[Pictures] Looking Back

Sometimes it's pretty incredible to look back at the years spent with your horse and see how far you come.  Pretty awesome!  I love this filly and I am hopeful at what this year will bring. 

Simple Things

Sometimes it's the simple things that create a good ride.

Really, it wasn't anything spectacular.  I let the girls into the indoor to blow off some steam since it is quite icy outsides.

Chili spent the first five minutes rearing and bucking.  I don't usually see mares rear, so that was a bit surprising.

I saddled Donni up first.  I left Chili loose in the arena.  It's a bit unorthodox to ride with a loose horse, but I don't mind it.  In fact, at times, I think it's quite beneficial to horse and rider.

First of all, heaven forbid a horse ever gets loose in the arena, but hopefully the horse that is still being ridden (ie mine) won't loose its marbles and dump me instantly. 

Two, it gives another distraction to work around and to try and reinforce and bring back the focus on the rider.

Here is a video when I was cooling down Donni at the end of the ride.  Chili looks like a lost puppy I think.

I just mostly worked on having Donni respect my half halt (mostly via seat) before transitions.  Perhaps, as an unrelated (or related) event, we had a lovely canter circle to the right.  Nice smooth walk-canter transition. 

It's the simple things that are pleasing I think.

Chili was also well behaved.  I do think it's a bit of a fluke at times that I have can have a coming four year old (will be four in May) that can sit for a week or two at a time and not be an absolute squirrel when I ride her again. 

Knock on wood.  Hopefully now I didn't jinx anything.

I kept it simple with her.   Just nice walk/trot circles over poles. Canter circle each direction.

Called it good.  She was well behaved (generally) for having her dam standing around like a lump on a log.

A good evening.  Just the simple things.

Arabian Archives: Khemosabi

Khemosabi is another Arabian that the average person seems to know and recognize in a pedigree.  Rising from humble beginners, from a backyard in Whitter, California, he achieved national championships in halter and western pleasure and ended up being syndicated.  He sired over 1200 foals.

People often ask what "type" of Arabian is Khemosabi, referencing if he is Polish, Russian, or what have you.  I'd classify Khemosabi as an "American" Arabian as he blended a variety of bloodlines, stamping his get with his own unique look and style.  He had lines to Polish, Crabbet, and several crosses to the wonderful Babson stallion *Fadl.

Khemosabi endured years of wonderful publicity thanks to his breeders, but I think he is an enduring force in the breed because he sired his own unique look.  Part of this, I believe is his high whites and blaze.  White for many years (and to a certain extent now) was taboo in Arabians and sometimes thought as a sign of impurity.  Personally, I think it's a bunch of hogwash as the Crabbet imports certainly had a lot of white.

But Khemosabi somehow seemed to gloss over the fact that white was not "in".  His offspring had white and were generally, good minded, good moving individuals.  He sired offspring in plenty of divisions, but certainly in the western arena including western pleasure and cutting.  

Khartoon Khlassic, a sabino son of Khemosabi

Kakhem Sahib, national champion cutting

Khemander Khody, stallion earning more than $47,000 in cutting

Khemosabi lived a long life and died at the age of 34.  He left a permanent mark on the Arabian breed and in many ways, I think he was a champion of how a backyard horse could rise to stardom. 

He had his pros and cons in the breeding shed of course.  But his offspring have proven quite versatile and for a good temperament and work ethic, many people will attest that the Khemosabi bred Arabian is certainly an "in your tent" personality.

Breyer even immortalized this champion.

Any thoughts on Khemosabi?  Questions?  Have you ridden or owned a Khemosabi bred Arabian?

Confidence EQ Review

Donni is a very sweet mare.  She can also be a bit of a worrier and sensitive.  Previously, while moving, she would pace and worry a bit in a new environment.

I went ahead and sent in for a trial sample of Confidence EQ.  Confidence EQ is based on pheromones that a mare secretes to sooth their foal. 

It certainly seemed to be worth a shot.  So, in the bitter cold, I went out and applied the gel to her nose.  The goal is to apply it on the nose/nostrils, but not up inside the mucous membranes thirty minutes before the stressful activity.

The trial: the move to the new barn. 

Donni was a bit fussy loading onto the trailer and I was worried about her coming off wet in the windy, frigid weather.  To my surprise, she unloaded well and came off quietly from the trailer. 

I put her in a stall to hang out while I got some things organized.  She quietly just put her head down and started eating hay.  When I went ahead and turned her out, she wandered around and that was it.

No pacing.  No calling.  No fussy behaviors.  The most lackluster move I have seen her do in a while.

Wonderful. 

For those people that have horses that can be a little bit of a worrier, this product may certainly be worth a trial to see if it will help.  It certainly isn't a "drug" in the sense of making a horse drowsy or unable to respond, but just helps remove some of the excess worry.

So if you would like to give it a shot, head on over and visit this link

The Move

There's nothing to start off the New Year like moving horses.

I didn't decide to move them because care was lacking at the old barn.  It is in fact, a wonderful place and I would go back in a heartbeat if things didn't work out.

But the new facility is a few miles from home and it makes it easier to pop out and see the girls when time is running tight.  The price break also helps a bit too.  :)

The facilities are pretty nice as well.

But let's back up to the moving part.  New Year's Day was our target move date.  The wonderful frozen Midwest actually cooperated by not having too much snow or ice in the way. 

The downside was that I was recovering from a bad GI bug and wasn't feeling very up to dragging out an immense amount of horse related tack and equipment out of my old barn (as my husband says, I may have too much horse "shit"). 

My Knights in Shining Armor came to the rescue.  J, who had been mentioned in this blog plenty of times, came for New Year's Eve and managed to clear everything out of the barn while I was still working.

What a trooper and a champion!

My other friend came over on New Year's Day and oversaw the hooking up of the truck and trailer and was the designated driver.  ;) 

It was a cold, windy day and the girls weren't particularly enamored about getting on the trailer, but with a little bit of persuasion it happened and we were off and running.

The new barn owner is wonderful.  This facility has automatic waterers and while both horses have drank from them before, I was worried about the horses adjusting to them with such bitter cold weather sweeping in.  The barn owner (and her family) left the outside light on by the waterer so the horses could find it, trekked out in the evening hours, and dutifully watched to make sure both mares were drinking and not getting dehydrated.

Pretty incredible.  It definitely eased my worried mind.

So, so far so good.  I look forward to warmer weather when I can get out and enjoy some of the trails at this new barn!

A New Year and New Names

A very young semi feral filly

When I first started blogging, for whatever reason, I kept my horse's names under wraps.  It's pretty easy to figure out a person from the horse's names, so I thought at first, I'd keep referring to them as the Semi Feral Mare and the Filly.

Well of course, I do call them that in real life, however, in this New Year, I realize that I refer to my horse's names online all the time.

So why not in the blog.

So introducing their real names.

Chili 

Donni

So a new year, new names for the Semi Ferals!  Lots more to update.  So glad to be back with everyone!

Photography Contest Update

As I had previously mentioned a few posts ago, I had entered a few photos in a photography contest of sorts for the Arabian Horse Times magazine.

Imagine my surprise when my photos won first and fifth place.  Of course, it helps that the contest was based on Facebook likes instead of sheer artistic qualities, but still!

My photos are the one in the upper left and the one on the right hand page in the upper left as well.  :)

A bit of fun.  I entered a few more photos in a local horse based photography contest, so stay tuned...maybe I'll get lucky again!

I am hoping that once I am done with my current program, I can do a few short course photography courses to learn how to utilize my camera more efficiently and to manipulate and play with light.  :) 

So many things to learn, so little time.

Hello Everyone!

I apologize for the long vacation.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize how much time my recent classes would take on top of some very long work hours.

But I'm hoping to get updated on all the recent fun and adventures.

The girls moved to the new barn quite well.  

The filly checking out an awesome Fjord that lives at the barn