Updates!

Some of you probably noticed... that I havent been updating the site as much as I usually do. In November I started an entirely new career and its been a big learning curve - you can teach an old dog new tricks, just takes abit more energy and time. lol. So I am now adjusted to the new routine and back on the computer and will start doing my updates more regularly again.

We have decided to put some money where our mouth is, sort of speak, and we are dedicating our resources, energy and time into our two main prospects - TJ and Chooch. We feel these two are going to make awsome roping horses and they will do their daddy proud. Our goal is to produce horses that emulate Clayboy's talent in the roping arena and we feel these two are going to come very close to acheiving their sire's accomplishments in roping.

Alot of people enjoyed the video I shared of Chooch's first bucking experience! Lisa videotaped those two clips and was kind enough to share them - her song choice made me chuckle! I put the video up because it demonstrates that yes, sometimes horses buck, and when they do, sometimes they can buck hard! And we dont shy away from that, its a natural reaction for alot of them. Normally, we find that if a Clayboy baby is going to buck, they will do so when first cinched up. They tend not to want to buck with someone riding them, and they tend to be respectful of their handler - however, with that said, they are all individuals and some have a mind of their own. We tend to be brutally honest about our horses. Some of Clayboys babies are kid gentle and others require experience. But they all have one thing in common: they are smart and have their own mischievious quirks!

Some Clayboy offspring are so versatile you can run barrels off them during the week, then show them in WP on weekends. However, some offspring are more snorty and athletic and dont enjoy the showring. So its based alot on the individual. We like to gage our horses individually, based on their talent, temperament and what they enjoy and go from there.

Clayboys Boo hates to run, he hates going fast but TJ (who is Boos full sister) likes to leave everyone in the dust. She is snorty and Chooch is so loud when he snorts, you can hear him a block away! Chooch likes to open latches to escape for lil runs out in the open, and TJ prefers to mule jump her way out of a stall.

So they have their individual personalities and I guess thats what makes this adventure with them so interesting and fun. I try to capture their personality with the videos and the songs I choose are based on how I interpret their qualities... we try to honour their strengths while accepting their limitations...

Chooch!

This lil guy will be coming home soon, and will continue with his training. He surprised us, in that he has a pretty good lil buck to him and has turned out alot more athletic than we originally gave him credit for! lol. He is not a kids horse prospect by any means, but we do see alot of "tie-down" in him, and for some strange reason, the lil guy prefers the men over women. We are going to carry on with his training and our goal is to have him ready for the calves by June. He needs some time, but we think he is well worth the effort.
A HUGE thanks to Lisa for the great video footage and all the work you put into our lil chooch! Hes abit of a renegade and we are so pleased with the progress he made while staying with you. :-)

Updates!

Theres been alot of changes (all good) lately! We went down to Moose Jaw show last weekend and had a great time! Saw some clayboy babies competing and we were lucky enough to see Talia and Patch competing. They are such a great pair! They won the Hipoint 13 and under. What a nice way to end their show season for 2007.

My son wants to try out WP this coming year and Lisa Huynh was gracious enough to let us take on Boo as his project. So we brought boo home and he is settling in nicely. Its great to have him here. I hope to get some good photos soon.

Jay is a rodeo guy, so it was quite a change of pace for him at the show! :-) I am sure once he sees his boy in the arena, he will find it alot more exciting.

Bubba went home to Lisa and he is such a quiet boy, taking his new home in and handling the transition great. We also sent Chooch down to Lisa for some training and already have some great photos!! I cant wait to include all the updates on our trainingpen section.

We are also taking Clayboys Rising Phoenix home in October! I cant wait to meet this beautiful spirited colt!

Anyways I have included a photo of Chooch and Jim taken yesterday..... doesnt chooch look dapper all tacked up? hes a beauty!

Our Farm on Google Earth!!!

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My son came home from school today and showed us how to find our farm on google earth!

Long Time No Blog....

Wow, its been quite awhile since I have posted here. We have been busy! enjoying the heat wave and now all the rain. I wouldnt be a good saskatchewatonian if I didnt complain about the weather. LOL.

Have been taking lots of photos and video. Compiled all my favorite Clips into one neat video, below. This video includes some clips of Clayboy here at home, and being ridden down in Ocala, Florida. Enjoy!

It also includes footage of Windyboy, Clayboys Target, Joe Q Tee Clayboy, Tiges Tammy, Clayboys TJ and Clayboys Boo. Because I love watching them run, there is alot of running in this video. The song is a heatbeat drumbreat song, produced by Robbie Robertson. Notice how the horses follow the same rythym of the drum as they run... its quite interesting.

New video of our new girl..

Horses know when to say goodbye...

New Injury....New Video!

Have you ever accidently gotten in between two grumpy broodmares who were looking to fight? Despite being told over and over, not to do this, me (being a total know-it-all) ignored all the warnings.... glares, ears pinned back, swooshing tails. And well, I got in between my two favorite girls, Big Mama and Zandy, and to make it even more special, I moved directly behind Big Mama's butt, just enough to get in her blind spot. For my trouble I was kicked twice in the knee cap! Zandy, on seeing me go down, took off and hid behind the windbreak. Big Mama went in for "time out" in the corner. They knew a "no-no" just happend. First kicking incident on the farm, ever, and it just had to be me, lol. Well I didnt take it personal, but learned my lesson: dont get in between two jealous, possessive and grumpy broodmares!

As a result, I have been housebound, and thought it would be a good opportunity to learn these new video programs on the MAC. Yes, Look out people! I am now on the MAC using awsome video editing software (MACs are the best, although havent been on one since my college days...)... here is my very new video, I love it! Enjoy!

A New Horse for us!

Well, not entirely new, but its kind of a full circle thing. We had TJ here, offered to sell her for a friend. TJ was very popular while here, but its one of those things, where you try not to get too attached. She sold, and then the deal didnt work out, and long story short, we are going to be the proud new owners of a very special mare very soon! I guess TJ was meant to be with us, and everything happens for a reason. Here is a small video of TJ, and I think the song really fits how excited we are to have her come join our little family....


Blue will be leaving to her new home on the weekend, and she will leave a HUGE void here on the farm when she goes. We are going to miss her alot. It just goes to show that while there are endings, there come new beginnings...

"Where I Belong"

RCMP Musical Ride

On Friday, the Beardy's & Okemasis First Nation and the RCMP held a commemorative unveiling of a new plaque and renaming of our sons' school to honor one of the fallen RCMP officers from our community, Cst. Robyn Cameron. It was beautiful!!

B/C i was packing up four kids, I forgot my camera and camcorder (not that i would have had any free hands to use either!) but managed to get this lil pic with my phone. The Musical Ride was absolutely magical! And they had Cree riders dressed in full traditional regalia on painted ponies who conducted a reenactment as well!

The highlight of our month for sure!

Journey to AQHA for Clayboy

Have you ever purchased an older horse and wondered about their life and their history? and the people who shaped that life and history?

Well when I was asked to help get Clayboy registered with AQHA, I embarked on a journey of discovering everything there is to know about Clayboys' past. I had to contact all the owners of Clayboy, his dam Hot Whisky and maternal grandsire, Whisky Talk. I also had to locate the stallion owner of Whisky Talk's sire, Bright Dandy Bar. That is where the crop out occured so that is where i started.

I contacted the lady in Seminole Florida. She owned Bright Dandy Bar (when he was alive) and he bred a mare called Sheiks Mame, who produced Whisky Talk, a bright chesnut overo that was basically all QH but colored the wrong way!

This lady was classy and gracios and despite the years past since she lost her beloved stallion, she still spoke of him with such affection. He was a grullo, and came from a colorful background, being a grandson of the immortal Maddon's Bright Eyes.

The owners of Clayboy's dam, Hot Whisky, didnt need too much information, for they all remembered her, despite years gone by... she was beautiful, they said, "stunning" like you couldnt take your eyes off of her. Black and White but all QH. Despite not being trained, she sold for alot of money because she could produce outstanding babies. She was bred in Texas and sold into New Mexico, Oklahoma and then eventually passed away in Louisiana.

Now when we tracked down the breeder and former owners of Clayboy, that was the funnest part. Because here we were, total strangers calling folks who owned a stallion years ago, and once we said his name, they would all break into a laugh, and say "oh yes, CLAYBOY!!!" lol. That affection was always there in their voices. What did i learn? well I learned that Clayboy was named for his breeders newphew, whos name was Clay, as the young colt was to be for the child. I also learned that a young Mexican boy started Clayboy and spent many hours in the dry rugged terrain of New Mexico riding him. Then one day a man pulled into their yard with a big trailer and offered so much money for him, that his breeder was taken aback and sold him (although never really planning to sell him). I also learnt that Clayboy was owned by a number of competitive team ropers who never did the transfers, they competed off of him in the USTRAs in some of the hardest, most competitive states. He was often referred to as "the best rope horse i ever owned." He was eventually sold to a phenomenal roping trainer in NM and was ready for the big leagues, when a gentle, wise horseman from Ocala Florida bought him to stand as a halter sire. This would begin his career as a halter sire, and despite being bred for halter for 8 years, he continued to produce rodeo calibre horses! also produced horses that excelled in pleasure and dressage.

The thing about Clayboy, is he is one of those horses that was just so good - people couldnt hold onto him for very long, until someone else came along to offer a price they couldnt refuse.

Trina brought him up to Canada, and thank goodness! She flew down to Florida to look at some of his babies and ended up buying Clayboy.

When I called all these people who were apart of Clayboys life, I found myself really enjoying all the stories about him. I discovered that his habit of putting his huge head on your shoulders and always having to be in pictures was something he always did! I found out that he always preferred ladies and took extra care to be gentle with them. And lastly, I discovered that when he was born he had huge ears, and it took a couple years to grow into them! Which makes me feel a whole lot better when I look at my lil Bubba! Because just like his daddy, I know he too, will grow into those big ears....

Pedigree Thoughts..

Well now that I have established why you cant ride papers, lol, I wanted to share my thoughts on pedigree and what I have learned about them.

We try to refrain from breeding grade - prefer to select our mares specifically for our stallion and base our selection on three main things: pedigree, confirmation and temperament. Being proven as a producer is also the top of the list. I am also pretty obsessed with leg set and like our horses to have straight legs and good feet, with well balanced confirmation.

Back to pedigree. Jay has all the talent with training, so in order to contribute as best I can, I developed a habit of studying pedigree and learning about histories behind breeding programs.

I read that our current generation is obsessed with pedigree, now that we have access to shipped semen and AI - we can be alot choosier than previous generations, who often had to haul their mares long distances.

Like many other people, we have our favorite lines that work for us. There are two types of pedigree that we like: the up close and personal types and the foundation type. The up close and personal would be like our Big Mama, Sompin Lika Wrangler, who has 4 AQHA legends right on her papers. She is a daughter of Rocket Wrangler. Her papers read like a whos who of AQHA racing legends.

Clayboy is what i would consider foundation - every line in his pedigree is filled with solid horses... all tracing back to three basic ancestors ... King, Old Fred, and Three Bars. They are intersect at some point. He also goes back to Joe Reed, Midnight, Question Mark, Plaudit and Leo. His high quality comes from the many generations of "good horses" in his ancestry. "No holes" means they are all basically great horses!

Then we have Zandy, who is similar to Clayboy, except her ancestors are not as well known, but very popular locally for ranch and working cow. She has that Skipper W influence.

When buying a horse, I make it a priority to learn everything I can about their pedigree history. The fun thing about Clayboy, is he is the type of Stallion that really outdoes himself, depending on the mare! So if you choose a great mare with a strong pedigree, he outdoes himself everytime. If you cross him with a mediocre mare and hope he makes up for all her deficencies than your not going to get the best babies.

We hand picked Clayboys mares and the outcome has indicated that we were on the right track... these babies are larger, gentler, more muscled and balanced. They are extremely easy to handle, people orientated and athletic.

We know we only have Clayboy for a short time as he is getting up there in age, so we are trying to produce babies that will rodeo one weekend and show the next. We dont like all the specialization that is going on today - and feel that it is possible for a horse to be able to compete in halter, pleasure and high speed performance. Why buy three horses when you can find one that does it all?

I still believe you cant ride papers, but the pedigree for us, provides a blue print for what we are trying to produce.

You Cant Ride Papers!

I know this sounds funny coming from us, as we focus alot on bloodlines in our small breeding program, but when buying my first mare (as an adult) I balked b/c she wasnt registered, and the older gentleman said to me, "you cant ride papers!" That first mare, she taught me more than any other horse. And its interesting that the two trusty "one in a million" kids horses we have are both grade mares! Blue will soon be going on to teach another young girl all her secrets and will share all those previous gifts she shared with us in the past 5 years. And Taffy, well Taffy is just starting out here... she is hilarious, sassy, tries so hard in everything... likes to run barrels (as fast as her lil feet will take her), likes to play "red light green light", and chases those big steers with all her heart, all the while with kids tucked on her broad back.

There is no greater love than how a protective mom feels about her kids horses.... they know they are carrying precious cargo and it is like an unspoken agreement b/n moms and these special equines. So when you are lucky enough to find a pretty little mare that will take your 2 year old, 7 year old and 11 year old anywhere their hearts desire, what do papers matter?

Its been awhile since that older gentleman said that to me, and he was right.

"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in a manner so that when you die the world cries and you rejoice."
- Native American Proverb

I found this lil quote in my new Chicken Soup for the Horse Lovers Soul book, part two. In it contains a story of an unwanted colt found abandoned, the colt grows up and becomes the life force and life energy for a young girl who really needed a best friend, someone to get her through those difficult and turbulent times.

I was just reading the blog on northernhorse this morning about a baby colt found alone along the Red Deer River, and all the efforts made to save his young life.

What a contrast to the story i heard of the horrendous happenings at a local auction mart this past week. An unwanted pony mare giving birth to her foal in the back crowded pens of the auction. A prolapsed uterus, going into shock, barely able to hang on. The staff not wanting to incure any bills on her behalf. It kinda makes a person sad, cynical when hearing these stories, and we hear them all too often unfortunately. But there were many people on standby who cared enough to jump in and lend a hand! It is these type of folks who give us hope for horses.

It brings to mind that saying, "what is truley frightening when bad behavior becomes what is normal." What happened this past week at the auction is not normal, and I am happy to hear that so many others stepped in for the mare and foal.

I know that these unwanted horses, often if given the chance, and lucky enough to find their niche in life, their person, their home ... have so much to offer. A horse can be born with all the right ingredients, the bloodline, the confirmation, the mind and temperament... but it takes the right owner to bring them to their real potential in life.

Twist & Taffy

Well we headed out to the roping practise last night and took our two very out of shape horses, Twist and Taffy. Twist is now 20 years old but still has enough to make one more good season... just needs abit more conditioning. lol. He is still not slow enough for the kids. So theres Taffy, our new addition from last year. She is too cute - really should see how cute she looks trying to catch up to everyone! She stands good in the box, ears pricked forward and runs nice and straight out of the box, abit faster each time. She even let jay heel one last night. Not too shabby for her first time out. She is quite an impressive lil horse, and is so good with the kids. The good news is she is pretty good on the cattle so it shouldnt take too long to have her ready for keestin. We are hoping they can hit at least one KCRA rodeo this season.

Of course i forgot to charge my batteries as we were in a rush trying to get 4 kids ready, so i dont have any good photos or video. But will remember to bring them on Tuesday.

Clayboy and Babies

I re-edited some footage I had of Clayboy. When visiting the website, you can probably guess we love this ole stallion alot, and think the world of him. We are very fortunate to have him here with us! He is a special boy. The type of stallion that will throw so much versality! If you cross a western pleasure mare on him, he will throw a western pleasure baby, lol, the same holds true for halter and rodeo.



I have received some feedback and people have asked why are the babies priced higher.... so heres the answer... Clayboy is a proven stallion, his babies are winners. His babies are often gentle, with awsome bone, feet and confirmation. Clayboys babies out of QH dams, are going to be double-registered, which certainly impacts the value of breeding stallions and mares, and for those who want to show their horses in APHA/AQHA shows. And lastly, our mares are high quality, we handpicked them especially for Clayboy and paid a pretty penny for them as well. The have the termperament, pedigree, confirmation and 90% of our mares are proven producers. As many know, finding the best stallion is half the battle, it takes a long time to get a good broodmare band together and often costs quite abit more, lol. The late Herscehll Williams, from Ocala Florida (who owned and stood Clayboy) gave Jay the best advise and told him what type of Mare he crosses the best with... and we listened to that advice and the results are beyond what we had hoped for. Herschell was a very wise horseman and we always be grateful for the time he spent talking to Jay and offering his suggestions.

Some paint breeders may think we are abit off, lol, because while we have a Colored Stallion, we dont breed for color... everything comes first, then the color is considered the "icing on the cake." We want our babies to be able to hold up in competition, to have the heart to travel and gentleness for the whole family. We want to raise babies that can be shown in western pleasure one weekend and then rodeo the next. That is our goal.

Updates

This is my favorite photo of Bubba... check out those HUGE eyes... i did not use photoshop... those are real... his daddy has big puppy dog eyes like that, and i think Bubba is going to have Clayboys head, as i can see Clay in his eyes and mouth.

Well we listed him for sale, and also put Joe Q up.

Have some new videos but experiencing technical difficulties in compressing them, so will try again today. I have these new fancy programs but have procrastinated in using them, so will force myself to try them out this week.

C - i am loving the new camcorder!!! using it for compiling video footage for my larger projects for Joe Q, Clayboy and the new Mare video i am working on. Its a work in progress but cant wait till they are complete!

More new Stuff!

Above are a couple new photos of Joe Q - two of my favorites i took today while jay was working with him. He should be ready to list by the end of the month so stay tuned!!!

Thought you might think this lil video below is cute! please excuse the mucky pen, its been raining abit out here and the end result is always lots of mud!

New pics.

I just love these babies... been super busy and started missing taking photos of them. They are very cute together, and tend to mimick each other, Bubba and Queenie. 4 more weeks for Zandy. Still have to get her page done but soon. Did some updates with Joe Q and am uploading a small cute clip of the babies now. We thought it would slow down at the end of May but looks to be pretty busy for awhile yet, and you know what they say, no rest for the wicked!!!! :-) enjoy the pics!

PS - at two weeks of age, Bubba is FINALLY starting to grow into those ears and legs of his!

Wowzers!!!!!

I still havent had a chance to upload my new videos... ugh!!! busy like crazy busy. The new stuff is coming soon.....

.... News update, which makes me very excited. I just spoke to AQHA and the very first important stage of Clayboys AQHA registration process is now finalized. His grandsire, WhiskyTalk, who was a crop out, is now being registered AQHA. The Executive Committee met and approved his application under harship!!!! Whewhew! So now we are waiting for his dam, Hot Whisky, to go to Exectutive Committee, and once that is finalized, we then have Clayboys papers processed. What does this all mean? well, it means that we are preparing to have all our babies registered AQHA/APHA by July. Any Clayboy foals out of an AQHA dam will also become eligible, provided the mare's DNA is on record.

We will be listing Bubba for sale, as a Stallion Prospect to approved home only. We will be deciding on his price soon. He will be a special addition as he will be dual registered, Black and built like a tank. He is starting to muscle up now... taking abit more time than Queenie as he has such a large frame to him. That famous Clayboy hip and those (((legs))) are VERY evident!

And I was wrong about him.... we have him in with Queenie and gone is the quiet boy and in his place is our lil renegade... he is getting on Queenies nerves... and they have their lil discussions about who is to be the boss. Despite being a month younger, Bubba is winning the arguement. Hopefully I will have some super cute video footage of the two of them working out their issues in the mud. YES... MUD and lots of it I am afraid... its been raining AGAIN.

Good Morning!

Good Morning!

Well today is day two of sunny weather out here, and I am charging my batteries and will be going out and taking some photo and video coverage of Blue and Zandy today. Time to start updating some pages on the web. Considering Zandys stature at our place, I want her page to reflect how important she is to us! She has another 6 weeks to go and is HUGE and abit grumpy.

Blue started her heat cycle, and how do I know this? she is standing beside Joe Q (who is a gelding) 24/7 and trying to act very interested!
No more breeding for Blue though, as she is one of our best riding horses. Her destiny is not to be a producer of beautiful foals (which she can sure accomplish!) but is rather that of a great riding horse. She is fully shedded and shiny with alot of blue highlights. Frustrating trying to get good pictures of her because she is so black. But will try.

The yearlings are heading out to pasture down the road later today so will be sad not to see them all the time from the house.

I am going to be providing some links to the blog on equine health issues we have enountered. The first link will be on Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC)- the tumor Clayboy had resulted in a huge learning curve for us. I saved some photos of Clays tumor as well (and of his recovery), so will share those for folks wanting to know what to look out for. If caught early, it can be treated. Its important for Appaloosa and Paint folks to know what this looks like b/c it tends to come out in these breeds with pink pigmented eyes.

Anyone else who has encountered this with their horse, you can add your stories/photos as well, as I think the information will help those who have questions. We are VERY lucky to live so close to WCVM - and they are life-savers in every sense of the word. They saved Clayboys life and we will always be grateful.

Just because Clayboy has one eye doesnt mean he isnt as beautiful as ever, so I am working on a new bunch of photos and video for him as well. Will update as soon as they are done!

Enjoy all the great weather people!

Bubba's Video

Well here is Bubba's lil video! He is a friendly colt, still trying to get the hang off his long legs. lol. We havent decided whether we will be listing him or keeping him.... need to think on it some more. I will be updating his new page on the website this evening.

Bubba

Well I made it out to take some shots and instead, took video footage and only got one good photo! lol. Also noticed the little guy scratched his nose! Here is a new picture taken from today.

Our Babies

One of the most exciting things we are experiencing is the birth of our foals! So far we have two on the ground. We have a filly who we call "Queenie" - she is a chesnut solid and is a very muscular filly with a perfect babydoll head, and we now have newcomer, "Bubba," our black and white overo colt. He is HUGE (thus the name Bubba) and has minimal white markings that are going to look quite amazing as he matures... white up both back legs into the groin, big bellyspots underneath, and semi-bald face with two high white socks up front.

When we purchased the dams of both foals we did so with the goal of trying to see what type of foal Clayboy will throw when crossed with big bodied running bred mares, and he now we sit back and look at them, and know we did the right thing. These mares are truley amazing. Queenie's dam, Big Mama, is getting very close to my heart. She is an own daughter of Rocket Wrangler with lots of Hall of Famers in her pedigree. She is quite special and I cant fault her for anything; she is the perfect mare. Then there is "Della," our ChickleBook/Jet Deck mare who is the dam of "Bubba." I am so grateful to Big Foot Ranch for letting us purchase Della b/c this mare is one big jet black tank~! Her colt is the largest we have had and fancy!!

I updated Queenies pictures on our website but need to get my butt outside and get some good shots of Bubba. We have Bubba in the roundpen next to the house and I can see him and watch him from my kitchen window when doing dishes. Its been cloudy and drizzling, thus my reason for lack of updated photos. Yesterday, I watched Bubba checking out all the lil birdies in his pen... he chased them all afternoon, and I knew this is going to be a colt that needs a job, that wants to be stimulated. Like so many of Clayboy's babies, he is very gregarious as well, always wanting to sniff you, check you out and be close to you.... we havent decided if we are going to list him but want to wait a couple weeks to see how he fills out first. I think he is a nice stallion prospect...

New Blog!

Good Morning!!
Welcome to our blog! So much has been happening around the farm, I thought starting a blog would be a great way to get it all down.