Creative folks – time to put on your thinking caps, because this is a contest you definitely want to win. With the help of some very generous companies, we’ve put together a pretty epic prize package!

Some of you might remember the logo contest I did a couple years ago for the blog. I got so many great submissions that when my friends over at Willow Tree Warmbloods decided it was time for a new logo, I suggested we join up for another contest. The logo on their current website was something that I, in all of my severely graphics-design-challenged glory, slapped together with generic clipart in about 5 minutes just to fill the space, and well… uh, it looks like it. It worked fine to get everything off the ground, but now that WTW is super legit and well-established, they need a logo to match and I’m hoping that you guys can help.

First, to give you an idea of what’s at stake here, let’s start with what you can win:

• custom painting by Michelle made from a photo of your choice

• custom baby pad OR jacket embroidered with the WTW logo

• Lund Saddlery figure 8 bridle and rubber grip reins (you pick the size)

• Hamer & Clay custom item of your choice (magnet or ornament)

• super fancy Leistner Prinz brush from Teddy’s Tack Trunk

• complimentary download of the AllEars app

That’s around $400 worth of prizes! Now that you’re properly motivated, pay attention because here are the rules:

– logo must include the name “Willow Tree Warmbloods”

– logo must be a vector file

– WTW barn colors are black and teal. It is not required to use color, or more than one color, but if you do use it, please stick to that general color family.

– submit your best logo designs to michelle (at) willowtreefarmtx (dot) com

– please title the email CONTEST ENTRY

– There is no limit to how many logos you may submit, the more the merrier!

Feel free to be creative, keeping in mind that it needs to be something that will embroider well. And of course take a look around the Willow Tree website, facebook page, and Instagram to get a feel for who they are (you should follow them too, because it’s almost baby season). The farm mostly focuses on breeding for jumpers, with some hunter and event horses as well.

Entries must be submitted by midnight on January 2nd. The winner will be chosen by Willow Tree Warmbloods no later than January 7, 2017, and will be announced here on the blog, on Instagram, and on facebook. Please understand that by submitting the logo you are agreeing that it can be used with no restrictions by Willow Tree Warmbloods. Also please keep in mind that since several of these prizes are custom, they may take a little time to receive.

Henry had his chiropractic/acupuncture appointment last week. He’s had chiro a couple times before, but he’s never had acupuncture so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. And, well… although it might have been the first time, it definitely won’t be the last.

The practitioner we used was a new one for us – she’s a vet that specializes in acupuncture. I’ve not had any personal experience with acupuncture before at all, either human or equine, so I had no real opinion about it either way beforehand, just a healthy dose of skepticism. I was not convinced that a few specifically placed tiny needles could really make much difference, but ultimately I figured “hey, why the hell not?”… worst case scenario I burn some money. And if there’s one thing that I’ve gotten really good at after 17 years of owning horses, it’s this:

She started out by asking me some questions about Henry, his history, his personality, and then watched him walk up and back in the barn aisle. She immediately noticed that the right hind wasn’t moving as freely as the left hind and one hip was higher than the other. First order of business: chiropractic adjustment.

She started at his poll and worked her way back, finding several spots that needed adjustment. When she did the right side of his neck I swear his eyes just about rolled back in his head and he immediately relaxed a bit. The real “trouble” spot, though, was basically everything near and/or connected to his SI area. Which kind of explains a lot.

She also noticed that he was very very tight in his psoas, so she released those (and showed me how to do it so I can maintain it), explaining that the psoas was basically like the human hip flexor. Everything was starting to add up when you compared what she was finding with what I had been feeling. How he felt “stuck” in the right lead canter, and had trouble crossing behind in the lateral work, and seemed to want to hold his neck slighty bent to the right.

Then we moved on to the acupuncture. I wasn’t sure how Henry would react (he is a HUGE wuss about, uh, everything) but he didn’t seem to notice as she stuck a couple needles at his poll, a couple more in his chest, his neck, his legs, and then basically made a giant pincushion of his SI area. The only one he reacted to was the right fetlock, which she said connected to the spot where he was so “out” in his neck. Something about meridians maybe? I dunno, here, learn things:

Then, to up the ante of the treatment a bit, we shocked the shit out of him! Just kidding, no we DID NOT do that, it just kinda looks like it. Electroacupuncture really just uses a very very mild pulsating current that helps further stimulate the acupuncture points… like regular acupuncture on steroids. It looked cool, anyway, and Henry offered no objections while she worked.

After that was done she gave me some exercises to do with him to help keep that SI area loosened up, wrote down her findings, and we made another appointment. Due to just how tight and “jacked up” (my own very scientific term) he was, she warned me that it wouldn’t be fixed overnight. Ultimately he might end up needing the SI injected, but hopefully with a few more sessions, if he responds well, we could get him ironed out and avoid that.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much difference. I figured maybe he’d feel a little looser and his stride would open up a bit, but the chiro he’s had in the past has only made minimal difference, and what kind of magic can a few needles really do? Um, well, he felt freaking amazing the next day. Huge walk, very straight, very happy to go forward, steadier in the contact, and the right lead canter no longer felt stuck at all. WTF KIND OF VOODOO IS THIS???

We’ll see how long it lasts. Unfortunately it poured buckets all weekend long so his turnout time and my riding time were minimal… not ideal for keeping him loose. His next appointment is next week. I’m really hoping that some regular treatments can get everything ironed back out to where it should be. Either way though – I think we’re on to something here!

 

 

 

Poor Sadie… two babies by two different dudes and here we are planning #3 by yet another. She’s like a walking episode of Jerry Springer. Such is the life of a broodmare.

This will be her first foal where the sire possibilities are truly wide open. Her first one was by Mezcalero, using up a breeding when a different mare that was booked to him failed to become pregnant. Then of course 2016’s breeding was my choice, and I went for the high blood % eventer baby daddy. But next year is the first year where she’ll be bred with the express purpose of selling the foal, looking to produce something for the hunter/hunter derby ring.

Sadie, of course, was originally bred to be a hunter. She’s by Westporte, who was a successful hunter and now a successful sire in his own right. He really stamps his foals with good movement and amateur-friendly temperaments. I’ve loved him since the first time I laid eyes on him in 2005 and to this day he remains a sentimental favorite.

Of course, I’m not involved in hunterland anymore but I still keep an eye on it, from a breeding perspective. Which stallions are consistently producing hunters, which ones are imported and continue to compete as stallions, how do the offspring look, etc. I want a good mover, a consistently good jumper that uses it’s whole body well, one that seems rideable, and of course – he has to be beautiful. To be honest, a lot of them just don’t wow me. And of course, many of the best ones end up gelded, because it’s a heck of a lot easier to show a gelding. Trying to breed for the hunter ring is hard, considering that very few of the really good ones were actually purpose bred for the sport. But there is one in particular that I’ve keep a close watch on all season: Cosmeo.

He competed as a jumper before being brought over to the US (2016 was his first year of showing here so he’s still learning the ropes) and he’s got a great Holsteiner pedigree. He’s strong in areas where Sadie is a bit weaker, and conversely I think Sadie’s best qualities will compliment him in other areas. This one could potentially be a really good match. Plus, let’s be honest, chrome doesn’t hurt when you’re trying to sell hunter babies. We’ll see who Michelle ultimately goes with, but I think he’s the front runner. Hunter crowd – what do you think?

I think the other two mares are still up in the air. If choosing the right hunter stallion is hard, choosing the right jumper stallion is impossible, especially when you want to use frozen from a European based stallion. There are so many good ones! She keeps asking for my input but I think I’m even more crippled by indecision on these. Just for fun (because it’s Thursday, and everyone needs more fun in their life on a Thursday) who would you pick for these girls?

Lasilissa

Interlaken

I won’t say my favorites yet. Mostly because I’ve got several for each mare…

Emma kind of unintentionally started this unofficial blog hop last week when she posted about her new horse’s pedigree. The comments were great, and led to lots of good discussion… so many thoroughbred fans out there. She encouraged other people to post about their thoroughbred’s pedigree too, so here I am. Such a people pleaser (everyone who knows me is probably laughing hysterically at that).

I’ve owned and ridden my fair share of TB’s, plus I am a breeding nerd, so this one is right up my alley. Over the years I’ve developed some opinions (shocking) on which lines I really like, which ones I don’t, and just how much it matters in the big picture. Short version – I don’t put a ton of stake in it, but sometimes it can give you an idea of the horse, what it might be good at, and what it might be like. When I’m looking at TBs, especially ones that are fresh off the track or still on the track, I absolutely DO look at and consider the pedigree. While it usually won’t be enough to turn me away completely if I really like the horse but not the pedigree, it can definitely make me go from 90% interested to 50% interested if I see some lines that I don’t like, or 50% interested to 90% interested if I see some lines that I really do like. That’s kind of what happened with Henry. I liked him on video and I loved him on paper.

Digging into his pedigree – first of all, his JC name is Hesalmostsweet and while he is registered, he never actually raced, just trained. I had him DNA verified to confirm his identity for TIP since he was not tattooed and I didn’t get papers. He is, indeed, Hesalmostsweet, and I have the fancy official JC letter to prove it. (So everyone who keeps insisting he’s QH or Appendix – STOP IT, he just has a big butt! That means you, BOBBY!)

Henry did not exactly come from a blueblood Kentucky background. He was born at a small private farm in Arkansas, by a stallion named Skeet, who stood at stud for a whopping $500. Skeet himself was a decent racehorse, winning some minor stakes races on the dirt and turf. However, he has very few registered offspring, and dropped off the map in 2008. I can’t find what happened to him after that nor have I been able to track down any of the handful of his registered offspring. As it was, I had to seriously scour the internet to find any pictures of him.

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree on that one. Aside from color, Henry and Skeet pretty identical, right on down to the weird faces and tongue.

Skeet’s sire was Dove Hunt

who has produced at least one upper level eventer that I can find, 2* horse and NAYJC competitor Case Closed:

Dove Hunt’s sire is the famous Danzig, also known as a big part of the reason I was so interested in Henry. I’ve had very positive experiences with Danzig line horses in the past… I’ve found them to be honest, good learners, and very correct jumpers. Henry has definitely lived up to that. I always stop and take a closer look when I see Danzig in a pedigree.

Danzig can also be found in a similar spot in the pedigree (top sire line) of eventing stallions Sea Accounts and Sea Lion

as well as one of my favorite eventers ever: Ziggy

just to name a few.

Moving on to the dam’s side of Henry’s pedigree, things get a lot harder to dig up. His dam, Lona Thump, raced but didn’t do very well, and then produced a few offspring that never did anything. Her sire, Royal N Trouble, at one time stood at Broken Word Farm in Arkansas. Which, if you google it, comes up with a bunch of stories like this: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/172992/arkansas-trainer-charged-with-animal-cruelty 

So, uh… big yikes. Unfortunately I can’t find much info on what ever became of Royal N Trouble.

Royal N Trouble’s sire was Royal and Regal, who you can spy in this particular little video that some of you may have seen a time or two before:

At one point he was 3rd, but faded to ultimately finish 8th.

Other names that stood out to me in Henry’s pedigree were Wavering Monarch, The Minstrel, Key to the Mint, or if you go even further – T.V. Lark, Sir Gaylord, Graustark, Sea Bird, Buckpasser, etc. There’s nothing flashy in his pedigree, racehorse-wise. No big name Kentucky sires and nothing particularly fashionable, which to me is kind of a plus. It’s not always good things that come along with those big names. Henry’s is basically just a solid, sporty TB pedigree, without any of the glitz and glamour.

And really… that’s pretty much what Henny is, too.