My childhood friend visited from Holland!

She owns a big riding stable in Holland, and her 2 daughters ride too. What joy to see our kids ride together!

We took them on trail rides, our little cross country course, and jumps in the field.

If you couldn't find the kids, all you had to do is look in the pastures, and sure enough, they'd be petting a horse.

We jumped at the fair again this year.
Dagjeir and Willow did great, and placed from 1 to 3rd in every class.

We are going to Wisconsin to do our first endurance ride ever!
Savannah is going, my student, Sam, my son and I. We flew in and on Saturday we went to Ots Sunrise farm for their open house.

They had a good turnout and a nice program.
We had to leave early to fetch the horses and drive to where the ride was.

Bettina Koehn supplied horses for all of us, and her daughter rode too. I got to ride Bettina's Akhal-Teke mare Anouschka.
It wasn't too hot for us Washington people, and after to have to make one saddle change for Sam, we made the whole 25 miles.
The kids all placed!

The next day we took pictures of Bettina's horses dressed up and rode more horses.

What a great experience it was!

August 5,6 and 7th Shelby and I competed in the Area VII horse trials at Donida.

The weather was great, the facility beautiful, and we got a great camping spot.

And Amy Tryon and Poggio competed in dressage and showjumping, that caused the necessary excitement!

I was first with dressage, and our stalls were next to the arena....Willow whinnied constantly, and Dagjeir would answer him...
So his concentration wasn't the best during the test.

Shelby did better in her dressage, but her scores did not show it.
The next day on cross country the first jump Willow looked at, but then he got going and jumped everything well. One jump was in the shade, and we had a stop.

After that we had no more trouble and he seems to get the hang of things! We only had a few time faults and one refusal.

Shelby and Dagjeir had the same problem, slow in the beginning and then they got going.

The next day showjumping went well. Neither of us had any faults. Still, not good enough to place.

We had a great time, we both felt our horses did better then last.

So we are very happy!

Olimpic Gul gave birth in the night to a colt.

Both are doing great. She is very protective over the foal.

We are very happy, and hope he'll stay a dark bay!

We got to Whidbey on Thursday for our first 3 day event of the year.. They had 270 entries!!!!! Glad we came early, the place was a zoo. We got a nice camp spot next to the horses. Rode Thursday afternoon to let the horses get used to the dressage environment and just the fact of being there.
Neither one of the horses has ever competed, and Shelby, (13) has never gone to a show. Willow has been under saddle for almost 6 month, he's a Akhal-Teke/Appy cross.
Thursday night the wind was hauling, I had put the Turkmen flag on the trailer so people could find our spot a little easier......it was banging on the trailer so loud that I got out and took it down, then tied down the easy up that was about to blow into the horses, they were freaked out. Then an hour later a huge crash, a rotten tree top was blown down and just missed the trailer by a foot.
My ride on Friday was at noon, and Shelby at 5. Perfect so I could concentrate on myself, and then on Shelby. The wind was still like a hurricane, and luckily Savannah was there too. One to hold the horse still, one to hold the mane and keep it from flying, and me braiding. Then I went to warm up an hour early. Just didn't know what to expect from Willow....the dressage arena was quite a ways from camp, and he really was upset about leaving Dagjeir. Soon he started bucking and half rearing and squealing...so we trotted and trotted and when that went well cantered and cantered. He settled down, and so did the wind.
I was the first one to start in my class, and we did much better than I had hoped for, he actually was more relaxed then I had hoped for.
We had 26 entries in our class, 2 did never show, and we placed 14th. Our score was 43.
Then back to camp, eat lunch, and braid Dagjeir. Had the girls finish his braids, was cute to see, 2 little girls standing on chairs concentrating hard!
Then we went early for Shelby's warm up too. Dagjeir I wasn't too worried about, he is so independent. He went well, she had a good warm up. But during her test she did not collect him much, did not ride on the letters too good, but hey, for her first test ever for both of them they did great.
She got a score of 46. The next morning the weather was nice! We got up at 6am, Shelby is not a morning person! Her mom had come the night before. We ate some breakfast, and saddled up. Shelby's start was at 8.20, me at 8.50. Warm up went well, and I could see Dagjeir go to the start box and the first 3 jumps......he slowed down for the first jump but went anyway, he stopped at the second one, and then jumped and she kept him going, barely...but they went....the 3rd they looked squirmy too...my hart just sank...I thought how on earth can they finish the course!!! Jump the ditch.....the farm house....I thought they'd get eliminated.....
My turn came, and same for me, Willow looked at everything! If he had it his way he would have sniffed every jump first....made it over every jump, not pretty but we finished....and at the finish there was Shelby!!!! She finished too!!!!!!
I forgot to mention, it was quite the twisty course, many little trails and she had never been here before, she had to walk the course 7 times to remember it!
I'm so proud of her!!!!!!!!
In her class 4 got eliminated on cross country! In my class 5.
Shelby had 100 jump faults and time penalties, I had 60 jump faults and time penalties. A stop and then jump is a penalty.
But we were still in the running!!!!!
Saturday night was party night, salmon dinner, music and dancing.....party animal I am I went to bed at 9.30 or 10.....Shelby's mom was going to wait up, but told the girls to come to bed in a half an hour and they did....
Sunday we rode at the very end....I was worried about the course because jump #2 was a box, like the farm house where most horses in several levels all had refusals....
Shelby was first, remembered her course again, and Dagjeir first did not wanted to jump, she made him change his mind, got him over dreaded #2, and then they got in a rhythm and jumped the rest nicely!
Willow was very upset in warm up and did not want to leave Dagjeir, jumped the little warm up cross just hugely, and wanted to tear at it!!!!
In the ring he looked at the first jump, #2 he stopped, then jumped, then we got going although he kept squirmy we finished the course. We each had one jump fault due to stand still and then jump.
I am so happy we finished! It was a good experience, now we know what to expect from our horses, they have done it once now, we know what to practice, next time should go smoother....
Our next date is August 5th....

We're off to camp in Chase Creek, Canada. Shelby, 13 years old is riding Dagjeir, I'm riding Willow, the part bred, and Sam is coming along for fun.

Camp is an unforgettable experience. The horses get used to jumping all kinds of drops, ditches, banks, and water.

Unfortunately we had a lot of rain. So much so that one day it was too wet and slick to jump.

We worked on our canter speeds that day.

The horses did great, and we learned a lot.

At the end of our 2 hour sessions we cooled the horses legs in the creek.

When we come back we'll have a week before our first 3 day event on Whidbey Island..

We have been training daily and conditioning the horses for this summer's events. End of June we will go to a week long cross country camp in Chase Creek, Canada, and we feel ready. Sam and Shelby are practicing cantering thru the water.

It's been warm and the horses have been taking a bath.

Kamiah ahs grown and is becoming very shiny.

Finally Aktepel had her foal. It's spring break and 2 of my students spent the night so we could check together during the night. We were so sure it was going to happen that night, but it was cold and stormy. The next morning there was still no foal, and we were all tired. By one o'clock in the afternoon all had gone home.

I got my shipment of horse supplements in and was busy unloading and sorting. When I went to feed the horses, there was the baby!
All had gone well. The only help she needed was flipping her lip back that somehow was inverted. She is the friendliest little girl!

And finally we have some sunshine again!

Finally the arena has dried out, we can practice our riding skills. Our horses are fit form riding the trails this winter.

The filly is 4 days old now, and we've had some nice weather.

Congratulations to the Brock family, they purchased Clear Water Gold, she will now be named Misha. She made her trip to Kansas and will be ridden, shown and bred eventually.

Laurel does natural horsemanship, we couldn't have found her a better home.

We have a new horse in training, Black Willow is a part bred Akhal-Teke from the Nez Perce tribe.

He came at the right moment as we can use one more riding horse.
He is a 5 year old gelding and had 2 weeks of training. I'm hoping to compete him in 3 day eventing this year together with Dagjeir.
They only have a few pure bred horses left. The stallion Pazyrick, and the mares Sentira and Piroshka.

Kamiah and Clear Water Gold are for sale at my farm. They are very sweet and should do a little more growing. Regular trims will help their feet tremendously and free choice minerals to get them back to health. They should make good broodmares since their ailment is not genetic but due to bad management. They are listed under Akhal-Tekes For Sale.

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