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CLINTON'S CIRCLE ~C~ RANCH TOWN NEWS NEW FEED STORE Yipee!!!! There is a new feed store in town. Be sure to stop in at "Clinton Feed" located at 2010 Hibiscus Drive in Edgewater. They have quality hay, feed and many other items you need at the best prices around. If you can't find it, they will get it! Be sure to stop in and take a look around. Rails to Trails Info "On December 31, 2007, the State of Florida and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Office of Greenways & Trails officially took ownership of the longest rail trail in the state. Located in Brevard and Volusia Counties, the East Central Regional Rail-Trail (ECRRT)." "Both Brevard and Volusia Counties will be the long term managers of the property and will fund future development of the project. Future improvements include paving and establishing trailheads and waysides, and proposed trail uses include cycling, hiking, running, skating, equestrian and wildlife viewing." Our stable is directly adjacent to this project which will be a big plus for our boarders when it is finished. Happy Trails !!!!!!! *A Bio on our resident ranch trainer, Jeannine Miswick.* Look at Jeannine & her horse Amir below I have been involved with horses ever since I was six years old (over 50 years). It comes naturally as my paternal grandmother was a horse lover.
When I was 8 years old my father took me to a trainer to learn to ride correctly. He taught me balance and proper seat on the back of a horse. He and his wife were from France and I called him "Frenchy" since I could not pronounce his name. Later in my adult life I found out through my friend, Gina Manion, because she had hired him herself for awhile to work with her horses, (more about her later) and that he was a student of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and way ahead of his time in this country. It was then that I realized he was teaching me basic Dressage, which is what I still use as basic training for any type of horse or riding discipline.
In high school one day during study hall we had a substitute teacher named Dru Pavey. Since I had no work to do I would sit and read my horses magazines and as he came by my desk he saw what I was reading and we struck up a conversation. As it turned out during the summer months Dru was head trainer at a Saddlebred and Hackney farm in the next town. He invited me over to see the horses and we became great friends and I also learned some pointers on training from him. He came to our home and rode my palomino Saddlebred and got her to do all five gaits, which amazed me, since I only rode her Western.
My goal in teaching someone to ride or to help them with their horse is that they learn to be partners and that the horse and the human respect each other and each other's space. To me a horse isn't just something to get on and ride and then the owner goes away until he wants to ride again. I want people to know they need to also spend some quality time with their horse and not just go to ride every time they go to see their horse either where it is boarded or at their home. This is a living, feeling animal and more intelligent than they are given credit for.
I have owned a Hackney pony, a grade QH, an American Saddlebred, a Morgan/QH cross and 2 or 3 ponies that my dad picked up at the local Amish community auction for me to train and eventually my Morgan and then Arabians. The plan was to train and sell the ponies because what I was after was a Morgan mare. I did get my Morgan mare as a yearling and trained her but had to sell her at three years old because I was getting married and about to live on an Air Force base in N. Carolina (I thought) but ended up on a farm and no horse.
I had been in correspondence with Gina Manion of Manion Canyon Arabians in South Bend, Indiana and on a trip back home to Michigan I got my first Arabian mare from Gina. While in N. Carolina at the barn where we boarded for awhile there was a little girl who had a racking horse but she and her mother were new to horses and they would watch my daughter ride and my coaching of her (she was 3 at the time and a born rider) and the mother asked me if I would help her daughter learn to ride, which I did for awhile but then we moved to a different town quite a distance and I had to stop teaching her, but at least I was able to give her basics to start her riding experience.
My end goal was to raise Arabians as they are my favorite breed along with Morgans, and when my husband graduated from medical school at UNC-Chapel Hill he was going to get me that farm but alas, he was killed in an auto accident. I had my Arabian mare from Gina Manion of Manion Canyon Arabians in South Bend, Indiana, however. I bred Canyon Dawn, the first mare I had from Gina, but we lost the foal and could not breed her again as she had to have a C-section to remove the foal and at that time it was thought she could not be bred again, so I gave her to the Chef Center in Michigan as a handicapped rider's mount where she stayed until she died at age 32.
I moved back home to Niles, Michigan, which is just over the border from South Bend, Indiana and renewed my friendship with Gina Manion. At the time she was learning Dressage and was studying under Dominique Barbier, who moved here from Portuguese where he rode Lusitanos and Andalusians in Dressage. When he would come to Gina's to give her a lesson she would call me to come and watch and I picked up some pointers from him. During these years Gina gave me one of her mares (Canyon Windy) and now I had two. I would help her show horses at her open houses and she took me to Arabian shows to mingle with the "in crowd."
In the meantime I had bought my daughter a Morgan gelding to replace Canyon Dawn because she wanted to show Saddleseat. We qualified 2 times for Morgan Nationals in Oklahoma city.
The time came where I could not afford two horses and Gina bought Windy back from me and she sold her (completely trained for riding by me) to a family in Ohio.
The Morgan burned out on showing and we sold him to a couple in Valparaiso, Indiana (who remained our close friends) and went in search of another Arabian for her to show.
I bought Amir as a 2 year old for my daughter to show; however, she then married and had no time to show so he ended up being my horse. He was a challenge to train, as Egyptian Arabians, being closer to the Desert take a little more patience than the other strains of Arabians and for awhile I thought I lost my touch. However, through perseverance and getting to know each other better, we are partners now and we trust each other. Again, he was taught basic Dressage at the beginning and then some round pen join-up work, which I firmly believe in.
I will be happy to put Amir through his paces and you can judge for yourself if we are partners.
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