Photos

The pictures arrived in the mail a few days ago from the last two shows that we attended.  Sibbea Browning of Entirely Equine Marketing is totally awesome!  Fast service and great pictures.  She did the Eddie MacMurdo photos, and I highly recommend her.  She's very professional and lightning fast.  The Pink Ribbon Classic photos were done by Adam Hutson of Hutson Imaging and Photography.  (I scanned the pictures to use them on this site, but the scanner made the photos a little bit blurry....)

Eddie MacMurdo.  Winning the Novice Horse english under saddle class.

Eddie MacMurdo. Waiting in line for judging.

Eddie MacMurdo.  One of my favorite photos, in the Novice Horse western pleasure class.

Pink Ribbon Classic, Green Horse western pleasure. 

Pink Ribbon Classic, Hunter Under Saddle class.

ATAA Conference

Craig and I had a great time Saturday at the Akhal Teke Association of America conference.  It was held at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Bothell, Wa. just outside of Seattle.  On Friday night there was a meet and greet at the hotel and on Saturday there was a general membership meeting in the morning.  We got there just in time on Saturday to sit in on the meeting, and then go with everyone on a farm tour of Cascade Gold Akhal Tekes in Snohomish - just a short drive up the road from the hotel.  On Sunday everybody boarded the ferry at Anacordes to go up to the San Juan islands to visit Sweetwater Farm Akhal Tekes, but Craig and I had to head back home on Saturday night - so we missed out on Sunday's activities.

Part of the group on the farm tour Saturday.  Cathy Leddy (farm owner in the foot cart, she recently had surgery on her ankle), Jas Shearer-McMahon in the black jacket and grey pants, Gary Tipps holding the coffee cup, Erin Wandler in the blue sweater, Betsy Wandler in green shirt, the fellow with the cowboy hat is Catrina Mettam's other half (sorry, I never did get his name....), and if you look very closely you can just barely see Eloise King in her white hat hiding behind Cathy's arm. 

Eloise was a real hoot!  I loved meeting that spunky lady.  There's a nice video of her on youtube riding her stallion Pegas sidesaddle.  (Yes, he's a stallion!  When I was talking to her, I thought that she owned a gelding - but was rather surprised to find out that he's a stallion.  Most people her age don't want anything to do with a stud horse, but Eloise isn't just anybody.  If you ever meet her, you'll know what I'm talking about....)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjo9thmoM8I&list=FLXKQVXS-puyUh2P0N92QQgg&feature=mh_lolz

Astra and little Sparky.  He will be heading to a new home in Florida soon.

Tommy's mother Annastasia.  He's a carbon copy of her, just inherited his father's lighter bay color.

A duo of volunteers.  Craig (my husband) carrying the pink flowers, and Larry (Cathy's husband) carrying the red flowers to decorate the pasture jumps.

The youngsters.  Scooter (Miras) up front, and Reggie (Sazanda) near the fence, made a new friend.  Scooter is currently for sale and is looking for a new home.

Jack Saare petting Mahri, one of the fillies for sale at CGAT.

Asalari, Tommy's little sister.  She's currently for sale as well.  (If I only had more room and more money, I wouldn't mind adding her to our herd....)

Astrachan, still looking good at 22 years young.  Tommy's sire.

Jas Shearer-McMahon and Khan (Astrachan).  Yes, this is the stallion that was the model for the infamous resin Akhal Teke "Khan" that Sarah Rose sculpted.  He was at Jas' place in Colorado for a few years being a breeding and competition stallion, and Sarah sculpted him after visiting Magic Valley Akhal Tekes.  For a full article, visit her site:  http://www.rosehorse.com/khan.php .  Khan's a grand old gentleman, and a pleasure to visit.

I managed to snap a quick picture of the awards that I hurriedly finished up just before we left early on Saturday morning for the conference.  (Our living room floor wasn't quite as grand of a display area as the banquet room in the hotel... but it worked for a quick snapshot.)  There was a good turnout of participants for this year, and I was glad to do the awards for several people.  It was nice to see that more people are getting interested in riding competitively.  Fun stuff!

For more pictures and info. on the conference, visit:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Akhal-Teke-Association-of-America/348256698548515

Eddie MacMurdo Show

The bay bumbershooter strikes again!
 http://proofs.sibbea.com/p873702267/h43914162#h43914db8

Tommy's winnings!

Tommy did pretty well at the show this past weekend.  He made Craig and I very proud.  =:)  Amidst a large crowd of competitors of all different sizes and breeds, he managed to bring home some nice prizes and hold his own against the competition.  The show was a lot of fun, and I'm planning on doing it again next year.  Nice people, great facility, awesome judges and staff, and an all-around professionally organized event.  Loved it!



An outside photo after getting a second place ribbon and an award glass in the green horse english class.

There were a lot of very nice horses at this show, and I thought that amidst the variety Tommy did really well.  There were some TOTALLY AWESOME eye popping national quality morgans and saddlebreds that came to compete.  My eyes were bugging out!  They were soooooo stunning to watch!!!!  I loved seeing the park saddleseat and the western pleasure morgans go around the arena.  What a show they put on!  And the grey saddlebred from the Tri-Cities was quite a sight to behold as well.  A very nice horse.  (And the riders tophat with shadbelly coat really looked spiffy too!)
http://proofs.sibbea.com/p437434843/h4363f3c0#h4364ab2e
http://proofs.sibbea.com/p258172520/h43650680#h43650680
http://proofs.sibbea.com/p36634117/h436553f2#h436507e2

And we made another new friend.  There was a gentleman watching us warm-up in the outdoor arena and walked over to ask me what breed my horse was.  I said Akhal Teke, and I was kind-of surprised to hear him say, "I thought so..."  (We're slowly but surely gaining inches in popularity around this area...)  Lots of people near the show railing when we were in the classes made comments like, "That horse is so coppery!"   
Later on in the barn aisle when we were finished for the day, one junior exhibitor asked me what I did to get my horse so shiney like that.  I kind-of chuckled a little bit, and said that I just gave him a bath.  She looked somewhat disappointed with that answer - as I think that she was expecting me to say that there is a new miracle product on the market that will give your horse an ultra-shiney metallic glow.  =:)  I was sorry to tell her that I didn't have any insider information on any bottled stuff that would do it....

Craig managed to take some videos on his phone, and we uploaded our in-hand halter class on youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYpaQ2wquR0 
MaryAnne Morrison, (the judge in the darker clothes) had said that she had seen a couple of Akhal Tekes before, so I was happy to hear that.  She seemed to like Tommy, and placed him well in the classes that we entered.

And we won the novice horse english class!!!!  That was really cool.  Wahoo!  =:)

A Very Busy September

September is proving to be a very busy and stressful month.  Big time.  Lots of things going on, and not enough time to sit down and relax for a second....

The Eddie McMurdo show is coming up this weekend, and I'll be taking Tommy over to the Walla Walla fairgrounds to the show.  I was planning on riding sidesaddle in the Round-Up parade again this year on Nettie, but decided to do the show in Walla Walla instead.  (I won't have enough time to do both, so I figured that the show was probably a more important event...)  This show will be interesting, as there is a light breed (morgan) judge from Roseburg that will be there.  I'm nervous as hell about how we'll do, but crossing my fingers that we'll do okay.  I'll also post an interesting entry about my show saddle and tack after the show... (just remind me, or I'll forget to do it....)

And the Akhal Teke Association of America conference is coming up the following weekend in Seattle, (21st through the 23rd).  Craig and I are planning on driving up on Saturday and heading back home after the awards ceremony.  It's a few hours drive, so we'll feed the animals early in the morning, and make it back home very late at night to feed again.  I've been busily finishing up all the plaques and special awards stuff for the nominee's in the registry.  I'll hopefully post a few quick photos next week before we head off to the conference.

I had planned on doing another endurance ride in October, but unfortunately Ox (Octopelle) hasn't been getting the conditioning and attention that it takes to do the distance for next month.  He's getting fairly out of shape due to my other commitments, and my bank account for traveling is completely blown at the moment as well.... So, we'll probably opt to veto that ride, and attend the first ride of the season for next year.  Hopefully we'll be more prepared and in shape by then... (all three of us! the bank account, the horse, and the rider...)

My painting backlog is getting totally bogged under once again.  It didn't take very long.  I can never say 'no' very well to customers who are lined up waiting to pay for paintwork.... so I've pretty much totally buried myself again, probably not going to see the light of day until next spring.  I'll morph into a cave troll this winter, slogging around in the studio with a myriad of projects. 

And still waiting on the photos from the Pink Ribbon Classic.  I ordered a bunch of them.... but they're still not here yet....

Oh yeah, and Craig has a "new/old" car that we're totally overhauling in the garage too.  It's a tag-team effort for both of us.  He's got the engine running fairly well with some more minor work in a few areas yet to do, and I gutted the interior out of it today.  I'm going to put my old leather sewing maching to work and re-upholster the seats and side panels in it.  The car also needs painted, so we're sanding it down and prepping it for paintwork.  I've already told him that I'm not too thrilled about painting a car, as they're huge and take up a lot of space and time.  But we're both going to tackle it, and hopefully the car won't manage to kill us in the process... 

And did I mention that I'm currently painting his motorcycle at the moment too....? 

Whatever else can I manage to squeeze into the month of September? 
  

"O'Learys Pale Ale".  A newly completed Breyer little bits sized resin draft horse.  He was originally a bay Clydesdale from the factory, but I made him into a Shire with a dapple grey coat.  Owned by Bobbie Mosimann of Canada.