I Think I'm Back??

Hi Everyone, it's been so long since I've made an entry, I don't even know where to begin.  As some of you might have noticed, I changed the name of our blog to "Ride and Slide with the McBrides".  Our friend, Chelsi Hinde (Roosters Abby's Mom), dropped me an email, and very politely, explained to me that a blog sort of needs a name....something cute and catchy.  So.... this is what I came up with.  "Ride" and  "Slide"  rhyme with McBride, so, guess we'll try it and see if it gets Chelsi's approval!

Chip and Shelby: Christmas Day

One of my other good friends, Judy Houghton, scolded me the other day, asking me why I have not updated my site in forever.  She said to me "your always nagging at me, saying how much people like to see new photos and updates,  not the same old boring stuff.".  Well, the answer to her question is complitcated, so here goes.

First of all, my Mother Nancy, passed away on the 11th of November.  She had bone cancer, but her death was unexpected.   The doctors say she may have had a blood clot, but they don't really know.  Everything that day happened in such a whirlwind.  At 9 am I was at the doctor with her and by noon, she was gone.  For those of you who know me, you may have met my mom, she and I did so much together.  She made it possible for me to get my first horse when I was in 6th grade.  She sacrificed so much so that I could have my dream.  Christmas came and with it, a new saddle, which she saved for for six months. She went to EVERY horse show, was there for the birth of my daughter Shelby, and pretty much, a day hasn't gone by in all my 40 years that I haven't talked to her.  She spent a lot of her time here at my house, loved the horses, and was so proud of us.  I sit here now with tears rolling down my cheeks just thinking about her and how much I miss her.  She was the one, that I knew in my heart, loved me no matter what. No conditions, not ever, she just always loved me.  

My Mom and Me

I was with her in her last moments which was such a blessing and also a curse for me.  I have held so much comfort in actually hearing her say the words "I'm ready to go, I've been praying that God would take me."  I sat with her and watched her go, it was so fast that I barely had time to call my sister and tell her.  They were able to speak before she passed, and her last words were that she loved us so much. 

After all of this, I just haven't been able to find a good place to pick up and move forward.  I have put all of my horsey ventures on the back burner and have been struggling to just get through my chores each day.  I keep waiting for it to feel "right" to start getting back into a good rhythm, somedays it feels okay and somedays it doesn't.  I have made it through the Holidays, and done fairly well.  It seems to hit me at different times, unexpected times, that I will never hear her voice again.  Sometimes the feeling just swallows me. 

My Mom and the Grandkids.  Riverfront Park 09

2009 has not been a good year for me in many ways, and in other ways I feel so blessed.  We had record snowfall in January, 97 inches total.  Those of you with horses know how hard chores can be in the snow.  Chip fell off a roof in January and injured his rotator cuff in both shoulders, then in Feb. we found out he had an 80% blockage in his LAD in his heart.  This is so serious, they call it the Widow Maker! This really freaked me out, but he had a stent put in and is now doing great.  He had rotator cuff surgery in June and just went back to work in Nov.  My good friend Gail was diagnosed with Leukemia about a month ago. We lost my Mom, and then lost Chip's uncle two days before Christmas.

Even though I have had some of the hardest times of my life this year, I also had some of the greatest blessings.  We had the opportunity to purchase Jumping Jack Whiz.  This was made possible by Kevin Rosenbaum.  I feel HONORED to know him and call him my friend.  JJ is a great blessing, he has even packed me to a couple of shows this last fall.  I used to show all the time, but with the breeding business, I haven't shown in about 5 years.  I made it to two shows with JJ and plan on doing more with him this Spring, Summer and Fall.  I am actually quite excited about it.  Thanks so much to Eddie Biegler and family for helping an old barrel racer into the new scary reining world!  Eddie and family have been SO kind to us, and we feel we have friends for life.  Another blessing, Chip was spared a massive heart attack by experiencing some very odd symptoms, not common to his blockage.  We are SO blessed that God gave us a warning and we were smart enough to listen to him!  We had a fantastic breeding year despite the poor economy in our Nation, something I do not take lightly.  I turned 40 a few days ago, and am happy to have made it here! And last, the death of my Mother...yes, another blessing.  We were spared end stage bone cancer.  I cannot even imagine the heartache both my mother and our family were spared by her going when she did.

Jumping Jack Whiz-I still can't believe he's ours!

So, as I close I just want you all to know how much I love each of you and how close I hold you to my heart.  All of your calls and notes were appreciated so much more than I can say.  So many good friends and the best family ever.  Please take the time to bury your face in your horse's necks and just take a deep breath, hug your kids and love your family and friends.  I'm back.....I think!!!

Summertime Swimming

One of my customers emailed me these photos a few days ago.  I thought they were so cute and brought back so many memories, that I just had to post them. 

We sold the mother to this filly a few years back in foal to Jewel.  Her new owner, Marie Coutu, drove all the way from Ontario Canada to pick her up.  She had this darling filly the next Spring, they call her Roo. 

Marie and her daughter are quite ambitious.  They show in performance halter and actually fit these cowhorse babies and get them shown as youngsters.  As you can see, they do lots of other fun stuff with them too.  This is the same filly that's listed on my website for sale, her name is Cash Or Chex Doc.

When I saw these pictures, I couldn't help but think back to when I was a teenager, by the way, that was a 100 years ago!  My best friend Kris and I would pack a lunch, put on our suits with a pair of jeans over the top, and ride our grade ponies, Cinnamon and Champ right through the middle of town and out to a little channel at Liberty Lake.  I bet the ride was a good 10 miles.  When I look back on it, I can't believe our parents let us ride so far and through so many dangerous situations.

We rode every day and literally rode the shoes right off of our horses.  We would spend the day out there swimming those poor ponies back and forth across the channel.  There was no better fun than those hot summer days.

The ride home, NOT SO FUN!!  We didn't bring dry clothes with us other than the jeans we had, so we pulled those jeans up over our wet swimsuits and hopped up for the bareback ride home.  I don't even think I owned a saddle at the time.  Anyway, during our fabulous day of swimming we had collected some little pieces of sand in our swimsuit bottoms.  Well, you can only imagine what our behinds started feeling like riding bareback in a wet swimsuit for 10 miles with sand stuck in our pants!  Needless to say, I ended up getting off and walking most of the way home. 

The pain doesn't cloud any of the fun we had, and oh the memories, I could write a whole book about my adventures with Kris.  We did some crazy stuff over the years, but that's for another day.

New News

WHIZARDS CHEXY BAR

My new blog has been very neglected the past few weeks.  I have tons to write about, but am just going to make this entry about some new happenings.  We've had some CRAZY weather. Some rain, some sun, and a WHOLE LOTTA WIND!!  They even closed I-90 because of all the blowing dust.  I was stressing as we had a mare arriving from California, but she made it just fine.

Whizards Chexy Bar arrived last night from Clovis, CA. about 9 pm.  Our thanks to Stacy Hamilton for giving us the opportunity to lease "Snickers" for the next two years.   She is safe in foal to Chex Nu Jewel for 09, I am SO EXCITED!! She is a sweetie!  

We want to congratulate a couple of Jumping Jack Whiz kids.  Jeff Lankford and Slide Me A Whiz are the 2009 ABRA World Champions in Open Barrels and also ABRA Amateur Pole Bending.  They also were Reserve World Champions in ABRA Amateur Barrels.  CONGRATS! And yes everyone, I said BARRELS AND POLES!!  A horse and rider after my own heart!!

Jeff Lankford and Slide Me A Whiz

photo courtesy of Rosemary Lahmann

Next we want to congratulate Kyle Weston and  Whizzin In The Rein.  They placed 2nd in the Open at Prince George, BC and 3rd in the Limited Open at Cardston, AB.  They have already won $711 in their first two shows.  Watch out Canada! 

Kyle Weston & Whizzin In The Rein

Photo Courtesy of Cowgirl Creations

 Topsail Seeker is showing in Sweden and has Qualified for the 2009 World Show in Open Jr. Reining. Congrats to the Ekblom's!

TOPSAIL SEEKER

 

Last we want to Congratulate Wendy Gray and Sheza Workin Whiz, they also qualified for the 2009 AQHA World Show in Open Jr. Reining.  PICS COMING SOON!!

We are getting quite a few emails about Chex Nu Jewel babies getting close to being ready to show for 2010.  I will keep everyone updated on those babies.

SP A Pine For Sure and Twice As Busy have both been purchased with 2010 breedings by Betsy Hardin of Ellensburg WA.  Congrats Betsy, I know you will love both of the mares.

WHAT'S IN YOUR PASTURE?

Being in the breeding business, we get lots of questions about how we market and sell our horses, how we choose our broodmares, how we've established a customer base, etc...  I could never answer that question in one paragraph but I will say that there has been wisdom given to me from many different kinds of people over the years.  The number one rule I've followed is one I learned years ago from an old friend of mine that had been breeding horses for many years.  She knew I was looking at some broodmares and we were chatting back and forth about bloodlines, etc...she said to me "no matter what kind of horses you decide to buy and raise, you better like what you have standing in your pasture."  Boy, oh boy, she wasn't kidding!  I learned a lot from her over the years, but those few words of wisdom were golden.

For example, I might be looking for a broodmare and find an own daughter that has a record, she's colored, she has a phenomenal pedigree, to top it off, she's CHEAP!  I inquire, ask for more photos, she's BEAUTIFUL and has everything I'm looking for BUT...... she's so crooked, I'm wondering how she can even walk.  But I want her, and I want her BAD! Lord knows I have talked myself into mares like this before.  I can just hear myself now,  "it's an own daughter of "Captain Kangaroo" AND she has a record AND she's a dunaroanalinosaurus, AND I'm sure her foals won't be crooked, AND, AND, AND......AND then it happens, I breed her, she has a foal, I'm lucky, as the foal has fairly straight legs, but then the phone rings, someone wants to come and see the foal AND it's mother!!  I'm thinking of every way possible to keep them from seeing this mare.  I go through scenarios of what I can tell them, I finally go to bed that night telling myself that I'll just get through it and they won't notice a thing.

They arrive...out we go into the sea of broodmares and babies.  I PRAY the foal is away from it's mom so I don't have to take the customer over close enough to see those legs.  I take the customer around to all my straight legged mares and talk all about them.  We get closer and closer to "ole twisty" and they don't say anything at first, but walk all around the mare, sort of like I do when I'm on the side of the highway with a broken down car.  I'm standing there praying for a bolt of lightning to hit her as I have no idea what my answer will be when they ask my why I'm breeding this three dollar bill.  Then here it comes,  "what happened to her legs?  Did she get in a trailer accident or something?"  I stammer through, change the subject, somehow, just never explaining why I would have a mare like that in my program.  I'm totally exhausted and wonder how I can dump this mare, NOW!

In todays market, you have to remember who you are and what kind of buyers will be your target. I can't hide a crooked mare with a few strategically taken pictures on my website.  Most customers that buy from me like to see what I have with their own eyes.  They will schedule a day trip to see my stallions and my mares before they make a decision on purchasing a prospect.  I really believe that customers can hear it in your voice when you think what you have in your program is specal and it makes them want to own a piece of it.  Being a small breeder, we don't just get internet orders for horses and put them on a truck with no questions asked like the big boys do.  Customers today are smart, they want the whole package and they will know when they come to see your horses whether or not you like them.  So before you buy, remember the words of my friend ""no matter what kind of horses you decide to buy and raise, you better like what you have standing in your pasture."

The Missing Sock??

You open up the dryer, start folding your clothes and BAM! you only have one sock???  You look through the washer, look through the dryer, you look under and over and stand there wondering; "where did it go?"

I have had this happen many a time with a prospective buyer.  It usually goes something like this:  You get an email or a call with a frantic individual on the other end saying "It's the perfect horse,  just what I'm looking for!"  You then answer all the questions, email photos, make a video, come to a price agreement, get a shipping quote, sort of feel like you might be making a new horsey friend and BAM! they disappear!  Where do they go? 

What's wrong with an email saying you've changed your mind or decided you can't make it work financially? But instead, you just get NOTHING??? WHERE DO THOSE BUYERS GO???  Sometimes you convice yourself that your emails to the buyer are somehow getting lost in cyberspace, are they on vacation or did they have a family emergency? You email and say "hey, if you don't want my horse, just let me know, it's no biggy" but nooooooooo....you hear nothing. Your left feeling a little like you did in grade school when that friend won't talk to you anymore and you have no idea why.


PLEASE buyers, remember, we breeders aren't in the horse business just to sell horses, we enjoy many aspects of the horse world and that includes making new buddies.  I love all my horse friends and customers, even if they decide they don't want to purchase a horse from me or breed to my stallion.  Not every inquiry ends with a sale, we do understand that things happen or you might have found a different horse that works better for you.  As the seller, we would rather know what happened to you and maintain a good relationship with you then be left there wondering "Where did you go?"

Our New Blog!!

Our daughter Shelby with Old Blackie (30) and Mint.  This was last weekend up in Chewelah WA at our good friends Gary and Vickie Nussbaum.  GOOD OLD GIRLS!

Well here it is, our new blog!  I've been tinkering with the idea of doing this for a while, with the main idea of keeping everyone in touch and me in touch with everyone.  I thought this might be a nice way to hear about what you all are doing and in turn,  be able to let you know what we have going on here at our place.


I have also wanted to have a place to discuss the MANY questions we get about the breeding business. So many people have questions about foaling, breeding, raising foals, pedigrees, selling, buying,  pricing, feeding, shipping etc.  People want to know if they should breed their mare, or own a stallion, the list goes on and on.


I hope to be able to answer some of those questions with what has worked for us these past 15 years.  Most of you that know me, KNOW YOU WILL GET AN HONEST ANSWER! 


I also want to be able to discuss buyers and sellers and the transactions between the two.  We have so many great stories to share in this area and hope to share our experiences with all of you out there in the active Horse Market. 


We are looking forward to hearing all that you have to say, so BLOG AWAY!