Little Joe
Dear
Mona,
"Thanks, he's GREAT!" said Evan.
" We LOVE him!," said Julia.
We adopted him from you last spring, nearly just off
the track at Belmont. He had just fractured a sesmoid
at the age of seven. We told you we were looking for
a kid beginner lesson horse and a kid trail horse.
I respected your candor and experience. You thought
Little Joe would be a good match for us, even though
we couldn't test the theory. I agreed when we arrived
to take him home. You were so right! I am so happy
for our kids to have such an amazing horse to learn
on and love for many years to come. You can see he
has settled right into his new job perfectly. I am
forever grateful that we met you, thank you .
Sincerely,
Kirsten Sauter DVM and mother.
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MJ (now Crimson and Clover)
Hi
Mona,
How are you? I wanted to up date you on MJ (now Crimson
and Clover, formerly known as Magnum Jazz). He is
now 7, we had him 3 years and he is doing great! He
has started showing in jumpers and will start eventing
him at novice level in May. His first 2 jumper shows
were shown at Levels 1 and 2 and he had a couple first,
seconds, and thirds! He has a very bright future ahead
of him and we are looking forward to see where his
talents will take him! I attached a few pictures of
him schooling.
Thanks again for everything! Alyssa
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Juno
We
had a show here last weekend, and Juno cleaned up
in the hunter divisions... yes, I said hunter divisions
: )
I thought you'd enjoy the pics...
She also takes this little girl (Abbey) first flight
out hunting regularly. What a sweetie she is, I heard
a little girl talking about her during the show...
she said "Of course Abbey is doing good, she
got to ride Juno!"
Enjoy,
Maria
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| Sonnys
Black Sherri
I wanted to touch base to give you some progress on
one of our 2004 babies, Sonnys Black Sherri ("Sherri").
She went to her first show this weekend with my 13
year old daughter, Katrina (it was Katrina's 2nd show).
I can't get over how unbelievably well behaved Sherri
was. I mean, with the amount of time Katrina spends
with her (everyday after school), I know I shouldn't
be surprised... But the reality of taking a horse
off site to another barn (where she's never been),
in a show atmosphere (which she had never been to),
had me wondering how she would handle the situation.
To my pleasant surprise, she handled it like work
as usual. It was AMAZING!
Shortly
after we arrived at the show, Katrina took Sherri
into the indoor ring for a quick warm up and Sherri
did everything on command. Katrina didn't wan to overwork
Sherri, so she literally warmed her up for maybe 10
minutes and then went outside to wait for their classes
to be called. They were in 3 classes: Walk-Trot-Canter
Equitation, Walk-Trot-Canter Hunter Horse and Walk-Trot-Canter
Pleasure Horse (with a total of nine people in each
class). As we watched the first class (Equitation),
I thought to myself -- she could actually win this
one! They both looked awesome and Sherri was on cue
with everything -- just like a push button, schooling
pony would be!! And I have to point out that they
were up against several schooling horses in all these
classes, so our 3-year old, young horse really had
her work cut out for her! We all listened with amazement
when they called Katrina's number as the FIRST place
winner in equitation! Her excitement (and ours) lit
up the entire place!! (Of course, I HAD to tell the
people around me that Sherri is only 3 and this was
her first show ever.) They were also impressed with
our young horse/rider combination! Anyway, the next
class was Hunter and Sherri isn't the hunter type.
But she went out there and did her thing! Her only
issue was picking up the wrong lead on the straight
away, which Katrina immediately corrected and within
3 or 4 steps, she had her going on the correct lead.
She kept Sherri peppy and pushed her forward nicely
during the entire class. They placed 4th out of 9,
which was another pleasant surprise since we didn't
see her as a Hunter. The third class was Pleasure,
where Katrina showed off Sherri on a loose rein (not
too loose, but clear that there was a little slack
in the reins). Again, they were AMAZING! I knew they
did well, but I was trying to be objective. I thought
they might come in 2nd or 3rd to a schooling pony.
But , I was really focused on Sherri & Katrina,
so maybe I missed a few things... The class of nine
lined up and again to our AMAZEMENT, they called Katrina
& Sherri FIRST!! After all the ribbons were awarded,
they announced Sherri & Katrina as CHAMPIONS of
the Walk-Trot-Canter Division!!!!
We
never sent our horses away for training. Instead,
we worked with 2 well trained instructors who worked
at our barn and showed us what we need to do. The
first, Gregg Miron of Throwing Stones Farm, specializes
in breaking young horses. He showed us what to do
to slowly break a young horse -- starting with the
basic handling at 6 months, progressing to sacking
out and ground driving as a long yearling, then very
lightly backing as a 2-year old and so on. We never
pushed and never rushed, but instead spent time bonding
with our horses, building trust and allowing them
to enjoy working with us, which allows us to continue
to progress our training. Since August this year,
Katrina & Sherri have been working under the supervision
of Raul Diaz of The Lite Brigade. Raul is an amazing
master dressage instructor. He took Katrina and Sherri's
basics and showed Katrina what to do to collect and
refine her horse and their movements. Raul instructs
while on a horse, so that he not only explains what
he wants his students to do, be he can easily show
them exactly what he is referring to, and exactly
how the horse is supposed to respond. It's informative
and impressive and I don't understand why more instructors
don't teach this way!
While
Katrina and I spend time and effort with our horses,
I don't believe we could have such a great finished
product if it didn't start with such great breeding.
Thank you for all you have done with the PMU's and
thank the breeder for selecting such horses to breed!
I attached a copy of the picture that made me pick
Sherri in 2004.
-Diana
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