Kittie Wilkins

Julie from Riding Aside has a great article on Idaho horsewoman Kittie Wilkins.  It's a fantastic story, and what an awesome lady of history!
http://ridingaside.blogspot.com/2013/03/kittie-wilkins-historical-account.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RidingAside+%28Riding+Aside%29

Ridiculous

I usually try to be understanding of other cultures and their ways of doing things, but.......

This stupid photo is just horrendous.  Akhal Tekes definitely deserve to be treated much better than what is depicted in this dumb picture.  The orginal title of the post that this thing was plastered on was "wonderful".  Seriously...?  What kind of person thinks that this is "wonderful"?  What is so "wonderful" about trying to yank a horses head off brutally...?  Even more disturbing is that there are idiot commenters praising this stupid shot saying how great it is.  Sadly, both Akhal Tekes and mounted archery are favorite subjects of mine - but this photo does nothing but make me sick.  How pathetic. 

  

We Won!

Yesterday was the finale of the Earn Your Spurs show series.  We attended all three shows over two months at the Eastside Equestrian Center and ended up winning high point honors in our division!!!!!  YAY!!!!   (We really worked our butts off for it!)

It was a very close race for the grand prize silver spurs, and Tommy and I managed to beat out our nearest competition by ONE POINT.  (Yes, a measly slippery little single point...)  The scores were incredibly close - but we managed to nab the spurs in the end.


The grand prize, a new pair of silver spurs.



A colorful bounty of "ribbon loot" from the show.



It was our moment of glory in the indoor arena after the show was over and the awards were presented, and Tommy wasn't cooperating for the camera.  Everybody was trying to get him to prick his ears up for a photo (slapping legs, waving hankies, making funny sounds, ect.) - but he was tired and wasn't in the mood for it. 



But later on...... somebody had a grain bucket that was handy to shake - and the ears suddenly came to life....

Photos of Alaja

Yesterday Tish Saare sent me some photos of their lovely stallion Arin (Asman x Iashma), standing at Pleasant Grove Akhal Tekes in California.  I had made two alaja neckpieces for their farm a few months ago, and Arin is modeling one of them in his new professional photographs.

I can't wait to see their bay stallion Gallo in his alaja!  Tish has hinted that there are more professional pictures yet to come...



"Mahatmah", a customized new mold Breyer Marwari from the studio.  I remade his ears to be pricked forward, then gave him a steel grey dapple coat with pinto markings and a blue eye.  Owned by Shay Canfield of Virginia.



Show Weekend - Part Two

We attended the same schooling show series over the weekend, and the horses (and myself!) had some great improvement. 

Tommy had some nice smooth canter strike-offs and managed to keep his head down at a "hunter level" for most of the day at the second Earn Your Spurs show in Kennewick.  (We've been practicing a lot since the last show in February....)  We still need to work further on maintaining a more consistant head level position in the speedier transitions, but he's been making great improvement lately.

Nettie has cooled her jets and mellowed out as well.  She just needed more consistant riding after having a lot of time off, and the second Battle In The Saddle show on Sunday was a great success.  Her western pleasure jog was outstanding this time around!   (It is rumored that we won high point in one of the divisions, but I will find out for sure at next months show...)

Craig managed to get a couple of videos at the Saturday Earn Your Spurs show.  The videos are great for studying and learning purposes, and I try and see what I need to do better for next time.  A couple of them are on public viewing on Youtube: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpg3vd0t53Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G67Wd65-PTA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14wUmYC0KNo

Speed Rackers

Holy crap!!!!!  Check these guys out.....  Major flying feet!!!  Love those blistering fast paced singlefooters!!!!!  Rack On!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM0VtEB8MK4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw0cpCq1gVM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WNKKekA8sA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fu9FjiE5Ng
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63NaAMA8AKY