Queen of De Nile

Show me your horse and I will tell you who you are."

Queen of De Nile - Luna

Luna

Queen Of De Nile

1997 Jockey Club Mare

I purchased Luna in March of 2004.When I was looking to buy a Thoroughbred I had a solid list of requirements. Luna met them all. I wanted a younger horse, under 8 years, preferable a mare. I was looking for a green horse that I could train myself. I found Luna listed in the local papaer. She was owned by a young girl who was selling her due to the fact she was going to college. I don't believe this girl ever rode Luna much and she only had owned her for about 9 monts. Prior to that Luna was sitting in pasture for 2 years. To say the lease Luna was definatly green. My first sight of Luna was not a good one. She was extremly skinny, only 865 lbs. She had no muscle tone, her coat was dull and to top it off she was covered with mud. I had a feeling that this horse mostly just sat around. She was being stalled in a box stall and was only turned out ocassionally. Though there was something about this little muddy mare that made me want to check her out. When I finally met her, saw her move and eventually rode her I decided that this was the horse for me, she was everything I was lookng fore. I could tell right away that beyond the mud there was an excpetional horse.

Here is a pictue of Luna on the first day that I got her to my barn, wow I have a lot of work to do!

Over the next few months I did some research and found out a little more about Luna's past. First off her registered name is Queen of De Nile, the queen part is very fitting. Luna was breed from Halvorson Bloodstock here in Washington. She was sold at a yearling auctoin for $1500 to a race horse owner at Emerald Downs. She eventually raced 8 times at Emerald Downs with one win. Her totals were just under $4000. She was bred to race, her bloodlines contain have some of the all time best race horses ever. They include: Nijinsky, Northern Dancer, Native Dancer and her sire Magesterian. Her bloodlines trace her back to Man O' War and Seabisket. At the age of 3 a leg injury ended her race career and she was put out to pasture. Her original owners never came back to claim her after putting her to pasture. From there she was sold to the girl that I ended up purchasing her from. Little did any of them know what a wonderful horse they had on their hands.

Here is a pictue of Luna just 2 months after I got her. With a lot of TLC she is on to a better life

Luna has been doing so well in her training. I have her currently boarded at Lazy M Ranch in Auburn, WA. I have just recently started teaching Luna some basic Dressage fundamentals. We are working on giving and bending. Luna is working on her balance and understaning my cues. She has come a long way in the last month of training, I am so excited. I just purchased Luna and myself a new saddle. I bought a used Wintec Isabella Dressage saddle. It fits Luna wonderfully and I am getting used to it. It is a lot different then my Crosby Prix De Nations Close contact saddle. I think that Dressage will be a good fit for Luna and I am excited to learn it as well.

Luna - Summer of 2004, just started in her training. Finally getting some weight on her

Standing tall and proud for the camera!

See a amazing before and after picture here

~(click here)~

Luna was going strong in her training but we needed help when it came time to showing. I had a few unfortunate experiences at some local shows. To put it bluntly Luna was a freak! She was completely out of control at the show and I did not have the confidence to get her through it. I placed an ad on the internet looking for someone to help me show Luna. In April of 2005 I found wonderful Serena Howarth to help me with Luna. Serena has tons of experience and really seemed to understand the special needs of Thoroughbreds. Just after about 3 weeks of riding Luna we took her to her first show. It was a English/Western Schooling show at Trails End Arena in Olympia. Luna did well; she was still a little spooky and somewhat defiant but nothing that Serena couldn’t handle. She even placed a few times in her classes. I was proud of her for getting through the day without any major upset.

A few weeks later we took Luna to a Hunter/Jumper Schooling Show in Bellevue. Luna was wonderful. Her anxieties seemed to be completely under control. I even rode her in a walk/trot class, we won 1^st place! Luna only showed in 3 classes that day and that was enough to end on a good note.

The following weekend I had planned to take Luna to another schooling show. The difference this time is that I didn’t have Serena to hold my hand. I envisioned the worst and went over and over in my head how I would handle each situation of the day. Well the day didn’t start out well. The other horse we were taking wouldn’t get into the trailer. This made us very late for the show. When we finally got there we had about ½ hour till my first class. We saddled up Luna and schooled her for about 10 minutes then it was time for my class. Luna acted like a pro! There wasn’t a single bit of bad behavior the entire time. The two of us did so well that day. We won reserve championship and also won Adult English High Point. In all my years of showing I had never won highpoint before, it’s very exciting.

Click on the picture below to see some of the wonderful pictures from the Lake Washington Saddle Clup Hunter/Jumper Fun Show

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Serena & Luna, H/J Show 2005