Deleted

I'll be starting a new facebook page over again sometime next month.  I had so many problems with the last attempt that I finally just threw in the towel and deleted the account.  I asked a few local friends about the issues and problems that I was having, and they told me that it's best to just start all over again.  So that's what I'll do....

Ugh

My stupid facebook page has proven to be a royal pain in the butt so far.......  I'm about 2 steps away from throwing in the towel.  There are quite a few issues that I'm trying desperately to get worked out, but it's being very difficult so far (especially for someone who is brand new to facebook, and really wasn't too fond of it in the first place....)  I'm not sure if it's just because I have a brand new account, or if it's extremely slow getting into the mainstream community, or if there are some other issues going on that are totally out of my control (bugs, ect.). 

1.  Issue number one is that nobody can find me.  I've e-mailed a few people with invites and they simply can't find me anywhere on there.  The page doesn't show up on the facebook search engine, and it won't show up on google or yahoo or anywhere else either. 

2.  The other issue is that I can't "friend" anybody.  When I'm not logged onto facebook, the "friend" button magically appears on other peoples header pages - but when I am logged into it, it's simply not there.  The "like" button is the exact same way.

3.  And finally, my profile photo will only show up on my own page - but it won't show up anywhere else when I comment on other people's pages.  No matter what I do, it will not show up - and I've tried everything on the settings and profile pages to get it worked out.  Very annoying.

If I can't get things figured out in the next week or two, I'll delete the account and just start all over again.  This has has been a somewhat frustrating experience so far....

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mayfield-Farm-Akhal-Tekes/164794957019689

Facebook

Well, it finally happened.  As my husband says...... I've been sucked into "ass-book".  Ha, ha. =:)

I've recently signed up on facebook to promote our horses.  If you want to check out Mayfield Farm Akhal Tekes, we're officially on there now.  The lengthy ramblings on miscellaneous topics and chatterings will still remain on this blog, though.  This is my main spouting spot when I feel like running off at the mouth....

I can always delete the facebook account if I really hate it.

Another Corporate Decision....

I made one corporate decision around the beginning of the year, and I'm going to make another one now. 

This will be my last year as a member of the ATAA.  I was a member in 2007-2008, and then went back in 2012-2013.  This year will be the last.  I'm planning on exhibiting and promoting independently in the future, (which is basically the same thing that I'm doing now - so not much will change). 




Love this one.  So true!

 

Grizzly Mountain

Craig and I went to the Grizzly Mountain ride over the weekend.  We've recently purchased a new truck, so my husband was just DYING to give it a road test!  That was naturally the perfect excuse to pick a good distance ride to go to.... =:)

You can barely see the town of Madras in the distance.

I rode Nettie on Saturday and Tommy on Sunday.  We did the 50 miler on Saturday, but were pulled at mile 41 due to a slight gimp in Nettie's left hind leg.  We probably could've walked the last 9 miles to finish the ride, but I didn't feel like pushing it with her, so we called it good.  There are always plenty of other rides to go to in the future.  It was a fun weekend and I didn't let the pesky gimp dampen my spirits.  I also got some great words of wisdom from the in-time keeper lady at the gate.  She assured me that if a rider does any kind of long distance riding at all, they're bound to run into some problems in each ride season.  She was a very sweet lady, and it was nice to talk to her for awhile and hear from a veteran of the sport.  She's tallied points and kept track of hundreds of riders in the northwest for many years.

But, I did feel bad for a couple of our camp neighbors who had some troubles.  One lady that parked next to us drove all the way from Salem and arrived very late in the dark on Friday night - only to find out that she couldn't even start the next morning due to an abcess in her horses hoof.  (I felt bad for her, as I've been in a similar situation in the past - and it's a really crappy feeling to drive all that way and not even be able to start a ride.)  And there were some other riders that drove 18 hours from Canada, only to have a very bad day.  Their experiences included: getting dumped on the trail and having to walk back to camp, fence equipment getting mangled up from horses tearing through it, and a pony that had it's hind legs banged up pretty badly.  You never know what to expect at endurance rides..... so I felt priviledged to at least enjoy going for a ride on both days.

The Grizzly Mountain ride has some beautiful rock scenery.

I'm assuming that it was the wind made these little hollowed out caves in this rock.

The nights on the high desert are very cold for camping.  Craig and I woke up several times on both nights with a layer of frost on the ceiling of our horse trailer.  We have a mattress in the nose of the gooseneck where we sleep, and it got down into the 20's at night time.  Very chilly for camping. 

Up close and personal with LOTS of cows. 

I affectionately nicknamed this ride as "the many gates ride".  The trail went through several cattle pastures, and there were at least a dozen primitive gates to open and close.  It was a slowing obstacle for the seriously faster competitors - but I really liked riding through the cow herds.  Being a more non-chelant slower rider, both Nettie and Tommy had to shoo a couple of fat older cows out of the trail for us to be able to pass. Some of the calves were very curious and would follow us for 10 or 15 feet down the trail. 

As a side note:  This is definitely not a ride for a horse that is afraid of cattle, because they were almost everywhere.  Sometimes even surrounding you in very close proximity on the trail.  Both of my horses love cows, but I know that some riders have horses that are scared to death of them.  I've been with people on other rides that have horses that will bolt and take off from seeing cows.  Not the greatest situation for the "bovine afflicted" equine...  

The mountain ranges were gorgeous!

Tommy and I had a great trail ride on Sunday.  I was debating on doing a 30 miler with him, but decided to just let him enjoy the sunshine and do a simple trail ride.  He deserves some time off from the show arena and I didn't want to stress him out with a fast LD.  It was a great break for him to just relax and enjoy the scenery at his own pace. 

There wasn't a single drop of rain on the trail both days.  =:)

Dorlin Haste Memorial

On Sunday we went to the Dorlin Haste Memorial horse show in Walla Walla, Wa.  It was an open schooling show at the Maxson-Box stables indoor arena.

I was very impressed with the arenas and facilities at the farm!  There was a nice BIG main indoor riding arena with a spacious show office, great sound system, and antique church pews for spectators at the show.  There were two good sized warm-up arenas located at the front and also the back of the indoor arena, (complete with sprinkler systems to keep the dust to a minimum), and also one large track style arena located near the main road for doing cart or park/show hack style workouts.  The footing in all of the arenas was EXCELLENT! 

The Maxson-Box stables used to be a full service saddlebred showing and breeding farm, so the layout of the facilities made sense after I figured out what the farm was tailor made for.  The one thing that I will give saddlebred breeders is that they are usually very CLASSY about their setups.  The farm was very well kept.  The hedges were trimmed, the grass was freshly mowed, the looping gravel roads were smooth as silk to drive on, and I couldn't find so much as a "single hint of a pebble" in any of the riding arenas.  It was great.
The main barns on the farm were older constructed buildings - but in good working order with nice equipment.  There was a small hotwalker in the main barn, along with a fully stocked farrier station, tackroom, clothes changing room, restroom, full hay storage, and several stalls for boarding customers horses.  Several of the horses at the show were boarders at the barn, (mostly QH's and Arabs).

In the office of the main indoor arena was a tribute to the late Mrs. Aggie Maxson.  Mrs. Maxson's show photos and awards were very lovely, and it was great to see her achievements displayed.  It was very clear that she had great pride in her saddlebreds and was a fantastic show lady.  In the upper left and right corners of the office were award coolers that she had earned at the Cow Palace in California in 1979 and 1982.



Tommy and I won one of the english classes in the morning and they awarded first places with glass mugs full of tootsie rolls.  =:)  We took a picture in front of the main barn. 

What you can't see in the photo is that there is a lady to the left of us doing jumping jacks trying to get his attention - literally.  Tommy has had so many pictures taken of him that it's gotten to the point where he just doesn't care anymore.  It's almost nearly impossible to get his ears forward for photos.  I've noticed that other exhibitors have the same problem with their show horses.  They get so desensitized to weird sounds, new environments, scary objects, and other miscellaneous things, that it's virtually impossible to get them "alert" for snapshots.  Which is okay with me.  I'd rather have my horse relaxed with a "could-give-a-crap-less attitude", rather than acting snorty and being an idiot. 

Craig and I are talking about getting a sparkly wand or a ground mirror for future photo ops... 

https://www.facebook.com/westernhorseuk#!/photo.php?fbid=10151405440364141&set=a.379226284140.163835.128802604140&type=1&theater

I'm not much of a facebook person, (never have gotten into it) - but I do realize that it can be a valuable marketing/advertising tool sometimes.

There will be a professional full page farm ad in an international online magazine later in the year. 

Gotta start putting money away in the piggy bank...... $$$$$$ 

Photos

A couple of unpublished photos from our 2012 show season.  I love the patriotic flags that they put up at the Eddie MacMurdo show - they're so cool!  Photos copyright Sibbea Browning/Entirely Equine Marketing.

To my knowledge, Tommy and I are the only actively competitive Akhal Teke western discipline team that shows at an open level - in the entire world.  

McTardys Storm

A bit of farm history....

McTardys Storm is a colt that we raised several years ago out of our old appaloosa broodmare Stormin Norma.  At one time I was really into appies and paints, (in fact, there are still a few colored horses of each breed here at our farm).  Old Norma had papers of sheer gold - royally bred to the hilt.  She was by the famous appaloosa hall of fame stallion Goer and out of a daughter of another famous hall of fame stallion Hayes Roman Cloud.  http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/stormin+norma 
I've never had a horse that's as exceptionally well bred as Norma was - and I probably never will again.  She was one of the last few remaining handful of Goer daughters that was still alive and producing in north america. 

Norma went on to greener pastures in 2007, but every once in awhile I will get an update from the owners of the first colt that we raised that now lives in Florida.  Tardy has done very well for owner Kellie Kauffman, and Craig and I are very proud to have raised this beautiful spotted young man.  =:)

2003.  You can only imagine how excited I was to see this VERY LOUD semi-leopard colorful little guy in our barn!  If you're a color breeder, this is a jackpot.    

And adding another layer of icing to the cake - we also welcomed our paint colt Fred (Dees Wishful Thinking) that same year.  He came out of our solid black breeding stock paint mare Miss Diana Ross.  It was a totally awesome year for color at our farm in 2003.



I nicknamed the little guy "Squirt" when he was a foal, but he became known as "Tardy" later on.

He grew into a big chunky boy.

This picture was taken shortly before I started weaning him and getting him ready to go to his new home in Florida.



A nice picture of Kellie and Tardy at a show when he was younger.  Kellie is very tall, and Tardy's size ended up fitting her very well when he was mature.



And a more recent picture of them together, starting to get into dressage.  =:)

For a complete picture gallery of Tardy, check out Kellie's website:  http://www.maladandyranch.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=3622642

There's also a video of him crossing a trail bridge too:  http://www.maladandyranch.com/apps/videos/videos/show/17036038-teeter-totter



"Kahlkuttah" a new mold Breyer Marwari repainted to a dappled coppery chestnut sabino in the studio.  Owned by Barbara Seiffert of Germany.



Curly

We have a new "desensitizing" agent staying with us until tomorrow.  His name is "Curly", or "Curly-Sue-Ee"! 
Over the weekend I swapped a local fellow two lambs for a market hog.  Curly's stay with us is going to be very short, as tomorrow the bacon wagon is coming to get him.  But, today was a great day to introduce our horse herd to something that they've never seen before.  A pig.....



The noisey, rooting, grunting, squealing desensitizer - Curly.



Octopelle (Kinor x Miss Diana Ross) a.k.a. "Ox" - The Dealer
"I'll make a deal with you, you stay in the pen and both of us will be okay.  Come any closer, and all bets are off..."

Octopelle was skeptical of Curly, but accepted him after hanging out near him for a few minutes.  If both of them were loose in the pasture, it would most likely be a whole different story...

Sagebrush Nettie (warm springs mustang) a.k.a. "Nettie" - The Tolerator
"You're stinky, pink, and make funny sounds.  I'll put up with you, but don't expect me to cuddle up next to you tonight."

 Nettie was about the same as Octopelle, skeptical at first - but slowly grew accustomed to Curly. 

Suzette the Vette (Kinor x GC Manila) a.k.a. Suzette - The Shrinking Violet
"Who does your hair?  I need to find a new stylist - my rasta dreds are outta fashion."

 Suzette accepted Curly better than I thought that she would.  Being half arab, she's generally on the snorty side of things - but she didn't hesitate to march right up and make friends with the pig.  I was fairly happy that she accepted him as well as she did.

UB Wink A Lena (SNW Go Tuf Lena x Cinegas Cowgirl) a.k.a. "Betty" - The Intimidator
"Go ahead, make my day... If there wasn't a fence right here, we wouldn't have to wait for the bacon truck to get here."

 Betty was a whole different story.  I had two horses that felt like killing the pig, and she was one of them.  Absolutely no fear whatsoever - just a general disgust for the little porker.  She spent most of her time pinning her ears and looking very grumpy at him.

Zetlano (Kinor x Stormin Norma) a.k.a. "Roo" - The Cowardly Lion
"I guess you're okay, but just don't make any sudden impulsive movements..."

Roo is generally overly leery of everything on gods green earth, but he does come around if he's given enough time to wrap his brain around things.  He handled meeting Curly very well - much better than I had expected.  In fact, he had a bigger issue with Craig's skid steer excavator parked near the pen, rather than with the pig itself.   

Gweedi-O (Grade shetland pony) a.k.a. "Gweedie" - The Hobbit
"Are you from The Shire too?  You're almost my height."

Being a typical pony, he was fairly laid back and accepts brand new things very well.  He was more concerned about what was going on with the pasture grass rather than with the pig.

Dees Wishful Thinking (PT Peps Lucky Wish x Miss Diana Ross) a.k.a. "Fred" - The Courageous
"I don't know who you are, and I really don't care..."

Fred really surprised me with the pig.  I haven't done much desensitizing with him, and he hasn't been off the farm that much to see new weird objects.  So, his attitude towards the pig was impressive.  He could've cared less about it.  Just thought that Curly was a funny looking sheep, I guess.

Asil Tumay (Astrachan x Annastasia) a.k.a. "Tommy" - The Challenger
"I definitely grunted louder than you.  Start packin' your bags fatso." 

Tommy was a bit of an interesting event with the pig.  At first he was curious and stood back aways with a craned neck to try and figure out what the pig was - but after the curiosity subsided it was full on aggression.  He bellowed like a stud horse and stomped his front foot when his nose touched the pigs snout.  (Curly wasn't exactly impressed nor intimidated by this action, but just kept right on eating next to the fence.)  I assumed that Tommy thought the pig was a small pink stallion that wanted to take over the barnyard for himself....  Afterwards when Curly grunted and made noises, there was some ear pinning and puffed up bluffing stances on Tommy's part - so I put him away before he tried to take out the fence and destroy the little pink intruder.




Smidgen of Budaka (Kinor x Miss Diana Ross) a.k.a. "Smidgen" - The Poker Face
"Can I have some of that?  By the way, have you seen Tommy around..?"

Like her half brother Fred, Smidgen could've cared less about Curly.  It's spring, she's a filly, and has fallen quite suddenly in love with Tommy.  She had no problem standing next to the pen and helping herself to some of the pigs grass snack, meanwhile keeping a lookout for where the geldings went to.