RAC (Ride-A-Curly) Adventure Blog

Hello RAC 2013 !

My daughters Katie (14) and Charlotte (12) and I are planning on a busy year with our Curly horses - hopefully they will do their own blogging but I thought I'd start off with an introduction for us and our Curly herd.

We live just outside of Calgary, Alberta on a farm - our love affair with Curly horses started due to my husbands allergy to horses.  Six years later - his horse allergy is gone - and we have a large herd of Curly horses and Warmblood sport horses (Hanoverian, Trakhener, Thoroughbred)

We have lots of big plans with our horses this year:

I will be starting under saddle our lovely gelding Alias - he will be 6 yrs old this spring.  He came to us in the fall of 2009 as a gangly 2 yr old - who was headed to auction at a time when hay prices were so high many trained lovely horses were ending up in meat trucks.  I took cash & my horse trailer to bring him home.  That winter he grew - the next summer he grew more - and the following year grew some more - he's 16+ hh and AWESOME !!!  He is smart, confident and willing - he's had lots of ground work and this spring I'll continue his training under saddle.  

My daughter Katie - who is turning 15 this spring - will be logging miles on her Curly boy Charlie.  We don't have much history on Charlie - no papers - supposedly he was a trail horse with the National Park Service - he's around 15 yrs old.  He is a great project for my daughter - he's a great boy who tries hard - but its obvious much of his training was hard and fast.  Katie does lots of ground work with him - building his mind and confidence.  Charlie is a 4-H project horse for her this year.

My daughter Charlotte - who just turned 12 - has put in a lot of time with her little Curly mare Misty.  When we went to look at Misty over 2 years ago - she was being sold as a rideable horse - but not one that I'd willingly ride.  After talking to her previous owner getting her history - hearing of her fear of women & of her "ranch" work - Charlotte said "I LOVE HER" - so Misty came home with us.  First we turned her out and let her be a horse - then I did months of ground work and desensitizing her to ropes (which she was terrified of).  Slowly she gained confidence in herself and trust in us.  Charlotte completed a 4-day ground work & round penning clinic with Misty this past summer - and has started riding Misty in the round pen bitless and bareback at walk and trot.  However - Misty still gets agitated - so we're going to try doing some ground driving - hopefully bridging some gaps that still need work in her training and confidence.  We have all learned so much from Misty - the connection between Charlotte and Misty is the magic we all want with our horses.

We also will be getting our rescued Curly gelding Cannon started under saddle.  Cannon was in the Zillah Feedlots in Washington Feb 2012.  He is an sweet gentle boy - someone has given him lots of care & attention in his past.  If anyone has any info or ideas on where he may have come from we would love to hear it !

Along with these big Curly projects - we also have a some very well trained "been there and done that" Curly horses that we will also put miles on  :-)  Looking forward to a great year sharing all of our adventures - Chris, Katie and Charlotte