Our New Karma Farms Blog

Welcome to our first blog!  Our main author will be me--Vickie Ives, better known as "Vik" in Colonial Spanish Horse circles, but I will be aptly aided by my daughters Tori and Tommi as well as our foreman Curtis George and occasional guest bloggers from our distingushed friends and clients. In the above pic yours truly is mounted on my boy Timber Ghost (Beetlejuice/Little Corn), one of the nicest stallions it has been my pleasure to own and campaign. "Ghost" just finished his second season of competitive trail riding and placed second in Novice Heavyweight for NATRC's Region 4 (Tx, Ok, Ar, La).  At the Dec. 31st Tejas Indian Horse Club awards banquet, I found that Ghost had placed 1st overall in the Senior Adult division and was 3rd highest point earner for 2010. And believe me, when one places that high in Tejas competion, you've been up against some of the best including...

Victoria Lynn and her boy Building a Mystery (Rowdy Yates/Liona). Oldest daughter Tori and "BAM" continued their winning ways in 2010, winning the Adult division of Tejas plus once again capturing the overall year-end title of Highest Point earner for the year--for the third straight year. BAM was third in NATRC's Region 4 Open Heavyweight division. BAM continues to lead the overall lifetime points category for living stallions in several SM/CS Horse registries, and his foals are just starting their careers.  Of course, we knew this was going to be a good one with both SMR Grande Conquistadors and both superior distance horses.  Tori named her boy very well. His Mystery continues to grow.

My youngest daughter Tomlyn (better known as "Tommi") has been making champions since she was started training a little black gelding named Ferrnando. "Ferdie" was four and Tommi was ten when their story began.  The picture above is from a 2004 NATRC ride--think these two didn't have fun togther? New Year's Eve Tommi nearly cried when Big Chief Curtis announced that Ferdie had won the Oldest Competiting Horse award at the Tejas banquet.

 "How can he be the oldest?" Tommi said. Time trickles by. Tommi is 24 now and Ferdie will be 18 this year. It seems like only yesterday that Tommi and Ferdie were just starting out, chasing butterflies across the pasture with her hair blowing in the wind.  Fernando has gone on to win an NATRC National Championship, too many show and games titles to even mention, AIHR, SMR and HOA titles that will live on in the annuals of CS Horses for generations to come--and has trained over 200 riders in beginner lessons here at Karma Farms.

Now that Tommi has moved on the younger mounts like her fabulous golden dun mare Meet Virginia (Rowdy Yates/Buck's Girl), Ferdie helps some new young rider collect their own first ribbons and trail miles each year. This year Ashton Smith won numerous ribbons at the Tejas Shows on Ferdie and ended the season as Overall 4th place Youth, maybe not setting the world on fire but quite inpressive for a little girl who LOVES horses but has had to deal with some very strong trepidations about going fast. With Ferdie under her, Ashton was willing to finally try "the hard stuff". And even better, she has decided that she wants to be an equine vet "when she grows up". Thanks again, Fernando, for all the kids whose lives you have changed for the better.  Tommi knows a good one.

And in that vein, this shot is a brand new one taken just yesterday at our St Jude's ride here at Karma Farms. Tommi and I (with lots of support by our wonderful friends and clients) have begun a new preservation program for Karma Farms. We were chosen by the Corolla Wild Horse Fund as one of 2 off-site breeding programs for the critically endangered Corolla Horses of Currituck Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The far-sighted legislature of North Carolina named the Colonial Spaish Horse as their official  State Horse in 2010, but only around 100 of these rare little CS Horses exist.

When we brought home CWH The Sea King, he quickly became "Tommi's stallion". At the Tejas meeting we were surprised to find that King had surpassed even our elevated hopes for his first year under saddle--Tommi and King took second place in the competiton for "Tenderfoot of the Year", an award open only to horses under saddle one year or less--and they also garnered Reserve Champion Adult, second only to big sister Tori and BAM. At every show, King did better and placed higher, but we hadn't realized that in the end, it would be Tommi and her sea horse that would chase BAM for the Adult title. And the story of Tommi and King is just beginning; she hopes to add NATRC and AERC to his record in 2011. King's first foal will arrive in 2011 out of Drops of Jupiter (Dance Magic/Meet Virginia).  This East/West cross should be a good one, and you can bet one young lady can hardly wait.

Our last blogger will be Curtis George, not family, but he might as well be.  Curtis came to Karma Farms some years ago just to take his girlfriend riding. He didn't even think he liked horses. But when he meet our CS Horses, he found something that had been missing in his life and he's never looked back. First stout and trusty Thunderheart taught Curtis all he knew. Then Mr. George tackled his first youngster and did much of the training on his gelding Child of the West Wind (Dance Magic/Written on the Wind) himself. The above shot is Curtis with "Westy" as a youngster just under saddle. There was is a lot less of Curtis and a lot more of Westy since then. Westy has grown into a magnificant gelding with lot of ability, and now he's about to get his chance to do big things. Curtis has ridden him as much as he's had time for but has spent the last 2 years as Big Chief of the Tejas Club and as such, has had to work every show and plan every event and hasn't had the time he'd like to invest in actually competing on his horses. In 2011 Curtis relinquished the Big Chief position (since we wouldn't let him make it a dictatorship) to Tommi and will be doing the Tejas shows, NATRC and maybe even some AERC and who knows what else with Westy and his super lovely filly My Wonder Woman (Magneto/Washita River), fondly known as "Diana". Curtis can add much to this blog: he is not only an approved AIHR and HOA judge, but he came to love CS Horses as an adult and can offer perspectives that the girls and I simply don't have for new CS Horse owners. Here is Curtis sitting on Diana for the first time. We are expecting lots from these two in the months to come, and I have no doubt that Curtis will enjoy telling you all about it.

 So, with our trainer Jerry Hilligoss, these are the folks of Karma Farms.  Jerry may not enjoy writing as much as the rest of us, but he sure likes training the best CS Horses and then winning on them. His many wins on several different horses in 2010 show his ability to make the good ones even better when he starts their career under saddle. But none compare to Patricia Leopold's gelding Shazam, a dun appy that currently hold first place in Jerry's heart. Jerry won second place in Senior Adult in the Tejas Club awards on "Zam" for 2010 and he'll only do better next year.   He and Zam have big plans for NATRC and AERC in 2011 as well as our shows, and we'll be here to tell you all about it.

My next blog will give our readers a bit of history of the little farm in East Texas that has produced more winning CH/SM Horses than any other breeding farm in the world. Shouldn't your next horses be from Karma Farms?  Why not the best?