More Pumpkins and Ponies.......

I was down at the barn a quite a bit today (my day off) going over all the preparations with Joanie and Jane of Saddle Pals for our big weekend coming up, and all I can say is - WOW!  There's a lot to do to get ready for The Saddle Pals Fundraising event, (this Saturday, Oct 16th) and the usual suspects are pitching in and really doing a lot of work.  We're getting the facilities ready, and the volunteers from Saddle Pals have been organizing the upcoming day, from figuring out where all the extra horses are going to go, to getting the riders ready for their big day, to finalizing the items that have been donated for the silent auction and raffles.  Again, I have to say..... WOW!  I was able to view a couple of the great auction items today, and took a couple of snap shots of them.  The first is a very special watercolor and chalk original of our own Blue Fountain Farm Courtyard, done by Martha Payne........

I have to say, it's a real honor to have someone with Martha's obvious talent create such a lovely image of our barnyard!

We also have a wonderful piece of garden art from Deborah Bridge of Sacred Stone.........looks pretty good right here in my own courtyard - hmmmmmmmmm??

And, now for a bit of shameless self promotion ....... several weeks ago, along with the Saddle Pals students and several other adults, (including my friend artist Leslie Ann Webb) I was given a small statue of a pony to paint as part of the "Painted Ponies" project.  These ponies are to be auctioned off on Saturday.   All of the  Saddle Pals students have already painted their ponies (I was lucky enough to get a preview of their work today) as have the other adults.  But me?  Nooooooooo!  As per normal, just as I did in high school, I've waited until the eleventh hour to paint my statue.  But, I finally got it done tonight!  I decided to paint my dear, departed "Jozsef", and  decoupage some of his kids on him.  I then braided a "breast collar" with some of the hairs taken from his tail before he was buried.  Here are a couple of images of the finished product........ 

    

  

Remember, the entire proceeds from the sale of all of these items, the art, the ponies, the other wonderful items donated by businesses and individuals all over the county, goes directly to the Saddle Pals Therapeutic Riding Program, so come out and bid on some of the wide range of items offered!

P.S. - I know many of you are waiting for news of the recent dressage show, and for the photos that I took that day to be put up on my photo web site, and it will happen soon.  But, I had a malfunction with my Lightroom program this week, and lost over 4 hours worth of segregating and selecting images out of the 1300 shots I took that day.  The images are still on my hard drive, but all the work I did trying to organize them was lost, so I need to start all over again.  I promise it will get done as soon as our big event this weekend is done.  In the meantime, set your calendars to be at Blue Fountain Farm on this Saturday, the 16th, for a very special day! 

Pumpkins and Ponies Fundraiser!!

 We host a lot of events here at Blue Fountain Farm, but I have to say that this is by far the most important event of the year - our 2nd Annual Saddle Pals Therapeutic Riding Program Fundraiser - "Pumpkins and Ponies" - Saturday October 16th!

Last year was a great success, especially considering it was the first time that Saddle Pals and BFF  had organized such a huge undertaking, and we're sure that this year will be even better!  We are planning on record breaking crowds showing up to support this worthy program (whose State Funding has been cut) and to help the riders who so benefit from their time with these special horses and volunteers.

There will be classes for the Saddle Pals members, as well as costume contests open to outside horses and riders.  We will also be having special exhibitions between the classes, to include world class riders and drivers, such as Ricky Nicolazzi on his champion reining horse (showing us the fabulous slides and spins performed in Reining competition), and Joe Kasza with his gorgeous matched team of Lipizzans driving an intricate obstacle course such as would be done in Combined Driving competition. 

There will be live music, plenty of food and beverages, and our BFF Farmer's Market will be open as well.  

   

It's always fun for me to see the interaction between the Saddle Pals riders, the horses and the volunteers, since they regularly meet here at BFF on Mondays, which is my day off.  I don't find much time to visit with them, so   spending this fun-filled day with them is a treat for me.  It will be fun to see Rhea and Beaver once again pulled out of mothballs to participate in this event.  Rhea is my 36 yr old Lipizzan mare and her "Husband" Lil' Beaver is a 39ish yr old POA, and they have been retired from active duty for many years.  They are inseparable, (I did my first post in this blog on them - see April's blog).  I know they had a great time getting all the attention they got last year when they came out of retirement to help out. Beav is in the first photo of this post, and Rhea is showing how tired she is in the photo above.

Even the adults have a great time, as witnessed below........

And it's a great place for lil cowboys to strut their stuff as well.....

I think this Pirate Pony's smile says it all..........

By far the most important way that YOU can help is to come out for a fun day and support the Silent Auction and Raffle portion of this event.   Last year fabulous items were donated by many individuals and businesses, and I hear the list of offerings for this year is awesome - actually there's a rumor it's even better than last year!  I am donating a new photo image on canvas - 2' X 3' - which has never before been seen........ 

You can click here to open a flyer which has the directions to Blue Fountain Farm, the start time, the classes, and more info  that will be of help to you in making us your destination on Saturday the 16th for a fun day for a worthy cause.  Help us support Saddle Pals Therapeutic Riding Program!    THANKS!!

Bye 

See you there!!!!!

   

Horse Show This Sunday

This Sunday, October 3rd, is our Fall Dressage Schooling show.  It's going to be a full and fun day - for many reasons.  We have had a great sign up - actually more entries than we could accept for the day!  And, we are including, for the first time, Westen Dressage Classes.  It's a new division, still in it's infancy, and we're happy to be offering these classes.  The weather promises to cooperate and cool down after this unusual late heat wave we've been having, which will be a welcome relief to both the horses and their riders.  Our local 4H will be offering refreshments, and the Farmer's Market stand will be in operation as well.  Put us on your calendar, and come out to cheer your favorite riders on!

Art in the Vineyard, and more!

This Sunday afternoon, September 19th, our next door neighbors at Naggiar Vineyards and Winery  are having their first "Art in the Vineyard" day, and I'm lucky enough to be invited to participate.  My good friend and artist, Leslie Ann Webb and I will be sharing a booth for this event, and we will be joined by about 11 other artists showing their photography, oil, acrylic and watercolor paintings, blown glass, jewelry, bronze sculpture and reborn furniture pieces. 

There promises to be a lot of fantastic art, and don't forget the wonderful wines offered by Naggiar Winery!  There will also be live music provided, so come on out and enjoy the day.

Another event to put on your list of things to do is to go to the Draft Horse Classic at the Fairgrounds Sept 23rd - Sept 26th.  Leslie Ann will be showing her work there at a booth in the Art at the Classic building.  We had a fun day this last week doing a photo shoot for her - we got some great shots of Leslie and her horse Oscar...........

   

I won't be showing any work at the classic this year, but I will certainly be attending to hopefully get some  new images of all the draft horses and the goings on behind the scenes.

And finally, on the weekends of October 9/10 and 16/17, I will be participating in the Western Nevada County Open Studios Art Tour and Sale.  Most of my work hangs at Nevada City Picture Framing and Gallery, (thank you Katy Anderson!) and I will be there to greet everyone on those days (except for the 16th, which will be our Second Pumpkins and Ponies Fundraiser for Saddle Pals - more on the next blog!!).   For more info on the  Art Studio Tour, and to see a list of who is participating, you can clink here. 

 

Hope to see all of you at some of these events!

Ash Learns to Drive

Meet "Ash" - my 12 yr old Haflinger gelding.  He is a lesson horse extraordinaire, who has taught many, many children and adults to ride, and who was also part of Saddle Pals Therapeutic Riding program for quite awhile.  Ash is now embarking on a new career - that of a driving horse!

Ash's new job description has come about as a result of a project that my friend, Rolf Laessig, is involved in - which is the restoration of a 100 yr old carriage (photos will be in another blog when the carriage is completed)!  So..... if we are going to have a carriage at Blue Fountain Farm, we need a horse to pull it!  Since Rolf has been riding Ash for many years, and since Ash has such a steady and willing nature, he seemed like a good candidate.  OK - so that's all well and good - but none of us around here have ever really done any driving (except for the one time I drove Jozsef here about 13 years ago!). 

So, (drum roll)............ enter Joe Kasza  ............

Joe is a neighbor and friend who is famous for his driving skills, and who has been kind enough to come over every morning for the last 2 weeks to help us  train Ash to drive.  Joe learned to drive in his native Hungary, and, as many of you may know, Hungary is where my belated Jozsef came from.  An interesting bit of "Small World" information that came to light recently involving Joe and Jozsef has to do with the horse pictured above - the one  nearest the camera.  Conversano (aka Leo) is now a riding horse owned by my cousin, Laurie, and he is out of the same mare in Hungary as Jozsef!  She was 24 years old when she had Leo!  None of us knew that when we bought him from Joe - we found it out when we looked at Leo's papers.  But, I digress!  Joe does combined driving - a very exciting and exacting form of driving, involving a form of cross country..........

 

as well as dressage - look at the unison of these two horses!!

Needless to say, we feel extremely lucky and honored that Joe is helping us in our humble ambition to put Ash to this special carriage that Rolf is lovingly restoring.

The first step in Ash's training involved getting him used to the feel of a harness on his body - as well as training us to put it on  him!

Rolf (on the left) and Joe putting the harness on Ash for the first time.

Then came the ground driving, and Ash getting used to having someone being behind him....

Rolf also gets a turn at ground driving Ash -

That same day, since Ash was doing so well, Joe attached some PVC pipes to the harness, so that Ash would get used to things rubbing up against his legs.....

Ash takes everything in his stride, and by the third day, he gets ground driven from the barn to the arena for his lessons, instead of starting in the arena....

Ash takes to his new job with pleasure!

Then it's time to hook him up to a "Double Tree" so we can pull things, but first Joe drags it around Ash so he can get used to the sights and sounds, that are coming.......

 

No problem!

The next day (a much cooler one, as you can see from our dress), we hook Ash up to a little training cart - the first time he actually has shafts alongside him - and again, he's a champ!

I led him around at first, but soon, he was on his own!  The tire is to add a little weight to get him ready for the cart.

What's wrong with this picture????

Today was the most fun, so far, as we hooked Ash up for the first time to a cart that we could actually drive, instead of walking around behind him all the time.  It was also the first time that Ash wore a bridle with the blinders on, which he acclimatized to right away.

Ash's first steps with Joe driving him!

Then, it's my turn, and we get to leave the arena for the first time, with Joe's guidance.....

This is waaaay too much fun!

We drive all around the property.....

Then it's time to unhitch and call it another

successful training day........

What a very good boy!!

We will work our way up, slowly but surely, with Joe's help, to the beautiful, full size carriage that Rolf is working on.  It has been a special treat, and honor, for

me to work with Joe - he's got a very special, and gentle way with his horses, and I'm happy he has

agreed to share his time and knowledge with us.  I also want to thank Carolyn Laessig and Bob Hamilton for

their photographic skills - it's kind of hard to participate in the training and take the photos, too!  Thanks to

everyone, and -

for now - this is

"THE END"