Harry & the Fortnight Farm Horses Trip

Sunday, June 28th
Kristen discovered Harry had never been taught to back out of a trailer (TwinGates Farm trailer is large enough, they turned around and exited head-first) when she first got him home. Typical Harry, he puzzled it out and backed out for her. So, when she loaded everyone on the trailer to go to the farrier's, she was so happy with Harry's behavior, sent the following text:

Scary (Harry's nickname earned a yearling when he'd sneak up on our 30+ yr old Paso Fino 'baby sitter' Shorty, who had poor eyesight and hearing - Harry's 'sneak attacks scared him to death) got his new tootsies today. He self-loaded in the last slot for me and backs out thoughtfully. He's a doll!

June 2009: Harry's first entry!!

Kristen writes: Harry’s trip to Fortnight Ranch was a short, sweet 45 minute haul down I-35W. Harry arrived home with my parents and I late in the day on Thursday therefore I set him up in the barn with Boomer for the night. We have 4 equine beings on Fortnight Ranch (mini donkey: Bob, mule: Coppertop, and two horses: Kaboom and Toby) and Harry would be living out in our back 8 acres with Copper and Toby. I took Friday off of work in order to keep an eye on Harry as he settled into his new surroundings and to introduce him to his pasture buddies.

Introductions with Harry and the other horses were easy and non stressful. He is a very social guy and though he enjoyed the company of his new friends, I think he must have felt sad for Boomer (my horse who is kept up in the barn due to injury) because he stood in eye distance of Booms for several hours before joining the others to munch grass. After all, Boomer was Harry’s first bud on the new farm and they most likely stayed up all night long swapping life stories.

The first characteristic I noticed about Harry’s personality aside from his wonderful work ethic is that the boy loves to eat. When we call the horses up for dinner Harry is first to arrive at his bucket—and though he is overwhelmed with excitement he still stands patiently to be haltered and lead to his station. When dealing with multiple horses at feeding time patients and manners are a virtue, and Harry has both.

Finally Sunday morning I was able to ride Harry for the first time at our farm. I knew Harry was more than ready for his job so I tossed some trot poles down on the ground for his schooling.  He was foot perfect and effortlessly completed every task I asked of him. After his school in the arena I took him out on a hack. We walked up and across the berm that surrounds our pond, through the treed section of our property, around the main farm house, work shed, and some scary farm equipment, and back to the barn.  He did all of this whilst maintaining compete composure. The neighbors large German Shepards even ran to the fence barking and Harry did not spook, flinch or hurry. Very impressive behavior for a four year old in new surroundings. 

Though I am sad to have lost the use of my preliminary level horse, Kaboom, I’m so thankful to have found Kim and Harry.  Training and competing Harry will defiantly fill the void that has existed in my heart for the past 12 months. He fits in so perfectly at our farm and is an asset to my program. I would also like to thank Marta Marks and Rachel Birkes (they know why *wink*), and my parents, Tommy and Cheryl Weekes for their ongoing support.  

May 2009, Manny at Aspen Farms Horse Trials

Well, this is my second try at the blog today.  My original is lost in cyberspace or is trapped somewhere in my laptop!

We just returned home from Aspen Farms Horse Trials.  This was our first time at this event and the venue is just 3 years old.  The courses are very well done with lots of the jumps being portables.  Aspen Farm is located just south of Olympia Washingtopn and we were expecting to have rainy weather.  We had wonderful sunny weather for dressage day and overcast for cross country day.  It doesn't get much better than that!

I don't think that Manny had ever seen so many trees and of course he was sure that a mountain lion would jump out at any time.  His dessage ring was just through the trees form where show jumping was being set up.  The tensness of his test sort of set the tone for the weekend.  He just could not seem to relax.  He started out on xc a bit tentative but then he really got "on course" and was jumping better than ever.  I was so happy with how he was handling the trees and all the people watching and then, near the end of the course,  we came to the brightly died water.  He just couldn't get over the look of it and our day ended there.  I was a bit surprsed as he had jumped the rest of the course like a pro.  Oh well. He was a bit hard to steer around the trees in the show jumping, but all in all, it went quite well.

I think that manny learned a lot at Aspen Farm.  I schooled him today and was just sooo good.  I think we are ready for the next event!

Manny was fitted for a new County dressage saddle a couple of weeks ago.  I am really looking forward to it arriving!

April 2009, Manny at Twin Rivers International Horse Trials

Sara writes: Last week was the event at Twin Rivers Ranch in Paso Robles CA. This is a beautiful event with wonderful courses. My dad and I had 5 horses between us, so we were planning for a busy week.

Twin Rivers is a 2 day drive for us. We overnight in Bishop, CA at a lovely fairgrounds. The horses all traveled well and the trip was uneventful.

The wind was howling when we arrived at the Ranch and we saw riders out hacking and they were wearing goggles to protect their eyes from the blowing sand. I was prepared for a fast trip to Walmart if the wind didn't subside. The wind did stop and the tempurature climbed into the 90s for the rest of the week. The horses didn't seem to notice the weather change and we all had some good schools before the show started.

Manny is very new to eventing and really even to being outside of an arena. I was looking forward to seeing how he would handle the atmosphere of a big event. I would say, for a newby, that he handled the dressage warmup well, almost too well, as one of the judge's remarks was "a little lazy at times". Overall the test was even and steady and focused. I was very pleased that he was so professional.

Show jumping was next for us. He got scared once in warm up when another horse nearly ran into us. I just jumped a couple of fences and then walked around until our turn. I made sure than Manny got a quick tour of the course after the bell, but before we crossed the start line. There were a few themed jumps that he had never seen before and I wanted him to take a look before he had to actually jump over them. He did pull one rail, but for the most part he held a good steady rhythm and was confident around the course.

Cross country was going to be the biggest test. He did not like the little kids bombing around warm on their little ponies. That really on edge. He started on course not really "on course" in his brain. It took a bit of encouragement on my part get him going. He learned as we went and got into a flow, until we got to the water, when he went into neutral and stood staring at his reflection in the water. I finally back him into the water and then he just stood there. He finally got going again and finished the course. He had a very good school and when all was said and done I think he felt like he had done something special.

We are home now for about a month. I have several schooling opportunities planned for him and an unrec. event derby. He will be a much more experience horse when he leaves the start box at our next event.

March 15th 2009: Manny and the Monster Ditch

Sara writes: Manny arrived in Idaho after several days on the shipper's van. He was a great traveller and ate and drank well. 

The next day he was perky and looking for something to do. He brought along some of his usual hay from Texas, but we would have to change him over to our local alfalfa hay. I thought that we could add a bit of alfalfa to his grass hay each day and make the change over a week or 10 days. Well, that didn't work. Once he tried out the alfalfa hay he just used the grass as a pillow. 

He was due for a re-shoe and since we had the farrier at our farm the next day, I asked him to take a look at Manny's feet. He said, "we need to get some rads of these feet". We like to get radiographs of all the horses feet sooner or later anyway, so we arranged for that to happen asap. The vet and farrier consulted and Manny got new shoes and reshaped feet. He had too much heel on one front and not enough on the other. He will have a wedge pad for a few weeks and then another reset will hopefully do the trick.

We needed to give him some time to adjust to the new angles of his front feet, so he was just hacking for the first week. This did give him some time to get to know the lay of the land, ie: which hiding places go with which cat and where the dogs sleep. He also got a close up look at the Canada Geese that roost on the hay barn.

We are finally off and running with his training. He must have been absent when the dressage teacher taught "whoa" because he doesn't have that skill set. It's getting better day by day.

Last week he was a demo horse for a USEA Instuctor certification workshop. He got to do some show jumping and some cross country jumping. He was introduced to his first ditch and after giving it a good looking over he gave it a huge jump. 

It seems like we are off to a good start and I want Manny to have a good experience with me, so we take our time and build his skill and confidence. I am looking forward to taking him on the road with my other two horses!

Welcome to our new blog site

Our two youngsters Herzmond (aka Manny) and Harry Houdini (aka Harry) are 5 and 4 years old in 2009  and are heading into their first competition season in eventing. Manny has some show experience from dressage, but has now teamed up with **** rider Sara Mittleider - a combination we are very excited about. Now based in Idaho, Manny and Sara are traveling throughout the NorthWest for their show season. And Harry is now leased to Area V Preliminary Eventer Kristen Wertz, who is introducing him to water, logs and ditches now.

Both riders have agreed to participate in our blog with monthly updates and we have plenty of wonderful photos we will share here. Additionally, other offspring sired by our Grand Prix Show Jumper Tzigane *Pb* are now beginning their show careers and it is here that you will be able to read about them! Enjoy!!