Surprise!

Well I was planning on doing my Nicaragua post today, but I have something way more exciting to share!

When you tell your best friend the news

Meet Merely Gold, by Mirabeau out of Gold Jet Away!

I am so incredibly excited for this baby. I didn't want to share it before she was confirmed as pregnant in case I jinxed it, and obviously there's still a lot of things that can go wrong, but we are part of the way there!

The embryo is irregularly shaped because it's 19 days old instead of the usual 14 day embryo. But it's there and no twins were present!

I had quite the time shopping for stallions with most of my top picks being deceased so that was interesting. But I've loved Mirabeau for a long time and he ticked most of my boxes for a stallion and I can't be more excited to have a baby by him!

I have quite a few more posts coming about the process we've been through so far, but I just wanted to share the good news. I'm so excited to raise a baby and I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that this pregnancy goes smoothly.

May Day

Ahh, I love the weather that we've been having! It's about 70 today and it's going to be up to almost 90 degrees this weekend, which is ridiculous. That's a little too hot for me, but I'm just happy that the sun is out and it's not raining. Always a bonus in the Pacific NW where we say that summer doesn't officially arrive until after the 4th of July. And I'm just so excited for this month in general.

First of all, the most exciting news of all... cross country schooling is opening this weekend! I'm so excited, I cannot wait. Usually it's so wet that it doesn't open until the beginning of June if we're lucky, but this is almost a whole month early! This means that next week we will be going to school probably Monday or Wednesday. Cannot wait to get out there for a good gallop. We really need to work on building confidence over cross country jumps this spring. Last year after Jetta dumped me over a Novice coop we both lost a lot of confidence. Jetta has made huge leaps and bounds (haha, see what I did there?) with regards to show jumping, but we don't get that many chances to go do cross country.


(imagine a cute photo here of Jetta doing her first xc school - blogger is being dumb and won't let me add pictures)


I'm only planning on doing two shows this month - a jumper show on the 12th that I may or may not actually go to (the whole saving money issue...) and an endurance ride on the 25th! I'm so, so excited for the endurance ride. I still have a lot of prep I need to do beforehand but I can't wait :)

I had a great, productive ride on Jetta today. This is the kind of ride we need to have every ride if we want to be getting any improvements! Here's what we worked on:

•  Shoulder-in at the trot. I've been lazy and haven't paid much attention to our lateral movements in recent weeks, so we need to work on that since doing shoulder-in helps engage the hind end. Something we really need! She's much better to the right than the left, so we need to smooth that out and make sure she can maintain a soft bend to the inside without tossing her head, keep our tempo up and forward, and our angle consistent. 
• Canter spirals. We've actually been doing this most rides since it helps Jetta improve her balance and her canter, plus at the same time it doesn't make her angry, lol. We go from a 20m circle, down to about a 15m to a 10m circle, then back out to a 20m circle. 
• Counter cantering. Definitely need to work on this because I haven't really touched it, but it too will help improve her quality of canter. Unfortunately at this point this is the exercise that makes her angry. We're talking head tossing, tail twitching, rushing, angry. But we schooled canter loops a few times today until they improved the the point that Jetta wasn't just running through my aids.
• Transitions within gaits. This is to help her sit more on her haunches and not just rush when I ask for lengthenings. She was so good for this today! We did it both at the trot and canter and she was just superb. She came back to me softly when I asked and didn't get hyped up. I do think I need to carry a dressage whip for the collected trot work just to get her hind end stepping under. I've just kind of stopped using it recently, finding that Jetta is behaving just fine without it.

Overall I was super happy with Jetta today, despite her being in raging heat. We're talking every time we stopped she had to pee a little bit. This is not helped by the fact that we just got a stallion at our barn, which I am NOT happy about. I just don't think our barn is set up fencing wise to house a stallion so I'm worried he'll get out and breed one of my girls (both MAJOR flirts). He was hollering at Jetta the whole time during our ride. Sigh. 

But in other happy news, Dusty's back! He's the cute little Missouri Fox Trotter/Arab gelding that I'm in love with. I'm not typically an Arab fan or a gaited horse person, but I love him. I guess his owner has regretted selling him ever since she dropped him off at his new home, so the lady she sold him to offered to sell him back. I should get a picture of him soon. He's a chocolate palomino and in the winter (only time I've seen him) he's a light palomino with a little bit of smuttiness around his muzzle and on his legs but right now he's a full blown CHOCOLATE. I've never seen one get so dark, he almost looks like a liver chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail. Still want him, lol.

I finished up my barn time with a bareback ride on Queenie. She is so slippery that every time I ride her bareback I think about how bad of an idea it is and think that I'm going to fall... But she was quite well behaved today even with the arena door open (which she hates) and the BO had the farrier out so he was tapping away on shoes and sharpening his tools loudly. Queenie was a little worried about it at first but she settled down and was super good.

Breed Spotlight: Friesians

I love Friesians. They're gorgeous and they always look like they'd be great horses to work with.

These horses are super versatile and for stallion testing they have to do dressage, driving and cross country jumping in order to show off their athleticism. While many say that these horses are not bred for dressage, they can excel at it and I have seen several do just that!

It is believed that they were bred as war horses as their size would have allowed them to carry knights in armor. They also had to be light on their feet, thus they can do dressage with the correct training. Also, because of their movement and flashy long hair, they have history as a driving breed.

And guess what? They really can jump! I've seen several Friesians that are really cute little jumpers.

One of my favorite Friesian stallions that I've seen is Rembrant. His is really lovely and such a sweet amazing guy. It helps that I've seen him in person on multiple occasions. He is a little small for my tastes, but if I were looking at Friesians to consider breeding, he'd be at the top of my list.

I'm also a sucker for good Friesian crosses. I think that the best crosses are from a Friesian dam and other breed of sire. There's pinto Friesians, bay Friesians out of Andalusians or TB's, Appy Friesians, and more. I think one of the more well-known Friesian crosses is Mystic Warrior who is just stunning.

To be registered, a Friesian must be completely black. They are only allowed a small white star. There have been some Friesians that have turned out a color other than black, but it is extremely rare and most are crossbred if they turn out a color other than black. It is somewhat likely to be able to get an almost 100% purebred chestnut Friesian if the parents carry the chestnut gene, which is recessive. You wouldn't know it until you bred two Friesians with the recessive chestnut gene and you get a chestnut baby! But that's highly unlikely as most chestnut has been bred out of the Friesian.

Today, breeding has shifted more towards a modern, sporthorse type body type. This picute above is a great representation of the different breed types for the Friesian.

Breed Spotlight: Appendix QH



A lovely example of my favorite type
of Appendix QH. Find the first three
horses pictured on Dreamhorse.com!



I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but I love Quarter Horses, especially Appendix QH. I first fell in love with them because I begged my neighbors to let me ride their old horse, Ruby. I had absolutely no riding experience, but I loved her. She was an older horse and her spunky attitude just stayed with me.

My first horse, Grady is a QH. Jazz, my second horse is also a QH, though she is registered as an Appendix. Jazz and Grady both have the same amount of thoroughbred blood though. Anyways, what I love most about Quarter Horses is that they are so versatile, they'll try their hardest for you, and in my experience they're right in the middle of the temperament scale, usually not too hot but not too lazy. These are just generalizations as I'm sure there are QH's out there that are crazy hot or super lazy.



Love the body type - athletic, not too
chunky but not super slender



Jazz has done almost every discipline with me and has done it very well. Sure, you can't make it to the national or international level in every discipline, but we did very well for the level we were working at. I think the only thing we haven't done is saddleseat and vaulting. I did teach her to ground drive and pull a makeshift thingy cause I never got around to saving up for a cart, so we kind of did driving. But we also did reining, dressage, jumping, eventing, english and western pleasure, showmanship, sorting and penning, trail and even some gaming. She tried her hardest at everything we did, learned quickly & was able to transition between disciplines almost seamlessly.



They can jump!!



I kind of want another Appendix QH. Probably because I just want another Jazz! I was always disappointed that I delayed on breeding her and at 20 years old now, I'm not willing to take the chance on breeding her. I suppose I could do an embryo transfer, but at that expense I could buy a weanling that was exactly what I want!

A new horse moved to the barn and is a very cute Appendix QH. I just love the look of most of these horses. They're not ribby and slender like TB's, but they're not stocky and overmuscled like some QH. A nice in-between. They are really athletic and I think they excel in hunter/jumper and eventing. I would like to own another eventing Appendix QH someday possibly. They're just fun horses.



Invitation Only



It would be interesting to see what the differences there are between Appendix QH that have a TB sire and QH dam versus those that have a QH sire and TB dam. Personally if I was to breed Jetta for an Appendix baby, I love Invitation Only. He is a very successful sire and all his babies that I have seen are gorgeous. He passes on a lovely neck, balanced body type with a medium length, strong back. For a QH stallion he also has pretty nice conformation (for my tastes). I don't like the halter type that many horses are being bred for today - giant butts that are several inches taller than the withers with weak loins, huge muscled bodies on dainty feet and legs.



Love this guy. He's huge: 17.2 hh and does english pleasure
(obviously) and also jumps. Very cute jumper I might add
and look at his floaty movement. Good conformation too.
His name is Indian Artbeat.



There are also several QH stallions that are approved through the American Warmblood Society. While this may not sound like much to some (the AWS is a pretty broad group) I think they're actually some pretty nice horses. This guy pictured here is AWS approved.





HH Rebozo

I must say that I really like this horse. Going to the World Equestrian Games was amazing, especially in that I got to see these world class horses up close. One of my favorites was Vigo d'Asouilles, partly because he was a gorgeous chestnut like my own favorite horse, Grady, but he seemed to have a great temperament and loved his job, and he looked super nice going around the course, but also because he was the shiniest horse I have ever seen!



The gorgeous Vigo D'Arsouilles, piloted by Phillipe Le Jeune



 But I fell in love with the little HH Rebozo. He looked like one of the smallest horses on the course even though he's roughly 16 hh (I think). But he was so cute and super laid back! He was the only horse to get time faults because he was going too slow, lol. I loved his laid-back manner and how he rode in a simple short shank hackamore, especially when compared to Hickstead's get-up!

Hickstead and Eric Lamaze. Hickstead has an eggbutt snaffle
and long shank hackamore kept together with a converter.
Read more about it here. Now this is one hot horse!

To me, the show jumping horses I see, seem to have one thing in common: they like to go. So Rebozo was different. I think some of the top horses have to be just a little bit crazy to tackle the courses at the International level :) It's a delicate balance between hotness and grace, the ability to jump and the ability to get it done quickly. It was interesting to see a horse that had made it to the top, but he didn't seem hot or crazy. It was something nice to see, I felt.

Roderigo Pessoa effortlessly guiding HH Rebozo

Wow

I saw this video of a young stallion on Behind the Bit and I was sooo jealous. He's three! And look at his movement! Already he is balanced with great movement and he's on the bit. Unlike our four year old horse... She's almost 5 years old!

So, to see the difference, look at him:

And then let's look at Jetta. This video was taken over two months ago. Sure, I know that she's not a warmblood, and she's not being ridden by a professional trainer but still. If it were possible, I wish Jetta looked like the above horse ;)

 

I can see that Jetta has improved a lot. I remember filming this video, this was our third take. The first try didn't record (you actually have to press the record button ;) And the second time I lost my stirrup and Jetta was like "One stirrup? Ok, let's go really fast!" and the final try (this video) Jetta was not happy with being asked to canter for the third time. So, it wasn't our best ride at the time, but not our worst either. I can't wait to get a new video up! Kind of...

Have I mentioned how much I hate both uploading videos to youtube and embedding them in Blogger? Not to mention that I accidently changed my youtube account into French and I don't know how to change it back! 



More Stallion Choices

So, as I posted earlier, someday I might like to breed Jetta. Since I am slightly obsessive and I like to plan everything, I've been mooning over stallions that I like trying to find the ideal one for Jetta. Since I like color (as shown on my previous post about Appaloosas and Knabstruppers) I also like paints. Here are a few of my favorites.



Raine Dance







Airborn




Counterclaim




Palladio




Pallido Blu CF, son of Palladio




Sempatico




Senter of Attention

These are all the viable options that I came up with. There are quite a few. All of the above, with the exception of Palladio and Raine Dance, are homozygous tobiano. Raine Dance and Airborn are my two favorites, but both with some drawbacks. Raine Dance has never competed as he got injured. I love his conformation and before when he was in training, you could see he had some great scope and a very pretty frame. He does have some great blood lines including Voltaire and Concorde, unfortunately he's not homozygous. He may also be up for sale? I'm a little confused cause I found a sale ad that says he is sound for hunters even though his website says otherwise (or doesn't say at all?). Anyways, Airborn I also love (including his bright bay color) and he has the awesome looks that I love as well as great bone and he is more substantial, just what I am looking for. His sire is also Concorde. But he is located in the UK, so I'm not sure yet how shipping semen works. Like I said, this is all just a possibility so I haven't done that much preparation or research.

Counterclaim is my next favorite. I love how substantial he is. I think he would make great hunter babies, though I haven't seen any pictures of him jumping yet.

 Next is Palladio, who although I love, is not homozygous for color, so I'd get about a 50% chance of getting a foal with color. I love how he jumps though, with his knees almost up to his eyeballs :) The other option would be his son who is homozygous, but as of yet does not have a show record. The advantage of that though is that his stud fee is cheaper.

Sempatico is the next choice. While he does have very correct conformation, there is just something about him that I don't like as well as the other horses. The other stallions just seem much more attractive to me. Anyways, he does seem to have great jumping form and also has passed both the 30 and 70-day stallion testings for German Warmbloods. His sire is Semper who is another great horse.

The last choice horse also has great conformation. I, again, haven't found any jumping pictures though he is supposed to be a hunter. This would be the "economical" choice as he has a very reasonable stud fee. Though this is the stallion whose website touts him as "The Rare Homozygous Tobiano Warmblood Stallion". He is only registered with the American Warmblood Society which is one of his downfalls. He is half Oldenburg, half questionable? The only info on the mare is a headshot labeled Sugar Magnolia. Anyways, the notables in his background include his sire, Senter Stage and his great grandsire, Rainbow. He's handsome and that's about it as far as I know :)

If the logistics worked out, I think I would choose Airborn above all of the others. There are some good conformation pics on his website, you'll see why I like him.

Raine Dance
Sempatico
Senter of Attention
Palladio & Pallido
Counterclaim
Airborn