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Kitty Hawk Diver's Story...
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Kitty Hawk
Diver |
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KITTY 1994-2005
"Kitty" is a 1993 16hh Hand Blue Varnish Roan with Snow Flakes, Appaloosa. At birth she was jet black with only a star on her forehead till the age of three when she came into her coat pattern She is registered non-characteristic even though she has all appaloosa traits.
When
we took her to be pasture bred by Winterhawks, there was a little bit of trouble
with the stallion owners neighbors. Seems Kitty and Winterhawks decided (in the
middle of the night) to go round up the neighbors cow herd. They ran them (the
whole herd mind you) half way to the next township! Faced with the prospect of
trying to get the whole herd back to where they belonged - the stallion owner,
his wife, and their neighbors used the horses. Kitty was never trained to work
cattle. She did very well!
Durring her time with us Kitty was my husband's main mount. She worked as a pack mare, bomb-proof trail mare, my husband could even shoot a riffle off her back, and finally she became a broodmare. Kitty is incredibly smart and is rattled by very little. She has passed this intelligence on to her foals. She is an extremely fluid mover, very easy on your backbone.
Kitty was always special to us. She was our first Appaloosa and matriarch of our herd. She was always a wonderful mare for us. Lots of personality and smarts to spare, and she passes those smarts on to her foals too. She has always enjoyed getting out and seeing different places. She has never had to have someone make her go. She has a unique sense of humor. We thought Kitty was going to a 'good retirement home' LOL as if Kitty ever wanted to retire... AND LOOK AT HER NOW!!!!!!
KITTY 2006 (13 years old)
February 2006 we received this email from
England:
"I'm writing to introduce myself as the new owner of Kitty, who joined me here in England last December. She's a real character and has settled in fine with the other horses. She is now the matriarch of our herd and has knocked the pecking order for six. We have an appy and a quarter horse mare in their 20s who don't know what to make of Kitty at all!
May 2006 Lara wrote us with the news:
"We had a bit of drama last week - a drunk driver sped off the road and smashed into the horses' field, the car turned over 8 times and then burst into flames. Thank God none of the horses were hurt, but get this, in the chaos that ensued, with emergency services, a gaping hole in the fence leading out onto a fast road, Kitty took charge and herded the horses out of the way, penning them into the corner until they were found and led to safety. Amazing, just typing it here brings tears to my eyes. You said that she would lead our herd well and you were so right, what an amazing mare she is."
June 2006 Lara wrote us with the news:
"Kitty's first ever show in England.
We had one hell of a day, left at the crack of dawn and were making good time
until a tyre on the trailer blew out - with such force that it split the tyre
behind it. With only one spare we were stuck waiting for the breakdown services
for more than three hours in 30 degree heat. Poor Sno was frantic to get out,
but Kitty took it all in her stride and actually had a doze at one point!
As it
was Sunday we couldn't get another tyre, so we had to abandon the trailer, my
friend took the jeep and I rode/led Kitty and Sno across country for about 10
miles to the show ground. By the time we arrived, sweat covered and
exhausted, there was only one class left - open ranch horse. I'd intended
Kitty to do the novice class in the morning, but figured well, we've got this
far, let's see how she reacts to the arena, the spotlights and the blue grass
music. And guess what, she wasn't bothered in the least. No surprises
there - the surprise came when they announced the line-up - and we came fifth.
Against the top western riders in the country. Amazing! And you should've
heard the compliments she got for her looks, her spins, her speed; people soon
sussed her out as an American foundation mare, the only thing they got wrong was
that they assumed she'd been doing shows in the states, rather than hanging out
having babies!"
We wrote back to Lara: Kitty has NEVER been shown ...you had the honor of being the first! .
Sept 11, 2006 Lara wrote us with the news:
"We
have now joined the Appaloosa Horse Club of UK, as it is the only club in this
country affiliated to the USA registry - here's a link to their website
http://www.aphcuk.org/index.htm so see what you think.
Kitty
wiped the
floor with every horse at the Eastern Region Championships!! We entered 6
classes (trial, pleasure and horsemanship, at both novice and open levels)
and were placed in 5. And not just distantly
placed, we came first in novice trial and horsemanship, and second in 3 others.
Way to go hey!
And I had no
idea Kitty could do all those things, we have the odd practise session in
the school and to be honest we usually have to give up before we fall out...
She refuses to ever lope on the correct leg (though can easily do circles on
the incorrect leg without losing balance), she stampedes cones,
squashes poles,
chases the dogs, cow kicks whenever I tell her off and basically makes it so
unpleasant I have to take her out for a hack. Yet we arrive at a show and she
has a whole sleeve full of tricks she's been keeping for just this occasion. In
all classes she throws stunning shapes at every pace, she wowed the judge by
changing leads in the air at lope on the exact centre point of a figure-eight
(we call that a flying change and leave such movements to top grade dressage
people), and when asked to back up from jog simply carried on jogging -
backwards!"
October 2006
Lara wrote us with the news:
Kitty is
doing great, no big news (not like winning 5 classes out of 6 at the Appaloosa
show, or protecting the herd from burning cars, or any of those other fantastic advantures she has had this year) But Kitty is just the greatest horse on the
planet, I just have to tell you this, probably again and again so do bear with
me, I do tell anyone who will
Needless to say she was an angel, she took
care of Chin as well as looking out for me on my silly 3 year old, and led us on
a brilliant circular route of about 15 miles, with a horse-friendly pub for
lunch. Chin now wants an appaloosa..."
When I
read the above I thought to myself: Kitty can add 'Appaloosa Ambassador'
to her resume'
We Couldn't be happier for Kitty and Lara -
Way to go girls!
KITTY 2007 (14 years old)
August 2007 Lara wrote us with
this news:
listen but you are the people who know her best!
A
friend of mine is over from Malaysia, Chin is a top race horse trainer and knows
horses, or thorougbreds, through and through. And he'd always dreamt of riding
western. Yesterday the dream became a reality when I let Kitty take him out.
See the pic for how happy she is - doesn't she look stunning? She now poses for
cameras!!
Howdy,
Me again, bombarding you with emails, but things move so fast with Kitty around I don’t want you to get left behind!
WHA Summer Championships and Kitty is overall 3rd out of the novices. Which is great but no trophy (maybe next time).
Showing is tough! -
3
days solid riding, sleepless nights, rough camping and an adrenaline high it
takes days to come down from. But the really wonderful thing about this show is
that Kitty and I have broken through to the next level of understanding each
other. I’ve been labouring under this misunderstanding that I needed to
teach her things, how very wrong! All she needs is showing how to do
things and then s
he
works the rest out for herself. All I need is to trust Kitty implicitly
and go with her.
This breakthrough
corresponds to all that you’ve said about body biomechanics – as a partnership
we’re so much more fluid now, I think of where were going and we’re there – but
the th
ought
includes your toe-pointing tip, for which I shall be eternally grateful!
It is also clear from the pictures that Kitty LOVES being the centre of attention and performs better the more people watching. A retirement home indeed, her new career is just starting and she is getting lots of interest. Even Dusty Kirby, the American judge over from Arizona was very taken with Miss Kit – I of course referred him to your wonderful website.
These pics were taken by my boyfriend, I’ll send a couple of the professional ones in following emails. Doesn’t my smile say it all?
Love to Christy,
Kitty and La
November
11, 2007 Lara wrote us with the news:
I just wanted to give you an update in case you’re wondering how Kitty’s 2007 show season went. In a word, fabulously, she just got better and better!
As well as the western shows and appaloosa showing, we tried a Le Trec. This is a French discipline that involves 3 stages; an obstacle course, control of paces, and then orienteering from a map and compass. We were amongst the highest scorers for the obstacle stage (nothing phases this girl), stayed the same through the paces, then lost a few points in the orienteering for – surprise surprise – going too fast! The set speed was 7kmph over 30kms and whilst most horses got tired or incurred time penalties for being too slow, Kit was one of the few who powered through and got back too fast. We ended up 4th out of 180 entrants – not bad for the first time out, I’ve never done Le Trec before either. Proof! - http://www.bhs.org.uk/_Attachments/Resources/1811_S4.pdf
The highlight of September was the Royal London Show, with 700 horses on site, every kind of breed and every kind of rider. We entered 7 classes and were placed in 6 – against the top riders and horses in the country! The results are something like this:
Rare/Foreign Breeds In-Hand – 5th
Rare/Foreign Breeds Ridden – 2nd
Palomino/Dun/Roan In Hand – 3rd
Palomino/Dun/Roan National Championship – 4th
Iberian Breeds Ridden – 3rd
Western Pleasure – 3rd
Can’t
emphasize enough what a big deal this show was, I’ve certainly never experienced
anything like it before, every day was a real buzz and I was constantly standing
agape at the horseflesh around me, the way they were presented, the range of
riders – everything! Of course Kitty wasn’t phased by any of it at all. In
true independent style she travelled up on her own no problem (120miles), was
stabled for 4 nights between a stroppy friesian gelding and a stress-head
showpony, took the arena, the lights, the television cameras, the fancy dress,
even the acoustic feedback all in her stride.
I have said that she and I are bonded, haven’t I? Well if you needed proof, here it is. Your – OUR! - lil’ Kitty Wisconsin ranch-horse took on the top European champions and absolutely excelled. I know all this is probably a bit hard to believe, but the proof is in this link here – so there you go. In fact I waited for the results to be published as I knew this would be hard to take in. http://www.royallondonshow.co.uk/content/view/39/38/
Since these
results came out on the net
,
I’ve had several emails from people at the show who’d traced me through Google
asking if I’d consider selling…
Couple of pics attached, oh god I nearly forgot, Kitty found herself a boyfriend and they really hit it off! He is an Andalusian stallion, Cantinero XXIV, there’s a pic of them together with Kit acting all casual. I’m not sure if I should let them meet again, what would you think of Appalusian / Andaloosa babies?! We were placed together in the foreign breeds section and Kitty followed Cantinero around the ring for the lap of honour – and started high stepping like he did!
Here’s a link
to the official photographer’s site
http://equinational.photos.cn.com/c1377686_601.html – they took something
like 9000
photos over the weekend which show the magnitude of the event. Happy
hunting, Kit and I are there lots! These show what we were up against, both in
terms of horses and people – the real old guard British horsey fraternity –
they’d never seen anything like us before but we won’t be forgotten.
Can you believe it?!?!
Miracles can and do happen – Kit and I getting together is one of them – there are so many more and we can only give thanks.
Love and light from us two, thinking of you guys whatever we do, from show to muddy field,
Lara
You two did AWESOME this year! Keep up the great work and when you choose to breed Kitty I am positive you will have one very awesome foal to brag about!
