Christmas Day ride

December has been a fickle month as far as weather-- from a powdery snow storm of several days to balmy foggy drizzles. Made for extra work plowing and sanding and also rendering it impossible to ride as often as we'd like. My daughter and I did manage to fit in a fun ride on Christmas Day. We decided to head toward town.. thinking- there would be no traffic on such a holiday. The sun was in and out.. but a great day for being in the saddle.

We started down the driveway - and trotted left toward the highway. We had predicted incorrectly-- lots of traffic, all cars full of wrapped gifts- I suppose enroute to their various family get togethers. Our mounts- the magnificent duo- Keri and Teasel trotted eagerly.. Keri was anticipating her sidewalks I think.. you know how she loves to trot down the sidewalk ! But, as you can see here- the town has not cleared the concrete pathways yet.. so we were stuck in the break down lane.

Past a cheery Santa ~

Closer to town, Keri was relieved-- a sidewalk !! She perks up her ears and happily trots.

Cross the bridge over the Black River, which runs through town all the way to the Connecticut River.

If we had thought to bring some money with us- we could have stopped for a morning shot of caffeine..

The Springfield Shopping Plaza was a ghost town, so we looped around to head home on Fairgrounds Road, a new route for us. We have never traveled that way home before on horseback.

Past the Riverside Middle School, a pretty church, following the Black River the entire way on our left.

Here's the Armory - home of the National Guard. Due to the unusual mix of wintry precipitation and warm temperatures today- the roads are flooded in spots. Reaching the end of Fairgrounds Road, we are nearing the backroads which will bring us back home.


The dirt roads are very icy- but both our horses are sporting their winter shoes with borium studs-- since we both love to ride in winter- and very often travel the back roads. The horses appreciate the extra stability and safety of the studs.

Just about home ~ I have said before , the first mile out on my road presents us with the most "obstacles"-- well this is the last mile today since we are coming in the backway-- but we still meet the varied seasonal potentially scarey "stuff".

Back in the fall- this was the site of the Ghoul which all our horses seemed to like so much-- This time a large holiday family greets us.

Another wonderful ride out !! Keri and Teasel returned to their respective pastures for a nice roll in the snow and we are looking forward to the next adventure.. probably not until New Year's Day.

Enjoy your day ~ and Happy Holidays from Top O' The Hill Farm.

Still Cold and still riding !

No matter how strong my desire of denial may be-- I believe winter is here to stay ! The outdoor wood boiler is eating wood and the horses are busy devouring hay. For the remainder of the season, my main job is to keep both horses and wood boiler full and warm and happy ~

My daughter, Zoe, and I have been sneaking in short rides here and there. With hunting season and lots of intermittent rain/snow-- we have been sticking to the roads. With the last storm- a "wintry mix" and the freezing temps, even the dirt roads are quite icy.

Sunday, we saddled up and went for a road loop.. We were going to ride home on the trail, but remembered-- it's STILL hunting season... now-- a different weapon-- muzzle loaders are out. Two weeks ago, we both went shopping for some new winter riding gear... new breeches, I got an awesome Irideon coat, new long underwear, etc. So bundled up and in the saddle off we went. I have mentioned before, no matter where we go-- it seems as though the first mile and a half presents us with the most "obstacles".

We took a different route we don't normally travel on, and this was no exception. A little ways up the hill, you can see Zoe's mount- Teasel has his telescope neck out-- what's up ? Curious beef cows

in the pasture adjacent to the Herefords-- LLamas !!...

And 150 feet more-- more beef cows !!

The horses were so excited to be out and about, they did not even stop and look-- only to give me a chance to snap some photo's.

At the end of the road, we turned left out onto the highway where the horses were able to get in some good extended trotting. It seems that when we get out on the highway, both Keri and Teasel perk up-- they remember our forays into town and they actually like a good trot down the highway.

We turned up some back roads... and had to slow down to some very careful walking-- even with sand and salt, the dirt roads don't get much sun and they are icy, slippery traveling. It's a beautiful view from the top.

Of course we had a great time-- Keri and Teasel love to go out together and so do Zoe and I ! We hope to get more good riding in to end a good 2008 RAC.

Congratulations to Laurie Lee, owner of A Kurlee Dream-- daughter of Mead's Choclate Chip and great grand-daughter of our BG Dream Curl. Actually she is related to so many of our horses- it's too confusing to think about it ! Laurie's Dream is one of the 2008 CSI Horse of the Year Winners !

*A Kurlee Dream
Owner: Laurie Lee
Rider: Rachel Kawczk-Gatos
Award: Training Level Dressage JR Division
Average Score: 60.62%

We are proud of Laurie and her efforts -- and proud of our bloodlines which created a winner!

Enjoy your day ~

Winter is arriving !

It's COLD this week. More noticeable I think because last week the temperatures hovered in the high 40's. Now, the ground is very frozen and all my tub heaters are plugged in. We have unpacked all our winter riding gear and continue to get out on the road-- no trails as deer hunting is in full swing.

Last week, Jill traveled down from NY - again- to ride OYY Brigitte and OYY Elektra, trying to make her final decision as to who goes home with her. Jill had secured boarding near her home and purchased a new saddle, a trailer-- all she needs now is her Curly horse ! We managed a trail ride before opening day of hunting .. she rode out twice, once on each horse, came back the following morning ready to load Brigitte. They are going to make a great pair. Here they are after we emerged from the trail, crossing the pasture to head home on the road. I did not get any photo's of her on Elektra.

Zoe's Day Dream, aka "Reverie", ventured out of the ring and off the farm for her first outing on the road. I rode Keri (of course), my daughter saddled up Elektra, my trainer rode Reverie. What a great ride !! Reverie loves to trot out, she's not apprehensive about anything-- we had some traffic, a trash truck making a lot of rattling. For awhile, we got to trot 3 abreast on the dirt road.. horses evenly paced. We only went 4 miles as it was Reverie's first time out on the road- we had a super ride !! I am so pleased with Reverie and her progress. She's steady, obedient, and beautiful. She'll make a fine trail horse or show mount for anyone. Plus- she's a proven broodmare-- what else could you ask for ?

OYY Ivan and OYY Dante have been working in the ring with obstacles, cavaletti's and ground poles - we also added the big tire for a challenge.. they were unfazed. Dante has had much less training than Ivan, but he's doing so well-- he has earned his own bridle. Dante was a proud boy and sensed the seriousness of his "graduation" -- going better than ever- he and Ivan went down the road together perfectly. Dante's first time off the farm. What a boy ! and so handsome.

On Veteran's Day, my only boarder, Chester Belle Honey delivered a fine curly colt sired by Mead's Chocolate Chip. Belle was born here out of Honeybee Gal and Col's Pasqualie Kid quite a few years ago. She was sold as a weanling but comes back here to live during the winter years. Her owners decided that wanted a foal from her -- and here he is as a newborn~ The owners have not named him yet but we are calling him Little Soldier, because of the day on which he was born.

Sara still comes after school to do some riding- but this will be the last week- as she will be in Basketball practice for the season. Last night, she took a very chilly ride on my favorite little curly pony gelding- OYY Arcus. He's such a great mount- I enjoy riding him out on the road and trails as well. He loves Sara though and I am sure he'll miss her. I managed to get a quick video of him with her last night.. just a short one due to cold fingers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kgRM_hfQVY

OYY Finnegan also got his chance out on the road yesterday in the early morning. We braved some high winds and lots of blowing dirt and dust on the back roads along with another rattley trash truck. He rode out next to a mare with no issues. Finn is a wonderful riding horse- forward and fearless, steady and safe.

Here he is with my daughter riding in the ring-- no photo's on the road. With his disposition, curls and trainability-- his foals which are due in 2009 are going to be outstanding !! He's already proven himself as a driving horse-- now he's going to be a fabulous mount. We plan to do some shows with him next year.

So-- despite the sudden frigid winter weather-- we continue to have fun riding.

enjoy your day ~

A new month—and a time change. I am still getting used to the “shorter days”— it seems my head is thinking about my pillow a lot earlier in the day now. Supposedly, we gained an hour- but it seems with dark coming earlier, the days are shorter. Gain an hour, lose an hour-- I am always out of time anyway.

The weather turned warm so I was able to spread lime on one of my lease pastures on Friday. They bring the spreader wagons, 5 tons of lime at a time. I hook on with my trusty Kubota and go for it. Let me tell you- when you hook onto 5 tons—you know you have a load behind you ! We got a night and day of gentle rains after I was done.. so I am pretty happy about that. Can’t wait to see the difference in the growth in the spring. I like to care for my pastures as well as I can.. looking forward to the increased lushness and also the horses will benefit greatly from the higher nutrition levels in the grazing. With pony babies coming in the future.. I am planning ahead !

We brought up a few of the youngsters for new photo’s and some reminders in their training. They all got a trim and a stick measurement for our records.

OYY Hendrix will be turning 1 on the 15th. He is scheduled for his gelding on Tuesday. What a nice young man- he resembles his Dam, Zoe’s Day Dream. She is making super progress in her training and if Hendrix is anything like his Mom—he’s going to make a fabulous mount when he’s older. He’s one of Cherokee Storm’s tallest foals. He is built like his Mom.

OYY Jockomo also had a photo session and some basic training reminders. He was born in February of this year. My trainer, Lisa, was working with Jockomo and she commented that he was a lot like OYY Buster Brown to work with. That makes sense—as I reminded her—they are paternal brothers and their dams are maternal sisters. Once again, I will say—why change bloodlines if what you have is working so well ? Jockomo’s dam is OYY Tippateena. Jockomo is exactly what I had in mind when I bred Tippy to Chip. We’ve had enough “Chip babies” to know what he throws… and Tippy’s family tree is just as predictable. Before the foals are even born, you know their potential when you have trained/ ridden/driven sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles—well you get the idea. When a buyer chooses a youngster, I can give them lots of information on the background and abilities for every “family” and bloodline.

Since we were fooling with Jockomo- I made a short video of his Dam, Tippy, driving in 2006. She is an awesome driving mare and she loves it so much I am not sure if we will ever get around to getting her under saddle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2ZW-oGM3r0

I love it that she is wearing her Mom's harness now. She passed her old harness onto her maternal sister- OYY Fiona- who is also a wonderful driving mare with an outstanding disposition.

You can also hear the song after which she was named (Tipitina)-- we just changed the spelling a bit to honor Teena, her dam. And she is absolutely a "tip" of the old gal- Teena.

Since Ahmet has been in the paddock alone, getting her anti-biotic twice a day—due her being too nosey with a prickly porky.. we have been working with her as well. She’s been a broodmare most of her life, but she may as well be a riding horse too ! She’s a beautiful mover- a nice full bodied 15.2 hands. Her foals are all nice quality- OYY Elektra is the only one trained under saddle a the moment- but OYY Little “Z” will start this winter with her ground training. I’d love to see Ahmet under saddle before I breed her again, which I think will be this spring to OYY The Doctor of Dreams. She's a very smart responsive old gal and getting her under saddle will dispel any myths of training an older broodmare. So far Zoe's Day Dream (Reverie) is the oldest broodmare we've trained, at 11 years old. Ahmet is 12 years old. We did get Mead's Chocolate Chip under saddle this year at 14 years of age, so he qualifies as the oldest horse we've started.

Enjoy your day ~

In addition to documenting training sessions with photographs and video's and giving lessons, my daughter and I have found little pockets of time to get out on the road this past week. I am anxious to get in lots of miles in my new Barefoot London treeless saddle to give it a fair trial.. so far, we still love it- my horse and I.

Sunday, the 26th was a gorgeous day.. warm and sunny. We went out for a fun ride with Lilly and Keri. The only drawback with these 2 mares on the road/trail... they tend to compete with each other and get racy. They have always been that way-- just the mix of personalities I guess. It's funny how each horse, when paired with another, takes on a different disposition and behavior. The 2 girls were great on the way out.. but on the return, closer to home, we had to circle them a lot to get them back to focusing. Now-- take Lilly with another horse or by herself, she's perfect-- same with Keri.. Together-- they get that race thing going on. Lilly's walk is long and ground covering, so Keri was lagging behind the whole time... which frustrated her. Maybe that's one of the reasons she is a tad belligerent about being Lilly's riding partner.

Lilly is a smooth forward horse, so much fun to ride. Seems she's been with us forever, born here out of Little Pet- who we rode until her passing. We also rode Lilly's sire quite a bit- Peacock's Banner. Lilly's maternal brother- Col's Pasqualie Kid also was with us forever as a super stud, loads of talented foals, and also a nice smooth forward riding horse. A great family-- and so far Lilly has not disappointed us with her offspring either-- all of them even better than she is !! We are keeping her daughter sired by Frostfire's Tadpole. Recently there has been some discussion among Curly breeders about changing bloodlines and introducing new blood, "up-dating" the broodherd. I say--- if it keeps working.. why change ? I keep the same studs and broodmares forever it seems... if I am happy with the outcome and the foals grow up and perform... that's enough for me.

Halloween day, we took OYY Brigitte out in order to get some fresh photo's and do a short video that I posted the other day on the blog. Then we saddled up Keri (of course) and Zoe rode OYY Sweet Bee to give her a chance to go out for a good ride. We just did the 6 mile loop- as Sweet Bee has not been out that often - did not want to push her or tire her.. just enough to be a challenge and short enough for her to thoroughly enjoy her outing. Now-- these 2 are a great pair. They walked and trotted side by side nearly the entire way.

Here we both are in a shadow portrait.

About 1/2 mile down the road I saw my neighbor in her yard- so we decided to duck in the driveway for a quick visit-- show off my saddle. It is almost Thanksgiving, but we did not expect a flock of potential thanksgiving day dinners to be out and gobbling. The turkeys were curious about us as well and began puffing up and gobbling- the horses stood perfectly and we had a 10 minute visit- then on our way.

This was just a fun photo- Sweet Bee is such a cutie.

We also got out this week with Keri and Teasel Obi. Now there's the perfect riding pair of horses. For some reason, Keri sees 'Mr. T' as we call him sometimes (other times- the "T-man") and she nickers and gets excited-- YAY, we are going out with Teasel.. this is going to be fun ! We have had a LOT of super rides with these 2- and have created some really great trail/road memories with the 2 of them. No photo's of that ride--

OYY Pal's Job gave his first therapeutic riding lesson on Saturday- he was awesome ! He will be gradually integrated into the program and used much more often now. Such an honest trustworthy pony.

Sweet Bee also was used on Saturday with a young girl who usually rides Camille. Zoe and I realized as we brought Sweet Bee up for the lesson-- she is the THIRD generation lesson horse- her grand-mother Teena gave lessons, her Mom, Sudie Bee, is one of our best lesson horses... now Sweet Bee will carry on the tradition. Kind of neat !! That will make a great post on my Curly Horse Therapeutic riding blog.

Now- it's November already.. a new month of riding and training-- also time to finish up preparations for winter- draining all the hoses and putting them away. As it gets chillier, I'll have to set out the tub heaters and plug them in. Continue to stock up on wood. It's comforting to be set up for winter-- but I always wonder if I ever will be truly ready ? I guess I can only do what I can.

Enjoy your day ~

A full week of riding and training

This week was a full one with lots of positives !

OYY Ivan and OYY Dante came up to see what they remembered after 10 weeks of pasture rest. I am pleased to see they have matured and the time off was well spent. They both grew a bit and certainly filled out a lot. Both boys were excited to be ridden again--

Ivan is such a handsome 15 hand 3 year old gelding. He has an incredible mane- full and bushy on both sides of his neck. We discussed actually roaching it- but today Jennie braided it in one big long braid down his neck. It looked great for about 10 minutes, then we could see that hair madly trying to comically blast out of the braid. Lisa rode Ivan first.. and he behaved as though he has never had any time off. Jennie climbed aboard, walked Ivan around to get a feel for him-- trotted a bit and then-- like any 15 year old in the saddle... did not want to stop. Ivan has a great big comfy walk and a nice steady trot. In the spring, he was a lot more "goey"-- wanted to canter all the time. Being young, he used that canter as a little bit of resistance and avoidance I think. Now, he is happy to listen and take it slow. He has already been down the road many times and on the trail- which he loves. He's going to make someone an awesome mount !

Dante is a brave little gelding.. on the ground he is not fazed by anything. Under saddle he was a bit more worried. After his short time off, he has gained much more confidence and he will progress well from here with his new found poise. He's 14.1 hands now and bulked out quite a bit. Dante has not yet had the chance to get down the road or on the trail -- but this fall for sure.

OYY Brigitte also has been put on the roster for more riding. For a few months, she was pushed down the list- especially since we were busy practicing for our October show. Then, poor girl, came up lame with an abscess- which thankfully healed quickly and she is not off anymore. Brigitte loved her ring work last summer- but this year she really just wants to go out on the road and trail. She will somewhat begrudgingly do her ring exercises-- but trotting down the road is what thrills her most.

Yesterday, Halloween day, Brigitte went out for a quick trot after her ring work- and had a blast. Then- she had the opportunity to try the natural water obstacle on the farm- the brook. Hesitant at first- she splashed a bit and then enjoyed a walk through the water. I made a video of her Halloween ride out- you can view it here ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoRlNUAQioY

Brigitte is a beautiful mare- loads of fun. Someone will truly enjoy themselves with her as their personal mount.

OYY Little "Z" , ABC 3625, ICHO 915-D, out of Ahmet (the 15.2 hh broodmare with a nose for porcupines) and Mead's Chocolate Chip ~ came up for a little photo session. Z is a lovely athletic filly- 2 years old and already 15 hands ! She's smart and we are looking forward to starting her off with her training, which will be this winter. Z is a maternal sister to OYY Elektra. Her dam's full brother is a super gelding who is used for pleasure riding and eventing by his owner. Here's a photo of Winston with his owner.

For fun, I made a very short video of Z

My daughter and I got in some great rides- and most exciting-- I purchased and received my NEW SADDLE... a Barefoot London treeless saddle. I have ridden in it twice now and love it-- so, news of that will be for the next post, so stay tuned *

Enjoy your day ~