The Year In Review -- Your 2006 Changes?

[hairicane]

This year has really been good at Hairicane Ranch with definite progress towards our horsey goals. Years ago we went to some of the mini races and decided to get some minis so we could enjoy driving and do the races too. Well by the time we got land to actually have minis the mini racing in Florida went belly up. Over the years we got some of ours fairly well trained but never 2 at the same time. This year, thanks to Keely, we now have 2 VERY well trained driving stallions. And all 4 of us, horses and humans, have a blast going out for drives. Next we want to go on more group trail drives and start showing a little in driving.

We have constantly upgraded and added to our herd and now have most of the top bloodlines that I have admired for so long. I like a flashy horse so the upgrading has included buying appys, overos and some dilutes. This years foal crop was our best ever due in large part to Slate our Orion son. We are keeping 2 appy colts and 2 appy fillys all sired by Slate to go on with. While we lost several Slate overo fillies, born prematurely, we did get 2 loud overo/tovero foals sired by our young Cisco overo stud. We also managed to have 3 diliute foals in our foal crop. And in this slow horse market we sold about 38 horses this year including 26 that went out of the country. That totaled half our herd and now we have a more managable number and much lower feed bills :aktion033:

Next year will be exciting as we should have our 1st foals born sired by our black fewspot appy stud, our Little Kings Black Velvet son and our frame overo linebred Rowdy stud.

 

[sfmini]

My herd reduction is almost complete, only a few left to go and then I turn the world upside down and find a new house for just me and my dogs and birds, no more sharing a home with other adults!

So, many horses have left us for new homes, chores are so much faster now.

I retired Commodity and had a new horse trained to drive. It has been quite an adjustment to show this boy who is at this point inconsistent and very hormone driven. Never a dull moment and I have to say I sure did miss Commod at the shows! At least my boy decided the trail driving wasn't so bad after all, his first trip all he could do is pout and didn't enjoy himself at all. Now he loves to go, and really loves to see those Amish buggy horses. He is always asking them for dates, to the great amusement of the Amish.

 

[royalview]

:new_shocked: This year was really crazy for us. We decided to sell our old farm house and attempt to make plans on building a new house and barn on 22 acres down back, thats in the works. we recued a total of 15 minis this year which really put my #s over the top but it was the most rewarding thing Ive ever done. These little critters really know how to show appreciation. they are like lap dogs now!!

We had 4 healthy babies born and lost two. Very sad one was a breech and one was premature. Raising minis isnt for the faint at heart. We spent a week at the fair with a miniature horse idsplay, WOW I met so many nice people and hopefullly some new mini owners. Now we are getting ready for the big freeze, 32 degrees this am and I know snow is coming. CAnt wait for spring in 2007!!!

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[Filipowicz Farm]

Even though my husband company moved and he now has found a new job it was a great year. With the time off my husband got allot of the farm chores done. Build new shelters and fenicng in more pasture area.We bought 3 new mares, our 2 year old over stallion is receiving HOF bred several of our mares and looking forward to next years foal crop. Sold 3 of our horses to some wonderful people in Canada.Looking forward to the convention in Reno and got 2 new puppies.

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[justjinx]

This has been a busy and bittersweet year for me.

I sold a mare that i regretted selling later. BUT then i found her dam at a sale and bought her (this made me feel better).

Lost a yearling show filly my daughter was showing -- such sadness holding her in her pain until she crossed. i thought i had lost my sensitivity but found out i hadn't...

we had a beautiful black and white filly (the first foal from my stallion) that is a definate keeper. we showed her to a good number of blues and a few reds....

bought a yearling filly i had admired for a year....

bought a weanling filly for my daughter to show....

bought a colt to geld and add to my show string...

bought a second stallion....

okay, yes, i more than doubled my horses...sigh...but i will have fun showing! jennifer :saludando:

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

This year has been a good one here at Crayonbox, all healthy foals this year, no losses!

: We started out the year with 8 horses, & had 3 foals born here.

In the spring I traded my 2005 appy filly for a mare that I had been leasing. Sold 2005 colt (now gelding), and bought back a mare I sold last year. Had an outside appy mare come in the spring to be bred to my leopard appy, and now I will be leasing her... soo now I have 11 horses (how did that happen??).

Had a gorgeous leopard appaloosa colt born here, and I just can't part with him, so he is staying and his sire will be gelded either this winter or next spring.

We are looking forward to our new stallion "Bingo" first foal crop next year, he has two mares in foal for 2007. It's been a good year with Bingo, he wasn't handled lots before coming here, so we've had many issues (catching, leading, biting, rearing, etc) to work with, but he has come a long way and is slowly becoming more well mannered around people.

I've learned much more about conformation, and am constantly "judging" my horses and trying to decide what direction to go in for the future, may be some bigger changes next year...time will tell!

 

[Marty]

The year started out with every intention to show with Sheryl so we planned to do some traveling. We had about 4 shows in mind to go to. So, I put together a little show string here of Merry Beth, Timmy, and then I bought a new filly just for showing purposes who is Glory from Rocking Horse Acres. Sheryl was going to get 2 of her nice horses show ready also.

The first thing that happened was that the first Tenn show got canceled due to lack of entrees.

Then the next show we planned to attend was out of state and had pretty high stall /entree fees so we passed on that one and that's about the same time gas hit an all time high.

The third and 4th show, well I don't know what happened to those but we ended up not going to any shows anywhere except we did go to one just to watch.

So I'll just wait around for Glory to get older and then add her to the broodmare band, or something.

So far my brain is mush. I don't need three stallions so I've considered selling Nick because I really want to keep Timmy so bad and I have no use for a gelding here.

I still would like to sell Knight Star to a really nice home but so far the right people haven't found him yet. I'm praying for that to happen.

I thought about liquidating a million times these past months but Jerry & Dr. thinks that is the worst thing I can do for my state of mind, to make any more drastic changes here, so instead he is finishing up the barn before winter and putting on the vinal siding and I'll be doing some painting. I don't know. I don't think my heart is in this or anything anymore but hopefully it will change.

 

[Lisa Strass]

2006 was kind of a rough year on us with the unexpected loss of two very nice show horses. On the good side, I do think we are making good progress for our small farm's future.

Additions:

We added 1 mare and 3 fillies to our herd this year, and they are all ASPC registered. Two will be hardshipped R when they are eligible, and all of them will be bred to Red Alert at some point down the road. This wasn't necessarily a planned turn, but I do think it "officially" marks a new direction for Strasslein Stables -- the way of the Shetland :bgrin

We welcomed Red Alert's first foal, an AMHR colt that will make his appearance on the show scene with Belinda in 2007 :aktion033:

Red Alert bred 8 mini mares in 2006. Seven of these are Cross Country mares, so Belinda, Mike and I can't wait for spring of 2007!

I really wish I could say we got a new trailer, but I'll have to keep hoping on that one.

:

Shows:

Mike entered the show ring for the first time this year, and I'm very proud of him

:

We had a great time showing our Shetlands. This was the first year for us showing Shetlands, and we're especially proud of Martin's Mardi Gras Radiant Redhead, Congress Reserve Grand Champion Mare and Martin's Best Dressed Sinatra, Congress Reserve Champion 2-yr-old Stallion. Both of these horses will be shown again in 2007.

Here's our 2006 collage Mike put together with all our furry friends.

 

[Frankie]

Lisa,

Very nice pictures!!!!!!

Did you share your colt?

Is he in the above pictures, on the right, 2nd one down? Just a guess!

 

[Feather1414]

Well for me, I didn't buy any new horses, I showed at one show, but I did learn a lot.

A lot of you probably remember all my posts about possibly selling my horses because I didn't feel I could show them to their potential and stuff. Well now I know that I can NEVER sell them. I love them way too much.

Also what I have learned is just how a friendship can be formed. Jessica ((Jess_P)) mentioned that her and I are planning for nationals 07, but what wasnt mentioned was all the conversations about absolutly everything we have had. Although she is across the country, I do consider her one of my best friends. She knows just as much about me as my friends here and is the same, I have just never met her in person.

Plus having the year basically off with my knee gave me time to break Dealer to drive, work on his driving, work on building even more trust with my horses and of course, to plan Nationals 07.

Lets just say that Jessica and I have a costume in mind that will not only have everyone in fits of laughter, but hopefully will bring us a national championship :bgrin

Plus I got to figure out just who my best friend really is

 

[Lisa Strass]

Lisa,

Very nice pictures!!!!!!

Did you share your colt?

Is he in the above pictures, on the right, 2nd one down? Just a guess!

You guessed correct! That is Strasslein Red E or Naught, affectionately known as "Naught E" pictured at 10 days. :bgrin

His mother was my very first mini mare that I've had for 16 years now, so he's all ours.

 

[sedeh]

Nice thread. I've enjoyed reading about everyone's year. Mine was a learning year. I'm still fairly new to mini's and got heavy handed on the feed through the winter. Everyone came into spring fat and 2 of my broodmares foundered which I feel horrible about. One is doing well and the other is still gimpy but slowly improving. I just ordered a scale and that won't happen again! My show string also started out too fat and took all summer to get them slimmed down! Since this was my first year driving and showing 4 horses I enlisted the aide of my niece Jessica. She helped in halter and jumping and was an all-around girl-friday for me!! Too many shows we were scrambling to throw halters on and make it to the gate on time. Kathi(wcr) had a light show year and was wonderful about helping with those "gotta go" moments with all my guys. This was the first year I got to show something that was born on my farm and Lily did very well! She brought home multiple grands and reserves and won her Futurity at the Albany 6 judge pinto show. I have thought out my breeding goals and am happy where I'm at. I'm excited about next Spring as it will be Heir's first foal crop! Here are a few pics from my year!

My driving gelding Bubba and I at a show.

Jessica jumping Dream.

My "home grown" filly Total Eclipse Starlight Dancer(Lily) winning her futurity!

 

[Shelley]

Oh my goodness, I just sat and thought about all the things that have happened around here this year, and I guess our second year in miniatures has been pretty busy! A short overview:

We sold our original mini, a gelding, that we had bought when we were "just going to have two pets".

Made the decision to sell our big horses a couple of weeks ago.

We bred our first mare - a maiden mare, an inexperienced stallion and two idiots handling one breeding - and she was ultrasounded IN FOAL shortly before we left for Nationals! :aktion033:

We were not planning to add any horses this year - but.....ummm - we added four.

:

Our five year old son started showing this year. He did well with both his under and over mares in halter. He also showed in leadline and costume. At Nationals he pulled off a Top 10 placement with his under mare and Reserve National Champion with his over mare in halter, and Reserve National Champion in Leadline! (and he is quick to point out that even though his parents did get three Top 10 placements, the trophies belong to HIM!

:

My husband started driving this year. After only driving for three months, he drove in both Country Pleasure and Pleasure at Nationals (different horses). He didn't place, but he didn't crash or look stupid either, and I was very proud of him for just going out there and doing it! :aktion033:

Added a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy, have a Saluki puppy coming next month, and are hoping that we have a litter of Salukis in the oven. After saying we didn't want any barn cats, a skinny little fellow showed up at our door - so we added a barn cat.

Added many new "horsie" friends. :bgrin

Let's see, we added two stalls, barn is overflowing, we are now waiting for the contractor to come and add an additional 32' onto the barn. Hurry, please!!!

:

Shelley

 

[Jess P]

Also what I have learned is just how a friendship can be formed. Jessica ((Jess_P)) mentioned that her and I are planning for nationals 07, but what wasnt mentioned was all the conversations about absolutly everything we have had. Although she is across the country, I do consider her one of my best friends. She knows just as much about me as my friends here and is the same, I have just never met her in person.

Aww!

Jamie really is my best friend. We have talked so much about things in our life, she knows more than my parents and friends know about me!

I love her lots!

 

[kmh]

We built a new loafing shed for the horses this summer. The old one had seen better days, so it was time for a new one.

We had two colts born in 2006. This is Kinney's Cowboys Cassanova, foaled April 2006.

This is Kinney's Cowboys Black Tie Affair, foaled May 2006. We have him for sale, photo was taken when he was 10 days old. I don't have any current photos of him at this time.

This is their sire: Cowboy's Country Gentleman (HOF Halter & Performance)

For the 2006 foaling season we put our foaling cameras on Mare Stare this year...a smart move for us. It is very nice to be able to watch my pregnant mares while I am at work and not worry about them all day.

If you have not used Mare Stare, I highly recommend it !

Steph

 

[Lisa-Ruff N Tuff Minis]

well this has been a interesting year. We have sold quite a few horses many going to CA and showing on the ADS circuit as well as CDE one of them being

Ruff N Tuffs Jimmy Mac who is LOVING So Cal....

We figured since so many of our horses are out there in the driving world guess it is time for us to actually GET DRIVING.. we were lucky enough to get an amazing driving mare she is truly the horse of a lifetime for me. I fell in love with her at first sight and of course the more I saw her the more I loved her

Don and Russ Maas are so very kind and really made a dream happen for raven and I allowing us to purchase D.M. Dirty Dancer(multiple national champion driving horse) she is bred to D.M. Starbuck Sonny a multi champion Roadster horse.

Most important though once again this year showed me that what really counts isnt titles, money or things it is truly the people I have met along the way. The people who have become such an important part of my life. Those who just being who they are has made a impact on me. Friends are what really matters and make all of the rest of this a good time!

 

[Jill]

Now that it really is just about the end of 2006, I wanted to bump this back up in case anyone else wants to share or has had additional changes since October. After all, it is almost time to say...

 

[Mercysmom]

2006 was a good year.

Modern filly Nefertiti arrived in May out of a Modern mare we purchased and was exactly what I wanted!

Showed the mom Chance (aka Intrepid here as my son's friend's name is Chance and he did not want a girl horse to share his name!) to Grand Champion Modern Pleasure Shetland at Area One, even did a halter obstacle class and she performed like a champ... handling a teetertotter (which she had never seen before) and the groundtie (keeping her head up and focus on me, even with Nefertiti squalling and hollering in her sight just outside the ring!). She is jumping now and I have ground driven her and we broke her to ride so that we can place her in a new home (reason why is coming up). She was also the Area One Grand Champion American Show Pony with the help of Julie, a ESMHA youth member who did a great job with her. I had Neffie on my lead and she was not happy about trying to be a show horse. They were my introduction to Moderns and are two sweet ponies.

On the mini front, Freedom and Independence had a summer off to hang out and be horses. Now that Neffie is weaned, they have taken over keeping the bratty filly in line. Nothing like other horses to teach youngsters how to properly behave around here. Neffie now comes up to me to go inside and Independence is right there, showing her the way. Freedom does the field education, telling Neffie where she can and cannot eat...Mercy just watches all the horses she has trained over the years doing the work she once did, while she eats. It is good to be alpha mare. :lol:

Mercy had a busy year, returning to the show ring for Area One and bringing home lots of blues without much schooling or practice. :aktion033: She was angry with me when I had a senior moment in my Open Hunter class and almost went off course...when the ribbons were being awarded, Mercy was pouting with her ears back and up and a pretty angry look on her face. She made sure I noticed! Operator error but for the Amateur Hunter we did much better.

:

Our big news was being selected to be one of the Celebrity Horses at the MA Equine Affaire. It was great to meet a lot of people and share Mercy's talents. She was quite the ambassador for miniatures that weekend, and she knew it... she would come out of the barn at a jaunty trot with her ears up and she just thought she was hot stuff. It was good to have 5 days "vacation" with my third child! I think the NEMHS booth may have sold a horse or two due to Mercy's work back at the Celebrity Horse Pavilion... one lady spent a lot of time speaking with me, playing with Mercy, and then I sent her to the NEMHS booth. She came back an hour later with an appointment the following weekend to see a pinto mare she hoped to buy! Mercy's friend "Dallas" (Seabiscuit)'s foster parents want a mini in the worst way, especially since their TBs have not interest in learning how to fetch their feed pans! Dallas and Mercy were buddies for the weekend and he would whinny for her whenever she passed by. Mercy was also very interested in Blanco (Shadowfax) but for the wrong reasons... she thought he was hot! :new_shocked: She also liked her neighbor Gallo Blue Chip - she could have walked underneath the 17.2 Standardbred.

Linda (Fred) was there and we were glad to see her and have a familiar face nearby and to see Fred's foal crop from this year

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: !!! - Friends of mine from Rhode Island joined us and since they had never met Mercy, they were hooked on her. Mercy has been invited to some of their family gatherings in RI and maybe I will finally get a chance to get some seaside pictures next summer at one of the beaches that allows horses to attend.

:

Got a new-to-me horse trailer :aktion033: :aktion033: and it is in good shape and it holds my big horse!

But, the big news is pending... Santa is working overtime to make something happen here... stay tuned - 2007 will be BIG!

Denise

Silversong Farm

 

[Cindy]

Oh ....I love these threads at the end of the year. Thank you for starting it!

2006 was BUSY ....my husband was President of the New York State Miniature Horse Club and actively working toward some of their goals while also working VERY hard with our trainer and Devon, our Michigans Rags To Riches ASPC/AMHR driving horse. He miraculously got through the first year of driving and ADS competitions ...to win his Driven Dressage class in September. We're looking forward to 2007.

We sold a few and bought a few ....made many new friends and visited with lots of friends during the year. Now planning a special trip to IOWA next year to visit Century Farm ...that was my goal for 2007 and we're good for the go!

On a sad note, lost our German Shorthair Pointer to cancer and, on a sweet note, bought a miniature dachshund who is the light of our lives!

We are all healthy, our horses happy (and relaxing after shows!) and our daughter is loving school and life.

We are blessed ...and 2006 will be remembered fondly.

2007 is coming: and now my husband has stepped down from Presidency. I stepped up (which he says was only a "partial-victory" to get away from some of the club(s) responsibilities and work harder at our home, businesses and family responsibilities! Oh well ....we have lots of great volunteers in New York! But, the show schedule is unfolding and looks like fun!

Oh, and we have two foals expected! Can't wait to see the babies!

May you all have a glorious year .....

Cindy (and Walter!) Pond

 

[Mercysmom]

On a sad note, lost our German Shorthair Pointer to cancer and, on a sweet note, bought a miniature dachshund who is the light of our lives!

Oh, and we have two foals expected! Can't wait to see the babies!

May you all have a glorious year .....

Cindy (and Walter!) Pond

Oh Cindy, sorry to hear about your GSP...but glad you have a Dachshund now! Good luck with the babies!

Denise

Silversong Farm