Back to The Open House 2009..........Bathing......Andy.....Patriot

Our next victim to bathe in cold water was Andy (Scandalous Addiction). This colt had been such a good boy for clipping, I expected or maybe that was hoped he'd be a gentleman for bathing too. You'd think I'd know by now I shouldn't be "expecting" anything in particular when it comes to young horses. Andy was a pain in the royal *ss.

At two years old, Andy is absolutely huge.........well, huge for on my farm of late blooming horses anyway. I'd guess this colt is about 15.1 hands with still a mile of leg underneath him. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get at big as his uncle, Dandy.

Doc is not the only young horse that has not been handled enough. Both two year old colts, Andy and Patriot, have been sorely neglected in that department and their behavior reflects it. My term for colts at that age is land sharks and Andy and his brother, Patriot, both live up to that title. They are pushy and kind of studdy with their teenage hormones beginning to rage. . The last thing any teenage male wants is a cold shower..............and Andy was determined he wasn't taking one.

Being bigger than most two year olds made this colt all that more difficult for me to convince. I am no slouch in the size department closing in just an inch or so shy of six feet but an eight hundred pound colt on a hot day was alot. I gave up on trying to reason with this colt and broke out a wrapped chain.
Never have I resorted to such tactics getting ready for my open house but you know what they say............Never say never...........and this one bit me. Even with the chain we really worked to get Andy bathed. The colt just did NOT want to stand still. Well, he'd have stood still to graze on the grass beneath his feet but NOT for that cold water bath. Andy would duck his head to grab a mouthful of grass as he lunged sideways away from the water. It didn't matter who held him to try to stop his escape, going over humans in his way just didn't matter. I think by the time we were finished Jean and I were both soaked.........and it wasn't just water making us wet, we had more than our fair share of sweat. ( I might add since this I've hosed this horse off a couple of times and he was a perfect angel........ go figure)



After this battle with Andy, I was dreading bathing Patriot, the other two year old colt. Since Patriot had been so naughty about being clipped, I figured we were in for more of the same..........but then there's that thing about expectations again.

Patriot did the opposite of what I expected. The colt was a perfect gentleman and we sailed through his bath like he was a seasoned pro. The colt even dropped his head to let me hose off his face. Patriot was so good Jean referred to him as sweet......not what I'd normally call any land shark I own. .......maybe Andy whispered in his ear about what might happen if he was naughty..........whatever I was grateful that at least one of my colts acted like he knew what a bath was about.

To be continued..................

The Open House 2009..........Bathing......Rhet.....Scarlet

Once the clipping was done it was time to move onto the bathing. I don't have a wash rack here. It's just the hose and a post. That works fine for most of the older horses but not so well with the young ones. In years past I've always had someone to hold horses while I bathed most, if not all, of the horses. This year I had my friend, Jean, here for three hours on Friday morning to help. After that I was totally on my own.

I decided the best way to utilize my help with Jean was to bathe those horses that probably wouldn't handle being tied to the post. On that list, of course, was Rhet and the other yearling, Scarlet. The two year old colts, Andy and Patriot, were also good candidates as well as three year old Suede who is also still intact. I figured the rest of the horses I could probably handle myself.

Thankfully the weather was warm. There's nothing more miserable than bathing horses with cold water on a cold day. The horses get cold.......... and the horse washers even colder. On the other side of that, if it's warm enough the cold water actually feels good..........and that's the kind of day we had.

We started with Rhet. Of all of the horses I knew I had to have help with this one even though he's getting better about the water. I just don't trust him to co-operate when I need him too. I've been working with him on being hosed down by squirting him off most warm days after his work out. He's gotten better about standing still except for the water on his back end.........and getting sweat from between his legs by myself.......I can totally forget that.

Despite his improvement I expected Rhet to have some adjustment time with Jean. The colt has clearly shown in the past he doesn't like changes in surroundings or in who handles him. Trust is such a big issue with this colt it was certainly going to affect how this bath thing worked out.

Right from the start Rhet looked at Jean in a way that clearly spoke, "Who in the heck are you?" Jean, however, is horse savvy enough she pretty much ignored the colt's reaction to her taking the lead and just held him. Her lack of response let the colt know she wasn't intimidated by him. It didn't take Rhet long to figure out that Jean knew what she was doing and he settled in pretty well.

The colt still wasn't happy about cold water on his tail or between his legs but he kept his dancing to a minimum. Jean's responses with praise for good behavior elicited some deep sighs and even a drop of his head now and then. All in all Rhet actually turned out to be the wettest of the three when we were done............not something that happens often when water and Rhet collide by means of a hose.



After Rhet we took on Scarlet..........after all that's the way it should be. Scarlet and Rhet may no longer get turned out together.........but they are still an item. Rhet still speaks to Scarlet whenever he hears her footfalls or the sound of her voice. I'll bet he even dreams of this filly, the love of his life.

As I led Scarlet to our bathing area, Rhet began talking and pawing and striking the wall. The colt clearly wasn't happy to be tied to the back wall of his stall where he couldn't get a glimpse of Scarlet. She, on the other hand, in true Scarlet fashion couldn't be bothered with Rhet's pleas. She nonchalantly stood for her bath not even flicking an ear Rhet's direction. Poor Rhet finally gave up calling to her and we were able to finish our work in peace.

Scarlet was so good about her bath, I wondered if she'd been possessed by the soul of some other horse. To hear Jean refer to the primadonna Scarlet as sweet just didn't seem to fit. I can think of a lot of things I'd call Scarlet but sweet..........during a cold bath...............not likely.............yet sweet is exactly what we had.

There weren't even any complaints about cold water between her back legs or getting her udder washed. I really was beginning to think maybe this filly was getting sick since she's usually so outspoken about everything..........particularly cold water.

Maybe Scarlet was on her good behavior for Jean's benefit............who knows. That filly's got a number of people fooled into thinking she's really sweet...........I'm just not one of them.

Now, don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like this filly. I actually love this filly but one of the things I love most about her is her big big attitude. I must admit I was grateful we didn't see any of it on her bath day, however.

To be continued.............

The Open House 2009..........Clipping Doc

Sometimes I think that horses are just like kids, the minute you say one thing about their behavior they're going to do the exact opposite just to make a liar out of you. Well, that's exactly what happened when we decided to clip Doc.

I had worked a few times at putting a halter on and off his face. I'd even did a little bit of work asking him to give to pressure. When I say a little bit, that's exactly what I mean. The colt had just enough to have an idea but nowhere near enough to truly understand what was being asked of him.

When I went into the stall to capture him, it took Colleen blocking his escape before I could catch him to halter. The whole time I was putting the halter on his eyes were darting around looking for a quick exit. Nothing about that had changed. It was when we actually went to clip him that he surprised me.

I used a small rope cable that I have made as a restraint just in case the colt got crazy on us. Colleen held him with minimum pressure on the cable and I turned the clippers on.

Doc got a bit wide eyed but just waited to see what I planned to do. He wasn't sure what he thought of me clipping off the long hairs on his muzzle. He tossed his head just a bit but nothing we couldn't handle. I moved on up his face coming back on occasion to take just a few more of those sensitive feeler hairs off and Doc pretty much stood there.

The whole time he had this slightly concerned expression on his face. He held his head higher than usual but other than that he tolerated getting his face show clipped pretty darn well. Both Colleen and I were afraid to mention his unusual compliance for fear we might just jinx the whole thing......but all in all the colt let me clip his face as well as any of the young horses did. Did I happen to mention, he'd never been clipped before?

When it was time to move onto clipping his ears, I figured things would fly. Doc again proved me wrong as he stood there with his head cocked just a bit. Only when I tried to get the deepest of hairs did I get a reaction from this colt. Even that reaction was small and I was able to do a thorough job of cleaning hair out of the colt's ears.

The whole process took less than fifteen minutes. For a foal on this farm I think that's some kind of record. Doc was clearly the easiest of all of my foals to clip............yet he'd been the most difficult of all to worm. I guess it just goes to show you never really know what you're going to get.

To be continued......................

The Open House 2009..........Preparations

Once I had my entries done for nationals and sent off to Aurora to the Arabian Horse Association , it was time to shift gears to begin working on my annual open house. The first Sunday after Labor Day was fast approaching and I hadn't done a thing to get started on this event.

Waiting until the last minute is not a good thing for lots of reasons. The biggest is stress. There's lots to do and the less time I have to accomplish these tasks the more stress I feel. Waiting until the last minute also makes it more difficult to get my friends to help. This date is not grilled into their brains like it is mine so they forget and schedule other things even though they would really like to help out.

This year was a really bad one for that........and I had no one to blame but myself. Not talking to people until just two weeks before is pushing it. The result was I was scrambling to get enough workers for the actual event, let alone having help to get the horses detangled, show clipped and bathed first.

Because I'm taking horses to nationals, I didn't want to skip working them all together. Instead I worked those three horses in the early morning, then spent the rest of the day working on grooming projects getting ready for the open house. It made for some long long days.

With the thick manes and tails I have here, I spent a couple of days just fighting with witch's knots. I swear there are little gremlins living in some of those manes busily churning away with their eggbeaters as quickly as I can detangle. If it wasn't for Cowboy Magic, I'd never get the job done. But even at that, some of those manes are retangled with just a shake of the head before I can even get out of the stall. My rule of thumb is once untangled it has to be good until bath time or I'd never even make it to bath time if you know what I mean.

My daughter, Colleen, came out after her work day was through to help hold horses getting their ears clipped. Mostly we just started at the first barn and worked our way through. The only exceptions were those horses I expected to be naughty.......which, of course, would mean Rhet and probably this year's foal. Those horses we'd leave until the last. That way if we got bounced around we wouldn't be sore and still trying to finish clipping.

Colleen came to help on two separate nights and we got most of the herd done. Pretty much all of the horses were good with a couple of exceptions. Andy (2 year old colt) who I expected to be naughty was quite good and his pasture mate, Patriot (also a 2 year old colt) was very very naughty.

It was on the third night we took on the quarter horse/Arab cross foal now known as Doc. After my experience trying to worm this colt and little work in between I really didn't know what to expect. What I did know was we had little time to cram in a whole lot of training................

To be continued..............

Open House.............some pictures

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Open House Videos Are ALL Uploaded

Well, I've spent most of the weekend getting all of the video clips of my Arabian horses at my open house posted to YouTube. There are 22 of them. All of my horses except 5 of my broodmares. It feels a bit odd to have most of my herd running around in cyberspace.

I'm not going to post them all here. Instead I'm going to post this link to my videos on YouTube. That way you can pick and choose which one's you'd like to watch.

Looking at video lets you see the talent of these horses. I
ll bet you can see why Solidare's babies have all gotten names that have something to do with music........well, that is except Dare. She was the first born and was named after her bloodlines......but the rest were named after their movement. .....Rhythm, Dancer and Rhapsody.

It's also interesting to see the difference between horses that are full siblings. A good example of that would be Vee (Love), Reflection, Tag and Andy (Addiction) Full siblings but very different horses. Vee is just like her mother thinking she's above this being hazed for the crowd.............she wants back to the barn NOW! Then the 3 boys are bigtime show offs.

Between Bey Aana's foals, there is a big difference between the bays and the chestnuts. Look at how much Storm and Suede(Persuasion) look alike. Then Percy (Pursuit) and Patriot are almost carbon copies of each other. Their brother, Chase, is also bay and looks just like the other bays. All are great horses but clear examples of how some genes are linked by color.

Without names identifying them, it would probably be tough to tell Rose from Faith or maybe even Hope. It's amazing to me how much those three mares look alike even though Rose has a different mother. (Just for the record, Louie is a full sibling to Hope and Faith.

But then look at Echo, she is a full sister to Rose. Certainly right now I don't see a resemblance. However that doesn't mean that it won't be there when they mature. They are definitely built different in the body.

I see someone posted 5 stars to Louie's video, Scandalous Image. I'm not sure why he got all those stars but am sure if he could he would lord it over his brothers and sisters who didn't get any stars........That would be Louie even though he didn't get into any bigtime snorting and blowing on open house day. He was pretty cautious and trying to figure things ou but did it all in a very proud way.

There's plenty of attitude on other videos as well. There are Andy and Rhapsody......... It's probably a toss up between them for which one kicked the most. Suede shows a sense of being above all the mere mortals present. Then there are the twins and their twin attitudes. It's fun to see how they measure up next to the other two year olds. Also, take a look at how much Trouble looks and acts like his mother. Their necks are on differently but in the face and the body that's a different story. I think Trouble wants to be a country horse and Vee a western horse though. Funny how that works.

There's video testimony to Legs rolling in the dirt and then showing off how smug he felt about pulling that stunt off. There's also footage of Scarlet taking a header at her mother's feet. Gypcy is Scarlet's half sister. Now there's a big difference between those two fillies. It's amazing to me the difference of another sire.

I think it's interesting to see the different personalities of the horses that show through in their videos. I think the videos help show all their little quirks much better than the instant captured in stills. Which one's do you like best.........and why??

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More Open House Videos

Trouble


Gypcy



Louie

The Open House Wraps Up

Even though I wasn't too thrilled at the stunt my Arabian horse had pulled in the ring, the first thing I wanted to know as had anyone caught it on film. The answer unfortunately is "No." You're going to have to use you imaginations to picture it. I have plenty of witnesses to testify that this incident really happened but no film.

It was funny to watch the horse in the ring as the crowd headed for the BBQ. Some people were already coming back with full plates looking for places to sit but clearly not paying any more attention to the horse and he knew it. Legs was not happy. Not catching him up was just as good as any discipline could have been.

While people when for food, I went for news of the injured party. I found out it was the girl who had led the broodmare up to the ring. My first instincts has been correct. She didn't have enough experience to deal with the mare and foal.





I learned later it was actually the foal who had stepped on Kaitlyn and it had happened BEFORE they came up to the ring. Despite her injury she had insisted on leading the mare. Not only that but she wasn't walking with any limb or noticeable injury to her foot. No one had known until after the fact that she had been injured at all.

So the open house went on uninterrupted because Kaitlyn didn't want to be the cause of any interference. However, after things were over, she was ready to admit that she was really hurting. They were running around looking for ibupropen and ice packs trying to make her more comfortable until her parents could be reached. I was wondering if I was going to be sued.



Colleen thought the girl had broken bones in her foot. She said that Kaitlyn was reacting the same way that my grandson, Chris, had done when he'd broken two bones in his foot. We were going to have to wait until she was taken to a doc in the box to find out the diagnosis.

After showing all the horses as usual I had several people who wanted to talk with me about horses. Usually by that time, I'm ready to sit down, have something to eat and talk about how the day went. Instead I end up talking with "prospective" clients until everyone else is gone. By the time I ever get time to visit, anyone I wanted to visit with has long gone.

This year I really wanted to talk to Lady of Chaos. I had warned her ahead of time that I'd probably get stuck talking with people showing interest in the horses. But she said she'd stick around until I was done so that we could visit. That made it a bit easier to stick when business when I really wanted to play.

There was a couple looking to buy their first horse who really wanted a young horse instead of the recommended older, broke to death variety. A scenario that is difficult but can work if the people are willing to get help and keep it until they and the horse know enough to be safe on their own.

Then there was a woman who had driven two hours to see horses because she's interested in breeding to one of my stallions. I've spoken with her on the phone before but this is the first time we've met in person. She came equipped with pictures and pedigrees so maybe she will breed a mare at some point.

I managed to juggle back and forth between the different parties and Lady of Chaos hung around until I was finally done. So we did get a chance to talk but not nearly as long as I would have liked before it was time for her to go.

While I talked with people about horses, the crew who had helped me put on this event, cleaned up after themselves and headed off home. By the time Lady of Chaos left everyone else had gone too. Other than my flower parts still sitting out at their posts at the barns and the presence of a san-a-can it was hard to tell that anything had even happened here. It was time to feed the horses dinner and collapse.

Later that evening I got a call from Colleen about Kaitlyn. She had no broken bones but did have two torn tendons in her foot and was on crutches. The latest news is she is off the crutches but I still don't know if that's with or without the doctor's orders.

By this time Kaitlyn's parents had discovered that it wasn't a grown horse that had injured their daughter but a foal. I heard that they were now teasing her twice as bad.........telling her she wasn't even competent with a baby horse. I guess with attitudes like that I don't have to worry about lawsuits...........I sure hope it stays that way.

These pictures were taken by Lady of Chaos. They are Faith, Hope and Echo.


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The Open House continues on and on..............

My Arabian stallion came into the ring about as quiet and relaxed as the rest of the horses had been. While that usually isn't the case, it didn't surprise me. The other horses had mostly been quiet so why would Legs be any different even if he is normally a big ham.

As I watched him slowly jog around the ring, I thought it was hardly worth getting the horse out of his stall for this. Where was that fire that Arabian stallions are known for? God help me for asking such a question!



Then Legs headed for the dirt pit in the corner. I knew what the monster wanted to do but I couldn't get there fast enough to stop him. As I screamed in my microphone something about the horse trying to do this to me for five bloody years, I raced after Legs trying to thwart this attempt to roll. But he just ignored me and dropped down and wallowed in that dirt. How dare he? Didn't he know what I'd gone through to get him all show ring presentable.........and clean?



Out of frustration I threw my shaker at him. It bounced off his butt..... but that horse practically laughed at me as he slowly got up and jogged away, shaking his head and gloating over his accomplishment. From there, the show was on.............

Mr Attitude was back big time.........in all his filthy glory. As he moved around the ring, the dust washed in waves over what had been a gleaming coat. Now he looked like some mud wrestler flexing for the crowd. I was disgusted by his smugness. He still was mostly jogging but clearly flipping me off




About the time I decided we should catch Legs up and let these people go enjoy their BBQ. my horse decided to come to life. Legs turned on the juice. The horse may not have been all fired up about coming into the ring but he was certainly fired up about the possibility of leaving it. I don't know what his plan was........but there must have been one because he wasn't happy that I wanted him to leave.

The Arabian horse began running around the ring tossing his head even more belligerently at me clearly portraying his displeasure. I doubt anyone there couldn't clearly tell his attitude was not about co-operating. The horse wanted to strut.....and he wanted to strut on his terms.

Crystal and I worked at getting the horse into a corner. Not an easy task with a savvy horse like Legs but eventually we did get him there. With Crystal pushed up tight on his left and me the same on his right and his nose literally in the corner, the horse had nowhere to go............or so we thought.

As I reached to put the lead rope around his neck, the horse reared up, tucked his front legs tightly to his chest, knocking off my baseball cap, and did a 180° turn on his hind legs right over the top of me. The crowd gasped in horror but quickly recovered as the horse dropped down and galloped off..........clearly proud of himself he had managed to escape.

I'm not sure how many people in the audience that day knew exactly what they'd witnessed but I did. The athletic ability it had taken for the horse to complete such a maneuver was astounding.

Not only had the horse shown his athletic prowess, he had shown his caring for me as well. He clearly had "protected" me from harm by tucking those legs and moving in such as way as to not bump me and he had managed to pull it off without touching a single hair. Touching the bill of my baseball cap had caused the horse to tuck those legs even tighter to his chest. He wasn't taking any chances on touching mom.

So my kind, wonderful stallion was once again the star of the show. He may not have put on quite the show I had hoped for but it had been a show none the less. I decided to not push the issue and just left him in the ring. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of chasing him around...........and his crowd..........well, they followed me to get food. So he didn't get the satisfaction of doing any more entertaining either.

To be continued............

The Open House Wraps UP

The last picture was taken by Lady of Chaos and the others are by my SIL, Ray.

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The Open House continues on..............

When the mare and foal came into the ring I was surprised to see that Lucy was being led by Kaitlyn. She had been the girl worried about brushing out tails because she had to stand at the back end of the horse.

Seeing her lead this mare into the ring wasn't quite what I had expected. I would have thought someone with more experience to be on the other end of the lead. I remember doing a double take and wondering if this was really wise. Later I was to get my answer...........

Scandalous MizScarlet was really a good girl about coming up to the presentation ring. Rachel had her arm wrapped around the filly's neck as she led her along and the filly seemed to get confidence from that despite all the strange sights everywhere.



In the ring Rachel and I moved the horses around while Kaitlyn stood by watching. The filly was very sensible staying close to her mother. Much of the time she was on the off side of the mare not giving the people much view of her. It was clear the filly was taking her cues from the mare and I was glad to see that this filly was playing it smart although there was this incident when the filly misjudged the mare's turn and she went down in a heap underneath the mare's feet.




When it came time to catch them up, I expected that Scarlet might be a problem. Even in the stall the filly is hard to catch. But she clearly understood the way back to her safe stall was wearing that halter and she was right there to get it placed on her head.

I watched the pair of girls and their charges leaving the ring. Everything seemed to be fine. Lucy was definitely listening to Kaitlyn and Scarlet was right there with Rachel. It looked to me like everything was under control.

It wasn't until a couple of horses later that I began to notice a "drag" in the timing getting horses up to the ring. It was then that Crystal told me that someone was hurt back in the barn. I didn't have details.........only that someone was hurt and it had slowed things up.



You can imagine what it must have been like being stuck in the presentation ring trying to find out about the accident in the barn, not to mention wired for sound.

I wanted details but I didn't want to freak anyone out. I had no idea if the injury was major or minor. I had to settle for bits and pieces of information coming up with each new horse.

The most important question to me was did we need to call 911. For that I got a negative. From then the information was not so clear. Someone got stepped on and was lying down.........that was the extent of what I knew. I had to trust that Colleen when let me know if we needed to stop the show. I was relieved that we only had about four horses left to show.

I had added a horse that wasn't on the sales list. That was Dandy. Even though I don't want to sell the horse I wanted to make a point about Arabians. I get so sick and tired of hearing the trash talking that happens about Arabian horses, I just couldn't pass up the chance to make my point.



Earlier in the week I had received phone calls about the open house. During two of those calls people had mentioned wanting an Arabian horse but being discouraged from buying one because..................

You all know the "because." The horses are too wild, too crazy and all those things for anyone let alone a beginner to own. If there ever was a horse to show that's just not true, Dandy would be it. So Dandy was presented with all the confusion and chaos by my granddaughter, Rachel, who rode the horse bareback through the maze of people and into the ring.

Of course, I had to do my little spiel about crazy wild Arabians and tell the crowd a little bit about Dandy as Rachel proudly rode the horse into the ring right past my blaring speakers without even so much as a flinch. Once in the ring, the pair worked around in a jog that would make any western competitor envious.

The horse is clearly a great advocate for the breed. I also made that point that it's not just this horse's age that makes him so great for Rachel. He was ready to do this job when he was 8, it's taken this long to get Rachel's family to let her ride. She missed out on many years she could have been showing.

By the time I ran out of things to say, I had Rachel ride Dandy back out of the ring and on up to the barn. The next and final horse was Scandalous Legacy. I was looking forward to getting this show over with and I was relieved that Legs was the final act. At least I didn't have to worry about anything unexpected.................or so I though....................

To be continued..................

The first picture of Lucy and Scarlet as well as the first one of Dandy and Rachel were taken by my SIL, Ray. The rest of the pictures were taken by Lady of Chaos.

The Open House continues on and on

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The Open House continues.............

It was not much longer in the presentations of Arabian horses when the second unit from the fire department drove by our farm. By now I was a bit unnerved by this coincidence. Two times in the same day and I was beginning to worry even though I'm not normally sensitive to such things. We sure didn't need any kind of accident this year.

Last year at our open house, Suede had gone through a fence. We had the vet arrive for an emergency call before the open house was even over. Now seeing two emergency vehicles in just a short span of time, I was definitely a bit off balance. We sure didn't need anymore excitement in our lives.

This year I had taken extra precautions to see that Suede didn't get anymore ideas about jumping. I'd placed blue barrels outside the fence line he'd used to exit last year. In addition Dave would move into position right at the jumping point just before Suede came into the ring. If that didn't stop the varmint from jumping, my guess is nothing would.

The appearance of the fire department vehicles hadn't been lost on Dave either. I was to hear later that he was cracking jokes about them "being prepared" for our event when he saw them. He might have been laughing......but I wasn't. Just too much had gone wrong for me to feel secure.

It's a good thing I had Arabian horses to focus my attentions. They were having enough trouble with the speakers spooking them at the gate, I didn't really have time to worry about omens.............good or bad.

I began watching particular horses for their reaction to the speakers. There were some along the way that I decided it was necessary to turn my microphone off while I dealt with them because they were so reactive to the speakers.

One such horse was Suede. I sure didn't need anything to encourage him into escape mode like he'd done last year. The poor boy's eyes about bugged right out of his head at the sound from the speakers behind him. I didn't turn my mic back on until he was on his way back to the barn. He didn't leap any fences this year but he sure did take a long hard look a couple of times.........I was glad that Dave was positioned on the other side.

As the horses came and went, I couldn't believe the pattern I was seeing. My usual bright, frisky, playful Arabians were actually kind of quiet. Crystal and I were having problems getting them to move, let alone show much expression. I think almost every last one of them (well, maybe not Storm) would have preferred to graze that show off! Talk about a bunch of duds!

The other thing that seemed to happen over and over again was horses not wanting to be caught. They may not have wanted to put on a show but they didn't want to go back to their stalls either. We saw more action once we tried to catch them than we ever did before.

Normally, there's always ONE that decides not to get caught. But this year it seemed like half the horses picked up and ran the other way once they saw the halter. I rarely have problems catching horses........but horses are just like kids..........they love to make us look bad.........and mine did! But the crowd loved it, I think.

I think it was good ole Tag that figured out that the corners were to be avoided at all costs. He didn't want to be caught so he wouldn't go anywhere near a corner. He'd stop in the middle of a fence line but we couldn't push him into the corner. He refused to move. That's pretty darn smart, if you ask me. We did finally get him "cornered."




Storm, on the other hand, came out half way full of himself. He certainly wasn't his most brilliant........but next to all the others he looked pretty darn good. The stallion wanted to run around and blow a bit with his tail up high. It was a relief to see one of my horses actually want to show.

To be continued..............

The Open House continues on......

Again the top picture is one taken my SIL, Ray, and the second one by Lady of Chaos.

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The Open House Begins.............

The clock struck 1 and the first vehicles pulled into our pasture. Rising Rainbow Arabians Fifth Annual Open House was underway. The first people to arrive were my old friend, Bill Cunningham and his wife soon followed by a woman I though was my blogger friend, Lady of Chaos. It was nice to start off with friendly faces.

I only got a couple of minutes to speak with LOC before I spied Bill and Ann heading out to the mare pasture. Wouldn't you know it the one year I decided not to show my broodmares and that's exactly what Bill had come to see. At 80+ years old, my bumpy field wasn't the safest place for Bill. I decided I should head him off and retrieve any mares he might want to see.

From there the next hour was spent "mingling" with the guests as they gradually trickled in and then browsed our open barns. We would begin presenting horses at about 2 giving everyone time to take a peak and the horses before they found their seats.

My brother whom I haven't seen in over ten years had also come to see the horses, so I got a few minutes with him as well. I was hoping I'd get a chance to visit with him later but he was called away on an emergency of some kind.



From there I did a quick inventory to be sure every thing was in order to begin showing the horses. As usual something must always go wrong and this time it turned out that my video camera decided the card was full. Despite our best efforts to figure out the problem, we were unable to get it functioning correctly.

Richard and Angie had their video camera in their car and Robin was there as well. So next thing you know I had a substitute camera and videographer and it was time to get on with the show. Now if I can figure out why my DVD player isn't recognizing my disc I might actually get video of the open house loaded. Cross your fingers!

The first horse in the ring was Scandalous Rhapsody. She is a two year old filly by Scandalous Legacy and out of my personal mare, Solidare. This filly is a horse I would really love to see grow up on my farm. Just presenting her as a sale horse made my heart sink.

Did I mention that I was wired for sound? Not my favorite thing but since my voice doesn't carry well, it's a necessity. Dave had set up the speakers right directly behind the gate the horses were entering and exiting. Those speakers blaring my voice at young horses made for some interesting problems around that gate.

My horses are normally so well behaved. Seeing them scoot through the gate pushing into Crystal caught me off guard. It took me a while to figure out that it was me talking causing the problem. Once I did that, things went smoother.

I'm not sure if it was with the first horse or the second, but I swear we're moving the horse around for people to see and I see the Medic One Unit drive right past our house. After the incident with Lindsay just a few weeks ago, seeing that aid car made me shudder. I sure hoped it wasn't some kind of omen................

Because we try to take pictures and video as we show the horses to the people in attendance, it's not just a matter of moving the horses to show their way of going but doing it in a manner that is good for the people with the cameras. That means keeping the horses a reasonable distance from the camera so the focus can be set up. That means pushed up along the far fence and moved in a controlled manner just like Johnny Johnston looks for at a photo shoot.

Normally, I have my friend, Jean, to help with that. She's an expert at controlling horses. It didn't take but that first horse, Rhapsody, for me to realize that Crystal didn't understand that concept. For her it was about moving the horses in any manner, just to keep them moving.

Not only was Crystal now aware of how I'd wanted the horses moved, being wired for sound I didn't think I was going to be able to explain it to her. Then there was the fact that for some reason the horses weren't really into moving, getting them to move at all became the primary consideration. I don't know what got into them, maybe it was the heat, but my showy blowy Arabians were pretty much duds!

To be continued..............

The Open House continues......

The top picture was taken by Ray and the second one but Lady of Chaos.

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The Open House - Sunday Morning

Sunday morning Dave and I got up promptly at 6 planning to head to the barn to pick up the other 3 Arabian horses. However, it was too dark to be going anywhere without any running lights on the horse trailer so instead we went out to feed the horses hoping it would be light enough to leave by the time we were done.

The whole time I felt like I could hear the clock ticking away the minutes in my ear. Colleen and her crew were supposed to be at the farm by 8 to help get all the last minute things in order. Yet the way things were going I wasn't even sure we would be back from the barn by that time.

As soon as the day broke enough for us to not need running lights we headed off to pick up the last 3 horses from the other barn. On the way over I began thinking about all the things we yet had to do. Making my list and checking it twice wishing it was half this size.

Once at the barn Dave and I both went to retrieve horses from their stalls. They hadn't had blankets on the night before but all 3 looked like they'd come through the night pretty clean. That was a relief.

Then as I began to load the horses, my schedule briefly flashed before my eyes as each horse in turn hesitated about getting on that horse trailer. Of these horses only Louie had taken more than one trailer ride in his life. Expecting them to "just load" was probably a bit much.........but thankfully, not one of them hesitated for more than a minute or two. It certainly could have been a lot worse!

We weren't back at the farm long when Colleen and Rachel arrived along with my grandson, Chris, and 2 of Rachel's friends. I set Colleen and Rachel off clipping horses while the 2 girls worked on brushing out manes and tails and doing a last minute clipping of whiskers.

This task has always been something that I have done. With the thick manes and tails of my horses, it's easy to miss hidden mats on the underside. Since those mats just love to show themselves when the horses are running and playing, I have never really trusted anyone other than me to do this job the way it needs to be done.

This day I found myself in the position I had no other choice but to trust it would get done the way it needed to be. There were still all kinds of things to be done and I needed to spend my energy being the "designator."

I think it was about 9:30 when I realized that the chairs had not even been picked up yet. Not only did we needed to retrieve them from Colleens mother-in-laws house but they would need to be washed as well. With only 3 1/2 hours until "show time" I felt like things were beginning to unravel. If people showed up at 12 instead of 1 as in years past we were dead.

Dave and Lindsay were still busy cleaning stalls so I pulled Colleen off of ear clipping duty to send her with my grandson, Chris, off to get the chairs. One of the girls on brushing detail was moved over to finish up ear clipping. At this point 4 horses were done with 2 to go.

It turns out the other girl wasn't feeling all that comfortable dealing with the horses on her own so the brushing stopped there. By the time I discovered that, I had people free to help with the task but the fact this girl was one of only 2 grooms that were coming, I had a problem. It wasn't likely a girl that was too worried to brush out manes and tails was going to be able to groom horses all by herself. My mind began racing to find solutions.

About this time my friend, Wendy, and her sister, Candy arrived. They were going to help with the food. Last year we had all of the fruit and veggies prepared ahead of time but this year I was so far behind we had been unable to get that done. So it was off to the kitchen to show them them the everything they would need to know to get the BBQ off and running.........while there, I actually grabbed a quick bite of breakfast.

When I went back outside, Crystal Baker had arrived to help with the horses. After telling her I suspected that I was short a handler, she began calling her husband, Mike, to come help. Poor Mike had just gotten home from work that morning..............thankfully when Crystal did reach him he was willing to come and be my second pair of hands to run horses to the ring.

Colleen's friend from work, Trina, also showed up to help out. (She had been a whiz with helping on baths the day before.) That meant I had more help with grooming so I could relax a little about the girl who was unsure about dealing with "strange" horses.

By this time, Colleen's husband, Ray, had arrived with my other grandson, Kyle. They helped out getting the chairs cleaned and placed in their proper places as well as taking care of any bees nests we had missed. Kyle and Chris also worked on getting the presentation ring in order. There was more rock picking and some hand watering to keep the dust down.

By the time 11 o'clock rolled around I actually found myself with the time to take a quick shower and wash my really gross hair. Dave was off to the store to get balloons for the road signs and Lindsay was doing last minute sweeping in the barns.

Once out of the shower, I did another check in the kitchen to see if I was needed there. Then it was back outside to get all my flower pots moved out to the barns and make sure that the stall signs and directional signs were all in place.

Looking around there were lots of little things that I prefer to have done that just weren't going to happen. This open house wasn't going to be perfection but it was going to happen regardless of whether things were perfect or not so I might just as well let go of that expectation. It was getting close to the time to put a smile on my face and get this show on the road.....................I couldn't wait 'til it was over!

To be continued..............

The Open House Begins

I think this picture probably reflects how the horses feel about this whole open house thing and my insistance on perfection. What do you think?

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The Open House - Saturday Perparations

Part 1

Saturday morning I was up at 6 getting the Arabian horses fed. Then I putzed around the yard and barn doing last minute touches while waiting for the horses to finish their breakfast.I had an open house that I wanted to attend that afternoon, so it was important that I get everything I could wrapped up before noon.

This other open house was that of my friends, Randy and Eric, of Eros Arabian & Hackney Horses. They have always been supportive of me and my open house by not only attending but letting their trainer help with the horses.

I have tried to be supportive of them as well even though it would make things a bit tight here in getting stuff done. I had worked all week to be ahead enough so that I could slip out those few hours. Not only would I get to take a break before the big day, but I'd be able to take flyers and talk to people about my open house as well. All those things were definitely a plus.

But as the morning unfolded, I heard nothing from Rachel. I began to suspect that things were again running behind for her. That meant I was on my own with all of those baths. It was a good thing for me that Jean had been there on Friday to help with the horses that needed to be held or I'd have been up a creek without a paddle.

There was no way I was making it to the open house at Eros. There was just too much work to do and I didn't want to be bathing horses after dark. If I didn't get to the broodmares, that would just have to do. The horses on the sales list were my priority.

I washed so many horses tied to the fence post that the ground underneath the grass turned to mush. The horses were now standing on collapsing ground with the grass pushing up over their coronet bands making it a bit hard to clean hooves so that was another expectation I just had to let go.

It was after 1 o'clock before I even heard from Rachel. She still needed to clean stalls and go home before her dad could bring her to my farm. I'd be lucky if I saw her by 3 o'clock. She was bringing a couple of friends along but her mother ended up working a double route so it would be hours before we saw her.

By the time that Rachel and her friends did arrive, I had all of the horses we were showing bathed except for Scarlet and her mother. I still wanted that pair to be the last so hopefully they could stay clean until the morning stall cleaning.

Instead I had them start on bathing the broodmares. Even though they were living outside and would probably roll the first chance they got, I wanted those mares to get their only bath of the season. Even if they did roll, they would look better than they did now.

Rachel and her friends managed to go through the baths of the broodmares pretty quick. Then it was time to bathe the little princess, MizScarlet. No one was looking forward to a session with the willful Scarlet.

We took the mare and foal into the paddock outside their stall for their baths. Both horses seemed to know instinctively that something was up and neither wanted to enter the small enclosure. We bathed the mare first.

I wanted to use the water bouncing off the mare to help desensitize the filly to the spray of water. Poor Scarlet wasn't sure whether she wanted to stay near her mother or not with that cold water getting her wet. She finally opted for the far end of the paddock so I made sure when I rinsed the mare that the water was at an angle that would still get Scarlet wet.

When we did finally begin bathing Scarlet. I started off with just little bursts of water then pulling the hose away. Before long, Scarlet had it figured out and was doing pretty well. She wasn't sure what she thought about getting her face washed or the sight of soap suds on the ground but for her very first bath Scarlet did great. She tried to escape a couple of times and didn't stand still all the time, but, heck, some of her older siblings hadn't done much better than her. In my book, Scarlet was a star and Colleen again had misjudged the filly.

We actually got Scarlet and her mother finished just before the sun went down. I still had to pick up the three horses that were over at the other barn but that wasn't going to happen that night because my running lights still were not fixed. Dave was having problems isolating the problem so the transport would have to wait until morning.

Other than that I thought I was in pretty good shape until I discovered that the 6 horses with Rachel didn't have their ears clipped. We'd had a missed communication about them being done by Rachel. We'd decided to not have Rachel do them with her big clippers but I'd intended for her to do them with my little ear clippers. She thought I planned to clip them myself. In any case, Sunday morning there were 3 horses that needed to be moved and 6 that needed their ears clipped plus all our normal Sunday morning pre-event stuff. Now, I was beginning to sweat.

To be continued...............

Sunday Morning

My guess is the action in this picture is what many of these horses thought about getting bathed.

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The Open House Countdown - Bathing

The open house/barn is finally over and I can breathe! (I think my Arabian horses are relieved as well.) Hopefully I'll be able to do that for a while and nothing else will come up. But then again, you never know around here.

Looking over the last week I can't believe I actually got through this without having a stroke. It seemed that every turn something else was happening that messed up my plans. Maybe that's my problem.........too many plans.

Thursday, I found out that my friend, Jean, would have to work on Sunday. I really rely on Jean to help me with whatever I might need. She has many years experience with horses and I really respect and trust her. I know that Jean can fill in wherever I need her. Particularly, I never have to worry about having someone qualified to handle stallions is Jean is around.

If Jean wasn't coming, that meant that another friend wasn't coming either. I'm not sure why she doesn't want to come unless Jean is there, but that's just the way it is. So instead of loosing one set of talented hands, I lost two. That made me worry just a bit.

Because Jean was unable to help on the weekend, she came on Friday and helped me bathe Arabian horses. Originally I didn't have help for Friday's bath session so having Jean then was actually a great break. I got all of the young horses that required a "holder" done before Jean had to leave.

The only exception to that was Scarlet. She and Lucy would be the last horses that were done on Saturday so there was a better chance of them staying clean.

I have to admit that I scared both Patriot and Andy with the hose. I hit them with the water before they saw it coming and they both jumped sky high. Patriot settled in pretty well though but then I have been rinsing him off after free lunging to get him used to the water.

Andy on the other hand has only just gotten off of stall rest. That meant I'd only rinsed him with the hose once or twice to Patriot's dozens of times. Poor Andy wasn't sure what got him. Between the catching him off guard and the fact there was a different type of sprayer on this hose, he was terrified. It took a bit of dancing around chasing him to even get him wet enough to apply soap. I even tried using a sponge but that only scared him worse.

When it came time to rinse, I took him up to the hose I use to rinse after free lunging hoping he'd remember it wasn't so bad. That actually worked out ok and the horse finally sighed this huge sigh of relief. I hadn't really thought about making sure that the youngsters "saw" the water coming before it touched them but you can bet I will from now on.

After Patriot and Andy we bathed Surprise and Trouble (who were both very good for a change), Rhapsody, Dancer, Gypcy and Echo. All were pretty good except Echo who was not only pushy but a bit offended with the whole bathing process. I wanted to kill her........but settled for getting her bathed....even though it took a while.

I was supposed to take Jean to pick her car up at the repair shop after we were done but ended up stuck waiting for the delivery of the port-a-potty. So while we were waiting we went ahead and began bathing Storm.

Just about the time we got the horse wet, the truck and trailer rig showed up with the longest trailer I've ever seen. The driver wasn't sure he could even come into my place and turn around. I assured him that semi-trucks come in and go out the other gate just fine so we should be all right.

And we were all right except for this goofy driver deciding to gun it as he went underneath our power lines flipping them with the two san-a-cans still left on his truck. Jean and I both cringed thinking he was going to jerk those lines down. Instead they danced for a while making us both nervous.

Once we got the gates locked back up and let the mare and foal back out to graze we went back to bathing Storm. He was really a good boy for Jean. But then I think he knows how much she likes him so he's always on his best behavior for her................me he gives fits whenever possible.

Later on Friday I was supposed to pick up three of the six horses from the other barn. Rachel was to call me when the last horse was finished being bathed. It was well after Dave got off work, before I ever heard from Rachel. It was beginning to get dark as we finally pulled out of that barn and onto the roads only to find I had a short in my hook-up and my running lights weren't working properly. I was crossing my fingers and hoping we'd get home without incident.

Also, it turned out that Rachel only had 3 of the 6 horses bathed that she was responsible for. She'd had problems clipping their legs so it had taken much longer than she anticipated. She and her friend, Summer, were planning on going to the barn early the next morning to finish up so they would still get out to my farm by 9. We still had another 11 horses there to bathe as well as getting other things in order and I had to transport the remaining horses to my farm. The plans were beginning to unravel, I just didn't know how badly yet!

To be continued...............

Saturday

This picture is Rhapsody.........I'm thinking it should have some kind of name. What do you think?

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Wordless Wednesday..........Oops.....Sunday!

Maybe Not So Much Wrestling.............

OK, I must be honest. My clipping yesterday didn't go quite like Gorilla Wrestling...........well, not all the time anyway. There were brief moments when my joints creaked or my head got thumped when I had flashbacks of wrestling matches in the past and the notion of "gorilla wrestling" came to me. I couldn't help but write a post. The very thought just got me giggling.

The real story is the clipping went pretty darn well. It took me all day to get 19 horses clipped but it really had more to do with the clippers than the horses. The blades would heat up or the battery pack would die and I'd be taking another break waiting for my tools to co-operate.

On the whole it took me about 45 minutes to clip three horses. By that time the blades would be just to hot and my alternate blades decided to die so I'd go off and work on something else while they cooled down. A couple of times the battery pack died and I had to wait on charging but overall the horses were good with only intermittent moments of gorilla wrestling.

My feet stayed totally on the ground. I didn't get stepped on once........but had three close calls. I think each horse, at least once, tried to pull its head away. There were a couple who tried more than once, Legs being one of those!

The horse hates having his face clipped particularly in the scoopy part under his eyes and the groove down the middle of his face. Any place that is difficult to clip he doesn't like messed with. He hates those clipper blades digging into dips and grooves seeking out hair.

A friend once told me that if an Arabian horse's head did not have lots of difficult grooves to clip (dryness), it wasn't a quality horse. The more difficult the face to clip, the better the head. I've always used that as a guideline when I'm evaluating horses.

Back to my clipping, Andy really was a good boy. At first he jumped at the sound of the clippers and acted like he was going to fly backwards away from me. As soon as I began clipping the wedge part between his eyes he settled down and pretty much stood there. He had a couple of twitches and a little head pulling but for a yearling who's only had his face clipped once before he did great.

Even the broodmares were good about having their faces clipped. I do have one still to go because the batteries died again. I couldn't bring myself to start off my day today itching again, so I but it off to finish tonight. But tonight I ran out of steam and still have one more horse to clip.

Today I spent time bathing horses. My friend, Jean, came and helped. We bathed all of the horses that I can't bathe alone. That was the two yearlings, five of the two year olds and a four year old who is sometimes naughty.

I was going to run her to get her car but the port-a-potty hadn't arrived yet, so we bathed one more horse waiting for it's arrival. That was Storm. So all in all, I bathed 9 horses today.

Rachel did 3 at the other barn. I picked those horses up tonight and they are nicely tucked into their own barn. (How I love having my horses at home!!) That leaves us with 16 horses to bathe tomorrow and last minute clean-up stuff. Then in the evening we'll do some food preparation and Sunday will be the big day...........ready or not.

Open House

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Arabian Breeder's Annual Open House Is Finally Over!! Part 6

Part 1

So who was going to follow the show Legs had put on for the crowd? Normally, the exuberant Arabian stallion would be a hard act to follow. In years past I have made him the last horse of the day. But life hasn't been normal on my Arabian breeding farm for a while now and finding the right act to follow Legs, well that was easy!



It was the twins, Scandalous Trouble and Scandalous Surprise. Since I still wasn't doing any forms of forced exercise with Surprise, I figured the best way to show her was with her mischievous brother.I would just throw the two of them into the presentation ring together. People still think of them as a pair and pretty much expect to see them together.

The two Arabian horses hadn't been turned out together since their birthday party. That episode hadn't lasted long because Trouble, well, Trouble got into trouble. Would it be the same today? Probably, but not before the two pint sized Arabian horses put on a show.

The twin Arabian horses pretty much take after their grandsire. They've been into exciting the crowd from the day they were born. Today would be no different. Given the opportunity to show off for the crowd, the twins would not let me down.

As usual, the show began long before they got to the ring. Surprise and Trouble could feel the excitement in the air. They pranced their way up from the barns to the ring with their tails rolled over their backs and trying their best to drag their handlers on just a little bit faster. They didn't want to miss anything because they were slow to arrive!

Whenever the two young horses are turned out together, they need to be released in unison. If one is free before the other, you can bet that the opportunity to pounce on the other won't be missed. On a count of three the excited twin horses were released into the ring and the race was on.

They were diving after each other oblivious to the humans in the ring. Poor Jean expected them to act like "normal" horses and made a couple of attempts to move them around the pen. But I called her off and we all headed for the gate.



Jean wasn't prepared to be tag teamed by the frolicking pair as she tried to get out the gate. It may have been a while since the two marauders had been out together but they hadn't lost their touch. They swooped in on Jean and in one fell swoop turned her around just as she made it to the gate.

The twins didn't miss a beat. They raced on past the gate putting on the brakes in the form of tandem sliding stops at the corner and rolled back around to race off again. It looked like a choreographed piece as the two Arabian horses worked the ring weaving in and out of each other, and sometimes slamming into each other only to bounce off to frolic some more.

By now the food was ready and we were trying to get people over to begin dishing up but the twin Arabian horses had captivated their audience. Not a soul broke lose and head over to the barbecue. Trouble and Surprise continued on in their playing far longer than any of the other horses who had been out earlier in the day. They, too like Legs, know they are the stars.



But eventually, hormones got the better of Trouble and instead of just playing with his sister, the young gelding began terrorizing his sister. Once that occurred it was time to save Surprise from Trouble. Before we could get in to catch him, Trouble had mounted his sister in the corner. Of course, the crowd all thought that he was just too cute but poor Surprise had had enough. As I went through the gate, she came running to me to be rescued from the little varmint.

Once Trouble knew he didn't have Surprise to harass anymore he, too, came right up to be caught. He excited the ring with his tail rolled over his back strutting like a million bucks. And, of course, Surprise not to be out done by her brother followed suit. There couldn't have been a better ending to the show.

When the twins were taken off to their stalls, people headed towards the food and the picnic began. We had the grill cooking Johnsonville brauts. With them we served potato salad, a garden salad, a special recipe of baked beans (that are absolutely scrumptious), a veggie tray and a fruit tray and then ice cold drinks. We had enough food to feed a small army, I swear.

As usual, there were people who had questions about horses and I tried to answer them and deal with the vet who had finally arrived to stitch up Suede. (It turned out he stapled him with 8 staples)

I got a quick chance to check in on Reflection who looked like he was doing ok. I would just keep an eye on him for any changes in behavior. It seemed like hours before I got done with the questions and anywhere near the food. Many of the people were still there sitting around visiting and talking horses. That is always a good sign. The open house was officially over but the party was on.

A Twins Update

Arabian Breeder's Annual Open House Is Finally Over!! Part 5

Part 1

When it came time to catch Reflection, the young stallion came right up to us just like a lamb. Now I knew I would have to watch him closely. There was no way the horse was feeling ok if he was willing to leave an audience that easily. I was relieved that we were almost done with the presentations so that I could go to check on him.

The next horse in the ring was Scandalous Legacy. Last year, he had been the horse that had been a little quiet about his exhibition but today was a different story. The horse couldn't have been more cranked. He knew the crowd was there to see him and he was determined to give them a show.

Rolling his tail over his back, snorting and blowing wasn't enough to show his stuff. The stallion stood on his hind legs and pawed the air tossing his head at the crowd. Leaping away from the handlers trying to get him pushed up against the back rail, the horse shook his head in displeasure at being told what to do. He was pretty sure that he was the king and this was his kingdom. Mere mortal handlers were not going to tell him what to do.

All in all, Legs is a kind horse. Even when he's being naughty he keeps things in check. At least a couple of times as I tried to push him into a corner, he coiled up tight to kick out. The crowd gasped but the horse only went so far as to gesture his displeasure, each time coming up short of actually kicking me. There was never any doubt in my mind if the horse wanted to kick me, I'd have been out cold.



We ganged up on the Arabian horse pushing him hard and fast to let the horse know even a gesture was not going to be tolerated, The Arabian horse scooted off like it was his idea stomping his feet and tossing his head belligerently.

The crowd loved it and their approval only egged the Arabian horse on. The stallion continued his cavorting. As long as the crowd continued to respond, the horse continued his show. We didn't even try to catch the Arabian horse until we knew we could. There was no point in re enforcing any bad behavior.

Even after the Arabian horse was haltered, Legs continued to fling his head and snort and blow. Prancing out of the ring with his tail still rolled over his back, he bellered out to his kingdom. From the barns you could hear the mares all respond. There was no doubt who was the lead stallion on this Arabian breeding farm.

Well, who was going to follow this act?
To be continued...........


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Arabian Breeder's Annual Open House Is Finally Over!! Part 4

Part 1

The field that the yearling colt ran into is overgrown with cottonwood trees. The horses love to run between the trees and play hide and seek from each other. Now, it was Suede that was running through the trees alluding being caught.

At some point the wire from the electric fence that had wrapped around the horse's fetlock came loose and at least we didn't have to worry about him breaking a leg. But catching him was going to be another story.

There were five of us out there trying to corner the young horse but most of us couldn't even see him. We relied on our ears as we heard him crashing through the trees telling us his location.

It didn't take long to realize that we were going to need a lure to catch the colt. The next horse coming up to the exhibition ring was a mare and like all of the Leg's colts, Suede is a hormonal thing. A mare was just what we needed. I called for the mare to be brought up to the fence.

The person with the mare didn't stop at the fence but brought her straight into the field. Once Suede heard the other horse coming, he emerged from the trees. Blood was streaming down his face but didn't stop him from trying to jump the mare.

The Arabian mare, Bint Gamaay Rose, is in foal. She wasn't too pleased with this little upstart trying to jump her and the kicking began. I was concerned about the stress to the mare. She isn't that far along in her pregnancy and I didn't want the incident to cause her to absorb the pregnancy. or for that matter for anyone to get hurt in the crossfire between the two horses.

I hollered at the handler to get the mare out of the field but to keep her right up at the gate so we could lure the colt up to her. Several of us worked to keep the colt away from the mare as the handler slipped her out the gate. Once we had a barrier between the mare and the colt Harry was able to get a halter on Suede.

I got a chance to get a quick look at the colt's face to inspect the cut and give him a once over before the horse was led out of the field and back towards the barns. The cut was right across his nose. It was in the form of a "V" and was going to require stitches to minimize scarring. Other than that Suede looked none the worse for wear.

I tossed Colleen my cell phone and asked her to begin calling vets until she found one who would come out to care for the colt. My regular vet was gone for the weekend or he's have been there at the open house but I had plenty of back-up numbers on my phone. While Colleen took care of Suede we needed to continue with the presentation of horses.

Heading back towards the ring, I found work was already underway to repair the downed fence. While the last U-nails were driven into place, I gave the crowd an update on the status of the colt. Then we quickly went on with the presentation.

The mare, Lucy (her barn name) was pretty jazzed after her encounter in the woods with the colt. She put on quite a show, snorting and blowing for all she was worth. It didn't take long before the people settled back into watching the show. We still had over half of the horses yet to show.

After that, things went pretty smoothly. There were no more horses that didn't want to be caught and no more attempts to flee the ring. Even the mares with foals at their sides didn't show any signs of stress at having their babies exposed to a crowd.

Because the day was as humid as it was, a couple of the horses hit the ring without the fire they would normally display. If you didn't know the horse, you probably wouldn't know the difference but I know them well. It was easy for me to see the horses that didn't perform for the crowd in their usual fashion.

One of those horses was Scandalous Reflection. He is a 5 year old dark bay stallion who is almost the spitting image of the great Khemosabi. Not only does Reflection look like the great horse but he seems to exhibit his mannerisms and his great love of people as well.

And just to make things a little on the "unbelievable" side, Reflection was conceived shortly after the death of Khemosabi and his birth was just hours before the birthday of the legendary horse. Those who knew Khemosabi personally can't get over the uncanny resemblance let alone the coincidence in the timing of his birth.

Sunday, Reflection just was not himself. He did snort and blow and frolic and play for the crowd but he was only a subdued shadow of his normal vibrant self. Always a crowd pleaser, they had no idea the young stallion was not anything but great. Secretly I worried that something was wrong with him.

To be continued............

Part 5


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