Well think I have recovered enough to write about it all. At the last minute I got a chance to go and Keely had her 2 driving wonder horses Tippy and Lightening entered and being transported by my friends and neighbors Dale and Roger of Show Time Training Center in Florida. We flew in and arrived sat afternoon just in time to miss the floods. We promptly hooked up the horses and drove around exploring. Didnt take us long to find the watering hole and the frozen drinks! While there we got to see little Romeo the chinese crested Erica got from me and his frenchy buddy Louie, boy were they cute together. AND I saw my new colt, Ericas Big City Bank on Me! Banker was not entered but when another of Ericas colts couldnt be shown Banker was substituted in. So the poor little guy was entered with pretty much no training and no conditioning at all. Thanks to a lot of hard work by Dale and Roger and their crew Banker got a complete makeover, some training and showed amazingly well in futurity and open. No he didnt win but he was placed 6th out of 23 in the open class by 1 judge and that in itself is pretty amazing. I think we did Erica proud and I was certainly proud to say thats my baby out there! Here are a couple of bad pix taken with my cell phone of Banker.
I think anyone that was at nationals either saw or heard about Keely and her great mare Tippy. That mare was flying in the 1st chariot class and looking great. They had just been galloping full out, announcer called for canter again when a weld broke on the chariot and the front end hit the ground almost throwing Keely out on top of her horse. I dont think Keely will mind me telling but she lost her reins and the only thing that saved them was she yelled WHOA and wonderful Tippy DID!!!! :new_shocked: :aktion033: How many of us have horses that well trained? She has owned this mare for years and trained her so well! I really think Tippy would be a National Champion now if the chariot hadnt broken. Tippy did win quite a few top 10s in CP, Roadster, ob. driving etc. She is a 16 year old mare! Again here is a phone pix of Tippy and Keely waiting to go into the 2nd chariot class with a loaner chariot.
The other part of the dynamic driving duo is Keelys newest boy multi nat. ch. Buckeye WCF Classical Lightening and yes he is the horse of Getitias that was on the cover of The Journal. Lightening won another res. Nat. Ch. with Keely in a huge CP class and many other top 10s in halter, youth, jumper, driving etc with Keely, Show time and youth handlers. He is such a love. I have been lucky enough to drive and show both Tippy and Lightening and love them both like my own and even got to experience the excitement of having winning horses at Nationals. You see everyone saw Keely and I warming up the horses, harnessing them and
driving them (often to the watering hole, LOL) and I guess assumed I must own 1 or both. So all through the Nationals I got stopped by nice people asking how the horses did, congratulating us on their wins or offering help and concern after the chariot disaster.
I even got to show Lightening at Nationals and we finally found something he is NOT good at LOL. I have been driving him quite a bit at home lately on the road. Well Lightening is unflappable at the shows, used to everything u can find at one. But on the trails he is terrified of ROCKS, Im not kidding! We have big limestone rocks where we live and he is just sure they are going to jump out and eat him. He also hates white birds and still spooks where a white cattle egret flew up and almost got him a month ago. I got to meet Getitias Daughter in law and she and I shared fun stories of Lightening about keeling over from a heart attack at rocks and white things. Well guess what ? I finally get to show at Nationals and its the driving obstacle class and the 2nd obstacle is :new_shocked: a bridge with ROCKS in the water and a Bunch of DUCKS that are WHITE. Lightening took 1 look at that and spooked badly, so much so he yanked the check off. Got help putting that back from the ring steward and tried again. This time he reared right up, high
: and I knew he was not going to let those bad rocks or birds eat him. Keely had him entered in stakes classes later so rather than possibly scare him to death or get dumped out of the cart we gave up. So thats my Nationals driving experience 
! Hope I will do better next year but u can bet I wont be showing Lightening in obstacle, LOL. Here is Lightening just before he left Florida.
There were many wonderful people there that offered support and help with the chariot. A very nice man welded it and spent several hours there working on it and would not take a cent for all his hard work. Keely was loaned a new chariot by Heather at Mulligans run, I believe, or one of the other nice folks at Lees, Aloha Acres set up. Anyway u were all awesome! I saw and heard of many examples of good sportsmanship and just plain good people. MADE ME PROUD TO BE A MINIATURE HORSE OWNER! And a special thanks to Ericas dad who would see us driving the horses up to the watering hole and bring drinks out to us, what a guy!
I think anyone that was at nationals either saw or heard about Keely and her great mare Tippy. That mare was flying in the 1st chariot class and looking great. They had just been galloping full out, announcer called for canter again when a weld broke on the chariot and the front end hit the ground almost throwing Keely out on top of her horse. I dont think Keely will mind me telling but she lost her reins and the only thing that saved them was she yelled WHOA and wonderful Tippy DID!!!! :new_shocked: :aktion033: How many of us have horses that well trained? She has owned this mare for years and trained her so well! I really think Tippy would be a National Champion now if the chariot hadnt broken. Tippy did win quite a few top 10s in CP, Roadster, ob. driving etc. She is a 16 year old mare! Again here is a phone pix of Tippy and Keely waiting to go into the 2nd chariot class with a loaner chariot.
The other part of the dynamic driving duo is Keelys newest boy multi nat. ch. Buckeye WCF Classical Lightening and yes he is the horse of Getitias that was on the cover of The Journal. Lightening won another res. Nat. Ch. with Keely in a huge CP class and many other top 10s in halter, youth, jumper, driving etc with Keely, Show time and youth handlers. He is such a love. I have been lucky enough to drive and show both Tippy and Lightening and love them both like my own and even got to experience the excitement of having winning horses at Nationals. You see everyone saw Keely and I warming up the horses, harnessing them and
driving them (often to the watering hole, LOL) and I guess assumed I must own 1 or both. So all through the Nationals I got stopped by nice people asking how the horses did, congratulating us on their wins or offering help and concern after the chariot disaster.
I even got to show Lightening at Nationals and we finally found something he is NOT good at LOL. I have been driving him quite a bit at home lately on the road. Well Lightening is unflappable at the shows, used to everything u can find at one. But on the trails he is terrified of ROCKS, Im not kidding! We have big limestone rocks where we live and he is just sure they are going to jump out and eat him. He also hates white birds and still spooks where a white cattle egret flew up and almost got him a month ago. I got to meet Getitias Daughter in law and she and I shared fun stories of Lightening about keeling over from a heart attack at rocks and white things. Well guess what ? I finally get to show at Nationals and its the driving obstacle class and the 2nd obstacle is :new_shocked: a bridge with ROCKS in the water and a Bunch of DUCKS that are WHITE. Lightening took 1 look at that and spooked badly, so much so he yanked the check off. Got help putting that back from the ring steward and tried again. This time he reared right up, high
! Hope I will do better next year but u can bet I wont be showing Lightening in obstacle, LOL. Here is Lightening just before he left Florida.
There were many wonderful people there that offered support and help with the chariot. A very nice man welded it and spent several hours there working on it and would not take a cent for all his hard work. Keely was loaned a new chariot by Heather at Mulligans run, I believe, or one of the other nice folks at Lees, Aloha Acres set up. Anyway u were all awesome! I saw and heard of many examples of good sportsmanship and just plain good people. MADE ME PROUD TO BE A MINIATURE HORSE OWNER! And a special thanks to Ericas dad who would see us driving the horses up to the watering hole and bring drinks out to us, what a guy!
