With January better than half gone, it's time to get with the program and start posting our curly adventures--not lots of exciting news to share...same as most of the country with our 3rd day of below 0 highs and wind chills in the -20 to -35 range.
However, for those who don't know of me or our business, I feel inclined to introduce you to our life--in short story form (OK short is a matter of opinion)...
I'm Lesly Goetz-Jentz. My husband Dan and I run our Big Sky Ranch in Barrington, IL. We breed curlies, ABC and ICHO. We are total "do-it-yourselfer's" so work on the ranch is never ending; we not only love it but feel blessed to live such a life! And although we are retired (LOL--someone once asked us if we've ever heard of golf) that only means we generally get to make our own hours...you're tired you sleep in, but then work past midnight to make up for it! We also manage several rental properties that we own and always have major project in the works...whether on the ranch, entrepreneurial in nature, volunteering or with family businesses.
We have two grown children; Dr Melissa Jentz-Cote (33) and Dustin Jade Goetz-Jentz (21). We are proudly involved with their lives, their businesses and schooling.
We purchased our first curly, Dream Angel, from Betsy Lirakis at Top O'The Hill Farm in 2002 and became enthralled with the Curly horse. Thanks again Betsy!
We look forward to RAC (thank you Denise for all your hard work and great ideas) to get to know other curly enthusiasts, as a motivator to not only work with our horses, but get our butts out there to help promote this phenomenal breed.
We currently have 8 curlies with a foal due in late February/early March; out of Warrior's Tahlequah (bred by Barbara Carrol of Stag Creek) and by our 4 year old curly cross stallion, Ahote, aka Target (his sire is 1/2 Arabian, 1/2 Saddlebred.)
We have a total of three up and coming curly cross stallions; two of which we plan to begin promoting this year and shipping semen next year. The third, a yearling palomino pinto, is currently on lease to Blue Moon Farms and living the complete life of luxury there!
We also have 5, 1/2 Arab, 1/2 Saddlebreds, one Appendix Quarter horse, one Anglo Arab (a movie STAR who was in the latest Batman Movie) and one NSH/Thoroughbred cross. Then there are the 16 miniature horses (AMHA and/or AMHR), 6 of whom are stallions (AMHA and AMHR.)
Add to that mix one Alpine Dairy goat (a wether-so no dairy out of him) and two cashmere goats (one doe, one wether), one male red Doberman, one male cinnamon Chow/Lab, one female Shepard/Border Collie, and the two male pups--a Collie/Shepard/Lab and a Tibetan Mastiff/Caucasian Mountain Dog/Lab (actually we haven't a clue as to his breeding except that there is NO doubt that he is of guardian dog breeding), and the two barn cats (who prefer to live in the basement since the arrival of the puppies last summer) and you can see we have quite the menagerie to keep us not only busy, but always entertained.
The first week of 2009 completely eluded us!
Between celebrating our second Christmas on January 2nd (the first was spent out of town for the first time that Dan's mother had her entire family of 4 generations together for Christmas), our son's 21st birthday on the 4th, Dan's birthday celebration on the 11th with a day in Chicago for a Broadway show and dinner, baking like crazy to bring "thank you" packages to multiple friends and neighbors, assisting in a local drive for a young family who lost everything in a fire over the holidays and the crazy weather in between....what can I say other than, "it's January 16th already?!?!?"
Everyone was blanketed early in this past week (which allowed for substantial training time for those who have never been and those who have forgotten.) I only blanket for extreme cold, wind and wet as I don't yet have sufficient run-ins to accomodate everyone. This past week gave us all of the above day after day after day.
Eivissa, our 2008 fall born weanling out of Lejonhud's Nokwisi and by Ahote has been a pleasure to do any and all business with. Once she realized that funky hot pink blanket only had intentions of keeping her toasty warm, she welcomed the procedure the second morning-and was better than some of the older horses by the third. She is such a pleasure to work with. Outgoing, inquisitive and gregarious she is quickly becoming a barn favorite.
Matte, our two year old filly out of Lejonhud's Nokwisi and by Mead's Chocolate Chip is also a true sweetie and quick learner. Unfortunately she is stalled in the extra large foaling pen with two red heads (the "Sergeant's" for those of you familiar with Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling's What Horses Reveal --a three year old NSH filly and four year old NSH gelding--full siblings) who freak at the sight of a turnout blanket....every time they see it...although pulling one into their stall and stamping and chewing on the same blanket is totally acceptable! Matte trys so hard not to follow their antics, and with a calm voice she will choose to stand to be blanketed.
Hatu (Warrior's Talequah) which is Utah spelled backwards (we purchased her from a party in Utah, who had purchased her from Stag Creek) is a little hormonal and uncomfortable with 4-6 week left on her pregnancy and has never been blanketed was a very good gal. Apprehansive at first, but after several attempts to find the best fitting blanket for her, she is now acting like a pro at standing...and we will keep this or similar activities up to insure that behavior.Ahote and Mac have had enough work ground work that accepting a blanket was child's play.
Needless to say, the process of blanketing 15 horses and some of the minis takes a good deal of time! Many of the older horses get cranky with the antics of the younger ones, as they are anxious to get their blankets on and out the door, so don't always behave as pros. Either way, I love the entire learning process (for both myself and the horses) as there is never a dull moment.
No one has left the barn since Wednesday just shy of midnight when the temps began plummeting to double digits below zero, without the wind chill, and a very wet snowfall.
Fortunately the 15 horses, 16 minis and 3 goats have managed to keep the barn temp at a balmy 38-40 degrees....we are almost at maximum capacity!
This extensive barn time has allowed for more basic training with everyone-from working on picking up hooves on the younger models (unfortunately the farrier has canceled due to the weather 4 weeks in a row; fortunately they should be well versed in standing on 3 legs by his hopeful arrival this coming week--or make a liar out of me!:~), backing, bending, stepping forward, pivoting, giving to pressure, dropping their head etc. I'll spare you all the details...but we are spending a great deal of time on individual progress so this nasty weather is actually a blessing in disguise.
Looks like tomorrows weather will allow for blanketing and turnout...and stipping stalls! Hopefully I can get some nice photos of any work we might accomplish.
All and all, not a very exciting week at the ranch, but a time consuming challenge for me and some of the horses all the same! In mentioning time consuming...trying to figure out how to post this blog without using the invite was a time-tiring nightmare. THANK YOU DENISE for coming to my rescue!
Perhaps this coming week will allow for some riding time...I'm keeping my hopes high for all of us stuck in this Arctic blast!
Later!
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