End of the Season!

Well, it's certainly been a LONG time since I posted.  Let me update you on the rest of our season. 

First, the great news.  Traveler won the CSI "Horse of the Year" award for Combined Training for the second year in a row.  YAH!  I can hardly wait to see what our prize is!  :)

Traveler and I spent September competing and he placed 11th in the Open Novice Championships at Aspen.  I was so proud of him, he was awesome!  We had a great time.  Then we headed off to finish up the season at Northwest.  Our Novice team placed 1st and Traveler & I placed 7th.  We got prizes and a ribbon and we sailed through the cross-country course.  Another wonderful time.  Here were are cooling off and leaving the dressage arena at Aspen.  

Traveler and I coming off the first jump at NW.  Easy as pie.

Stadium at Northwest.  

Stadium at Aspen.

Traveler, after competing all 3 Days at Aspen.  See the ICHO banner?  I would like to thank the International Curly Horse Registry for sponsoring us to compete in the Aspen Championships.  

Traveler and I took a break between events in September and I headed over to the Equine Institute Combined Training event in Cle Elum with Traveler's 4 year old son, Timbuktu and my 6 year old daughter Luna & her little mini, Podo.  They competed for the first time in dressage and she did great!  We were a little worried that Podo might jump out of the ring, since in practice sesssion whenever he gets "done" with dressage he just pops out over the rail.  But he stayed in the arena and they rode their best test ever -she came home with a trophy!  Good job.  And everyone loved Podo - except for a couple of big TBs. 

I decided it was time for introduce Timbuktu to the "real" world and he participated in his first ever Combined Training Event.  He had never jumped a complete stadium course or cross-country course ever in his life and he was AWESOME.  He placed in the Top 10 - did just fine in dressage, great in stadium and after the first two jumps in cross-country, he had it down.  I called Mark and told him to start breeding every horse he could find to Traveler - because his get is AMAZING!  Totally took everything in stride, stayed calm and collected (he had never been ridden around so many horses jumping, cantering, going this way and that way...) and jumped when I asked him to.  What more do you need in a horse?

 Timbuktu's first jump on the cross-country course. 

Season's over now - the horses are on "break".  What an incredible year for us at Traveling Moon Ranch.  Traveler competed and finished all of his recognized 3 Day Events - even rode at Aspen in Champioships.  His two sons are following in their sire's great hoof prints - Khatmoondhu completed 2 limited distance endurance races with overall "A" scores.  Timbuktu competed and finished his first ever Combined Training event.  And the kids won tons of ribbons throughout the year at local horse shows with their little steeds.  Great year!

Traveler wins AWARDS!!!

I have just returned from American Bashkir Curly Registry conference in Reno, Nevada and I bring great news!

DCC Traveler, our breeding stallion at Traveling Moon Ranch was honored with the following awards:

2011 National Performance Horse - Grand Champion.  Out of the entire registry - Traveler is the #1 performance horse.  WAY TO GO Traveler!!

2011 National Versatility Horse - Grand Champion.  Again, Traveler was the #1 horse in the area of versatility - he can do it all - endurance racing, expos, demos, shows, clinics......

2011 Frequent Rider Program, Competitive Division, Grand Champion - for his ability to compete in Endurance Racing.

This stallion does it all!  and with a great attitude and outstanding athletic ability!!

I also managed to hang up all of our ribbons - that I have won in the past for competing not only with Traveler, but also with his two sons - Timbuktu and Khatmoondhu.  Watch out for the Curlies - they clean up.

Stanton Farms Horse Trials

This past weekend Traveler and I competed at the Stanton Farm Horse Trials and had a blast.  We packed up the motorhome with my two kids and my niece and my husband piloted us from our ranch to Stanton Farms.  The first day was dressage - Traveler had his best test ever and we ended up in 4th place after Dressage.  Yah!  Always a good way to start an event - in the top 5.

Next was Saturday - cross country and the reason one competes in the sport of Eventing.  The course was maxed out for time and the first jump was fierce.  Maxed out in height and width.  Half of the riders in my division were eliminated on the cross-country course, it was that difficult.  We ran like the wind to make time and Traveler soared over ever fence.  It was terrific - the wind in my hair, Traveler's mane flying and we took every jump perfectly.  He absolutely loves cross-country.  We were 3 seconds from getting a time fault for going too fast!!!  Here we are going over the red barn.  They had fake chickens and pigs in front of it - didn't bother Traveler at all.  All he saw was the jump and off we went.

The ski-jump.....

 The water complex.....

And now for stadium.  We finished cross-country in 2nd place and next up for Sunday was stadium.  If we dropped one rail, we would be knocked down to 3rd place.  The pressure was on.  Traveler entered the ring ready to jump and jump we did.  Traveler and I flew around the fences and cleared every fence.  

We ended up taking 2nd for the Stanton Farms Event and Traveler and I couldn't be happier.  He was a great horse and a true joy to ride.  I can't believe how far we have come!!!

 Good boy Traveler!!!

Show Time!!

Fast, fun and furious show times at Traveling Moon Ranch - whew!  It was a whirlwind day with 3 kids and 3 horses and non-stop activity from the time the show started at 9am to 2pm.  I was switching horses, show numbers, bridles, saddles and frantically painting hooves.  We did it and the kids "cleaned up" at the show with a total of 14 ribbons.  (Well, two were mine.)

This last week my niece, Dayna, came over to visit and spent a week of "Curly" Horse Camp at the Ranch. Her week of horse activities ended in a horse show on Saturday - she handled my 4 year old Curly gelding, Timbuktu, and my two daughters showed their little mighty mites - Comet and Podo.  They are about the cutest and sweetest minis you ever did see.  And yes, they ride them.  And jump them.  And Dayna rides and jumps Timbuktu.  There were hooves a-flying all last week over jumps.

We loaded up the motor home, packed up more show gear than you can imagine, hooked up the trailer and remembered to load the horses and headed off to Mini Acres in Colbert, WA for the horse show.

We arrived, got all the show numbers, reviewed the schedule and started grooming the horses.  Bella, my 4 year old daughter, loves her little mini, Comet.  Start brushing, Bella! 

 Luna, my 6 year old daughter, is loving her mini, Podo.  You start brushing too!

Dayna was ready to brush, comb, paint hooves and get the horses ready.  She proved to be a great show helper and assisted me with my girls and their horses to keep the whole process moving right along.  Doesn't Timbuktu look handsome!

I was able to show Timbuktu in 2 classes - and we started the show with the Adult Halter Geldings class.  Timbuktu is an amazing horse - he was calm but alert and demonstrated enough of a spunky, curious attitude to get the judge and all the spectators to fall in love with him.  He is quite the ham!  Here we are trotting past the judge.

Timbuktu presented himself nicely for the judge and would you believe it?  We placed 2nd in our Halter class for adults.  Good boy!

Timbuktu and I are proudly displaying our 2nd place ribbon.

And then the craziness began with at least one, if not two, kids and horses in the following classes.  And since all the kids were under the age of 11, each child showing in the class had to have an adult shadowing them in the arena.  At times there were six of us in the arena - all the kids and myself, my husband, Mark and my mother.  Thanks guys for your help in making this show a great success.  

Dayna started by showing Timbuktu in her age group at Halter geldings.  They not only won 1st place, but went on to the Halter Championship class and received the coveted Reserved Grand Champion ribbon.  Unbelievable!

Bella and Luna showed their horses in the mini Halter class and demonstrated great horsemanship skills.  The minis strutted their stuff and the girls walked away with 2nd and 3rd place ribbons!  Way to go girls!

Then it was time for all of us, and I mean everyone single one of us, to enter the arena because all the horses were being shown in the Solid Color Halter class.  Timbuktu placed 4th in a class of about 20 horses with handlers of all ages.  And little Bella and Podo placed 2nd!  Wasn't I surprised? The judge seemed to absolutely love Bella, perhaps, because she was by far the youngest person there showing a horse and she took her job very seriously. 

We are not even done yet, and look at all the ribbons so far.  I was able to briefly snatch Timbuktu away from Dayna and show him in the Hunter in Hand class.  He was awesome.  He jumped every jump and didn't hesitate at a single fence.  What a great horse.  We placed 1st in Hunter in Hand.

Now we are trotting out for soundness after the jumping class.  Quick!  Hand off the number back to Dayna because she has a Hunter in Hand class next.

I was the most proud of Dayna during her round of jumping in the Hunter in Hand class.  She was able to present Timbuktu to every fence and he jumped every fence for her as well.  This was a hard class and Dayna did it.  Well done!!

The girls also rode in an equitation class - all three of them, and so again, it was "all hands on deck".  And they won 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Now for the last class of the show for us - Costume Class.

Whew - costume class was a great success and we all came home with lots of ribbons.  The horses and girls  demonstrated great horsemanship and sportsmanship skills and I was very proud of them.  And also of my mother and my husband.  What troopers they were too!

 Home again, unload, unpack and pass out!  Until the next time......

Start of the Season - Traveler does it again!

DCC Traveler (my trusty stallion) and I had a very exciting weekend in May. We competed in our first USEA Recognized event of the year at Northwest in the Novice division. This time we competed in the Open division.

We did it, we finished and we placed 8th and in the ribbons and prizes.

It was probably the best ride I have ever had on Traveler but competition was a lot more fierce in the Open division.

Traveler had a fantastic dressage score!! Dressage is really hard for us, so

that was thrilling. And Traveler jumped every jump, didn't hesitate.

Here is Traveler - strutting his stuff in dressage.  We remembered our test (always good), he didn't do a "stallion scream" during the test (which has happened in the past) and we got our best dressage score to date.  All those 20 meter circles are paying off.  

Dressage was Friday and Saturday was cross-country.  The day we all live for and the whole reason we practice our 20 meter circles - just to make it through dressage to get to cross-country.  What fun!  We had a great run - no refusals, no run-outs, nothing but the wind in our face as we took every jump in stride.  I love looking at the cross-country photos.  You can just see how happy Traveler is - he lives for this.  His ears are forward and he is seeking out the next fence and ready to tackle it.

And here we are crossing the finish line.  Now on to Sunday - stadium.  Definitely more pressure for us.  88 seconds to complete the whole course.

I think we jumped the height of the standards on this jump.  He wasn't going to take any chances.

But that's not all.... I ride under the barn, O'Neal Farms, and my instructor is Karen O'Neal. Her barn was chosen by the esteemed TV company FreeMantle Productions who has brought you such great reality shows such as American Idol and Dance Moms. (HA HA) - to film a pilot for a possible reality show on horses, people and eventing. 

So this weekend Traveler and I were followed around (as were a lot of people) by the TV crew and filmed. They filmed us finishing the cross-country course and doing our final jumps (thank goodness, I nailed those jumps really well.) The possibility of this pilot actually being picked up by the networks and aired as a TV show is not really that high, and I am certainly not the focus of the show. But it was exciting to be filmed by a TV crew and they were very interested in Traveler since he is such a different kind of horse. Let's at least hope Traveler makes it to TV.

What a surprising weekend. I will let you know what transpires in the future and if Traveler will get "famous". HA HA. What a hoot!

Now to go out and feed the horses.....