share the weekend's story and photos when we get back!Cathy

The Foals are Here!

2008-07-11T16:05:00.000-07:00

Both of 2008's foals are now here. Alav foaled last week on July 2nd at the considerate time of 8 am and had a gorgeous, dark brown or smokey black colt. Ria waited until we were back from Celebrate the Horse and foaled Wednesday evening around 8:30 a huge, gorgeous filly. They haven't been introduced to each other yet, but will be soon.

Celebrate the Horse Expo, July 5th and 6th, 2008

2008-07-11T15:59:00.000-07:00

Whew! It was quite the weekend here in Seattle. We started our week off with Alav foaling a gorgeous, dark brown colt on Wednesday (thank goodness she cooperated with OUR schedule!), and then got everything packed up and ready to go for Friday morning. Our little caravan set off to Puyallup to the Puyallup Fairgrounds, where the Celebrate the Horse Expo was. We had me, my daughter Callie, my son Zach, our friends Margaret Pomeroy and her two daughters, Rachel and Tayler along. We got down to the Fairgrounds and got the horses all tucked in their stalls and unloaded most of the gear, exhibit stuff and feed. Galen was not at all happy in his stall (he lives outdoors year round, as he really HATES stalls), so we put he and Maz together in one stall. They were cozy, but Galen calmed down. We got the boys out into the big arena where we would be doing our exhibitions and got them a bit used to it. Everyone did well, especially Callie and Tayler, who both did absolutely fabulous jobs with their mounts. Later that evening, we watched fireworks at the campsite and celebrated Callie's 14th birthday with cake and sparklers (and a bit more for the adults!). Saturday morning, we were up at 6 am, as we had a 7 am practice time in the big arena. The kids all did their morning chores without any fuss and we had another good practice session. I then signed up Galen and I as a demo horse for a few clinicians, figuring that the more exposure the better and hey, I was there anyway, might as well have fun! So, we got everything set up back at the barn, Zach demonstrated absolutely outstanding sales skills, talking to the people wandering the aisles and at 1:30 I went into the big arena with Galen for a demo with Steve Rother. This was to be a trail obstacles demo, but as I told Steve, the obstacles weren't a problem - it was being in the arena with it's totally non-natural obstacles that seemed to be the issue. So, he had us go out to the warm-up arena, trot circles for about 5-6 minutes and then come back into the arena and hang out. Our first time, Galen hung out for about 5 minutes and then got ancy again. Back outside, trot more circles, come back in. The arena was looking better each time we went out. By the end of the 40 or so minute demo, Galen was showing the other horses how to do obstacles - pushing a huge ball around, walking over (and thinking about dragging) a blue tarp, going between barrels, over poles etc. He was very pleased with himself, as he should have been. Our group went on at 3:30 and Callie, Tayler and I rode around the perimeter of the arena, while Monica Bretherton jumped Andy in the middle. Her husband, Bill Drescher, was our jump man and they all did a fabulous job. I have to also mention that Cindy and Larry Balogh, Andy's owners, where there helping with jumps and general stuff, my husband Larry and eldest daughter Alex came and helped out too. We'll have some video up soon. Our fifteen minute spot was up all too soon, and to enthusiastic applause, we exited the arena and swapped high fives and happy smiles. We did a bunch of posing for photos, as we were in our fantastic costumes, most of which Margaret did. I especially liked our helmet covers - I had told her I liked the traditional fuzzy hats, but wouldn't allow the kids (or myself) to ride without helmets, so she came up with authentic looking helmet covers! She also 'blinged' up the boy's bridles and came up with some non-authentic, but authentic LOOKING a-la-jas. Hurray for ingenuity! Then, a bit later, Callie and I did the Warhorse Challenge! We had seen this last year at the Horse N Around Days and it looked like great fun. Callie and Ari did some practicing at home, knocking buckets off of jump standards and Ari really got into it, up to knocking the buckets over with his nose before she could. I hadn't practiced at all with Galen, but figured that if we can trot those winding trails in the woods and break off branches at the same time, we were fine. Callie and I went in together, starting with a spear each to spear through 4 rings hanging from standards. We both had to figure out how to hold the spear and not whack our horses. I did pretty well, getting all the rings, but Callie was having a hard time managing the heavy spear AND steering her horse. But, she preservered and we stuck the 'boar' (a bale of straw) and took up the sword to chop off the enemies 'heads' (pop bottles on standards). I chopped the head and got the other rings, but Callie was once again having trouble keeping everything balanced. We had practiced with light, plastic swords and these were heavy, wooden swords. But, she finished the course, and left the arena saying "I had better practice more for next year!" We also only trotted, instead of the full out gallop the veterans did - the announcer called it 'The saunter attack'. I figure we would have gotten the enemy stragglers. But, it was great fun and the horses enjoyed it.So, we were done for the day and poor Andy had had enough. He started pacing his stall but happily calmed down enough that I felt safe leaving him. We finished up our day with card games, treats and stories back at the campsite. Sunday morning we skipped our 6 am practice time, as the kids were pretty tired from the day before. As soon as people started showing up, poor Andy was a basket case. I finally put Galen in the stall with him, which annoyed Galen to no end (Andy can be a bit of a butt), but calmed Andy down. Andy spent the rest of the day hanging out behind Galen, resting his head on Galen's back. We talked to the public and didn't have anything set up until 3:30, when we did our demo again. This one was even better than the day before, with us all knowing what to do and how to do it. Andy jumped higher and better, the girls did an even better job and Galen was super. Andy then was a demo horse for Barb Apple to demonstrate some ground training techniques and then was done. I then rode Galen in the Warhorse Challenge again, although I still didn't gallop, but got all the rings and cut the 'head' off. Our 'saunter attack' was excellent. The kids got to see some of the other things going on, we had a good response from the public, and we started packing up and were home by 8 pm Sunday night. I couldn't have done this weekend without the help of Margaret Pomeroy and her girls, Tayler riding and Rachel being flag-girl and general helper; Cindy and Larry Balogh for letting me take Andy and taking loads of stuff to and from the fairgrounds; Monica Bretherton riding Andy and her husband Bill Drescher helping her; Callie for riding and Zach for his stellar salesmanship and flag-holding , and my husband Larry and my daughter Alex for taking care of the barn at home. It was a very good weekend, I'm sure we're all pretty pooped today, cause I sure am, but it was fun and we're already planning for next year's Expo!Cathy

A Rainy Day!

2008-05-11T13:09:00.000-07:00

I had all the best intentions of heading out and doing a nice, long trail ride today. But, it's pouring rain and even the most diehard trail rider would be hard-pressed to get excited about being wet, cold and muddy. So, we had some lessons in the arena, and now I'm sitting in front of the computer, updating my websites and wondering if reading a book during the day, while not actually ill, would make me feel too guilty. Juries still out on that one.

Things have been going fairly well - Galen and I did our first 50 a few weeks back and I'm ready for my next one. We have one planned at the end of the month - the Klickitat Trek, and until then, we're doing conditioning rides, I'm working on getting my saddle a bit more comfortable and working with some of the other horses. You can read the story of our first 50 at http://atsablog.blogspot.com/.

I have two mares due to foal a bit later this year - Alav is due June 28th and Ria is due July 13th, so I suspect I won't be doing any rides for a few weeks there. I am looking forward to these foals, although I hope I don't have the same problems we had last year. We had three mares with red bag deliveries, most likely due to fescue toxicity. Alav and Ria will be switched over to alfalfa only fairly soon (which I suspect they won't mind at all!) so we (hopefully) won't have the same problem this year. I need to get some of the youngsters started under saddle, and breeding season will be starting very soon for us. Khano, my stallion, thinks we should have started a few weeks ago, but I really don't like having foals too early, as they then have to contend with cold weather, mud, rain, mud, and more mud. June or July babies tend to have warmer weather, no mud, more green grass and everyone is happier all around. Tekes don't have futurities or a mandatory January 1st birthday, so there is very little reason to have very early foals like there is in QHs or TBs. The warmer weather also makes for a much nicer foal watch - I often spend at least part of the nights on foal watch in the barn, even though I have a video monitor, and freezing isn't much fun.

Well, I think I've overcome my guilt about curling up on the sofa and reading during the day and it IS Mother's Day, so I think I'll go do that.

Until next time,

C.

Grizzly Mountain Ride, April 19th, 2008

2008-04-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

I'm here in front of the computer with a dog on my lap. I'm pretty sore from the ride this weekend, so am catching up on emails, blogs, etc. I wrote a complete report on the ride on another blog atsablog@blogspot.com, so I won't go into a long-winded recount here. I was lucky that my husband and kids took over the farm for the weekend and did a lovely job taking care of things. My 10 year old son, Zach, even did the grains on Saturday night, as his big sister Callie, was at a sleepover. She usually does the grains, but Zach stepped up and helped out. I'm still unloading the trailer and camper, although as we're planning on heading out again on Friday, I'm not doing a complete unpacking. After this next weekend, it will be several weekends before our next ride. I don't remember which one is next, off the top of my head. It was a very fun weekend, and our friends David and Jennifer LeBlanc camped next to us. We didn't coordinate very well for meals, so will have to do better this coming weekend!

Cathy

Another lovely weekend

2008-04-14T09:34:00.000-07:00

Went riding with my friend Wendy on Sunday down at Griffin Creek outside of Fall City. Nice trails, and lots of them! Something that really made me grin was the little wood signs on many of the trails - someone has a great sense of humor. Names like "Wee Owl" and now I'm blanking on some of the good ones! But, decent footing, although we had to walk some sections because of big rocks. In and out of the trees was great fun and Allie and Galen loved it. He's getting fitter and wants to go faster and longer, so that is wonderful. He's also discovered a huge walk, which he's never had before. We went out with some friends several weeks ago on somewhat green horses, so we walked the entire time of about an hour and a half. Galen was very practical and said "well, if we can't trot, then I'll walk as fast and big as I can". Fine by me! We were keeping up with a big walking Morgan mare and were faster than the Rocky Mountain mare. His walk has always been his weakest gait, but I'd say Not Any More! The funniest thing was that my back was so sore after that. His trot is very smooth and the canter the same, but that walk was like being on a seesaw, back up, hind quarters under, thrust, back down, repeat. I'm much more used to it now though, as we've been practicing!

We're getting ready for our first ride of the year down in Madras, Oregon. I sure hope the weather cooperates, cause even if it doesn't, I'm going! The camper is pretty much packed from our aborted ride at the end of March (the passes were closed and roads were icy), so we just need to repack the trailer, put our perishables in and load the ponies. It should be a lot of fun and I'm hoping we'll see some other Teke folks down there.

Cathy

Akhal-Teke blogging

2008-04-06T15:05:00.000-07:00

This is sort of addicting! Rainy, blustery Sunday out, so I'm working in the nice, dry computer room.

So, I was writing about Galen. Poor boy! Yesterday I went out to give him his morning grain (he's one of those 'hard-keepers', lucky boy!) and he was looking absolutely miserable. After a five minute panic - 'Oh my goodness, he has some horrible, life-threatening disease', I remembered he'd had 3 shots on Thursday when we went to get our 6 month passport, coggins and brand inspection. Huge sigh of relief and then I got some bute into him, rubbed his poor little ears and put his hay up in a haynet. So, he gets a few days off from riding, until his neck is all better. He's feeling better today - brighter eye, less pitiful looking. I'll know he's all back to normal when I turn him out and he runs around for an hour.

This morning was our 'lesson' morning. A friend and boarder, Kay, is giving lessons to my husband and son in return for my help with her youngster. It's working out nicely, as both guys can really make me crazy during lessons and it doesn't bother Kay a bit. Of course, she's not related to either of them, which no doubt makes a difference. Zach rode his pony, Bella, and did a nice job. Larry (my husband) rode Maz, our 15 year old purebred Teke gelding. Maz is such a good boy! He's had years of training and riding and is so good with the less confident riders. If he's really unsure of what they want, he just goes to the instructor and stands there, seemingly saying "You'd better give this one some more talking, cause I have no idea what they want!". He's got lovely, smooth gaits that make for much easier posting and sitting for the beginner. Such a good boy! I even thought of getting the camera and taking some photos, but then I gave my eldest daughter a lesson on him and it didn't happen. All the family wants to be able to go on trail rides this summer and I think seeing everyone mounted on horses we've bred, raised and trained (or almost everyone!) will be a highlight of the year. We also have an Expo coming up in July and I'm hoping I can get a few kids to ride with me in that. We'll see. Someone has to stay home and mind the farm too!

Well, I suppose this is enough for right now. I'm starting to feel guilty about the time I'm taking to write, vs shed cleaning, horse grooming, arena grooming, etc.

Until next time,

C.

First Entry

2008-04-05T15:44:00.000-07:00

My husband thinks that I need to 'blog', so here I am. I've been breeding, training, riding and raising Akhal-Tekes for 22 years now, so I have some good stories. I'm located in Washington State, outside of Seattle and right now I have (OK, have to count), 1 stallion, 2 senior broodmares, 3 younger broodmares, 2 up and coming fillies, 2 colts (probably both will be gelded), and 3 riding geldings. We're expecting 2 foals this year and are planning on breeding 3 mares for next year.

I think my major focus will be my gelding, Galen. He and I are getting ready for our ride season and perhaps that will make interesting reading. I bred Galen and he's now 8 years old (wow). We started doing some LD rides in the 2005 ride season, took 2006 off (too many foals and breedings that year!) and did one trail ride last year. This year, deep breath, we're going to get out there and compete! Our first ride should have been March 29th, but between nasty snow, icy roads and closed passes, it did not happen. So, we'll be starting out April 19th in Madras, OR at Grizzly. I'm going to do the 25 LD ride, as I want to really make sure that we're both ready. OK, I'm sure he's ready, I need to make sure I'M ready! Then, if all goes well for the next couple of rides, we'll see about a...gasp...50. I know that real endurance riders think that is no big deal, but I'm someone who about 5 years ago said "I will NEVER do an endurance ride". So, even thinking about a 50 is a big step.

One very interesting byproduct of becoming a neophyte endurance rider (I don't think I can claim to be a real "endurance" rider until I've done that 50!), is how well I'm getting to know my horse. Now, I've known Galen since he was conceived, so you'd THINK I know him quite well, but in my hours of riding and conditioning, I'm sure getting to know him much better. More on that later, as it's time to feed horses and they get a bit upset if dinner is late!

Back in the house, horses contentedly munching their hay and grain.

So, back to riding and things I've learned about the horse I've had since birth.
1. Trails are fun! Galen thinks that trails are so very, very much better than working in the arena. For example, we're having some difficulty getting the right lead canter. In the arena, it's a production - ten minutes of head-tossing, ear-pinning, kicking at the leg, crow-hopping and making me laugh. On the trail, I ask and if it doesn't happen, I ask again and there it is. No big deal. He's getting better about arena work, but because it is such a huge issue, I just usually do dressage on the trails - leg yield past that log, shoulder-in up that straight stretch. Half of the time, I think if I threw a bunch of logs, holes and rocks into my arena, that would work too.
2. Saddle fit really is an issue. That saddle that does fine for a few sessions a week in the arena just doesn't cut it for hours of riding up and down hills. I ended up buying a new Specialized saddle last year and I'm still figuring it out. It fits him pretty well, although we have to adjust it all the time as he changes. I'm still getting used to the wider twist. But, it sure helps going up those steep hills, as he has no mane to speak of to grab onto!
3. Treats are optional. You'd think he'd be a treat hog. Not so. He's quite picky about what treats he'll eat. Carrots? Naw. Apples? Naw. Apple flavored horsey bites? Only if they're the RIGHT brand. Of course, whoever I'm riding with appreciates his pickiness, as their horse tends to get all the 'rejects'.

There are tons of other things I'm learning too, about pacing, heart rates, hill work etc. All great stuff, with plenty more to learn.

I did take my camera with me last week on some conditioning rides...but I didn't use it. Too bad, as we were in some beautiful spots. Maybe next time!

Cathy