Todays topic.......SNOW!

Got some more again yesterday. Now we´re aproaching a foot of snow since the day before yesterday. Kids are lovin it!! Finally the get to use their sleds, snowracers and skis. The animals kinda likes it too.
Ragnar up to some mischief...

Worked Brady in the snow yesterday and he did great. Didn´t put any preassure on him and just worked on simple stuff, slow and easy. He responded with a solid workout, stopping, drawing and turning. The two feet of snow in the work pen made the pace somewhat limited and maybe that was the key? He couldn´t go full throttle and that way both him and, maybe more importantly, I were relaxed.
Brady





Agusta 5/6 Non-Pro and Open finals today. I think Dont Look Twice and Phil Rapp will walk away with the Championchip with Hangem Cat second. Scores? 224 for Dont Look Twice and maybe 220 for Hangem.

Saturday also marks the first day of the Circle Y SRCHA Derby where last years 3 yearolds run in to older horses for the first time. Last Years 1-2-3 in the 2009 NRCA Futurity, Raymanator, Picka Patcha Pepto and Shiners Nickle, will go head to head wit the likes of CD Dee Vee Dee, Mr Playingstylish etc.
Raymanator

Picka Patcha Pepto

Shiners Nickle

More Snow!

And a lot of it!
Tiffany Brodda
This is what it looked like at the track yesterday! Can You tell me who´s winning? It was really coming down, and getting home at night after the races was a serious adventure in it self.
For those of you who´s not familiar with our location, we live on an island and our contact with the mainland is by ferry only. Now this chunk of metal only runs once an hour after 11pm and the races usually end by 10, so I usually have just barely enough time to make it. This fact kinda makes all of us Islanders somewhat of a liability going home (most people work in town, off the island) and yesterday was no exception. Let´s just say I´m thankful for my 4wheel drive! To make matters more interesting there´s no shortage of wildlife out towards Adelsö, and sometimes there´s a regular gauntlet with moose, deer and boars crossing the road. Luckily yesterday it was just bad, bad road and a few folks who shouldn´t have been out driving! I made the ferry just barely, palefaced, white knuckles and all!
Starstruck Ichi
Between races I had time to watch the second go of the Augusta Futurity and again, no one really separated themselves from the pack but a lot of good, solid runs.
Catlike Kit - Phil Rapp and Cat A Ray - Brad Mitchell both scoring 219 and a couple of others in the higher teens. The favorite in the finals Saturday? To me it´s a toss up between a handful of horses, Starstruck Ichi I really like and if Austin Shepard can clean up his cuts a little I think he´s got the best chance. But Smooth O´Toole, Bet Hesa Cat, Cat A Rey and Catlike Kit have shown they can score high so I don´t know...
Peak Easy
As for the Peeka Peps, Peak Easy made his second straight Open Final and of course he also has a chance! He´s maby not quite up there with the best yet and he was a little too ambitious on his cows last night and got up on them a bit too much. If Tommy Marvin can settle him down a little he atleast should bring home a decent check.
CP Peekn Sneakin Blue
The 4 yo Non-Pro starts to day and in the fourth set is another Peeka Pep; CP Peekn Sneakin Blue with owner Lloyd Baxley in the saddle.

Augusta 2

Followed the Augusta Futurity´s main event, the 4 yo open first go, last night and it´s a really tight race. No performer´s really sticking out yet. Looks like anybody in the top 20 or so could walk away with the championship. The winner of the first go Smooth O´Toole and Jason Clarke scored a 219 and 24 others are within 4 points of the leader. That´s only 1.3 points per judge they are trailing with, not much of a margin. We´ll se wednesday if some one seperates from the rest in the second go. The Peeka Pep colt Peak Easy scored a 217 and looked great for Tommy Marvin, who by the way have 3 horses in the top 10!

Today is the second go of the 5/6 yo Classic with Hangem Cat and Don´t Look Twice battling away in the first set and with up and coming Playing With a Cat and Austin Shepard in the third. The other Peeka Pep I like to watch is Peeka Peps Cat-Tommy Marvin who´s first in the second set.

Augusta Futurity 1

Hangem Cat- Wesley Galyean
The 5/6 year old Classics Open first round was pretty thrilling when two of the leading horses the last couple of years went 1-2 in the first goaround. High Brow CD went first in the bunch and had a decent run going until he got long on a cow, got stuck and fell behind resulting in a lost cow. The cuts up to that point hadn´t been as clean and descisive as you´d want but with his style and intencity he was still in it. Rider Austin Shepard left the working area before time expired resulting in a score of 0.

Second to work was Phil Rapp and Don´t Look Twice (High Brow Cat x Tapt Twice x Dual Pep). Last years Augusta Futurity champion worked extremely well and marked a 220 wich put him in the lead until last years Tunica Futurity winner Hangem Cat (High Brow Cat x Hangem High Playboy x Freckles Playboy) was up. Hangem and rider Wesley Galyean didn´t make any mistakes and showed flashes of brilliance scoring 224 to take the lead. Second go is on Tuesday and also making the cut is Tommy Marvin and Peeka Peps Cat. He rarely makes a mistake but is not the flashiest of performers and was awarded the score of 215 by the judges.

Peeka Peps Cat- Tommy Marvin

New Book

(cover)
Working on a new book about the history of the Californio Vaquero. It´s based on the article series that ran in Hästfocus last year. Some new material about the gear, it´s functions and use will be in there as well. Don´t have a date for when it will be finished but I´ll keep you posted...

Another weekend in the books...

Sunday´s justabout over. Worked covering the races at the track today, not much of a thrill. Earlier today me and Annelie worked the highlandcows again with Brady and Avenir.
Brady was abit obnoxious during the warmups probably because he was only let out for an hour or two before we brought them in, saddled and headed out. He likes his routine, 12-15 hours out, in to get some hay, relax and then work!

On the cows he was pretty good though. Just worked three head but he did really good and I believe he´s starting to get it.
(Brady, lost in the woods?)
Rode him outside saturday, through the woods on a winding, narrow trail that goes on for miles across the Island. Just mosying along to get a brake in the routine.

The bosal is coming along... the core is finished and I´m doing nosebutton groundwork now. A couple of Spanish ring knots which will be covered later with the braiding, marks the ends of the nosebutton.
Ida & Elton
Ida is loping around, changing leads and working her pony Elton like a pro! Really great to see her handling the horse so well.

Norsten!

(old pic)
Worked Brady on the Mechanical Cow yesterday. The kids when they first saw the "cow", named him Norsten. Don´t know why, but seems like kids needs to name just about everything. We´ve got names for cars, rocks, you name it...oh, wait the kids already have!

Anyway, Brady worked great. We still got a foot of snow in the work-pen so I had to drag it first. It´s a bit slippery with snow buildup under the hoofs, so we had to go slow and easy, something Brady´s not to keen on doing, he likes it fast and furious! He took things really well though and had plenty of patience and wait in him. No breathtaking moves or anything but stopped good, drew and turned pretty nice with "Norsten".

10 minutes was plenty as I was really pleased with his work and we ended on a very good note.

Augusta Futurity starts today with the 5/6 classic Amateur division. Peeka Peps Cat (Peeka Pep) works in the first bunch and we´ll keep our eyes on him.

Some really nice horses, several from the Futurity, is entered in the 4year old div Peek Easy among them . In the 5/6 open High Brow CD goes against Don´t Look Twice, the open 1-2 in the first set!

New stud part 2

Seems like I was a bit hasty in flashing the new stud before you all!

There seems to be some problem shipping seemen to us this year so it´ll probably have to wait until 2011.

Tomcat Chex was of course the stud. And if You analyze his pedigree you´ll find the industrys leading sire High Brow Cat on a great daughter of Bueno Chex, Miss Reed Chex.

Miss Reed Chex also produced Lil Miss Smarty Chex NRCHA $18.000 who in turn have produced offspring earning close to $ 400.000, Shiny Lil Miss $89.000 NRCHA Futurity Res.Champion being one of them.

That´s what I look for in a stud, a damside that produces! Just about every stud out there has his papers in order on the top side, but not all of them have the bottomside covered.

Tomcat himself has won over $100.000 in the cutting pen in somewhat limited showing mostly on the west coast. The big bucks is payed out in Texas as far as cutting go.

He stands 14.3 and weighs in at 1100 pounds. He´s got a very good mind and his conformation is great and he really seem to stamp his babies with the same eye appeal he has.

I´ll keep you posted on how things turn out...

New Stud

This guy will, by the looks of things, be making Spanish Sue Reed happy this spring, and us hopefully even happier in 2011!!

More about him when it´s official...

Abilene Spectacular 2010

Yesterday marked the last day of competition in the Abilene Spectacular. As has been the norm lately the Dual Rey´s were dominating!

4 year old open:
1. Reyminate- Paul Hansma, score:226 money:$25.000(Dual Rey)
2. Short of Reymarkable-Dave Stewart, score:225 money:$18.000(Dual Rey)
Reyminate
4 year old NonPro:
1.Phils Pull Toy-Leah Hanson score:223 money:$15.537 (Dual Pep)

4 year old Amateur:
1.Smooth Alley Cat-Luis De Armas score:216 money:$4.500(Smooth As A Cat)

5/6 year old open:
1.Third Cutting-Boyd Rice score:227 money:$12.000(Boonlight Dancer)
Thid Cutting
5/6 year old Non Pro:
1.This Kats King-Mary Ann Rapp score:224 money:$13.000(High Brow Cat)
This Kats King
5/6 year old Amateur:
1.Purely Rey-Laura Landers score:219 money:$4.000(TR Dual Rey)
Purely Rey

Kick the Cat

Quarterhorse, filly born 2009.

Last but not least in our presentation of our horses is Cat. We had to wait awhile on this one as we had some serious trouble getting her mama in foal. We imported seemen from cutting bred stud Wild Thing DNA. A Smart Little Lena son with the wonderful Autumn Boon as dam. Wild Thing earned $115.000 for owner/breeder Bill Freeman before being retired to stud.

On our last try, the last straw of seemen, the mare took! The redish, bony heap of legs that was foaled out in the pasture last spring had us thinking there was some mixup with the seemen, as we store it at a standardbred breeding facility. But she started filling out eventually and though she still is a leggy creature she´s starting to show the graceful moves of her mothers.

She´s not built in the cuttinghorse mold, with hocks close to the ground, low headset and all of that but she shows deffinate bridlehorse looks. That classic headset and rise in the chest you want. She´s red though, with a will of her own wich she clearly demonstrates every now and then. I really like her though as she´s both personable and affectionate and should be a really fun horse to work and ride.

She´ll be started slow and easy in the California bridlehorse tradition when the time comes and we´ll take it from there.

Sad to see him go...

Delivered P.J. to his new home on Friday. Will miss that horse immensly!

Also brought Brady with us to work him out at Styrbjörns. We did some drywork for about an hour working on moving shoulders and couter canters, stops, spins and what not. Not Bradys favourite passtime but something him and I both need to work on.

After that we brought in the cows and worked on cuts from the herd. It was colder than ... and after some 20 minutes working cows we finished for the day with frost in the beard, numb limbs and feet feeling like blocks of ice. -24 celsius or 10-12 F below. Brrr!!!

Sweet Lil Angel

Quarterhorse, filly born 2009.

"Molly" is a full sister to P.J. , below. She´s been special from day one! The snow was still on the ground when foaled March 13, and when let out she showed some serious moves!! She jumped, raced and slammed on the brakes, sat down and just slid!

She´s without a doubt the best one we´ve had so far. She´s put together just right with plenty of muscle, low headset and straight, clean legs. She´s quiet and affectionate and loves people.

She´s for sale, as more or less everything around here, but let´s just say I wont be terribly upset if she´s not sold!!


Molly allready stands quiet for vet and farrier and bathes without fuss. It´ll be fun to start this one and something I really look forward to.

Ima Peppy Pistolero

Quarterhorse, colt born 2008.

Had to hurry and put him in here as he´s sold and will be delivered to his new home on Friday!

This is P.J. , a horse I regretted selling the moment the deal was struck! He´s by Silver Royal Pistol and Justa Bita Pep. His sire is by Smart Little Pistol and a Royal Silver King-Dry Doc mare and I really like what I see thus far. I bought his mother while he was still in her womb last winter. She foaled in the states and was rebred to Silver Royal Pistol before being shipped over here. From the moment I saw him I thought he was special. His coat glimmered like copper, and he moved with all the style and agillity you could want in a cowhorse.

He´s been a true pleasure to be around and handle. You show him something once and he picks it up like he´s done nothing but all his life. Sensetive, kind and respectful, a true gentleman. He´s got all the moves you look for in a cutter and thats the direction he will be headed at his new owners. One of our premiere trainers, Styrbjörn Persson bought him and his future should be bright! He will get more of an opportunity to show there than he would if I kept him...

He will be missed though!

New Years resolution

This is my resolution for 2010!

I´m going to finish all the projects I´ve got laying around!
First up is the Bosal I started 6 months ago. I prepared the core but then it kinda died out. Hopefully, when finished, it´ll be a semi-stiff, 5/8th, 12-plait latigo bosal with a twisted rawhide core. Problem being my hands that hurt after braiding for an hour or so. (A little reminder from my martial arts days with busted knuckles and what not)
Happy New Year to You All!!!