Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my clients and blog readers!

Happy New Year to everyone! :) E

This is a pic I took last February after an ice storm, looking from my house in the fields to the west.

My e-mail address can be found always at the bottom of the blog page. elaine.ward@rogers.com

My Sentiments Exactly!

Interesting article on Fugly Horse of the Day about the yank and crank dressage riders.

I could'nt have worded it any better!

The website is worth bookmarking!

http://fuglyhorseoftheday.blogspot.com/2007/11/do-you-have-to-wind-them-up-with-their.html

Rare Tape of Walter Zettl

By now, most of you have probably seen this. I had the VHS tape of Walter Zettl riding at the IESS Open House in 1982. What I did'nt realize is that was one of the last times that he ever rode. Shortly after this, he had a very serious riding accident, and could not ride again. I had totally forgotten about when he had the accident until Walter contacted me about it a couple of days ago.

In the background of this photo is WAZ in the summer of '82 when he was coaching me.

So, here is the link where I put it on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldg7F1Phync

I'm Totally Wireless!

I am going totally wireless! I now have highspeed: elaine.ward@rogers.com
I don't have a land line anymore, so my cell phone# is 519-771-3040

Gen Custer is a Star at the Royal!

Leave it to Maverick to steal the show! He was his personable self, showing off in the ring that became full of adoring fans when we did our final salute in the demonstration. We even got to do a question and answer period, where I took the mike and fielded questions from the spectators.
Jack deWit, President of the Ontario Equestrian Federation thanked me for my participation, and thought our demo was marvelous!.
Our trip to Toronto was definitely a hit, and we look forward to doing it again next year.
Click on the title above, or click on the link below for the full Youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fkM9GW1Aj4
Thanks to JudyC for the pics.

Ride Times for the Royal

Hey All: Check out this link for when I ride next Wed and Thursday. Look for "Arabian" in the schedule. Come by and visit :)
http://www.royalfair.org/bindocs.aspx?id=10000815

My New Business Cards!

Are these hot or what? I've been spending a great deal of time on the 'puter doing some photo editing. It's the best work I've done so far. Thanks to the lady at Minuteman Press in Brantford for doing the final editing on the fonts! Excuse the white marks on them, my scanner seems to be picking up every bit of paper from trimming them at the printing shop.

The top pic is my postcard and the bottom one is the business card.

Now I am ready for the Royal!

Gen Custer is going to the Royal!

Mav and I will be at the Royal on Wed Nov 7th and Thursday Nov 8th in the Cavalcade of Breeds area. We will be representing the Arabian Horse both days, doing dressage demonstrations. I will be showing him 3 times per day. I don't know the times yet, but will post on here when I get the exact times. Please stop by and say hi!
Another nice pic, thanks to Christine Moore.

Congrats Kelsey!

Congratulations to Kelsey, who is the Canadian Pony Club's National Reserve Champion at Starter Level Dressage Check out this e-mail from her mom detailing how she did:

2 horses
2 technical tests
1 mystery test- called while ridden without seeing the test in advance- each rider rode a different test from a different country- Kelseys was from Australia.
Reserve champion for technical tests
Overall reserve champion.

All this and the kids had a VERY limited time to ride their "mystery" mounts the day before the championships, and a very short warm-up time!

I posted this pic especially, because it matches the other 2 chestnut horses with white blazes in my stable. I unfortunately don't know this horses' name.

More Pics from Nationals

I ordered pics from Don Stine who was the official photographer of the Sport Horse Championships. Cool pics eh?

Who Is Who?

Allie and Nova- They are so similar, even the dot on their noses.

Just a cool pic to share with my readers.

Happy Thanksgiving! :) E

Allie is on the right!

Update on Porshah

I just got this exciting e-mail from Dawn in New York about Porsah. This was her first show in with Dawn:

"Po and I did our first show yesterday. She won both of her classes....T-3 and T-4. She got a 68.1% on the T-3 and 57ish (test is in my trunk) for T-4. She was well behaved and just a doll. She is going very well. We are finally beginning to click. Now that I have gotten over babying her...I was always afraid of ruining her! She is the best!"

What a Show!

Mav (Gen Custer) was amazing at Sport Horse Nationals. He took a Top 10 in a deep field of competitors in the Prix St. George. Mav again went Top 10 (4th place) in the Intermediare 1.

Our freestyle was spectacular. Check out this link to find it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YneIb3uiFZ8 The other competitors could not touch the atmosphere that I created from my music, and if it was up to the audience, we would have taken the championship hands down. We went Reserve, non the less. I'm proud of my little guy. He exceeded all I wanted him to do.

It's really a great feeling when even a couple of days after my freestyle, I had people walking up to me saying how great it really was. I did ride my heart out in the ring, really playing with the crowd! Our western theme really did the trick!

Not to be left out was Allie. She went top 10 in Sport Horse Show Hack in a field of 19 horses. She also qualified for the Sport Horse Under Saddle final out of 64 horses, as we made both the semi-final and the final cut. I have not looked at the cards yet to see where we actually placed in the final.

Carlisle Tires are Crap!

This message is me talking from MY EXPERIENCE with these tires. Please, please check your tire brand on your trailer. What I thought was a good tire; well I was totally wrong. I bought my CM trailer back in Dec of 2003. I had no problems with my tires until I went to Regina in August which is a 1600 mile trip each way. I blew out 2 tires; one on the way there, and one on the way back. Not fun when you do this on an interstate; luckily I was able to get the rig safely off the road and into a quiet area to change them.
I called Carlisle tires and they won't do squat! I've used 1/32" tire wear, which is nothing; that means that with about 12000 miles on these tires, they are vitually garbage. What do you expect? they were made in China.
The moral of the story? When you go out and spend 23K plus on a trailer, and the cheap buggers put crap tires on your trailer? Don't let them. If they won't change them, don't buy the trailer. According to head office of Carlisle tires? No problems! According to a google search? Plenty of tread separation from other users.
Please, don't go through what I did. Check your tires and get rid of the Chinese made crap! These tires have been well maintained, balanced, and filled with Nitrogen to help them run cool. All that and I'm now out about $1500 dollars in 2 destroyed fenders, and having to purchase 4 new tires.

Please feel free to cross-post this blog to ANYONE who owns a horse trailer!

Allie Wins Canadian National Reserve Championship!

Hey All! Just a short note to let everyone know that Allie is the Canadian Reserve National Sport Horse Show Hack Champion! She was a star, and everyone thought she was going to win, but I'll settle for the Reserve.
Our dressage was not up to par; we were 4th in the 3rd Level Championships. A better ride from the Second Level test, but not good enough to take a higher placing.
Lauren did OK, but Moon as well as Allie does not like the indoor atmosphere.
So, a better report on all the activities when I get back from Regina. :) E

6 Classes, 6 Wins at the Region 18 Championships

We left with Allie and Mav on Wednesday to go to the Championships in London On. Sophie accompanied me as my trusty groom.
After finally seeing the Acheivement award points, I decided to enter Allie last minute into the Half/Arabian Sport Horse Mares in Hand at the Last Chance Show (the show proceeding the Championships). I only had 1/2 a measly point for her to get her Legion of Merit (++) into her title of her name. Well, she did it. Allie won the class, and now she is KF Almaz++// !
The Regional Championships were very well put together, even though we had to change the afternoon dressage times. The footing was excellent, and with the help of most of the competitors in some way or another, we had the show well organized.
Gen Custer (Mav) had 2 great rides, and were scored accordingly.
Champion Prix St. George 61.90%
Champion Intermediare 1 60.75%
The judge was Peta Christen who definitely liked our improvement from the first Milestone show where her marks were about 7% lower.
Allie ( KF Almaz++//) was at the top of her game! We did the Third Level Championship test and she was a tad on the hot side; I knew going into the class, but I also realized that we had 2 more classes that day. A couple of dumb spooks; the first one when she kicked some sand into the dressage ring rail and scared herself! That made for a fired up horse on the diagonal medium trot; and we got a 7!
I was thrilled with clean changes, and no flying bucks! We should be in good shape for Nationals!
The Half Arabian Show Hack was held in the main coloseum, with the regular Arabian Championships. The warm-up was crowded, and the portable stalls surround the ring making it for a hectic atmosphere. Allie was a dream! I had her total concentration in the warm-up and in the show ring. I swear Allie loves the Show Hack class! She literally floated! No doubt in my mind she would take the Championship, and she did quite handily!
Our Second Level Test was the best one we have done so far. Even the judge commented on our vast improvement at the end of the test. We not only won the class, but also had the highest score of the day!
So here are the results:
Third Level Champion 61.5%
Half Arabian Sport Horse Show Hack Champion
Second Level Open Champion 69.74!
Can't complain with the results from these 2 horses.
Thanks to everyone who helped; Sophie, Lise and Les!
I just got my glasses today, and can now see what I am doing without getting headaches!

Levitating Horse!

Just scouring through some more pics from the Niagara Trillium, and I had to post this one. Click on the photo to enlarge it. What you will see is Allie totally up in the air at a medium canter! That's a moment of suspension and then some. Honest, I maybe enhance photos and do the odd cloning, but even I could'nt get a pic to look this good. This is the real deal!

Kirkridge News

These are pics of Allie at the Niagara Trillium Show today; courtesy of Les.

Some Sad news from Kirkridge. My little Sheltie Sir Killian passed away Friday June 6th at age 17. Friday the 13th was the anniversary of Lucky's passing 2 years ago.

The Milestone show was really no Milestone for Allie or Mav; they did not bode well with the footing, and I had to excuse myself from the Third Level Test. The princess decided that the footing was not up to her standards, and was getting aggravated with the slipping on the stone dust surface. Mav untypically could not get from behind the bridle. We still scored around the 60% mark, the rides were fairly clean, but he was not happy either.
So that left me in a panic to qualify for Nationals at Second Level. I scratched Allie out of the Second Level Test at Milestone, so the Arabian Show qualifications were a no-go. I decided to attend the Niagara Trillium Show today, and get the necessary scores. Little did I realize how well she would go in her second test. Allies first test was almost like a confidence builder after Milestone. She went in the ring a little hesitant, and not until after the first shoulder-in did she decide that the ring was OK, and started to kick into gear. Our second ride was much better, and we got a 64.76% in the Second Level Test 4. Straight 7's for our walk work, and 3 7's for general impression. I ended up with High Score for the Day!
So, I'm glad I entered the show for 2 reasons. #1- The princess redeemed herself in the ring after a disasterous last show. #2- There are no questions now to whether I am qualified for Canadian and US Nationals!
So the next stop is the Region 18 Championships for Mav and Allie in London, two weeks away.

YouTubin' Dressage Rides Again

Thanks to Judy for the neat video of Mav and Allie at the Milestone shows this year and last year. She put a cool country song along with photos and did a mini music video! There are also vids of Lauren and Moon schooling at my farm, Sara and Cedar, Allie at Third Level in Niagara.
Just click on the title of this blog to go directly to my youtube site.

Porshah's New Home

Congratulations to Dawn of East Nassau New York on the purchase of Porshah. I took her across the border to meet the shipper on Monday. After we made it through customs, and seeing the vet, she was on her way to her new home with Bill Koehler, a shipper from New York. We hooked up across the street from the Federal Vet's office in Lewiston. Po took everything in stride as usual, and walked nicely onto the big trailer and proceeded to munch on hay. Dawns' facility in East Nassau looks fantastic! I've been invited to conduct a clinic at her farm in July. I'm really excited to see this farm; huge grass paddocks and a fabulous looking arena. Po will be really happy there!

Almaz is a Cover Girl Again!

Allie made it as a cover girl again on the front cover of the Canadian Trakehner magazine!

Thanks to Judy Collins for the super photo!.

More Pics from Eastern Breeders

KF Almaz+//: Eastern Canadian Breeders Half-Arabian Show Hack Champion


















Cognac Amberfyre: Eastern Canadian Breeders Reserve Champion Purebred Stallions.

We Are the Champions!

Wow! That all I can say about Allies' show at the Eastern Canadian Arabian Breeders Championships.

She proved herself in every way that she is now becoming a true sport horse Arabian!

Champion: Half-Arabian Sport Horse Mares in Hand

Champion: English Show Hack (Main Ring)

Reserve Champion: 2 year old Half-Arabian Mares and over (main ring)

Top Six: H/A Sport Horse Under Saddle

Top Six: Half-Arabian Hunter Pleasure

So if those show results were not enough, we did the dressage classes on Sunday. The chestnut princess wowed the crowds, and got some of the highest scores of the day, even in open competition.

1st: Second Level Test 4 Arabian 65.00%

1st: Third Level Test 2 68.718%

Amazing comment from the judge Elaine Potter: "Nice, really nice to see quality dressage with a high quality Arabian".

So the icing on the cake was winning a breeding to Cognac Amberfyre, a gorgeous grey purebred Arabian stallion by Hennessy.............now who to use the breeding with?

I'll post more pics especially of the stallion when JudyC sends them to me. Speaking of Judy, a huge thankyou from Allie and me for being a great groom this weekend. You were great!

Pictured: Dessia Miller presenting me with the Stallion breeding for winning the H/A Sport Horse Mares in Hand. Picture courtesy of Judy C.

Dressage Niagara...... Fun in the Sun on Saturday!

Saturday May 26th. What a fun show at Niagara! Three horses representing my stable; Sara on Barras' Destiny (Cedar) and myself with Gen Custer (aka Mav) and KF Almaz (Allie).

It was time to celebrate with a bottle of Mumms' Champagne with Sara; this was her first Prix St. George ride! They did good too! Only a percent behind Mav and I with 59% Way to go Sara; you looked great in Tails!

Mav was a character as usual, gaining looks of amazement from people when I told them he is an Arabian/QuarterHorse. We did an Intermediare 1 freestyle with some Western tunes including "Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy" as our opening music. We got 64% for our effort. I'm wanting to apply to ride a freestyle at US Sport Horse Nationals, so this was our first attempt to get the necessary scores to go. Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback on the music. I just can't see the "Westerny" looking horse half-passing to classical music ; just to stuffy for this fun little guy.

Allie was great as usual. She's come such a long way from the Booooooring Training Level rides. If we can get over the flying bucks for flying changes, we'll have it licked! She still got 63% for both of her Third Level trips. At least I got one out of 4 completely clean this time.

The crowd at got a "kick" out of it. (No pun intended). Gotta have some humor at a dressage show.

Thanks to Les again for the great pics.

Huge Storm Hits Nearby: Farm is Untouched

Do you ever have that gut feeling? Well today was one of them. I had heard a weather warning for our area, saw the black clouds and decided to batton down the hatches. I'm glad I did.

Even the horses outside were begging to come in.

Les and I took all the vehicles and parked them in the arena, as the weather forecasters were calling for hail.

Then all hell broke loose. As you can see from the pics, not even 1/2km from me the literal devestation that the "down draft" or "tornado" caused.

Just after the picture of the barn was taken, I ran down into the basement as I was probably the most scared I have been from a storm. With winds that I guess exceeded 100kms per hour, pea sized hail, and super black clouds, I was sure that we were going to get wiped out.

After doing a visual of the farm, I was surprised to only see a couple of full garbage cans toppled and a missing wash bucket. The horses were fine in the stables, and apart from a valley that had turned into a river, Kirkridge escaped damage.

The little town down the road was another story, as you can see from the pics.

We were VERY lucky.

CCF Porshah- For Sale

Some pics from today's schooling have been added to my webshots site. Just click on the title to go to the webshots page to see more pics.
"Po" is a 4 year old Anglo-Arabian 15.2h mare schooling second level. She would make an EXCELLENT ladies' or juniors' horse. She has a wonderful temperament. Po has won in Sport Horse under saddle, in-hand, and Hunter pleasure classes. She would make a super mount that will excell in any discipline. For more information contact elaine.ward@yahoo.com