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July 2008

                                    Practicing the bug eyed look for neighbor's fireworks tonight.. (oh goody)

June 2008

Mel's filly at 4 weeks:

She's in the throws of her baby itchies, so I'm her new best friend.  Plus she's getting very fancy with that big butt I like to see in my horses.  Very neat filly.  I've been reading and been told that a perlino and a bay can not produce a grulla.  So, if that's so, she is either a smoky black or a buckskin.  The stripes and such are "counter shading"???  The color is only icing for me, but I didn't want to misrepresent her. She's a very nice filly even if she ends up purple.  Classy, good mover, friendly, and smart, too.

As a side note, Reinman (Desperado V X Kala Kachina+), my purebred gelding, has a dorsal stripe over his butt and developed leg barring on his front legs 2 years ago....

All in the family..... I just heard that a not-so-distant relative, Misty Moon Bey, competed in her first horse shows this weekend.  She won 2 Arabian hunter pleasure, Jr. horse classes at the New Jersey Arabian Adventure Class A shows  for her owner, Judy Walter of Bernville, PA.  Misty was trained and shown by Sharon Eckenrode of Equistar Training Center.  Misty is a daughter of Moon Lily Bey, who was bred by me and is a maternal sister to Mara Juliette (Desperado V X HD Talilah)!  Lily is by Moonstone Bey V+ (Bay El Bey++ X Moska).  Misty is by Klint Black++ (Desperado V X Windsong Bey) and his first offspring to be shown under saddle.  Judy met Misty at only 3 days of age.  She went home and got her check book and came back... she had fallen in love with the little munchkin.  Misty was bred by Klint's owner, Suzanne Eves.  I saw Misty last summer and she's no munchkin now!... and just beautiful.  Congratulations, Judy and Misty!

Adrienne showed Hollywood Lights (Hollywood White X Kala Kachina+) to wins in Auroa last week.  They won both reining classes with scores of 72 and 74.5, qualifying for Regionals and Nationals.  LB (from "Lightnin' Bug")  is owned by Barb Middleton and they're all in Alberta, Canada.
 

              Filly pictures on May 31.  Lottie's is 30 days and Mel's is 9 days.  They're beginning to get acquainted, but not much.

Good ole Mel did it again and surprised me with her foal being born 2 weeks earlier than expected in the pasture early May 22.  It's a nice grassy clean pasture and luckily she had it near a good fence so she couldn't roll under.  Mel's something.  John helped me get them in.  He ended up having to carry baby as she was just starting to walk and my efforts were wearing me out.  So once inside, we did the navel and discovered she hadn't nursed yet. Mel was too funny, as when baby would poke around the wrong area, she give her a nip and head her back to the right end.... did you catch that?  It is a filly.  At first I thought another smoky black like last year.  But she's a grulla.  I've been told grulla is basically black with dun factor markings and she's showing the dorsal stripe and leg barring already.  Mel's sire (Hollywood White) carries the dun factor, so must have come from him.  She's very typy and I was trying to get a good head shot this morning but, really got nothing.  Here are a couple passable ones from 2 days of age.

Poor thing, she'd just been zapped by the electric fence in the middle one.  I usually pull the plug for babies, but I'd just switched part of the herd to somewhere new that needed electric.  You can just see the leg barring in the 3rd photo.  She's by Darkhist (Klint Black++ X Windkhist), but looks like a Klint baby.

Mid May, I had some "extra" time on my hands.  Check out the Saga in the Foal Pasture here

Lottie had her first filly late on May 1.  Here's a quick picture at about 4 days... I'll be back!!! fun fun fun

              and the boys:  "Red" looks healthier, now, doesn't he.

April, 2008

Name change????? We've made a big step in acquiring a top notch Quarter Horse mare, Uno Mas O Menos. AKA Lottie.  Many thanks to Marilyn and Gary Cottar of Cottars 2X4 QHs, Springtown, TX.  What a super nice mare.  Not only is she the sweetest most beautiful girl you'd ever want to meet, she's got the training, pedigree and production record I've been looking for for over a year.  She arrived mid March and is due to foal any day, now, towards the end of April with a full sibling to winning sons all over the world.  Please click on her name above and see pictures of some of her foals and sire.

Congratulations to Becky Allen of New Tripoli, PA on her purchase of GT Cat Walk (GT Gallatin  X  Ima Dandy Reason), the half Arab maternal brother to GT Rumba, who lives with her (as a boarder), also.  Becky's got several young students that descend on the farm on weekends and days off from school.  Cat Walk's getting lots of little girl time!

Second baby of the year born to Kala Kachina+ late Friday, April 18.  It was a big worry because of her prolapse 2 years ago and the one that was born dead the year before while still here. So I wasn't getting much sleep.  Luckily she's getting to be an old pro and it was an easy delivery.  I asked the vet to come and help her pass the placenta rather than me give her any oxytocin.  That went well and all is looking good.  She had a chestnut colt by the Paint stallion, Painted Peppy Doc.  He's a reining and reined cow horse stallion who her previous owner bred her to.  I'm going to wait a few days before posting pictures. He's not near filled out the way Paris's colt was.  He's going to look fancy, though, with a nice amount of white on his face and 4 stockings.  Name suggestions would be appreciated!  We had a set back at one week where he quit drinking.  All better and ripping and tearing and doing sliding stops now.

First baby! It's been hectic, so this will be quick.  Paris was a wonderful girl and had a very cool colt in the middle of the night (April 7th) and allowed me to go to work the next day.  She was a great mom from the get go and he was strong, up and about and drinking pretty quickly. Here are a couple pictures from his 4th day.  I thought he was going to be chestnut.  His legs were blond as he was coming out, but his face was pretty red.  But then he dried off and got light. It's been many years since I had a chestnut and after consulting with a few friends with red babies, he's definitely a palomino!  I think I'm going to name him Darkqin (Darkhist X Quincys Got The Cue).  I'll give him his own page later.

                                            Four days...   and.............................               3 weeks

February, 2008

I got the chance to go to Scottsdale with my friend, Julie Kitze, of Philadelphia.  She is way more experienced at travel than I, so it was neat to have her make all the arrangements and just follow along.  Her husband took us to the airport that's only 15 mins. from their house.  We had non stop flights out and back.  We stayed with friends of her husband about 6 miles from West World.  Very cool.  My big priority was seeing the half arab reining futurity on Thursday, as Lightnin' Bug was competing.  Officially known as Hollywood Lights (Hollywood White X Kala Kachina+).  He'd had a bad go on Tuesday, as Adrienne was caught off guard when there were a couple last minute scratches, and she had to go in the ring sooner than expected.  On Thursday, he upped his score by more than 10 points, but it wasn't enough to make the finals.  He ended up around the middle of the pack of about 33 entrants. Adrienne told me this is the first reiner she's trained basically from scratch.  I had started him under saddle, but she taught him the maneuvers.  She should be very proud of herself.  He's still a very happy and willing horse with no switchy tail or grumpy expression that you run into sometimes. His spins are very correct and much faster than mom. His circles and lead changes were spot on with really good speed changes. (his brother, Reinman, needs to watch those! LOL)  His stops were great, though not quite up to his normal standard at home.  I got to ride him on Sat.  I got a little frustrated with myself as it didn't go very smoothly.  The buttons are a bit different and my seat isn't what it was.  I've only ridden half a dozen times since my accident in Oct. Oh well.  Adrienne was very patient with me.  I got to meet and spend some time with Barb and Barry Middleton, his owners, as well as Adrienne's significant other, Chris.  All great people and a lot of fun.  See Adrienne's new website HERE!

                  LB and Adrienne warming up.               LB with Barry (holding hat box) and Chis afterwards.  It's good LB has grown upwards a good bit since he left, as Adrienne is 6'4" LOL. Someone (we won't name names) has taught LB what treats are and he thinks everyone is carrying some and it's just a matter of sucking up in the right way to coax them out of you.                

January, 2008

I just got notice that Kala Kachina+'s Legion of Honor is official!  She is the 2nd horse of mine who has completed this hard won award.  GT Tokay+ was my first.  She's the first who earned all her points with only me showing her.  Her oldest foal is Reinman and, should he complete his, he'll be the first one that I bred and earned with only me showing (10 1/2 more points).  She won all her points in reining.  Three East Coast Championships, one East Coast Reserve Championship, twice Regional Reserve Champion plus 3 tops fives at regionals and East Coast.  The remaining points would have been in class A shows.

Dec, 2007

Some sad news.  I've just heard from Lee and Garvin Tankersley that they've had to put down 2 of their old mares who are near and dear to my heart.

GT Maarsaala (Gamaar X GT Saale) 1981-2007

Maarsaala was the dam of 11 foals including my ole boy, GT Tokay+.  She's pictured above with Maarshal Dillon (now living in North Carolina), her last foal by Mara Reinmaker.  I borrowed her one year to breed to "Macon" and she grew me a heck of a colt... She was a very wise and sweet girl who knew how to get that extra attention.  That same year I bought Dancer's last foal and brought Dancer home for a couple months till we weaned baby. That foal was the filly GT Makin Music, also by Mara Reinmaker (Desperado V X Kala Kachina+).

Dancer's reg. name was Ima Dandy Reason 1987-2007, a QH mare.  She had 9 foals (in consecutive years!) including GT Rumba, by GT Tokay+.  Garvin bought Dancer for Tokay as she was such a big mare.  She had 3 with him.  GT Tango and Rumba were both WP champions, the 3rd foal died while in saddle training.  She had 2 QH's, both trained reiners, one has NRHA earnings of over $6600.  Then she had 3 foals by GT Gallatin, including GT Cat Walk who lives with me and GT Alley Cat who's owned, shown and loved by Sharon and Becky Oxenreider.  Cat Walk is 5, not a reiner, so hasn't been worked much, but I showed him in some walk trot as a 3 year old... and he's beautiful... repeating the white down his face and 4 white socks of his mother and Rumba.  Musi is here with me (4 year old).  I started her under saddle and she spent a month at the trainer's right after I broke my leg... and that prevented her from staying longer.  Again, she's not a reiner, but big and just beautiful.

When I returned Dancer and Maarsaala home 4 years ago, Dancer stood over Maarsaala protecting her from the rest of the herd and they've been friends ever since. I'm glad they were able to go over the rainbow bridge together.

A bit later in Oct 2007:

Well... best laid plans and all that....  Probably the very day that I posted the news about Miss Mellie, I had a nasty accident down in the pasture after dark Sunday evening.  It's kind of a stupid story, but if you have a bunch of horses at home, you can maybe relate.  With the pastures drying up, we had sorted critters out in order to put a big group in the new pasture that we bought last year.  It had recovered nicely this summer and John had been able to mow and spray for weeds.  He's been busy filling in ground hog holes and trimming trees up and had burned the big burn piles of brush and small trees from the clearing last year.  So I'd had the boys down there for a week or more and they'd all gone across the creek a bunch to where there's more grass, etc.  Well something happened that made me take Tokay out of the group and he got Ripley to play with so that made the big group (only 6) 3 mares and 3 geldings.  In their infinite wisdom (not) they picked Kayla as their leader.  Kayla who was not here last winter.  So all day Sunday they were up in the run in shed and I did not give them any hay.  it was warm, but the bugs are about gone.  that evening, I put hay down in the shade in the new part and penned them out. So they all trooped down and were starved eating the hay, but Kayla spotted the neighbors goats across their driveway.  That was just too much for her... good grief.  They all munched for awhile, but Kayla finally couldn't stand it any more and dashed up to the gate on the hill and away from the goats.... and the morons all followed.  So fine, you guys are going to have figure it out... I hate catering to their stupid ideas, they just need to deal with it.  After dark I went out to check on things as Paris and Mel were getting re-aquainted, too.  I hiked down to the new part and that group was all standing on the hill by the gate.  They felt sweated, so maybe they'd ventured down to the hay but Kayla ran them back up.  I tried leading Kayla down with her mane, but a cat appeared, so no dice.  it was dark by now.  So being a good mommy, I thought, I went for a halter and lead.  I figured I'd get Kayla across the creek, the others would follow and I'd take her out of the field from that side, up the road and into another field.  I probably just should have taken her out and let the others figure things out from there.  The creek is tiny and we even had crossings made last year, with nice approaches so they're not sinking into mud.  Just as she was gathering herself to jump, I turned to get out of her way and duck behind a tree that was just on the other side.  She jumped into me whacking my leg just above the ankle breaking it.  I went down, crawling for the tree.  I still had her rope and I turned (a big crap in my head, as I knew it was broken) and pulled her to me to unhook the rope. Lucas (the Clydesdale) was with her so, in hind site, I think he came up behind her just as she jumped and probably pushed her further than she (and I) expected, so hit me.  I waved me arms getting them away from me and sat there for a bit thinking and thinking.  I was in big trouble as I didn't have my phone with me.  John was doing his part time job and it would be hours before he got home and how the heck would he find me.  I was several hundred yards from the house with a creek, thorns, pastures, driveway, stones, etc, between.  The other direction was the neighbor from whom we had bought the pasture. I had to get across maybe several hundred feet of pasture and maybe some swamp, up a grade, under the fence that was not currently electrified and thru a bit a yard, a wooden porch to a door.  I began shouting at first just hoping they'd hear.  I could see a light, but couldn't see vehicles at that angle, so didn't know for sure anyone was home.  They're retirement age.  So I started skooching across the pasture on my left hip... trying not to think about the bones moving around in my leg.  I did not think a bone had come thru as there was not a lot of sharp pain.  Discomfort and the knowledge that I could  not stand up.  I knew even if I could get up on my good leg, the weight of my foot dangling at the end would not be good.  So I dragging myself along.  Did not hit a thistle patch and the swampy area was pretty dry since it hadn't rained in ages. it's about 8-8:30 by now.  I was shouting and shouting the whole time.  I had to get under the fence and within 30 feet of the house before they heard and investigated.  I was so happy to see the porch light come on.  Sharon called for the ambulance and she and Roy waited with me.  Brought a cell phone out so I could tell John where I'd have the ambulance take me and bring the insurance stuff when he could.  He called someone to finish his milk route and came as soon as he could.

The medics wrapped the ankle up in a pillow and took me to Hershey Med. Center, my hospital of choice.  The emergency people got me on pain meds, poked at my arm a bunch before finding a good enough vein to start the drip. I was shaking a lot by then, kinda shocky probably.  After the x-rays, they tried setting the bones.  I was sort of doped up for that and when I came to, I knew that wasn't going to work as I could still feel them moving in the cast.  The doctors concurred and said they'd have to take me into surgery to affix an external fixator or "the erector set".  At this point we still thought I was going home fairly soon.  But it turns out there is a big risk of infection having one of those things on.  They needed to keep me until the swelling went down enough for an operation to install a plate.  Both bones are broken, but they only plated the big one.. fibula?. or tibia, forget.  So there I was in bed with the leg propped up and nurses cleaning the pins about 3 times a day... something I really looked forward to (NOT).  But everyone was very nice.  About Wednesday, I ended up with a great roommate who stayed until Sunday, so that was nice.  There was some talk of moving me to the Ortho wing, but the beds filled up before things could be settled.  Dr. Molly Black and her team was my surgeon for the plate.  Dr. April Armstrong was on call for the ER surgery and she was very nice.  Visited me twice after her part.  Dr. Black was as nice as can be and I thanked her several times for being so cool and not talking down to me, etc. She was also the one I was able to ask about my cell phone. I saw them wearing them, and she said since there were no monitors around, that would be fine.  Being able to do my dispatching while in there was a huge load off of John.  She was on call the following weekend, so if she could fit me in and the leg was ready, she was  going to do it then.   Monday, if the helicopter came in too much.  Early Sunday morning, they took me down and Dr. Black was very very happy with how the bones went back together. She said she never gets to use the word perfect, but she could this time.  So I got off the morphine by Monday afternoon and John brought me home Tuesday afternoon and the house is so clean!  They say 12 weeks of no walking, but I'm taking a homeopathic remedy for bone healing and I'm hopeful that the 6 week x-rays will be amazing!  crossed fingers.

October 2007:

I've just heard that Hollywood Cremella's oldest foal, Miss Mellie, (by the Arabian stallion, Cardsharp) won a 3 year old reining class in the Slide Out West reining show in Canada.  She's owned by Dusti Worbets and trained by Lynda Smith, both of British Columbia.  She was competing against mostly QHs.  Congratulations Dusti and Lynda!  And congratulations, Mel!  I believe that makes her a "producer" (as she frets about her latest production, since I finally separated them 2 pastures apart the other day)

Mary and John Haldeman, 1157A  N. Strickler Rd., Manheim, PA 17545

717-665-2288 house   717-371-3262 Mary cell       email