Winter slow down....

       
Pull up a chair!!!! This one may be long.

 Christmas is over... And now its cold, the ground is hard and icy and we still don't have any snow! Our Christmas was fantastic, but busy, between work, juggling the kids since they had 2 weeks off school and all my riding clients, it was a non-stop couple of weeks around here! My house was a disaster... LOL... I am sure many parents of young children can relate.

The best story was our Christmas Eve. We had a lovely dinner with my family and came home to bed. My children and dog all took turns waking up at various points in the night. Around 4:30am my son woke up and was screaming (as if being tortured) that he couldn't see. I finally clued in that the power had gone out in our wind storn. We bright and early at 6am Christmas morning my children woke up and wanted to open their presents from Santa... Which was done by the light of my iphone flashlight... needless to say we don't have any photos from present opening time this year.

2015 is going to be a big year. On top of my horse training business, I accepted a position within the hospital I work at in a new Locked Behavioural Unit for Elderly people. This is a fantastic opportunity, I will be working only 2 twelve hour shifts each week, which will provide me with the extra time for my Training business, but give me a good consistent income. I am a firm believer in have a fall back plan, and given the horse economy in Canada, a "real" job is usually part and parcel with any horse job... Unless you are already wealthy or marry wealthy ;)

I also keep having horses added into my March re-start for Training, I am very excited about 2015! I also have a horse coming in for training and to compete with for the season. So I will have the opportunity to compete with him and also Buddy!!! Currently given the cold temperatures and bad footing we are having, most of my clients horses get a few weeks off at this time and we start back up once the worst of the cold and ice is gone.


Thats it for now!

What a lucky pony!!!

First, let me say, when I do something, I do it all the way. This includes buying thoroughbreds with awesome bloodlines who arn't registered.

Ever since I purchased Buddy, I have been trying to piece together his registration. His birthdate was reported as a live foal, but he is not registered as Hooman Akbary did not complete the info, or apparently, pay the stallion owner for the breeding!

My journey began when Alexis from Second Start Thoroughbreds told me that they had 100% good reason to believe Buddy was an un-named foal born April 1st, 2011 to a mare named On My Radar. This sire is the lovely G1 Stakes winner Bob and John. His bloodlines are a game of who's who in the Thoroughbred industry including some big names like Storm Cat, Secretariat, Seattle Slew & Northern Dancer of course. Evidently, Buddy has thrown back to his ND roots since his height thus far is a whopping 15h.

I totally just got off track!

Anyways, as I was saying after my discussions with Alexis, I decided I would like to pursue trying to find out how I could register Buddy. My purpose for this is a personal choice and goal, I would love to have his papers with my name that I choose for him and my name as his owner, I have put alot of work into this little guy. I am also hoping eventually, if he is successful, he will be eligible for some of the Ontario Thoroughbred Awards offered through the Ontario Horse Trials Assc. I think he deserves to have a chance. Which may seem cliche, but he was abandoned and sent through 3 auctions in his short life!

The road to getting the papers has been a long one, given the circumstances OTHA had to go through months of legal work because of how much debt the farm had racked up, the horses were all to be used by the bank and sold at appropriate Thoroughbred Sales auctions, instead, the caretaker shipped them ALL off to slaughter auctions in packed stock trailers. Many of the young stock died, Buddy was one of the very lucky ones who remained healthy other than being a bit thin.

Once the OTHA cleared him for registry, we had to contact the owners of the stallion as Akbary had not paid them for the stallion services, thus they have never released a stallion breeding certificate for Buddy... Until NOW! After all the emails and inquiries i've sent, it finally paid off and the very generous and kind owners from Pin Oak Stud in Kentucky agreed to settle with me and not penalize Buddy for an irresponsible breeders mistake. And they were thrilled to hear how well he is doing.

My next task will be to try and save up the money for his actual papers, because since he is 3, the late fee is well over $2000.00.... Anyone want a kidney???

                              One of the last fall days we had before SNOW!

What a good horse!!!

I started off the week extremely lucky! I could not be happier with my little Buddy! I decided to get my boyfriend, Shannon, to help me with my first ride. He is not experienced, but he likes horses and usually is ok with helping me. He did fantastic helping me! 

I leaned over Buddy for a minute and then got right on. He wasn't worried in the least. Shannon was able to lead him around and we got some cute pics. Since then i've ridden him twice by myself and today I got him to trot a bit in each direction! Also considering he is only 15h right now, he doesn't feel all that small. It was a concern I did have before. 

It is so amazing what you can achieve once the horse trusts you. He came from such an unknown place of training and handling that it was impossible to know how he would react. On top of the trailering debacle we had to contend with. 

I am very excited to continue his training and start competing next year! 

Worst. Blogger. Ever....

Yep... Thats me! I don't think I have posted in a number of months. Summer was WAY too busy!

Some bad points, our dog got hit by a car. It was a very traumatic experience! The good, we went on a family vacation, I have got some really great rides this summer! Some off-track horses, love them! So willing and fun. Some warmblood types and some gaited horses. Its been fantastic.

Fast-forward to the end of summer. I decided to move my little rescue project back home to the family farm. I just was not getting the time to work with him at the fancier boarding stable... and well my bank book just doesn't work to pay for something not being used!

The move back- well thats a story in itself! The shipper I used to bring him home from the auction had told me he was fantastic to load and got right on.... riiiiigggght. Our loading experience was definately not fantastic. However, we made it! And the quest for properly trailer-training Buddy has officially begun!

We've also had some fun with free-jumping. I have some really poor shut-setting up skills... however he doesn't seem to mind! In fact, he seems to love jumping. Which is good, because at 15h he is quite small. I have told him to dream of Teddy O'Connor and Forrest Nymph. He certainly will need to channel his inner pony power :) The honestly of this little guy has been amazing! He has jumped whatever has been thrown in front of him, a bounce, flower boxes, barrels!

Check it out here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW8sXPEws6g

And in case anyone is interested in his pedigree:

http://www.equineline.com/Free-5X-Pedigree.cfm?page_state=ORDER_AND_CONFIRM&reference_number=9254664&registry=T&horse_name=Unnamed&dam_name=On%20My%20Radar&foaling_year=2011&nicking_stats_indicator=Y

Rescue Project!!!!

Soooo.... On June 26th I did something incredibly crazy!

 I saw a gorgeous looking 3 year old Thoroughbred colt on a local rescue site, Need You Now Equine. They are a group of very awesome women who bail out as many horses as possible from an Ottawa sale barn that sells for slaughter meat, the meat is bought and sent to France apparently.

This colt originated from a group of thoroughbreds that were purchased or bred by Hooman Akbary... you know... the scum who immigrated (I am not racists by any means!!!) and propriated a business that failed hugely. He ended up abandoning the farm, horses and everything else, and to this day no one has been able to find him! Needless to say, these 41 horses, which included an imported stallion named Balthazaars Gift, mares, weanlings, yearlings etc, were all abandoned as well.

Story has it the bank hired another man to care for the horses until appropriate homes and finances were sorted out and he took the liberty of shipping the horses all out carelessly to other auctions.

This poor colt was purchased at 2 different auctions before ending up in Ottawa being purchased by the meat man. I can't fathom why?! He is lovely, correct and has an amazing pedigree! Plus he was a stallion. On top of all that, his personality is A++. I was very skeptical purchasing a stallion online site unseen, but the horse that arrived was well worth the suspense!!!

So far we have been spending time getting to know each other, he is not backed yet. He is destined to be my next event horse! And I am thrilled. Although we are headed the Teddo O'Connor or Charisma type size horse ;)

I finally started a blog!

            My name is Josslyn... I am a 29 year old mother to 3 awesome children, I also have a Chihuahua named Tinkerbell, AND 4 horses/ponies. I am a very busy person, but that doesn't stop me. I enjoy my time with my family, we go to parks, the splash pad, play with the kids pony Iris and enjoy many other activities.

Last winter, the difficult decision between the childrens father and myself to split up was made. So here I am, doing it all on my own! I work hard at my "real" job which is ordering supplies for 2 of the bigger local hospitals. In addition to that I train a number of horses and do a bit of coaching.

Below is a photograph of my retired OTTB turned broodmare turned eventer... Her name is Vicbrenan and she is a very special old lady!