CSI "Horse of Year" fundraiser calendars are ready!

CSI calendars are READY !!!! buy yours at Cafe Press http://www.cafepress.com/curlysporthorseinternational The CSI annual calendar is a fundraiser for the highly popular CSI "HOY" competition....help support those who compete and promote Curlies!

CSI annouces the 2011 CSI "Horse of the Year" awards

Congrats to the 2011 CSI "Horse of the Year" winners !!!! You have all done an excellent job with your horses and shown you excel at your sport!

The 2011 CSI HOY awards have been sponsored in part by www.ourbigskyranch.com THANK YOU Lesly for your generous donation to the 2011 CSI HOY awards!


2011 CSI HOY Training Level Dressage
*TO Mi Shadow's Black Diamond (*Ozzie)
Florence Martin- owner
Annie Baird - rider
Open division
65.19 mean score


2011 CSI HOY First Level Dressage
*TO Mi Shadow's Black Diamond (*Ozzie)
Florence Martin- owner
Annie Baird - rider
Open division
Mean score 66.28

2011 CSI HOY Intro Level Dressage
*Dances in Cahoots (*Mojo)
Ridden by Melissa Harlinski
AA division
Mean score 68.36

2011 CSI HOY Combined Training
*DCC Traveler
Ridden by Liz Mattke
Novice, AA division
mean score 47.60

USDF/CSI All Breed Awards announced !

It is official....*Spar Trek has won the USDF/CSI All Breeds award for the Open division of Fourth Level dressage. *Spar Trek is owned by Lynda McNeely and for the Fourth Level award, ridden by Sue Kolstad. Their median score was 63.341. CONGRATS to Lynda, *Spar Trek and Sue !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! your efforts are to be commended!

Stanton Farm Horse Trials

Traveler - my breeding stallion, and I headed off to the Stanton Farm Horse Trials this last weekend to compete in their USEA Recognized 3 Day Event (at the Novice level) against what we call the "big dogs". Standing at 15'2 he is dwarfed by the bigger TBs and Warmbloods, but he has springs in his hind end and sails over every jump.

Linda V. came out to meet us and cheer us on and take some fantastic photos of Traveler. So thank you very much Linda for your support, time and effort to come and join us for this fun weekend. It was great to meet you and discuss the wonderful world of Curly horses with a fellow Curly owner, breeder and expert at showing Curly horses. I am relatively new to the world of Curly show horses and competitions.

The first day was dressage - we did it, it was passable and we got some pretty good scores on several of the different movements. It seems that Traveler is really good at coming down the centerline and halting. The rest we are working on - but there is always something to work on. The journey never ends - hopefully it just keeps getting a little bit better at a time. We scored better on this test than our last, so that was improvement!


And then on to Cross-Country. This is by far the most fun, fast and furious part of Eventing. Traveler rocks at Cross-Country. We were double clear - on time and obstacles and it was a blast.

Jump number 3 was at a slight angle and I was a little concerned about a run-out - but as you can see there was no hesitation and we sailed over it.

This jump was the house after the water jump. We had to trot into the water - and then pick up a canter in the water and jump the house right after it. No problem for Traveler.

Away from the view of the spectators, Traveler and I galloped up the hill in the trees and had to take 3 jumps on the downhill. I really don't like downhill jumps - but we did them great and raced out of the woods and over the half coffin.

I have been told before that Traveler would not be able to make time on the Cross-Country course because of his shorter body / legs / stride compared to the 17 hands TBs, etc. So let me tell you - when someone tells me that Traveler and I can't do something - I have to set out to prove that I can. Knowing we have to make time, at the last part of the course I kicked him up into a fast gallop, "throw" my hands / reins forward and perch on him like a jockey. HA HA! We did it - with 13 seconds to spare.

What a great boy - whew, we are done.

And now for Stadium jumping - the last day. We made one "mistake" which costs us some penalties, but we recovered, held our own for the rest of the course and finished in 6th place! Complete with a ribbon and a lap in the Victory Gallop. Way to go Traveler!

Traveler - proudly displaying his ribbon! Time to go home and get ready for the next one. Until then.......

Dressage days

A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to take our horses to a training dressage day - we love shows like this - very low key and informative as the Judge will help you to improve your test scores.

I brought my mare *Spar's Barefoot Contessa, my daughter Anastasia brought our extreme Curly mare *Poplar's Bijou and my working student brought Caroline brought our wonderful gelding *Cuervo.  We all rode training tests one and two and we all did quite well, but Bijou was a STAR in the eyes of the judge!  She even earned a couple of "9's" which is pretty amazing!

Here are a couple of photos of *Tessa and I:

And also a couple of our student from France - Caroline did an awesome job with *Cuervo!

Any questions about my horses - ask away - I love to talk about my herd!
Shelly in Summerland, BC Canada
www.curlystandardplace.com

*BCF Icon and *Snowman's Magic

In May of this year I had the opportunity to take my two young stallions to the annual Okanagan Breeders Showcase and stallion show.  In the past I have taken my senior stallion *Sandman's Magic and he has always been a crowd favorite - we always ride him in these demos to the tune of "Mr. Sandman", he seems to know and like the music and it if fun to ride to!

But this year I took my two young stallions, the first was our new stallion *BCF Icon, we imported him in April from GA, from the excellent breeding program of Lisa Wytiaz.  I am in love with this young stallion!  He has excellent conformation, his way of going is over the top amazing and in typical Curly fashion, he is incredibly easy to handle - he is fun, respectful and yet really puts out when asked to!

*Icon has been bred to two mares for 2012 foals - we are really excited to see his first foal crop and we are pretty sure it is going to be a whole new era at the Curly Standard Place!

Here is a slideshow to photos of him from the Okanagan Breeders Showcase

And below are a few photos of him.

Okay - now our second young stallion is *Snowman's Magic !  He is an own son of our outstanding flagship stallion *Sandman's Magic and his dam is a really super quality, registered appaloosa mare Cordova True Colours.  *Snowman is everything we could have hoped for from this cross.  He has excellent conformation, superb temperament, a very powerful way of going and will be sure to always get noticed with his amazing loud appaloosa colour.  Here is a link to photos of him at the Okanagan Breeders Showcase and below are a few photos of him from the demo.  We are so excited about this young progeny of *Sandman!

Keep an eye out for both of these young horses - they are up and coming stallions, they will be trained to ride next year (2012) and are available for breeding at our farm in Summerland, BC Canada
Shelly at the Curly Standard Place

Legacy's clinic

Last month I took Legacy, my intended future driving mare to a driving clinic, with the intention of her and I learning to long line. The clinician was "Terri Jones" a top ADS competitor.


After a bit of miscommunication on day one, day two went off without a hitch. Legacy was calm and relaxed, and I learned alot about my body position and how I could physically keep things moving along. After a winter of surgeries I am still progressing in my recovery. Legacy will continue her training over the summer, and we will see where it leads us.

Here Legacy is quietly waiting for Terri to approach her and reward her for a job well done! I had a great learning experience, the host farm of Teddy Bear Fjords were exceptional hosts. When I went to say my final goodby's , after Warren and Terri helped me load Legacy and my cart, I found a place set at the table for me to join them for lunch! geee..my lunch was going to be a soggy sandwich left over from the day before and a warm bottle of water....thank you Warren and Sylvia Riddle !!!

Curly Sporthorse International is now on Facebook

Just wanted to let everyone know that I started a facebook page for Curly Sporthorse International! It's a very important social network that is easy to use (most days anyways)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Curly-Sporthorse-International/178351712219497#!/pages/Curly-Sporthorse-International/178351712219497

If you have nice sporthorse pictures, I could use a couple more for the page, just post them on the facebook wall! And of course if you are out showing we would love to hear results on facebook.

Welcome!!!!

Welcome to the Curly Sport NEWS Blog......This blog is about sharing "off the farm" news about our "Sport Curlies" showing, clinics, events off the farm where our curlies are making waves !!!!!