Back in the Saddle Again

So those of you who know me know that I'm a horse girl. I probably came out of the womb that way, but at least as long as I have had conscious thought, those thoughts have been of horses. At the age of 11 I walked into a little barn in Stone Mountain, GA and precociously announced to it's owner that I would be her new stall cleaner. Said owner was Kellie Sharpe and she was kind enough to take pity on a horse crazy little girl and agreed to give me riding lessons in exchange for helping out around the barn. That was the beginning of the end. I was hooked, not just on horses, but on Morgan Horses in particular. Less than a year later I had my own pony (who I bought from Kellie) and the horses just accumulated over the years. I've had mostly Morgans, but I ended up with a few Arabs and a Thoroughbred during the course of this madness as well.

Kellie helped me find my all-time favorite horse. RM Touchin Velvet. AKA "Jessie"

That little mare was my best friend for many years and she taught me a lot... and put up with a lot :) I showed her all over the south east and she gamely did everything I asked her to do.

One of the other horses that proved to have a great influence in my life was the very first Morgan I ever bought. Her name is Rose Hill Crystal. I bought Crystal as a two year old in 1983 and owned her for several years. Eventually I got up to 8 horses and the time came for me to sell some of them. Crystal was one of the ones I sold, and she went to live with a nice lady in Newnan, GA. Eventually life got busy and complicated and I sold all of my horses and was out of the horse biz for a couple of years. However, I always kept track of Crystal over the years and in late 2000 when I decided I was ready to get back into horses, I bought Crystal back. At this point Crystal was nearly 20 and she'd never been a great riding horse, but that was ok. I wasn't looking for a riding horse. I wanted a broodmare and Crystal had the bloodlines and the conformation and the movement I was looking for... and I knew just who I wanted to breed her to.

This is Turfwood Royal Flush. He is one of the great stallions to ever grace the Morgan breed. Kellie and her husband Bob owned him when I met them. I learned to ride on "The Old Man" and when I bought Crystal in 1983 it was with the intent of breeding her to Royal. That didn't happen then, but nearly 20 years later I finally got my act together and in July of 2001 the deed was done and I'm glad it was as we lost Royal the following spring and in June of 2002 Crystal presented us with Royal's last daughter, Ancalagon's Royal Rose. AKA "Callie."

Callie was everything I had hoped for from this cross. She got the best of everything from both her parents and is one of the sweetest, smartest horses I have ever known.

I had Callie for the first 3 years of her life and then life intervened again when I decided to up and move to California. My original intent was to ship Callie out here once I got settled, but after some serious soul searching, I decided that as much as I missed my baby girl, I just couldn't do that to her. She's used to having acres and acres of pasture to run around in and trapping her here in a 12x12 stall just seemed wrong.




So now Callie lives at Kellie's place and seemed very happy there when I went to visit her last fall. She looks an awful lot like daddy and has grown up to be a beautiful mare.





However, I learned a long time ago that I can't stay away from horses for long. I'm now the manager at LA Saddlery at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center and have been re-bitten by the "horse bug" and bad... I'm riding at Jim Bennett Farms and while I love the Saddlebreds that I get to ride there...

... I'm still (and always will be) a Morgan girl. I've spent a lot of time on the various horse sale websites looking at what's for sale out there and while I've found a lot of nice horses, I keep coming back to the fact that there probably isn't anything that I'm going to like better than a foal that I breed myself. Once again, I know what I want, and I know the cross I need to get it... Which once again leads me back to where I started. Kellie's barn and Crystal and Royal's daughter, Callie.

Kellie now owns this fantastic little grulla stallion named Stormwashed. Grulla is a rare color for Morgans and I'd be lying if I didn't say that his color is partially the reason I want to breed Callie to him. But it's only PART of the reason. In any color color, "Tig" is a great little horse. He should shorten up Callie's back and she can hopefully lengthen out his neck and I should have a fantastic dressage prospect with lots of hair... who is not chestnut :) Don't get me wrong, I've loved all my bright red horses, but I knew I didn't want chestnut this time, and since Tig is homozygous for black, I know that's not gonna happen.





So next spring we'll introduce Callie and Tig and sometime in early 2012 I'll have a nifty little baby horse.

Black or grulla, colt or filly, I don't really care. I'm just looking forward to what this cross will produce. I already have names picked out :)

I would like to thank Kellie Sharpe for everything she has done for me over the years. She has taught me a lot and has introduced me to some amazing horses. Here's hoping the one we create next will be the most amazing of them all :)

A Whole New World

I haven't posted a movie review in awhile, but I went and saw James Cameron's "Avatar" yesterday and it is definitely worthy of a review. Let's start with the story. I'll be honest. It's predictable. The story is nothing new... That being said, this movie is not about telling the same old "boy meets girl" story. This movie is about telling that same old story in a brand new way.And that's what Cameron does. He immerses the audience in the story. He drags us into the world of Pandora. By making you feel like we are a part of what is happening on this planet, you come to "know" these characters in a way that is revolutionary. You love them (and hate them) on a whole different level than you would in a "normal" movie. I saw the film in 3D so I think that had something to do with the whole "experience," but that wasn't it entirely. It was more about how "real" these characters felt and how Cameron dragged me into identifying with them. The performances were great. Sam Worthington is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors and Zoe Saldana was outstanding. Stephen Lang gave a performance so strong that I felt an actual physical hatred for him every time he came on screen. I even liked Michelle Rodriguez who normally annoys the hell out of me... Then there was Sigourney Weaver. I love Sigourney Weaver. I always have. And I'm so thrilled to see her working again in a movie of this size and caliber :) But of course the real "star" of this film is the visual effects. And they live up to the hype. Pandora feels like a real place, an alien place, but a real place nonetheless. If somewhere down the road we find out that James Cameron actually went out into space and found a real planet populated by Na'vi, it wouldn't surprise me. Who knew you could take "Aliens" combine it with "Dances With Wolves," throw in a dash of "Princess Mononoke" and get a film that works? And it works really, really well. So go see it. This is a movie that MUST be seen on the big screen.