I am proud to announce our newest arrival here at Masters Thoroughbreds, MT's Royal Sterling! He is out of MT's Royal Review and MT's Soft Refrain. He has taking his mothers coloring and attitude but his fathers speed, a great combination for racing or cross country!

Check him out here!


 
Recently, Karen Patterson a long time family friend, decided to retire. Her farm Celestial Arabians in Riverview has been affiliated with Masters Thoroughbreds for decades. She and my grandmother grew up together here in Appaloosa Plains and have been friends longer than they care to admit.

The two farms have traded horses back and forth for showing or training, traded staff when one or the other was short handed, even showing each others horses in the same class at shows. My mother even bred several Anglo-Arabs that had parents from both farms and took them on to International Wins.

Given the close friendship it wasn't much of a surprise when Karen informed me of her retirement, my grandmother has been nagging her about it ever since I took over the farm. Her family either can't or won't take over the farm, so she has decided to thin out the herd and hire someone to manage what is left until her grandson can take over next year.

She had one special young horse that she just couldn't sell off, so she decided to give her to me as a gift. I just didn't know exactly which filly Karen was sending till Bob lead her out of the trailer. She had sent me a young mare out of the two finest horses Celestial Arabians has ever bred.

See our newest addition here!

 
Isabelle says he is ready for a new home. If you are interested full out the application form on the adoption page!
 
Very early this morning Midnight gave birth to a healthy filly! She is just as flashy as her dam and  had inherited her mothers mind and gentle nature, along with her fathers speed.

Check this gorgeous girl out!

MT's Twilight Melody!


 
We have three new foals that have arrived at the farm from Fox Haven Farm and Reinbow Hills Stables!

All three of them have settled in well and are just adorable to watch out in the pasture. I look forward to seeing them grow up and become the amazing horses you can already see beginning to emerge.
 
Masters Thoroughbreds has always kicked off the season a week before Christmas with a local horse and pet show. This year was no different and nearly the whole neighborhood showed up. This here there was a costume contest, dog agility competition, cutest foal contest, barrel racing, freestyle dressage and cross country jumping.

The day was fun and everyone enjoyed the competitions. The results of the day are as follows:

Costume:

Chantrelle Riffin and Ditz as Dorothy and Toto

Dog Agility: Tie

Shawnee Fox and Shep
Benjamin Schmidt and Ralston

Cutest Foal:

Lily Fox - Silver Bay filly out of Bramble Fox - shown by Cheyenne Fox

Barrel Race: Tie

Honey Darnell on Skedaddle
Johnny Johnson on Freebird

Freestyle Dressage:

Sofia Martingale on Marley

Cross Country:

Chuck Hobbs on Shadow

The two day event was finished off with a large party which included a wonderful meal provided by Darris Teeter and his wife Brenda Koffi Teeter who own our local supermarket and diner, and a great show of A Christmas Carol done by the Crestview School Choir and Band.

Everyone had a great time and we are already making plans for next year. Isabelle and I are headed over to the Fox's for Christmas dinner in a bit and I know we are both looking forward to it.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Melissa

 
Today Isabelle went to our local auction to see if she could find any deals on tack or equipment since we will need it at the new barn. She came home with Durham, a young, completely untrained, buckskin Morgan stallion that was covered from head to two in mud and who knows what else. Seconds after he walked out of the trailer he tried to rip a hole in my pants to get the gum out of my pocket, then laid his ears back and snorted all over my face. Needless to say I was not impressed.

She claims to have gotten him because she was "bored" now that Copper has been adopted and didn't need to help me at the main farm. Since it is just Mist in the show schedule, Midnight is pregnant and King is off at the track for the winter races.

I decided not to remind her that I called her while she was at the auction to tell her Copper had been adopted. Or that I had ridden Midnight that morning since the mare isn't that pregnant yet. I didn't even remind her that King would be home tomorrow for the holidays.

 The woman loves and challenge and she has a good eye for champions hidden inside loud, filthy and obnoxious horses. On a totally unrelated note, she actually
 
Today Masters Thoroughbreds has opened a new facility adjacent to the main farm. The new facility includes private rubber matted, kick proof stalls with individual paddocks, a lighted sand arena and small staff house.

Isabelle and I started plans on this facility after we took in Copper as a favor to our local animal shelter. The mare was aggressive and scared, did not even like us around when she first arrived, much less the other horses. Ideally we would of liked to put her in a pasture with shelter, but were forced to build a stall in our hay shed and turn her out in the arena until we were able to help her work through her aggression.

That first night after one heck of a day, Isabelle and I were sitting in the kitchen trying to relax over a cup of tea, while listening to Copper's shrill screams from the arena where we had been forced to put her overnight. Neither of us were happy with having to move several tons of hay the next day to make room for a stall, and were discussing what would be a better option. Our problem was we just didn't have room here on the farm.

Seems someone upstairs was listening to us and decided to  help out. The very next day the land next door went up for sale! The builders finished yesterday and Isabelle moved in today with Copper who will stay there while she waits for adoption.

Check it out here!

 
Been a long few months, but we have managed to train her out of her aggression! She will never been the more friendly horse, but at least she now understands that biting, rearing, kicking and so forth are not acceptable, and seems content with that.

Her training has progressed well, she has the basics down and has now progressed from cavaletti to beginner gate jumps. On the racing side we find she gets hard to handle after to much time on the track, but does fine out in the field.

She is currently ready for a new home and will do fine in any discipline provided she gets a stable home life to center her. If interested check our adoption page!