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.....

Traveler babies for 2012

Here is the news update of a couple of new 2012 Traveler babies.  Congrats to Shawn for "Shine" - a beautiful Curly filly with sabino markings and a white blaze.  Shine was conceived AI / Shipped Semen and  11 months later, Shine entered the world.  They will have a ton of Curly fun.

And I just was able to see the newest addition to the "Traveler family".  Congrats to Sheila for her Curly filly - yes, another girl.  (How come I get all the colts?)  The dam is Sacajewa and so the filly is to either be named "Curly Sioux" (I like this one best) or "Sioux-z".  Pretty cute names, Sheila.

Curly Sioux is absolutely adorable and I got to see her in person - she has a ton of white on her as well.  Traveler usually passes on his sabino markings - huge white blaze, white leg markings and a stocky, well built little body for a one week old.

Just talked to my farrier and vet - they both bred their mares to Traveler.  I think that says a lot when a farrier and vet - who get to see all kinds of horses, choose to breed to Traveler.  They have two 2 year olds - a filly and a colt.  When my farrier came out today he said that his filly jumped and cleared a 5 foot fence.   Guess that Traveler passes on more than just his coloring!!!

Khatmoondhu hits the trails!!

In April "Dhuzie" and I hit our first 25 mile Endurance Race - the Milwaukee Road Rail Trail just outside of Ellensburg, WA.  And he was FANTASTIC!  He is the reason for buying and breeding my Arab mares to Traveler.  I wanted to produce the ultimate endurance horse by crossing my proven, tough Arab lines with a stocky, hearty and a calm Curly horse.  Thankfully, Dhuzie is showing great promise for the world of endurance.  He is my Tevis horse - just keep watching and reading and about 8 years from now, we will hit the Tevis.  He just turned 5 years old this month and so we are taking it very easy, however, I plan on doing some serious 50 mile rides next year.

The 25 miles was absolutely nothing for him.  He came into the vet check and pulsed down immediately and received an overall A score at the end of the ride.

We placed 14th and could have gone for another round of trails at the end of the ride.  What a great boy - still lots to work on.  He did not care much for the water sluices - I jumped off and walked him by those and we have some over obstacles to spend time on - but overall, a really great success.  My goal this summer is to keep putting miles on him and training over a variety of obstacles.  He has the breeding, the strength and the smarts to be a serious endurance competitor.  

Notice the look on my face - NOT happy about the rocks on the trail.

 Vetting in at the end of the ride -

Happy Trails to us - going out on the second, 8 mile loop.  It was the fastest 8 miles we have ever done.  We did it at over 9 miles an hour.

Done, finished and heading back to the trailer.
Looking forward to another ride......

In the News

My niece Dayna and our Curly gelding, Timbuktu, will be featured in the ICHO's Curly Horse Magazine in the "Kids and Curlies" section. Way to go Dayna! You two make a cute pair.

Home on the Range - Endurance Race

We came, we raced and we finished! Yah! It was my 4 year old gelding Khatmoondhu's first endurance race ever. He had never been in a situation where there were tons of other horses all excited and ready to race. "Dhuzie" did great - for the most part he was calm and cool throughout the whole situation. The whole reason I bought our Curly stallion, Traveler, in the first place was to produce a remarkable endurance prospect using my great Arab bloodlines and mixing them with the sturdier and heartier stock of the Curly horse. Of course, a little of the calm, Curly blood doesn't hurt either. So our first Curly, Arab foal was Dhuzie. I have waited for 4 years for this moment to begin his endurance racing career and it has started!

He was better than I could have hoped for - we only "raced" the trail ride part of the endurance race since he is so young and I want to take my time with him. We rode 15 miles over beautiful hills and wind-swept areas. Dhuzie really enjoyed being out in the open but he didn't take advantage of the situation and listened to me.

We have lots to continue to work on - who doesn't, but overall it was a terrific first experience. He minded his manners at the vet checks and with his fellow horses. As soon as he crossed the finish line he pulsed in at 60 and we were done! Even though they don't give placings for such a short ride, I think that we were the 2nd to cross the finish line and pulse down for our little race.

One of the vets at the end of the ride remarked that Dhuzie seemed to be such a kind horse - and he is. He has a very friendly and kind personality. I am so pleased with him.

Eating at the trailer - he deserved a good treat after his ride.

Ride 'em Cowgirls!

Mark and I loaded up the trailer with our two minis and my 3 year old Curly gelding, Timbuktu, and headed over to the Fairview Stables for the girls to compete at the Will Roger's Little Buck Gaming Series. Bella was in the first group, doing leadline of Comet. She rode like a little champion and had a grea time. Comet loved it too!

Here she is racing around the barrels! Go Comet Go!

Bella is so proud to be riding at the horse show.

And she wins a curry comb for all of her hard work. Way to go little Comet and Bella.

Luna rode her mighty mite, Podo, and here they are warming up the day before the horse show.

Luna rode by herself and here she is racing at the barrels.

Here we are at the start of the event. It was so funny, Luna and Podo were darting in and out and around all the big horses and Luna was so proud, she was riding her little horse all by herself.

Running like the wind - they are off!

Next group up was for my neice, Dayna, who rode my 3 year old gelding, Timbuktu. They did awesome and won! Congrats to Dayna and Timbuktu. This was the first riding show for both of them and they were both calm and focused. Way to go!

Dayna on Timbuktu warming up.

Another successful horse show! The season has begun.