New Website!

It's been a long time coming, but I finally have a new website, thanks to Monica Bretherton.  It's at www.cgakhaltekes.org and is easy to update, so it won't stay the same (like my old one does because it's SUCH A PAIN to update).  I will continue my blog there, but this one will stay up for the archives.

Thanks for reading!

Poems for a Rainy Day

Poems for a Rainy Day

While I was turning horses out, cleaning sheds and generally getting soaked today, I came up with some Haikus.

Rains have started, very wet
Horses standing in muddy paddocks, no good.
Must buy more gravel pronto.

Drainage systems overloaded with water
Darn, we thought we had it covered
Must dig many more ditches

Gutters are very merrily overflowing
Water gushing everywhere, into stalls, into arena
Ack!  Need to repair quickly

And lastly:

Rain, rain, go away
Summer wasn't here to stay
Me and Galen want to play
Rain, rain, go away.

Think I'll go order some gravel.

One of our 'works in progress'.

Scooter is doing great!

I got an email from Scooter's owner Erin yesterday.  Scooter is Miras - Murgab x Anastasia, 2010 purebred AT gelding born here at CGAT.  She gave me permission to share:

I was so proud of Scooter yesterday.  And so proud to be his person, which he clearly feels.  Every lesson we have had (they are monthly as my trainer comes up from FL) Scooter has just flown through everything we ask of him.  We ask something new & he just sets about doing it with no fight or fuss & he enjoys doing it.  I was cracking up (everyone was who was watching) because while my trainer was explaining the theory behind long-lining & getting the horse balanced & working from the hind end I was holding the lines & his bridle in my hand and hte entire time Scooter was standing next to me pestering the heck out of  me to put the bridle on him.  As soon as I did & clipped the second line he was literally stepping forward to start working.  He just couldn't wait.  After an hour lesson of him offering what we had been asking & watching him experiment with movement & using his body differently, I stopped him & stepped forward to take the lines off & he turned & nickered at me & started rubbing all over me, yawning, blinking, just really processing what we had done...  my trainer remarked "could you two like each other any more?"  It's just really cool to be the person training him.  He is really something else & I hope you take pride in what a great-minded horse he is...  I am truly honored to see how he is blossoming with the slow steady work we are doing together, both his body & mind.

OK enough of my gushing.  Just wanted to share because I get such great positive feedback from him but also the folks at my barn are amazed at his attitude & ethic & how sweet & friendly he is.

 

A good boy!

Erin

 

It is always great when a horse you foaled and raised goes to a loving, happy home.  I'm hoping for great things from the two of them in years to come!

 

Scooter leaping for joy - Karen Wegenhenkel photo, taken in 2012 I believe.

Come Play with us!

I've sold enough horses this year that I have open stalls!  Wow!  Instead of running out and buying more (OK, I do have one mare coming...) I'm being smart and looking for a 'paying' horse.  In other words, I'm looking for a new boarder.  It's been sort of interesting, as I haven't looked for a new boarder in so long that I'm a bit rusty.

I put an ad up on Craigslist and then tried finding it...I obviously had the key words wrong.  So, I tried again.  Slightly better.  I went and looked at some other ads - people now put photos in their ads.  Not terribly surprising, but I didn't even think of it.  So, comb through my zillions of photos for those few that aren't only of horses.

Then, I went on Facebook and tried to follow the rules of each group.  No one is shouting at me, so I guess I did ok.

Anyway, we did a lot of work this summer and the place (while projects aren't all entirely finished) looks pretty good.

So, here it is:

Full Care Horse Boarding between Woodinville and Monroe.  Small, quiet farm with 10 x 12 matted stalls with gravel runs, daily turnout, 3 feeds a day, covered, lighted arena with rubber/sand footing. Tack locker, lovely grass hay.   Looking for 1 to 2 horses.  $500 a month.

Oh, and photos!

I guess I don't just take photos of the property and buildings - there has to be horses in it!  If you're interested email me at c.leddy@frontier.com

The barn is FULL!

Yes, the barn is full...of hay!  We've picked up 750+ bales of local this summer (thank you Larry and kids!) and I just got 29 tons of gorgeous Eastern Washington yesterday (thank you Bob Day at Dayville for always taking great care of me!).  My barn is filled to the rafters and beyond, with overflow going into one of the big foaling stalls.

Callie is standing in the middle of it all.  You can't really see the hay in the stall, but that is what you get when you take a cellphone photo!

Knowing you don't need to scramble to find good hay for the next many months..priceless.

Photoshoots!

Monica and I (Monica Bretherton) did two photoshoots in the past week or so.  Now is the perfect time, with the horses being sleek and shiny and the light staying until reasonably late.  Monica always takes nice photos.

These are of Rocket (barn name still!) 2014 purebred colt by Salam out of Tulah.  Rocket is almost 6 weeks now and is really a nice colt.  Stallion prospect, Fakir Pelvan line.  For sale, $5000, sale pending!

This is Sabyr, aka Stanley, 2013 Salam x Aishet.  Sabyr is just over a year old, and is obviously still growing (look at that butt!).  He's a bit over 15 hands right now and should mature 15.2 or 15.3 at least.  Excellent sport prospect.  $4500

Both boys are lovely horses with bright futures ahead of them!

Off to College

I always think that when a horse heads off to a new life/owner/job, it's kind of like sending your kids to college.  You've done the best you can from child(foal) hood on up, bandaged skinned knees and hocks, taught them right from wrong, put some good ground manners on them and depending on age, sent them through elementary, middle and high school.

All those years of prep work and then one day, you're waving goodbye:

The very fancy 'bus' to Goshen's college.

 

I waved goodbye (after giving him a good lunge and lots of scritches) to Goshen on Wednesday.  He's heading to Indiana to see if he can make it as an eventer with Eron Owens of Greystone Eventing.  I think this is a great match-up, as Eron is not only a talented rider and competitor, but she competed with Goshen's sire, Goklen for many years.

 

 

While here, Gosh has gone through elementary and middle school, gone on one trail ride, done a little bit of a lot of things. This year, he's really grown up in a lot of ways (including hormones, lol), but has really come into his own.

 

He's a little bit thinner than I like ideally, those hormones have kept him moving and moving some more!

 

From what I hear, he will spend a while with the talented Kevin Wallin, getting his mind back to work.  Then we'll see what happens next!

 

Graduate school, perhaps?