Chrystal Star Tennessee Walking Horses

School bus sitings

2010-09-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

Boy, do I ever wish that I had my camera this morning on my bus run. The first thing that caught my eye was a beautiful muley buck. He had to have been a 6 pointer, and was hanging out with his girls. A little further down the road, and in the ditch was some little trees that had been sprayed by the county, so they were more like sticks. About a half mile of them. And built on every stick a spiderweb.

The sun was shining through these most amazing spiderwebs. There were 100's of them, heavy with dew. The sun caught the sparkling dew drops, outlining each web. They were all different, like snowflakes, and they were all made lastnight. That's most amazing.

New babies

2010-07-22T13:27:00.001-07:00

Had some baby ducks hatch last week, and the rowen's are hatching right now. Darn, but those babies are so cute.

We haven't been getting the rain some other places have been, thank goodness. Lots of hay that was cut way to soon and is now lying rotting in the field. People must be patient when cuttin hay and wait for a decent forcast.

Both boys are off the rest of the week, 4-h and Calgary, they will have lots of fun, and I'm going to clean while they are gone yeah! and maybe paint. Nothing like paint for freshening up a house.

We picked out some tile for bathroom, It's going to look great.

Been working with the horses, even though I haven't been riding much the last few weeks. Rosie has done a complete 360 degree turn around, and is now my pocket pony. She's still a little jumpy, but has come so far, I can hardly wait to ride her.

rain, rain, rain

2010-07-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

Well, to make up for last year, we are getting a double dose this year. We had three inches yesterday, yikes!!! It is so green out there, but we have had terrible wind storms that have taken down lots of trees and wiped out fences.

Bill Roy and Ralph Livingston came all the way from BC to train horses for Lesa and I. They worked their hinies off, and did 4 horses at my house and 6 at Lesa's, 10 hours each. I am so pleased with the job they did, especially Rosie. The change in her is just remarkable. I learned lots, and can hardly wait to apply some of what I've learned to my own horse training. They even convinced me to ride with just a halter on!

Been getting lots of time on Wilbur, I've taken him out on the trails by himself now and he's doing just great! I'm really pleased with the progress he's making. He's going to make somebody a great trail riding buddy.

I've also taken Tara out quite a bit, she is turning into a wonder trail horse, I really enjoy riding her. Now to get to work on the others and get them trail ready! All my 3 and 4 year olds except for Rosie and Eddie, have now been backed and ridden. That's pretty exciting.

Had some anxious moments when Gord's mom was in the hospital, but she's doing much better now, and is back home with lots of family support. Hoping to treck down there next week for a visit.

New foal!

2010-05-24T06:19:00.000-07:00

Scarlet finially foaled, a very cute red filly. She is a sweet little thing, super friendly! As she is my only foal born here this year, I can spend lots of time playing with her!!

No name yet, just havent' had time to think of one.

Mare Owners--check studs papers

2010-05-24T06:10:00.000-07:00

This is happening far too often, the perfect stallion is advertised, you think he will be a perfect cross for you mare. You look up his pedigree and find that he is not in the owners name~!!!!! What is with that!!!

All mare owners should check with the registry that the stallion they want to breed their mare to is in the stallion owners name. It has been happening way to often, a stallion is advertised then a quick check reveils that the wrong name is on the papers. This can lead to huge headaches when you try and register your foal.

You can look up on line, or just call the registry that the horse is registered with and they will be more than happy to help you.

Almost Spring!!

2010-03-31T06:35:00.000-07:00

The snow is all gone, and I'm just going to asume that we will get lots of rain. The old folks around here are telling me that based on all the signs, we will have a hot, wet summer and for now I'm just going to go with that. We are only expecting one foal this year, Scarlet was bred to Money, I hope I get a flaxen mane and tail foal.

The hens are laying like crazy right now, and some are starting to set, same with the ducks so I should soon have little chicks around. Got my broilers and turkey's ordered for the end of April, so I got to get the brooder room all cleaned out and ready to go.

Gord made it back home from the ice roads. A disapointing season as the roads kept melting and they had to only drive at night, it really cut down on the loads that could be hauled.

Just finished kidding out the last of the goats (except for two doeling, and who knows when they might decide to kid). We are up to 35 new babies this week.

Off to visit the Rescue 100 today. It is just staggering the number of horses that have been seized this winter, including a herd of TWH. There has been questions of why, but gee, do you think the high hay prices and drought might have something to do with it? Mind you, if you know you can't feed your horses, then you best sell them!! or give them away or something, starving them to death or near death is not an option. And I guess you wouldn't believe the number of pregger mares that are there. If you know you have no feed, why are you breeding?

Up dated my website, be sure to check it out.

Lots of new babies!

2010-01-26T19:32:00.000-08:00

Well, so much for only a few to kid! So far we have about 25 babies, and more to come.

Lesa and I have been getting to the arena pretty regularily. It's been great to take 2 or 3 horses at a time and spend the evening there. It is pretty exhausting though with working the next morning, but to see the progress each horse is making is great and it's better than sitting in the house! I've got about 5 rides on Wilbur now, I'm really happy with his disposition and he's very nicely gaited too. I've gotten on Belle twice now, just being lead around as we don't have the round pen set up and I'm not quite ready to ride her in the large arena.

New Song

2010-01-03T06:57:00.000-08:00

I've added a bar to the bottom of my page with a song that I like. I'll try and change the song every now and then. The youtube version with the lion king is especially moving.

2010 Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

Another New Year! Thank God! I'm not going to lament the passing of another year, I'm going to rejoice the coming new one. I'm full of plans and optimision for 2010.

Some highlights from 2009 include Gord getting laid off work in October, then getting hired back at the end of November (Yeah!!), our trip to Ontario with four horses. I'd never gone past the Sask. border, so I had an eye opener on just how big this great country really is. We sold a total of 10 horses this year, some young stock, some our broodmares so we could downsize. The drought really took a toll on the farm, we also downsized the goat herd from 60 to 40.

Me and Mira did take in one show this year, and it was great to see every one and all their lovely horses. Then I sold Mira to Guy from Andrew. It was a hard decision to make, but she went to a great home and is ridden and used way more than I ever could.

Health wise, we are facing challenges for the New year. I did manage to drop 22 lbs with help from my good freind Lesa and weight watchers, I'm looking forward to losing another 20. It makes getting on and off your horse way easier!!LOL. My hip is also thanking me. Tyler managed to break his wrist and then dislocate his elbow on his other arm, so he had two broken wings for awhile. All sport related of course! Wesley has been making a conserted effort to lose weight as well and has dropped about 30 lbs, lost 4 inches off his waist and is lifting weights. Don't ask me how much, but I think he can now lift small cars. Gord is looking at laser surgery for his back. It is now being offered in Edmonton at the U of A. His back is significantly worse, and the pain is getting to be unmanagble, so he has to do something. Aparently they take the laser and zap away the bone calcium deposits from the old injuries that are pressing on the spinal cord. Here's hoping, because I want my old riding partner back!!

I'm still driving my school bus, Wes is still going to school in St Paul, Tyler is in grade 9 now and playing every sport offered in school and Gord is looking forward to hitting the iceroads again. Kidding has started with a set of triplets and then a large single baby. We have several more waiting to pop, then the rest will hold off until Feb and March. I only have one foal due this year, Scarlet was bred to Money, I can hardly wait to see what this cross produces.

Been hitting the arena now that it's too cold to ride. I've enjoyed riding Java and getting her gaits set, have got on Wilbur and Belle, so we are off to a good start. I've also made some new freinds thanks to the horses, Dianne and Tara Lynn. Horses sure do bring people together. Looking forward to trail riding with all my trail riding buddies in 2010 and attending a few shows. So much to look forward too.

Mane Event 2009

2009-05-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

This year the Canadain Reg. of the Tennessee Walking Horse pulled out all stops for the Mane Event in Red Deer. We put together an awsome demo team consiting of four riders and buggy. I think we did a good job of showing the different things you can do with your walking horse. I brought Mira again, and she was super good. We even cantered when I rode western, but I wasn't confident enough to do it saddle seat as I hadn't ridden in that saddle since last year.

Riders are: Carla Freeman, Lorrie Dyberg, Bill Roy, Me, and in the buggy Keith Oberlie

New additions

2009-05-02T21:53:00.000-07:00

We have some new additions! Glory gave us a new filly on May 1 a real pretty little girl. Right on her due date too. Two names that we like are "A Going Concern" or "Glory Be".

I also posted a picture of Jake, our new puppy.

We had hiway clean up today, the weather was real nice, and we had pizza afterward. 4-h is really picking up with the beef show at the end of the month and then the multi show on June 20, so Tyler has lots of work with his steer and Mira.

I've got an incubator now, with 40 eggs on the go, 9 duck eggs the rest chicken. It will be so cool when they start to hatch, I can hardly wait.

so much news, so little time

2009-04-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

Here I was going to faithfully update my blog every week, and would you look at it, months have flown by. Gord left Feb. 7 to go drive on the ice roads up north and got back 31 days later as they were done. Lots of contracts were cancelled so the season was quite short. He took lots of cool pictures. This is my favorite. I guess the crazy bird hitched a ride for 2 miles. They only go 15 km/h, so hanging on was no problem. Gord even unrolled the window for a better picture. He got pictures of wild Buffalo standing on the side of the road, 7 bobcats sitting in the snow, a fox who stole somebody's boot, lots of trucks and snow and ice. I think he enjoyed the challenge, because he is all set to go up next year. And no, he didn't make a years income like in the TV show, that's only if you own your own truck, don't have any breakdowns, never get sick, bad weather and the hundred other things that prevent a trucker from working.

It warmed up!!

2009-01-17T17:10:00.000-08:00

Finially, it has warmed up. OK, I tried to get a picture of the babies playing on the hill and as soon as I got close enough all the mothers ran up to me to say hello. Goofy things. I also got a shot of Penny, a foal from Money and Blondie. She's turning into a deep liver chestnut, but now I noticed that her legs are getting lighter. So who knows what colour she might end up.

Worked with Dee and Star today. Dee is going to be a big girl, we worked on lunging mostly. She has a hard time going in one direction but I think we made headway today and I should be able to saddle her next time I work with her. Star is just coming 2. He is going to be a real sweety. I had him tied to the fence waiting and he fell asleep! Just worked on picking up his feet, accepting things on and around him and giving to preasure (hips over, that kind of stuff).

Hey, I just discovered that you can click on the pictures and make them huge. If you click on the goat pics, you can see all babies.

New Year's Resolutions

2009-01-02T07:41:00.000-08:00

All right, who made a New Year's Resolution? I've decided that I'm not going to make one for losing weight, getting in shape or even riding more. No, I''m going to try and go a little deeper into my self. My resolution is going to be anther cliche. "BE HAPPY" Sounds simple right? But that means not relieing on someone or something else for that happiness. Finding it within and then passing it on. Be happy means instead of fretting over what I can't buy (hmmm new horses?) be happy with what I have. Be happy meands not stressing over what I think my children can succeed at, but what they ARE succeeding at. Be happy means not whining that my husband isn't home, but when he is home make this the best, most positive home we can be in.

Fran

2008-12-28T08:17:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So much has happened around here since I last posted. We had several 4-H events which took up several weekends. I did make it to the arena once with Rascal. Had a good ride on him. Tyler took Mira for one 4-h project lesson.

Then the cold weather hit and so did kidding. So far in two weeks we have kidded out 33 goats and have 50 live babies. Not bad considering it was -40 for three days in a row. All right before christmas too! We had upwards of 16 babies in the house at night as I just did not have enough heat lamps to go around. And when the babies are first born, they don't know enough to stay under the lights and are in danger of freezing to death. So we take the babies into the house right after birth to get them completely dry and warmed up, back to mom for some bonding time and maybe a drink then back in the house. I tell you, they are noisy!!

But it is much nicer outside now, all but two have kidded and things are settling down. Just a few bottle babies to feed.

The house water froze up for a few days, the heater tipped over under the house and everything froze up solid. Of course, this was when we had all those babies in the house! Still no water in the kitchen, but at least the bathroom works.

Got another week before school, so I hope to get some riding in. I really want to get some work on Raz and Carpet, and some ground work on those long two year olds started. I did get some time in on Dee and Bell. Tied Wilbure up and gave him a good grooming. Got lots of horse feet to trim and goat feet too, so I should be pretty busy during the holidays.

2008-11-09T07:12:00.000-08:00

The fall weather sure has been nice, we've managed to get lots of out door work done, even with Gordon working in Vancouver. With the help of CRTWH, providing a lovely new banner and brochures, and the WHN for the extra magazines, I manned a table at the St Paul Harvest Festival. The Festival is held every second year for six years now and I've been to every one of them. Mornin's Miracle was a wonderful ambassador to our breed, hanging her head over the stall for the entire weekend lapping up all the attention. Although they didn't have breed demo's this year because of time constraints, I did have two of the trainers from the Trainers Challenge ride Mira after they done. The winner of the challenge couldn't believe how smooth Mira was and is now looking at getting one for her arthritic father.

We also participated in Cattle Sorting. It's kind of like team penning, but you only have two team mates and must sort the cattle in numerical order with the first number being called out by the announcer in 75 seconds. The pros could do 9 calves, us beginners were lucky if we got in one or two. It was great fun.

I had a nice visit from Bob Lamport, his daughter-in-law Phyllis and granddaughter Trina back in Sept. Trina met my son Tyler at a 4-H camp and they came up to see our walking horses. Bob imported one of the first stallions into Alberta way back when, by the name of Prince Radar. He still has a few of his descendents on the farm. I brought Mira out and rode her around a bit for Bob. His whole face lit up when he heard that wonderful 1 2 3 4 thunking of a good run walk. It didn't take me long to persuade him to hop on for a ride. It had been three years since he sat a horse and he enjoyed himself so much. The visit was over much too soon, as they had a long drive back.

I've weaned 3 of my 4 foals, as the last one is too young yet, so am having fun doing their ground work. Eddie, my bottle baby from last year is a great babysitter as he is so mellow and relaxed with anything we humans may do that the babies are following his example.

Finially thought of a name for Angel's little colt. CSR Rascal's Lil' Puzzle. He sure is cute, and way smaller than the other babies, even though his mom is like 16hh.

I lost one of my foals. I had decided to wean the last two foals as the first two were doing well. The mares came in for water except for Koko and her baby. Went out to find them and found the baby in the fence. He missed the gate and tryed to hop throught the fence instead. Some how he got the bottome wire twisted around his hind foot and ruptured the tendon and ligament as well as ripping the muscle to the bone. So it was with very sad hearts that we put him down as the vet said that with injuries of this type the risk of tendon and bone infection were incrediable high.

Busy weekend with 4-h as we have weigh in on the 11th. The boys had to go out and round up the cows and then pick out the calves that they want to use this year. We are also going to have a stall mate that will be in the freezer next year. So now we have to tag them and get them haltered.

Sold the last of my goats yesterday, and also got rid of a few more chickens, so now I'll have to go out and take stock of what is left to feed for the winter. Just got to move the bunnies to the barn and I think I'm all set! We still have more to wood to haul, but that's a never ending chore. Mind you, I like not having to pay a natural gas bill!

St Paul Harvest Festival

2008-10-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that I've been asked again to set up a booth at the St Paul Harvest Festival. I'm taking Mira and a bunch of stuff to display promoting my wonderful breed the Tennessee Walking Horse.
And because I got talked into it, I'm entering a clinic for beginner cattle penning. Should be a hoot. We'll see how Mira does.

The dazzling colours of fall

2008-09-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

During my bus ride every day, I am struck by the absolute beauty of the fall foliage. The mix of the trembling aspen gold, the poplar yellow and the spruce dark green are all layered in the most artistic way.

It literally takes my breath away and makes me want to pause to take it all in. Even the leaves lining one of the few roads that hasn't been bulldozed and "Fixed" are stunning. Roads lined with gold.

I'm listening to Randy Bachman on Vinyl Tap on CBC radio and he's doing a show on movie music. So I'm bopping to Cindy Lauper and girls just want to have fun while I'm typing . If any of you have a chance to catch his show, it's 2 hours of excellent music and the most interesting stories to go with them.

Right now I'm working with the cutest little pony named Star. She is 10hh, black with you guessed it, at star. She's a registered Welsh and I'm training her to be a safe pony for Lesa's little girls. She is an absolute sweet heart. Maybe I should go into training pony's. It's not to far to fall either! Although I'm way to heavy to get on her, Tyler can get on. He just doesn't know it yet.

I'm also doing some work with Belle, one of my two year olds. She had a small hole in the center of her hoof and instead of cracking down, it cracked up into her cornet band. So I took her to the equine vet who took one look at it and wanted a good farrier to look at it. I ended up leaving her there as there is no such thing around here. I told him that she would probably need to be sedated as I haven't done too much work with her and she's been out running in the field. It turns out that they beveled some of the crack and decided a shoe with clips was the way to go to hold the foot together until it grew out. So Belle got a hot shoe on. Apparently she was really good. I was pleasantly surprised, that's for sure. I figured that as I have her at home, I should do some work with her so we've been working on gaiting on the lunge line and desensitizing her to lots of touching and strange things in the yard. She does have a gait to die for and is getting to the point where I just say "walk", "walk up" and "canter" this is just with the halter on, not even the bitting rig.

Here's a picture of Bell's foot before treatment

Fall work is starting to wind down, although we still have much to do. I want to finish the gate for Rascal's pen and get the goat barn cleaned out. It's been pretty nice weather for training horses too, although the last few days weren't that great.

Driving home tonight from picking up Tyler in Vegreville, I was struck by how fast the boys are growing up. Tyler has a girl friend, the operative word being friend. Wes's driving back and forth to St Paul everyday, really enjoying school (not so much English) and holding down a job. They act so grown up now. But at home they are still my boys, leaving clothes everywhere and constantly looking for food.

Gord's been working in Vancouver for the last two weeks. It was only supposed to be two weeks, but you know how those things go. He's doing one more 4 day rotation then will be home for a week, but he's going back. The work is just too steady not to. I guess the trucks aren't working so hard here at home. They figure the job will last until the end of November.

School's In, Back to Work

2008-09-07T06:42:00.000-07:00

Me and Rascal in the bush

Well, we survived the first week of the new school year. I'm driving my bus again this year, Tyler's already in grade 8, and Wes is taking Welding at the Comp in St Paul. He's got himself a job at McDonald's to help pay for his gas too.

CHOKECHERRIES!!

The choke cherries are hanging on the trees like fat grapes this year, and I just couldn't stand to see them go to waste, so Gord and I went berrie picking one morning. It didn't take long to fill a five gallon pail, but now I had to deal with them. First the boiling and straining, that took three days, then Saturday I spent the day making jelly. Now I know why I don't do this every year. It is so time consuming!! But sooo darn tasty. Now the kids want me to make crabapple jelly. I hope it gets rainy and miserable outside when I do that, because then I won't feel so bad about being stuck in the house.

Last Monday Lesa came over with three horses to ride, two green ones and Delight. I rode Mira and Lesa rode Nebbie. We just took them out into the hay field as this was Lesa's first time riding Nebbie and I had just trimmed Mira's feet a bit to short and didn't want to take her on the gravel. Nebbie did real well, just got to work on her going to fast, but she's not scary at all.

Next we took out Smartie and Rascal. Smartie is a high energy horse, although she was a low energy horse when Lesa's hubby rode her, and Rascal is my stud. It was an interesting ride. We went to the hay field and then back home on the rode. I thought it would be a good idea to keep going north, but my other stud happened to be on the other side of the fence that had no juice on it. Oops, we got out of there pretty quick.

Then last we took Delight and Rascal out into the big pasture. It was an awsome ride!! There are lots of trails through the bush, and then up onto some pretty high hills were I'm sure we could see Villna. It was almost dark when we got home, pretty darn happy, but tired.

You can see more of our trail ride on Lesa's web site www.rafterdiamondl.tripod.com

Me and Rascal in the hay field

Summer Daze

2008-08-16T07:09:00.000-07:00

After getting 3.5 inches of rain, we are back in the heat, +30 for the next few days. It means getting out there early or late to beat the heat.
Me and Lesa went for a late ride last night after it cooled off. Ok, we tried the night riding thing. Can't say I enjoyed it very much. The last time I tried it, I was attacked by a pair of nasty owls. Being dive bombed by owls is NOT fun. Didn't have any cameras on us last night, which is a shame as we were riding in one of our prettiest hayfield's with the setting sun.

Just got Mira back from Nicole's after two weeks of canter training. I'd been working on it during the winter, but I knew that if she got some consistant training she'd do much better. Nicole did a wonderful job on her. I got her to pick up both leads easily, got down to both a halt and a walk. It was so fun. It was tempting to try out our new skill in the hay field last night, but after sinking into a few mole hills at a run walk, I desided I'd better wait for better footing.

parade pics

2008-08-10T12:28:00.001-07:00

Here's Rascal and myself at the Willingdon parade. Handsome boy that he is, he didn't mind the flags, floats or kids at all.

Riding, riding riding

2008-08-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh, I always seem to be apologizing for not keeping this blog updated. Hard to think that it's already the middle of August.

My daughter for two weeks arived from Ont. just in time to go to the clinic. It was so much fun to have Allysa come, she is welcome any time. We worker real hard on the three year olds, and I hoped she learned about gaiting while here. We just didn't work though. What's a trip to Alberta with out going to WEM? The kids hit the wave pool while I did some shopping. Allysa was also in her glory with all the tack shops. Would you believe you can't buy ladies black jeans in Ont? I'd never seen someone so happy over black jeans. It seemed like she just got here and then it was time for her to go home. But she was on her way to Tennessee the day she got back to pick up some new walkers, so she had to go........

Our clinic was a great success, we all had a great deal of fun and learned lots. We had some new faces in the crowd, people who had just gotten walking horses and wanted to learn more. A clinic just for walkers is certainly the place to do it!

There were nine of us for the Blackfoot ride. What a lot of walkers all in one place (and one throughbred). The only incident was the Beaver. The thing decided to slide back into the water just under poor Leroy's feet causing him to bolt forward and hit me and Squirt. Leas just about landed in my lap and we all almost went for a drink in slough on each side of us. But, we got our selves sorted out and the horses proceeded as if nothing happened. Both Leroy and Squirt are only three year olds, so we were real proud of them for getting ahold of themselves so quick.

Me and Rascal have been having a fun summer. In case any of you don't know, he's my 10 year old stallion. I hadn't ridden him in about 3 years, just was too busy with the other horses. I decided to jump on him one evening and tool around the yard a little bit. We had a great time! It was like I rode him last week. So when Lesa phoned my up and wanted to come for a ride on her three year old gelding Leroy befor the clinic I saddle up Rascal. We went around the arena, no problems with either horse, so off we went into the feilds. Both boys were soooo good. Lesa hadn't ridden Leroy since he came back from the trainers, and I really hadn't ridden Rascal in three years.

We met up with my folks moving equipment around in the field, had to tie both horses to the old truck, they acted like best buddies. Didn't care about the tractors or truck either. After that we rode some more, for about a total of three miles. It was great. That is what trail riding is supposed to be like.

I then took Rascal to the clinic for Sunday afternoon. I wasn't really going to ride him at the clinic, just afterwards. But Alyssa's horse got tuckered out so I gave her Mira and I hopped on Rascal. Some riders were a bit nervous about a stud in their midst, but Rascal was a perfect genleman and gave no problems what so ever. The next Wednesday I took him to the Willingdon arena as we were tired of getting thundered and lighteninged on. Again we had so much fun with him. Allysa got to ride him, her first time to ride a stallion. She told me later she was a bit nervous, but he was a good boy and she got over it pretty quick and had fun with him.

Our next outing was moving cattle. Rascal hadn't moved cattle in about 6 years, so I had no idea how that was going to go. The hardest part turned out trying to get him to the pasture. It was close to home, so there was no point in trailering him. He figured that going out the driveway and down our track was good enough, actually going all the way to the end wasn't in his game plan. But I persevered (and had hubby drive ahead with the truck, which he was more than happy to follow). Chasing cows was FUN!!! we had to get them past the growing barley to get to the road about 1/2 a mile of lovely, green barley that the cows would have loved to run amok in. Once we got them out of there, it was onto the road. Again, Rascal wasn't to thrilled with going away from home, but he did go with cows eventually. He was the perfect drag horse, not minding in the least going cow speed.

Today, Rascal and I rode in the Willingdon Parade! It was a bit stressfull at first as we just wern't sure how the horses were going to behave. Lesa was riding Leroy, what a honey of a horse! you just can't ask better of a three year old. He wasn't too sure about the acordian player, and sat on a car trying to avoid it, but he was so good on the parade route. Rascal didn't mind any of the scary stuff, ballons, flags, lots of music, traffic. However, coming out of the staging area, we were the first in the group of horses, was a shadow of the over head flags. He didn't know what to make of that! Then we were on our way. The amount of people was overwelming to both horses at first, but they soon got used to them and the kids running out for candy. By the time we got back, our boys were old pros and we are ready to tackle the Vilna and Two Hills parades next weekend. Maybe even next year we'll go some bigger ones like Vegreville.

Clinic

2008-05-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder about our clinic that is coming up. Dianne Little is coming again to St Paul the first weekend of July to help us with all our gaited needs. Bill Roy is also coming and he is going to discuss saddle fitting, starting a young horse and problem solving. It promises to be an excellent clinic with lots of one on one time. St Paul has great facitlities with stabling, a campground right across the street, lots of accomadation and restaraunts.

We are also going to hosting a gathering Saturday night, if anyone would like to bring their Canadian Reg walker for the Progam of Excellence. Vidio will be made for the tests bronze, silver and gold, and if anyone would like to try for the trainer challenge that would be great. You can find out more about these programs on the CRTWH web page.

For more info, please call me at 780-768-2250

Mane Event

2008-05-25T08:17:00.000-07:00

Back in April, Lesa, Irene and myself headed off to Red Deer for the Mane Event. All I can say is WOW. It was so huge and over 42 000 people went throught the gates. There was so much to see and do, it was all rather overwelming.

I did take Mira to demo and we participated in the Sat. spectacular. I think we did pretty good! Lesa took some nice video clips of us riding on Saturday afternoon in my english gear, on Fri and Sunday I rode Western. Met tons of people, the CRTWH had a booth that was manned by Karla Freeman and Bill Young who came all the way from BC.

I've got to say a big Thank-you to Lesa and Irene, for with out their help, I couldn't have made it. They helped with everything from grooming and saddling, stall cleaning to getting my big butt up in the saddle!

hoof trimming

2008-05-24T07:19:00.001-07:00

Well, Lesa and I had the oportunity to take a natural barefoot trimming course at the beginning of the month. Don came to the farm and gave us lessons for two days. We did 8 horse and now he is on his way back to see how we are doing. It is a lot of work, especially as it takes each of us so long to do as we are not very fast (yet!). But it will be all worth while as now we know that the horses are being trimmed correctly and we are no longer at the mercy of farriers not showing up when they say they are going to.

I think it has also made me a better horseman too, as now my youngsters have to stand perfectly still for me to trim as I place the hoof in my lap and squat down beside them. It saves the back big time, but your horse has to cooperate. So the young ones get put into the round-pen and we use round pen techniques to teach them to stand quietly.

Picture is of Lesa trimming Tinkerbelle, with the help of Joy.

SOME OF OUR FARM ANIMALS

2008-05-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

Just some pictures I took of some of our feathered freinds here on the farm

NEW BABIES!

2008-05-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

We've got four healthy foals and just have one more mare left. The first picture is of Angel's foal from Rascal, a nice colt. This baby is a spittin imiage of his papa.

The second foal is from Koko, and is by Treasure. He is a smokey black. I was hoping for a buckskin or a palimino but I got black. Oh well.

He does have the most amazing grey eye, and is very correct in his build. He's also got the long legs I've ever seen, he stands a couple of inches over the other babies.

Tinkerbell's baby from Money is the most quiet, easy going foal I've ever seen. Here she is taking a nap while we trim Tinker's feet. Lesa thought she should play with Joy's (that's what we named the baby) feet. Joy just lied there while getting all her toes picked out, and her legs moved around. We then brushed her and she put her head down, had her eyes half closed and was almost purring.

Funeral

2008-04-24T05:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to the funeral of a 15 year old girl. No one should ever have to go the funeral of a 15 year old girl. It is not right, it is not the natural order of nature, and I hope that anyone reading this never has to go to the funeral of a 15 year old girl.

Why did we go to the furneral of a 15 year old girl? Because a 42 year old man decided to get behind the wheel of his truck, decided to put the key in the ignition, and decided to drive down the hi-way, he then hit head on my friend and her daughter, killing the girl out right. The only blessing is that her mother was with her.

What do I want to happen to this man? Is hanging to good?, jailing for life?, never being able to drive again? I think the worst punishment that God can hand out is to live in the purgatory of his own mind for the rest of life knowing how he destroyed a family. Hopefully God has given him a soul so that he might suffer.

where did the winter go?

2008-04-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

We had our first baby this year, a cute little filly from Glory. I've been waiting for a filly from this mare forever and finially got one! Born right on her due date, April 19. She beat the storm by a few hours. We are now in the midst of a full blown spring snow storm with 40 to 80 cm of snow expected to fall. I put her coat on her and sent her out to play for an hour with her mom this AM while I cleaned out the stall. She didn't care that it was snowing like crazy, she was running around having fun.

Lesa and I have made it to the arena almost every week, yeah us! This weekend, however we are off to the mane event. Irene is joining us and we are going to have a wonderful time. I'm bringing Mira to demo, hope she does OK. The CRTWH is also hosting a booth that I'm going to spend some time in, so come visit me.

We've got 4 more foals to come, it will be

nice when they are all done. It seems like it's been way more than a year since I've bred those mares. We've been having more goat babies too. Had a set of quads the other day, but lost one. Oh well, three healthy babies is pretty good. Opps, Wes just came in and another doe kidded twins, that makes 10 babies for April, and a total of 47 babies since Jan.

Went to the odd and unusual sale a couple of weeks ago and came home with some more critters. A large bunny with black spots, 3 call ducks, 6 duckling (Indian Runners and Swedish Blue), and some goose eggs to hatch. I'm banned from going to any more sales.

November 2007

2007-11-25T21:31:00.000-08:00

We have some bad news to share. Tyler's yearling filly, CSR Tyler's Blazen Wendy died on the morning of Nov 6. I looked out the window in the morning to her pasture and saw her there. It was quite a shock, although she had been acting tired for the last week, she had a good apitite cleaning up her TwizWhiz and grain every night. To the right is a picture of Wendy with her dam Tinkerbelle and Tyler.

On a happier note, we've been busy working with the young horses. Got most of the pens ready for winter now and the chickens moved to the warmer coops. The goats got wormed and vaccinated today, we've got lots of wood in, and I've got most of the barn winterized. It's supposed to be cold for the rest of the week, then warmer again. Great for winter riding. Nebbie is coming along real nice now, I've got four rides on her now, Saturday being the last day I rode her. It was pretty windy and snowing and getting dark, but she was game to do anything I asked. Razz's ground work is progressing nicely, although we still have some work to do before he's ready for his first ride.

Lisa and I are going to make a concerted effort to go to the Willingdon arena every Thursday night for some riding. Anybody close by is more than welcome to join us. We would also like to go to the St Paul arena, but time scheduals make it more difficult to get to during the day.

This Week

2007-10-21T07:05:00.000-07:00

Got some updates done on my website, you might want to have a look at.

On Wednesday went to the city and got a new pair of hoof nippers, so now I'm all set to get trimming feet. Did Nebbie's fronts, she was so good, so I thought OK we are on a role, I'll do Blondie next as I want to get her back out to pasture. Last time she got her feet done, she was perfect, but I guess she didn't want to spoil her record and desided that she did NOT want to get her feet done. Well, end result an hour and half later, she got her feet trimmed. The oldest boy was a big help, and is thinking about taking the farrier course with me in the spring. Wouldn't it be great to have a farrier in the family??

The foals are all leading pretty nice now, stand tied and are starting to pick up their feet. I included a picture of them all tied to the fence enjoying their breakfast. On the far left is Tyler's late yearling filly Wendy. He's using her in 4-H this year in the young horse project, so that's real exciting.

Lesa and I made the trip out to Leduc to visit our two mares Smartie and Tara. We took them to Nicole Hirsekorn to get some riding time on them as I'm just too busy right now. They are coming along real nice, and we are going to leave them there for an extra two weeks. Lets hope the weather holds. I did hop on Tara for a short ride, she did have one little spook, and then I was OK. I didn't breed her for next year as I want her to well broke to trail before she has anymore babies. Then I'll put in my order for a classic champaigne colt.
That's Nicole riding Tara in the right hand picture.

WOW, it's fall already

2007-10-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's been since August that I posted last. Just don't know where the time has gone. School's back in, so I'm back driving my bus. It's getting pretty dark in the morning now and evenings the sun is setting even faster. The weather has been holding out for some fabulous riding, it's just too dark too soon.

Picture is of Kid Rascal, more about him in the next paragraph.

Well, Lesa went and bought herself a real nice little mare. Was scanning the bargain finder and found a full sister to Mornin'. She's just 5 years old and a real sweety. I'm getting her 30 days on her, by then winter will be here, but hope to have a few decent rides on her before the snow flies. We have good intentions of going to the Willingdon arena at least once a week to work on all these horses.

Also, brought home Kid Rascal, the other day to start working on him. He's quite the mover, I'm really excited to get him going. He has a real sweet personality too. Weaned all the foals now, the boys all lead nicely and enjoy our attention, the girl needs a little work though. She's in the barn for now, then once she's done I'll be bring in the yearlings for a week or two in the barn and doing some ground work with them.

Had an excellent trail ride at Debbie's last weekend. It started off a bit windy, but once we were on the lease land with the big trees it was really nice. We went with two of the neighbor girls, and Lesa. Lesa got to try her new Dixieland saddle and had a really good ride on Delight. Couldn't believe the difference a well fitting saddle made. We all had on our new ride and tie halter bridles that Bev made us, each custom coloured for us.

Banjo

2007-08-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

Well, Banjo found a new home today. They are avide trail riders and he is off to his first trip to the mountains next week. Good luck Banjo and we will miss you, especially Tyler who rode him a lot this year. Banjo also was used as a clinic demo horse for a weekend in July, gave a 4-H'er from Nova Scotia the thrill of riding a walking horse during his stay with us and took Tyler on many trail rides both on the farm and away.

However, the work goes on. I have a fabulous 3 year old gelding in for training that is just a joy to watch in the round pen. He is huge, almost 16hh now with such a super way of going. I'd say a light shod show contender for sure. Also pretty laid back. Can hardly wait to get in the saddle. I'm also working on a cute little QH filly who's just the opposite -short, fat and sassy.
Now I'm going to have to ride Angel, she did so well at the clinic. She is such a huge mare, but pupy dog friendly. Mira and I are still working on her canter. Tyler was getting her to do a hand gallop in the hay field the other day bare back, so I should be able to canter her in an arena right?
So, we've got lots of horses to ride, but we will still miss Banjo.

Took a load of goats for sale the other day, the goat market is very good right now, with demand far exceding supply.

ride at the Blackfoot

2007-08-14T21:48:00.000-07:00

We made our trip to the Blackfoot trails and what a wonderful day. Debbie was riding her new horse Mornin', Lesa was up on Delight, Bev took TC out for a ride, Tyler rode Banjo on his first major trail ride and I was up on Mira. It was a perfect day, not too hot, the rain held off, no bugs and the horses all behaved wonderfully. I didn't see any wild life, yeah! We are all trying hard to meet once a week, or every other week and go for a good ride.

Hi from the ranch

2007-08-10T18:21:00.000-07:00

I thought it was high time I started this blog. I always have so much to say and not always someone to say it to. There is nothing like reaching a goal with a horse's training or coming back from the most amazing trail ride and being able to share the experience. I hope to use this blog to share some of these things and more, such as when a new foal is born, any shows we attend, the weather and how it is affecting us, and a few tails from the goat pen as well.

So long for now,

Fran

http://www.twhstar.com/