Home.......

Believe it or not I am finally home. Got here about 7 or so last night and I am exhausted. Just wanted everyone to know I am home and safe and you support has been greatly appreciated. I have missed you all.

I can't even tell you how good it was to hear real live horse voices this morning when I awoke. It did my heart good. Can't wait until the day I can actually touch one of them. In the meantime, I'm going to have to settle for the sounds of hoofbeats as they play in the field and their wonderful voices.

I hope to get around to visit all of my blogfriends sometime soon, We'll see how it goes. I have promised myself and my family I would not push beyond my limits. That means this post is now done.

Until the next time.............Thanks again everyone for your love and support. It has been so helpful to all of this throughout this scary time.

MiKael

Update

I thought I might beable to pull off a quick status post from my phone but no cigar. Still in the Hospital. Hope to get you details sometimetoday. MiKael

Under the Weather

I've been under the weather since the weekend and really pushing myself to post but that's gonna have to stop. Whatever bug has attacked my stomach has taken its toll. I'm heading for bed and going to pull the covers over my head. I'll be back when I feel better.

Blogger Fits.........

Is anyone else having problems with Blogger? It's giving me fits and the list of reasons seems to be growing. I got a comment from Winter Prospario in the form of an email because Blogger wouldn't let her post it directly to my blog which I totally understood because I'm having the same issue with comments I am trying to post on the blogs I am reading. Some go through fine others don't recognize me as being logged in and will not let me long in despite many attempts. Very frustrating.

In addition Blogger won't let me post comments that have come in for moderation from my email or my phone. Whenever I view my blog it shows me as not signed in AND while I'm at it I might as well gripe because it ADSENSE says my blog doesn't exist AND despite all my attempts to add like buttons etc to my posts, they don't show up. I have been unable to resolve either of these issues and when I do get a Blogger tech (which can take MONTHS!!!) I get a canned response that DOES NOT WORK!!!!!

I'd really rather be blogging about horse things instead of blogger issues. I guess I should be happy it's letting me post at all since that was last week's issue but it would be really nice to have a stretch of time that was problem free.

Now, it seems I can't get my scanner to work either, so no picture with this post. I will have to reboot and see if it will reset and work for me. Otherwise you'll have to just imagine the next picture of Legs giving his mother, poor Scandalous, what for....

The EHV-1 Virus Affects Arabian Horse Shows..... Information on Resulting Regional Qualifications... and an Opinion....

Even though the Region 5 of the Arabian Horse Associations Board of Directors meeting yesterday was NOT because of the EHV-1 situation, as you can guess this topic took up a large part of the meeting. Horse show season is in full swing so horse shows are being affected by people's reactions to this scare. What to do? seems to be on everyone's minds and that's not just what to do with your horse.

Once the meeting got underway, it was a given we would discuss the virus. The reason for that is the cancellation of two Arabian horse shows. One in region 4 and one in region 5. The HACO show in Oregon was supposed to run this last weekend and the IEAHC concurrent show in Spokane was supposed to be this coming weekend.

Because our system of showing relies on qualifications to show at regional and national events, cancelling qualifying shows affects those upper level shows as well. To deal with these extraordinary circumstances the AHA Board of Directors in teleconference last week voted that all horses entered in cancelled shows would be considered "qualified" for their regional championships.

Specifically that means for a horse to be eligible for this "waiver" it must have been entered in the show as well as entered in the particular classes for which they now want to claim regional qualifications BEFORE the shows were cancelled. This is a one time waiver for regional championships and only fits this particular situation of the affected shows because of the EHV-1.

If the situation continues in a way that could impact any of the national championships, those issues will be addressed at that time. For those not familiar with Arabian horses and their national championship shows, we have four of them, Youth Nationals, Canadian Nationals, Sport Horse Nationals and the US Nationals.

The other question regarding Arabian shows at our meeting was the Region 5 sport horse qualifier and regional championships that is coming up the first part of June. It is too early to know what to decide about the fate of that show since the appropriate incubation period of the virus for horses that might have been exposed by the return of affected horses from Utah has not passed yet. We were told at the meeting, the decision about that show would not be made until the 30th of this month based on that incubation period.

While that will be very short notice with the show dates June 2-5, it is the only way an informed decision can be made. No one wants to cancel the show if it is not necessary nor do they want to run a show when it is not safe. I would assume IF there are no new cases of the virus diagnosed by the end of that time frame, the show will be run. And, of course, if there are new cases everyone will be scurrying to figure out what to do next.



I think it's important to say this topic of conversation began before the meeting ever got started. The rumor mill is running rampant and in the process it is doing some real damage. People who don't know what they are talking about are causing serious issues for innocent people by spreading stories that affect the livelihoods of others. Think before you speak.

As an example of this problem, there was a trainer at the meeting that has been affected by the rumor mill. The internet says this trainer's husband was showing at the Utah show and that they have an affected horse in their barn. The husband (nor the trainer at our meeting) does not train cutters, he trains reining horses and he was no where near the Utah show or any horses who attended that show.

I can only imagine what the rumor mill is saying based on the amount of upset I could see on this trainer's face but whatever it is, it is causing a problem for these people AND it is absolutely wrong. These two people make their livings and support their family based on their training business and they have become fodder of the rumor mill due to no fault of their own. Not good.

I would venture to guess that rumors of this type will cause as much, if not more damage, than the actual virus will. I do not understand people who are willing to believe whatever they read or are told on the internet or any other source that feeds the rumor mill and, even worse, to pass it along AND even add to it. Do people not understand when they feed this rumor monster, they damage the entire industry?

The horse industry has taken enough hits with the poor economy and now this virus. It sure doesn't need the help of those who have nothing better to do but to spread stories to do it further damage. People need to get smart and be responsible so the industry doesn't take anymore hits.

The Weather Warms......and the Computer Freezes.....

I can't believe it. We actually had two days of warmer weather with NO rain although our creek is still over its banks and there is water in one of my barn aisles. The temperatures were only in the mid 60s but considering it hasn't been since October that we've had four days in a row with temps in the 60s, it feels warmer than it really is and it was like heaven here.

I spent most of my day outside trying to gain some ground on all that work missed because of our lousy weather. As I work out there, I ran tonight's post through my head. Laying it all out so I could just sit down and type, the thinking part already done.

The only problem with that strategy is my computer didn't cooperate. When I finally got time to get to my post, my computer was frozen solid. I'm sure it must have been working on some level because it did finally break loose and shut down.

Nothing reeks more havoc with blog posts for me than computer issues. In the frustration and time lapse my post fragmented in my head so I guess for tonight what I've got is the current status here. That status would be, I'm off to bed for an early rise because we're expecting more clear skies for tomorrow and I'm hoping to give those colts another run. My championship ride in the amateur owner class will have to wait until tomorrow.

I'm hoping I don't spend my sleeping hours thinking computer strategies instead of getting a good night's sleep. I'd much rather be dreaming horses than locked up Internet explorer windows......or picking rocks, which was also part of my day.



This picture is the same colt as pictured yesterday. As you can see from this picture, he's still having trouble trying to figure out those legs.

Blogger Ate My Post......and All Its Comments........

I don't know what the problem has been with Blogger over the past couple of days but whatever it is, I see in resolving it Blogger has eaten my May 11th post about my open western class and all the great comments I received. I guess it's a good thing I didn't get my post up for the 12th or that would probably be missing too.

Last time I checked the Blogger status board, it said they were in the processing of trying to restore all the posts that had been deleted so I guess I'll give them a while to locate my post about the western class. In the meantime anyone who missed it can veiw it in my notes on my FB page. The open western class is here. If you're not a friend on FB, I guess now is time to give it a try or you can wait for Blogger to find my post or me to repost it, whichever comes first.

All I can say is this is the part about computers that makes me nuts.........loosing things! In the meantime does anyone have a clue what happened that caused this mess? I know in my five years of posting blogs, I have never seen Blogger down for such an extended time.

UPDATE: Here's on what caused this mess. 20.5 hours is right about what I'd have guessed that Blogger was in that read only mode. I wonder how many of the posts I read through my reader and was unable to commment on are actually still there today.

Blogger Buzz: Blogger is back

Easter Escape

It was pretty quiet around here for Easter with Lindsay gone. We haven't had little kids or hunts for Easter baskets for years with our kids all grown but still Lindsay has a childlike wonder about her that spills over into all holidays and I miss her when she's gone.

Dave and I pretty much settled into our usual routine. He was out cleaning stalls while I got the fire going and the house warmed up for his return. With temperatures in the low 50s a small fire seems to be a must and I like to get it going good before I headed out to the barns.

We had this heavy drizzle coming down that made it too wet to ride so instead I did some work untangling manes. I'd planned to work on Trouble's mane while Dave fixed the mats in his stall but when I arrived Dave had turned Trouble loose and started without me. There was no way he was going to get caught just for me to untangle his mane. One step in his direction and he headed for the high hills.

Since Trouble wasn't cooperating I went back to the where I'd left on in my detangling mission. I was working on Scarlet's knotted mess of hair when I heard a commotion from out front. I figured it was Dave trying to catch Trouble but that turned out not to be the case. Once the mats were fixed Trouble decided he was fine with going back inside.

The culprit was Vee. I don't know if she got it in her head that Trouble had been out so it must be turnout time or what. Dave was cleaning her stall and hadn't totally blocked the door with the wheel barrow so Vee took the opportunity to squeeze her way free and make a run for it.

Dave went after her with halter and lead in hand and the mare scurried away. Just like Trouble had earlier, there was no way she was getting caught. Down the barn aisle she went, turning the corner to where the three gray mares live where she stopped and looked around. As soon as she realized there were no other horses out, she turned to Dave with a sigh to get her halter on and return to her stall.

All that drama had been for naught. I mean, heaven forbid Vee should be outside alone. The mare is a princess, you know, and needs her ladies in waiting and the rest of her court. What's the sense of being outside without your followers grovelling at your feet. Vee was having none of it........especially in the rain............

That was our excitement for the day other than finding fungus on MisScarlet's cheeks........

Hope you all got good stuff from the Easter Bunny, personally I was reallly wanting some chocolate marshmallow bunnies but I ate them before we ever got to Easter!

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY

A Change of Pace......... A Little Farm Story......

Dandy has been the grumpy old man on my farm for quite a while now. I think the basis of his attitude around other horses began with his EPM as a youngster, Before he ever got diagnosed with the disease he began to get uncomfortable with traffic in the ring getting too close to him. I suspect this behavior was directly rooted in the fact he was not quite right because of that lesion on his spine. Feeling vulnerable the horse wanted strange horses to keep their distance.

As the pasture mates he grew up with gradually went their different ways, Dandy found himself with new pasture mates. The grumpy horse from the ring now appeared in the fieldin these new situatons. Dandy had no tolerance for this younger set. Going out with the other geldings who are all at least 15 years his juniors is not Dandy's idea of fun BUT it is much better than the other role he gets delegated to around here on occassion.

Being the only "old" gelding on the place make Dandy the number one candidate for baby sitter duties when it is time to wean colts. If I had a pair of colts in the same year, Dandy got a reprieve because I can count on the colts being colts to teach the little varmints something about herd dynamics. It is when I have a lone colt that needs a buddy that Dandy gets stuck with the job.

Dandy has always acted like he is put out by the role of babysitter. While he doesn't hurt the colts, he does teach them to respect his space. From the first moment a colt is turned loose in the same field with Dandy you can see his flattened ears and snaked neck as he shakes his head at the little monster laying the rules down right from the start. I always appreciate any time colts spend with Dandy because they certainly learn to follow as well as to pay attention and look for what's expected of them. He's a great teacher even if his demeanor always seems to be grumpy with any interactions with the colts.

I have never seen Dandy act anything but disgruntled about this role. He has not ever decided a colt was worth befriending. Instead he seems to tolerate them following him around with their funny hero worship kind of admiration just like the big brother forced to take the little brother outside to play. Dandy had done it because it was expected but he's most certainly not been happy about it.

With Tango now being a yearling, it was time to separate him from Dare. The last thing I needed was him breeding his sister when no one way looking and yearling colts have been known to do just that. That left Dandy as the reasonable surrogate much to his chagrin. Whenever the weather cooperates, Dandy and Tango have been turned out into the front field. That's the same field that Leg's stall opens into.

One day not too long ago I had taken Legs to the park to school and Dave and Lindsay had turned Tango and Dandy out in that front field. When I arrived home I asked Dave to help me keep Tango at bay so I could get Legs back into his stall.

Imagine my surprise when from out of nowhere I saw Dandy flying my direction with ears flattened and teeth bared diving straight towards Legs. Even twirling the end of the lead rope at him to keep him away wasn't working. Dandy was going after Legs with a vengenace I have never seen before.

Dave was oblivious to Dandy because he was so focused on Tango. That colt loves his dad and always wants to run up to meet him. On this day he was moving off as asked but clearly watching for an opening to make a break to visit Legs. Dave was so intent on keeping Tango off he could not see that Dandy was the real threat, nor would he have expected it.

For the first time in many years, Dandy was the horse with the attitude. Dandy was clearly defending Tango like Dare or Solidare would have done if they thought the colt was threatened. Only Dare or Solidare would have known that Legs is not a threat to Tango. He loves his kids, even the boys, until they get much older and decide to challenge him.

Dandy hasn't really been exposed to Legs in his stall face boxing with colts on the other side of the wall. All he could see on this day was a baby without a mother and the stallion getting too close. It was a role I never would have expected from any gelding, let alone this one.

I was afraid Dave might get kicked in the scuffle as I tried to protect Legs from the onslaught of fire breathing uncle Dandy. Yelling at Dave to get his attention while still maneuvering Legs so he didn't get attacked, I was caught in the middle. I was not worried about Dandy hurting me but he clearly was not responding to me trying to send him away. As long as Legs was in that field Dandy was going to get him. My concerns were for Legs.

I finally got Dave's attention and he was able to help ward Dandy off and Legs and I dashed for his stall. I struggled with the sliding door and silly Tango tried to sneak through into Legs' stall before us. I had to shoo the colt off before we could even get in the door. With Tango that close to Legs I could hear Dandy breaking past Dave just as we escaped into the safety of the stall.

I just turned Legs loose so I could focus on getting the door closed without Tango following us inside. I could only imagine how that might freak Dandy out. I managed to get the door closed right in Tango's face and Dandy wasn't far behind him. Once Legs was in the stall and the door was closed, Dandy was no longer worried about Legs. He pushed Tango away and the two went off to graze like a mare and a foal would.

It's a good thing that Legs is so comfortable with who he is. The stallion was not the least bit threatened by Dandy charging at him in that manner. He looked at Dandy the same way he looks at Storm when he challenges him in the trailer. The horse has this calm confidence that says he knows that he is "the man." He just is. He doesn't feel the need to defend that title. He just let me move him around where ever I wanted him as I tried to keep him away from Dandy. Without his cooperation there could have been a real wreck.

I have been bringing Legs into that field to go to his stall with mares turned out there for all of his life. He knows the routine and is always a prince. Whodda thunk, it was the twenty year old gelding baby sitting the yearling colt that would cause the problem.............certainly not me. Never in a million years could you have told me that Dandy would defend any upstart colt, let alone against Legs.

It'll be a long time before I get that picture of him diving at Legs out of my mind. It was as vicious as the look on Mark's face the day he attacked Scandalous. Of course, now that it's over, I can't help but chuckle just a bit when I think about it. That grumpy old man is nothing but a fake.................

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY

Another Journey Begins............

Things were crazy here from the middle of January 2010 when the whole thing with Storm went south. I didn't post about it at first because I was pretty sure where it was headed. If I was right, I didn't want to complicate matters because I'd done my usual and spilled my guts.

I hinted about the fact there was a problem in Life........and Its Lessons That series of posts even had some of the groundwork for how I got sucked in even though I didn't post about it at that time.

I was going to follow up that series with the one about YW because there were certainly mistakes I made with her that carried over into what happened next because I hadn't dealt with them. Then I guess I got intimidated by the remarks on FB between YW and HM along with some directly between HM and me so I held off posting.

It was disheartening to see how distorted they could make things even referring to me as a drama queen. I get that such a ploy is to get the focus off of them and their behavior and onto me but it still hurt. I thought for so many years these people were my friends. I couldn't afford the emotional turmoil their jabs incurred. I needed all of my energy focused on the current situation so I decided I'd just keep what I knew about YW and HM on the back burner for a while.

As the plot unfolded and this thing surrounding Storm consumed my life, I couldn't seem to get the thoughts of what happened out of my head. I decided to maybe clear my head instead of posting at the time, I was going to write it down. God knows I could've used some sleep through this time and I was never going to get any if I couldn't get this stuff out of my brain so I began writing from the beginning to sort things out and for use as later posts.

Here on the blog I made references along the way to issues that probably left readers wondering what in the heck I could be talking about. The first time I really mentioned anything even resembling specific information was after things were really over in Wrapping Up a Difficult Summer........a Big Drain....
Other than that I know I've not shared many details or left many clues except maybe for my long time readers so the best place to start is probably back at the beginning with those writings I began last year around this time.

There are lots of similarities between those things that happened before and this thing with Storm. Looking back over it all, I see things I need to address so I don't end up down this road again. I imagine as you take this journey with me, you might even see some things I haven't discovered yet. What I know for sure is that history does repeat itself IF behaviors aren't changed.

For me the most obvious things I see is I trust too easily and jump in with both feet before I know that it really is safe. I also am not good with confrontation in public situations. From there my list goes on but I suspect these are the ones I need to address most. As I make this journey through the trials of the last two years I will be looking for more behaviors that I need to fix if I expect to be the kind of advocate for my horses that I want to be.

From this point forward I am going to refer to the two major people involved using initials. Most everything I'm going to say is a matter of public record or is referenced there so I really could state names but for the purpose of consistency I'm going to do this instead. The man involved I will refer to as BG and his woman partner will be LF. Other players along the way will be assigned initials at their point of entrance into this story. I hope it doesn't get confusing but I guess we'll see.

There's another thing about this whole situation you should know before I ever get started with the story. My daughter and granddaughter are wrapped up tightly right in the middle of this mess adding to the heartbreak and the stress. How that came to be I still don't "get" it all myself. I thought I should let you know it's coming so when they pop up along the way you'll understand I'm not getting sidetracked. It all fits in together even if it doesn't look this way at the time.

I'm thinking now is a good time to get all things out there in the open. Beginning with the writings I began last year although I have gone in and edited and rewritten these writings as I've realized the parts I'd left out that are important pieces of the story. This process is really what got me through this lawsuit.

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

Making a Move

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY

Different Kind of Journey - the Final Loose Ends for Me

This Story Begins Here

A couple of years ago I got a call from the new owner. She had called to get information about YW. She was having trouble getting her to finish paying on the contract for the horse she'd traded and wanting my help in locating the horse.

At this time I got the opportunity to find out how this gelding was doing. What she told me just confirmed what I'd already known. YW had been pretty rough on this horse.

When the new owners got him, they were so concerned about his situation, they decided to just turn him out for six months and let him learn how to be a horse again before they did anything with him. Out in the pasture no adult could go anywhere near this gelding or he would would charge at them. The only one who could get near him was her daughter, who just happens to be the person the horse was purchased for. Luckily, the horse adored the daughter so there was hope his issues could be fixed.

I can't even imagine what happened to this horse to cause this kind of defensiveness. For someone to take one of my sweet babies and turn them into such a horse speaks to some pretty abusive treatment and only confirms my belief that YW never really took to this horse in the first place. Since she was always blaming him for whatever was going wrong, I suspect she got way more physical in her discipline than this horse's phyche could tolerate.

Once the new owners put this horse back to work, they took retraining the horse slowly and he has been rehabilitated. That jack hammer canter that YW described is totally gone and the horse's lovely smooth balanced canter has been restored. WoHooooo!

I believe he's doing fences showing on the open hunter jumper circuit. They also ride him on trails and even down the road. He absolutely loves his kid and the entire family loves him. The horse has forgiven adults for what was done to him. The dear sweet horse who used to live here has been restored to that kind sweet gelding we knew. Hopefully this is a forever home and I won't have to worry about him anymore.

The other gelding was eventually sold too and from what I understand there was a falling out between the owner and YW before or during that sale. I am not sure which. What the circumstances are I don't know and where the horse is I don't know either, although YW did tell me the people who bought him did so for a kid to ride. Hopefully he's fallen into the hands of a kind trainer who is taking the time to fix him too. One can only hope.

I did look up the show record of this horse and I see he has been shown a couple of time by the new owner. The record only shows placings so I don't know if he has been shown more than what's there but it does show he was shown in late 2009 in hunter pleasure and early 2010 in dressage. The dressage showing was a score of 66 in training level and a placing of first with only 1 horse in the class. There's nothing there that will tell me if this horse has been fixed or is doing more of the same.

The heartbreaking visions of both those geldings has caused me to question whether I really want to breed horses anymore. The thought that happy horses can be turned into such sad beings in such a short time not only makes me furious it hurts to my core. I don't want to be responsible for horses living through such horrors. While I know I am not responsible for YW or anyone else's treatment of a horse, the fact I made the mistake of trusting her really shakes me.

I might add that after that short time YW rode Legs for two weeks and then showed him, for a couple of years I really didn't get back to my pursuit of getting the horse the western titles he needed to bring us into the limelight . I think that winter was so horrible schooling opportunities were rare. Then after that the twins were born and the rest is history. Reflections on Foaling Season 2006 - Rare Twin Foals

When I did turn my attention back to Legs I found myself with a completely different horse and I was starting over again. The horse was resistant to going into the bit and lifting his back. Did two weeks of YW's training do that, I don't know but I acknowledge at one point YW did ask me if she had contributed to his problem.

I don't know if that was a sincere question because she was evaluating her training or if she was just trying to see if I was blaming her. Either way I said the same thing then I am now. I just don't know.

All I know is it took me another two years to fix my horse and I had the same issues after YW had ridden him that I had after the WT had ridden him. Looking back, however, it occurs to me that WT only rode Legs in the bridle a couple of weeks and it had taken two years to even get the horse to go forward after that. The man did ride him for about eight months not allowing him to truly go forward so it probably wouldn't be a fair comparison but still there is the fact when it was time to put the horse back into the full bridle he ceased going forward again and has anytime since if he's gotten any kind of break from the bridle. Either way something sent Legs back to remedial training in both circumstances and I will always wonder why.

Another Journey Begins...............


Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY

Different Kind of Journey - Wrapping Up Loose Ends

This Story Begins Here

Before I get onto the next story which is mainly the time frame from the situation that led to the lawsuit and beyond, there are some loose ends that need to be addressed.

The day did come that I tried to talk to YW about Vee. She dismissed me with the statement she'd had a "meltdown " and walked away. I didn't even get one word out about the mare's condition because YW was already gone at the mention of the Vee's name.

Her attitude very much spoke to the fact she thought her personal issues made whatever happened to Vee understandable and maybe even acceptable. I can't even reconcile this kind of thinking coming from someone who claims to love horses but evidently YW can and not just YW because HM doesn't think it matters what happened since it's in the past.

I'm not really sure about the timing but after maybe a year with YW, both geldings went to another trainer. YW worked for that trainer as a groom and from what I'm told was not allowed to ride either horse. Before you think that trainer helped either horse, let me explain her fix for their issues was draw reins. Draw reins cannot fix a horse that has it's natural impulsion depressed by working the horse off the face before the horse ever really learned the cue for impulsion. Things did not get better.

I don't believe the bay gelding belonging to YW was shown during that time. His canter had been totally ruined because his impulsion was now up and down instead of forward making him both look and feel rough. YW described it as being like a jack hammer and it certainly looked like that but she blamed it on his breeding and took no responsibility for causing that horrid gait.

The mahogany bay gelding was shown in costume, show hack and some in hunter pleasure and halter while he was in the other trainer's barn. The horse won a top five in costume in Region 4. I didn't get to see the horse shown or hear directly anything about how he was doing. All I know is the Sweepstakes check I got with two or three small payments from placings he had earned. Nothing that spoke to the quality or talent of this horse however.

The next time I actually saw the horse, I was watching the Scottsdale show streaming on my computer. An english sidesaddle class was entering the ring when I saw a horse enter I thought I recognized. Looking closer, it really was the mahogany horse although I was pretty sure he wasn't trained enough to be carrying anyone side saddle.

There were only three horses in the class but the guest commentator had just remarked on the great quality of all three horses (that was nice to hear) when a riderless horse came charging across the screen. There was my boy running for the high hills. I can only guess what happened because it was off screen. However, I rest my case, the horse was not ready to be a side saddle horse.

The next I heard the mahogany bay gelding was back in training with YW. He was back to his career as a western horse only now he needed to be shown in the full bridle. I didn't ever see the horse actually shown that way but I did see him in a schooling arena. That was enough for me.

Without the proper fundamentals this horse didn't have a shot. I knew he could probably make it into the ribbons and even get qualified for regionals but from there, he just wasn't going to be solid enough to win. Sad for such a beautiful horse with such talent.

Not long after this I heard that both horses were for sale. My daughter and granddaughter tried to buy the bay gelding that YW bought from me. At the last minute YW changed her mind and refused to sell them the horse saying it just wasn't a good fit. I might add her sales contract required her to offer the horse first to me if she ever decided to sell so she really had no legal right not to sell the horse to my daughter, as my representative, but that's what she did. Eventually she traded the horse towards the purchase of another horse.

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

The Final Loose Ends for Me

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY

Different Kind of Journey - an Attempt to Intercede and a Final Payment

This Story Begins Here

At this show I did something out of character for me. I was so distraught and wanting to fix things and still unable to catch the owner alone, I stopped and had a conversation with the mahogany gelding's significant other. I had met the man before and gotten on quite well with him. He seemed like a reasonable man so I thought he might just listen to me and share with the owner what I'd said.

We had a long talk and I explained what I saw happening and how I thought it would affect the show career of the horse and his future sale value among other things. The owner had paid a lot of money for this horse and she expected a horse she could compete with at the national level. The way this horse was being trained, he wasn't even going to be worth what she'd paid let alone ever working to his potential. It was and is my opinion this horse was not working to his potential because his training had blocked his natural correct way of going and his ability to work his best because of this interference. I asked the man to intercede for the horse since I could not get to owner without having to deal with YW too and he assured me he would.

It didn't take long for me to know this tactic had not been useful. Later the following week I got a letter from the owner. She had been talked to all right and she was not happy, not happy with me.

It was clear from her letter that she didn't see things the same way that I did. She was pleased with YW's training and thought her horse was doing just fine. What she was concerned about was my behavior. I got a firm scolding for taking advantage of YW by not paying her a finder's fee ( the fee that had been waived) on the sale of the horse and not appreciating all she had done at my open house and was doing for me by getting my Legs' babies into the ring. She reminded me that had it not been for YW she never would have purchased this horse. I should be grateful. She was most upset that I had not talked to "us" (meaning she and YW) and instead I had chosen to speak to her significant other. Now he was doubting her choices in choosing a trainer and it was all my fault.

While it is unfortunate it turned out this way, it did not surprise me. The horse that this owner had put in training with YW before buying my gelding had had a hard go with the previous trainer. This owner had not realized anything was wrong at the time either. It was only in hindsight based on what she was told by YW and me that she had seen that this mare had been mistreated.

Despite years of horse ownership, the woman didn't know enough about training or riding for that matter to be able to tell the good from the bad. Unfortunately for many horses, she is not alone. There are way more horses out there being ruined with inappropriate training practices than there are horses being trained correctly, if you ask me. Most of those owners believe they are doing the right thing by their horse so it just keeps going on. The horses that are ruined are discarded and new ones sent to the very same trainers who ruined the discarded models in the first place.

Over time nothing improved with either of these geldings. I even heard that the gelding that had been purchased by YW herself was frequently tossing her onto the ground. I can't say that surprised me at all. I'd told YW before she even bought this horse that he was a bit stand offish and really needed to trust to be able to perform. He was and is a horse that needed kindness and patience to learn. Pushing him too fast or beating him up because he didn't do as expected would most certainly ruin this horse and yet both tactics are primary parts of YW's training.

The time came for YW to make her final payment on this horse and she not only claimed I owed her for a fee which she had waived but she billed me for training for Vee. I stood my ground about the fee she now thought she was entitled to receive after I double checked with my daughter and granddaughter to see if they remembered our conversation about the fee.

Both assured me they had been present when YW said she didn't expect a fee on the sale. I knew I had other conversations with YW about my practice of quoting prices and making sure people knew that did not include commission and we'd ever discussed my pricing on this particular horse and that a commission would be added on for any buyer coming with a trainer expecting a fee.. We'd even had YW had stated at that time she thought that was totally reasonable and she could see why I wouldn't even consider taking less for this particular horse.

Since by now I'd had enough experience with YW lying to me and others, I was comfortable she knew full well she was not entitled to a commission. I did not challenge what she wanted to deduct for training Vee however. I wasn't really ready to go down that road yet even though there was plenty of evidence that she did nothing with Vee. I knew from what she originally told me that she hadn't worked Vee, with a witness present, then the timing from then when I took the mare home and the condition the mare was in when I picked her up, it just was not possible that she had worked Vee the number of times she claimed BUT I was worried about my relationship with HM and really wondered if it was worth pushing it so I just let it be.

I am not normally an enabler. I tend to hold people accountable for their bad behavior because I think enabling is not really helpful to anyone. However, I didn't stick to my beliefs in this situation and it came back to bite me later. If I had it to do over, I would have insisted she pay the amount she charged me to train Vee but there's that hindsight again.

It was actually HM who met Dave and delivered the final payment on the horse. They paid what I said must be paid and Dave delivered the papers. Personally it was a sad day as I wondered what would come of this horse now that he did belong to YW. It was the closing of a chapter for this horse and me, but a whole new one was coming for YW and me.

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

Wrapping Up Loose Ends

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY

A Different Kind of Journey - a Post and Daffodil

This Story Begins Here

I really wanted to talk to the owner of the mahogany horse but I wanted to talk with her in person and alone. I think situations like this handled over the phone are awkward and usually not productive. The situation with the three woman was a good example of the unproductiveness of phone calls in dealing with such issues. I thought a face to face conversation would be best.

I did NOT however get that accomplished. Every time I saw the owner, YW was right beside her and I didn't want to get into it with YW nor did I want her involved in my conversation with the owner. I wanted to have some semblance of a chance to be heard. The only way I thought that would happen was by talking to the owner alone and I just couldn't seem to get that done.

I did a series of posts about the schooling show but I did not tell the gelding's story although it was really foremost in my mind. Instead I focused on Dandy and Rachel and the issues they were having. However, in the process of telling that story I did use references to these two geldings and YW in both posts about the clinic Post I.html and Post 2
despite the fact that both YW and her mom, HM, read my blog.

I didn't make the reference to be mean or to get even, that is not in my nature. I did it because the reference was an important tool from which Rachel had learned. Honesty is important to me and disguising the truth to satisfy YW or anyone else is not honest so I made the decision to tell the story I was telling as it was regardless of the fallout that meant using the reference it had taken for Rachel to understand what I was talking about.

Not telling the story between YW and me was another issue. Between the fact I had a long time friendship on the line with HM and the situation with Vee, it just didn't seem like the right time to be posting here. I guess I hoped that somehow someway there would be some kind of resolution between the two of us and I could preserve that friendship and on some level I still wanted to give YW the benefit of the doubt.

I did figure there probably would be some kind of reaction to my post I just didn't know what it would be. Maybe the door would be opened for some kind of dialog. There were other possibilities as well although I knew she could have taken that information a couple of ways. She could have learned something from it and maybe fixed what she was doing. OR she could have been p*ssed off and continued right on with her training methods.

Unfortunately for both horses the latter is what she chose. I shouldn't forget to add that both YW and HM were very very p*ssed at me and they made sure I knew it. As far as they were concerned, I was and am the one with the problem.

The next place I saw YW was at the Spring Show and she was there with both geldings. I had heard that YW was riding the gelding she bought from me as a hunter pleasure horse. To be honest I didn't think the horse had what it took to be a good hunter but I was willing to see. I made sure I was there for his class so I could get a look at the horse in the ring doing the hunter thing.

To my surprise, the horse came into the arena and immediately caught the judge's attention. When a judge follows a horse all the way down the rail even when other horses are coming into the ring, you know there's something special about that horse to the judge. All braided up and wearing hunter tack, the gelding certainly was dressed the part and the judge definitely seemed to be impressed but was he really a hunter horse?

How does a horse look like a hunter when you know it's not really been allowed to go forward? I can't answer that question but I can say I did see glimmers of a hunter horse in the ring. I also saw plenty of signs this horse was in trouble. Besides his tail flipping constantly and his mouth going too, the horse was swapping leads back and forth behind, going more upward with his impuslion that forward and being generally naughty with bucking and some kicking thrown it. It was clear this was not a happy horse and he sure wasn't doing his job.

Things had not gotten any better with the mahogany bay gelding either. YW was riding him western and he was still clumped up in an exaggerated frame. Part of the time his lower lip was sucked back exposing his teeth and his long neck was jammed into his shoulder BUT his jog was slow. I'm sure she thought that's what counted but it looked like a wreck to me. This horse also was having trouble with his leads and swapping leads behind although he was more compliant than the other horse.

Not the kind of impression one would hope for with the first appearance of a stallion's get in the performance arena. If anyone noticed their breeding at all, they probably made a mental note that breeding was something to say away from. It didn't look good for Legs nor did it look good for YW's training, not from where I was sitting anyway.

Both of these horses did manage to get in to the ribbons at times. It was in smaller classes and only if they didn't do something particularly naughty but on the whole particularly naughty was the look of the show for both of these geldings.

During one class, I pointed out the mahogany gelding to a friend of mine. She's loved this horse from the first day he was born. Now when she saw him she couldn't even believe he was the same horse. Her response to me, "MiKael, What happened to him? One of the things I loved most about this horse was his big bright expressive eye. This horse eye is dead like there's nobody left inside The light is totally gone."

How do you respond to a questions like that? Yet I knew she was right. That was the same thing I'd seen. There was nothing about this horse that said he was happy to be alive. It was like his spirit was totally gone. Anyone who loves Arabian horses knows one of the most amazing intriguing things about them is that spirit. Killing it, is like killing the horse.


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

An Attempt to Intercede and Final Payment

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY

A Different Kind of Journey - The First Show

This Story Begins Here

I didn't see YW until early spring the following year. If I remember correctly it was at a schooling show at the Puyallup Fairgrounds. She was there with the big mahogany bay gelding and his new owner. I was there with my granddaughter. She was riding Dandy in a clinic. She's actually the one who told me YW was there and that the gelding was too.

Walking through the barns to get to the arena, I came upon YW (and maybe the owner) unexpectedly. YW spoke to me like nothing had changed between us. There were no apologies for calls not returned, certainly nothing about the horrible thing she'd allowed to happen to Vee. She acted like it was just another meeting of friends in the spring after a winter's lay off.

I didn't know what to think and I certainly didn't know what to say. I knew I didn't want to get into things here at the show because I was still too angry, very angry. Dealing with her over what Vee had to endure was going to take some calm and cool on my part. I didn't want to be seen as some fool ranting and raving over something no one else understood. All I wanted to do was get my b*tt outta there while I could still hold my tongue.

Before I made my escape, I inquired about how the geldings were doing. YW told me the big mahogany gelding was doing just fine but she had really had to "lighten him up" when she first got him.

I cringed when I heard that and I still cringe today. That horse I had started myself and he had approximately thirty days on him when he was sold. The horse really didn't understand forward yet. He was still learning how to balance himself and carry weight. How was he going to do what she was asking if he didn't even get that? Collection was a ways down the road but I knew when she said "lighten him up" she was really talking about frame.

Unfortunately I bit my tongue and said nothing. I got myself out of there before I boiled over. Sometimes I wish I'd done otherwise. Maybe things would have been different but I'm never going to know because what I did was flee..........

I did make it a point to check the horse out when YW showed him in a class. Maybe I was wrong and she'd done right by this horse. It didn't take long to see it was as I thought. I saw a very unhappy horse going down the rail in a compact bunched up little ball not understanding what he was supposed to do.She was pushing him forward but grabbing him in the face blocking his forward movement, not something you can do with a horse just started under saddle. The horse has to understand what the cue really means. The horse had no idea where his impulsion was supposed to go. His tail war wringing and his face looked worried. Still the horse was trying to work for her. My heart broke.

After seeing this display in the arena, I made it a point to visit the horse in his stall but I waited until the owner and YW were not around. I knew I couldn't hold my tongue so I just didn't want to get into it because I knew my rage would boil over and that wouldn't be good but I also knew by now that YW was not interested in what I had to say. We'd spent lots of time talking about her premature attempts at collection and her belief that she was right was why she'd quit listening. What I did want to do was get a chance to stroke this horse and apologize to him for what I'd done. And what was that, you say? I'd left him in the hands of the kind of trainer I swore my horses would never have to experience.

My visit with the horse was even more heartbreaking. The happy funny horse I'd known was gone. There was a sadness in his eye that permeated to my soul and there were big white scars on the corners of his mouth left by the bit and that "lightening up" she'd done. Silent tears fell as I stood in his stall stroking this horse. His head dropped down low, let out a big sigh and leaned against my leg which only added to my pain.

At the same time I could only imagine what the other gelding, his half brother, must be going through because this one was the one she liked, that one, not so much. I suspected life for him was even more confusing and scary.


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

A Post and Daffodil

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY

A Different Kind of Journey - More Stuff

This Story Begins Here

I never did hear from YW and I didn't attempt to call her. I was too angry for that. I didn't want to say something I would regret later so I just kept my silence BUT you can bet I didn't forget what she'd done to my mare. I couldn't help but wonder how the two geldings were faring.

About this time an odd thing happened. That woman YW had blamed for her issues with me called me up and began asking me questions about my conversation with YW about her. I tried to explain what I'd said but it was obvious that something was wrong and asking questions, I really didn't get to the bottom of it. I wondered what was up.

If that wasn't strange enough, I then got a call from my friend who had the two horses in training with YW. She began asking me about the same conversation and her questions were along the same lines. I tried to explain to her as well but our whole conversation just didn't make sense to me. I had no clue what was going on, I just tried to answer the questions as honestly as I could and I hoped they figured out whatever it was they needed to know.

Then next thing I knew I had this friend plus another waging a small time war against me. They were both friends of that woman from regionals and their friend had been wronged as far as they were concerned. To their way of thinking I was the one responsible for the whole thing and they were going to make me pay. I think I even got a phone call or maybe it was a message letting me know they were done with me and they were going to make me pay. The war was on, at leat in their eyes.

According to what I heard they believed I was trying to run YW's clients off so I could have her all to myself and that I was responsible for the problems the other woman was having with YW. There were words about me being so selfish I didn't want anyone else to be successful and I'd do anything to interfere with others trying to make it in the industry.

Those two horses were pulled from YW and I found myself snubbed. Relationships I'd had for years were now suddenly in the toilet and I really didn't know why. The only thing I knew for sure was that YW was somehow involved.

I must admit I didn't do anything to correct this situation. My feelings were hurt these woman didn't know me well enough or even trust me enough to know I would never do the things they accused me of. Between that and the fact I tend to shy away from relationships with people who believe that getting even is the way to settle a score, I decided these relationships probably weren't worth saving. I was better off without such friends in my life but believe me I did wonder what the story behind their behavior was.

I think in the bigger picture it's important to add these were friends who were a part of my immediate support system. I spoke with them regularly and called if I had problems. I could rely on them for help and vice versa.

When I say problems, I don't mean just I had a bad day. If my barn was flooding, my truck died or a horse got loose these were the people I called. At that time the group of close friends for me was made up of six women. This situation took half of that away and two of those three women were top of my list if I needed physical help of any kind. It was a hard blow to take.

There was another twist to this situation. The now former friend who had just dumped me AND waged war against my reputation is quite strongly connected to the webmaster for my farm site. I found myself wondering if I could trust this situation or if I needed to be figuring out some other arrangements for my website.

I was afraid to call and ask for fear I might give them ideas about new weapons to use against me. I just didn't know what to expect. Would they be professional or would this personal issue bleed through an affect my business? I just didn't know so I decided I better check out my options.

I soon found out the design etc of my site are actually the property of the designer. That meant I'd have to pay for a whole new web design as well as get my site moved to another web location. The latter would be impossible without the cooperation of the current webmaster unless I bought a whole new domain name and started from scratch.

Not only did I not have the funds to pay for a new design etc. having to start from scratch with a new domain name and a new location would mean it was like my site hadn't existed at all. I would lose all recognition in the search engines making my site once again impossible to find. The probabilities of selling horses from a new site with no rankings are slim to none.

Building search engine rankings and such takes time and skill too and there are many sites out there that do not have the benefit of such skills behind them. I had been one of the lucky ones finding a webmaster/designer who really knew his stuff bringing me up quickly. Starting over would be a big hit for my website and would affect my business as well. It was something I couldn't afford to do.

I decided I'd stick it out and hope that my website wouldn't be compromised but believe me, I sweated it. It was a tense time for several months. I did lots of checking to see my website was still functioning and that my search engine rankings were not suddenly dropping. From what I could tell, nothing like that ever happened and at least I was safe on that front.

Who would have thought a situation with a trainer could even end up interfering with my business? Peculiar how the oddest things can trickle down and make huge waves sometimes, isn't it? You just never know where things will end up.

NOTE: None of these women has spoken to me in five years. I have seen the woman this controversy revolved around at horse shows a couple of times this past year. Then I ran into her at the Wendy Potts clinic. I made it a point to tell her I was sorry about what had happened and that whatever it was it never really was about her or even me. It had been about YW. She'd been lying and manipulating both of us to avoid being responsible for her behavior.

I told her I didn't know what YW had said to her. All I knew for sure was what YW said to me and I told her what those things were.

It was then I learned what was behind this "punishment" I'd received from my former friends. Instead of being honest (and at this point who knows what honest would have been) YW had told this woman I had said she would never have any clients if this woman was around. Of course, I should have guessed, if YW had blamed her problems with me on the other woman, then she blamed her problems with the other woman on me. It made perfect sense and was one more piece in the puzzle of what makes YW tick.

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

The First Show

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY

A Different Kind of Journey - The Discovery.........

This Story Begins Here

The last thing I had said to YW before I left the barn that day was "Call me and let me know that you've talked to him." I wanted to know that the situation with Vee's stall was fixed but that call never came. I called her and no one answered so I left a message. Then I called again. I called on her house phone and I called on her cell phone. Still no return call.

First thing the next morning, I did it all again. Still there was no answer nor was there any call. I kept calling and leaving messages. I called for days pleading to know that my mare was ok all to no avail. Finally I called and left the message I would be there to pick Vee up the following day. There was no response to that call either.

I will never forget the sight I saw when I walked into the barn that day. That little trail in the barn aisle was no longer just a barely visible wet line. It was now about a six inch wide running river of sewage . We could see the ripples of current in it as it moved from under the stall wall, down the aisle and out the far barn door. Just the sight of it struck panic in my heart. What about my mare?

I rushed up to the stall where Vee had been. There inside stood my beautiful mare covered in raw sewage. There was not a dry spot in the stall and Vee stood in what must have been a couple inches of sewage. One side was deeper than the other. She was standing in "stuff" over the tops of her coronet bands on all four feet.

Dave and I both rushed in to retrieve Vee, each wading through the crap each only thinking of getting Vee out of there. I remember looking down at that floor as I entered wondering how Vee had been feed in these conditions. There were no feeders. They must have thrown her hay right into the sewage. There were no traces of hay only the brown stinky stuff with an odor that burned both lungs and eyes.

I was the one who had grabbed the halter off the door so I walked up the Vee's face to halter her. I have to admit I gagged as I reached towards her face and this squishy brown muck fell onto my hands and sleeve. There was no way to be even close to the mare without getting that cr*p on our clothes . I can only imagine how Vee must have felt being covered in it as she was.

As I put my wretched looking mare into the horse trailer, I looked more closely at her condition. The mare had dropped some weight. She had also dropped some of her muscle tone. She clearly had not been worked because who could have worked her like this. Instead of the blooming healthy mare I'd delivered, I saw a nightmare of a rescue case only this mare wasn't starving but definitely suffering from neglect that would have gotten the Animal Control people foaming. Returning the mare to a healthy looking condition was going to take some major work.

Vee was covered from head to tail in sewage that was mostly dried. There were some wet spots but it was clear she hadn't been laying in it for the past few hours. From what I could tell there wasn't a portion of her body that was exempt from accumulation. Some places were caked more thickly than others. Her mane and tail were matted with the stuff, even her forelock and even eyelashes were vehicles for hanging clumps of the dried material from her face. It was beyond horrifying and it wasn't just going to rinse off. It was obvious Vee had been living like this for a while.

Never in my life have I seen such a thing. Never in my life had I imagined someone would/could allow a horse to be kept in such conditions. Never in my life would I have believed someone I knew and trusted would let this happen to a horse of mine in their care, let alone a pregnant mare, and not do something, or at least call me so I could do something. Yet here I was looking at Vee covered in disgusting filth.

In our nearly forty years together I have only seen Dave explode in anger twice. This day when we collected Vee from this horror was the first. It was probably a good thing that YW was nowhere around on that day.

We took the mare home with little talking on the trip. Both of us were stunned by what we'd seen. Neither of us even knew where to start to fix this thing. I knew if we talked Dave would only get angrier and I couldn't deal with that and drive too. He was way too angry to be behind the wheel so we suffered in silence with images of Vee flashing in our heads. It was a long ride home.

When we got Vee there it was too late in the day to even think about bathing her. This was October and the weather here was not just rainy, it was cold and windy too. There just wasn't enough daylight left to consider getting the mare wet. She was better off dry than soaked going into the cold night time hours. We decided we'd brush of what we could and then try to leave it alone until morning. At least the mare was out of that stall and had a clean dry one to spend the night in.

When I did being working on cleaning up my horse, there was so much stuff caked on Vee it took me literally days to finally get her clean. I let her finish her breakfast before starting. Then I began working on getting all that s**t and urine out of her coat. I'd soaked her down good with warm water from the house and then sudsed her up as much as I could.

After a while of scrubbing gently on the mare the suds turned to a muddy goop and I'd have to rinse her off and start again. I kept this up until the mare began to shiver, then I covered her in lots of coolers to warm her up so I could then try again. I could only do this a couple of times in one day. Then I'd need to quit so the mare could get dry so she could be warm at night.

Then the next day I started all over again. No place was exempt from the stuff, not even the hair inside her ears or the folds of her nostrils. The tender skin around her anus and vulva were raw and bleeding. Her udder was one solid round ball, it's original shape lost in the disgusting material that now clung to it. The tender folds of skin between her back legs were red from the acidity of the mixture and the friction as it rubbed together. Vee was quite a mess.

Where there were clumps it was particularly difficult trying to break down them so they would release the hair and drop off without hurting Vee. It was like getting matted wads of hair off a uncared for cat or dog, only this was a horse and it was poop and urine stuck to winter hair making up the mats. I wanted to cut them off but they were so close to the skin I couldn't tell where the mat ended and the skin began. The only option was to just keep softening them up and working them down.

I remember cleaning the mare up felt like those days of taking care of Lindsay as she vomited after chemotherapy. It was one of those things I did because it had to be done but my whole body and soul screamed at the situation, wanting to puke instead of minister. I pushed through because Vee needed me but to do so meant I had to flip some internal switch, leaving my body and watching from a distant vantage point. Detached but going through the motions, soothing the mare as needed all the while I screamed off inside my head somewhere at the inhumanity of it.

The first two days were the worst because that's how long it took to get the most sensitive parts of the mare completely cleaned up and the surface stuff off. By the third day it was more of the deeper stuff right next to her skin and the insides of her ears and wadded up balls in between her front legs and in her arm pits. As long as she sudsed up brown and gritty I knew there was still stuff left next to her skin.

By this time the anger set in but even those feelings I had to keep at bay. That kind of rage wanted to translate into being way to physical for such a delicate task. I didn't want to hurt Vee in this process. It was not her fault her caretaker had abandoned her to such a fate.

The whole time I couldn't help but wonder what kind of effect such a thing could have on the foal growing inside this mare. Those fumes and ingesting that material with her food, must have been a risk for a pregnancy. Who knew?

Normally I wouldn't jump ahead in the telling like this but there was something than no one knew about this pregnancy. Vee was carrying twins. Just one more notch in the miracle department for these babies, Trouble and Surprise, no thanks to YW. Looking back I still cannot believe Vee managed to carry twins under such circumstances.

AND there was one more problem. YW still had two horses I had raised in training with her. I couldn't imagine what those horses were going to deal with and there was nothing I could do about it because I didn't own either of them.

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

More Stuff

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY

A Different Kind of Journey......... and Deeper.....

This Story Begins Here

Shortly after my open house both Storm and the big gelding went to the facility where YW was training. As close as I can remember it was somewhere near this time, I began hauling horses up to that facility so I could work them. The plan was as I was working my own horses, I could kind of guide YW along this journey of getting these young horses of my breeding ready for the ring.

The idea of me "consulting" or "mentoring" if you will, was not a new one. I had been giving her my input for months on how to handle situations with whatever horses she was working with and particularly the bay gelding she'd purchased from me. She had not only accepted my input but she had actually sought it out on many occasions. It was being able to have such input that made me feel secure enough to even be in this situation where a new, pretty much unknown trainer held in the palm of her hands the future of some of my biggest stars.

I think it was only a couple of weeks later when YW missed a contract payment on the gelding she had first bought from me. I could already see that I had probably made a big mistake trading Storm for work so I talked to her about not having two horses when she couldn't even afford one. She agreed and soon after I took Storm back home and at that deal was done.

Since YW was having problems with payments, I talked to her about putting some miles on Vee in place of part of those payments on her gelding. The mare was then pregnant and I knew probably wouldn't get much exercise in our projected bad winter. I figured riding her now would get her in really good shape before the last trimester. Even having those last months off the mare should still be in pretty good condition at foaling time.

Keeping in mind when I made this decision about Vee there were things that happened along the way with that gelding that made me a bit nervous. We always seemed to get them resolved or I thought we did. I told myself it was just part of the learning process for both YW and the gelding. YW always seemed to be open to my input and as long as things stayed that way, we'd be good.

I can't even tell you when it changed or even why it changed. I can tell you she got a couple of horses in training from a friend of mine and that woman from regionals was talking about bringing her another one. YW started not being there when I showed up and not returning my calls. It also seemed to me she wasn't listening to me anymore either.

As it became more obvious training with the first gelding was not going wel, it looked to me like maybe she was afraid of him. While I had done ground work with the horse before she got him, he had never been ridden, like the others. I had only sat on him one time and she was there when I did it.

She claimed he was just being a jerk but that didn't fit into what I knew of this horse. Still I kept blindly moving along letting this woman take Vee. I guess I was thinking because Vee was broke, still green, but broke and relatively safe, that there wouldn't be a problem. There was nothing anymore scary about Vee than any other horse I ride. All I wanted was miles in the saddle nothing fancy. It should have been easy. Right??

Each time I confronted her about these issues of not showing up for appointments, doing what she'd promised or returning phone calls, YW blamed that same woman she'd blamed back at regionals. I told her it really didn't matter to me what her excuses were, I wasn't going to continue to work with her if she wasn't going to be doing what she said.

Still YW went on trying to blame this woman. It was all HER fault. It wasn't what YW wanted to do BUT she just couldn't stop this woman from unexpectedly showing up at the barn, consuming everything around her, demanding all or YW's attention and time. YW said this woman sucked her energy all up and she couldn't stand having her around. She went on and on.

I will admit this woman is something of a whirlwind and I can see where she might catch someone off guard if they were unprepared but still that didn't change YW's responsibility to her training clients and that included me. I felt as long as YW was not doing what she needed to for her clients it was HER problem not the woman's. Still there was no effort by YW to take responsibility or do something different.

I didn't really know what to think but I told YW if she was having boundary problems with this prospective client she needed to deal with them. I reiterated it wasn't good to be standing up clients to deal with one in particular. If she was going to deal with clients in that manner, she'd probably would have trouble keeping or even getting clients. No one wants to pay good money to be ignored. Balancing out your time where needed among all the clients is an important part of being a good trainer. If she wanted to be a successful trainer, she needed to figure out how to cope to get that done.

Her response to me was she didn't want "that" woman for a client OR even in her barn. Again, I told her only she could be the one to make that decision and she had to be the one to set limits because she is the only one who could figure out what would work for her. It sounded to me like something needed to be figured out and figured out soon the way things were going.

As this whole drama was unfolding, there was another problem developing. I had made an appointment to come see Vee. I came with one of my friends who is also a breeder and always in the market for a trainer. I wanted to see how Vee was doing and we'd go to lunch and my friend would have a chance to meet YW.

The problem was when we got to the barn, Vee was not standing in a dry stall. I asked YW about the situation and she explained. It had been doing a lot of raining and the manure pile was situated right behind Vee's stall. Run off from that pile was going into Vee's stall and then on out and down the aisle way and straight out the door. A small trail of water could be seen, not much more than a wet line on the floor leading out the doorway.

Obviously there was no way I wanted my pregnant mare living under such circumstances. Not to mention that fact that I sure wouldn't pay board for conditions like that. I let YW know I wanted it fixed, pronto.

Now I remember thinking that Vee's stall was not good but not so terrible she couldn't stay there briefly while the problem was fixed. I didn't really care if the mare was moved if the issue was fixed as long as the mare's stall stayed dry like it should. YW told me she'd talk with the barn owner as soon as she could and I trusted YW to do just that. I also asked her to let me know what the outcome was.

It also turned out that YW had no plans to ride Vee while we were there even though that's why we'd come. When I asked her if she'd ridden her at all since she'd been there, I was told, she'd been lunged a couple of times and again, there were excuses. It was not looking good.

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

The Discovery

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY

A Different Kind of Journey......... Getting In Deeper

This Story Begins Here

The first months after the contract sale of the bay gelding things seemed to go OK. YW made her payments for the horse on time or at least within a few days of ontime. She hadn't really done much to start him but that was OK. I'd told her upfront he was an insecure horse and needed things to go slow. Giving the young Arabian horse time to settle into his new home made sense to me.

I think she moved the horse a couple of times before she found a place she stayed for amy length of time but that was good. The first place had been with someone with a questionable reputation in the industry. I'd advised her if she wanted to have a good reputation as a trainer it probably wouldn't be good to have her training business working out of a facility of someone others didn't trust.

It was at the regional show that I let her school Legs in the main arena. The horse did bring her the desired attention. The husband of a BNT in our area spotted her riding my horse and asked about him. He wanted to know who the horse was and where he'd come from. We figured the more she was seen the more helpful it might be for her to get some horses into training so more plans were made for her to school Legs at this show.

There was a woman(newer friend of mine) I knew coming around at the horse show spending time with both YW and me. At one point YW stood Legs and I up for her appointment to ride him at the lunch break because she was off with this woman doing something on the grounds. The break was over and the opportunity for schooling gone before the two women even returned to our stalls.

I told YW I didn't appreciate going to all the work of getting the horse ready to be schooled only to have her not show. Instead of taking responsibility, YW blamed the situation on the other woman saying she just couldn't get away from her. Still I told her she was responsible for her own behavior. This woman couldn't really make her do anything she didn't want to do. I reminded her I was trying to do her a favor. I didn't need her to be schooling my horse, I could do that myself, after all he'd gotten to this point with me riding him. If she didn't want to be seen riding Legs, that was OK, we could stop but have the common courtesy to let me know and not leave me hanging. She said she wanted to ride Legs and she wouldn't stand me up again.

During that year I was managing both Daffodil All Arabian Horse Shows. All the responsibilities of those shows and the lack of volunteers was really making it difficult to get my horse shown. There was so much work to be done and so much stress it just didn't make much sense for me to try and show my horse while I was manager so I offered to let YW show Legs at the Daffodil Summer Show.

Because I was so busy getting last minute stuff done for the show, I didn't really even have the time to get my horse schooled those last couple of weeks. I figured it would make sense if I sent him up to YW for that time so Legs could be worked and she could get a chance to know him. I have to say in hindsight this thought makes me sick but I didn't think Legs was any worse for wear at the time.

Now that I think about it,I did have a problem with Legs that I've never really thought might have anything to do with her. I rode Legs at that facility the day I took him to the horse show after she'd been riding him for two weeks. He wasn't listening to my legs and he got pretty frustrated with me. He even got naughty and I had to ride him for some time before he was going the way he should. The horse was a lathered sweaty mess when I was done and I was bewildered by my horse's behavior.

Funny as I'm recalling how naughty Legs had been on that day, I'm just now wondering what YW might have to do with the horse's behavior . At the time it never dawned on me, that something could be bothering the horse. I was so surprised by his behavior I really didn't know what to think. I put my energy into fixing it but really never gave another thought to what might have caused this situation. As I said before, and I'm sure I'll say again, the pieces don't always fall into place until later. Now I can't help but wonder what my horse was trying to say. All I can say for sure is thing, I never had a session with Legs like that before that day AND I have never had one after. SHE has not ridden Legs since that horse show.

At the horse show, YW showed Legs in the open class but I did part of his schooling too. During the whole class she was picking at him even though the horse looked like he would roll over and stay there solid for her. Legs and YW did not place well in that first class and I knew it was because she picked at him the entire class She just never really left him alone, checking, checking, always checking.
(I actually spoke to the judge after the show and she told me thought Legs was a lovely horse but she didn't use them any higher because YW "was always in his way picking at him instead of allowing him to do the job the horse obviously knew how to do).

Immediately after that class and, of course, right before she rode again we did some talking about the fact she needed to trust Legs, leave him alone and for heavens sake stay out of his face. We went over the whole thing again before she rode him in the open championship. That class she rode much better leaving Legs alone and letting him hang in the bridle where he belonged. Legs did his job and turned in a nice clean performance. When it came time for the placings Legs now had his first championship in a western pleasure class and YW had her first open championship as a professional trainer.

That year for championship prizes we were giving denim shirts embroidered with the Daffodil logo with the word Champion right underneath. Such prizes usually go to the owners and I was given my shirt right after the class. I thought about it and decided it would be good for YW to get that shirt. Being able to wear that shirt would be good for her confidence and it would be good for others to see her sporting it. Just another way of spreading the word she had something to offer the industry.

You should have seen the look in her eyes when I told her I wanted her to have that shirt. You would think I'd given her something very valuable instead of a light blue denim shirt with a few words scrawled on it. Seeing that expression I knew I'd done the right thing. Hopefully this kid (to me because that's how long I'd known her) would get a chance to have her dream.

Somewhere during this time it became clear that Storm was really the horse that YW wanted although the horse was clearly out of her price range. The gelding she said would be a great horse for her kids but Storm was the open western pleasure horse she'd always dreamed of owning. With me having so many horses needing to be started under saddle, I began thinking maybe we could help each other out. It didn't take me long to suggest a trade for starting those horses in exchange for Storm.

Before you know it a contract was signed and plans were underway to get some of my babies going. By now it was close to my annual open house and that had to be my first priority. Also I wanted Storm to still be presented at the event but the crowd would be told the horse had been sold. The horse would stay with me until that time.

YW helped me present horses that year and her sole client at the time came shopping. The woman already had a half-Arabian pinto mare who'd been ruined by a hard handed trainer. The mare had some pretty scary behaviors. While the mare was improving, she was never going to be the kind of show horse this woman wanted, a national caliber western pleasure horse.

YW already had her eye on the mahogany bay gelding as the perfect horse for the client. She was hoping having the client actually see the horse in person, she might come to the same conclusion. The big flashy gelding was a heart stopper. as always, at the event and YW's client was hooked.

With YW, the prospective buyer, as well as my daughter and granddaughter standing in front of the horse's stall we discussed the matter of price. I stated my price clearly including the fact my price did NOT include a trainer's fee (which is what I always tell ALL prospective buyers AND any trainers involved. My prices are what I need for the horse no ifs ands or buts). I said if YW thought she should get a precentage it would have to be added onto the price I had quoted because that price was my bottom line.

YW said she didn't think her client could afford to spend much more but she (YW) would gladly waive any fee to be able to have this gelding in her barn for training. Having such a horse in training and being able to show him would be good enough for her.

Now, we have three of Legs' babies in training by this new young trainer. I think at the time we all thought it was going to be the beginning of things turning around for all of us. The horses were such quality and had such talent, if they were doing their jobs when they hit the ring, they should make quite a statement for both my breeding program AND her training.

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

and Deeper

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY

A Different Kind of Journey

This Journey Begins Here

Some years back during the spring I got a call from a young woman (I'm going to refer to her as YW) that I've known since I first began showing horses. We talked a bit catching up then she told me she was looking for a quality horse to train and show. She was hoping to get a horse of her own so she didn't have to deal with her mother(who I shall refer to as HM) but didn't have much money. She thought maybe I might know of something that would work for her.

Over the years I'd spent some time with YW and HM and I considered them to be friends. When I was just starting out HM was training horses for a local breeder and YW was showing some too. I don't remember their horses doing much in the ring in those early days (early for me not them) other than being naughty. It maybe that they did fine but what sticks in my mind was the conversations we had about naughty horses.

It was only after she quit training and was showing a beautiful mare of her own, that I remember she had a great year in the local regions. They were working with one of the BNT's (big name trainers) that year and the mare was going awesome. What a pretty picture in the ring, I was happy for them both.

During later times when they were showing, we'd spent lots of time sitting on the rail evaluating the horses going inside. What was wrong with them and what it took to fix them, we seemed to be on the same page. It was a relationship based in mutual respect, or so I thought.

Now that I had this YW asking me about horses I was thinking this might just be a good placement for one of my Legs' babies. While my horses are priced higher than her budget could bear I was thinking we might be able to figure something out.

At that time I had three brothers here that were the same age. Two of them were just started under saddle and one was not. The reason I hadn't gotten to the third horse yet was because he seemed to be overlooked by visitors here. This gelding was a quality horse and good mover but he did not have the fancy markings of the other two geldings.

One of the brothers was a chestnut stallion with four white irregulars markings on his legs and a fancy star, stripe, snip and upper lip on his beautiful face. He had a very flashy full flowing salted flaxen mane and tail. The other was a dark kind of mahogany bay gelding with two high whites behind and a pretty fancy marking on his face complete with a very large snip that went over one nostril. This horse too had a beautiful face with gorgeous big eyes, long beautiful mane and full flowing tail and was a fancy mover.

The third horse was kind of a medium bay with very little white. He had a beautiful face with the cutest tippy little ears and huge eyes and he was not shorted in the mane of tail department either. As I said, he just got lost in all the chrome of his brothers. I had not started this horse under saddle yet because I was putting my time in on the horses I expected would sell first. This was an opportunity to get this horse a good home and maybe get him in the ring showing the people around here what Legs could do as a sire before I would even have time to get to him. It seemed to be a win win for both of us.

We discussed a price and a payment plan. She made a modest down payment, would make payments of $100 per month for one year and then a balloon payment at the end to pay off the balance. She was supposed to insure the horse to cover the contract if something should happen to him and I made her promise she wouldn't tell anyone what kind of a deal I'd given her on this horse because it was a real steal. I didn't want the word leaking out and making it look like Legs was producing anything less than the quality he is because all anyone heard was a price.

YW was thrilled and we spent some time talking about her dream. She wanted to be a horse trainer and was hoping she could do that in the Arabian circuit. Being able to be seen on a quality horse like this gelding would help to get her noticed. Of course, that was figuring she'd get the job done and the horse would be in the winner's circle but she had a ways to go. This horse wasn't even started yet.

I thought maybe I could help her some with that by getting her seen in the ring on another quality horse. I had just put Legs into the western bridle at this time and he was going pretty awesome. I'd let her ride Legs over at the Tacoma Unit one day and she'd done fine. I was going to let her school Legs at some local shows. Depending on how that went, I might let her show him in the ring.

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

Getting in Deeper


Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY