Hello fellow horse enthusiasts,
This being my first blog entry I am going to introduce you to everyone here at Applegate stables. We are a family owned and operated company where each of our animals are family. Human wise, there is myself (Sarah) who is the main caregiver of all the critters. I do all of the training of the horses, give lessons, etc. My passion is classical dressage. I love soaking up as much information through literature and clinics. I have been so fortunate to be able to find an amazing coach week helped me get to where I am today. I have been recently able to now partake in lessons with riding master Frank Grelo, who is my coaches, coach. I love this discipline. Being able to dance with your horse in complete unity and harmony, becoming one unit with your horse. Riding so that you are never interfering with your horses talent. Being able to use your reins as a telephone line to converse with your horse, not a steering wheel to fumble blatantly through a test. Complete silence to the audience unable to see the quiet whispering horse and rider are having invisibly to execute the next move. It is like no other. I love it.
Then there is my mom who assists me with the training when needed, is the manager of the finances, part time show groom and any other animal assistance that may be needed. And my father who takes care of all the IT needs, some of the photography and manual labor needed.

Then there is the animals. There is definitely a dispute on rank depending on which critter you ask.
First there is Bella my german shepard. She is two years old and makes sure everyone its behaving. She is even willing to take one for the team and get in trouble for misbehaving if needed to keep everyone in check.

Then there is the goats. They are the gruesome twosome. Mix them with Bella and you have the three stooges, they prefer the three musketeers. There is Pebbles and Bambam. Both are mini goats with very different personalities. Pebbles is the sweetheart. She likes to play with Bella, get in trouble and play fight with the dogs. She is a dirty fighter though and will only head butt the dogs if they have their back to her, she will just play charge of they are facing her. She thinks this its a great game.
Bambam is a typical goat, will do whatever it takes to get food and will eat anything. He will only chase a dog if provoked constantly or if a human has angered him. They make for some good entertainment and as far as they are concerned, they run the place.

Then there is Syd. He is a six year old mini donkey. He is like a mob boss. He owns everything, is to be treated like royalty, no one is to dispute his wishes and anything done around the farm its to be okayed through him or you will hear about out it.

Harley is syd's right hand man. He is still learning the ropes as he is only a year and a half. He is a stunning paint colt with an adorable personality. Everyone loves him. Very social and loves people. He is smart as a whip, catches onto new tasks quickly and has an in your pocket attitude.

While on the topic of stallions, I will introduce you to Danny. Standing only 14.1 h with a gorgeous coat of copper bay, this guy is absolutely lovely. When I got him back in march 2012, I got a lot of flak from quite a few people doubting his manners and personality with good reason. They didn't know what I knew though as he had been at a farm I was at previously. He is seven years old and had never been backed. He had been a pasture ornament since he was three. His previous owner had done all the ground work on him when he was three but due to an unrelated accident couldn't continue with him. She had done a solid job and luckily he got back into the swing of things quickly. Four days including time to settle in and he was backed. Never set a foot wrong. Loves having a job, is super quiet, has impeccable manners, and is very people social. He loves attention and being groomed. Despite being a stallion you can groom this guy infront of a mares stall or another stallion and he behaves wonderfully. You can leave him for a month and hop on without lunging and he's just as quiet as when you left off. He is currently training french classical dressage and will hopefully make a debut in the show ring by summer. He will be available for stud for the 2013 breeding season to select mares.

Next we have the mares. There is my 25yr old 'ole reliable percheron cross Furie. Furie has been there done that. I first got to know her when she became a new school horse at a barn I used to ride at. I did eventing with her for two years then sadly moved barns. Fast forward seven years and I was lucky enough to get to take her home to semi retire her. Now she spend her days getting brushed and going on hacks. She deserves a good retirement, she sure has earned it.

Then there is Bean. She is a seven year old dwb cross standing 16.3 h. She is a beautiful rabacino chestnut with three white socks, a big blaze and a silver mane. She is a head turner to say the least. Every show I have taken her to people just love her. She has the sweetest, laid back temperament but can give a good challenge to who is riding her. You can always learn something from her. She was purchased to take over the work load for Furie and me to train her to perform french classical dressage.

Then there is Remmy. She is another late start at six years old but did come somewhat backed. She is a bay morgan standing 14.2h. Requiring an experienced rider as she can be difficult at times but has amazing talent and potential to do well at dressage. She was bought as a resale but I never expected her to show the talent she has shown me in a brief amount of time. She is smart, naturally round, very correct conformation and very compact allowing her to be agile and quick to perform difficult movements. She too, is training classical dressage and will hopefully make her debut in the show ring in 2013. She is currently for sale but is not being advertised as I would like to get more training into her.

Showing is not my top priority. The amount of time it takes to properly train a dressage horse is incredible. All disciplines aside, all my horses are exposed to all kind of situations in a calm, relaxed manner to create a calm, relaxed, confident horse. There is no gadgets used... ever. None of my horses even wear nosebands. They accept them if I were to put them in one, but I want the horse to be able to communicate with me by all means. I see gadgets including flash nosebands and cringe. I will discuss my opinions on these things later though. For now, I am excited to say hello and introduce you to my family. Be warned... You will now be subjected to stories of the daily adventures we have here. It's never a dull moment!
Thanks for reading!
Sarah