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Tonys’ Tips – From Tony Mason.
There is no Dressage without Geometry. Start with the Straight line. The first part of Balance is in the steady going forward without undue effort. Over riding is the first problem and ninety percent of the difficulties are created by “over work means lost balance”. The scales of the riders Seat must be firm in their sitting and judgement as in the Scales of Justice. Two evenly tuned, rounded antennae Suddeness will often kill the Balance of the Straight Line as much as will, a misguided and over confidant Hand. The Balance and the Straight Line are as brother and sister , as close friends or the happiest of Lovers.
contact cari@cariswanson.com for dates and times
Although RJ is very particular about his footing, he romped around in the snow to show off his favorite trick, standing on his hind legs. He always lights up when a camera is around, always aware of where the camera is located.
RJ playing up for the camera, racing around in the snow showing us all his tricks, this image was captured by Kaitlyn Schultz.
This is an excellent book by Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond. I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning how horses think and how to communicate with them in a productive way. A horse’s self preservation instinct in natural and my grandfather always said it was almost impossible to teach someone feel. Each horse is an individual and reacts to peoples energy, he said “beware of anyone who makes a generous kind horse angry”. Horses read people just as people read horses.Bill says “There is always a rightful place for a horse to exercise his concern for self-preservation. It is important to remember that this is the horse’s right. When it’s up to the horse, he won’t do what isn’t natural to him anyway, and of course, self-preserving actions are right at the top of the list of things that are natural to him.”Self preservation is his main job. And it’s your job to learn how to handle those situations when they come up, and to get back that better feel you had going with the horse before his instincts caused him to stop feeling of you. That way you can finish the other job you had to do, whatever it was, and when you put the horse up you’d both be feeling good again. And there’d be no need to mentiona anything that wasn’t the best about that horse.”
This morning we woke up to a winter wonderland, huge snowflakes fell in thick clouds covering everything in a blanket of snow. The horses love playing in the drifts and look beautiful in the white fields.
George is an outstanding 9 yr old, 15.3 hand QH cross. George has evented BN, is schooling first level dressage, jumps 3’3″, has hunter paced and pony clubbed. a suitable for an adult amateur or young rider.He is easy to work around and bombproof. He trailers, clips and baths with ease. Georges owner has sadly decided to sell him. He can be a little lazy and she is just under 5ft tall and with his big build she doesn’t have enough leg to keep him going. We have found another horse so we are looking to find George a good home asap.
Outstanding Irish gelding, 16.2, kind, generous, super easy to ride, Silver has fox hunted, competed in the Jumpers, evented (potential for high levels), he has excellent dressage basics and is sadly for sale to the perfect home. He is currently in Aiken South Carolina, contact cari@cariswanson.com to schedule an appointment to try this classy horse.
A new western is being filmed in Sante Fe at the Ford Ranch several miles outside of Sante Fe. Rex Peterson is the head horse wrangler for this film starring Viggo Mortenson, Ed Harris and Jeremy Irons. This set was also used by 3:10 to Yuma and has been transformed by a hefty Art Direction budget to create the fictional town of Appaloosa. Rex is heading to Austin Texas for a week of filming and then back to Sante Fe for the final days before wrapping the picture.
Posted November 4th, 2007 — Filed under
Windrock Farm
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Mini brings together the Guerra and Peyrlongue families for a gorgeous family portrait. Mini is a natural, posing perfectly for the photographer. Vanessa did not want to dismount.
Wikepedia gives us some valuable information on this beautiful weed that we trampled through today. All of the horses came home covered in the purple juice from the berry prompting us to research this unique plant. The plants juice has multiple uses including being a paint for the Indians to decorate their horses or as ink to write letters in the 1800’s.
The pokeweeds, also known as poke, pokebush, pokeberry, pokeroot, polk salad, polk sallet, inkberry or ombú, comprise the genus Phytolacca, perennial plants native to North America, South America, East Asia and New Zealand. Pokeweed contains phytolaccatoxin and phytolaccigenin, which are poisonous to mammals. However, the berries are eaten by birds, which are not affected by the toxin because the small seeds with incredibly hard outer shells remain intact in the digestive system and are eliminated whole.
Pokeweeds are herbs growing from 1 to 10 ft. tall. They have single alternate leaves, pointed at the end, with crinkled edges. The stems are often pink or red. The flowers are greenish-white, in long clusters at the ends of the stems. They develop into dark purple berries.
Phytolacca dioica, the ombú, grows as a tree on the pampas of South America and is one of the few providers of shade on the open grassland. It is a symbol of Argentina and gaucho culture.