Toad Hill's ????? No Name Yet Filly

Saturday, March 29th, was the day that Rebel went to the handlers to prepare for the 2008 show season. We left after doing chores about 9 AM and was back home about 2:30 PM. After getting back into the house, I happened to look at a north facing window and saw one of the mares in the corner of the north pasture all by herself. Wind blowing out of the east, but she was in the windbreak near the evergreens. I looked and thought that it was strange she was there away from the other mare...I was putting on a coat to go out and check her, but before I went out I looked out the window again...a small gray object was standing beside her, and it moved.

"Pilgrims had a foal!!! We have to get out there and bring them in!!" and we rushed out, my friend locked the gate to prevent the mares from coming back into the pasture while I went down with oats just in case the mare decided she did not want to come in. Everything worked out fine, mare is now in the barn with her filly and all the bred mares have been moved to the pasture ajacent to the foaling barn. The first day Pilgrim was exposed to the stallion was May 18th last year. She had her feet trimmed three days ago, and did not look pregnant and I neglect to just check to see if she was making bag. She certainly snuck this one in on us.
Color is always a challenge with minis...Pilgrim is black with a white on rump and tail. Gatsby is a dapple gray pinto. This filly looks like she has a wide black stripe from her mane through her tail, but she lightens up as the color moves from stripe around and down the body. She does has a snip, star and a little white between the snip up to the eyes.
So now I have decided to call the filly Toni, but a need a good official name that uses Toni in it. Any suggestions?

IT"S OFFICIAL (1/10/2009) Toni's full name is Toad Hill's Toni Terrific

Sire: Toad Hill's The Great Gatsby (AMHA, AMHR)

Dam: Toad Hill's Pilgrim (AMHA, AMHR)

Toad Hill's Stormy Weather

Stormy (AMHR) was shown a little in 2006 and ended up third in Nationals Top Ten All-Star Multi-Color mares over. We decided her show in 2007. As a result of showing her the enitre season she ended up the 2007 National Champion Top Ten All-Star Multi-Color mares over.

Stormy seems to enjoy showing although she is a handful before entering the ring. John walked her around and around for at least an hour before I took her into the ring, but once the judge said to come in Stormy was all business. She would walk in with her head held proud, ears pointed forward (Kate would never do this) and almost floated on air. She was a pleasure to show, and I always felt that she was the best behaved, best looking and the one horse I always felt comfortable showing.

She will not be shown in 2008, with the cost of everything going up who can afford to show several horses these days. She is a three year old, and I think breeding her to Rebel should produce a really nice foal. Perhaps I will show the foal in the coming years, at least it is a forward looking, postive thought.

Pedigree:
Sire: Toad Hill's Oreo (32.00", black pinto, AMHR) by WF Flashy Boy (32.00", black pinto, AMHR, sired by Rainbow Ridges Starburst Cody-30.50", AMHA) out of Quincy Made Cameo (34.00", sorrel pinto, AMHR)

Dam: Mini Bucks Black Magic (34.75", black. AMHR) by S Bar P's Sir Prince (32.25, black, sired by Stouts Blackberry-30.50") out of Westwind Sand Dee (36.25", palomino)

The Phantom of Toad HIll

Phantom is the 2006 Multi-Color National Top Ten All Star Champion stallion. As you can see he is a good looking dapple grey pinto with white mane and flowing tail and beautiful blue eyes.

He also placed in National Top Ten All Stars for Two Year Old Stallion over 33" to 37" and Model Stallion, 2 & Older in over class.

But, what you cannot see is that Phantom has been kid trained by three little Amish children. They have been riding him and using him twice a week for the past year as the "school bus." Yes, Phantom takes the kids two miles to school and back twice a week on a country road in a small Amish cart.

There is more!!! Phantom's dam, Toad Hill's Wind in the Willows, is the 2002 Multi-Color National Top Ten All Star Champion (AMHR). She is the black and white pinto (with the bad hair day) right in back of Phantom. His sire, Toad Hill's the Great Gatsby, is a dapple grey pinto, AMHA and AMHR registered. Phantom is just over 34 inches and is three years old.

Pedigree:

Sire: Toad Hill's the Great Gatby

Dam: Toad Hill's Wind in the Willows

As much as I hate to do it, Phantom is for sale because I have too many horses with his bloodlines. We are asking $2,000 for Phantom, but if you purchase a mare with him we will discount the price for you.

Phantom was sold to a retired grade school instructor in Utah.

American Livestock Ads

I received a call from a salesperson at American Livestock about placing an ad in their magazine. I don't know the salesperson on the other end of the phone personally but he has the greatest "southern gentlemen" voice I have encountered. Who could refuse a saleman like this? So I did. NW Designs created the ad so here it is as it appears in the magazine. It may look familiar, it is the same as appears at the top of this blog.

American Livestock
Summer 2008 Ad

Interesting Article: Implementation Plan For Exporting Livestock

Ionia Auto Show

As mentioned in the previous blog, we were at Ionia, Michigan for the first weekend in June 2007 for the Mid-Michigan show. As it would happen there also was a free antique auto show on the main street of the town. Most of the cars built were between 1920's and 1980's.

The first car, a Ford, was most interesting because it also had a set of tools with it. It was interesting to see the tire pump that looked like a bicycle puump among the tools for a car.

Unfortunately I did not record the make and model year for each of the vehicles, but the car on the top, left is a shiny red Ford with it's hood up. The truck on the left is a Ford and I would guess it to be a mid 1950's model. I used to drive a Chevie that looked similiar.

The blue car below was parked in front of Kitty's Cafe and had a matching trailer behind. It reminded me of a Dodge, but can't tell for sure.

Perhaps someone can verify the red car on the right. I believe it is a Ford and the wheels on it are similar to a set of wheels I have at home from a Ford.

While there where over fifty cars at the show, the one I liked the best is the last one on this post. I believe it would fit in the category of the "Hot Rod." No way in the world I could guess what the make was, but the chrome and fancy paint job with flames certainly made this one stand out from the others.

I promise, next time I go to a car show, I will keep a list of the makes and models.

June Show: Ionia, Michigan

June 2nd and 3rd, 2007 we entered the Mid-Michigan Magic AMHR Show in Ionia, Michigan. The show was held at the Ionia Free Fairgrounds.

The fairgrounds were nicely laid out, clean and spacious. Except for the small horse stalls I can't complain about the experience showing there. The show itself was well run and the folks were helpful and friendly. It is a show worth going to and I hope to make some of their shows in the coming years.

But we did not spend all the time at the show. We did some sightseeing and wandered around the town.


We learned that the town was founded in 1833 and the plaque above is in front of the Ionia County Courthouse, and "the largest structure ever built of Ionia sandstone." (The photos on this post are all mine, but similar photos are on at the link site)


I have included other photos of the town because it is special both because of the quality of these old, historic buildings but it was one of the cleanest towns we visited the entire year.

Above the Metroplitian Title building the facade of a building showing the words: "Silver" and "Graff". Unfortunately we did not find out if these were the orginal builders or owners the building, but it was old.



We walked down to the end of town and then came back on the other side of the road, stopped in the Bluewater Cafe for lunch Saturday and stopped in the The Cellar where to our delight we found several interesting bottles of wine to bring home and savor at a later time.


Dinner both nights was at the LampLight Grill and the photo below was lifted off the website...sorry I did not get a good photo of it myself. The meals were great and reasonably priced.



We took many photos of the town but later I will be posting about the antique car show that Ionia hosted...it was quite nice that they decided to have the event while we were in town.

The last photo is a building with the upper fascade of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. It would appear that the Elks have moved because the lower level houses a pawnshop that had some interesting things in.

Ionia was a great little town, which lots of character, and we hope to have another opportunity to visit it again.

The show in Ionia, Michigan was put on by the Mid-Western Michigan Miniature Horse Club.

Toad Hill's Grapenuts

Foaled in 2006, this two year old is a dun colored pinto that appears to exhibit features that would indicate she is homozygous for tobiano. (I know she does not look dun in the photo but I can provide more current true color photo) The photos were taken in 2007 when as a yearling Grapenuts received a month's worth of training and was shown on one weekend. She was officially measures in 2007 at 30.0".XXXX

Sire: Toad Hill's the Great Gatsby (dapple grey pinto, 33.25")
Dam: Toad Hill's Kibbles N Bits (dun pinto, 33")

Danielle showed Grapenuts only one weekend (2007), but placed 1st under one judge in the multi-color mare class, and 2nd under the other two. She also was shown in yearling mare...can't remember how she placed because after she beat Kate in multi-color I decided to not show her the rest of year. I did not need two of my horses competing for multi-color in the same class.

From her pattern I believe she is homozygous pinto.

I still have Grapenuts but have not decided if I will bring her to some local shows just for the fun of it, or keep her and bred her next year to Rebel.

Toad HIll's Rust Spot

Rusty is a 32.00" proven stallion who was used only once in 2006 quite by accident and bred Tyke for a cute little overo filly. In 2008 we plan to use him on several of the three year old fillies as he is small and should throw small foals. Time will tell. His first foal, a filly is shown at the right with mommy.

Currently I do not have great photos of Rusty but below you can see him playing "King of the Mountain" below.Rusty's breeding goes back to Rainbow Ridges Starburst Cody who sired WF Flashy Boy (Spud).

Spud was sold and hardshipped into AMHA by the new owners I have been told. Probably should not have sold Spud, but sometimes your realize your errors after you made them.For that reason, I decided to keep Rusty for a couple years and really evaluate what he throws before I decide what to do with him. I might have him trained for driving next summer (2009) if I don't sell him.

Rusty may be an tovero. I know he throws overo. (Update, he has produced an overo (2007) and three tobino foals (2008). He has been bred to three mares for 2009 foals.

I know I can have him tested, Guess you can say he is my genetics experiment for the year. He will be bred to several mares that have buckskin, cremello and solid sorrel.

Rusty is the baby in the photo above. I included this photo so you can see what his dam looks like.
When Rusty was born we saw he was all white with one small sorrel spot, and we called him One Spot. Then we found a second, so we called him Two Spot...well after finding the third spot, we named him Rust Spot...perhaps it is a silly name, but it has a history.

Rusty is offered for sale, asking $1,000. OBO.

Rusty's Pedigree:

Sire: Toad Hill's Oreo (Black pinto, 32.0" AMHR only) by WF Flashy Boy (32.00", black pinto, AMHA, AMHR). Flashy Boy is by Rainbow Ridges Starburst Cody (30.50") out of Circle S Missy (34.00")

Dam: Toad Hill's Neon Echo (Sabino Overo, 30.0" AMHA/AMHR). Echo is by Colorworlds Neon Knight (33.0, overo) out of Mini Bucks Painted Princess (33.50", liver pinto)

I have taken a couple more Rusty photos. The black and white pinto with Rusty is Rebel. Rusty is about 32 inches (I will find his measurement and correct this if I am off).

Rusty sired three foals this year (2008). Rosie is show in two blogs and the two sorrel pintos are show in Lincoln and Baldrige.

Kibbles N Bits

This photo is Kibbles N Bits with her foal from 2007, Brownie (a colt - he is sold).

Kibbles was only registered in AMHR, but could be registered in AMHA without too much problems since the breeding was reported before she was foaled on the stallion report filed with AMHA. She was foaled in 2003 and is permanently registered in AMHR as 33.0".

Her breeding is below:

Kibble's Pedigree:

Sire: Spagues Buckeye (30.25", buckskin, AMHR/AMHA) by NFCS Yankee Clipper (28.00") out of4 GS Hemlock Brook Silver Jane (33.50")

Dam: Koch's My Angel Baby (32.50", chesnut pinto, AMHA/AMHR) by Little Hoof's Midget Mite (29.75) out of Koch's Little Brandy (36.00")

Kibbles was bred to Toad Hill's Rust Spot (32", AMHR) for a May, 2008 foal. (Update, she has had the foal, Toad Hill's the Lincoln Award).

She has been bred back to Rusty for an 2009 foal. Rusty's dam is a sabino overo and his sire is a tobiano. Sire and Dam below (I will get Rusty on Blog soon):

Rusty's Pedigree:

Sire: Toad Hill's Oreo (Black pinto, 32.0" AMHR only) by WF Flashy Boy (sire: Rainbow Ridge's Starburst Cody, dam: Cirlce S Missy)

Dam: Toad Hill's Neon Echo (30.0", sabino overo, AMHA/AMHR) by Colorworlds Neon Knight out of Mini Bucks Painted Princess)

Ventura's Smiley Face

Smiley is a 29 1/2 inch buckskin pinto that was foaled in 1966. (I made a mistake and provided the wrong name for this mare yesterday--glad I caught it!!.)

Her 2004 foal was a buckskin stud colt that now is 30" tall. His photo is below. Because of his dark color and generally overall appearance we named him Harley D. (for Davidson like the motorcycles). Harley was every inch a macho colt and if we were not working towards raising pintos we would have surely kept him. Alas, you can't keep them all.

Because we try to limit the number of foals born each year, Smiley has not been exposed to a stallion since. She would make someone a great pet.

SOLD!!! Smiley has been sold.

DuQuoin, 2007

During the summer of 2007 we showed in many locations in Illinois. One interesting trip was to the
DuQuoin State Fair Grounds in, you guessed it, DuQuoin. The show was the: DuQuion Memorial ShowThe fairgrounds at DuQuoin are without a doubt the nicest facilty we were at all summer. Imagine, the show ring was monstrously large, with all under cover stands, hot and cold (did I say HOT?) running water for the horse washing area, and nice are for the supervisor and staff. The awards were exceptional, including actual trophies!!! It was a shame that the weekend show we attended was so poorly attended by other exhibitors. I think they missed a gem of the show season, and hope next year attendance will be up.

We met many people and made some new friends. Here we are with a mom and her daughter who volunteered to hold two of our horses. Unfortunately I could not contact them and have lost their names. But from left to right the horses are: Lucky Four RebelChase RebelHeir, Toad Hill's Paint Me Picasso, Toad Hill's Kiss Me Kate, and Toad Hill's Stormy Weather. All but Picasso ended up the season as National Multi-Color Champions in their respective classes, while Picasso came in second in his.




While there we also did some touristing as my friend is a wine enthusiast and likes to see something more than horse shows. We went down further south and got on the Shawnee Wine Trail to see what southern Illinois had to offer.

I have included two photos. The first is of Blue Sky Vineyards, of a very impressive winery that was quite It has a Tuscan theme and you can see acres of vines around the main building. They offer "free wine tasting Monday through Friday, a variety of hearty sandwiches, pizzas, and snacks, as well as wine-alternatives such as beer and mixed drinks. " We did not sample the wine because we had more traveling to do.




Another vineyard we stopped at was Alto Vineyards and Winery. According to their website it is "the largest and oldest winery in southern Illinois." It was a lot smaller than Blue Sky but they have a porto that was decent although it can't compare to the ports from the Duoro, Portugal. Oh well, southern Illinois is not the perfect wine growing country but they try.

On the way back to the fairground we saw from the road a unique park. It was set up as a tribute to the son of a family that apparently had died at a young age. It was completely free, although donations are appreciated to keep it up, and the figures and buildings were creative, artistic, whimsical and interestion to see. For kids, there were climb privileges too. To the left is a small dragon, and below I have a photo of a really large reclining dragon that shows a youngster climbing on top of it. The mom is standing in front of the dragon.

There were other adventures, but that may be for a later blog. It was a long weekend, we saw the chariots and I have to say that DuQuoin has a great showing area and plenty of room in the arena for the horses pulling the chariots to really run full speed. (Please note that they are not supposed to go that fast usually, but the handlers were very experienced. Otherwise it may be quite dangerous for an amateur.)









Needless to say after a long weekend everyone needed to relax. I let the show horses out on the lawn, and as you can see, they all enjoyed mowing the lawn for me.

(Front to rear: Kate, Stormy, Picasso)

Spragues Buckeye

We had Buckeye for a number of years when I was experimenting with color. Buckeye is a 30.25" buckskin (AMHA/AMHR). He was a perfect gentlemen, easy to handle and never missed a breeding.

Sired the following at Toad Hill: Toad Hill's Ivanhoe (black pinto), Toad Hill's Kibbles N Bits, Toad Hill's Butterscotch

Pedigree:

Sire: NFCS Yankee Clipper (28.00")

Dam: 4 GS Hemlock Brook Silver Jane (33.50")

Photos coming

Toad HIll's Stylish Mocha Jo

Taken last year as a yearling, this filly is a bay pinto out of Excalibers Typhoon Queen and sired by Toad Hill's the Great Gatsby. Mocho is a lover, and enjoys human company and loves attention over hanging out with the other fillies.
Mocha Jo should be shown, but you only can show many, so I guess she will stay home and just be a great pet. She's always the first to the fence for loving, and will follow you all around the yard if given the chance.

Kiss Me Kate

Toad Hill's Kiss Me Kate, Katey, is the 2007 National All Stars Top Ten Champion- (1st), Multi-Color Mare (AMHR) under. Measuring 30.5 inches (2007) as a two year, she is out of Toad Hill's Wind in the Willows (2002 National All Stars Top Ten Champion- (1st), Multi-Color Mare (AMHR) Over) and Toad Hill's Oreo. Oreo's bloodlines go back to AMHA Rainbow Ridges Starburst Cody. I hope this photo works okay, with the open door in the background, it is nearly impossible to get a good shot of the horse. Katey is true black although she looks a little grayish in this photo. The day of this photo she would not put those ears up no matter how hard we tried in the ring.

Katey has been bred to Boone's Buckeroo Fancy Pants and should foal in April 2009. I really hate to have early spring foals in Illinois since the weather is so unpredictable.

Because some have asked if I would sell Katey, I have decided to include her under this category. Since I did bred her to Fancy Pants, a roan Buckeroo grandsonsold she is offered at $3,000. If you do the calculations, there is a 50/50 chance that her foal could be a blue roan also.

Well the foal was not a blue roan, he was a fantastic black/white pinto. I have decided that Kate is worth more to me because of her potential as a brood mare. Lets consider this, she is young, measures 32.25" and has had a great first foal. Given her dam is my best producer of pintos, Kate may also to produce some nice looking foals, plus I now have a small enough stallion in Fancy to bred he with. I was worried that my other stallion would be too big to bred to her.

Various Chariots

As I said, I a fascinated by chariots, so whenever I get a chance I try to photograph them in case someone decides they want to build one for me. There appear to be "commercial" fiberglass and then the homemade. Personally I think the homemade although probably heavier are better constructed and less prone to failing. At Nationals I saw this first one break apart (above)and if it were not to the skill and fast thinking of the drive, it could have resulted in some serious injury. The young lady did a great job of stopping her mini (the mini was well trained too).

Below are two different chariots that are pulled by two minis.

Weight is an important factor, after all you have minis pulling a chariot with a person. Balance is critical because if you weigh more than the horses, and the chariot isn't perfectly balanced either the driver will lift the horses up off the ground, or put too much weigh on them.

Here's a close up of the wooden wheels. Also notice that the "tongue?" is made of laminated wood and is designed for a two up hitch.
The decrease the weight the floors are made as light as possible. The green chariot has a heavier floor grid, the second one is the red chariot's floor.

As I said, I a fascinated by chariots, so whenever I get a chance I try to photograph them in case someone decides they want to build one for me. There appear to be "commercial" fiberglass and then the homemade. Personally I think the homemade although probably heavier are better constructed and less prone to failing. At Nationals I saw this first one break apart (above)and if it were not to the skill and fast thinking of the drive, it could have resulted in some serious injury. The young lady did a great job of stopping her mini (the mini was well trained too).

Toad HIll's the Great Gatsby

Toad Hill's the Great Gatsby (AMHA/AMHR) has been the herd stallion at Toad Hill for a number of years. While he was young, I was not able to show him, so late in his third year he went for one months worth of training and was shown only once at Rantoul, IL. For a three year old in his first show we were delighted with his placing (Reserve Grand Champion) and even more his manners while at the show with all those mares around. I am tempted to show him this year in aged stallion (2008) in a couple local shows if I do not sell him
Gatsby is a 32 inch tall dapple grey pinto, foaled in 2001. Two of his foals (Picasso and Phantom) are both Multi-Color Top Ten Champions.

Pedigree:
Sire: S Bar P's Sir Prince (32.25", black) by Stout's Blackberry (30.50", black) out of S Bar P's Missy Misty of Marion (33.00, black)
Dam: Koch's My Angel Baby (32.50", chesnut pinto) out of Little Hoof's Midget Mite (27.25, bay) by Koch's Little Brandy (36.00", chesnut)
Currently almost all the fillies at Toad Hill are by Gatsby, so we purchased Rebel. With Rebel (black and white tobiano stallion) and Rusty (overo stallion) we have thought of selling Gatsby. 

Chariots at Tulsa, 2007

The Romans Are Coming!!!

After DuQuion in the summer of 2007 and my first exposure to chariots I have to admit I've been "sucked in."

So when I got a chance to go to Tulsa Nationals, the first thing I checked was chariot classes. The chariot classes were high energy and fun to watch at DuQuoin.

If you have never been to the Tulsa arena, you will be amazed at the size of the facility. It takes literally hours to walk through all the barns and see everythiny. While we wandered around we saw the Bryant's four minis having a snack before the big event.

Later we saw Hal and his four-up team. Now there is no class for four-ups but in the parade lap the judges allowed Hal's team to circle the ring. Notice the attention to detail on the Roman costumes that the riders wear. Below is the Bryant four-up entry.

I did not make the next photo larger, because it is not really good quality, a little fuzzy, but it does show that you can drive a four-up chariot.

After the parade lap, Hal disconnected the two outer horses from the hitch and went in with a two-up chariot.

It was unfortunate that the show entries were mixed up and the team ended up being shown in with the single horse entries. Hopefully next year, the problem will be corrected with two separate classes. I know that at least one other exhibitor would have entered the team class.

Hal Bryant and Deb Bryant are found at: Bryant's Miniatures, Norris City, Illinois.

Okay, I admit, I do not know all the people who were entered in this class, but I have included some additional photos for those of you who want to see more of the chariots here they are:

It appears even the judges enjoyed this class!!
And the winner this time was:

George (Bo) Step of Stepin High Miniatures, Paris, Illinois.

No doubt I will try to see more of the chariot class. Perhaps maybe some day I too will have a chariot. Phantom (under stallions) has some training and if only I can convince my friend to build one.