Hello!

My name is Janeen Radtke and I live a little northwest of Denise in the Upper Peninsula, where as we speak it is snowing, snowing, snowing.  We haven't had much of a winter the past couple of years, but it appears we are having a winter this year!  I learned about Curlys after meeting Denise when I got back into horses 4 years ago and met her on a trail ride.  I had never heard of the Curly horse before meeting Denise's Reese.  I had a quarter horse when I was a teenager, but hadn't had the opportunity to have horses as an adult until my late 40's.  I was just like a little kid the first night we had horses on the property and heard them through the window snorting and moving around.  I giggled every time I heard them!

After learning more about Curlys and their disposition, I decided to start searching for my very own.  My first one didn't work out due to his allergy to flies and I live in the woods with lots of flies.  I was heartbroken, but it just wasn't fair to him.  Then in December 2011 I ran across a recessive Curly in an online auction that was located in Ohio.  I never thought I would buy a horse that way, but when no one bid on him, I just did it!  He was going on 2 years old.  He is my Rocky.



Rocky

 Rocky had been very well trained and his ground manners were excellent and had already had a saddle on as well as a bridle when he came to me.  He is extremely laid back.  I'm hoping to start him under saddle this year as he is turning 3, but he is having teeth issues, so we need to get that straightened out first, unless I try him with a rope halter, which is an option for him.  He is a registered quarter horse and I hope to double register him with ICHO this year.  Rocky is already around 16 hands, so the other factor in riding him is his body mass.  I don't want to rush him, so if it has to wait another year, so be it.

My second Curly is Corky.  Notice that Rocky and Corky have the same letters?  Corky is 9 this year and I was going to change his name, because I wasn't real fond of it, but he knows his name and when I realized the two names have the same letters I kept it.  I bought Corky in August and he is green broke.  I have absolutely fallen in love with Corky.  He's only about 13.2 hands, but he rides like a 16 hand horse.  I have a couple of Tennesee Walkers and his ride is just as good as theirs, if not better.  He and I just fit!  Whatever I threw at Corky in the fall on the rides, he just did it, with some gentle prodding.  I get tears in my eyes when I think how much trust we have between us already.  I've had a couple of other green broke horses and they would have taken me the other way when I asked them to cross the line on the road or go in the water or go blindly through the trees, but not Corky.

Corky and I, Christmas day 2012

So my goals for this year are to ride and ride!  (Giggle)  Like I said, I hope to get Rocky started once his mouth heals and for Corky we're just going to enjoy our rides!  I do hope to widen Corky's horizons even more with parades and I've been kicking around the idea of barrels with him, but maybe a trail class at the local show is a better idea for me.

Looking forward to all of the incentive we'll give each other and reading the blog!  Now to read everything behind this post!  I'm a little behind already!