Merry Christmas! 2011

Hope everybody had a great holiday today! Looking forward to 2012.

Kandar

There is a really nice video that has been recently uploaded on Youtube of the great Akhal Teke gelding Kandar. He was such a beauty and phenomenal athlete! I believe that the nice collage above was created by Amrita Ibold - (Jenny, please correct me if I'm wrong on that....) so the photo credit goes to her. =:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnGOsJDeM3A&feature=youtu.be

Another video of interest is of the famous Turkmen trickriders:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-y_b0dFkzo&feature=related


And the ones below are of Absent, the big black Akhal Teke stallion that was a five time Olympic medalist during the 1960's and onward (2 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze). He competed against warmbloods and won many times, and was named "Horse of the Century" by the media. He was a bit heavier in type than Kandar and the tekes in the other videos, but also a very beautiful and talented horse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff8krcKMTJU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ehSE-EWtX8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omqhqiFx7i4&feature=related


Articles:

http://www.eurodressage.com/equestrian/2009/10/11/absent-akhal-teke-olympic-stage

http://maakcenter.org/ENG/BREED/sport.html

An Early Christmas Present

I made my last payment on Tommy on Wednesday. Wahoo! He's mine! I had a two year lease with an option to buy - and I'm forever indebted to Cathy for letting me do that. I couldn't have purchased him without it. I have eight horses in the pasture to feed, so every penny that I can scrape up out of the bucket is precious. But I'm considering Mr. Tommy Tudor an early cheery Christmas present to myself! And he is one of the best presents that I've ever gotten. =:)
A recent picture of him on one of our windy fall day conditioning rides.

He's gotten to the point where he's pretty patient when I have the camera out now. I used to have to push him away all the time when I'd take a picture, because he'd be right in my face wanting to know what that little black thing was. Now, it's like, "Oh god, the black thing is out again. I'll just wait here, knock youself out...."

A picture from earlier on this summer, after he was nice and shiney from having a bath. =:)