Dream Acres Equestrian: Katie Wooten and Sport Horses

GHF/Collecting Gates Dressage Show

2010-06-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to jot a quick blurb about this show real quick as it was Samson's first time competing in the USEF Young Horse class, while he was super super in the warm up he got very tense when we entered the indoor arena at The Georgia Horse Park (Conyers) so we did not quite get the high score we were hoping for and only received a 72.4% or 7.24 this gave us a qualifying score however for nationals. He did impress the judges outside though in his Training Level Test and he was Reserve High Point Champion of the entire show that weekend! So at the end of the day it was a pretty good show!

Dressage Across The Lakes

2010-06-29T07:56:00.000-07:00

What an AMAZING weekend this was!
Samson competed at Training Level as well as First Level and he also did his USEF 4yr Old Young Horse Test....and he was spectacular and the judges were highly impressed with a 76.5 on his First Level 1 Test and he knocked the Young Horse Test out with an 85.5% (8.55) this put him in 6th for the 4yr olds and qualifies us for nationals! This horse never ceases to amaze me, he just continues to impress and impress and get better and better love him!!!
I was fortunate enough to get his First Level Test on video and he nailed every movement so check it out (unfortunately blogger no longer allows you to upload videos so follow the link to youtube)
San City First Level Test 1

Aquataine oh Aquataine what a weekend full of reaching our goals for the both of us! We did Third Level 2 and Third Level 3 and we nailed them walking away with scores in the upper 60's in all three classes (this was both mine and Tainy's first time ever riding these test) this success meant two things for us. First we are qualified for regionals at Third Level woo hoo! But BEST of all I can now get my USDF Bronze Meedal!! So all and all it was a fabulous weekend! Below is a link to a video of our Third Level 3 Test on Sunday
EM Aquataine Third Level Test 3

UPDATE

2010-05-05T09:12:00.000-07:00

So while it has been almost a year sense my last post I will not spend too much time reliving the past by trying to catch up with all the old post that I should have posted (thanks to a couple of tough semesters in school and a wedding I have been left with very little free time) so I figured I would just do a buleted recap of the past 7 months here at Dream Acres.

March 2010 All 3 of Samsons hit the ground
March 2010 NWFL Classic Dressage Samson Competed both In Hand and at Training Level in which he was both the High Point of both the Breed Show and the Dressage Show as well as High Point for the Hanoverian and High Point Training Level Horse
February 2010 Samson did the YEH at Rocking Horse getting around a %73 and Tainy ran around her first Intermediate cross country course in the Derby.
Sollte found himself a new home with a young event rider in Maryland we wish them both the best and hope to see great things from that pair
Gia is now living the good life in West Palm Beach, FL with Samantha Altieri a young ambitious jumper rider and we will definitely be hearing and seeing great things from this pair!
New edition to the farm was the purchase of the pony Gretta

Year End Awards:

Samson

2009 NWFL Material and 3yr Old Sport Horse Champion
2009 ECC Material and 3yr Old Sport Horse Champion
2009 USDF 3rd place HOY 3yr Old Material
2009 USDF 3rd Place HOY 3yr Old Sport Horse Colts In-Hand
2009 Reserve Champion AHS 3yr Old Material
2009 AHS Reserve Champion 3yr Old Sport Horse In-Hand

Tainy

2009 NWFL and ECC Preliminary Champion
2009 DSDCTA Preliminary Champion
2009 NWFL Jumper High Point Horse
2009 CEC Jumper Reserve High Point Horse

Indy

Recieved a USEA Blue Ribbon Award for Novice Horse
2009 Area 3 Novice High Point Horse Champion
2009 ECC Novice Horse Champion
2009 NWFL Novice Horse Champion
2009 DSDCTA Novice Horse Champion

I think that gives a pretty good brief summary of all the blogs I missed posting! Sorry guys, will definitely keep the website up to date for all you Dream Acre Followers!

USDF Sport Horse Breeders Region 3 Championships Sept 19-20

2009-10-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

Samson showed his stuff at the 2009 Region 3 USDF Sporthorse Championships. We arrived Friday evening and while he did not compete on Saturday I was busy running 4 other horses in hand in 2 horses who were owned by Donna Nita whom I handled for last championships as well, she has a super 3 year old and this is my 2nd year handling Basil MG he was colt champion on Staurday and Reserve Champion overall. Congratulations Donna!
On Sunday Samson competed in the regular classes and was Colt Champion with Basil in Reserve. Samson was also Reserve Champion overall! He also competed in his Material Class for 3yr Old Colts and he of course won!

But the most exciting of the weekend was the Championships held after the show. Samson and Basil were both qualified and imagine how excited was as they named the 3rd place horse and it was neither Basil or Samson.........
Basil came in Reserve Champion and my boy San City (Samson) was named the USDF Region 3 Sporthorse Champion!!!! He was amazing! Everyone was extremely impressed and wanted some of his man juices! We are so excited for him and the possibilities that lie ahead for this SUPER stallion!

NWFL Classic II

2009-08-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

This was Samson in his Material Class at his 2nd show ever! He's such a good boy!!! Just thought I would share a quick clip of him undersaddle because I don't think I have any up and I am so proud of him! And how well he has come along I can not wait to see the foals he produces we are off to the stallion inspection this weekend so hopefully he will get approved!!!

GIA....Gia Bo Bia

2009-07-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

On June 6, 2009 Gia made her show debut, knocking it out Dream Acres styles by WINNING! With a score of a 77% she was Champion of the mares and foals! We are so proud of our little one here are some pictures...

With no surprise we already have people interested in our little champion so last night my mom and I set sail to taking pictures of the little one to send off to people, so of course I had to share them with y'all! And a little video so you can see what a fancy little mover she turned out to be considering she was bred to be a jumper!!! As you can see she is full of sass as well!

Full Gallop Farm 5-30-09

2009-06-18T06:28:00.001-07:00

So I entered this show last minute and the Preliminary division was full so we had to enter IP which is Intermediate Prelim she does Intermediate (a level higher) dressage and stadium but still did Prelim cross country. This was officially my first Intermediate dressage test ever! We scored a 38% that was with an error so really she scored a 36% not freaking bad at all!! We had 1 rail in Stadium and seeing how it was a 1 day show we had to do all 3 phases on Saturday by the 3rd jump on cross country I was beat I just gave Tainy the reins and she took me around that course like never before...we did have one silly run out which was more less because I missed the turn to the jump....but this was probably the most emotional show ever, i needed that bond with her, I had never trusted her completely on cross country before and she proved to me that day I could and that together we can make our dreams come true! Love you Aquataine! Thank You Melissa for letting us stay at your place which made the show way more affordable for me! I had a blast, we're almost ready to make the move up to Intermediate for good:) I loved this picure and just had to have it, isn't she amazing?

Chattahoochee Hell....(Hills) 5/15-17/09

2009-06-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

So you can imagine how thrilled I was that all 3 of my mares were qualified for Area 3 Championships....and how devastated I was when I found out it fell over the same weekend as my brothers graduation! After much thought and who knows probably the worst but best decision ever I decided to go trench through Championships all by myself! I think I was even a little more crushed when Fanny came up with a severe stone bruise and I had to pull her out of the competition and so it was just up to Indy and Tainy!

We arrived their with not much complication besides a little traffic that had us delayed but I was able to ride, teach Emily and bath and braid all the horses.
Friday was not a bad day, all the championship classes rode their dressage and Indy of course being Indy knocked them all dead with a 24% right in front of Jonathan on his super nice Trekhaner gelding as usual just barely though, Tainy's dressage was nothing to write home about but their were 25 riders in her Prelim Champ class and after Dressage she was in 13th so I really couldn't complain if I would have been a little more demanding she would have been in the top 6 atleast!
Saturday was a wet and ugly day and even though I had walked the Prelim course 3 times I was still so nervous and I missed my mom terribly:( I called her balling before my ride it was the toughest course Tainy had seen and I wasn't sure how she would react so my neice Grace said a prayer for me and I did a lot of praying myself and had the BEST ride of our lives the pictures say it all!!!
She was perfect at every jump!!! This moved her up to 10th place not bad out of 26 in a championship class:)
I was not to concerned on Indy's course she's pretty solid around cross country but she was actually a little sticky in fact she jumped one jump saw the water on the other side and stopped jumping, and just sat on top of the jump I kicked and screamd and sure enough she went over and through the water keeping us in 1st place!!

My little rider Em had a decent dressage test on Saturday but shocked them all with 1 of the only double clean Stadium rounds I was SO proud of her and the rider she is becoming, she was also double clean on Sunday and ended up 4th!!! Go EM!!

Sunday was the day of Chatt Hell! But I am going to make this long story short, loaded all 3 horses to head over to the show for the final phase of stadium (I was takin Sollte along as a spectator) and the truck wouldn't start, jumped it, it died, jumped it again and it went but Margaret (who knows where I would be in this world without her she is the most amazing friend in the whole world!) she thought it was the alternator so she hooked her trailer up and decided to follow along, good thing cause she was right the alternator went out! So we unloaded Indy and Tainy on the side of the road in her trailer and she stayed with Sollte waiting for help, who came in the form of another amazing friend Melissa you rock my world!
I was able to make it there in time to ride my score would not be pinned and counted but I would be able to use it for qualifications for later competitions (3-Day) She had no warm up but she was a freakin rockstar in show jumping as well with only 1 rail! Love that horse! She is the best thing sense sliced bread and iPods!

So after a great ride on Tainy Indy went in for what was a rather ugly Stadium ride (I'm sure rider error as Mike told me as I came out of the ring) We pulled 1 rail giving us 4 penalty points that I didn't have to give so Jonathan went into the ring with a smile on his face 'knowing' he had just won, only to pull the exact smae rail I did! (Thanks Jonathan) So Indy is now officially the 2009 USEA Area 3 Novice Horse Champion! (No real surprise there:)
Sorry it took me 2 months to get this posted I had to wait till I could afford the pictures and find time to do it all:)

Let's just say that Indy winning was the only highlight of the weekend with a broken alternator, wreck on the way home and an oil leak! What a nightmare, maybe I should have gone to the graduation lol!

wHaT a WeeKeND!!!

2009-05-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

So this officially had to be one of the craziest weekends I have had in a while. While packing for the show (Poplar Place) I got a call Thursday night from a lady in GA that was interested in buying Hilmi and wanted to see him; therefor, I had to unload things in my trailer and make room for him.
I picked up Kelly and her enormous horse (18'2hh) Bella in AL after getting a late start Friday morning, due to the extra horse and a dead truck battery. So my poor truck and breaks amazingly got us to Poplar in one peice; although, there were some close calls, in which I thought for sure Bella was going to have to get out and pull us up the hill;)
I showed Hilmi to Sally and she liked him, rode him, paid me, and loaded him up, I wish all horse sales were that easy!
I rode bright and early Sat morning 8am and sense I was too tired to braid the night before I was up at the crack of dawn Saturday morning. Stressed for time I got all tense and started off the weekend with Tainy and I having a horrendous dressage test leaving us in 8th place ugh! Not to worry though cause Indy still had her chance and scored my lowest dressage score ever of a 22.0 and of course Miss America was in first place after that ride. They both had 1 rail in SJ moving Indy down to 2nd and Tainy stayed in 8th, but I was pleased with the rides non the less. Sunday was Cross Country and Tainy and I headed out at 9 in the morning to finish the show off with a stop at the coffin combination (rider error, collected her too much and forgot to kick and say GO and the same time:( Unfortunately that finished Tainys weekend up with 10th place . But Ashley's camera caught a stellar sequence of Tainy and I through the Preliminary water.

Indy of course zoomed around cross country like an old pro (she could teach her mom a thing or two) and bumped us back up to 1st winning once again! Giles was there riding Indy's nephew at his first show and she took 2nd in the BN division which was quite exciting as well! It runs in the family the whole winning thing or being in the top 3, you'd have to be a Gotthard to understand:)
So as the show wrapped up and Kelly and I went to hook up the truck and trailer, the trailer battery was dead, and we couldn't hook up, needless to say after an hour or so we broke down and Kelly went hiking for help. Finally getting us hooked up and being nearly the last person to leave. The ride home was rather uneventful and we made it home safe and sound with one less horse in the trailer and another blue ribbon to add to Indy's wall:)

ScHoOl NeWs!!!!!

2009-05-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

I came home from the horse show to the best news about school! First of all I aced my College Algebra Class and got a B in English! But the best part is that I received a grant to go to school so my tuition and books are going to be covered! WHAT A RELIEF! I am so excited not only to be back in school but even more so to know that it will not be a financial burden! I am so fortunate and blessed! I have also decided that I am going to go into secondary education for Math which is 9th-12th grade! And through FSU I will be able to get both a teaching major and a math major at the same time, so I could always do something else if I decide not to teach. So that's it for school, as for the summer I've got a full load with American History, English, Pre-Calc, and Speech Class I'm totally stoked and can't wait for classes to start back up!

LeT's gO fLy A kItE.......

2009-05-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

While my brother and his family were out here, the kids got kites in their Easter Baskets and we happen to have a perfect day for kite flying. It had been so long sense I had flown a kite and in fact I don't even remember being able to get my kite in the air as a kid but with much perseverance and I hate to admit it but help from my brother, Grace and I were able to get Hannah flying and out flew Clint and Garrett with Spidey! It was a blast we get so busy in our adult lives that we forget how much fun some of the simplest things in life can be.

We also spent some time at our local springs which was FREEZING cold and the best part about being the aunt is your the one who is cool, so you have to be the one to do EVERYTHING with the kids including doing cannon balls into freezing water, only for Grace:)

Me trying to convince Grace to go first so I could weasel my way out of it!

It didn't work, but she was right behind me doin it cannon ball style!

When we came home from the springs the kids simply had not had enough water so we broke out the water balloons! It's so much fun to be a kid again!

Helpin the kids fill up the water balloons....

Ready, Set, Attack!

Goodbye Phillipe, Hello Sollte!

2009-05-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that we sold my moms pony Phillipe. We found him the perfect home with his new owner Victoria Lanza, they are quite the perfect match. I know he will be doted on and loved to no end! He will now become a fancy, spoiled little dressage pony:) He was such a good pony and such a confidence builder for my mom, that he deserved a home where he was the only horse. I am very excited to see the pair together and everyone better keep their eyes out for them cause they will be competing soon!
In return we purchased her Oldenburg gelding Sollte who we have fallen in love with he is 16'3 and is built to be an event horse, he will be a fun little project to have. My mom looks forward to getting him out to some schooling shows over the summer and I'll look forward to possibly competing him in the fall or my mom possibly. He is a fancy little mover and a very cute and very careful jumper.
So while we say goodbye to Phillipe and wish him and his new owner well we are thrilled to have Sollte as a new addition to our farm!
I will get pics up of him soon as he comes along and matures a little more:)

Blue Angel Dressage April 25-26

2009-05-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of Fanny at the Dressage Show, but I just wanted to put in a note that she was wonderful, well for most of it:) She was the High Point Horse for 2nd level with a 63% which we needed to count as a score for my Bronze Medal. So next show we will definitely be doing 3rd level to get our final 2 scores so that I can get my Bronze Medal!

EASTER

2009-05-05T08:41:00.001-07:00

Easter was great, my brother and his family were here and we celebrated it a little different then I was used to. They do Easter baskets and the Easter egg hunt on Saturday so that on Easter Sunday they can all focus on the meaning of true meaning of Easter. I really liked their way of doing this. So Saturday morning the kids woke up bright and early, I think I had almost as much fun getting ready for Easter morning and hiding the eggs as the kids did tearing through their baskets and hunting the eggs down.

As for Easter Sunday it was one of the best not only did we hear some amazing talks in sacrament but I even talked my mom into going to church with us. It was so special to go to church on Easter Sunday as a family. (I believe it was a first for us.) So thank you mom for going it really meant a lot to me:)

This was definitely one of the best Easter Sundays EVER!

My Sidekick

2009-05-05T06:10:00.000-07:00

I am so behind on my blog so I will slowly but surely try and get everyone updated. We were so fortunate to have my brother and his family come visit and liven up the farm in April over Spring Break and Easter.

For me it was just great to have my sidekick with me for a week, Grace was by my side helping me feed, ride, and care for all the horses all week long. Every horse I rode Grace rode; although, she fell in love with Fanny and I think the feeling was mutual because Fanny helped babysit her all week both on the ground and on her back. As you can see below they were quite the pair.....

Grace and Fanny I love this picture of Grace, The Pony, and Bella. See the smile?

I can't believe how fast she has grown up but it just gets more and more fun to have her around with the horses, she is like a sponge I taught her, parts of the horse, colors, gender of horses, and she was so eager to learn. She's just like her aunt we both prefer to spend most our time on a horse or in the barn! I taught her how to do Around-The-World on the horse, back flips off the horse, and we galloped around on the pony bareback:)

Grace also helped in showing Garrett the ropes around the horses as well. As you can see from the video below Garrett may take after his aunt and sister too:)

She's Related To ME!

2009-04-06T19:39:00.001-07:00

So my sister-in-law sent me the link to this picture of my niece.....Unbelievable, not only is she absolutely beautiful, she looks like an angel and is unbelievably gorgeous and this picture needs to be published somewhere! So I'll start with my blog! WoW nice job Amy Leigh (Photographer)
Grace Lauryn Wooten 2009
I love this child so much she truly is an angel and this picture just goes to show it! She told her mom the other day while I was on the phone "Tell Katie she needs to go to church more." I let her know that I do go to church every week now. But Grace your spirit is truly something else, and you have and will continue to touch so many lives. I am so blessed to have this Angel in my life. I love you Gracie Lou Hoo!

He's a Man!

2009-03-31T13:15:00.000-07:00

So Samson is officially a man! We bred him for the first time yesterday! Sweet he finally got some action and next year we will have little Samsons! YAY! We bred him to Indy and will also breed him to Ann, and Fanny this month when they come in heat. My little boy is all grown up:(

Poplar Place HT March 27th-28th

2009-03-31T12:26:00.000-07:00

This was the most interesting weekend ever! I rode Dressage on both my horses in the rain on Friday coming in 2nd on Tainy in Prelim Rider and 1st on Indy in Novice horse. On Saturday the storm was so bad they cancelled all competitions! So on Sunday we ran Stadium back to back with our Cross Country. Tainy had 5 rails in Stadium, which was odd she never knocks rails! That's 20 penalty points ugh:( I think it was the studs I had to put in her shoes for cross country that moved us down to 8th place then we ran Cross Country and she was clean YAY! well 2.6 time penalties but everyone had time the course was so muddy! That moved her back up to our final placing of 3rd and that was only her 2nd Prelim ever!
She is a cross country machine now I have never been so happy as I was after that ride! Here are the videos of Tainy's water jumps:)

Indy was a bit of a handful in Stadium and on Cross Country but she was double clean and stayed in 1st place no surprise there with that horse she is a jumping machine and she just likes to win it think! So while it was a wet crazy weekend it was a very successful weekend and I met some great new people as well! Here's Indy's Stadium and some X-Country as well.

3 Days Old

2009-03-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

This is Gia traversing the manure pile! It's hard when your legs are so wobbly

So they say to look at babies at 3 Days, 3Months and 3Years. And nothing inbetween so I took Miss Gia out to play today and could not help but take some video and some pics since she is now officially 3 days old!

I love this picture one of my fav's thus far!

Sorry these videos aren't the greatest i was doing them on my phone and could not see a thing I was videoing and Ann (Mama) was not helping the situation at all! Mares!

Thanks Mom

2009-03-19T10:06:00.001-07:00

So one weekend my mother and I went up to Fort Rucker to school their cross country course. I of course am always pushing her calling her a wimp and she is always trying to survive my "You can do it's!" So she was having a case of "I can't do it, the pony cant do it." So I took the pony down over the water jump and she did it on my mare, convincing her that see the pony can do it and you can do it so now y'all can do it and they did the first time.......not so much the second time the pony stumbled and dropped his neck throwing my mom into the water jump (while he remained clean of course) this is how she came out looking (don't worry I made her get back on and do it again there's no crying in riding!) I love you mom and thanks for everything if it weren't for you none of this would be possible you truly are amazing and always remember YOU CAN DO IT :)

GIA

2009-03-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

So my mom and I sat and talked and came up with a name Grand Anticipation and we are going to call her Gia:) Hope you all enjoy even you non-horse people you can't resist a precious baby!

It's A Girl!

2009-03-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

I went down to the barn to feed my horses this morning only to find our new little baby girl! We have not picked out a name yet but it has to start with a G (open for ideas) but she is perfect had a little trouble nursing at first (I think cause she's so big) so we had to give her milk for a while but I think she may have it now still a little concerned. The mom (Ann) is doing great very watchful of her new little one although. Looks like she is going to be a gray (I love grays!) I am already head over hills for her, she just seems very special already. But I was so excited I had to get the video up ASAP! I will keep her baby book up to date on my blog and have pics up tonight as well! I love babies, it's amazing, I am so blessed if there is a little piece of here heaven on earth it is here on my farm :)

Sollte

2009-03-11T06:34:00.000-07:00

Sollte is a new young horse full of personality that I received in training last month he is a 4yr old Oldenburg who is about 16'2. He is coming right along and is already cantering both directions in the round pen. He is quite the jumper i am told so I am very excited to keep bringing him along, he is also a fancy little mover and he is for sale so spread the word he's going to make a great event horse!!!! But anyway his owner sent me this picture of he and I trotting last weekend so I thought I should post it; it's fun to see the babies come around.

JUST IN

2009-03-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

Margaret just posted this picture on her Facebook from the Fort Rucker Show of me and Emily and it was so darn cute I had to post it!
Oh and side note for everyone who doesn't know how good lookin my neices and nephews are they just got new family pics done AMAZING! Check them out on their link Clint and Becky under my friends!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2009-03-02T17:59:00.000-08:00

Tainy on Cross Country (and to think she used to HATE water) Don't blow this picture up or you'll notice my eyes are down woops:)

This weekend was my horse show at Fort Rucker. Little Emily Sealy came down and was entered in Beginner Novice Junior. I had 2 horse competing Indy in Beginner Novice Sr. and Tainy at her very first Prelim also my first Prelim in well umm....like 5 years! The bad thing about riding Prelim is sense it's a higher division you always have the earliest ride times for dressage! Needless to say it was for the better this time our dressage went well and she was in 2nd after dressage then it was Em's turn for dressage so I warmed her up and she warmed up BEAUTIFULLY! I've never seen her ride so well or her pony look SO GOOD! Finally it was her turn and she was about to enter the ring when it started thundering and lightning and they called the show on hold. That's where the whole day went askew! By the time the show started again I had to ride cross country and Em had to rush back into the ring with no help and through all the mayhem was not able to regain what she had in warm up for her test unfortunately. I was off on my first Prelim cross country in 5 years and Tainy's first Prelim ever and she was WONDERFUL! Except I missed jump 16! Unbelievable I was eliminated! I was so happy with her though that I couldn't event kick myself in the butt! There's always next time and now I know she can do it:)
I jumped off Tainy and was up to ride Indy Dressage which would have been beautiful had we not been hit with a golf ball 2 times but the judge was very understanding and we still received a very low score of a 27% putting us in 2nd place!

Here's a beautiful picture of Indy doing what she does best...Being Beautiful Of Course!

Indy on Cross Country A Jumping Star

Meanwhile my mom had to literally RUN the cross country course with Emily before she rode while Margret and I tacked up her pony and Indy for cross country cause they kept changing the times on us due to the storm. What a disaster! Poor Emily missed the last jump on course unfortunately and was also eliminated, but she and I were both given permission to Show Jump on Sunday which was nice.

Here's Emily on Cross Country on her adorable pony:)

I had no time to walk Indy's course so my wonderful mom told me the course the best she could and I set out on Indy to have a wonderful ride and not miss a single jump:) Maybe I shouldn't have walked my other course lol:)
We awoke to snow flurries on Sunday for show jumping and miserable cold! But the day was a success Emily show jumped absolutely beautifully, Indy was a star as always and finished on her score of 27% keeping her 2nd place and Tainy had one of the most beautiful show jumping rounds ever!

Need I really say anything look how beautiful she is? My baby girl!

I know for some of you this boring and/or makes no sense so hopefully the pics and video make it a little better for the horse illiterates out there:) Unfortunately my mom forgot to push record on Indy's show jumping so all I have is Tainy's. Although it's no question who's the favorite child in this barn:)

This is Tainy's Show Jumping Round

Where Would We Be Without Family?

2009-03-02T10:43:00.000-08:00

I have all this stuff posted about my animals that I wanted to take a moment and just let everyone know what an amazing family I have and how blessed I am to have them in my life! In November I was blessed with the opportunity to go to Wisconsin and visit my brother (he's in medical school out there) and his family shortly after his wife had the new baby #3 little Gavin John Wooten. I wasn't blogging at the time so I wanted to post some of the pictures from the trip and just let everyone know how truly amazing they are! My neice who is my mini me is now 6 and in Kindergarten, my nephew Garret the musical prodigy will be 4 shortly and is in Pre-School and then the new baby Gavin now 4 months. My sister-in-law is beautiful and amazing I don't know how she does it I was fine when they had just the 2 but adding that 3rd kid takes it to a whole nother level! And of course I love my brother I mean I have to I'm stuck with him:) I had a blast though swimming, eating McDonalds for breakfast ok and maybe lunch, baking, playing super heros, shopping, beating my brother at Skip-Bo over and over and over again (when your good your good).

The Wooten Boys (notice the remote in Clint's hand that's usually where it stays)

The new little baby, I had forgotten how small they were; I was even nervous to hold him at first but oh so precious!

Me and Gracie Lou Who she's such a true angel!

Me and Garrett (I had to bribe him with candy to take this picture with me but it turned out adorable!)

Me and the kids at the pool man they love to swim! Grace is quite the fish!

I took the kids to swimming lessons and swam with them while Beck stayed home with the new baby. Well, I finally got Garrett to swim on his own for the first time ever so we had to video it for Mom and Dad to see. He was so proud of himself; you can tell by the smile on his face! (Although he's not actually swimming just running in the water atleast he wasn't holding on to me or the rail which was a big deal for him.)

Chiquita

2009-03-02T10:06:00.002-08:00

Chiquita my little Chihuahua who has been the apple of my eye sense the day we got her my Junior year in HS. She turned 8 this year on my brothers birthday Dec. 27th and we have had her longer then any dog now so I just had to do a little tribute to her because she is so precious and has been such an inspiration to many (Ashley who now has Jez and the Sealy's who now have Batman both chihuahua). Quita is sure she was supposed to be my moms dog; she absolutely adores my mom and Margaret but still loves me from time to time! She is like no other Chihuahua she's a total barn dog and loves to jump the cross country jumps and thinks she owns any horse show we go to! She has tolerated plenty of children through out the years with only a bite here or there (sorry Grace). She was a companion to my Grandfather in his last year as well. She has lived in 4 different states (more then most people). She's quite the dog I must say; she is the best driving partner, my favorite cuddle partner and my very own space heater! Love you Quita!

This is when my Grandpa had her and she lived on cheeseburgers! She went from 6lbs to 11.5 lbs while he owned her she is now down to 8lbs:)

Quita at the horse show helping herself to the horses water bucket

Quita all packed up in Giles suitcase ready to go (she'll make a bed out of anything confy and warm)

I love this picture, on the ride home from a horse show exhausted, the spoiled little princess, with her pillow and a down comforter; life doesn't get much better then this. In my next life I'm coming back as a chihuahua!

SNOW!!!!

2009-03-01T20:40:00.000-08:00

So we woke up this morning to get ready for our horse show and yes it was snowing in FLORIDA in March!!!! And when we got to the show there were still snow flurries! AHHH! Not to mention it was miserably cold; I do believe that is why we moved to Florida away from Utah in the first place; to get away from the snow and the cold. But for all you people who think it doesn't get cold in Florida it does and we had snow to prove it! Granted we did not have to shovel any driveways so sorry to those of you who are out with the shovels and snowblowers in the morning I guess we're not quite that cold.

UPDATE

2009-03-01T13:04:00.000-08:00

So school is going great! I love learning and I'm glad I made the decision to go back. I think I am up for taking more then 2 classes next semester though. Getting read to study for Mid-Terms next weeks but so far things are going good! I got 107% on my first math test and a 102% on my 2nd math test; as well as a 98% on my English paper so all is going well!
As far as the horses we have 2 new additions here at the barn in for training a 3yr old mare Windemere and a 4yr old gelding Sollte both here to be broke and both lovely horses. I am very excited; although, it has definitely added to the work load around here. It is a little bit wearing on my mom and I but it is definitely worth it.
Pat Doyle's little Remington, that I train, did his first show at WBS on the 14th of February and was a SUPER STAR he got 2nd in his Training Level 4 test and 2nd in Beginner Novice combined test he also recieved a 1st in the show jumping course!!! I am so proud of him he has come such a long way! Here are a couple pics from his 1st show:) Did I mention he LOVES to jump! (So do I)

I Took a trip to GA last weekend and had a blast with the girls dinner and dancing and gossiping! Love you guys thanks for the good weekend. We decided that we are going to have to do a book club (give me an excuse to visit more often:) I also took 2 lessons with Mike Winter (Olympic Event Rider) while I was up there on Indy and Tainy; it was amazing! I learned a ton and I think my horses did too; although, they got their fannies worked!
(Don't know if anyone noticed but I'm practicing my punctuation on my blog; mid-term next week!)

Rocking Horse Winter 1 HT

2009-01-26T06:44:00.000-08:00

So I'm not sure I even want to write about this disastrous weekend! I should have stayed home! I guess these are the weekends they call learning weekends I think all I learned though is that I really don't like losing! LOL! No in all honesty I guess I will admit it was a good training weekend for all my babies and I did learn a lot (I just wish knowledge wasn't so darn expensive!) So enough of my rambling let me tell you how the weekend went! And we did get some fun pictures and video so enjoy!
So the weekend started with a late departure on Friday of course! Only to arrive near dark with 4 horses and just my mom and I! I had entered 3 horses in the event Tainy, Fanny, Indy and also my mom was riding her pony Phillipe, I think I was nuts man oh man I had no idea what I was in for or how amazing my mother truly is! If we weren't on a horse we were getting another ready to ride or feeding or cleaning their stalls or wrapping their legs on Sat I don't think we ate until around 4, there was no time to eat! We needed a groom but unfortunately that's one of those luxuries we have yet to have! Thank god for my mom!

Fanny's did PT (Preliminary Dressage and Show Jumping with Training Cross Country) and she was quite a disappointment for the weekend stopping at the ditch on Cross Country! That little bugger! But i did realize that she needs a good solid year at Training before she is ready for Prelim, that Show Jump course proved to be a bit of a struggle for her, she's still young, only 5 coming 6, so she has time!

Tainy I was actually quite happy with she did the PT division as well and was in 4th after Dressage and Show Jumping, and had no problem with the Prelim Show Jumping, unfortunately though she did have a stop at the water a roll top into the water and so that moved us way down she went right in the 2nd time though, considering that is her 1st Training ever and I used to not be able to even get around a course at ALL last year I was very happy with her she was bold and brave and loved every minute of the rest of the course! She will move right up to Prelim this year I suspect!

Indy was a good girl considering this was her first event EVER! She behaved in the dressage ring and only tried to jump out of the ring once! :) Her show jumping was BEAUTIFUL except for the fact that i missed jump #8, I was so exhausted by that point i guess my mind just quit functioning lol:) They let us ride cross country and all was good but like her mother she was not so sure about the water, but was brilliant and loved the rest of the course!

My mom did not have the greatest weekend with a bit of a fussy pony, she had a beautiful show jump round double clear and came out of the start box on cross country a little hesitant and nervous and that naughty little pony stopped at the 1st jump! His first stop EVER on cross country (I think they were both a little nervous) cause the rest of their course was great!

So while usually coming home with at least a blue ribbon or two and a 4th or 5th we came home empty in the ribbons this time! UGH!!!! But we did not come home empty handed with gained knowledge for me, my mom and each of the horses as well as some sore muscles and aching joints:) All said and done I had fun, I love my babies and they are still learning I have to remind myself they're all still young and green and we'll get it together eventually I know it!
I am so blessed and so fortunate to have such nice horses and have the ability and the opportunity to compete and show them also to have such supportive and loving family and friends I couldn't do this without y'all! Thank You!
Enjoy the little video clip of my mom on her pony on cross country sorry it is a little shaky I was exhausted and a little nervous for her! :)

AWARDS

2009-01-20T19:19:00.000-08:00

Finally got PICS!!! Some of them did not come out quite so well sorry Max so I didn't post them all but these were the better ones!
My mom and I went to the DSDCTA Awards Banquet and did very well in the year end awards here are each of my horses accomplishments through the DSDCTA I am very proud of each and every one of them!
Indy- Grand Champion of 3yr old Fillies In Hand Division
Fanny- Grand Champion of the 1st Level Dressage Division as well as Grand Champion of the Training CT Division
Tainy- Grand Champion of the Novice CT Division
Phillipe (Mom)- Grand Champion of the Beginner Novice CT Division and Reserve Champion of the Training Level Dressage Division
Samson- Grand Champion of the 2yr old Colts In Hand Division
I also received an award for exceptional service, still a little puzzled on this one as most help I do I'm paid for lol but I am taking on the NWFL Awards Chair Person this coming year and have/will be helping Willowbend South and Mary Jane with the shows! Also I have to mention my little Remington he received 3rd in the 3yr old Colts Division for DSDCTA!
Some other important awards from the 2008 year....
Indy- Our little champion was USDF(which is out of all the horses in the US) Horse of the Year for 3yr old Fillies Champion!!! She was also 3rd in the USDF HOY for Material Horses and was High Scoring Mare in her Mare Performance Test as well as her Inspection, she also is Reserve Champion for 2-3yr old Fillies in the American Hanoverian Society! What a horse and she's only 3!
Samson-Was Reserve Champion at the GAIG Breeders Series Finals and was 4th in the USDF HOY for 2yr old Colts/Geldings and also Reserve Champion in the AHS for 2-3yr old Colts/Geldings! What a stud that stud is he is on his way to great things I tell you and so loveable too!
Thank You Mom For Making All This Possible For Both Me And The Horses!!!!!!
She deserves an award of some sort for all that she does, she truly is an amazing women and if you know her I am sure you already know this!!!!

What A Day!

2009-01-14T06:30:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was quite an interesting day for me.....we took my 3yr old Indy Cross Country Schooling and she absolutely LOVED it she did not blink an eye at a single jump and had her ears pricked forward looking for the next jump the whole time, I think she has found her calling in life! Although she does so well at everything else as well I think her calling in life is just to be the best! (Maybe my Olympic Horse:)! This is a pic of her free jumping and as you can see she is quite a jumper! No pics from schooling though my mom was too busy having fun on my other horse Fanny who was also a super star around the Training course! Then I had to go to the cardiologist for a ultrasound of my heart which all looked good a minor leak in one of my valves but nothing constructional that could be causing my Tachycardia so that is good I guess still have to figure out what's causing it though! Then comes the fun part I headed straight to my Writing and Grammar class ugh! The teacher is extremely extremely strict! But it will be a good review maybe my blog Grammar will get better as the class goes on as well lol! But it will be a interestingly boring class!

FUNNY PICTURES

2009-01-12T20:26:00.000-08:00

So as most of you know Emily is like my adopted daughter and it is great to have her around she keeps me young! Needless to say studying for a rating can get quite boring so we did find time to play with the Photo Booth on my ICAM and thought you might appreciate these photos they are HILARIOUS and we had a BLAST doing them!!!!

My second Family and My New D3

2009-01-11T20:31:00.000-08:00

So I started teaching Emily Sealy when she was 6 years old and after I left GA Ashley took over but I have still have had the privilege to work with her on occasion! I have become quite close to their family and I love them all dearly Margaret has become one of my closet friends through the years and she amazes me raising those 3 children and manages to be such an amazing friend! So it was with wide open doors when they asked to come down and visit over New Years and lets just say it will be a New Years we will never forget lol (you'd have to have been there:) Sorry these were all the pics I had from the trip us out on the beach and Margaret freezing buried in the freezing sand what a trooper!

But the main reason for the trip was to get Miss Em all ready to take her D-3 rating and I have to even admit that I had to do a little studying just to make sure I was teaching her "Pony Club Standards" and not my own way lol! They left Friday night and I waited with much anticipation as her rating was Saturday all day long but in the end it was all worth it! She passed with flying colors! I'm so proud of you Em! Here she is showing off her new rating! And we can't forget to thank Lanier for all his hard work at the farm when he could have been playing at the beach!

HORSES IN TRAINING

2009-01-10T06:02:00.000-08:00

So while I already have 4 of my horses to ride and train 3 of which are competing and need to be ridden nearly everyday and 1 youngster who only gets 3 days a week. I now have 4 horses in training! 1 at my own place Moondance who after 1 day I was able to saddle him and sit on him and walk around on (he's such a joy already) and 4 more at Willowbend South. GiGi who is a stunning beautiful Trakhener mare, Kundalini who is there for conditioning, a cute little black pony who needs manners so his rider can show him and last but not least my wonderful little Conemara pony Remington who may not look like much but he really is something special! So now I have my hands full with 8 horses and I love every minute of it! So I hope that I can do my best with all them for both the horse and rider! Let's just hope between it all I can keep up with my algebra and english homework too lol! I want to post pictures of all the horses in training but for right now all I have is a picture of Remington free jumping so I will post it and when I get the others I will post them ASAP!!!!

SCHOOL

2009-01-06T08:22:00.000-08:00

So after much thought and i mean much, between talking to my father and just looking at life a a little more realistically I've decided to go back to school!!! I took my placement exams and surprisingly and thankfully I passed them all and don't have to do any prep classes! So I registered for 2 classes don't want to overload myself cause i still have full intentions of continuing my horses but just in case I break a leg it's nice to have something to fall back on, and some of you will love this especially my dad and Becky I'm going to go into education not sure which elem or middle school yet and this may take me 8 years but at least it's in the making! So my first class starts tomorrow (College Algebra!) YAY!

First Christmas Alone!!

2008-12-25T18:56:00.000-08:00

So while this is officially my first Christmas alone it is also my first without my mom and if you know me you all know how big of a deal that is cause I am a huge mama's girl not to mention how much I love my family and being without them sucked! I didn't think it would bother me when I told my mom I would stay home with the horses while she went to Wisconsin with my brother but I was wrong! Needless to say after pouting about it for most of the day I finally got up and rode my horses only to make it feel like another day in paradise! So to Fanny and Tainy for making my Christmas Merry Thank You! I love you mares!!