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Ian Stark was at Full Gallop Farm this weekend for an instructional clinic. Ian a Scottish equestrian has won a silver medal at the 1984 Olympic games at Los Angeles, Two silver medals at the 1988 Seoul Games, a Silver at the World Championships in 1990, Two gold medals at the European Eventing Championships in 1991, a gold in the 1997 European Eventing Championships, Won the Badminton Horse Trials in 1999 and won a silver team medal for eventing in the Sydney Olympic Games. Ian, Shea and Spirit worked at the novice level in dressage on Friday, Show Jumping on Saturday and cross country on Sunday. The weather was brutally hot but they all hung in there and Spirit was a dream. Ian’s comments about Spirit were very encouraging saying that “this is the type of horse that does well in eventing”. Spirit has never seen some of these type of jumps before and handled them like a pro…., even the water! Ditches were not even an issue as she sailed over them all. Look for her in the recognized horse trials this fall! |
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Sunday Sept 30, Sorry I have not updated in a week or so, just been directed in other areas lately. The biggest news is that Shea and Spirit went for Spirit’s First USEA recognized event last weekend at Full Gallop Farm in Aiken. We were thrilled when we discovered she was tied for 2nd after dressage. Spirit was calm as a cucumber for her dressage test and preformed it beautifully. Obviously the Judge thought so as well. She had a penalty score of 33 after dressage. Show Jumping came next and again Spirit sailed through the course. Shea tried to make up some time and took one fence at a fast turn and Spirit caught a rail. The rail penalty along with some time penalties moved the pair down to 5th after show jumping. We were so excited that Sprit hardly looked at the colorful jumps and was willing to go forward and jump each question. The next day Spirit was ready to go again, met Shea at the gate and put her head in the halter. It was almost like she was saying, “Come on Mom, let’s go get ‘em on cross country!” The cross country course was a totally different course with many more questions with banks, ditches, water as well as the fixed jumps. Spirit flew over them all, ran through the water like a champ and finished clean and well within the optimum time. This ride moved her up from 5th to 4th place for the show. The division winner won the level with a score of 33. Yep, without the time and rail penalty in show jump she would have been tied for first at the event. We are expecting great things our of our Winston filly!!!! Next show will be Paradise Farm trials in Aiken. |
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Full Gallop Farm Horse Trails |
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The Life of RILEY Wednesday February 6, 2008, Many of you know my daughter Shea, and you know how much she loves her animals. One special one is her little Malkie ( a Maltese/Yorkshire Terrier cross) named Riley. She called him her Son and she loved him as a son. That may sound strange to you that are not of the animal lover set, but it is perfectly normal occurrence in this household. Our Animals have not betrayed us, belittled us, harmed us in any way, they have only looked upon us with love in their eyes and a wag in their tail. Riley brought something special to Shea. She beamed when he came running to her and bounced around her feet, saying to her in his little dog way, “Here I am Mom, So glad you are home, let me show you how much I love you!”
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Today that special relationship changed dimensions, as Riley passed over that bridge to wait for Shea on the other side. He was a 3 lb, dynamo who protected his home yard with the fierceness of a lion, yet he was no match for the larger dog that wandered in his yard. He and his father tried to keep the big dog at bay while they were out for a little romp, but before I could get out to their aid, Riley was gone. I watched my daughter cradle him in her arms, rocking him and talking softly through her tears. The shock of the situation was evident in the shaking of her hands and the inability to speak above a whisper. She said her goodbyes. There are many tears being shed tonight and will be for some time to come. There will be no replacing this precious dog, who was a son. Good Night, Sweet Prince, Till we meet again. |
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March 25,08– Life goes on at Up and Over. We have had some dark days here but Spring is here and the promise of new life is visible everywhere. Our spirits are lifted with these new sparks of life and we go on. Riley will always be with us in our hearts and can never be replaced, but life goes on and there is room in our hearts and more love to give to others. I could not delete the memorial to Riley, so for those that have not read about our little fellow, you can scroll down to the bottom of this page to read about Shea’s little precious doggie son Riley.
We have decided to keep Merely Money as a brood mare here. She is due to foal this May for a Winston Baby. Our other mare Diamond Conclusion is also due for a foal by Tanzer. We will breed these two again in 09.
We have two new mares at the farm for breeding this year. Miss Corrrado USA is by the jumper great Corrado. Miss Corrado USA also known as Meritage, A Holstiner/Westfalian cross, is registered and approved by Rheinland-Pfalz-Saar registry. Although the plan was to breed this mare to Winston, Shea enjoys riding her so, I am not sure that we will breed this year. The second mare is Kokanna, a TB mare by the stallion Kokand. KoKanna came to us by way of our friend Terry Jinks. Thank you so much Terry. We will be breeding her with Winston this year. Brazen Kiss, our big grey TB mare, is still on the docket for a try at breeding her to Winston. We have not been able to get her bred for the last couple of years and will make one more try with her. We have added a breeding specialist, Dr. Matt Barber, to our breeding team to try to get just one last foal from Brazen before we retire her. Dr. Barber has some good ideas and a new plan to help get Brazen in foal. Keep your fingers crossed folks. We have one other horse that we are breeding to Winston this year. The mare is a TB/QH cross mare with good conformation and beautiful movements. Her name is Brie Vandicamp and is a red headed mare just like her name sake (Brie Vandicamp is a red head character on Desperate Housewives)
We have decided to put our Thoroughbred Stallion, Tanzer, up for sale. Tanzer is a beautiful horse and we love him dearly, but having two stallions on the farm has proved to be quite a challenge. If you are interested in owning a stallion, please contact us.
I am pleased to announce that “The Old Bitches Riding Club” or for a more gentler name “The Hostile Antique Equinerian Riding Club” is being launched! Well actually it is a group of my gal pals, all of us are a “certain” age and all of us have our health issues, not to mention that since we are of the “certain” age we tend to express our feelings without being hesitant or concerned that it may offend any sector of the public we may encounter. We have earned our right to express ourselves as we see fit. Maybe we can do like the Red hat society and adopt a couple of outrageous colors to help us stand out. Maybe Purple and lime green for example. Some Mardi Gras colors may do us quite well. This has all come about because after years of not being able to sit in a saddle, I am now riding, at only a walk and maybe a few steps of trot, but back in the saddle for sure. No “stinkin” stroke is gona keep me down! My friends Nancy and her gelding Zack and Patsy and her mare Kismet went with me and Justabuck out on a couple of trail rides. My friend Chris has bought herself a trail mare and another friend Barbara also has a new trail horse, so our club is growing already! I am so happy to be out and riding again. I feel like I can be one of the trail riding gang again. I loved driving because it kept me with the horses and able to go out with the group, but I am loving being able to ride again. I am looking for the safe, honest and gentle gelding to be my one and only horse. He must be stout enough for this lady of a larger girth and not so short that I over power him and not so tall that I kill myself if I should fall off. He also must be VERY reasonable priced, since I live on a very set retirement income.
Oh yeah, can’t stop without bragging on my neighbor Reva. Reva was in the Wagener Salley High beauty pageant in Feb, and came home with the second place trophy. What a beauty she was too! .
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April 28, 08– Shea and Spirit represented Up and Over Farm very well this past weekend at Jasmine Farm. The pair competed in their first ever First Level Dressage tests, test one and two. Shea and Spirit have very successfully evented novice level as well as hunters and jumpers but have never really focused totally on dressage until now. Shea was really nervous for test one and it showed in her riding, but she came back together for test two and WOW what a difference. She placed second for test one and first for test two with her score for test two earning her the big ribbon for BEST SCORE OF THE SHOW! Spirit is by our Hanoverian Stallion Winston and out of our TB mare Mission. ** BIG thanks to Valerie Swygert of Jasmine Farm for helping Spirit and Shea prepare for this show! **
We are on foal watch here, Merely Money is due to deliver a Winston baby any moment now. We are hoping for a successful delivery and a happy healthy foal. We are so excited to be having another Winston Foal and are planning to breed three mares to Winton this year for 09 babies. This will be Money’s first foal so we all have those first time Mom worries, but we are keeping a close watch on her and will be with her for her delivery. Keep posted for baby news!
Diamond Conclusion is due to foal in July with our first Tanzer baby. She is huge! We think it must be triplets:)!
We listened to your comments about the service from our former collection clinic and have changed vets. We are in the process of building our own collection area here at the farm and have put Dr. Matt Barber in charge of monitoring our breeding program here. Dr. Barber is well know for his expertise in the breeding shed and I feel that you all will be very happy with his services for collection and monitoring good semen shipments. Winston and Tanzer are continuing to producing excellent semen samples for shipping.
Yorkshire Terrier babies are here and are sooooooo cute! They are now three weeks old and are healthy little ones. After days of constant puppy watching and waiting for Dee Dee to have successful delivery, Chris and I finally had to take her to the vet for a c-section. It was determined at that time that she should be spayed, so there will be no more Dee Dee Yorkies or Malkie’s babies.:( Chris does intend to keep the females from this litter so we will eventually have more from this wonderful little girls family.) |
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May 25, 2008—Those of you that regularly read our farm news page know that this little fellow was delivered on April 30. What I have been dreading writing on this page is that when he was just about a week old I noticed he was limping. I was afraid Money |
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may have stepped on his shoulder so we immediately called the vet. One of the vets from the clinic was out the next morning to check on him, and from what he could see at this visit he believed there was |
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some soft tissue bruising and possible nerve damage. We were given steroids and bute to help with this and followed the treatment to the letter, only to have the limp become a dragging front limb that the foal had no use of. The vet came back out and treated the foal again with same treatments but after a day or so of this and the foal was still getting worse another vet from this practice came out stopped the steroids and had us bring the foal in for further testing. Once comparing the x-rays taken at the farm in the early phase of the treatment to the ones taken at the clinic and the ultra sound results, it was determined that the foal did not suffer from a injury but by bacteria destroying the growth plates of three joints in the shoulder. The treatment that was initially done may have advanced the progression of this bacteria and the problem had developed to the point that the foal would never be sound and more likely would never be rid of the bacteria which would then attack the rest of his joints. With very heavy hearts we had to easy our precious foals pain and lay him to rest. It was though he seemed he had a very short time with us and he was loving and willing to do anything we asked of him. He truly was a gentle soul even through all the testing and shots, he was easy to handle and never caused any trouble while administering his treatment. I believe he was destined for greatness and would have been an excellent horse to train and show, just like his Daddy. He will be missed.
We do not blame the Doctors for this, the treatment plans were given based on the signs that were displayed at the time of treatment. Our little fellow just did not show the signs of his real pain, he was a trooper and did not want to show us what hurt. We appreciate the honesty and the information we were given to help us come to our decision.
I really wish I had taken more photo’s, of the foal we never named but nicknamed Widgett, he was filling out so nicely and was going to be terrific with Winston’s nice muscular build and tall like both his parents. We even believe he was going to remain chestnut like his Dam and his Grand Sire, Watch me.
On a brighter note, Diamond Conclusion, or Gem as we call her is due to deliver her Tanzer baby soon. I will let you know when her foal arrives.
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RUN FREE LITTLE WIDGETT |