Lots of fine horses!

A lot of cowhorse and cutting in this blogg, I know. It just so happens, next to ranching, raising and developing Hackamore and Bridle horses, that´s where my interest lie. The unbelieveble athletisism and bodycontrol theese cowhorses and cutters display along with their willingness to work cattle....there´s nothin like it. If you ever rode a good cutter or cowhorse, chances are your hooked. Now, I might not agree with all the methods and equipment used to develop theese youngsters or the rush most trainers are in, but I´m still extreemely fascinated by the individuals and the sport.

The NRCHA Futurity finals are Sunday, but on Saturday we´ll get to see the Hackamore & Bridle finals. It´s your usual suspects where CD Dee Vee Dee, as always, leads the pack in the hackamore followed by some pretty good horses in Grays Fancy Twist, Jenny Spark & Fletch My Cow. In the hunt is also a couple of my favourites: Smart Boons, Nabisco Roan and Picka Patcha Pepto. Our friend Les Vogt didn´t make the finals on his fine Nick It In The Bud colt Nic It unfortunately.

CD Dee Vee Dee
In my oppinion, CD Dee Vee Dee will walk away with this one too.

Olena Oak won the Open Bridle prelims.
Olena Oak
This fine stallion is standing stud at the Oasis Ranch, Ca. Oasis owners Pete & Marilyn Bowling are having their annual production sale October 9th. Some great looking colts for sale! Check out the Cowboy at Heart and the Yellow Roan of Texas babies!

Cowboy At Heart colt

Yellow Roan of Texas colt

Horse sales aplenty right now! Just sickening to look at all the fine horses I can´t afford to buy. On the other hand you kinda forget you have some pretty decent horses in your own barn. I do have a fine yearling and very promising soon to be weanling filly!

Not just the cowhorse sales either that draws your attention.
This week is also "Futurity"Week in Sweden. Here, the major equine event is harness racing. Trotting in particular. The countrys 12 best 3 year olds fight it out this Sunday in the Swedish Kriterium. 1.600.000 Sek to the winner! Thats close to $240.000!!!! For one race...mind boggling! The fillies race for a round million Sek first prize ($150.000)

There is also the Kriterie Sale, featuring 623 yearlings over 4 day´s! Finding buyers for well over 600 horses? Come on, that´s just ridiculous! If more than half of them find new owners I´d be surprised. Should be able to make some killer buy´s though if you´re in the market!

Auction horses

With both the Cowhorse Futurity finals and the NRCHA select 2yo sale coming up I was intrigued by how last years select sale horses did in this years Futurity.

10 highest selling horses at the select 2yo auction 2009:


Wright On Time did place 2nd in the NSHA Futurity earlier this summer.

Other observations in correlation to saleprice/performance: You could´ve had the current nr 3 and thus finalist, No Chic Flicks for a meesly $10.200, current nr 20 Heart of a Remedy for $15.000.

For those of you wanting to own a futurity finalist, there´s still time! 12th in the prelims and selling at the performance horse sale Friday is Sheza Dancingdiamond & 23rd and also a finalist, Abbey Roan!!

The above duo also share another interesting or disturbing (take a pick) fact, their dams each have two offspring in the finals! A third mare also have 2 finalists:

Pandalita Star - finalists: No Chic Flicks, Slide Me Please
Sheza Shinette -finalists: Sheza Dancingdiamond, Hes Shinettes CD
Stylin Jewel -finalists: Halo Cat, Abbey Roan

I can see the economics in harvesting eggs and transplanting them to a recepient mare to be able to have more offspring to market. I JUST DON`T CARE FOR IT!
It´s not like you´re trying to feed the hungry or produce a vaccine to cure people, in wich case I wouldn´t have a problem with the technology. But when plain old greed is the motivating factor, then, atleast in my book, it´s WRONG! (There I said it...)

Brazos bash

Got some more results for you...

The Open finals of the Brazos bash is finishing up today and we´ve got our friend Peak Easy (Peeka Pep) & Tommy Marvin in the 4yo finals tonight.

Peeka Bunny (Peeka Pep) & Marvin had a miss in the first go of the 3yo (208) and although they scored a decent 215,5 in the second go, they missed the finals. Sanjo Play (Playdox - Sanjo Marla) and Craig Thompson placed 1st with a 224 and earned $20.000.

In the 5/6 Classic, Cherry Chex Dually (Hes A Peptospoonful) & Ed Flynn scored 222 and walked away with the $20.000 prize.

Brady back on track

Worked Brady a little harder today. I´ve been easying him along for awhile as he´s been a bit nicked up and stiff lately. He was back to his usual self and felt petty good. A bit chargy out in the fields but simmered down after covering some country. Spun good, leadchanges were very good and an over all solid performance. Picked up the bridle some and he answered really well. He has a few x-tra pounds we need to loose also, so baring any setbacks we´ll step things up alittle. Windy and really cold today, fall is here and it´s getting dark really quick now.
Brady

Here´s the finalists for the NRCHA Futurity by the way. The prelims ended today and the top 25, out of the 240 entries, shoot it out in the finals this Sunday.

El Sueco

Kick The Cat
Kick The Cat has been operated on and is doing pretty good. She´s in an outside stall for two weeks while she heals up. She´s right next to her buddies Diva & Molly and handles it really well. The prognosis is somewhat sketchy, but hopefully she´ll be as good as new in a few months. Thankfully she´s a pretty quiet lady and we hope that´ll keep her from straining the injured pastern too much.

Kia and "The Sweede"
We got a visit from an old friend last night. Kia and her trotter "El Sueco" came down to stay with us for the week. El Sueco is entered in the national V75 finals races here at Solvalla next Saturday. He doesn´t travel well and Kia wanted to give him plenty of time to recoperate before the race.

It´s a pretty cool but long story so I´ll just give you the basics. Kia bought him last year for next to nothing as she wanted a calm, gentle horse to fool around with at home. He had never raced and was pretty worn down when she got him. She started training him and things moved along to the point where she descided to try him in a qualifier at the track. It went well and she then enetered him in his first race wich he won by a mile. Now, 7 months later, he boasts a record of 12 starts, 8 wins, 3 thirds and a 4th!! Earning close to 400.000 Sek ($55.000!) Not bad for a 5 year old, washed up trotter trained by a "nobody" from the land of santa´s and raindeer!!

El Sueco
He´s breeding isn´t much to write home about, but that´s what makes it so neat! You don´t have to be a millioneer and own the fanciest stock around to have success!!

More cowhorse

Uppdated leaderboard after Tuesdays herdwork. A couple of more sets to go today to complete the herdwork portion of the prelims. Thursday-Saturday is reinwork followed by the cowwork Monday-Tuesday.

Notice if you will Boyd Rices horse Billie Burke Boon, that´s right a full brother to last years Reserve Champion Picka Patcha Pepto! Also full brother (in blood) to: drrrrr, drrrr (drum roll) Peeka Pep. Did I mention I have a gorgeous Peeka Pep filly this year? :))

Billie Burke Boon




As a yearling

NRCHA Futurity

Here we go! The cowhorse futurity in Reno is underway and after yesterdays herdwork the leader board looks as follows:


As always some really tough critters out there and they got the best of some pretty good horses and riders. You still find your usual suspects in the top 2o, Phil Ralls, Corey Cushing, Boyd Rice, Anne Reynolds etc.
They action continues Thursday for the open horses when Reinwork is on the menue.

Diva

Worked with the fillies alittle today. Loading etc. They more or less just walks right in there. Got some pics of Diva for her owner Helene today. She was foaled here but she´s leaving us in two weeks. A little sad...
She´s looking pretty good



yearling and already 16 hands!

She´s got some spunk in her too

Kick The Cat also stuck on some...






I like this filly more and more. It´s going to be fun starting her

Some pics

Mornings lookover in the mare pasture. The grass has more or less lost its nutrition and we´re moving them upp to the winterpasture tomorrow where it´s easier to feed. They sure are looking good though as you can see.
Super Man & Sessan



Peppy & Polly



Polly



Showing some moves





Also took a trip to look at theese little darlings. 50% Bordercollie, 25% poodle 25% Goldenretriever should make an interesting mix!!

Rex, Gizmo & Amigo.

Mommy is a Golden/Poodle cross

Music City Futurity

Cutting Futurity season is upon us and the Music City Futurity is underway this week. The results from the open divisions are in and the action continues with the Non-Pro today.

3 yo Open Futurity

Reserve Futurity Open Champion was Peeka Bunny (Peeka Pep x Hickorys Bunny x Docs Hickory) and Tommy Marvin. They cut from the last draw in the finals and fell one point short of RPL Ich This (Cat Ichi x Ruby Deuce x Smart Little Jerry) and Phil Rapp. Peeka Bunny marked a 216 earning $15,282. Peeka Bunny and Tommy won the Futurity division at the Missouri Futurity earlier this month.

Peeka Pep
Peeka Bunny’s sire, Peeka Pep, has sired 11 cutting earners in his first two limited crops, including two NCHA Futurity finalists. His offspring’s winnings, after the Music City Futurity Open, total $202,256. (I mention this ofcourse as I´m just a "tad" partial to the Peeka Peps...)


4 yo Open
Falcon Feather (Cats Red Feather x Docs Miss N Dinero x Miss N Cash) and Matt Miller split the win in the 4 yo with GP Scooter Cat (High Brow Cat x Playguns Satin Cat x Playgun) ridden by Jamie Beamer scoring 219 and earning $ 18.000 each.

5/6 yo Open

Desires Katrina (High Brow Cat x Desire Some Freckles x Freckles Playboy) blew away the competition in the 5/6 yo Open marking a 224. In a really tough set, Desires Katrina and Matt Miller made no mistakes and beat the reserv champ Special Nu Kitty and R.L.Chartier by 5 pts.

weather and other museings

Rain, 12 degrees C (low 50:s F) Translates to damp and cold. Pretty much your standard Swedish autumn. Just two day´s ago I was chillin by the pool in a 28 degree (84 F) Italy! Found a pic of the 16th century Casa we stayed in. Pretty cool house, very nice restauration job, keeping the old woodbeams, windows and stuff.
La Casa Giaconda

Was playing with the foals yesterday. I must say, though I´m partial, Polly is something really special! She showed some moves that was out of this world racing, stopping and throwing herself around! Such balance and coordination!

Polly

As far as the yearling filly Cat goes, she looks better, no structual damage on either bone or tendons. A ligament supporting the pastern showed signs of trauma from a severe sprain though. Have an appointment at the clinic next week to deal with that. A point burning around the damaged pastern that will essentially create a "corset" of sorts that will tighten up and support the pastern, thus preventing future sprains. Hopefully that does the trick, she is coming around and looks really good too.

Back in business

Ok, back from Italy. As always great food, great wine, good weather etc. You do get tired of eatin all that fancy, expensive stuff though and just long for a good stake and a cold one!
Saw a bunch of nice colts though as we visited a couple of Europes finest Standardbred breeders. Being surrounded by all that history is pretty awsome too. Stayed in a beautiful old fixed up farmhouse from 1500-something. One of the farms we visited was actually an old mansion from Venice´s hayday. Really cool place! A main building built like a castle with the main stairs designed to make it possible to ride or drive a coach up in to the house and the main hall!! A 1,5 mile wall surrounding the farm and the pastures and stables inside the compound. Pretty cool deal.

Glad to be back home though with family and horses. Saddled up Brady and took him for a spin yesterday. Didn´t feel a 100% so we just took thing nice and easy. Was shod the other day and might´ve been a little tender footed. Will check him out again today and give the fillies a lookover.

Italy

Heading to Italy for a couple of day´s. We´ll be visiting some studfarms & breeders down there and a winery or two I reckon. My partners in the company and a few other equine journalists will be making the trip and we´re headed to the Venice region in NE Italy.

I will miss the horses and above all my family, Annelie, Ben and Ida!!

Take care guy´s and see you Sunday!

Sunday doings

Had a pretty laid back Sunday. Chores like cleaning watertroughs etc. Got a ride in there also before we went on yet another ranch hunt. This time we headed south and found a really nice spread with a great house but a fixerupper barn. Great pasture land and a couple of acres of forrest. Might be something...

One of a dussin or so...Funny thing is, we don´t have a tub in the house...
Stressed?

Super Man

Polly

Peppy & Polly

Mexicali freshing up

Somebody´s proud, riding daddys horse!

Ida on Brady

Yeah, the tummy is going

The "Youngster" Avenir, 23

Apples



My girls, Annelie and Ida