Our First Ride at the New Farm!

Well this weekend we had some really whacky weather and on Saturday we had rain, marble size hail, lightening and wind. But alas on Sunday the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. So Reilly and I decided to go riding for the first time at our new farm in Lockhart, TX. We walked out to the pasture where the mares were basking in the beautiful sunshine... This first photo is Nikki and Kohela.
This next photo is of Prima Bella KA - one of the most winning Straight Egyptian Arabian Mares in the country in both halter and performance. Today Bella just hangs out at our farm having fun and being played with by us and having foals. She is my favorite riding horse because she is so calm and reliable on her feet. And you will notice that she is ALWAYS listening to me to see if I have anything important to tell her.

Oh I have to warn you that the photo quality in these photos isn't the best. That is because I am using a little digital camera and I'm usually either walking around or riding a horse. In both of these scenario's its hard to be still to take a photo... So this next photo is of Reilly walking Brenna to the barn to be brushed. All the mares rolled in the mud on Saturday and were filthy. We just brushed them up and away we went... Finally saddled and up Reilly is having a great time riding Brenna through the big pasture....






















I tried to get a photo of myself, but since Reilly didn't have a camera - all I could get is my shadow! I have alot more to tell you about our ride, but for now I must go to bed! More tomorrow!

Going to Scottsdale for the 2008 Arabian Show

I'm so excited to be going to this years Scottsdale Arabian Horse show! Liz Salmon and I are covering the show for Arabian Essence Magazine and I'm absolutely thrilled. My goal is to get a great photo for a cover of The Arabian Magazine.

Its a beautiful day here in Lockhart, TX and I'm going to be working on training Aspecial Ali, Bellisimo BCR, KA Sultan's Diva and Prima Bella KA. Also going to be setting up the 2nd round pen! The photo I've posted is of the first new round pen which is really top notch!

Teaching Special to Drive

We worked today training Special in the long lines. We let him run around in the round pen with the surcingle to get him used to it. He did a little hopping until he was used to the surcingle, but he then got the hang of it!
We next put Special in the long lines and Reilly made sure that Special stayed on the outside of the round pen.. This was really great as we were able to teach him to turn left and right all from the comfort of the center of the round pen. This worked fairly well although Special kept wanting to stop. Eventually we were able to keep him moving forward even with the pressure of the long lines.

Next we got behind Special and drove him in the long lines. He did a great job. He was particularly good at stopping and backing up... And each time he did his job correctly - Reilly went up to him and pet him so he knew he did a great job! I was so impressed that Special was not afraid of having me behind him and that he stopped so easily with my voice commands and with a little pressure on the long lines to whoa. I don't think it will be that difficult to get Special comfortable with pulling a cart or wagon. I've always thought it would be alot of fun to go for a ride around the neighborhood with one of our horses.

The Different Ways of Training Horses

Reilly and I have been working on getting Special and Bellisimo conditioned. We have very different styles and its interesting to see how effective our methods are. Reilly really believes in trying to form a partnership with the horse and trying to earn a horses respect through native indian methods. I on the other hand use more traditional methods of working on respect. We each worked on lunging Special in the new round pen - which by the way is the best round pen I've ever seen. It is super heavy duty and perfect for a stallion.

Reilly was using the lunge line to move the horse away by sort of throwing the line at the horse. I on the other hand just free lunge using a lunge whip. Special has some really great movement and now that he had gained some weight and muscle is really lifting up in front as well as driving from behind.

Special is giving me a little trouble in that he keeps creeping forward on me... So we will be working on that first and make sure he has his foundation down solid before we work on his actual "standup".

He is really enjoying being out in the big pasture to run around - he loves to gallop and show off.

Had a Photo Shoot of ME!

Well this was an interesting week.... I had my first professional photo of myself taken in over 20 years! Well that is not true - 11 years ago I did have wedding photos.... So this was great fun! Bulldog Solutions has an amazing photographer who is in charge of corporate photos and so I had the opportunity to meet renown photographer - Dennis Fagan who happens to be based here in Austin, TX. Dennis was the official photographer for the Lyndon B. Johnson historical archive and took many photos of the Johnson family. The studio was wonderful. I walked from room to room looking at beautiful photos of Ladybird Johnson in a field of bluebonnets, and several of Dennis's amazing pieces from his equine fine art collection. Dennis was kind enough to give me a few lessons on utilizing histograms to ensure proper exposure... He also gave me some additional pointers on white balance and shooting in RAW format. I am hoping to have an opportunity to learn some additional techniques from him and see more of his work in the future. He has an equine exhibit opening up in Longview, TX in February. I'm going to get all the details on his exhibit and make sure that our arabian horse lovers in that area are aware of the exhibit. For more information on Dennis - check out: http://fagan.com/ You will be blown away by his portfolio... In particular I love his "MUSIC" portfolio - definitely impressive!

Forgot to tell you I got a New Job

I forgot to mention that I got a new job at a company on the cutting edge of lead marketing. The company is called Bulldog Solutions and my new manager is my ex-CEO from HotData - Johnny Anderson. I love the company because I'm finally getting to sell marketing solutions that improve sales teams ability to close deal faster.... This is the same thing that I did when I started my own company back in 1998 (MarketIT). Now however we have 50 people instead of just me and the company is very well respected in the industry of Web 2.0 marketng. Web 2.0 is the term which describes the idea of having more 2 way communication on the web.

I am actually looking forward to using some of the web marketing solutions at Bulldog in my Horse Marketing World... I'm turning in my USEF professional status next week so that I can market horses for other people as well as train horses professionally down the road.

I set a personal goal of lising 50 lbs for the Egyptian Event and showing my filly - Diva in the Open Class. My good friend Samantha said that she would publish my photo if I did that!!! How is that for inspiration...

My friend Diana Cantey made me some beautiful stallion post cards for marketing the boys. I'm going to bring them to Scottsdale and Vegas and also mail them to a few hundred of my favorite friends!!! I love promoting and PR!!! And I feel so fortunate to have people who are so supportive like Di!

I spoke with Robert Cass and I'm hoping he will come visit soon and help me figure out what to do to "beautify" my big red metal barn! Its been raining like cats and dogs so visitors are out for now...

I'm looking forward to doing some training of the horse next weekend and perhaps some in the evenings if it will stop raining!!!

Carol

What are you looking forward to in 2008

So here we are in our new home in Lockhart, TX. We were able to celebrate our first Thanksgiving and our first Christmas in the new house. It has been a whirlwind of projects - everything from putting up over 4800 feet of new fencing to adding 9 more beautiful stalls. The garage is packed to the ceiling with boxes and my grandfather's piano is now in our living room.... What a difference a few months make... Reilly got me a new round pen for Christmas and now it looks like we have a state of the art training and breeding facility.

Alot has happened lately - everything from getting a call from Gigi Grasso and being invited to collaborate on a new and exciting project with him, to hearing more from my good friend Robert Cass who is always a great source of inspiration to me. I'm really looking forward to having him come over and see the new farm. I have made some new friends - in particular Candi Weeks who I am glad to be getting to know. Aspecial is doing well and should be coming over to the new farm by next weekend as this is when all the new stalls will be complete. I am thinking of taking him to the EE this year. I would love to get him under saddle so that people could see his versatility. The new year has just begun and I have many exciting plans which include showing my filly professionally at the EE, moving forward in working on some equine consulting efforts and getting in the best shape of my life. So what are you goals for 2008? I'd love to hear about them... Please reply to this post and let us know what your plans include!