Chocolate Horse Farm Gypsy Vanner Horses: Fall Training

Chocolate Horse Farm Gypsy Vanner Horses: Fall Training: What a time we have had! Felicia Britt has been here for two weeks working with four Gypsies and Dave and I. It feels like a crash course ...

Fall Training

What a time we have had!  Felicia Britt has been here for two weeks working with four Gypsies and Dave and I.  It feels like a crash course in Fitting a Horse For Show....and it was.  I am slowly going through her notes to us and though winter is approaching, it will be productive.  We have a clear picture of how to do the work, and I am so impressed with our stallion Sparky, I am ready to rent a billboard!  What an awesome fella he is!  He works hard, is sensitive and smart, a real stand up stud! Cracker, Producer's Heiress, and Lady Teagan were also great students and have impressed us as well.  Lady T made the greatest transition from a petulant filly to a youngster listening and trying in a big way.


We will be focusing on Sparky and his offspring in regard to shows and expos.  His foals are outstanding, displaying his disposition and willing nature, as well as the best characteristics of the mare.   As it is the desire of every responsible breeder to stand a sire that will reproduce better than himself and breed mares that do the same, we believe our mares and stallion do exactly that.  Aggie and Clara, both coming four, will be bred to Sparky in the spring, offered for sale ...in foal....for $15,000 each.  A fantastic two for one package if there ever was one.

LIL Lotti

LIL Lotti is growing like a weed...a pretty weed at that.  The extreme heat has been a problem, but she is none the worse for wear.  She and Mom, Lora and Auntie Lucy are now back with the mares.  They have been off the main pastures for several weeks due to being very fluffy i.e. fat!  Fescue grass is not the Gypsy Horses' friend.  Too high in sugars during this drought as well as nitrates....not much we can do about this as Mother Nature has been in charge!  With the recent rainy days we should see things green up.  All that aside, the pictures from our photo shoot will be here soon and some can be viewed now on our face book sites...Chocolate Horse Farm, Home of Gypsy Vanner Horses....and....Carol Hobbs Dunbar.  Check Sparky out if you go to them....he is awesome!  (...but then, I knew that!)

After the Show!

The Blue Ridge Classic Gypsy Show is over and now is the time for reflection and evaluation.  It is a time for me to readjust or reconfirm my priorities.  In this instance, it is readjustment time.  The big farms brought very few horses and the ones or one they did bring were perfectly trained.  They were the highlights of the show and in every sense of the word...show stoppers.  Though lightly attended (it could have been called, but management bite the bullet and the show went on!), it was a classy show with a handful of lifetime professionals helping us and setting examples to be followed.  "One should only follow the best".  Why should I learn from someone without a resume, so to speak!

Traveler did well as the green demo horse/pony and we drove in two classes...one for green horses and one open.  survived!  And came out with ribbons!  Cracker had a going over by Doug, the ultimate in chiropractics plus and in 12 hours...we had the old Cracker back with all his pizzaz.......wow!  Scratched him from a couple of classes and discovered....I must have adult attention deficit disorder...I can not do an obstacle course if my life depended on it!  Can't remember much more than three directions at a time.....need I say more!

Blue Ridge Gypsy Classic Show

It is Saturday night in Ashville, NC.  The air is cool, the day has been an experience,  and tomorrow is the last day for this event.  Though the second event of the year for us, we were almost not here!  Two blowouts, loss of trailer lights, temperatures in the 100's..plus short fuses! all contributed to a tense mood.  On the up side, the clinics were awesome and worth every penny of the $175 per person.  Today's classes went quickly ....lots of happy winners.  We had some difficulties when Cracker decided he felt like a new man and got frisky, would not stand still, was improperly harnessed which had the potential of a distaster at which time we scratched him from the class.  Not enough handling was the consensus, though it was unusual behavior from him.  My break from all the drama came when my sister and niece took me off to Ashville town center for dinner. The setting for this show is amazing and Robin and her crew are even more so...many thanks to her for a beautiful show. And good night one and all from a very tired lady!

Summer Solstice

June 21, 2011 ....the day dawned crisp and clear with the clean smell of freshly washed grass and all things green and not so green.  Jamie Mammano left early this am hoping for clear skies for the rest of her photo tour.  I hope everyone enjoys Jamie as much as we have!  The first day we worked with Sparky, our very black stallion and his cohort the more recently gelded Cracker ...in a very big field.  Wow can those two put on a show!  We played with the girls, got some super shots, and ended the day with Hannah and Mirisa ..aka gypsy girls and the big mares, Lora and Lucy with tag along baby Lotti!
  LiL Lotti was two weeks Saturday and I am so impressed with this filly!  The early imprinting is already paying off as she sees us as another dominant mare.  I threw the 'dominant' bit in because I have seen this done and the horse ultimately has to have a lesson in serious manners.  Attitude adjustment if you will.  Thanks to the recent Parelli article, I was commited to the imprinting...but at this point in my life, I am not sitting up all night to be at the birth.  This filly came at 8 in the morning and it is a good thing we were there as Lora, her dam, had a tough time cleaning.  So, imprinting was a simple choice.
Ok....so now  my thoughts on imprinting .....it is obvious to me some people attempt the process but do not understand how to imprint the dominant mare behavior with their actions. On day three or so the babies, already curious, will attempt to groom the human and that is fine but it is a fine line to be heeded.  It can lead to nibbling and nipping...grabbing with their teeth items of interest and availability are just too much to resist. A bump with an elbow, or knee....not teeth shattering, just a bump...will emulate the mare's behavior.  Watch the mare and you will soon see how patient and yet firm she will be when correcting the foal....Watch and Learn. Additionally,  we have used another method for many years.... when the foal begins to check out your clothing ...is to handle the foals face until they turn their face from you...repeat and repeat....teaches the foal not to use it's mouth on you or  your clothes.

Cheers!

Number 22 arived at 8AM June 4th!

Lora foaled Saturday morning!  Pictures are posted on face book/ Chocolate Horse Farm, Home of Gypsy Vanner Horses.  A sweet leggy filly, more symetrically marked than any previous foal.  Black and white and doing well.  She is one of two foals we have had in the last four years.  The other came to us as a package from Wales with mare Producer's Heiress. Tom Price breeding all the way and also a lovely filly named Lady Teagan aka Lady T.  Naming the foals is always a challenge and as much as I would like to have a system, I must admit to being a tad more emotional about it.....Let's see, Fitzwilly is named after a pub! Lora and Lucy are named after the twin girls of Helena.  Sarah is also a daughter and the stallions are the Talbot stallions...Gypsy Rose Lee was named by an anonymous friend...who sent a letter with the name.  And so on and so on...Lil'Lotti is in a song sung in Phantom of the Opera and is at the top of my list for this little one.

Spring Training is on hold!

Spring Training 2011 is on hold.  With the wet weather we have had and continue to have, our lesson plan is having it's very own spring vacation.  At this time, we have three three year old's started under saddle.  Altogether, we have four horses driving (three riding and driving), seventeen others in various stages of training, including Driver's Ed, or retirement.  Taking our time with each individual is the only way we could possibly work with all 21 over a specified period of time.  So much for the training up date, tomorrow we will take delivery on two 'babies in a box'...a shipment of semen from Parnell's Gypsy Horses ( Charlie and Jan Cox) and their stallion Leannen, whose sire is the infamous Dunbrody.  This package will go to Helena's Sarah, our little black and white mare from England. The other will go to Producer's Heiress, a Producer X White Mane Mare (Tom Price). The Sire will be the Midget Stallion and the second breeding to Midget.  Lady Teagan is the result of the first breeding and what a fine filly she is!  So now that we are in baby making mode, we will have to wait a bit for confirmation and in meantime, we are getting closer to foaling with Lora.  Stay tuned!

Moving On Song (Go, Move, Shift) - MacColl/Polwart/Wood

Welcome!

Welcome to Chocolate Horse Farm, Home of Gypsy Vanner Horses ....and others! It is spring here in SW MO and with that comes storms fit for the movies. It is also time for spring training. Lee Oliver joins us at this time of year, shares her birthday with us, ads a lively levity to the every day, and works with our three year olds to bring them into the realm of 'starting'. As she works with each one we will post pictures or video of each one's progress. We hope you will enjoy our days here at CHF as much as we enjoy including you! Cheers!