Brian
and Diane Alves Paint Horses
AMBLINGS
FROM ACROSS THE FENCE
AMBLINGS FOR JUNE
My hiatus is over. No apologies this time around .just
life getting in the way.
I have much to cover this month: Horses, other animals
(a new doggie!), personal, "the list" and yes, The
SOAPBOX. I think it's time for a comment on a new trend
in the horse industry.
After a long winter, we finally got in gear with the horses about
March. That is, with the exception of the new colt out
of my mare, Black N White Page. He's our rebreed to Zips
Heaven Sent and boy, is he fancy. Funny. It's the
first time we specifically bred for a pleasure horse and he's
probably the BEST halter horse any of our mares have ever put
on the ground. But, we'll stay true to his breeding and
once he goes thru weaning, manners and general horse "stuff"
101 he'll go out to pasture until next year.
He was the only foal we had this year (we had one bred to Lasting
Approval that was supposed to be in foal but unfortunately she
lost it somewhere along the way) which in the long run is probably
not a bad thing. We bred two of our mares to our stud,
Wildfire Candy and that should be interesting to see how they
come out. Brian attended "breeding school" in
Colorado in February so after he came home we set everything
up to do our own thing here. We now have an excellent breeding
dummy, an ultrasound machine and all the peripheral equipment
so we'll be pretty self sufficient in the upcoming years collecting
the stud and breeding the mare. Certainly should
save on vet costs (we can use that saved money toward diesel!).
I have two lungeliners in the barn this year. We acquired
a yearling gelding by.Wildfire Candy (our stud!) from Debbie
Catania to show and sell. He's not real big but is loud
colored and cute. He's out of the same mare as the one
that I showed and sold several years ago who won the Sierra
Breeders Classic HUS as a 2-year-old. My other one is by Artistic
Imprint and out of our breeding stock Impress me Page mare that
was reserve in the nation as a 3-year-old. We had him out
last year for the SSA at Rancho but he was pretty small compared
to the other lates so after he won $1400 we brought him home
and turned him out for the winter.
I like this gelding! He's by far one of the prettiest movers
I've lunged and it'll be interesting to see how quickly he comes
on and how he does. Artisitc Imprints are pretty well known
for excelling in halter but they ARE bred to perform. And
this guy's been out for 6 months so he certainly doesn't have
any bad habits. Most of his learning is from scratch (although
he does know all the washing, clipping, trailering, etc routine)
and in reality I'd rather have a clean slate to work with.
We gave our Page Imprinter filly the winter off and started on
her about the first of March also. SHE GREW over the winter.
She was tall, leggy and big last year but now she's 16'1"
and downright pretty. Her first show was last weekend and
she won under 4 of the 8 judges and also picked up 2 Grands and
2 Reserves. Her problem? They don't know what to
do with her. What I mean by that is she has such a different
look than short and squatty (or intensely muscled) that the judges
just don't know how to tie her in with the rest of the class.
It should be interesting to see how she does as the year progresses.
Except for the soapbox (which comes at the end of this), that
pretty much wraps up my horse stuff in a nutshell for the last
several months. We DID learn one thing interesting this
year. If we don't plan on showing at Tucson or over the
winter, we will never blanket the horses through the winter months
again. NOT having clothes on sure made it easy to get them shed
out when we started brushing them. The hair fell off and
they were slick in about 2 weeks.
 Staying on the animal theme, good
news this month on the dog front. We have a new one!
Another dachshund (red) and this time a male whose name is Mo.
He's another rescue dog who would have been taken to the pound
if we hadn't adopted him. When I got him he was extremely
thin and is just now starting to fill out a little. He
was kept in a cage in the garage by himself all the time and
never allowed in the house. When I brought him home the
first thing I did was give him a bath and he had the run of the
house after that. Vyolett was bent out of shape for the
first several days but now? They chase each other around
the house and wrestle. It feels like a zoo around here
sometimes but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Vyolett
is petite, slightly neurotic, incredibly smart and a joy to have
around and Mo is a little slow, protective and just wants to
give and receive love. It's funny the two of them
together don't even weigh as much as Bootie did. We have
our own little nest of wieners.
The job front has stabilized for me. I was offered a "permanent"
position with the company I've been consulting for in Livermore
and I took it. My focus is their systems but I'm also kind
of a jack of all trades (p/c support, some HR, vendor relations,
etc). It keeps life interesting. I still work from
home two days a week and commute three, so it balances itself
out. The commute time allows me to chat on the phone so
it's not such a bad thing. And, my little Toyota gets 35
mpg which is definitely an asset with the highway robbery on
gasoline ("We're not making money". Yeah, right
only $28 billion last quarter, Chevron).
I've been riding my bike A LOT lately. This last weekend
the weather was picture perfect and we took advantage of it on
Saturday. Twice in the last month we took an entire day
of the weekend "off" and just went and rode w/
friends. Why? Because we can. And, because
life it too short to feel like you're chained to the house (or
barn). You know what I found out? The horses are
still there when you get home. The stalls are still there
(dirty, but still there) and in the long run, none of the animals
have suffered. And the payback for me? Riding (and
being with friends) is good for the mind, body and soul.
It helps me stay centered.
My list hasn't gone by the wayside either, although I missed
my shot over the winter to ice skate. I think the warming
temperatures have pretty much done that one in until next year.
What I DID do was take up a "dancing" class.
And, I'm signed up to continue with it for at least another 6
months. It involves burning 400 calories a session (about
an hour and a half), intense arm strengthening, working the abs
(a lot!) and moving around in high, fun shoes. Oh yeah.and
a pole. I guess you could say I color outside the lines
a bit. Hey. It's a lot of fun, a great workout and
gets me out with other women at least once a week. The
only downsides are that I have to take Dramamine before class
(I'm such a wuss about spinning and motion sickness) and I usually
come home with bruises. But, it's something I'd recommend
to anyone.
And now, for the soapbox
When have halter classes become synonymous with the circus?
Apparently since the APHA has turned a blind eye to what's going
on and allowed the parade of elephants to not only continue but
also to become the accepted "standard" of what a halter
horse should look like. Has anyone besides me noticed?
Brian and I have always shown halter horses but if the only answer
to being competitive is to make them into something they're not,
I'll pass. I want my horses to live past the ripe
old age of 3, to be able to move freely and to reproduce.
So why has our industry "progressed" to the point where
I may as well be leading in a well trained animal from the circus
train Up Simba! Because this is what wins and this
is what the judges are using. We've seen this in the pleasure
classes in the past and finally one day someone grew a set of
balls and did something about it. Horses were tied, bled
and starved in order to "encourage" them to move at
the pace of a snail with their noses rolling the ground.
Of course it's not like that now for halter. We just have
guys wandering around the large shows with briefcases basically
handcuffed to them administering "chiropractic therapy".
Yeah, right. And I can fly. And if these horses are
tested one of several things happens: 1) The concoction
is so new it slips under the wire so it's not detected; 2) APHA
doesn't want to get their hands dirty and doesn't even test for
it or 3) A horse tests positive after winning THOUSANDS of dollars,
the money is refused to be returned, APHA takes no action (God
forbid it's AT the show but part of the futurities so we
don't want to be involved) so..what are the repercussions?
There apparently are none.
We have a 2-year-old mare that was reserve Champion in the state
last year and is even better this year. She's BIG (tall),
leggy and pretty. But I don't have a pharmacist on payroll
or even a close friend that dabbles. So, will she even
win "big"? Don't know. But the funny thing
is at her first show this year someone commented to me that she
was gorgeous and "very modern". It's an oxymoronic
juxtaposition. How can she be considered modern when today's
"halter horse" weighs 1500 pounds, lumbers in and can
barely get around the cones?
I am not so stupid as to think APHA is going to step in and stop
this. It's the industry's "dirty little secret"
that no one wants to reveal. Big well-fed mammoths are
a lot easier to swallow than finding horses tied for days with
their heads up in the clouds. But at least they should have the
cojones to support the clubs that support them. If someone
tests positive at a sanctioned show irregardless of whether
it's a futurity or a class suspend them. If the APHA
spent as much time and money trying to find ways to level the
playing field instead of living in fear of being sued ..maybe
we'd actually make some progress in this industry.
Alright, I'm off the soapbox now. And probably, at the
next show we go to I'll have to come in disguise as I'm hitting
on the essence of the classes I love to show in. IT'S NOT
PERSONAL. It's just so damn frustrating to feel that you
have to turn horses into Barry Bonds in order to compete.
But, for the same reason that Barry is what he is today (he can't
field, he argues with the press and basically, he can't play
anymore) I won't go down that road. And the irony
is, a lot of the horses showing in halter are pretty enough to
win without the added fluff.
So, that's about it for this month. Was my update worth
waiting for? Hopefully. I HAVE had some trying times
over the last several months. Some are "stuff"
(you know, life things) and some are battles in my head.
Those are the toughest because there really is no winner.
Life is full of lessons - some that smack you up the side of
the head when you least expect it. The latest quote on
my Myspace reads: "Not everything that can be counted counts,
and not everything that counts can be counted".
Make it count.
Until next month,
Diane
Updated 6/3/08
Brian
and Diane Alves Paint Horses
(209)
394-2940
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