We waited a long time for this foal (baby horse)! Although most horses carry a foal for 340 day, Anna’s mare, Elbe, carried this baby for 374 days! She was a month overdue. At one point, weeks after the baby was due, Anna was convinced Elbe wasn’t even pregnant; only fat. She wasn’t showing any signs of being pregnant except for the “hay belly”. As it turns out, Elbe was “cooking her just long enough to be perfect.”

As Trakehner foals must be named with the first letter of the mother’s name, her name had to start with an “E”. With the help of her Trainer, Jeannette, we decided on “Expressive”, we call her Penny for short.

She is an absolutely adorable baby Trakehner. She is not as large as our last baby, Linux, who is a colt (male).

Here are some pictures of her.

To the right, you can see our latest addition to our Ranch, Linux, Trakehner colt (boy). You can also see Anna, Ashton and Mocha.

Florida

This year started with a trip to Florida so we could see family and spend time in the Florida sun. We stayed with David and Marcy for few months. Ashton found some beach volleyball players and amazingly got a sunburn in the middle of winter.

We also got to spend time with Ashton’s relatives: Grandpa Joe, Aunt Debbie, Uncle Lenny, and cousins Jared and Evan.

Montana

In June, Anna’s Pregnant Mare gave birth to Linux, an adorable, kind colt (pictured above).

Ashton learned how to weave apple pie crusts (and make apple pies).

We had another handful of friends visit us this summer. Grandpa Joe and Geoffrey visited for over a week. It’s always so much fun having Grandpa Joe around.

Just before our family came to visit, one of my best friends from school agreed to come and live with us for a year. Ashton has been teaching him websites, and he’s been helping Anna with the horses and running the ranch.

While Geoffrey and Ross were here, we managed to have a successful one-day LAN (computer game) party!

November

In November, Anna went to the Florida to visit her friends at Valhalla Farms and attend the American Trakehner Association’s Annual Convention. Ashton went to Front Sight for a four-day defensive handgun course, and then to Los Angeles for Delphi LA’s Alumni Weekend.

Websites in a Flash

Our website business, Websites in a Flash, has continued to expand. We’ve been very fortunate to find some very good help and have been keeping them busy with lots of work. We’ve had a lot of fun working on projects together. We even had a “Formal Friday” where we all went out to lunch dressed to the nines. We have a lot of fun.

Trakehners and Dressage

Anna has continued to show her horses in Dressage competitions in the North West. She had three successful shows with several first and second placings. She earned second place in her division for Trakehners across the nation!

You can see her horses at http://www.tptrakehners.com/

<3,
Ashton and Anna Sanders

The Trakahner breed puts more importance on the mare (mother), so a Trakahner foal’s name must begin with the first letter of the mare’s name. Before we knew what gender the foal was going to be, Anna did a facebook survey with some filly/colt names that she liked. Here are Anna’s facebook posts and the comments from people who liked Linux:

Anna

So we have a baby horse thus a name survey With this breed of horse I have to pick a name that starts with the same letter as the Mom’s “L”. Here are a few picks for if it’s a girl!
1. Lanai (veranda) 2. Lareina (queen) 3. Laveda (cleansed) 4. Leala (loyal) 5. Lavena (mother of roman people) 6. Lexie (protector of mankind) 7. Labella (beautiful) 8. Laurette (little angel) 9. Lila (night) 10. Lisha

Here’s the Boy’s

1. Lark (songbird) 2. Lake 3. Lanier (woolworker) 4. Lander (landowner) 5. Larkin (fierce) 6. Latif (elegant) 7. Larch (a type of tree) 8. Lacrosse (a game) 9. Lancelot (attendant) 10. Linux (computer nerd name

Don’t forget this is for a horse so it can’t be hard to say quickly. It also can’t be a name that has been used before so don’t be offended if I can’t use a great name as it may be taken.

• 

  Kori Curry I like lander best and Linux the computer one second
• 

  Dawn Denison Larkin is cool. Ditto with Linux
• 

  Devin Hanson Linux is cool I bet Ashton will like that one too.
• 

  Anna Wow guys thanks for all the feedback! Glad you like Linux Not sure about the Twilight thing lol..Sorry Marla Lucy is taken
• 

  Ashton hahah @ linux. That’s hillarious. I also like Lander and Lancelot.

After the majority voted for “Linux” (Pronouced: Lynn-ex), and as a tribute to her nerdy husband, Anna chose Linux for the new colt. (Linux is a computer operating system like Windows.)

Here is a picture of him on his birthday:

Liana was 4 days late. Which just so happened to be when Anna left for a weekend horse show with Ossette. The first day Anna was gone, Carol was feeding the horses, and saw the new baby out in the field. We figured he was born around 4:00. He was so long-legged, it took him 3 or 4 hours before he was able to stand and drink.

It was sprinkling that evening, and a beautiful rainbow came out.

*UPDATE: Here’s some updated pictures of Linux a couple days to a couple months old*

You can see more pictures on Anna’s Top Priority Trakahners Website.

Here’s a picture diary with some notes of when my family came to visit this year! We had a great time.

One of the many projects everyone worked on was putting up the fence around the “foal paddock.” Everyone pitched in and worked hard. It cam out looking beautiful. Grandpa Joe even took time to help spread the weeds. =) (Just kidding, he worked on it more than anyone else.)

Here’s some family photos:

Grandpa Joe helping to tame Aspen (the wild mustang who is scared to death of humans).

Some Cowboy shots with Geoffrey and Ossette.

<3 yall,

Ashton and Anna

As a lot of you know I breed a type of horse called a Trakehner which is a Warmblood horse originating from Prussia. Jean Brinkman has been breeding Trakehners since the early 70′s and helped start the American Trakehner Association (ATA), which is amazing! I met Jean in November of 2008 at the ATA annual meeting in Los Angeles which I attended with a few of my horses. I told Jean I knew I had a lot more to learn about the breed and she very kindly invited me to come to her farm to learn. After I got home from Los Angeles I figured out the best time to go down there and arranged the trip with her.

Erin Brinkman & Imminence

I was gone from April 3rd – 21st and had an amazing time! Flying into Florida was the only horrible part about the trip. I left Montana at 9:00 am and didn’t arrive in Jacksonville until 5:00 am the next day due to the storms over Jacksonville. I stayed in a hotel at the airport and got maybe 5-6 hours of sleep then took a shuttle to the Jacksonville Equestrian Center to meet Jean and her Dressage trainers who were competing for the weekend. It was definitely a great introduction to the trip seeing the talented horses and riders from Valhalla at their best.

Iris & Aura

Competing for the weekend was Erin Brinkman on Imminence a young newly approved stallion owned by her mother Jean. Erin was also there with two of her dressage students so I was able to watch her coach them and compete on one of the horses. She placed 1st in all of her classes for the weekend which was very impressive! Also competing for the weekend was Iris Eppinger and her working student Anna Franklin. Iris was riding Prix St George on one of Jean’s mares Aura and did very well! Iris also rode a client’s horse Etoile who was purchased from Jean and the owner kept the horse in training at Valhalla. Anna rode her horse Walden at 1st and 2nd Level and won 1st place. To say the least there were a lot of blue ribbons hanging around our stalls.

It was an exciting weekend and I was able to see a lot of nice horses and riders. I was also able to meet Lauren Barwick, a Parelli paralympic rider who rode Dressage in the 2008 Paralympic Games in China last summer. She was competing on the same horse she took to China and a new chestnut horse.

Lauren Barwick

After 3 exciting days in Jacksonville I drove to the farm with Jean in her huge RV which we slept in for the weekend. When we arrived she gave me a tour of her huge farm which I believe I mentioned is on 600 acres!! Her wonderful husband who is a retired vet cares for a herd of cattle and bales tons of hay for the horses. He also has lots of fun construction projects including a guest house in a tree!

I have to admit there is no way I can remember all the names of her 100+ horses but they were all very impressive and well mannered. Jean has done an amazing job of breeding performance horses that are easy to train, compete and care for. I loved meeting all of her wonderful stallions including Stiletto, Hailo, Hilife, Imminence, Incantare and Erin’s stallion Donaufurst.

On Jean’s property are several cute houses where her staff stay. I was able to share a house with Iris, (mentioned above) we had a great time rooming together.

I was able to pick Jean’s brain and talk with her about breeding and I learned many valuable things for my program. She told me the most important thing she learned in breeding the best horses was to RIDE! If you know how to ride well and ride a lot of horses you can figure out what kind of performance horse you should be creating. So I did just that, I worked with Iris most of the time I was there and she gave me daily Dressage lessons which was an incredible experience. She helped me improve my riding and inspired me to do a lot more with my own horses. I learned a different way to lunge, how to free jump and many physical stretches for horses.

New Foal

While I was there a new foal was born! She is 1/2 Trakehner and 1/2 Arabian and sooooo cute! She actually belongs to Andrew Palmer, one of the trainers at Valhalla Farms. I loved spending time petting her and getting her used to humans. I can’t wait for my 2010 foals!

I was given a chance to ride a few very nice stallions including Donaufurst who was trained to Grand Prix. The first time I took him out was on a trail ride with a few other horses and he insisted on being the head of the pack. He had a very interesting way of telling me this which was cantering in place, piaffeing and passaging which are all upper level dressage movements! I was pretty shocked and thrilled to be feeling those movements as I have never been on an upper level horse before. Later in my trip I was given a proper lesson on him and was able to feel several flying lead changes as well!

Hilife

The other stallion I was given the chance to ride was Hilife who also gave me my first real feeling of an extended trot.

I really enjoyed all the trail rides which took us through their old cross country course and across their nice pastures. One day we even swam in a large pond and got very wet.

Hilife

My last weekend there I went to a 3-Day event in Ocala and assisted Andrew Palmer with 2 stallions he was competing with. I had a blast being surrounded by the eventing world and learning as much as I could about it. It was 4 very fun and exhausting days with a lot of walking due to the widespread facility.

Stiletto

Andrew did very well on Stiletto, owned by Valhalla and Inamorato, owned by Tina Potter. Tina and I had a great time helping Andrew all weekend, she was like a mother feeding us, driving us around and even sharing her hotel room with me.

Stiletto

Inamorato & Andrew practice for Cross Country

I spent a total of 18 days at the farm and 6 days at a dressage show and 3-Day event. I had an amazing time and enjoyed everything, even the huge chickens that roam the property to the beautiful birds that enjoy their birdhouses.

-Anna

I finally was getting used to all the snow. I was hoping to get 3-6 feet drifts, like we got last January… and it starts to thaw… Normally it doesn’t thaw until March or April, but our south-facing hill has been without snow for weeks already.

I saw the sun setting and decided to take a ride up our hill to see what kind of pictures I could get.

In this first one you can see the Mission Mountains and a series of sledding paths that we created in December and January.

Here’s a shot of our house and Bo, the extremely “skiddish” Wild Mustang.

Here’s Jett (Carol’s other wild mustang) in his new head shot with a nice backdrop.

Here’s a poster-style shot of Bo.

Here’s a picture of Aspen, and in the background you can see her baby, Maple, and Onora (Nora).

Well that’s it for interesting photos from Ashton Anna’s Ranch. Now for the Website Updates

Website Updates:

On Friday, Donald and I started working on a side project called “Polson.MontanaFinder.com”. We’re hoping to create a useful directory for everything there is to know about Polson, Montana. There is nothing on the website yet, except a couple pages of broken code. I have put up a temporary design for MontanaFinder.com. I should have a website up by next weekend. *knocks on wood*

Also, I had a breakthrough in designing my new website for WebsitesinaFlash.com. I’ve been trying to redesign my website for at least a year, and I just couldn’t think of anything I liked. Today I started putting together a simple design for the Montana Finder website and liked it so much, I adopted it. I hope to unveil it very soon.

That’s all from Montana
Ashton Anna

Because of the weather, we’ve been keeping the below three horses in the “large paddock.” Today, we let them out to run around in the field. They ran around for a good 10 minutes.

From left to right is Maple, Onora and Aspen.

While I was out in the pasture I took a picture of our house in the snow:

Then I finally got a good picture of all three dogs… it’s really difficult:

From left to right is Penelope, Rosco, and Ansli. (Although theoretically, Rosco is the only one Ashton and Anna own. The other two are his good friends.)

Here’s Blu and Chunky. Chunky is doing a pretty good job of continuing to lay eggs, even on the very cold days. Last year, our chickens stopped laying when it got cold.

Mocha looking majestic:

Mocha checking out the Toyota:

After I came inside, the two mustangs that have been living on our back 10 acres finally stood together so I could get a picture of them:

Onora has a crush on the two mustangs, so when she noticed they were hanging out by her fence, she came running over:

Soon to be followed by Onora’s little best friend: Maple

That’s all 11 of our animals on a winter morning.

Ashton Anna

(I wasn’t going to post this as it’s really hard to keep the camera still, but it was funny so I couldn’t help it.)

Enjoy,
AshtonAnna

So as I mentioned before, babies pick up a lot from their mother, and it just so happens that Aspen is scared to death of humans. So when momma freaks out and walks away from “those two-legged creatures” the baby follows. But today, 7 days after Maple’s birth, Anna got to show Maple the goodness of scratching:

As you can tell, Maple just loves getting scratched. Near the end of the video she even tries to jump on Anna cause she loves her so much… go figure. =]

On a similar note; earlier today, Maple had a huge burst of energy and did sprints around her pen. She ran all the way over to the hay shed, and back, and around her pen. I wasn’t fast enough with the camera =(

Enjoy!
-AshtonAnna

Enjoy!
AshtonAnna