Curly Horses Blog!
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This is the place where I post the curly horse blog activities at the Stables. We have many faithful followers that appreciate little updates on how the horses are doing and what we are up to. |
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Read a cool quote today: God is more interested in your Character than your comfort. Think I'll just leave this posted here for a reminder to me. Okay, sorry, but heard another REALLY good one: If you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done. 9/1/2010 September already, where did that go? Raining again today, like very second day for the last 4 months. Corrals are a disaster. Jay put Paddycakes in with Reilly today as he thought he saw her in heat. So Keelah was very happy to dash out with the herd. Found a new plumber today, hopefully get our new stock tank installed before the snow flies. Agape has been doing terrific in his training. His owners will be stopping by to take him home tomorrow. 8/22/2010 2010 Canadian Derby on Saturday. LOVE it, just way too much excitment and energy to miss that one. Pics on current pic page. 8/16/2010 Have a bunch of wonderful pictures finally loaded for you to look at! Our newest additions to the stables were loaded into the trailer this morning ready to make their way to Canada! First they have to have a ferry ride to get to Seattle, then 2 days from now they should arrive. We are extremely excited to get these two Gypsy Vanner girls and bring in the Lion King bloodlines to Canada. Roland's son taking his first trail ride at the stables Brandon Trail Ride. Our fairytale wedding WEDDING. Jason's wedding gift to us, a Flight over the stables. Check out the newest pics link above for some baby pics and stories. 7/19/2010 STAMPEDE pictures 7/9/2010 Ramona had a good session with Ambrossia last night, also rode Keemah, Stardust and she is starting Kresky and another curly boy. Planted 180 of the 360 seedlings that Don gave us for a wedding present! 5 years from now you might be able to find them in the grass on our mountain! I am changing my name to Mrs. Jean. Just have to figure out the necessary steps involved. will probably keep a hyphenation on the internet for searches. Life is GREAT!! 7/6/2010 Just as we thought, 6 months of preparation and it's over already! But what a WOW!! Was really a picture perfect day. Started out extremely windy and cloudy, then an hour before the wedding it was sunny and gorgeous. Just as we took the last of the pictures it poured! Was awesome. Pictures by the weekend, I promise. So now that the hitchin is done we can get back to normal with the horses. Golden Girl had a wonderful curly colt this morning. Cookie has a beautiful pinto curly filly, a real looker, white and brown with some black in her tail. Sally had another filly with an almost all white baby, just a bit of black on her chest and face, but no albino eyes. and our mini kit had smooth coat colt. Today is deworming for everyone and Manly was gelded. Roland and his son Brandon went for a short little ride this morning before Brandon had to head back to Victoria. Roland led the way on Pall and Brandon rode Star, Ramona on Keemah and Jen on Stardust. 6/22nd/2010 And yet another first, over a month and a half without an update. Still off work with the blood clot to my leg. Not doing too bad though. Reidun arrived from Norway last Thursday, she was busy painting the arbour for three days! So wonderful to see her again. She could not beleive the changes in the 6 years since she has been in Canada. Jason and Jean Ross levelled all the concrete for our new sidewalks a month ago and last week they floated the entire patio deck!!It looks way to awesome. Roland brought in 3 truck loads of red shale and Chandra helped get the pond circulating last weekend. It's all coming together, finally. Jason is filling in the front flowerbeds today and Roland is watering the 125 trees that we had moved 3 weeks ago. The last of Rolands humoungous wood pile was stacked in the new wood shelter today. That was a huge amount of work. No new babies yet. Our two new Gypsy horses are being preg checked on the 9th of July and then will be making their way to Canada. Company starts arriving next Friday from Eastern Canada and Germany. Will probably have 15 camper units set up in our yard for the big celebration. Charissa found a wonderful, loving home. Annie and Mac will be heading to British Columbia. Golden Girl and Ambrossia to Germany. Cookie heading West. Lady and Lacey back to Kim. 5/9th/2010 OH MY, that is a first. Over a month without an update. Lots of reasons, busy, by surgery, weather, and doing two years of income tax since I've just been sittin around!! Trip to Europe went very well. Horses all travelled great. 10 hour delay to start off our journey in Calgary though. Will try to post a bunch of catch up pics ASAP. Fury went to Ryley with Mr. Big and Blaze. They all loaded awesome!! So super when we can see the horses head to a new home with their friends. Charrisa's puppies are all spoken for. Last one leaves on Sunday. What a bunch of chubby, happy little ones. Lots of kittens happening. Have 30 reservations and Shajana, Czarina, Pansy, Annie and Nakeala have all had theirs and Chayana will be in a couple of days with Princes to follow shortly. Have a new male kitten that we brought up from California, same people we got our very first Siberian from, Chayana. He is so full of character and looks just like our Denny. Have even slipped and called him Denny a time or two. So much to do before the wedding. Tomorrow John, Cam and Kim are arriving from BC to build our lean to and finish off some tin work and log trim. Jason, Roland's son, and his friend John Ross have been coming up from Calgary to help out. Tonight they arrive and will be here for two full days!! Should be able to get lots done in the both of the gardens. It's starting to look like something already. Should be ready to pour some concrete by Tuesday. Huge, terrible snow storm last week. Shut down highway two. Jason had to stay over and miss work. Was a bonus for me though! We got half of the main floor bathroom ceiling finished and Jason and John Ross split the rest of the wood before his dad got home. Bob Cole out today, terrible weather, raining/snowing, cold with a terrible wind. But he got Briggs gelded and trimmed up 10 horses. Roland and I were trucking through a foot of mud after the big storm and had a real work out. Yesterday awakened at 5:30 to my phone ringing. Couldn't find it but figured the only reason someone would phone was because we had horses out. Sure enough, there was Annie with a dozen friends on the road. Herded them with the truck and got them in, Latte wouldn't follow because her mom, Star, was still inside the field. After some fancy driving she finally headed down the fence line beside mom and went in. When I got back I checked my phone to see who had called and it was a 705 exchange, Ontario??!! Hit 1 to check my messages but dialed the number instead, and here it was my niece Debbie in Ontario! Her friend from Sunnybrook was driving by, saw our horses out, didn't know my number and called her, so she called me all the way from Ontario to tell me we had horses out!! Crazy, eh! Ramona is going to be one of our bridesmaids for the wedding, and she is super excited. Ordered her dress on Friday. Ambrosia is sold, going to be bred to Sasha before leaving for Europe. Golden Girl is also sold, going to have her foal and then be bred to Sasha also before heading overseas. Amber was not bred, so will not be having a foal this year. Oreo is sold to Reo. People coming to check out Stardust in a couple of weeks. Princers is doing awesome. Bob Cole remembered him from two years ago when he was on deaths door and could not beleive he was the same horse. He actually turned his butt to me today as there were some girls in heat around. He's NEVER had enough spunk to challenge me! Even though it wasn't a nice thing to do it was wonderful to see him with so much energy. Have two new Vanners that will be arriving in a couple of months. They are going to be bred to two different, awesome stallions, next month. Have another new Vanner we brought up from Tennesse. 4/6/2010 Lots of news! Mr. Big and Blaze are heading to Ryley this weekend. Lloyd stopped by and was looking for a horse for his grand niece and nephew and choose these two wonderful boys for the lucky children!! We know they are going to have a very loving and wonderful home. Had an excellent visit with Lloyd and he insists that we must stop in Ryley at the Harness shop while we are there. Told him afraid to do that as we will spend all our money! Jason and his niece and nephew were out on the weekend and we had a super visit. The kids loved the horses, got to see new kittens only 2 days old and Charisa's puppies! I'm limping around with my cast fairly well. Ended up having a blood clot in my leg and Chandra spend the entire day with me from 9 AM untill 10:30 PM last Wednesday. Have to get a needle everyday, and on blood thinners for the next 6 months!! At least they figured out why I was in so much pain. Made a quick trip to Victoria to see Pat about some wedding plans. Stopped to have a super visit with Roland's son while we there. Had an excellent supper in quaint seafood restaurant on the harbour. Complete with a guitarist playing background music. Wonderful evening. Took a ferry and the sun shone the entire trip. Not sure how that alwasy happens for us when we need it. The forecast for the entire weekend was rain, but the ferry ride was gorgeous, magical. Heading to Germany on Monday with Chico, Senza and Chelsea. Will be a very quick trip since I'm not mobile enough to do much. 3/16/2010 Federal vet out today to check the horses in quarantine. Chico, Chelsea and Senza will be flying over the ocean next month!! I'm going in to have my knee rebuilt on Friday, so lessons will be starting up late this year. Sorry to everyone that has already inquired and wanting to take advantage of this wonderful weather! John and Cam arrived from British Columbia to put together our little sleeping cabin. FINALLY, 5 years after I bought the logs, we will have our little addition built. And as usual, they are doing a wonderful job. It is going to be very quaint and cute! 3/11/2010 Trimming up little Peggy's feet last night and looked up to see a horse loose in the yard. But it was not one horse, but the entire herd!! I had closed the gate, but not latched it and Pall was hanging around, obviously just waiting for his opportunity! Was dark by the time we were chasing horses through the jumping field, in front of the house, up the laneway, down the laneway. Thankfully Roland was able to keep them from going on the highway. Could not beleive that the snow was still a foot deep in the fields! That was a work out. 3/8/2010 Finally got the pictures from our Texas trip posted. Texas pictures. Spring must be in the air! Was 12 degrees here on Saturday, a gorgeous day. Princers escaped and he was running and squealing and just having a grand time. Was awesome to see him feeling that great. 3/3/2010 Finally got the pictures from our Mexico trip posted. Mayan Riviera pictures. 3/2/2010 Deanna is tardy!! but she has good reason, really!! Just got back from 5 awesome days in Texas!! Gave Roland tickets to a Willie Nelson concert for Valentines Day, that just happened to be in Texas, down by the Mexican border, and only 8 miles from where my mom spends the winter! It was FANTASTIC!! Flew 6,000 miles, drove 3,000 km, and had a blast. Was 74 degrees Friday when we got to stroll around San Antonio Texas. Saw the Alamo, waltzed the riverwalk, went to the Buckhorn Saloon and museum. Saturday was Willy, LIVE! And did he ever look and sound awesome. Who would believe he is 78 years old. Couple of days with mom and Rachelle. Crossed the Rio Grande on the last hand operated ferry. Then over to Brownsville, South Padre Island and up to Kingsville to tour the King Ranch. Whirlwind tour, and as usual, great to be home. Our new girl arrived from Virginia while were gone. Pictures soon. 1/27/2010 You know what. Three years after Major passed away and I still miss him. So many times I expect to see him standing in the field. I went out to call the horses in the other day and I almost hollered "Come on Maj!". I guess when someone is a part of your life for 28 years the healing can take longer than you would expect. Went online and read my tribute to him and still ended up balling my eyes out. What a horse. Not much happening with the rest of the horses this time of year. Just keep feeding them!! Princers is still doing awesome. Knocks Roland off his feet every time he feeds him. They have a sparing match and Prince always wins. Roland starts out scratching Prince's withers and Prince always wants more and won't let him leave the stall. 1/15/2010 Bob Langrish arrived from England yesterday and WOW! did we have a great day. Photo Shoot pictures. 1/11/2010 So we go from minus 30 to PLUS SIX yesterday and today! It's great to have the warmer weather. Finally installed the door handle in the garage! Saturday I ran the skid steer from 10 in the morning until 6 in the evening!! So much snow to move. Got the stables all plowed out and looking good. Load of hay arrived at noon, got that all stacked. Most of the cabin is now plowed out to. Could hardly walk by the end of the day! Decided to move some horses over the pasture. Spent an hour digging out and cleaning off the truck. Got it started, moved out to higher ground, cleaned out the tack room, got the doors opened, rounded up 10 halters and lead ropes and went to catch horses. Spring fever was obviously in the air!! Everyone was running with tails in the air and full of life! The snow slide off the arena roof and blocked my normal capture area. So after another hour the only horse I had that I wanted was Mac!! Finally gave up and it will have to wait until next weekend when I have some help. 1/8/2010 MINUS 30 yesterday! Yuck, enough already!! Now the forecast is for PLUS 6 on Monday! Make up your mind!! Or no, it's okay, we'll just take all the plusses you send our way!! More hay arriving tomorrow. These prices are killing us! Plus since it's so cold the horses are eating way more. What was $30 hay is now $110!! And we need 200 more bales now! Yikes. Posted some really cute pics from Hannah on the pics page, plus some from Lynn and Franzi. Enjoy. 1/4/2010 Wow, 2010! Can you beleive that. Where the heck is the time flying to. Remember being in school and thinking it was unreal to even think of 2000, now here it is 2010. We had a super Christmas and wonderful new years. All is well on the homefront. Finally got Jenny and kit's feet trimmed on the weekend. Feeders all filled. Skid steer broke down when I lent it a neighbor, so as soon as we get it back will have alot of snow to move at the stables. Hopefully more hay arriving this weekend. Vet coming tomorrow to preg check some of the mares. Will be interesting. Going to see Blue Rodeo with my daughter on Friday, that will be very fun. She's booked us for a full day course of horse photography in Olds for May, that will be extremely interesting. Some new pics on the pics page. Still working on the Mexico pics. 12/27/2009 I was in the grace of an angel over Christmas. Was fortunate to spend Christmas eve with a very special lady. She has fought cancer for the last number of years. 3 weeks ago while we were away enjoying the sunshine and having fun, this lady was rushed to emergency and had part of her stomach removed. They didn't think she was going to make it and her son and his wife were called back from thier holiday to pay thier last respects. But she survived that. She insisted that she was going to keep the family tradition and have Christmas eve supper. That morning she had to return to the hospital to have her stomach pumped. She was there for FIVE hours. Her husband is, of course, a saint. He prepared the entire super for 16 people without one fault. (The best gravey ever!!) One thought stayed with me more than others from that wonderful evening. One of her grandchildren wanted to take her picture and she said "You don't want a picture of this!", and all I could think was, you are so beautiful. I have tears in my eyes now as I think of how she looked. So angelic, so pure, so true. Just beautiful. She was happy that she had some hair coming back. But she didn't need hair to radiate. I only wish I have her courage and strength when faced with lifes real challenges. She was trooper this evening. The children were all very careful not to trip on her oxygen line, made sure she had anything she needed, and stayed by her side. Was truly a magical evening for me to be in her presence. God bless you my dear and may you continue your fight with all the courage you need. Have some new pics on the pics page, enjoy, and we wish everyone a very happy and healthy New year. May each and every one of you know the love of another, and have someone to love. For that IS the greatest gift of all. 12/23/2009 Wow, an entire month gone. We spent 2 1/2 weeks in the Mayan Riviera with temperatures of plus 31 everyday. Was one of the best holidays of my life. We spent a week taking the scuba diving course with PADI, and are now certified divers. Did four dives on the corral reefs and then 2 cave dives. While we were gone it was -48 at home! yikes!! Big thanks to John Legault and Jessica Neiman for looking after all our critters while we were away. Chelsea is sold. Franzi has found her a wonderful family in Germany. Will be having her preg checked soon, along with Keemah and Golden Girl. 11/20/2009 Thankyou to everyone for your thoughts and your words of encouragement to forge ahead. It is from the emails that tell all the wonderful stories of horses that we have raised over the years that give us the energy and will to carry on. We will be cutting our herd back this year due to the outrageous hay prices, but we will still carry on our breeding that we have carefully developed over the last 25 years. We will also look to continue with our breeding of the amazing Gypsy Vanner horses. Looks like our wonderful sport horse Curly, Chelsea, may be heading over to Europe. And possibly our amazing, black, Friesian sport horse curly, Ambrosia. Franzi is talking of coming back from Germany late spring and Ramona for the summer. We have 8 two year olds to get started this summer, so that will give the girls lots to do. Reo and his gang have built all new fence for us around the outside parameter of our quarter section. They are now working on putting up the dividing lines for the subdivisions. No more horses getting out!! Have renters for our house now. Not horse oriented, but they pay the bills. 11/17/2009 How to start. Guess we were due for a weekend that was not great. Saturday morning the door bell rang at 6:30, so you know it is not good news. Appeared Annie had had opened the gate to the jumping field and took Chance with her. Not a big deal, except she decided to tour Sunnybrook and trusting Chance did not have any fear to get out of the way of an oncoming truck. The speed limit is only 50kmh, there is a street light there, but the trucker hit him so hard he didn't stop for a hundred yards. The police figure he was going in excess of 100kmh. The good thing is no one was hurt, and Chance did not suffer. Only ever seems to happen to the "good" horses. Chance was to be Roland’s friend for the next 30 years. He was quiet, trusting, gorgeous and everybody’s friend. There was no reason for them to leave the corral, they had hay and water. 'Twas partially my fault as I did not tie the gate shut and knew Annie could get out if she wanted to. but did not think she would want to. Times like this I wish to sell every single horse to not go through these thoughts. Sorry my friend, so very, very sorry. 11/8/2009 Another great, productive weekend. Roland and John got the roof tined on the garage, so at least it is ready for the snow to fly. Still needs siding and the doors and windows installed, but that can be done in the dark now. I got Princes' barn all cleaned out and ready for winter. He said thanks! Reo came by and helped us deworm all the horses. Went extremely well. Got pictures of Chelsea for Franzi, who is pretty sure she is sold. Going to do some video of Ambrosia for her. Some people that purchased a horse off of us this summer were having major problems with her. They said she was kicking and being very, very bad. So I told them to come back with her (no names, don't want them feeling bad), a 6 hour drive for them! The horse they purchased was an older mare that we had used in camps and lessons, so I was very surprised by their reports. When they arrived I put the mare in the round pen for 5 minutes and saw the lack of respect instantly. After another 10 minutes she was standing still while I picked up her feet, and 5 minutes later I had the owners in picking up her feet. They were flabergasted that they were able to do this. I went over some of the herd dinamics and what I thought had happened over the last couple of months. Just kept having the repeat everything we were doing a bunch of times and going over their body position and how fast/slow they approach a horse. Safe spots, and reading intent. They left happy and I only hope I hear from them sooner if they do have any more problems. but I really don't think they will. Love it when I see it work. Company from Nova Scotia last weekend. Super, super visit. Lots of laughter and as always, not enough time. Fellow that purchased Stormy turned out to be a real, big time, jerk. I don't think I've ever spooken poorly of anyone on my websites, but this fellow took the cake. Kim, our trucker, forgot the papers for Stormy in her office. So when Stormy arrived he accused us (not sure why he included our trucker) of being a bunch of frauds, etc., etc. Threatened he was going to sue us and that he "obviusly" had the money to take it to the end!! Guess he figured he had a nice looking house or something. On his defence he's retired and in a wheelchair, so I guess that is how he entertains himself, by threatening people. Haven't heard from the people that purchased Mysty. Mysty had been heaving the last couple of years, so was time for her to go to someone that could give her the extra attention she required. Still waiting for our skidsteer to be repaired. Would have been nice to capitalize on the weather this weekend and get the driveway levelled and the garage entrance done. Oh well!! Still waiting for the 48 hours in a day!! 10/25/2009 Airetina, Blaze and Marky all went to their new homes on the weekend. Was a really full couple of days. Got the walls framed for the garage and the trusses up. Not bad for 14 hours of real work. Interviewed some people for renting the old house. Think we found a match. As usual, one step forward and two steps back! Moved about 20 rocks from the HUGE pile that Reo had delivered and the wheel fell right off of the skid steer. So that will be out of operation for a few weeks. 10/23/2009 Pictures from my Weekend in Ontario 10/20/2009 That was a full weekend! Wednesday night headed to Falun to pick up the vet papers for Stormy to cross the border. Bad snow storm, got stuck in the vets driveway twice! Thursday night the trucker was suppose to be here for 6 but never arrived untill 11. LT and Carrie loaded like a dream and Stormy loaded himself. Love it. Friday morning up at 5:30, load a kitten to take with me to the airport for Vancouver. Get halfway to the airport and realize that I forgot to send the vet papers with Stormy!! He can't cross the border without them! Call Kim and tell her what's happening. Get the papers leave them outside my office. Drop the kitten at the cargo center, call work and ask them to courier the papers to Kim. Board the plane for Toronto with only 5 minutes to spare!! Arrive in TO at 2:30. Meet up with my niece Caitlin and Sergio and finally get to meet their two children. Have a fantastic super with them at the Mandarin restaurant. Head off to Oshawa to see my second cousin, Cathy, that I haven't seen in 31 years!!! Stuck on the 401 for TWO hours!! Then drive up to Woodview to my dads and get there at 11:30. As usual he has the fire going and fresh baking waiting. Up early and go for a walk, the fall colours are wonderful. Love it at dads, on the lake, quiet and peaceful. Then it's off to Lakefield to pick up mom and a three hour drive to Perth for my niece's wedding. The weather co-operated somewhat, no snow! Was wonderful to see everyone. Meet everyone for breakfast Sunday morning, then it's back to Lakefield, goodbye to mom, stop at my brothers then an hour up to Buckhorn to my sisters. Then 2 hours to Whitby to my other cousins and have a very nice super with her. Up at 6 Monday morning and catch the big bird back home. Stop at work and catch up on some paper work then finally home to sleep in my own bed again. Sitka missed me, she was waiting at the door when I arrived and never left my side. Baxter and Shilo were jumping so high I'm sure they could have cleared the car! Have a lady very interested in Stardust. Sounds like they will be a very good match. Reo is getting a load of rocks dropped off today, hopefully it doesn't freeze and I can get them placed before winter sets in. Had the culvert delivered last Thursday so now we can get that finalized. Reo is going to put it in for us. Everything is delivered for our garage, the concrete pad is set. Had some fellows out and they got the cats house all skirted in, ready for winter! 10/13/2009 Star had her baby yesterday!! Was a bit dark out, but a pretty little sorrel smooth coat with a star just like mom. Got woke up just after midnight by the RCMP, a horse was out on the road. Gee, wonder who that could be!! None other than our escape artist, Annie, who is now locked in the corral. Full and fun weekend. Savanah left on Saturday. Scott arrived with his girl friend to check out horses on Friday, came back Sunday to see LT and Keemah again. Wonderful Thanksgiving super on Sunday, Everyone was home!! Thankyou to everyone for the Birthday wishes, not sure I can than all of you individually, but will certainly try. Got to chat and video with Ramona, finally, on Sunday. Was a hoot to see her and do a Yeggy toast! She got Marengo to Germany from Denmark safe and sound. Thankyou for that Ramona!! She says he is gorgeous and asked her mom if she can have TWO horses!! LOL, don't think that one will fly. Lots of interest in horses now that we have dropped our prices due to the increased hay costs this year. Looks like we could find new homes for close to 15 horses in the next couple of weeks!! Funny thing happened Saturday when we were heading to town to pick up groceries. Roland went out the start the truck and when Raquel and I came out we could hear a kitten crying. Told Roland to shut off the truck and found a gorgeous calico kitty under the hood!! She's so friendly she must be somebodies pet. Hopefully someone will claim her soon as we can't keep her in the house due to the allergy situation!! 10/06/2009 Last night I walked our 150 acres for an hour looking for our little Peggy for a lesson. Never did find her! Must have one heck of a good hiding place. Little Sydney was happy though, she got to ride Oakley for her lesson. First time for her on a BIG horse and she did fantastic. Hopefully Ramona will be able to head to Denmark on Sunday to pick up our Marengo and bring him over to Germany. Will be nice to find a home for this lovely boy. Vet out today to take the blood sample from Stormy so he can head south next week. Savanah will be leaving bright and early Sunday morning also. Have people interested in our Foxtrotters. Will be nice to reduce the herd before winter with these feed prices. Lindsey stopped by on Sunday and we had a nice visit. Too cold and windy out to walk around and visit the horses though. She really wanted to see Andee again, next time. Reo has some rocks lined up for us for our front yard!! He figures there will be FOUR full gravel trucks of rocks!! Yippie!! Time for fun. Princess had her litter on the 4th. Was a bit chilly so set up all our automatic heaters. Had to change the main thermostat as it was faulty. Good thing we have our wood heater as the power was out on Sunday also! 09/27/2009 Friday evening we all attended my staff BBQ and had a very enjoyable evening. Saturday morning saw many a tear as Ramona loaded up Curly and her and her mom headed back to Germany. Placed a bunch of rail road ties today, front yard is finally starting to take shape. Calling for a low of -5 in a couple of days so hopefully can get a bit more done before the snow flies. Reidun arrives from Norway next weekend!! Wow, will be super to see her again. She wants to make sure she rides Oakley while she is here. Karen and Marian are talking of coming over the ocean next year also. Would be wonderful to spend a weekend in the mountains with them. Going to try and get Marengo back from Denmark and over to Germany for some training. Ramona and Franzi are going to work out a plan to transport him. 09/25/2009 We all enjoyed a wonderful parting super for Ramona and her mom at the Chateau Lacombe. See the pics page. Tomorrow Ramona leaves for Germany, and she is not happy about that thought. And next week already Reidun will arrive from Norway! Was telling her how it is in the high 20's here and even 30 yesterday, but sounds like she is going to be bringing her snow this way!! YUCK!! 09/21/2009 Another tear day at the stables. Winchester has left for his new home. What a super boy. Really hope to see great things from him in his new home. It's hard to let them go, but sure makes it easier when you know he is going somewhere that will work him and appreciate him. Bye Winny. Franzi left on Sunday and Ramona's mom arrived. At the airport for 7, Ramona stayed to wait for her mom to arrive then they headed to the West Edmonton Mall. I stopped to see a friend then bought half a dozen trees and planted them. Finally have an apple tree!! Wanted one forever and now have two 7' trees planted in front of the house. Can't wait for spring blossoms!! Super, super weather this week. PLUS 29 today and sunshine!! Best enjoy it for we know the minus is just around the corner. 09/17/2009 Pictures from a fantastic ride on the Strawberry Creek. And super news!! Mysty Storm will be heading to California!! A wonderful gentleman, Jeff, contacted us and wanted to surprise his wife, but spilled the beans!! We are thrilled for Stormy, for it certainly sounds like a super home for him And-- more super news! Kresky will be heading to Germany one day. She is SOLD!! To Ramona, who is ecstatic!! Congratulations Ramona, your first horse and best friend. 09/16/2009 There's a whole pile of new pics on the pics page. LT had her little angel. Spruce Meadows was a HUGE success. Girls got Mac and Chico jumping. Trail ride tonight. Trimmed Ambrosia, Keelah, Maxx, Mac, Kresky and Stardust last night. Fellow from California interested in Stormy. Mondays's are our busy night for lessons. First we have Travis and his mom coming from Leduc. Then Sydney had a super lesson on Peggy, she's ready to move up to Golden Girl now. Then Susan and Claire had an excellent lesson on Oakley and Golden Girl. The girls rode Maxx and Mac. Franzi leaves on Sunday already!! That time just flew. Ramona's mom arrives Sunday also. AND - Reidun is stoping by for a quick visit on the 29th. Hoping to make a day trip so she can see Tracy again. Just talked to Telus and they advised we still won't be getting a phone untill 2010!!! What a way to run a company. 09/8/2009 Great weekend. My sister arrived from Ontario and we had a nice family dinner on Sunday with her daughter and her husband and their daughter, plus her son and my daughter! Was great to have everyone together. Little Chloe got to ride her first pony, our dearest Peggy! Headed to the Lakedell fair on Saturday and had a wonderful couple of hours. The cowboy shooters were there! So now I have some contact info. Then made the mistake of stopping at the lawn and garden centre. Bought a pond kit and spent Monday playing on the skid steer, digging trenches and holes and moving BIG rocks! Visited the western stable that Franzi wishes to work at next year and got invited to come back and ride a cutting horse. Delivered a kitten to the airport at 7 Saturday morning heading to Ontario. Their dog just passed away and they already had a kitten from us 2 years ago and were hoping another one might help the children with thier grieving for their lost friend. Jason, from California, also stopped by to take his kitten home. Cierra Amberina headed off to her new home south of Calgary. Had a wonderful visit with Lynn. We had way to much in common! Franzi rode our new mare yesterday. That was super news!! New student Friday for lessons. He thoroughly enjoyed himself, just having trouble fitting in the lessons now since winter is fast approaching and have so many projects I want to finish before the snow flies. Wonderful lesson Friday also with Claire and Susan. They rode Golden Girl and Chico. Franzi rode Ambrosia and Ramona Kodiak. Trying to get our Irish Draft girl, Folly, inspected for registration. but the inspections are on the same weekend that I head to Ontario for my niece's wedding! Never fails. Finally get organized and something doesn't work. And more great news!! Reidun wishes to visit from Norway at the beginning of October. If she comes out we will definetly have to make a trip to Athabasca and visit Tracey!! Just need to see if we can co-ordinate dates. 09/01/2009 Another busy week. John and Cam arrived and finished all the dormers and railings. Now the outside of the cabin is complete. Ramona and Franzi did some staining. I did a bit more with the skidsteer and finished the front sidewalk. Looks great now with the top coat on it. Everyone helped fix fence last night as we had a couple of fence crawlers. Lynn arrived from Calgary to check out Amber and Kodiak. Our new Friesian/Trackener mare arrived and she is bred to JJ. Three more kittens headed off to their new homes. Czarina had her babies last week. The girls had a very busy and productive week. Hard to beleive they will be leaving this month already. 08/24/2009 Ambrosia and Golden Girl went for their first real trail ride today! Ramona and Franzi too them to the Strawberry Creek and they did SUPER!! Golden Girl was perfect, crossed the water first and never faltured once. Ambrosia had a couple of moments of hesitation, but Franzi guided her through. Delivered Gold Rush to her lovely new home on the weekend. Wilma found a lovely stable only 10 minutes from her home! Was pretty sad to leave Gold Rush there, but so nice to know she has a wonderful new family. Ramona and Franzi are doing a super job this summer. Sure going to miss them when they leave next month! Wow, where did all that time go. But they have full days and making wonderful progress with all the horses in training. So nice to see Reilly, Folly and Keelah under saddle. Sasha and Maxx are coming along also. Kodiak, Ambrosia, Amber, Stardust and Chance are all doing super also. Savanah will be heading for her new home shortly. Winchester and Curly Sarah will be leaving next month. We will be heading to Spruce Meadows for the 12th and 13th, if you are heading down let us know and we can hook up! Spent the weekend preparing our front entrance sidewalk. Concrete arrives today!! Excited. Going to colour it and stamp it, never done that before, so we'll see what we end up with. Started preparing some of the registrations for the horses on the weekend. Lots of work to fill out the 18 pages for each horse!! Went to the Canadian Derby on Saturday. The girls had fun. Franzi won the first race, Ramona ended up down only 18 dollars. Her best win was on a horse that looked like Kresky! I was down $50 and then won the tractor on the derby! Finished up over $200, so that was a good day. Updated some pages on Keemah, Stardust, Golden Girl and Kodiak. Find them on the for sale, trained horses. 08/18/2009 Both Keelah and Folly were ridden for their first time outside yesterday!! Hooray!! Great job Franzi and Ramona. Franzi also has Amber going again, back to where she was when she left. The girls have also put a few rides on Winchester so he is ready for his new owner. Had to corral the mini's as they kept sneaking under the fence and getting on the road. So they went in with Sahsa and lo-and-behold if he didn't breed Patches immediately! Should have some cute little mini's running around next year. Hard to beleive the girls are only here for a few more weeks!! Ramona's mom will be arriving from Germany in a couple of weeks and then they will head off to Jasper. Ramona's pooch, Curly, went in for his final vacinations yesterday so he can travel back to Germany with her. Baxter also went in to the vets and is now an it. He bred Charrisa a couple of weeks ago so hopefully she caught and we will have some little part-poodles running around next month. Hoping to go to the Canadian Derby Saturday. Any ideas where one can find a Derby hat??? Spruce Meadows coming up quick also. Franzi held the ladder for me last night so I could stand on top of it, on top of 2 levels of scaffold and finally put the finishing stain on the logs in the peak of the cabin. Wow, does that put the finishing polish on the front of the cabin. So nice to finally see it with all the lights, tin and logs stained. Wilma is coming back today to check Gold Rush. They had a vet scheduled for yesterday but he went to the Sunnybrook Stables west of Edmonton! Not the first time we've been confused with them. Brought LT home Monday, she was super thrilled to see all her friends again. Received Reilly's papers from the Gypsy Vanner Horse Association, that is wonderful! Now just need to send in Sally and Keelah. Contacted the Canadian Irish Draught Society and might be taking Folly in for inspection in October, that will be a first for me. Hopefully chat with Kim before hand and find out what we will have to do. Some of our Siberian kittens headed for their new homes on the weekend, one heading to Ottawa on Friday. Pansy and Czarina should both be having a litter in the next few weeks. 08/17/2009 51 years old, just married for the first time last fall, and now he's gone. One never knows, enjoy every moment!! Allan Friesen is the very lucky new owner of Satin Savanah!! Lovely Hannah had been emailing for a few months now as she fell in love with Savanah from her pictures and stories on the website. First the allergy test had to be passed and Allan was very surprised when he had no allergic reaction at all to the curlies. He did have a bit of a reaction when they entered the arena with the other horses inside, but none at all to the curlies. So now Savanah has a wonderful new home to go to. Roland was home for 3 weeks, where did that go??? He has done a fantastic job of putting up the new rock on the north side of the cabin. Looks very, very professional! I've been busy starting the landscaping at the front of the house. Electrician finished up his part on Friday. Tin is finally all done. John will be arriving in a couple of weeks from Hundred Mile House to finish up the log siding and railings. Slowly but surely coming together. 08/07/2009 Heading to a funeral for a friend of Rolands right away, but started the mountain trip pictures. 07/27/2009 Excellent ride last night with Pall, Oaks and Gold Rush. Ramona and Franzi didn't beleive that Gold Rush is such a good girl! Now they know. Gold Rush never spooks at anything and crossed the bridge, rail road tracks, every thing without hesitation. Was a perfect evening for a ride after 31 degrees on the weekend! Saturday I moved LOTS of dirt with the skid steer, rearranged our future garden in front of the house, levelled the lot behind the house. Sunday I built some shelves in the basement and in the quonset, now we can start to get organized! Some really great news -- Winchester gets to remain a stallion!! Kevin and Phyllis of Houston, BC, have purchased him and our lovely Curly Sarah!! Hoorah!! I really did not want to geld Winchester with his amazing temperament, perfect conformation, pedigree that cannot be found anywhere with his triple registration! So we are very thrilled that he will be going to a new home to continue producing his amazing babies. They want Curly Sarah bred to Sasha before she leaves and she just came into heat Friday and went in with our wonder boy. Farrier out today to shoe up Golden Girl, Chico and our little Peggy. Andee needs a trim to and we are going to pull the shoes off of Sally so she can visit Reilly. She has heel and toe clips so would hate for her to kick our Irish boy! Ordered tires for the truck last week and on Saturday Tom was taking Starfire, Fury, Senza and Phleap to their pasture and on the way home blew a tire on the truck! Now that was timing. Had the big trailer in to fix the axle and finally got a break there to. Didn't need to build a new axle, they just had to straighten it. Folly finally joined our string of horses in training and again, the girls were amazed at how sweet tempered she is. Remembered absouletly everything. No fear of anything. Updated our Irish pages a bit. Check it out at Our Irish Horses!! 07/22/2009 Finally pics of Calgary Stampede!! 07/20/2009 Another Great Weekend! Finally picked up our driving reins that we had custom made for our training. Headed out at 8:45 Saturday morning and stopped at every Western shop around and Ramona and Franzi found all of the specialty items they were looking for. Bought a wonderful saddle for Roland for the mountains and a slicker and straw hat for myself. Then picked up Chandra and we had some fun at Capital Ex! Rode some crazy rides untill a big electrical storm blew in and they had to shut down all the rides. Was a terrible wind and very dark, black cloud. Hit some hail on the way home and reports of trees down everywhere and a huge canopy collapsed downtown Edmonton. Sunday was a yucky day so oiled up the new saddle a couple of times, fixed the kitchen cabinets and Reo sighted the new parking area and gave me a hand to level it ready for the gravel to arrive today. Ran the skid untill 11 at night and it sure looks better now!! 07/14/2009 Fantastic little session last night. Dropped the trailer off to be fixed after work, lesson with Bailey at 6:30, then a real nice lesson with Ramona on Golden Girl, Christine on Mac and Franzi on Chico. Franzi and Chico hit off immediately and were doing turn on the forehand and half passes in no time. Golden Girl figured out the turn on the forehand and was almost doing a spin. Gold Rush is coming onto the string and Keemah will be going in with Prince. She's the only ABC eligible filly we have left from Pall, so she's the perfect candidate to raise a replacement stallion. 07/12/2009 Just when I thought one could not fit more into a weekend, we topped it again! Friday I went to work in the morning till noon, go home and Ramona had everything packed and pretty much ready to load and head to stampede. meet up with Reo in Red Deer. Down at the barns around 5:30, unload the horses, settle them in, jockey the trailer back to the camp area. Meet up with my daughter and her husband about 7:30 as they treated Ramona and I to the Kenny Chesney concert. That was fantastic, out of there at 11 PM, then over as VIP's (thanks to my fantastic son in law!!) to the greatest country bar in Calgary, COWBOYS! Arrive back at our camp about 3 AM, then up at 6:30 (well at least ONE of us was!!) to get the horses and booth ready for the crowds. Pall in the booth for better part of the day, ride a demonstration at 2:30 with lots of ohs and awes for our lovely Irish Tinker, Sally, then another demo at 6:30 with Palladin and Oakley. Finish up at the booth about 8 PM, horses back to the barns, take a stroll so Ramona can find her PINK spurs! Back up early Sunday, another ride demo at 11 AM, head back north and pick up FRANZI from the airport at 7:45!! Home just after 9, tend to all the crittes and crash! Chris Axani and her entire family joined us in the booth this year and did a fantastic job of promoting the Curly Horses! Thankyou guys!! More great news from Chris, SS Sunnybrook’s Wyatt won overall show high point CHAMPION at Bergens Curly Horse Classic Show with 8 year old Charlotte Axani riding!! and Charmer won reserve with 11 year old Katie Axani riding! It was a Huge first for the sisters to win the over all show! Charlotte and Katie got 1st & 2nd place in Equitation & Pleasure classes - except for the Senior Pleasure class which mom, Chris, won 1st on Charmer. CONGRATULATIONS GIRLS!! Way to ride. Took Star and Chautise over to pasture with Nellie and LT. Nellie had her foal last week. And our little Britches also had her foal. Pictures some day! Some sad news also. Our dear Red foaled while we were away in the mountains and somehow her sweet babe got on the wrong side of the fence and never made it back. Red and all of us here are heartbroke. Gold Rush is in with Princers for the last week and will probably be putting Keemah in with him now. Hard deciding who is best to breed with whom. 07/07/2009 ENJOY!!! Pictures of the Calgary Stamped Parade!!! Pictures of the Rocky Mountain Trail Ride!!! 07/06/2009 Wow. That is all I can say. What a weekend. What a parade, what a ride in the Rockies. Wow. First, here's the pictures from Wednesday in Breton's Canada Day Parade. We have 1,500 pictures between the 3 of us from the Stampede Parade and the Mountain ride. So it's going to take a while to go through everything!! Had a fantastic ride in the parade, 5,000 people were in the parade and 350,000 lined the streets to watch it!! 07/01/2009 Another FANTASTIC parade at Breton!! Even bigger than Warburg, which was bigger than Drayton!! Off to stampede tomorrow!!  06/25/2009 Farrah Fawcett died today. She battled cancer for 3 years. She was my idol forever. Only 62. As far as I'm concerned she was a superstar. She had grace, courage, glamour, talent, beauty, and I always LOVED her hair. Goodbye Farrah, you will be remembered. 06/23/2009 Awesome evening with StarDust and Max. StarDust is going to be another Chance. How cool is he!! Got to meet Roland's son, Jason today. What a gentleman! And thanks for the wine!! See you at the Stampede Parade!! Getting the horses all shod Friday ready for the Warburg parade Saturday. 06/21/2009 Pics of Roland's Fathers Day Edmonton Queen Riverboat super. Pics of the Saturday Trail ride. As you can tell from the pics was another very FULL weekend. Saturday we snuck in a trail ride for Susan before she leaves on her very first mountain trip. The dashed to the city to take in an AWESOME Charley Pride concert. What a thrill to see that legend in person. The Sunday spend the morning sanding down the last of the logs in the loft then head off to take Raquel back home. But the surprise was for Fathers Day to take Roland to the Edmonton Riverboat Queen for super! Meant a very long day for everyone, but was certainly worth it. Didn't get home until 1:30 in the morning!! 06/16/2009 Pics of the Drayton Parade!! Pics of the Pembina Ride!! 06/15/2009 Wow, what a start to our parade exposure. I was sooo proud of Sally. She really impressed me again, big time. Every time I ride this mare I love her more. Had a couple of spooks, first at a drainage grate in the parking lot. then one at the first manhole cover. What I love about her is get her to do it once and she remembers and carries on. Wyatt did awesome also! He wasn't even suppose to be in the parade but Reo said lets go and they did!!  After the parade we treated ourselves and stopped at the Pembina river for a trail ride. More great training for the horses for it is full of wooden bridges. Sally stops at the first one and I tell Ramona to take Oaks across as she has done it many times before. But Oaks says NO, so Sally goes!! Just love her. By the end we are trotting accross the bridges! I'll post more pics when I figure out what happened to them!  Lost our little white poodle puppy on Sunday. Looked for him for 4 hours and he finally was found by Ramona tucked in a shelter scared as heck. Finally took some pics of some of the yearlings also. Shajana had her kittens yesterday. Cookie had her baby yesterday. Was another very full weekend. 06/10/2009 Guess What!!! We got accepted to ride in the CALGARY STAMPEDE PARADE!!! YAHOOOOOO!!!! So now we need to get the horses out to as many parades as we can so they are ready and awesome!! If our truck is ready we will be at the Brazeau County Fair this weekend, the Breton Canada Day parade on July 1st and the Warburg parade on the 27th. Lots of exposure before we join the 4,000 people to make the Stampede Parade the greatest show on earth! It takes 2 hours to travel the route, 350,000 people gather in the streets to watch the parade and 6 million people will see it around the world on TV!!! WOWSERS!! Kresky rubbed the stitches out of her wound, vet back out and said it is looking good, just needs time now. Sally's feathers needed some special attention last night. After Ramona cleaned her I found she had some yucky stuff behind her pasterns. Took 3 hours to get it all out. Sent an email off to our Tinker specialist in Denmark, Jeanette!! Sally is such a sweetheart. Want to do everything possible to make sure she is 100% healthy. She stood perfectly for me last night as I basically laid under her between her legs to make sure everything was good. Hopefully Sunday we will finally have some time to take the updated pictures of all the horses. Just never seems to be enough hours in the day!! 06/08/2009 And yet another action packed weekend. Thursday Ramona called that Kresky was cut. Rush home and it is pretty bad. No idea how she did it. All three of us walk the corral 4 times and cannot find anything that would make even a small cut. But this is a foot long, top of her shoulder, forward, then back down towards her elbow. Call Greg Davis the vet, and he spends 4 hours getting it back together and all stitched up. Amazing that he was able to stitch it at all, but he does wonderful work. Lots of infection but put her on antibiotics and by Saturday allot of the swelling has gone down and she is back to running around. Friday we bring the vet back again and geld Starfire, Fury and Flip. Who is Flip you ask?? We traded Kim our two palomino fillies for 2 curly yearlings. One is a HUGE!!! black colt that had never been handled. He's at least 14.2 as a yearling! And of course had to be gelded so I spent 20 minutes with him in the chute while Roland and Ramona helped the vet with the other two. The vet gave Flip his tranquilizer and we waited a sec for it to take effect. But it didn't look like it was doing much. Let him out of the chute and I was able to barely hold him. Vet wanted to geld him out on the grass so his great idea was to take him through the two corrals and lead him out to the front area. Since he was "under sedation" would be no problem right?? I knew I could not hold him so asked Roland if he had his gloves and true to form he did. So he offered to take him and the rest of us would guide Flip along to get him out of the corrals. First corral not too bad, some pulling and running around, second corral had him right up to the gate and something spooked him and he bolted at 100 miles an hour back down the corral. Caught Roland by surprise and flipped him around, did a couple of huge bounds down the middle of the corral, then Roland did a complete summersault in the air, tucked and rolled and came up on his feet, still with the lead rope and the colt!! Too darn funny. Dug his heals in and never let go. Which was a darn good thing as we would have spent a long time trying to catch him back up again. Got everything settled down and the vet had to give Flip another full dose of the tranquilizer to be able to geld him. Saturday do our vet work at the stables, Ramona can now administer needles!, and head into Edmonton for a very romantic weekend. Need that to recharge every once in awhile. Pics on the new pics page. Home Sunday by 3, Roland splits some wood and we stack it, and the weekend is over. But not without some wonderful, wonderful memories. Thankyou Chandra for the wonderful gift, and thankyou Roland for making it magical. 06/03/2009 Got to sleep at 1:30 in the morning last night! Home from work and Ramona rode Chance and Keemah on their own for their first time and they all did AWESOME!! She even rode Ambrosia on the lead and Ambrosia was so calm it was cool!! Then we went over and brought back Winchester, Starfire, Fury and Senza. Man is Winchester looking fantastic!! Ramona fell totally in love with him at first sight, before she even knew he was our stallion. He is such a sweetheart. Walked right in the trailer and waited patiently while we loaded the foals. Echo and Red are sold. The people for Red are going to leav her here untill she foals. She is going to have a Prince baby, so if it is a colt will be an excellent breeding stallion. Have to make some time somewhere and get some pictures and video done. Seems like every night we are not in bed before 11 and still have so much we want to get done. 06/01/2009 And another wow, where did that weekend go??!! Pictures of our Danish Visitors here!! Fantastic Friday, Thankyou to Peter for orgainizing the visit for the Danish Students. Thankyou to Ramona, Reo, Tom & Coleen for cleaning and preping the night before. Thankyou to Reo for taking all the wonderful pictures!! Friday evening another super session with the horses in training and halter breaking the babies. Saturday we head out to try and find a saddle for Roland, but no luck. Sunday another allergy test for kitties, Kim arrives to do an exchange for Shimmer and Glitz for 2 of her foals. Then Justin and Reo arrive to work with Chico (who Ramona ahs been riding very successfully all week), Keemah (who was tied for the superstar with Chance), Chance (what a guy, so glad we have him for Roland, they will be life long buds for a long time) and Ambrosia (who got spooked in the horrible wind storm we had when the plastic slapped against the frame but still progressed). 05/27/2009 Ramona and I are filling every evening working with the foals. By this weekend we will have updated pictures and video of everyone in training. All the foals are doing super with 13 foals, plus the 3 still not home, we have our hands full! Gold Rush went in with Prince yesterday. Ramona noticed her in heat Friday but I think we may have missed it. Winnett is HUGE! He is going to be a very amazing boy. Charisma is another very tall girl and very quiet. Misty's babe, Stormy, is such a cool colour. Ambrosia's Brigs is just gorgeous, such a refined looking head like mom. Cookie's Kresky is another tall boy. And of course Antigua, our curly Gyspy vanner is going to be another knock out. And what quick learners they all are. Just love getting back to working with them all. Friday we are honoured to do some demonstrations for 30 students from Denmark! Thanks to Mr. Peter Jensen for organizing this. Ramona will be super extra busy the next couple of days cleaning up around the stables. We are hoping to do a riding demonstration on Sally, our Gypsy Vanner mare, and of course Oakley, and I might ride Pall if they have enough time with us. Will be another evening of bathing and polishing!! 05/24/2009 If anyone can fit more into a weekend I'd like to see it!! Pictures of Rodeo and Showcase here!! Started out Friday evening. Ramona had Sally, Pall, Oakley and Peggy all caught up. We bathed the horses, turned them back in the jumping field and of course first thing they do is roll!! We made up a special mash for Sally's feathers and she was looking ready for the show on Sunday. Finish up about 11. Saturday morning up with the birds to take a kitten to the airport for 8 AM to fly to Quebec. 9:30 Chelsea and her mom arrived from Athabasca to do an allergy test with the horses. While they do their allergy test Ramona and I are putting some mash on Sally's feathers and loading up the trailer for Sunday. Chelsea is thrilled they have NO reaction to the horses. They check out the yearlings and Curly Sarah and Mac. 10 AM Courtney arrives to pick up her 2 Siberian kittens and then Angela also arrived to check out thier allergies to the cats. Then we were off to St. Albert by 11 to take in the Rain Maker rodeo! Home by 8, finish loading the trailer and crash about 11 again. Sunday morning up at 5:30!! Load the horses and off to Fultonvale for the Equine Extravaganza! And have a BLAST. What a fantastic day, gorgeous sunshine, best of company, Roland & Raquel were there to help out this year, Reo came by for moral support. And we just have way too much fun. Then on Monday it's up again at 5:30 to take another kitten to the airport heading to New Foundland! Must be summer. 05/19/2009 Ramona and I had a fantastic Friday and Saturday, but we sure paid for it on Sunday. Friday evening Justin came over and did the first ride on Chance! Just as we expected Chance was the super star of the day. He had not been worked since last spring as a long yearling!! Justin was walking him around the arena all on his own after only a couple of minutes. Chico was amazing as Justin rode him around on a totally loose rein, trotting, walking stopping on a dime. Ambrosia is going to be worked more for mounting before we push her any. Keemah did well for the mounting, but we ran out of time to do more with her. Finished up at 11 at night!! Saturday we went to the dump, cleaned the one ton, then we rode Pall and Oakley, Curly Sarah and Annie, then Sally and Star. Took them all through town, a little trail ride, along the highway and had a blast. Was a gorgeous day and perfect for training outside. Trimmed up Annie and Star's feet. Sunday it was off for a 5 hour drive to Red Earth to pick up the wood Roland had cut all winter. Was snowing and cold and took us about 4 hours to load it all. Then we headed home about 6:30. Only made it to Slave Lake and blew a tire on the back of the 30' trailer! Was getting dark, only a 2 lane highway and we couldn't pull right off to the side as the trailer was fully loaded and would have sunk into the shoulder. Trailer was too heavy for AMA's jack to lift, so they went and got another one, still too heavy. No spare of course. Roland called around and found a fellow at Kal Tire that was willing to come out on the highway at 10 o'clock on a Sunday night of a long weekend to rescue us! His jack was strong enough, but bending the axle because the load was so heavy! Yikes. Finally he was able to get the old tire off, get it off the rim (It was twisted pretty bad!) and get the new tire back on. The rim had some nicks in it and the fellow wasn't sure if it was still going to hold air or not! But he pounded the rim back round as best he could and thankfully it did hold air. We decided there was no way we were going to continue driving in the dark in case we had more problems so found a room in Slave Lake and finally to sleep about 1:30 in the morning. Long slow drive home on Monday and get there about 5 in the evening. But at least no more problems. Except pulling into the driveway, kinda cut it a bit short and took out the fence post. Oups! 05/15/2009 Want to feel warm inside?? Our little Kruzer is sold. That is sad, but the email from Jennifer certainly makes up for it. Little Hailey came out to test her allergies a week ago and had a fantastic visit and here is the email received today: Kruzer arrived home safely. Hailey was so excited she couldn't sleep, so I let her stay up. Brian got home at 9:40, Hailey spent some time with Kruzer and was up at 6 this morning and out with him again. Thank you again for everthing. Hailey is one happy girl!! I will keep you posted and send pictures. Jennifer Thankyou Jennifer and please do keep us updated. Next on the feel good wagon is Stacy. Her sister arrived a couple of days ago to test her allergies and all were amazed she had NO reaction!! Couple of pics on the new pictures page. Stories and times like this certainly help to remind one why we started breeding these WONDERFUL horses. Thankyou to the horses. Reo's grandson, Justin, will be out today to put a couple of rides on some of the horses. Will be super to get them on stream and ready for Ramona to carry on with. 05/13/2009 Wonderful picture of Holly in the snow from Melanie in New Brunswick, and a very nice email: Hi I take care of Rose St Pierre's farm in NB. She owns Holly. I'm the girl who took the pics of Holly & her son. I'm sold on the curly breed afer working with Holly. My b/f and I want our own curly someday + we love Gypsy Vanners. We are looking for something to haul a cart or possibly yard a little wood. - I attached a few pics of Holly Thanks! Melanie Cormier 05/12/2009 2009 event dates are now all posted. Back in the Saddle Camp, Summer Camps, Mountain Trips, Show, it's all there!! 05/11/2009 Dewormed all the rest of the horses on the weekend. Sorted all the babies into the corral. Fixed the fence in the jumping field so we could confine Pall and Oaks so we can ride them to get ready for the showcase on the 24th. Roland got the old Ford truck running then we Cleaned up the winters mess around the cabin and got a whole truck load of debris. Also got the 1 ton running. Was a very productive weekend. Thursday we were interviewed by the Leduc radio station. It will be aired during the summer. Found the memory card, so the pics are posted! 05/7/2009 Ramona hurt her knee with a run in between a panel and Echo. Nothing serious, thank goodness. Slowed her down a bit, but she is a real trooper! Brought Keemah, Chico, Ambrosia and Echo in for round penning and they all responded very well. Keemah was the shinning star there. Hopefully will have time to keep it for a week to engrain it. Ramona and Helle dewormed most of the horses Monday. They had a bit of trouble catching a couple and we still need to do some of the babies, but they caught up all the horses and were very proficient. Impressed! Lost my memory card somewhere along the way, so, sorry, no pictures from the weekend. Sienna and Sierra are sold. Inquires on Glitter and Glitz. Franzi thinks Mac and Red are sold. And - Franzi may be able to visit for a couple of months this summer. Mac did awesome in lessons on the weekend. Kristine had a super ride on him, they both learned allot. 05/3/2009 I can tell this summer is going to be a blur, gone before we know it and definitely not enough time to get everything done we wish to do. Pictures of a fantastic getaway in Nova Scotia here , for Roland’s birthday and just because we needed a break. First little holiday together since last February! This weekend was crazy! Ramona cleaned out the entire tack room and we sorted through the huge piles she had. Then we took a kitten to the airport at 7 AM Saturday, toured around so Ramona could get a cowboy hat and boots then picked up Helle at the airport from Denmark at 2. People out to test allergies to the horses, Red on Friday, and then the cats. People to ride Kruzer and test allergies on Sunday, people for the poodles and kitties again. Someone stopped by looking for a palomino. And as usual we were eating supper at 9. Kristine came by for a lesson so we decided to bring in Pall for Helle to ride, Kristine did very well on Mac and Ramona was suppose to catch up Oakley, but Oaks and Annie knew what was up and headed for the hills. Soooo, Ramona got the privilege of riding Sally the Tinker!! Big smiles, will post some pics in the next day or so. 04/21/2009 Gone is another week and a half! Wow. Another very busy weekend. All of our puppies are gone now except for my favorite, the black boy, and Ramona's little brindle angle (whom she says she is taking to Germany!). Ramona and I set up the dog kennels during the week, cleaned the kitties house, rode horses, treated Sairephena for a rub from a feeder and last night had to treat Prince for a cut to his butt that we cannot figure out how he did. Always something. Saturday Claire started back riding and this year her mom is joining her! We also had a group of 5 out for beginner lessons on Sunday. 04/12/2009 Pictures of a Perfect Easter weekend. Friday have lots of help to bath up all the horses for the big photo shoot. Roland, Raquel, Ramona, Lisa, Reo, Chandra and Amanda all pitched in to make it fun filled day. That evening we colored Easter eggs!! Saturday was the photo shoot and a movie, Sunday saw us fighting fire! 04/08/2009 Looking for something to do on Friday?? Come and join us while we round up the horses and polish everyone up for the photo shoot Saturday! We are planning to make a fun afternoon with the horses and you are all welcome to come and join us welcome in spring!! Farrier out today to trim up some of the horses. Sally, Cookie, Ambrosia, Reilly and the donkies. Chico gave a wonderful performance last night. He was in tune and turning and stopping on a dime. 04/08/2009 Once again we are honored! Linda Finstad of A Sharper Image - Photography contacted us and wishes to photograph our amazing horses to be a part of a unique exhibit that will preserve the history of “Alberta’s Equines for future generations"!! The equine Heritage project will explore the richness and diversity of horses in the most ambitious photographic exhibit ever, commissioned by the Provincial Archives Museum. WOW! Linda is planning on arriving at the stables this Saturday to begin her shoot. Lots of work to do to polish up our ponies before then. Everyone is covered in mud and performing their spring shed. Discovered that Reilly escaped on Saturday. He now has a new home on the other side of the arena, away from the girls. He is not impressed! Our Mishka was friendly with Shajana yesterday. He also had a new girlfriend arrive today, Myshka from Edmonton. He'll be leaving for Florida soon, so best for him to see all his girlfriends before he leaves. 04/05/2009 On the road from 5 Saturday until 9 Sunday. 28 hours!! The roads were all good the sun shone the entire trip and Ramona was thrilled to see the Rocky mountains. Got home safe and sound with our new boy on the block and LOVE him!! He's GORGEOUS! and what a sweetheart. Didn't have time to groom him up, but will post more pictures in the next few days. BIG thankyou to Reo and Greg for spending most of Saturday trying to get my 1 ton truck going. Really appreciate the effort. Folly is off to see JJ. She gave us some trouble to load into the little baby trailer I had to borrow. Couldn't really blame her as she is close to 16hh now! Lisa, a gypsy from Ireland, came out from the stables Friday. She is the lady that came out with the Cowboy Country filming crew. She wants to get reacquainted with the horses. She spent the afternoon with Ramona and they worked some of the horses. When I got home we headed in to the Log home show. Was great to see everyone again, hard to believe it was only one year ago when we stood inside their home show and made the decision to build our dream home. 03/30/2009 Another great start to the week. Christine came by and spent a few hours with Flasha (Curly Sarah's filly and Mister (Misty's colt) and was thrilled to report that they were leading again and picking up their feet. Ramona rode Mac and Golden Girl, drove Sarah, Ambrosia, Chelsea, Kodiak, Chico. Keemah had her first driving lesson and was the super star of the night. Or maybe it was Chico whom Ramona rode without being led! Kruzer got his feet trim but we ran out of time to ride anymore. 03/27/2009 FANTASTIC weekend. Winter Trail Ride!! < BR> 03/25/2009 Time! Where is it?? Keeps slipping away. Ramona has been working some of the horses in this terrible, terrible weather. Riding Golden Girl, Mac and Kruzer right now. Last night we got back on Kodiak and Chico. Both were PERFECT!! Working Ambrosia, Chelsea and Keemah. Weaning Curly Sarah and will be riding her next week. Feels great to finally get back to the horses. Haven't worked them since last spring as we were just so busy with the house last summer. Love it!! Had a fantastic weekend in Vancouver for Amanda's birthday. Was great to get away to some warmer weather, see some green grass and open water. Came home to a blizzard and watched the fellow in front of me hit the ditch. 03/09/2009 Ramona arrived safe and sound from Germany on Friday. She missed her flight out of Vancouver and arrived late, but she is here! Not the best welcome to Alberta though. We had a terrible, terrible storm through the weekend. Knocked our internet out Thursday and didn't get it back until yesterday. White outs everywhere. People came up from Calgary Saturday to see our cats and there were 11 vehicles in the ditch at the Glen Park turn off. Just crazy. Saturday we were able to bring in Curly Sarah, Kodiak Braveheart, Chico, Golden Girl, Keemah, Chelsea and Angelic Ambrosia. Trimmed some feet and just tried to remind everyone that they still were domesticated horses and would have to work for a living!! Drove Chico (he forgot what reverse was), Kodiak (remembered everything), Golden Girl (what a sweetheart) and Keemah. Sarah was too upset that her baby got weaned, so she just got to chill. Will be brining Mac and Kruz back in also, but need some warmer weather!! Forecast for -30 tomorrow and finally heading up to plus 5 for Saturday!! Hooray!! 03/02/2009 Can't believe how chubby the puppies are! They look and sound like little sea lion pups!! Shilo is Black, Baxter black and white, and the pups are white, chocolate brown, a brindle color and one solid black and two black with white on their chest. Went to our winter pasture yesterday and trimmed up the feet on Winchester, LT, Fury, Nellie and Senza. Very impressed with how the babies behaved. Kristine has spent allot of time with them and it really showed yesterday. Can tell Senza is her favorite. Trimmed her feet without even being tied!! Had the camera out and ready to take pictures, and of course "replace the batteries"!! Never fails. Ramona May arrives Friday from Germany. Suppose to be -30 again on Wednesday, so she might just stay on the plane and head back home!! Might need to run to the US border in BC and pick up a cute little stud colt we are looking at. Franzi wants some Pinto color in our next years foals, so we have been searching. 02/24/2009 Surprise - We have puppies!! Our little Shilo surprised the heck out of all of us yesterday and had 7 little wonders. She was so fluffy we had no idea she was pregnant. Deb found her when she had 2 and got her all settled. 02/17/2009 Oh my, have I been tardy! Part of the excuse is our weather. It has been extremely cold here the last while and just no fun at all. Lots of horses moving right now. Gone are Anika and her foal, Martika and her foal and Evita and her foal. With these changes we are obviously going to refocus on our Curly and Gypsy program and only breed Folly to JJ. We have worked out a plan with Kim for exchanging some babies/breeding and look forward to new bloodlines for our curly herd. We will be expanding on the good old working class horses for all around Western/English disciplines. Franzi also has a client interested in Winchester which would really increase our possibilities for the up and coming years. Yes, lots of changes, all for the better, all with new possibilities. Our exchange student will be arriving in 2 weeks. Wow, where did that time go. Still don't have the basement finished and ready, but will get in high gear this next week. Vet out last Friday, in the -25 weather, to preg check a couple of the girls for export. We were thrilled to learn that Red is bred to Princers!! and speaking of Princers he has NEVER looked better. The old boy has grown hair back where he never had it since he arrived her. Last spring I tried Denise Conroy's treatment all over his body and it looks like it paid off. will do it again this spring and who knows, by next year he might even look like the Prince he is. Love that boy. 01/28/2009 Lots of good news around the stables, but there always seems to be a sad story. We received an email about our Baley in the Netherlands and found out that he had slipped at the stables and went down on his hip and broke it. He was improving after being stall confined for a couple of months only to go down on his other side and then Micha and her family had to make a decision none of us like to make. It is very sad as he had been there 6 months and had just bonded with everyone and all was going super. Brittany from Michigan is heart broke also as she had spent many, many hours with Baley and missed him the moment he left their yard. Our heart goes out to all. Everything happens for a reason, even though we never know what would have been worse at times like this. 01/23/2009 Update pictures of Maria riding Buffy in Germany! Buffy, SS Annie's Buffalo Girl, is the full sister to our SS Annie's Oakley, everyone's favorite at the stables. 01/20/2009 Wonderful pictures from Kristine and the babies she has been working with, Nellie's Rebel Tattoo Sensation (Senza), LT's Fury and Star's Starfire Governess. 01/04/2009 pictures of our new home. 12/22/2008 Hooray!!! We are moved in!! And -- Guess what -- the roof is still not finished. The last 3 weeks have been totally exhausting. Push, push, push. Working every night till at least midnight, some till after 2 AM. Back up every day at it again by 8. Last Thursday through Wednesday we had up to 18 people working to "get 'er done!" and we did. The plumbing, electrical and heat is not finished, but we have the essentials. We were suppose to be moved out of the old house by December 1st, but thank the heavens above, not only were they understanding, but were actually out there with us working on the house just so we could all make the transitions. Thankyou to all that pitched in, and a big thankyou that we are all still together and talking!! Takes ALOT of patience and understanding to accomplish what we did. Yesterday I did a bit of Christmas shopping, Raquel decorated a little tree we picked up and that will be the extent of our Christmas extravaganza this year. Next year we will do the house up, when we have a roof!! Surely they will have it finished by then!! Princess had her kittens last Thursday in the midst of all the confusion. Four little gray angels. Inquiries on Red and Ambrosia. One of our riding horses is sold as a Christmas present, so we won't know who until the surprise is released at Christmas. With all that has been going on we haven't had time to keep up with all the email inquiries on the cats and horses. I apologize for that but we should be back to normal after New Years. We wish each and every one of you the joy that this time of year beholds. May you have loved ones close to you, whether they be beast or human. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Deanna, Roland and Raquel Prior news The best link to our pictures and stories - Sunnybrook Stables Info! Those of you that follow our activities understand that I have limited space on each page to post news, so here are the links for previous news. For the earliest news go to The First News , and here for the news up to March 5th, 2004 , here for the April news , here for the news to June and here for the current news up to October!, to February, 2005 , and here to April, 2005 , to December 2005, to June 2006, to December 2006, to December 2008. WOW! WOW!! Thankyou to everyone that visits our site. Unbelievable report from our server - Most active month August 2004 : 21,416 pages sent. 2,513,693,295.00 served. 157,792 requests handled!! 
Picture on our way to the Top of The World in the Rocky Mountains. VISIT US We would love to have you come and visit us and spend some time with us and our horses. There are manyLocal Points of Interest or maybe take in one of our Western Fronteir Adventures  | |