Show Season

I finally got a picture to load. I don't know what I had been doing wrong but this time it worked. So now you get to see one of my horses.

We are very excited about this young filly. Her name is WOF Dock's Velvet. She just turned two years old last month. As you can see she is a very beautiful blood bay filly. She won the 2-3 Country Trail Pleasure class in the recent Al Prewitt show in North Carolina. Velvet is a Choco Dock daughter. I bought her from Van Bert Farms when she was just a weanling in the summer of 2007.

As is the practice at Van Bert Farms, Velvet had early training under halter. When I brought her home, she was already loading easily, leading, picking up her feet and just in general a very nice filly to work with.

She is trained by the Cool Shade Mountain Horse and Equine Dental Facility. The owners of this facility is Chris and Stacie Tipton. Chris is the grandson of H T and Wilda Derickson and the son of Vera and Larry Patterson. Chris and Stacy had worked at the Van Bert Farms until just last fall when they set up their own training and equine dental facility.

When I took Velvet to Cool Shade, she was 20 months old and had been on pasture for most of her life. She had a lot of handling however. I had continued to lead her and she had been saddled and even had people laying on her back. So when she got to Cool Shade, Chris was surprised and pleased to find that she was a friendly easy to catch horse. He was Stacie were also pleased to note that she was not a spoiled back yard pet.

I remember their first experience of letting her out of the stall. They related that they had constructed a plan to catch her if she would not let them walk up to her. They let her out for a run and after some time went back to see if they could catch her. They laughed about how she ran up to them at full speed. It was no longer an issue as to whether she would be caught. In fact she loves to be around people and loves to have an interaction with them.

It did not take Stacie and Chris long to put a blanket and saddle on her after her arrival at Cool Shade. Stacie rode her first. As they related the experience to me I could almost see Stacie easing herself into the saddle and not sure how Velvet would react to someone on her back in a sitting position for the first time in her life. Soon after Stacie started riding her, Chris was on the phone with me asking me to come down to see Velvet. They were so excited about her and the fast progress she was making.

I could see a difference in her when I walked up to her stall. Stacie opened the door and led her to the tie rings in the wash bay. She had put on weight, was losing some of the coarse hair and was starting to take on a shine that you can see now from the picture.

My sister, Eleanor, and I have continued to visit the stables over the winter and each time I am more amazed at what I see when I get to Cool Shade. My hat is certainly off to Chris and Stacie Tipton for the training and for the condition of this filly. I was pleased and amazed when I was there early on in her training and Chris got on her and rode her up and down the road. Previously she had been ridden in an enclosed arena. They also told me they had been riding across the fields to the Van Bert Stable and Velvet was just as willing to do that as anything they ask of her.

Velvet may have ruined me. It is like having your first child. Our first was our daughter whom we call Mary Beth. She was the best baby ever. she had no colic, soon slept through the night and seldom cried. A year later we had our oldest son. Mike had colic and of course cried a lot. Poor baby, his belly hurt and he couldn't help it.

But back to the horses. This first one has worked out so well that I may be expecting the same from my yearling class that is coming along now. I don't take much credit for how Velvet has turned out as a two year old. I didn't have any special skill or insight on how to handle a young horse coming up. I did know I needed to teach her to accept new things. I threw ropes over her back. I taught her to be ok with things coming at her. I taught her to let me walk up to her in the field. I continued her training under halter. But I think it is her gentle disposition that has made the difference in her. She has all the best attributes of the Rocky Mountain Horses.

And she is a Rocky Mountain horse after all. So maybe the yearlings coming along now will be just the same. They are also Rocky Mountain horses. And I already see the promise in them too.

Later and may God bless each of you in whatever way that pleases him.