# Hi from Canada!



## Alder (Feb 15, 2017)

Hello and welcome! Ontario eh, has it stopped snowing where you are?


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## Fimargue (Jun 19, 2015)

Welcome on board!


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## Woodhaven (Jan 21, 2014)

Hello back to you from Canada eh! You will like this forum, so many nice and knowledgeable people here.
I'm from Southern Ont and we have had snow for the last couple of days, may change to freezing rain by tomorrow am. Not looking forward to that.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Welcome from the other side of Canada, in BC, we don't say "eh", that's for you easterners, lol.


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## reayve (Feb 10, 2018)

Alder said:


> Hello and welcome! Ontario eh, has it stopped snowing where you are?


Hahah, nope. We've got another 5-10cm coming our way this weekend. At least it's not super cold!


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## reayve (Feb 10, 2018)

Woodhaven said:


> Hello back to you from Canada eh! You will like this forum, so many nice and knowledgeable people here.
> I'm from Southern Ont and we have had snow for the last couple of days, may change to freezing rain by tomorrow am. Not looking forward to that.


My area has a very similar weather report but we're not supposed to be getting freezing rain until around Monday. Just snow and wind tomorrow.


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

Hi @reayve, I'm in New Brunswick! I knew a curly and he was a lovely horse. Great temperament.

I ride a QH mare, and my daughter does show jumping on her Arab gelding. Let's see some pics of your curly!


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## reayve (Feb 10, 2018)

Hi @*Acadianartist* ! It's nice to know someone else that's met a Curly. They're great horses, just not well known. 

Here's my mare. Her winter coat is so fun.


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## BiologyBrain (Jul 9, 2015)

Hiya! I will soon have 2 Curlys. One of mine was a rescue too! The other I just bought (I'm waiting for delivery). We live in KY. I wish you Canadians would keep your cold weather! ;-) Its in the 20s & rainy/freezing rain here. Of course my Curly doesn't seem to care.

The first photo is of my rescue mare last summer. The second is my new mare from just a few days ago. 

Do you know anything about your Curly?


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## reayve (Feb 10, 2018)

BiologyBrain said:


> Hiya! I will soon have 2 Curlys. One of mine was a rescue too! The other I just bought (I'm waiting for delivery). We live in KY. I wish you Canadians would keep your cold weather! ;-) Its in the 20s & rainy/freezing rain here. Of course my Curly doesn't seem to care.
> 
> The first photo is of my rescue mare last summer. The second is my new mare from just a few days ago.
> 
> Do you know anything about your Curly?


Thriving in cold weather is the one thing I love about Curlies! You gotta love hardy North American breeds.

I don't know much about my rescue, unfortunately. I'm pretty sure she was dumped because she developed lamintis. Her auction note simply said trail & lesson horse and she turned out to be a fantastic trail horse but a not so good lesson horse. I think she was at a pay-per-hour trail ride place where the extent of the lesson was "here's how you turn and stop". I haven't been able to find any registered Curlies matching her description/age so one of these days I'll get around to doing a DNA test.

Where did you get your new Curly from? And do you know anything about your rescue? They both look lovely!


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## BiologyBrain (Jul 9, 2015)

My rescued Curly was rescued as a weanling from a trailer bound for the New Holland sale in Pennsylvania. She had a severe injury to her right knee that excluded her from a 'better' auction. She was bought & rehabilitated, but that meant she had to have her right knee partially fused. After it healed she had to basically be retaught to walk/use her knee because she'd been on stall rest for so long. She was apparently babied quite a bit and has no manners. She was eventually sold/given to a new home, but had to be rescued from that place after they started neglecting her and abandoned her. Sadly, her rescuer was diagnosed with cancer and had to give her to a rescue organization. That's where I got her. She had less than 30 days training--5 rides or so. I rode her 5-6 times and then she decided to go bronc. I think she probably has some sort of back issues caused by her bad knee. The Curly breeders I know think she's probably got some Bad Warrior blood. She's mostly straight, but does still have curls on her fetlocks, ears, as well as her mane and tail. The breeder that just delivered my new Curly thinks my rescue might be a QH cross. I've not found anyone that knows anything about her beyond that though. I'm going to try the DNA comparison thing one day too...

Here they are munching on hay together for the first time.


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## reayve (Feb 10, 2018)

I'm glad your rescue got a good chance at life. I absolutely love her colouring! The few breeders I spoke to thought my mare might have come from Dig My Curl or one of his offspring. His owner passed away a few years ago from cancer and her partner sold all of their Curlies. There's no way to track down specific bloodlines from Dig My Curl now unless they were registered. There was also a theory that my mare could have come from a PMU mare before all the farms shut down in Canada. I guess we'll never know for sure unless we do DNA tests.

What about your new Curly? What's her history?


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## BiologyBrain (Jul 9, 2015)

My new Curly was the first one bred at Hidden Cave Curlys. Her sire is a gaited, I thinking he foxtrots. Her dam is more of a stock horse type. She was hand trained by her breeder specifically for a young girl. The breeder worked with the girl and Curly together for 2 weeks to a month. On her dam's side she goes back to the Warrior line. I don't know that much about the gaited side except what's is on the pedigree specifically. I know the breeder specifically breeds for the calm and gentle disposition Curlys are well known for. I met the stud among his pasture mates--a mix of geldings and another stallion. All her horses were extremely gentle and calm. So far, my fiery Curly has yet to ruffle her new friend's feathers. I'm hoping the calmness rubs off instead of the hyperness. 

Starlie, the lighter one, is a lighter shade of grulla and appears to have a few pinto spots along her spine. Her dorsal stripe goes through them though, so I'm not sure they aren't the result of scarring from whatever gave her the original injury. The skin under her white spots is black, not pink like usual. The Hidden Cave breeder says she's definitely a pinto/paint. Im not sure I'll know unless I DNA test her. 

I plan on doing DNA though. You do know that ABC has a DNA notification letter where they'll compare your horse' she DNA against those in the registry. Unless it's a perfect match they can't use the DNA to register your horse, but it would give you a better idea of the bloodlines your horse has...of course it doesn't matter that much unless you're breeding or trying to show I need ABC-only shows. ICHO will register Curlys based on their phenotype (curly features). That's just if you want to register though. I'm a DNA nerd (Molecular Biology degree), so I think I'm going to test just to know.


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## reayve (Feb 10, 2018)

I took a look at their site. All their Curlies look so sweet and gentle. I've got four breeders somewhat near me (Oakesmuir, Flora Lakes, Tall Trees and Whirlwind). They're still a bit of a drive but I'd love go visit a breeder someday and see what's actually out there. America seems to have all the breeders that have Curlies in the lighter colours I want, like your Starlie. One of my barn mates works on a breeding farm and was saying that I could potentially end up with a buckskin if I bred my red dun mare with something dilute like a cremello or palomino. That would be the colouring of my dream horse if I could ever afford to own two, hahaha.

I just trail ride with my mare so registering is something pretty low on my list of priorities. I just want to know her history. It's good to know though since I'm still debating which registry I actually want to do the test through. I know ICHO also offers a discount for registering if your Curly is a rescue. 

Do you plan on showing with your new mare?


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

Love these Curleys! Welcome to the forum <3


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## BiologyBrain (Jul 9, 2015)

With a red dun bred to a cream dilute you could potentially end up with a number of light colored babies-dun, grulla, red dun, buckskin, palomino, dunskin, etc. I have a thing for duns--particularly 'bay' duns and grullas. I think it's funny that both of my girls are grulla, but so different in color tone. 

The only showing my new mare will get is 4-H with my daughter when she is old enough. I'm more of a trainer/play around rider. I've never been much of a show person. My main goal is just to play around with horses in whatever way possible.


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## reayve (Feb 10, 2018)

They're both beautiful, that's for sure! There was a dappled seal bay Curly mustang that was just rescued from a feed lot in Texas. She was a beautiful horse so I'm glad someone scooped her up quickly. If I were to ever breed, I'd definitely want a lighter colour tone but I'd also need to breed for a bit more height. Luckily my mare is super stocky because she's 14.2hh and I'm 5'7". I'm too tall for her, sadly. How tall are both of your girls?

That will be fun for your daughter. My mother did things a bit backwards and bought my sister and I horses before we did any sort of lessons/training. It was a slight disaster, to say the least. Was there any disciplines you used to specialize in?


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## BiologyBrain (Jul 9, 2015)

Starlie, the lighter one, is about the same size as your mare--14-2HH. Faith, the new one, is about 13-2HH, but probably closer to 13. I'm 5'6" and don't look too bad riding either of them. My preference is for taller horses too, but to share, this size is perfect! 

When I did 4-H I did the pre-requisite halter and showmanship. I also did Western Pleasure & riding on a completely inappropriate horse/pony (13HH Saddlebred pony with very high action and head) for a year. Then I switched to Western gaming events--barrels, poles, & flags on the same pony. I drove her up & down the roads & trails too. I rode her bareback a lot too, jumping and even trying to teach myself to vault. 

When I moved up to a full-sized horse, I had a 15-3HH or a bit more QH mare. She was an appropriate Western Pleasure horse that I worked that way. She was also a superb trail horse. I didn't show her at all. I eventually bought myself an English saddle and started to train her I never dressage and jumping. She loved to jump, but needed dressage training for flexibility. 

I also learned to rope, sort, & team pen as a teenager on a different horse. My boyfriend was a big saddleseat rider, so he taught me saddleseat too. Around that same time, I also bred, raised and trained my own QH. She was foundation bred, about 15HH, but probably close to 1100lbs. She hated being ridden, especially English. However, she was an excellent driving horse. I did all her training myself. The best riding on her was trails because she inherited her Mom's (the tall QH above) trail skills. I even drove her on trails--even getting her stuck between trees a time or 2. I also used her to drag logs around for my dad. 

In college I finally got lessons in the form of classes. I took Intermediate Horsemanship & it focused on Western horsemanship. Then I took Advanced Horsemanship & it focused on English Horsemanship (huntseat equitation) and jumping. I also took a Breaking & Training class in college--getting a barely halter-broke 2 year old to train in hand and under saddle. 

So, with the exception of games like polo, racing, and hunting I've done most disciplines. I've just not done a ton of showing.

What about you? What kind of experience do you have?


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## reayve (Feb 10, 2018)

Definitely not as much experience as you! That sounds like a wonderful lifestyle.

I did horse camp a few summers when I was a child but my horse back riding experience was crushed after that since my parent's decided that lessons were out of the question. They would pay for any other sport/musical instrument but the one thing I really wanted to do was too far out of the city to consider.

Fast forward to my 20s (I'm 24 now). One of my mother's co-workers had a farm with a whole bunch of relatively safe horses that you could just get on and walk around the paddock with. The co-worker didn't have a lot of time to do anything with her horses so most of them were for sale. And that's where my mother got the wonderful idea to buy two half-brother horses for my sister and myself.

The horse my sister got has turned out pretty alright. He's a 16.2HH QH/Morgan/Paint but ended up developing some early arthritis at 6. He's only light riding sound right now. The horse I got, a Morgan/Paint, who was ironically named Curly, turned into a disaster. My barn owner was trying to work with him and the more we encouraged him to work, the more dangerous he became. I started taking English lessons at this point so I could handle him better. Western riding isn't as big of a thing in Ontario. The last straw with him was when he reared in the barn and clipped the barn owner's ankle and heel when he came down. His dame was apparently a great driving horse but a terrible riding horse so he probably got it from her.

We decided to wait until Spring and send Curly to a local training place for 60 days consistent training. Around the same time my mare showed up at a rescue sanctuary. After a lot of thought, I went to go see her and she was perfect. I had always wanted a curly because of having horse allergies and she was calm and safe and the complete opposite of Curly. Her adoption fee was around the same price as the training. So after much heartbreak, I gave Curly back to the co-worker and adopted my mare. Curly is now living out his days as a pasture pet. But getting a different horse was the best decision. 

I continued with English lessons and then started taking Western lessons with my mare and our barn's neighbour for a while. We got my mare responding to my leg and got her to pick up a cue for canter. It's because of this, I'm pretty sure she was at a pay-per-hour trail riding place. She has very little spook but didn't quite understand anything beyond follow another horse. She also was horrible to catch in the field but now recognizes I'm her person and doesn't mind my company anymore. We just trail ride together and we've done one mountain horse course. I would really like to try endurance riding, more mountain horse and extreme cowboy someday but the barn we're at just isn't set up for it.


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## BiologyBrain (Jul 9, 2015)

You've got a lot of time to try all different things! Your Curly mare can probably take you there! I was lucky growing up around horses. However, in a way, I've always envied people that have lessons and ride at a barn. So much of my equine-life has been MacGuyver this/that to make it work and done all by myself. I've always wanted equestrian companions, but never had any. Good luck & keep riding!


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## SADDLEBRED1959 (Apr 23, 2018)

HELLO CANADA! THE BEST HORSE OF MY LIFE CAME FORM BC , SHE WAS A CANDIAN TB AND MY DREAM HORSE


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## my2geldings (Feb 18, 2008)

Welcome to the forum! We are in AB and also foxhunt. Absolutely blast! enjoy your time on the forum!


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