Horse Shows

Monterey Springfest Horse Show 2008

The 2008 show season kicked off with the Monterey Springfest Horse Show, Apr  16-19, 2008.

We took 5 Friesians to Monterey and came home with 10 championships!

Horses for this show consist of 3 of our “keeper” (own personal) Friesians, and 2 sale horses. Every horse and rider came home with blue ribbons……what a way to start the year.

Black Sterling:

  • Friesian Western Pleasure Open Champion with Janna
  • Friesian Western Pleasure Stake Champion

Stormy Seas [Ronald]:

  • Open English Pleasure Champion 
  • Open English Pleasure Stake Champion

Mindert S:

  • Friesian Walk and Trot Pleasure Open Reserve Champion 
  • Friesian Walk and Trot Pleasure Stake Grand Champion

Ate fan Bartlehiem:

  • Friesian Hunter Pleasure Open Champion with Janna
  • Friesian Hunter Pleasure Stake Grand Champion

Jimte ***Special congrats to Holly Pope of Santa Cruz , who is Jimte's happy new owner!!!***

  • Friesian Reserve Dressage Suitability Open Champion with Janna
  • Friesian Dressage Suitability Stake Champion
  • Pleasure Driving Open Champion 
  • Pleasure Driving Open Stake Grand Champion

As you well know, BSF goes big or goes home. The Monterey Springfest Horse Show started our 2008 season with a bang! We brought 5 Friesians, two of them being sale horses, and we were called to the winner's circle 10 times! BSF team does it again. Each horse we brought to the town originally known for it's sardines, left with a blue ribbon hanging from his bridle.

We woke at 6:00am , and spent some quality time cleaning tack. After six bridles, four saddles, a harness and a cart, thinking about polishing any more brass makes you want to cry.

We always have one boy that triumphs the competition and exceeds our standards. At this show, both the sale horses proved their potentials! Mindert, our 4 yr old STER stallion by Ulbert, made his debut in Walk and Trot; Jimte in Dressage Suitability and Open Pleasure Driving. Mindert is adorable, and has a lot of spunk. Being only four years old, he behaved amazingly well in the show ring. After he realized no horses were interested in whinnying and meeting him in the warm up arena, he powered it out like a champ, trotting big, ears pricked forward, floating through the in-gate. We trotted in the ring, made a few passes, and were asked to walk. As Mindert and I went past the in-gate, it wildly and unexpectedly swung open. The in-gate in Monterey is about 7 feet tall, and is solid wood painted off-white. Mindert saw a huge white mass moving toward him and decided he didn't want to stick around to find out what it was---he bolted to the side. For some strange reason, another competitor was let in the class, after the class was half way over and had already been worked the first way of the ring! Needless to say, the judge likely held Mindert's sideways spook against him in the qualifier.

We came back all charged up and ready to give it our all in the Friesian Walk Trot championship. Mindert was just as amped with a look of determination in his big, innocent eyes. The 4 yr old STER stallion took the championship, competing against many other Friesians, some National Champions, that have been in training for YEARS, a bit more than the two weeks I had been working Mindert. If this boy can take down the competition without training, just wait until I spend a whole summer with him!

Sterling was definitely feeling his oats and showing some spunk for the Friesian Open Western Pleasure qualifying class. Of course Sterl, being extremely smart and decisive for a horse, knew that “line up” is easy to side-pass over to while he was reversing. When Janna corrected him going back to the rail, he remembered and definitely showed her some attitude jogging down the next straightaway. Sterling won both his qualifier and stake classes, after an attitude adjustment for the stake! It is simply amazing how long his tail is. I have never seen a horse with such a thick tail; not to mention how far it drags the ground. Sterling's tail is probably the equivalent of 5 regular horse tails—we usually braid it into four or five separate tail wraps!

Ate covered some ground in the Friesian Hunt Pleasure Open classes. Janna and Ate flew threw the air when “hand gallop” was called. I can say from working him at home, after he takes the canter, (an effortless transition), you can feel the power of his stride, along with the anticipation in his muscles. He cannot wait until you let him go down the straightaway. No aid necessary, simply relax the reins and he does the rest.

Janna proudly rode Ate to the victor's circle in both the Friesian Hunt Championship and Grand Championship. We extend a congrats to Apollo, placing Reserve Champion and Reserve Grand Champion in Open Friesian Hunt Pleasure, another BSF Friesian we sold who competed in Monterey for the first time, and took home top ribbons at this A-Rated show. Apollo, selected to do the 70-day stallion approval test THIS year in the U.S., was also the Dressage Suitability Open Champion!

Jimte a pair of blue ribbons in the Open Pleasure Driving classes. I give him MANY kudos for that brave driver. Jimte is an excellent driving horse, as he was trained in Holland as the lead in a four-in-hand, but we had yet to hook him, since he had arrived in the U.S.

Trusting Jimte with our Freedman Harness and antique cart, we hooked him two classes before he was scheduled to enter the show ring, for the FIRST time. Jimte not only took the crowd's breath away with his manners and looks, but he took the judge's nod for his performance! Jimte won the Open Driving qualifier and Stake for BSF.

Jimte also won the Dressage Suitability Stake, Janna in the irons. Talk about a Friesian with a bright future, and with less than a month in the U.S., already a solid show record behind him! Congratulations to 14 yr old Holly in Santa Cruz on her acquisition of Jimte!

Stormbucket, strong, swift and simple, was crowned Open English Pleasure Champion and Grand Champion, with grace and ease. Stormy is at the point where he just knows. He knows the aids, the gaits, how to cut and make a pass. He picks up his gaits effortlessly and makes it look like he is a pleasure to ride, because he IS a pleasure to ride! Atop his back, I can't help but smile. Stormy beat some trainers, and some pretty saddlbreds—I was very proud of my boy. He earned his ride back to the ranch for sure!  In the first class, the noseband was loose, and his nose was out a little more than I would have liked. In the second class, the noseband was tight and his nose was IN too far, inhibiting his neck to stretch up.

We could not be happier that Monterey Springfest 2008 turned out so well! It jump started us for the rest of the season. The BSF Team gave it our all, and did not go home disappointed!


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