Shake it out

It's finally July, the great and terrible month of the year. 

On one hand Danzador is doing great, he's progressing so much and physically looking like a dressage horse instead of a gawky leggy colt. We finally got his video up and loaded on YouTube, plus a little extra showing his ultra talented half steps in hand. He also has been actively being ramped up to show in August if not under contract by then. Seriously, whoever ends up with him will be incredibly lucky. There's not enough nice words in Webster to describe how genuinely cool he is. 

Flair finally foaled out as well! Couldn't be happier with the results of her first foal- a black/bay colt by Diamond Stud. He's aptly named Justus SSM. For a maiden's colt, he's huge, and shows zero fear. He's a brilliant little mover as well, showing the strengths of the Ferro/Donnerhall blood and the modernity of his dam's sire. Both mom and baby are doing great- Flair is reportedly good spirits, and is handling things in stride. I still can't wait to get the call come fall/winter that she's on the trailer to ship. She's my next long-term project and I feel that she is going to make a good horse. 

I also have investors actively looking at horses for me. It's hard to realize that this is actually happening and I may be flying to some pretty cool places pretty soon. It seems like I've looked at 200 or so horses every week ala YouTube. They're mostly KWPN horses from every direction, but a few from the GOV and other books. 

I found a few that I like, but nothing to really make me jump up and down and scream like a kid in a toy store over a must have. I have a few other personal feelers out there and a few old industry friends are sending me tape on other horses as well, but show and breeding seasons are dominating their schedules, so I get to keep on waiting.  

Then there's the flip side that's been hanging around for a little while now.

After two trips, several blocks, a bone scan and several lameness evaluations, Sinari's intermittent lameness isn't really a outlier occurrence caused by a soreness. 

It's much more serious that involves extensive time off and therapy. The prognosis is more than good, but still we're really looking at a year out. The only way now is to go through rehab and proceed from there.

While I know (and was reassured by several DVMs who have been looking at her case study) there's nothing that could have been done- I still feel like kicking myself. It sucks. I can easily whine how it's not fair, or how karma is cruel or even how hopes/dreams/ect for FEI glory are dashed. It doesn't matter. At this point, I'm relieved that there is a diagnosis and wanting my horse back and sound. If she's going to compete again, we'll approach that hill when we get to it. Right now, it's just one day at a time. 

Come a little closer

We're hitting the arena pretty hard for not going down to Florida. All horses are pretty much going full steam when the weather isn't -20 degrees. It's making for an interesting schedule, it's pretty much work all the time unless the weather interferes.

Was extremely sketchy this week, it went down below zero for more than two days, and it was difficult to find an excuse to go outside let alone take their blankets off to work. My pathways were iced over and hard to navigate without myself loosing footing. All of mine stayed inside. Needless to say we had a few exuberant rides after that.

I'm continuing to bring Sinari back into shape, this week as really difficult for her in that I was picking movements apart and making them into gymnastic work. The lateral work seems to be a little tricky at the moment wanting to lean, or go straight or just run through the half halts. My current favorite exercise (much to her distain) is the walk-canter transitions in the half pass. It really forces her to remain through and accepting in the work. It's going to take awhile to get the point across, especially after the hard summer where her back went out from a bad heat cycle.

Danzador's fitness is already particularly good. It's more or less about keeping him building in the right direction which can be tough. He still goes through growth spurts and can be a bit coltish sometimes.

A lot of what he's doing right now is also half halt related but really interplays with balance. At nearly five years old, he's developing his mediums, each day it gets a little better and a little stronger. I've also been playing with a lot of lateral work as well. His half steps are becoming more piaffey.

The downtime was productive, I had enough things in the office to do (website, Facebook page, marketing options, contract development) that normally are left last to do in better weather.

In addition to this was a lot of planning for move in time for several horses in addition to horse shopping for a client.

There will also be two new PRE's in the barn, Hidden Pond Farm in Ohio is shipping in three for training, two are for sale immediately.

The ones on the market are the two rising six-year-olds by Barbian, Asanto HPF, Denia HPF. They are wonderful examples of the breed and will be very competitive in the arenas. They would make any Amateur happy going down the centerline at the regional level. I do feel that Asanto would make a good competitive

Luciado HPF (Fetichin), is Danzador Jr. He's a dead on replica of Danzador (down to the sock), but has more body that Fetichin imparted and being left entire a little longer. Rising four, he's definitely my candidate for next year's FEI Five year old test. This year, it would be great to do material and get his feet wet at training level.

I'm thrilled at the opportunity that Pam Nelson (as I am with the others who have stepped up) has given me, they're wonderfully bred horses and from a consistent, good program which makes my job that much easier. I can't tell you how many times I've handled hair wild horses from a breeder that need work but are already four years old and haven't been touched in a year.

I can't wait to see how these horses develop for the season and get their resume started.

If you're going to play in Texas

We all arrived back from Texas in one piece. The place is pretty cool, and surprisingly diverse (I ran into more South Asian than redneck) with more than BBQ and crawfish on the menus.

It really was a tough in and out trip, we had a number of sales horses to look at and about 10 hours to look at them in. I'm never one for speed dating, and I can be really peculiar about what I'm getting on and what I'm looking at (for this trip I probably looked at well into 70 tapes just to get to 10). 

Collectively, the trip was productive, I got to know more about PRE's, Andalusians, and Lusitanos. I saw everything from 12 rides under saddle to FEI and back again. While the overall quality of the gaits varied for everyone, everyone consistently had good walks, and good canters. The mindset is very professional, the horses want to work, they look forward to it. Even the stallions we saw and I got to work with were uncomplicated and all business under saddle.

The training also ranged quite a bit from what I would consider typical to interesting.

It was a change of pace with some of the other sales calls I've been on over the years. While we did run the gambit of you're usual barn, to something out of the Walking Dead to mega ranch, it was the breeds (we tried Lusitanos as well) that remained consistent in temperament and for the most part movement. 

The best part was after a lifetime of just learning to sit the trot on bigger horses, these guys barely move you in the tack.

For the wanted travel it's nice to be home and back in my own saddles and bed. I saw my herd yesterday for the first time in three days. Everyone worked well in the now hot weather.

The babies continue to go forward we're now to the point of debating about which show to go compete at to get our proverbial feet wet. From past experience, schooling shows are the best and cheapest way to get a young horse to go around. While we're not doing the four year olds, training level has it's own finer points. So Fritz might go out at the start of August and re-aim for MSEDA (training level) and Devon (materiale/in hand).

Sinari will stay chilly until Fall. We have a few clinics (a piaffe/passage one in Ohio, Debbie and possibly another). The break from the circuit is doing her well and she's really rallying back from her back being sore.

There's also a few other trips planned out for the summer.

Sincere G.

Officially posting this.

Sincere G. is a 2009 chestnut gelding by Savant (Kupido/Grannus) out of a 14.0 Bask/Barbary-bred Arabian Mare.

Flashy, highly trainable, easy going with three good gaits; he was lightly backed in 2011, and has begun working on the lunge and through the jump chute with stylish, careful form. Initially bred for dressage, he would make an exceptional A circuit hunter/jumper candidate. He will be going under saddle this fall if not sold.

Asking $5,000, motivated to place him prior to winter.

Contact:
Kelly Gage
859/699-7383

Saddles For Sale

Like everything around here, my horses have changed... again.

Saddle fitting is art and science, but mostly it's a pain. While I'm happy that the changes are positive, with horses gaining topline and changing due to training and maturity, I'm not happy I'm back in the throw darts mode of finding something. Thankfully, I have a really good team of people for that in County Saddles (Sara Ivie let me count the ways...).

Surprisingly, Sincere's saddle is a Schleese. Or was. It statically fit him two months ago. But when we got into more serious work, he changed and doesn't fit now to the point where its teeing him off. So on the market it goes for something that will keep him and his back happy.

It's a four year old dark brown 17.5 wide Schleese JER with long billets. Exceptionally pretty and in great condition. I'm asking $700 obo.

It's pictured right.

Following in her younger counterpart's steps, Sinari, decided it was time for a change.

Sinari has become fit to the point where she dropped an entire tree size (despite being a few pounds too heavy) and what awesome County rep Sara Ivie and I thought would be the forever saddle turned out to be a temporary band aid. So we're on the search again and I've put her's on the market as well to help aid that search financially.

Sinari's saddle is a 17.5 inch extra wide black County Competitor. At five years old, it truly is a fantastic saddle, helping us develop and get to this place, and fits the majority of horses it's thrown on, in fact I've had horses throw fits because they don't want to go back to their old saddle. It was recently reflocked, and is regularly conditioned. I'm asking 1,800 obo.

Fast Tracking

Mr. Merlot

Mr. Merot is a 2005 Welsh/Thoroughbred pony and honestly, makes the ponies that went down centerline at Gladstone National Championships look like hunter rejects.

He has the best of both worlds going for him and the looks (and scores) to boot. Seriously this pony has done great things on the east coast and would be competitive in any situation that we put him in.

Merlot is the type that is not only talented, but safe and fun to be on. You can literately pack him around anywhere with or without a care in the world and he has been there and done that on multiple occasions, big and small situations, with both youth, pro and now AA. By no means 100 percent push button,  he's going to make someone a really nice pony schoolmaster (he's corrected me on a few occasions about my canter departs), but in the end he's a solid citizen with flash and class.

Yes, Merlot is for sale.

Why? Well, of the two Merlot is a good candidate for the sport and for a kid or a AA to do something with while learning the ropes.  Plus honestly, he just needs his own human, he thrives off of personal worship and adoration. He's a serious ham. I (and his owner) would like to see him go to a home that will be competitive with him. He's fairly priced at $25k and can be viewed while with me in Florida.

Interest should be pointed towards his owner Cory Gregory: corygregory@mac.com