April - First Spring Horse Show

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We spent last weekend at the first horse show of the year. My mom is starting to let me ride more of the HORSES, as well as the ponies! All and all it went really well. The highlight of the weekend is that Rosie and I won the classic and I was awarded high point rider. The low point of the weekend is that I had a cold that resulted in me waking up Sunday morning with a fever. They took my temperature with a digital thermometer that read 101. Well I was sure it was wrong, but a retake with an old fashioned thermometer read 103. Needless to say my mom would not let me show on Sunday. They propped me up in front of a movie, but by 11 AM, I was back at the horse show helping out. My parents still wouldn't let me ride, but I was able to watch the babies go. Needless to say my cold was an ear infection that kept me out of school for two days. I am better now. The show went well. The horses all went well. My two green ponies, Silver and CiCi jumped around in a great rythm. We are going to start working on lead changes. I showed Rosie for the first time over 3'. Our goal is to keep her happy and relaxed. We are pleased with the progress of her reschooling. She won a cooler in the big open hunter classic class, that was pretty neat

I showed Jacquoe for the first time in the special hunters. He is a very athletic horse. It went well, but it is a lot a work to keep him round. My mom showed my dads horse, DeLeonardo, because he has a little spook and needs a really solid ride to the fences. He does not do well with a lot of horses schooling around him, so schooling was eventful, but my mom hung tough and won classes on him on both Saturday and Sunday. She was champion in the special hunters. My dad had a really good horse show. He showed his green horse Andante in the adult amatuers hunters. This was a big deal, because my dad hasn't show in years. Addy won some low ribbons, but she is a little sloppy over lower fences. She is really scopey and will be a star at 3'6". My dad did a really good job riding his horse Shco Gun. Gunner has a poor work ethic, but my dad did a great job keeping him in front of his leg. One of the highlights of the show was my dad on Accapello (Missy). Missy is a fancy little chestnut filly, that we bred. She is actually my horse, but this was her first horseshow with us. We weren't sure how she would do, but she was awesome. She has a really big stride, went right to the jumps and has an auto change. She was amazing. I am going to start riding her this weekend. I can't wait! The last big news of the weekend was our client Danielle Grannas. Her horse is at our farm. She had lost her confidence to ride, but she actually showed this weekend and did great. It was wonderful to see her back in the saddle and get better and better every class! It was a long weekend. We all worked hard and were pretty tired on Monday, but I am ready to go again. I had a really good time! Lizzy

April - Easter Holiday & Training with Elizabeth

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We spent Easter with my mom's close friend, Elizabeth and her family. Elizabeth helps me with me riding. We shipped in with a few horses to do some training, as well.

When Elizabeth was visiting us over Christmas, she fell in love with our Aussie dog Neuman. When she was in Florida this winter, she bought an Aussie and named it Peyton. Peyton is a really cool dog. He is in the picture above with Elizabeth's son Allen. (Allen, thought you might like this post!)

We had a really great time. We had an egg hunt and lots of fun on Easter. My mom was able to spend time with her god baby ......Eden. I had a wonderful time riding and as always learned quite a few things......We can't wait to go back!

Lizzy

April - My Aunt Visits from Qualalampar

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My aunt visited at the farm for the weekend. She works all over the world for International Red Cross. We spent the weekend playing with the horses, eating lots of food and playing games. We rebuilt our outside ring hunter course and decorated it with new floweres, as well. The hat, jacket, purse and scarf were all handmade items, that she picked up for me in her travels. You can't see the hat really well, but it is very colorful and really neat. We had a great weekend! Hopefully, I will get to see her again soon!

Lizzy

April - Trick Riding & Hippodrome Stand - on Puddles

It was so cool. We have been working Puddles in an old trick saddle of Tommies. I have a few poses down......a couple different fenders. These are typically done at a full out gallop. I will have to be careful, because it is critical to hang on. I have only one hand to hang on with.

But I was able to canter Puddles standing on him using the Hippodrome straps. It was a blast. I think I am going to see what he thinks about fire. Wouldn't it be cool to jump fire standing in the trick saddle (with my mom, dad or tommies help...of course)

No matter what, I was really happy with how well he has learned voice commands. He stepped right into the canter with me standing on his back.

Anyway....I'll keep you posted on our progress!

See you again soon!

Lizzy

March - Sassy and Sparkle get a New Job!

In February, we unexpectedly retired two ponies.....Sassy & Sparkle.... in addition to a third.....Fancy.... that we were expecting to retire to the farm! Well, Sassy and Fancy have been attached at the hip, since they were weaned 22 years ago.

Well.....thinking attached at the hip.........They are both chestnut......They are almost the same size....... They love each other.......Let me see.......Why I say .......Roman Team. I called Cynthia Warner, who bred them 22 years ago. They were used for riding lessons for years, but neither were ridden much in the last two years. She loved the idea after she stopped laughing.

So meet the new Carousel Farm Roman Riding team. They had their first couple of training sessions together. They have been ridden side-by-side. We rode them this weekend with two riders side-by-side with me standing on their back. Sassy has a little spook, but I think it will work out ok.

We are having some pony roman pads and matching headstalls made!

Voila......Carousel Farm goes Roman. If nothing else it should be entertaining!

I'll keep everyone posted on my blog!

See you again soon!

Lizzy

March - Thank You Tommie - PA, MD & CANAM Video Journal

To Tommie.........

Tommie...It is so cool getting to do things with you and your horses. I want to be a great horseman like you. I come home from every expo excited about trying new things with my animals. you have made me a better trainer and rider. I love Ace, Poker Joe and Joker, they teach me so much! When I am in a demo or training session, I never know what you will think of next, but this is what makes it so much fun! You have added so much color to my life My mom and I worked really hard on this video! Hope you like it! Thank you! Lizzy (grasshopper)

Tommie.....this one is for you..........

I frequently get asked what it is like traveling to expos and riding with Tommie. Tommie is an amazing trainer. He is funny. He is kind. He is very patient with me. His horses are incredible. I love his horses. They are really friendly and like people. All his horses have different personalities. Ace likes to snuggle. Joker likes to play. Blade likes to act like "Big Man on Campus" ....And Poker Joe has an attitude that "He is just better than everyone else".

It is really cool traveling with the Equine Extremist Team. They are all helpful. Jamie is one of my biggest fans always taking control of things, when I am struggling in a rehearsal. And Karen makes sure all the little details aren't overlooked. I have learned so much. It has made me a better trainer, performer and rider. They are like a second family to me.

As for what we do at the expos.......well ......the days are long and non-stop. We work really, really, really hard, but its all good! I really enjoy doing demos with Tommie. I never really know what we are going to do next, but I have a great time.

My mom and I put together a video journal on a day at an expo. We included clips from the MD, PA and CANAM expos.

The Equine Extremist Team is just the best!

Hope you enjoy!

See you again soon!

Lizzy

March - Jumping Warm-up for Horse Shows

The outside ring has been set with a show course and new flowers for the jumps were purchased last weekend. It is time to really ride and jump again! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!

Since we live in Pennsylvania where it snows, our young horses and show horses basically get most of the winter off. I ride a few animals every day all winter, but I only ride the really well seasoned horses or close to the ground ponies, when it is cold.

We don't travel to Florida for the winter, because I am busy at expos and it is expensive. We do mostly local and some rated shows. I would love to show at more rated shows, but I could only show at a lot of rated shows on my own horses, if the goal was to sell my mount after they were established, because the rated shows are expensive. Unfortunately, I am very attached to the horses in the barn right now. My four main mounts (Toby, Puddles, Rosie & Jacquoe) ride bridleless and get used for expos, performances and demonstrations. The rest of the horses at Carousel Farm that would be suited for rated shows are still really young.

We just started to get all of the horses back in shape. We don't jump unless we are consistently riding them. We just started jumping. I am really excited to show this year. I will be showing two ponies that I broke and trained with my mom "Set in Silver" and "CiCi". I have one catch ride "Liz". In addition, now that I started riding "Rosie" in the summer, mom is going to let me start showing "Rosie" and "Jacquoe" over fences, who are both horses that were bred and trained at our farm. She also said, if I stay consistent and continue to improve, she will start letting me jump bigger fences at shows.

My mom did mostly catch riding at shows when she was a kid. I am hoping, if I keep getting better, I will be offered some catch rides. Maybe I can spend a winter in Florida with Elizabeth. But for the time being I am really excited about the farm horses I have to ride. I am also excited about the young horses we have coming along.

If things go well with Silver this summer, I would like to try to show her at the USEF pony finals next summer in the large pony green division. We have one young horse eligable for IHF O/F in 2011 and 2012. I would love to ride her at IHF. I also really want to show the Medal McClay. I think my mom's horse "Jazz", who is coming 5 could do the big equitations, because the jumps are easy for her and she is handy. In the meantime, I know I have to keep becoming a better and better technician over fences to ride in these classes.

Anyway for the time being...we have two back-to-back schooling shows this weekend. The first show of the season is always a challenge, because the horses can be fresh, but I can't wait.

Hopefully I will have lots of great things to blog about next week!

See you again soon!

Lizzy

March - Taiji Horsemanship is Born!

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When we were coming home from Canada, Tommie bought me a little necklace….just something he thought I would like. It had the yin and yang symbol on it. I had noticed this symbol on some of his stuff but never really though much about it. I knew it was the pattern we look to achieve with liberty, but that was about it. I just knew it was really cool looking. When we finally returned home, my mom and I looked it up on the internet.

I have been attending expos for a while, because my family owns a stallion, that we sometimes exhibit at expos. My mother has always said that good horsemanship is just plain good horsemanship regardless of the discipline you are riding. And that the best of the best are all doing a lot of the same things. My mom in conjuction with Tommie and Elizabeth has been teaching me how to train horses various skills. I like to teach my horses to do all kinds of things, so I have begun to think about training in a way that can be used to training a horse any skill.

When watching various clinic sessions at expos, I found that many of the sessions don’t cover everything you need to know. They skip steps, forget steps or the clinician bought a horse who already knew the gig, so never really learned how to train the skill in the first place. I am a little kid, who has a bunch of young animals to work with, so I need to know every step. In addition, some programs never seem to get to the fun stuff. I want to ride and jump and do cool stuff and be safe about it.

I have started doing some teaching at expos, as well as riding in demos with Tommie. My mom says that the best students are teachers and the best teachers are students. After looking up Yin and Yang on the internet, I realized that applying those principles to horse training provides a perfect way to break down how to think about horse training.

To Read more about Taiji Horsemanship: Click Here!

Tommie, Elizabeth and my mom are the true masters of Taiji horsemanship. They can see a training challenge and know how to break down and teach the skills required to train and complete the desired skills or task. Being only eleven, if I can establish a way to think about training that allows me to better understand what they are doing and why it works maybe others can use this to help them better understand how to train their horses.

Thus with one small random act of kindness by Tommie on March 28, 2009 “Taiji Horsemanship” was born. .

The best part is..... I have never seen training presented quite like this. I have seen skills taught in a way that fits Taiji Horsemanship, but have never seen a way to look at training taught, that could be used to break down any training task. I know I am a kid, but I am a kid. I have to break it down. It has to be easy and it has to be safe or I am not going to be able to do it! I am pretty excited about mastering, refining and applying Taiji horsemanship to all kinds of training tasks and challenges, which I can use when I ride, train and teach. Maybe others will be able to use it too.

To Tommie Turvey......I love my necklace. In fact, I have worn it almost everyday, but more importantly thanks for working with and beleiving in "a little girl". Your'e horses are amazing. I love Ace, Joker, Poker Joe and Blade. You are a great trainer and my friend. I have learned so much. I can't wait to see what we can do with all the horses next.....Can't wait to see what you are going to do with "The Black"! The "Black" is in a class of his own and so are you!

See you again soon!

Lizzy

March - Daddy's Audition Tape for Night of Amazing Horses

My dad went to Canada with us. In fact to get there, he had to take a taxi, to a plane, to a train, to a shuttle on Friday, but he made it in time for the nighttime show. He really wanted to see me ride!

After spending the weekend grooming, he decided riding would be more fun. We were like OK...and just what are you proposing to be in Tommie's show. There is a group out of Kentucky that does a beer toast ride on Icelandic ponies. My dad thought he could do this or perhaps a comedy routine like Tommies on one of our ponies. We tried to explain that Tommies routine is cleverly trained and rehearsed.

Well anyway .......Tommie.......here is my dad's audition clip for your show. Mom told him not to give up his day job. To all watching.......enjoy! He has the "Style" part down!

See you again soon!

Lizzy

March - BNR Stable Trick Riding Clinic

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On the way home from Canada, we stopped at BNR Stables for a trick riding clinic. BNR has a wonderful kids riding program. She does lots of lessons and camps. She had a whole little building decorated with educational horse stuff. They also had an entire little western town and petting zoo. It was pretty cool!

Tommie taught us some basic trick riding poses ......all done at a stand still. They are normally done at a full gallop. We worked on some different mounts. We also roman rode. The highlight for me was riding Blade standing up in Hippodrone straps on a trick saddle. Tommies horses are the best!

BNR Stables is close to Niagara Falls, so we went to see the falls that night and for sushi. i love sushi.

Thank you to BNR stables for the hospitality. Hope to visit again. Come visit us in the states!

See you again soon!

Lizzy

March - CanAm Equine Emporium

To everyone in canada.....Thank You....everyone was so nice! Thank you to Paul McGuire for the special award on Sunday. I love the necklace!....And thank you to those in attendance of the night time show on Friday.....that was my first standing ovation. The hospitality in canada was amazing!

I always enjoy seeing the canadian Cowgirls and talking with Gwen. You have the best costumes and your drill team work is wonderful!

During the day, I rode with Tommie in his demos. Toby is getting better and better at his laydown. One of the highlights of the week was roping on Blade. I have been practicing my flat rope. It took me a few tries, but I roped off of Blade standing on a pedastool. It was awesome.

I taught a couple sessions solo as well.....Horse training and Riding through the eyes of Youth and Starting the Young Rider and Backyard Vualting.

Thank you again to everyone in Canada. My grandfather always loved Canada. I have to say I have never been treated better! I was hoping to get back to canada in May, but need attend school. It is our last few weeks.....but I hope to be back to CanAm next year.

Yeah Canada!

See you again soon!

Lizzy

February - Pennsylvania Horse Expo - February

We had a great time at the Pennsylvania Horse expo. Tommie's night time performances were excellent. His dual liberty act was really good.

The days were long. We did an interview in the morning for the evening news on the expo. I also did a morning interview with Wayne Williams for his television show called "Speaking of Horses".

We did demonstrations during the day. Tommie and I did a new stunt where he cantered on Blade with me on his shoulders. We also did a lot of trick training and roman riding. Toby is getting better and better at his lay down.

Thank you to everyone that stopped by to say "Hi"

See you again soon!

Lizzy

February - Fancy Retires to Carousel Farm! - February

At the end of February, mom picked up three ponies from Maryland for retirement at Carousel Farm. My mom always said that she would eventually retire her favorite pony hunter to Carousel Farm and she did. Fancy is 35 years old and still a character.

My mom said that she had more personality than anything else she rode as a kid. She has many stories about Fancy's shenanigans. When she came to the farm, mom coddled her for three days. She than decided to turn Fancy out. Being lead by a leadshank alone (not recommended), Fancy decided it was about time and drug my mom along the barn out to the field. My mom was cracking up that even at 35 years old, she still had spunk.

Her back is swayed and hip bones pronounced, but she is still a character. We are having a blast having her at the farm. We now let her graze anywhere she wants inside or outside the fencing. After a while she will walk herself into the barn into her stall. Her stall is at the middle of the barn, where all the activity is. She knows her stall and seems to approve.

She can't eat hay anymore, but she can't chew it, so she gets chopped alfalfa.

When mom went to get Fancy, she also brought home Sassy and Sparkle. This was not a part of the original plan, but Sassy is Fancy's baby. Sparkle was born within three weeks of Sassy. They have been buddies for the last 22 years. Cynthia, who had them kept Bubba (A horse my mom won in a horsemanship contest in 1981) and Bucky. All the horses had placement homes, but would have had to be separated. My mom and Cynthia just could not separate them, so Bubba and Bucky are in retirement in Maryland and Sassy and Sparkle are in retirement at our farm.

Sassy and Sparkle are 22 years old, but they are really healthy. I told my mom I was sure I could find them a new job!

See you again soon !

Lizzy

February - Imperatore Horse Van

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Thanks to me and all my riding, mom and dad decided to put the old Imperatore horse van back on the raod. We have a really nice four star five horse head to head, but we needed more transportation for my horses and client horses to go to the shows. My parents also thought we should have a back-up vehicle for hauling horses in case of an emergency. The imperatore horse van was a 1967 on the original chassis. The old truck still ran, but my dad didn't think it was safe, so before Christmas we bought a used International deisel truck. Frank DiBella moved the old horse box to our new truck and did some other renovations to the van. We just picked the van up. It is really cool. The new truck is awesome! It has AC and a radio! My dad and I are going to sand and reurethane the inside to fix it up even more. It is really cool! I can wait to use it.

See you again soon!

Lizzy

January - Maryland Horse Expo

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The first expo, we attended this year was in Timonium, MD. This is always a tough expo, because it is cold and there is no place to warm-up. There is no night time show at the Maryland expo. I did demonstrations during the day with Tommie. We had a great time. Toby is getting better and better at his lay down. In addition, Tommie and I tried a new trick....roman riding bridleless with Ace and Joker. I rode and Tommie roman rode. At first, I was having trouble steering and Tommie fell off, but we worked it out. It was really cool!

I also like going to the Maryland expo, because I get to see my good friend Gabby (shown above with Tommie and me).

We were off to Pennsylvania next!

See you again soon!

Lizzy

Hi, My Name is Lizzy Traband!

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Hi, My name is Lizzy. I turned 11 years old in January. I live at Carousel Farm in Pennsylvania with my parents. I love to ride. Sometimes I perform with Tommie Turvey and his Night of Amazing Horses, sometimes we do demonstrations together at expos and sometimes I show hunters at local and rated shows. When at home I like to see what I can do with my animals. I do all kinds of things with my horses like tricks, vaulting, roman riding and driving, but my most favorite thing to do is to ride bridleless. We let the horses ride bridleless at the end of a training session as a reward.

Everyone in my family works to train and take care of our animals. I do the evening feeding. Most of my animals are young and were trained here at our farm.

Yes, if you look closely at my pictures I was born with one hand, but it does not slow me down. This is all I know. I think we all face challenges. My mom says where there is a will there is a way!

Sometimes at the expos I teach clinics on different topics like starting the young rider or jumping gymnastics. I really enjoy teaching as well as riding, training and caring for my animals.

There are so many things I want to do....like show one of my ponies at USEF pony finals, ride in the Paraolympics, ride in the Medal McClay and one day ride some jumpers.

But anything that gives me an excuse to play with my horses is good for me!

I have had some wonderful adventures with my horses. I hope to use my blog to posts some stories about our adventures!

Hope you enjoy!

Lizzy