The cast of characters

It has been pointed out to me that this blog is getting confusing with all of the different horses, so I am going to provide a guide today to who's who. Bear in mind these are mostly crappy camera phone pictures, and are not intended to accurately represent how the horse looks!

First off, this is the Very Large Colt (VLC), so named because he had hit 16.2 in the hip by his 3rd birthday. He is still growing but I do think that 16.2 is where he's going to end at - I think the front end is just going to catch up now. He is a three year old AQHA colt. The eventual plan is for him to show as an AQHA working hunter, in two years. We will probably do some schooling shows and maybe he will even get out for some AQHA hunter under saddle in the meantime. I've also considered doing some Buckskin stuff because they do have shows not too far away. He is not currently breeding mares, but does have two foals on the ground this year, from prior to when I owned him. I am very fond of his colt Bullwinkle, who is out of a 16.3 mare, so if you are looking for something that is buckskin and will be huge, e-mail me.

This is the VLC:

And this is his VLC, Bullwinkle:

(So, for those of you who were concerned that I needed to do a "test breeding" with the VLC to see if he was worth keeping a stallion, it's already been done and in my never-humble-opinion, the outcome was good!)

Then there is training project #2, the Small Spotted Gelding (SSG), barn name Ditto. Ditto came into being three years ago when the neighbor's mustang stallion ran through his crappy fence and bred my roommate Josie's yearling filly. You would not think a yearling filly could get pregnant, but some months later it was discovered that was indeed what had happened and Ditto is the result - half mustang, half some kind of PMU draft cross. Ditto has had seven rides so far and is proving to be a naturally quiet personality who should be a great show pony for someone. He is just 13.3 hands.

Also by the VLC's sire, we have the Big Gold Yearling. He was orphaned at 4 days but made up for it quickly. I need to stick him again but I believe he's 15.2 in the hip right now. Josie is doing ground work with him in exchange for training on Ditto, and he is doing very well. I would kind of like to sell him, but am afraid to. He is kind of "for sale to someone I know, and am absolutely sure is not an asshat, with first right of refusal." I have a friend with a tall, leggy 14 year old daughter who really needs to buy him for her future show horse... ;-)

(Yes, it's a baby picture but he was just so freakin' cute...)

Karen V. from the blog brought me training project #3, the Beautiful Thoroughbred Mare (BTM), real name "Honey in the Money." Honey has 10x the energy of either of the boys, but she's already been raced so I don't have to break her from scratch and that's a little easier. Honey is a sweetheart and a pleasure to have around.

My other roommate, Stephanie, owns the Cute Spotted Stallion (CSS), registered name Sonny's Grand Scribble. She is breaking him out. He is also three, and if he were human, would be the guy whose wife has to nag him daily to get off the couch and do something. Western pleasure is going to come very easily to him!

I haven't talked about them prior to this on this blog, but I also have a collection of Useless Old Mares. They are retired broodmares or performance horses. They do not do anything except eat horse cookies, carrots and get lots of neck and wither scritches. The senior member of the collection is Clover, who is approximately 35, eats mush, and bosses everybody else around.

Then we have my 23 year old, Kit. Kit is the poster child for why you shouldn't overfeed your baby halter horses so much. Also for the fact that the entire Obvious Conclusion line, successful through they are, resemble dachshunds in length.

I have two twenty-two year olds. One is a to-die-for cute AQHYA Champion producer named Belle. It is a shame Belle never had a show career herself, as she's adorably cute, but smart enough to have conned several previous owners into believing she was not broke. (Comment from one: "Belle lets you ride her?") Belle is indeed broke (we even won the Trotting Barrels once, ha ha!) but at her age, she is also fairly broke-down so right now I am not making her do anything but eat. She is really good at that.

The other is the recently acquired Crabby Old Bat (COB) which I am sure I will have many stories about. The COB, despite her impressive performance career (points in 9 events) is actually best known for her infamous baby-stealing incident two years ago, detailed on various message boards. She has not adjusted to the fact that her producing years have passed her by, so she decided to steal a newborn from another mare. She literally bullied the other mare away from her foal and took it for herself. As soon as this was discovered, she was taken out of the mare pasture and the baby was returned to its rightful parent. The COB had major hysterics.

She was happy last year as we stuck the BGY with her after his mother died. If anybody in the PNW ever has an orphan, bring it to me. She'll be deliriously happy and she does a damn good job of teaching them manners.

Next, we have the Blind as a Bat mare, aka Sunline, acquired from CBER in a moment of complete idiocy at 3 AM when I still lived in Los Angeles. Sunline is on her last summer, as she is losing the remainder of her sight and is not dealing well with that, but she is turned out with her BFF Kit and doing fine for now. There is a special place in hell for whoever dumped this barely-sighted mare at a dealer's in Yakima. I would loooove to know who that is.


Finally, this is Lucy, the most recent auction rescue. Lucy is here for two more weeks and then is going out to be fostered by Stephanie - thank you, Stephanie! She is sweet and just needs more handling - she's obviously broke but a bit headshy and scared. We have so far accomplished teaching her to eat treats. :-) Lucy will be available for adoption when we have a little better idea of her training level.

So that is the herd. And I wonder why I am so tired all the time...ha ha. Actually, I cannot complain. Both the VLC and the SSG were positively angelic last night, good thing since I was moving horses from pasture to pasture and filling water tubs and somehow did not manage to start riding until 9:15 ...