Monday, December 7, 2009

HELP!!! We need you to VOTE NOW!!!

Hey Gold Star Fans!! We need your help!!!! Click into http://www.ahtimes.com/ and then click on the READER'S CHOICE AWARDS link and go in and vote for your favorites. When you get to Question #29 - Type in "IOWA GOLD STAR FUTURITY SHOW" as your pick for the 2009 Horse Show of the Year!! Let's show everybody that Iowa ROCKS!!! We know how to put on one heck of a show here in --- THE HEARTLAND OF AMERICA!!!! :o)
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If you need some reminding on why we should be voted as Show of the Year --- click on http://www.goldstarfuturity.com/wild_west_video.htm and watch this brief 2 minute video with some show highlights. :o)
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...oh, and don't forget Question #30 -- What was your favorite Ad layout in 2009 ?? Choose our designer, Tony F's, Wild Wild West Gold Star Futurity layout. Tony does a GREAT JOB designing all our ads and our show program to the year's theme. He really outdid himself on WILD WILD WEST!! He should be voted as the TOP AD DESIGNER in 2009!!! GO TONY!!! :o)

Friday, December 4, 2009

The Lighted Parade is a BLAST!!!!

I know everyone is waiting out there with baited breathe to hear if anybody got killed last night at the 2nd Annual Hampton Lighted Christmas Parade. I'm happy to report both girls and both horses survived the ordeal and are all doing very well today. OMG! It was SO MUCH FUN!!!! Ok ... here we go --
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Dani and Tory got to the house around 4:15 and Dani went right out to hook up the truck and trailer. Tory stayed inside to keep warm knowing she was going to be freezing her butt off very soon. :o) Russ got home shortly after that around 4:30ish. He pulled out the truck and trailer and started loading the saddles while Dani and Tory pulled Huck and Tess out of the pasture to start brushing them up. I had Dani pop over to Walmart to buy 48 D Batteries for the outfits. While everyone was loading up, I was working on putting the batteries in the outfits ...... um .... CRAP! The packs don't take D Batteries -- they take C Batteries!! OH NO! We need to hurry so we can stop and buy 48 C Batteries!!!! or we won't light up!!! So I yell outside at Russ to hurry it up .... we need to leave a little earlier!! It's now 5pm. Dani pokes her head out of the barn -- I told her we need to leave now so we can get more batteries. She just looked at me .... I thought you only needed 48? I know, I know .... I'm an idiot .... I told you the wrong kind. SO ..... we hurried up and got Huck and Tess loaded up and headed into Hampton. It was 5:15pm. Dani and Tory drove separately and were going to stop at Ace and buy 48 C Batteries real quick and then pop over to the park. In the meantime, Russ and I would saddle the horses and get them ready to go while the girls got the batteries. Well, of course the roads are backed up and everybody's driving like 90 year old grandmas so we don't actually get to the line up area till 5:30 ..... and by the time we get parked and start unloading it's 5:35 ...... we've got 10 minutes to get saddled and mounted. No worries --- Russ and I are pros at this. Russ got Tess off and tied her up and I started on the leg wraps on her right away. He got Huck off and started saddling him. I looked up and saw he was putting my saddle on Huck ...... NO NO NO! My saddle goes on TESS ...... Dani's saddle goes on HUCK! ......that was the first swear words from Russ that night but other than that ..... he was in a fairly good mood. Not a lot of cussing up till then. I kept putting on the leg wraps ..... man, those things take a LOT of time to put on. Then don't ya hate it when someone wraps them up wrong and you get all the way through the leg only to get to the very end and the velcro is on the INSIDE ??? GOD I HATE THAT!!!! AAAAHHHHH!!! Especially when your hands are like icicles and you're trying to hurry!!!! Anyway ...... Russ got everybody saddled before I got done with leg wraps and he started on horse santa hats. How the heck do these things go on the bridle?!!?? I stopped what I was doing to go over and show him how the throatlatch runs through the hat and it slips over one ear. WHAT THE ___ ????!!!! THAT'S STUPID! THAT WON'T WORK! ..... and that was followed by some more cussing but I told him to just figure it out, I had to get my last leg wrapped. (If you look very closely at the pics on the link I attached .... you'll see the horse santa hats are all messed up .... but who cares --- nobody knew. They looked ok. They totally weren't on the bridles right but that's because Russ has no patience. :o) After I got the legs done, the girls had arrived and were trying to figure out how to put the santa capes on. I went around the trailer to help them. In the meantime people were starting to come up to chit chat and ask us where we were from and if we're going to the Garner parade the next night or Clear Lake over the weekend ....... and it was now 5:45 and we were supposed to be mounted and up to the road but we weren't anywhere near ready so I tried to talk but had no time!!! I got the capes on the girls and got their little hats on. I improvised and wound a couple of hair bands around the hats and under their chins so the wind wouldn't blow their hats off while they were riding. Then we started to put the batteries in the batteries packs ......... what the ???? ....... I got the hats done before we left cuz I had found 4 C batteries in the house. When we went to put the batteries in the capes ....... we found that none of the battery packs had backs on them. With the on/off switch. They wouldn't work without the backs. What?!! Oh no!! It is now 5:52 ....... Don't any of the battery packs have backs?? Tory looked at all hers ..... Dani looked at all hers .... nope .... no tops. SH*T!!! Then they started calling us ........ we gotta go!! Parade is almost ready to start!! Ok ....... forget about the lights on the capes --- your hats work so we're going with that. We need to mount up!! So we went back around the trailer and got Tory up on Tess. I stood and held her while Russ got Dani on Huck. Dani brought the red steps around to help her get on. Huck was being a buttman and was all wired out ..... even while we were saddling and I was wrapping his legs he was dancing around. Tess is awesome ..... she didn't care what was going on. I think I'm going to like that horse a LOT. :o) Anyway .... you guessed it ...... when Dani went to swing on Huck the battery packs from the lights clinked and clanked together and spooked him and Dani hadn't hardly gotten her butt in the saddle when he lunged forward on top of Russ then took another jump sideways and was right overtop of the red plastic steps then he reared backwards and freaked out cuz the steps were underneath him and he clanked them then he whirled and started running up the hill behind the trailer with Dani still on top and her cape caught under her leg that wasn't in the stirrup yet. I'll tell you what -- Sheena, if you're reading this ...... those riding lessons are paying off. That girl can stick!! She grabbed those reins and pulled him around on that hill and walked him out with his tail in the air snorting and blowing the whole time. Russ, Tory, and I were all standing there holding our breathe thinking ..... oh no .... this is not gonna end good. I'm already trying to figure out where Huck's going to be running to after he dumps Dani off ...... but nope. All the worrying was for nothing. Dani sat up there and didn't budge. She got him back down the hill to Russ and he slowly pulled the lights and her cape out from under her leg. Tory's eyes were really big -- you could tell she was a tad bit worried. I told her ---No worries. Dani's a pro. She's fine. You're fine. You'll both be fine. BREATHE. It's FINE. RELAX. :o) Then Dani asked if we would walk a little bit with them just to make sure everything was going to be ok. Sure ...... we're right there for you guys. I took Huck and Russ took Tess and we headed out to the road. The parade was underway. We got them to the road but Huck was still being squirrely and Tory wasn't 100% sure of Tess yet either. Russ and I walked with them across the bridge and up to the corner. Then Russ told me to stop ...... he'd keep going. I stopped on the corner. He continued with them another block and then turned around ....... in the meantime, I looked back at how far we had walked already and thought ...... well, crap ...... I just as well keep going cuz I'm only a few blocks to the bank parking lot where we're loading up at and then I can get more pics. So after standing for about 5 minutes and resting, I started walking again and met Russ on the way back. He just yelled at me ..... what are you doing?!! Your leg is going to be trashed!! You can't walk this far!! Ok ... whatever ..... I think it was so cold I was numb ...... so I told him I'm gonna keep going and keep an eye on the girls while he goes back and gets the truck. So I kept walking. He said he got back to the truck ....... doors were all open .... tack door on the trailer was wide open. Truck was still running. Yeah, it's a good thing we live in Hampton. :o) He said he didn't think he'd be walking so far away with the girls in the parade and was thinking he'd go right back to the truck and then move it up to the bank to load up as soon as they left. That's why he left the truck running ....... even though he didn't realize that all us girls had left all the doors wide open on it with our blackberries sitting there and the GPS thing and both Dani and Tory's purses and not to mention all our other crap ....... just inviting everybody to COME STEAL ME. :o) BUT ANYWAY ..... back to the parade. This year it was longer .... the girls got to the courthouse and turned east instead of west and went around the block out to Hwy 3 (yep, they actually blocked off one block of Hwy 3 !! That's impressive!!! :o) Then they wound back down the block north again and that was the end. I was waiting over by the bank and eventually here they came ...... Tess was in the lead (which is odd cuz usually Huck is always in the lead. She's going to be a natural at parades. She seemed to be having a lot of fun. I don't think her ears were back too awful much the whole way. She was just amazed at everything happening around her. :o) I clicked a bunch more pics as the girls rode towards me and then I yelled at them to get off before they went into the bank parking lot cuz it was really slick in there!! So they stopped and started dismounting right in the middle of the road ---- NO NO NO!! Not in the middle of the road!! The big firetruck with Santa was coming as well as a line of other cars. I thought -- OH NO! Dani is gonna be halfway off and Huck's gonna take off again when the firetruck goes by him with Santa ringing his bell --- but no worries ..... now Huck knew what was going on and he stood while the firetruck drove right beside him almost touching him. He didn't care. Finally Russ got the girls off the road and we started to load up. I had to put the camera away and help get everybody untacked and unwrapped. We got everybody loaded up within 5 minutes of the girls dismounting and were on the road home. Yeah -- we've done that a time or two. We're good at getting the heck outta dodge when everything is over. Got back in the truck. I had a terrible headache. My leg was really hurting and was way swollen clear out over the top of my boot. I was so worked up about the girls getting hurt I was nauseous. -- and I was chilled through and through. The girls were frozen to the bone. Everybody was really hungry. It was 6:40pm. --but we all had the biggest smiles on our faces and we talked all through supper about how much fun that was ..... and next year we should dress Russ up like one of those big reindeer mascots. I can get one of those costumes from my Halloween online stores ...... YEAH! ....and he can throw candy!! .....and next year I'll ride Gato with the girls and do the spanish walk down main street ....... YEAH!! Click here for pics of the parade -- http://www.knrarabians.com/2009_christmas.htm I don't care how much pain and suffering we all went through .... we have one heck of a fun story to tell everybody for years about participating in the 2009 Hampton Lighted Christmas Parade. :o)
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Ok ..... tonight is Russ's company Christmas Party so I need to start getting ready for that. See ya all -- and MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Lighted Christmas Parade -- TONIGHT!!

I got an email from Hampton's Center 1 on Monday. Center 1 is a group that works on activities for the community. They were wondering if we might please consider coming to town on Thursday night and riding in the town's Lighted Parade ??? ....and so starts our story for today .....
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Ok ..... a little history here ..... back in 2005, my daughter, Krystle, and I rode in Hampton's first ever lighted parade. I was so excited. We had never been in a lighted parade before. We'd been in lots of regular parades during the day but never one at night ..... with LIGHTS!! That sounded like tons of fun!! SO ...... I proceeded to start putting together two Christmasy horse outfits for the parade. I got on Ebay and found two red velvet cowboy hats with white fur trim -- bought 'em. I found a couple Santa capes that would drape really well over the backs of the horses. Unfortunately, they were only available in Great Britain ...... oh well, they ship from there so I bought 'em. (Actually got the santa capes before I got the cowboy hats that were coming from INSIDE the United States -- go figure..... :o) Then I found some neat santa horse hats ....... bought two sets of red leg wraps......... and then tried to think of how I was going to light us up. Nobody could figure out how to strap a big battery and power converter to our saddles so we could plug in normal lights so that meant battery operated was the only way we could go. SO .... I bought TONS of strings of battery operated lights. --- and proceeded to hand sew each string into the santa capes and the hats that had come in. To go back just a little earlier before I had invested so much time and effort into this adventure, Russ pointed out to me that it was DECEMBER and it was getting COLD....... and did I ever stop to think of how COLD it was going to be riding at NIGHT in the middle of WINTER?!! Hmmmm ...... nope ...... hadn't really thought about that but I'm sure it won't be that cold the first week of December ..... can't be. I told him that we wouldn't ride if it was too awful cold. We'd scrap the plan. Well ...... a couple weeks later I was VERY INVESTED in this parade and it really didn't matter how cold it was --- we were riding. I didn't spend hours sewing all those lights in for nothing!! It was nice ..... in the 40's the whole week before the parade--- and you guessed it. . The day before the parade the temperature plummeted. The day of the parade the temp dove down even further. I remember is was 14 degrees (without wind chill factored in). Russ took off work early to get home in time to help us load up. We got into town ..... it was dark already. Unloaded the horses by the tennis courts at the park. .....and that's when it started to snow. So in Russ's usual fashion, he started swearing and yelling. He was NOT in a good mood. The horses were very antsy tied to the side of the trailer because it was dark ...... they didn't know what was going on .... they were cold ..... it was snowing ..... and to add to all that, there were some kids sledding down the hill by SeaBees there and shooting of onto the cement right by our trailer scaring the horses even more. ..... so good ol Russ went over and started screaming and swearing at them telling them he was gonna kick their @ss if they didn't quit sledding by the horses --- can't they see they're scaring them ?!?!!?! Stupid #$%^&. And of course they started crying and ran away. I yelled at Russ for yelling at the kids because this was SUPPOSED to be FUN for CHRISTMAS --- don't swear at the freaking kids for Christ's sake .... then we started screaming at each other ..... it was a great family outing. :o) While we were screaming at each other Russ, Krystle, and I tried to get the saddles on the horses. Yeah ...... apparently at 14 degrees, leather FREEZES and doesn't bend. We found that out. Tieing those girths was darn near impossible. Russ is cussing the entire time so I told Krystle let's just go get our outfits on and leave him alone to saddle. He'll figure it out. We had practiced the day before putting the santa hats and tinsel on the horses to make sure they wouldn't spook. No worries --- they're parade horses used to wearing elaborate native costumes --- this was nothing. Well, the one thing we hadn't factored in was how we looked after we got our entire outfits on and then "CLICK" --- flipped the switches and turned ourselves on. We looked like freaking aliens from outer space. I bet we could have landed planes with the amount of lights we had on. :o) Huck took one look at me and let out a huge SNORT!!! His eyes got wide and he reared back while Russ was holding him. Uh oh. Um ...... didn't figure on that reaction. Russ just kept right on swearing telling me that this was the dumbest thing I've ever come up with and I'm going to die tonight and kill the horses because it's an ice slick on these roads and the horses are all wired up and if nothing else with it snowing the battery packs were gonna get wet and we were going to get electrocuted up there and blah, blah, blah. Whatever .... JUST HOLD MY FREAKING HORSE AND SHUT UP, I yelled. I sat the steps by Huck and Krystle got on one side of him and Russ was at the lead and I got on as fast as I possibly could with 50 lbs of batteries and lights weighing me down. Oh .... and I forgot to tape all the packs together so they cluncked and clinked really loud when I moved making Huck spook even more. Once I got on Russ started to double check my lights to make sure everything was ok. He strung lights on Hucks reins along with the garland ...... then before I knew it .... Krystle had Barexi up on the road next to me and was getting ready to swing up on her. I yelled out --- BE CAREFUL OR YOU"LL LOSE YOUR BATTer .......... too late. When she swung up her santa cape swung around the horse and all the battery packs on the right side of her outfit hit together hard and popped out the backs holding the big D batteries in place ------- batteries went rolling all over the road and her entire right side burned out. OH NO!!! In the meantime, the parade was getting ready to start. The parade guy was yelling at us --- Hurry up!! Hurry up!! We want you two to lead the parade!!!! Hurry UP!!! ......aaaahhhh!!! We're trying to hurry!!!! Russ was running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying to round up batteries, swearing the whole time and shaking his head --- WE ARE NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN!!!! NEVER!!! EVER!! THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!! He was trying to put the batteries back in to get her lit up but by this time the cop car had turned his siren on and was heading out. Russ got a few batteries back in and then his hands were so frozen he said -- SCREW IT.... JUST GO!!! So I started clucking to Huck and kicking him. Ok, anybody who knows Huck knows you don't kick that horse or you're on the ground cuz he is like a powder keg ready to explode. You very slightly squeeze a tiny little bit and he goes. --- But not tonight. He wanted nothing to do with that cop car up ahead in the dark with it's siren on and lights flashing. Plus the road was incredibly slippery and he had no clue what I was getting him into so he wasn't budging. I kicked ..... and kicked ..... and KICKED. ....and Krystle kicked and kicked and KICKED her horse, Exquisite Barexi. (small peice of trivia -- Both Hallelujah Huck and Exquisite Barexi were purchased from Cedar Ridge and both were a tad bit on the hot side -- both high powered English Horses ..... but they looked AWESOME in parades!! :o) Back to the story ...... Neither one would move one inch. Then, all of a sudden, the firetruck behind us decided to BLAST out JINGLE BELLS! JINGLE BELLS! JINGLE ALL THE WAY ....... at 900 decibels .... enough to break the sound barrier ...... so in a split second.... BOTH HORSES immediately whirled around to face the scary, big red truck with the boom box playing and Krystle and I were just holding on for dear life hoping the horses weren't thinking about bolting. .....in the meantime here comes Russ cussing and swearing at the guys in the firetruck ..... WHAT THE F*#$ ARE YOU GUYS THINKING?!! MOTHER F*&)$*(&$ SON OF A $*(&#)^ CAN"T YOU SEE YOU'RE SCARING THE F!(*&# HE## OUT OF THOSE POOR HORSES .... TURN THAT STUPID MOTHER F!(&#%ING THING OFF NOW!!!! The guys in the firetruck just looked at him and said ..... oops, sorry ..... our bad ...... as Russ walked up and grabbed both Barexi and Huck and turned them around and started leading them the direction of the parade. After a few steps Huck saw the crowds up ahead and figured out that it was a parade. He's a complete attention hog and loves parades and people clapping at him and taking his picture. He totally poses for the pictures if he sees the cameras. Once he got going ..... Barexi followed suit. It was awesome. We got up to where the people were ........ went two blocks ....... parade turned ........ um ........ and no more people. What? Seriously?? That was it? Two blocks?? down main street??? Russ was right behind us with the horse trailer because there were only 6 things in the parade so it really didn't last that long. He pulled by us and yelled out the window of the truck GO TO THE BANK AND WE"LL LOAD UP THERE. Of course when we got to the bank he was cussing about the fact that the entire parade was only two blocks long and we just went through complete he!! for a FIVE MINUTE parade and I spent around $400 on the outfits and lights and blah, blah, blah. Whatever. We have a cool story to tell everyone now the rest of our lives. :o) We had fun. Don't care what anybody says. Yep ..... that was back in 2005. ....Memories. :o) We never rode in another lighted parade after that. I packed up those outfits and figured --- maybe someday they'll come in handy again. Last year my brother called and said he was going to ride in his town's Christmas parade in North Carolina. HEY! I have the perfect costumes for you and Lauren!!! So I mailed the whole mess to John. His parade was during the day and of course it wasn't cold since it was down south ...... so they didn't use the lights and didn't have any of the issues we had up here the time we rode.
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Never really thought about it again until Monday ........ when that email came in from Deane W at Center 1 ....... Would you guys PLEASE consider riding in our lighted parade again this year?? I wrote her back ..... Um, I remember riding in it in 2005 ..... but there wasn't too many other people in there. Would there be more people this year? Well, apparently they have not had another lighted parade in Hampton since 2005. This will be the SECOND ANNUAL HAMPTON LIGHTED PARADE on Thursday night - Dec 3. They have a buggy hitch coming in from out of town that will be pulling Santa ...... they've got a firetruck ..... a couple more lighted floats ..... a couple cars that have lights ...... and they were still working on more entries. I wrote back ..... hmmm ..... well, I don't have my outfits here but let me see what I can do. I wrote my brother in North Carolina ...... could you get the santa outfits back to me by Thursday??? He wrote back a few hours later ..... they'll be there no later than 15:00 hours on Dec 3rd. BINGO! Well, that part is taken care of. I emailed Dani ..... do you think you and Tory (her sister visiting from Arizona) would like to ride in a lighted parade on Thursday?? She wrote back SURE!!!! That sounds like fun!!! (.... hehehe ... famous last words .... I remember saying that, too ..... :o) SO .... I wrote back to Deane .... looks like we're on!! We'll be there unless something drastically bad happens in the meantime. The girls came out to ride last night to test the horses out. We decided to take the two white horses --- Huck (again) and a new white mare we just got from Lori and Victor R. named Tess. I may have forgotten to mention ..... Tory has never really ridden a horse before ..... well, she's ridden a few times. ....but you would definitely describe her as a "beginner". She will be riding Tess. Tess is suppose to be very well broke. She's 22 years old and is an old, old showhorse. We've had her here since September. Haven't ridden her yet ..... but we're hoping she'll be ok. ...and she's never been in a parade before but she should be ok. ..... right? And Dani will be riding Huck. ....who she's never ridden in a parade before but Huck is an old hat at parades. He's been in TONS of them ..... and is an expert at lighted parades because he was in that one 4 year ago.... :o) So Dani is taking him. She'll be ok. ....right? .... and Tory has been here visiting Dani for a couple weeks and she's been freezing the whole time ....... and it's been record highs here in the 40's and 50's and a couple days in the 60's. She thinks that ridiculously cold. Monday it was mid 50's. Tues it was lower 50's. It plummeted yesterday to 30 degrees. Today I just heard it is 24 degrees out ...... with windchill factored in it is 4 degrees. It's been snowing ALL DAY. There's a good inch maybe more on the ground. It's still snowing right now at 4pm. The wind is starting to pick up. The santa costumes got here at noon. The girls are scheduled to arrive here anytime now. Huck needs clipped. Both are filthy. I told Russ to leave work at 4pm (that way he'll leave by 4:30 and will be here by 5pm). We HAVE TO LEAVE by 5:15 to get there by 5:30 to be saddled and ready by 5:45 and parade is at 6pm ....... and will likely be over by 6:10. I've got chili made for afterwards ...... and gingerbread cookies for dessert. I'm bringing the camera ....... and some earplugs. We've already warned Tory about Russ. Hopefully there won't be any kids sledding there this year and we don't alienate even more people with Russ yelling at everybody. More on this story later .......

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

IaAHA Christmas Party on SUNDAY!!

Don't forget this Sunday is the IaAHA Christmas Party / Awards Banquet in Grundy Center!! No worries if you haven't sent your money in yet -- you can pay at the door!! Just zip Sean Thurm an email to let him know you're coming so they have enough food for everyone. Email : sean.thurm@yahoo.com
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Sounds like the food is going to be AMAZING!! Here's a sneak peak at the menu: Pork Loin, Baked Chicken, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Cheesy (Party) Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Garden Salad, Cheesecake, and Ice Cream Desserts. ....and, once again, we'll have some very entertaining year-end video clips showcasing the Iowa Horse Fair, Class A Shows, Fun Shows, and the Gold Star Futurity!! :o)
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Come to see all your 'horsey' friends one more time before next year!!
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MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Friday, November 27, 2009

2009 Mare Nominations Due DEC 31, 2009!!

Ok folks -- here we go again ..... we're at the end of the year and it's time for Mare Nominations to start pouring in. I'm a bit worried this year. We've broken records every year since 2003. ...no pressure or anything .... can we do it again ONE MORE YEAR ??!!!! I think the poster to the right sums up this situation very well --- YES, it IS very important!!!!
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We used to average around 20-30 nominations a year prior to 2003.
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2003 ~ 100
2004 ~ 200
2005 ~ 300
2006 ~ 400
2007 ~ 500
2008 = 563
2009 = ???
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You can see that we stalled a tiny little bit in 2009 ..... we didn't quite jump up 100 points from the year before. We were 37 foals away from our goal of 600 mare noms. The other scary thing is that Partbred Mare nominations were WAAAAAY down. In the old days (I say old days but I mean 2003-2006) for the most part we'd receive in a 50/50 split of purebred mare nominations vs partbred (half arab) mare nominations. We saw that % start to tip in 2007 to around 60% vs 40% (less partbreds). We were a little concerned but that's not too bad ..... ?? Then in 2008 we saw a DRASTIC downturn in partbred nominations where the nominations coming in were 90% purebred and only 10% partbred. Meaning that we actually DID set an extreme record in Purebred nominations as they jumped drastically higher ........ Partbreds did a complete nose dive. Interesting, huh.
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Those of you showing partbreds this year at the show maybe have noticed an extreme downturn in prize money payouts. This is part of that reason. Prize money is weighted according to what comes in ---- if partbred money isn't coming in ..... it doesn't go out. As I've told a lot of people in the past couple years, it's the fish pond theory. Ya can't keep fishing out of the ol pond out back if you never restock it -- eventually the fish are gone. Our partbred exhibitors are going to have to belly up to the bar and start spending some money like the purebred owners are in order to keep their pond stocked.
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I'm anxious to see what happens this year. ??? I know people are still breeding half arabs out there --- I've heard people talking. I'm wondering if they're just not interested in placing their horses in a futurity?? Maybe partbred people are more interested in dressage and sport horse and trail riding and other ventures rather than showing in a futurity?? Hmmmm...... would be an interesting survey. This is something we'll need to keep a close eye on so this division doesn't dry up completely.
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In the meantime ...... back to the subject at hand -- MARE NOMINATIONS!!! This is the time people are starting to think about printing out the forms and getting their mares listed in all the big programs out there. You'll find Gold Star Mare Nomination forms online at http://www.goldstarfuturity.com/ - click on the FORMS tab at the top of the home page. PLEASE look at the Gold Star Stallions page FIRST to make sure the stallions you have bred to are nominated in our program before sending in your mare noms. It is extremely irritating and eventually drives me NUTS when someone sends in several nominations and one stallion isn't in the program. That means I have to send their check to the bank with Russ and generate ANOTHER check for $100 to refund that person. Then I have to write up a whole letter stating why we're sending the money back and then address an envelope and go to the post office ...... sure, that doesn't sound all that hard, but after the 100th person does that, I'm about ready to SCREAM!!! I have been told I should keep that money and list it as "Stupid Tax". I am tempted to do that this year as I have already gotten one in like that. FYI .... Eden C is NOT a Gold Star Stallion and has NEVER BEEN a Gold Star Stallion. *not that we wouldn't love for him to join us but he hasn't yet. SO - Please check the list FIRST.
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....hmmmm ..... I wonder if the Board would approve a rule change like that --- I motion to add "Stupid Tax" to the list of income coming in to the Gold Star program and that should include any money sent to us in errror because the sender did not follow the instructions ........ yep, I vote YES .

Thursday, November 26, 2009

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!



Here's hoping that everyone is having a fantastic day with their families enjoying good food and fun. From everyone in the Gold Star Gang to all the Gold Star Fans out there ----

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Almost done with Auction Nominations .....

Ok, Russ and I both have been working on Auction Nomination forms for the past few days. We finally got all the forms finished and this morning I started in at 6am stuffing them all in envelopes and hand addressing each one. You can see little Boo Boo at the left of the picture (the little black dog) is up trying to help me. Happy and Cally (to the right) are right there, too. If we panned the camera out you'd see Stripey in the 4th chair, Maggie and Buddy are next to Cally, Corky, Jack, and Kiki are under my feet, and Wenzday is over asleep on the rug. :o)
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To explain this process a little more ..... after each auction I generate a big excel spreadsheet that lists each stallion that was in the auction --- two sections -- Purebred and Partbred. Then I have two columns ..... the "stallion owner" column and the "buyer" column. Each stallion gets two possible entries. THEN .... because we allow carry-overs for one year ..... I go back to the previous year's spreadsheet and if a stallion owner or buyer requested a carry over because their mare came up open or aborted, then I add in those. We don't grant carry overs to people who never even attempted to breed. I will only allow someone to carry over an auction breeding if they spent a lot of money on shipping semen, mare care, vet bills, etc. only to find out at the end of the season --- no baby. We've been on that end and it's not fun. You basically flush all your money down the toilet if your breeding is from any other futurity auction. That's why we do that ..... to give breeders one more shot at it so they (hopefully) will get one the SECOND year. If you buy an auction breeding and then dink around all year because you don't have a mare or you didn't have the money to breed this summer ..... too sad, too bad. Sorry to be so harsh but that's life. You didn't even try. You have to at least TRY to get a mare bred the very next year when you buy an auction breeding. SO ANYWAY .... just a heads up ...... we passed a new rule earlier this spring about carry overs. Yeah, yeah .... don't get excited ..... no, we didn't pass a 2 year carry over. That would REALLY make my head explode trying to track that. We did pass a rule that said you must use the SAME stallion x mare combo the following year if you're carrying over a breeding. We put a disclaimer in there allowing exceptions but breeders may only exchange the mare in the breeding combo from the year before and only if there is a valid reason (ie: mare died; mare is barren; mare was sold; mare is hurt and vet doesn't recommend breeding; etc. ) The breeder wanting to swap out the mare MUST let us know why he/she is swapping mares. This will help me track the carry overs better. If you have already called or emailed me this year telling me that your mare came up open and you'd like a carry over ...... you got a response back from me telling you that you STILL need to send me back the auction form this year when you get it. This year anyone wanting a carry over will need to fill out the Auction Nomination Form like normal and specify the mare you are choosing for your auction entry. Then put your vet's note in there stating that you attempted to breed but the mare is open. The vet statement is a standard requirement for all carry overs........the only change is in year's past we've never actually required that you record the name of the mare you bred and we've never required that you use her again the following year.
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SO .... back to the process .....thoughout the year auction breedings sometimes change hands and people write or call us so we go into that spreadsheet and record the new owners of those auction breedings. The following November we pull up that spreadsheet and make copies of the Auction forms ....... one Stallion Owner and one Buyer. Then by hand we fill out the stallion's name and the person who is recorded in our database to place an entry in that slot. Like, for example, Amy Dziad (CL Solmate's owner) sold Mitch and Char Siddell her stallion owner breeding so that Stallion Owner form will go to Mitch and Char instead of Amy. Once we have the HUNDREDS of forms handwritten out to all the legitimate buyers and owners .... then we go back one more time and check each spot off to make sure we didn't miss anybody. (I was up till midnight last night doing that) The next step is to now sort through the pile and put forms going to the same address together. (Some people buy more than one breeding or sometimes the trainers request the forms for some stallion owners and they stand several stallions.) The sorting process takes a while. The LAST STEP is to hand address each envelope and stuff the correct forms inside. Why hand address and not do a mail merge and do printed address labels? People ask me that all the time. --- because each mailing is completely different each time. It's not like a membership list. The buyers and the stallion owners getting the forms change every year. It would take me an additional 3-4 hours to type in all the addresses to do the mail merge for that one mailing......and then an additional hour or two to put the labels on. (Trust me --- I tried it one year ...... it sucks) I choose instead to handwrite all the addresses. It only takes 2-3 hours (depending on interruptions) and is quicker in the long run.
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So there you have it folks. Exciting times at Gold Star Central the past few days. We LOVE nomination time .... NOT. It's these really time consuming tasks that some people don't think about when contemplating taking over a futurity program. If you aren't prepared to put a LOT of time into the boring stuff like the endless paperwork, invoicing, accounts receivable/accounts payable, tracking with endless spreadsheets, etc. --- don't even think about jumping into something like this. Running a futurity is a lot different than running a regular show. A regular horse show has a deadline for entries and a show date --- horses enter -- they come and show -- they go home --- you tie up the show -- it's over. A futurity never stops. It's a THREE year continuation of one show that keeps going and going and going. We are still dealing with the 2007 Show right now. 2007 will not close until 2010 is over. We are in the second year of 2008 .... it won't close and be totally over till 2011.
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ANYWAY ..... to wrap this one up ..... if you bought a breeding at the Stallion Auction in 2008, the forms are coming. You should have them shortly. If you transferred of sold your breeding (stallion owners or buyers) and I send you the form, please forward that form to the correct party because sometimes I mess up and forget to record the new owner's names. We accept NO EXCUSES for lost forms, forms that supposedly never were received and lost in the mail, forms that are missing, forgetfulness, not fully understanding the rules and not knowing they had to send in a form ...... I will get all kinds of excuses in 2011 when time comes to enter these auction yearlings. Ignorance of the rules, forgotten or lost forms, hospitalization, death, kidnapping, terrorist attacks ...... nope ...... I've heard it all. If I don't get that form back somehow, someway by Dec 31, 2009 --- you're out. Like I said earlier -- too sad, too bad. It's the stallion owner or buyer's responsibility to follow up and make sure they know the rules and to make sure I got their form. I highly suggest using registered mail or return receipt on email submissions. Okie dokey ..... I'm heading back in to start addressing......... fun times.