How many years riding?
Main discipline:
Horse:
14
Dressage and Eventing
owns Justice
In the spring of 1990, Susan Jaegar found a pony named Cheeko for sale at a small farm. Susan talked to my parents, telling them that he would be a great first horse for me, and they agreed to look at him. We all thought he was wonderful, and they bought him for me and my siblings. We decided to rename him, and he became
After we had had Quickie for a few years, he developed heaves, and would have coughing fits whenever we trotted or cantered. I continued riding him lightly, and also began riding Margaret Blaine's horses (another neighbor of ours). I showed Quickie the first year I was riding with Margaret, but his heaves were causing him to cough constantly in the ring. In 1993, I began showing Margaret's horses for her, and continued to do so for several years. I mainly rode her grey Arabian mare, Sheba. Sheba also became my Pony Club mount for a winter, and Margaret faithfully trailered us to all of the mounted meetings.
My favorite memory of Margaret was when she took me to an auction in Westlock. I was shocked when she started bidding on a PMU foal, as we had not actually planned to purchase anything. She ended up buying seven of them! At the end of the auction she turned to me and half whispered, "Amberley, how many horses did I buy?" I'll never forget that day! It ended up being a great experience for me, as she let me help start all of the ones she kept. I was light, so she had me start backing them once they were all around two years old.
In November 1994, Margaret purchased a grey Arabian mare at a herd dispersal auction. She phoned me and said that she had found a horse for me to buy. I was shocked, and excited beyond belief. The day I went to meet Cienna, she was in a stall at Margaret's barn. She was aloof, but well behaved. I took her out to the corral, and rode her around bareback. All Cienna really knew how to do was walk, trot, turn, and halt. She was extremely green, but very sweet. Cienna and I learned a lot from eachother over the years, and I had a great deal of fun training her to do lateral work, canter, and jump. She was also a wonderful trail horse, and loved to go riding for hours and explore all the fields and trails in our area. Quickie was also happy to have a friend, and my sister (Hillary) and I enjoyed trail riding together.
I started taking lessons at Shadyvale in 1999 with a dressage instructor, and the following spring I began riding with Tanya Sundlie. By August, I had started riding a horse that she had purchased as a resale project. His name is Justice. I fell in love with him, and started half leasing him that fall. He and I have learned a lot from eachother over the last few years, and also had a lot of fun! He has tons of personality, and is always looking for attention. I finally saved up enough money to buy him in 2003, and in July, I bought him from Tanya. Tanya has taken us to shows all over the province, and I have never had such fun summers as the ones I have spent with Justice. He is quite competent over fences, and we have evented at pre-training level. His main talents lie in dressage, however; especially since he is a bit of a spook when he jumps! I am looking forward to going to more dressage shows in the future with him. Justice has been an amazing horse for me, and I am looking forward to his recovery so I can start riding him again!
I am currently teaching riding lessons one day a week at Shadyvale, and I also run a business called Quicksilver Videos (named after Quickie). It specializes in sale videos of horses, but I also love doing fun footage and shows. Our bloopers tape of all the Sunriders members performing airs above and below their saddles will hopefully be coming out sometime next year!
