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Thanks for this opportunity! I would like to enter for a barn.
ID: 4344
Show Ponies: 335
Daily Showing Bonus: 12,006 hbs
Story: Sorry if this is long. So, as a little bit of backstory, I own two goats. One pygmy doe and her baby, a Nubian/pygmy cross (he was an accident and that's a whole other story :D ). Well a couple weeks ago I took Blizzard, the doe, down the road to a friends house to breed her to their pygmy buck, as I do every year before Christmas. She was going to stay there for a few days in the pen with them (there were 3 of them). Well, Storm, her baby, is about 8 months old and has never been separated from his momma, and with her gone, he was the only goat at home. Well, our goat shed is built up against the side of our house and back into a slope. So basically, they can jump up on the roof from the back (which they do and love to do). The fence comes right off the shed and out about 3 feet (not sure if any of this makes sense). Well, Storm has been known to jump out before when I take his mom away from him so I was really worried about how I was going to keep him in there for a whole 3-4 days. Well, I dropped Blizzard off and got home to Storm head-butting the fence, so I yelled at him and gave him a flake of hay and he stopped, so I left him. Well fast-forward to day 3. Storm was a good boy and hadn't tried jumping out at all. I went out and did morning chores and what do you know, he jumped out and followed me! I was mad. He was doing so good up til this point :'( . So I had a fence that we used for our dog when she had puppies and I used it to block his path to the top of the shed (that's how he gets out). Satisfied with my work, I went inside... then about half an hour later, Storm was quiet (he was shrieking before). I also heard a noise from outside the basement door I go downstairs and there's Storm outside the door. He managed to jump over the fence I put in his pen and onto the retaining wall on the other side, then up onto the shed and over the fence of the pen. Once I fixed it to where he couldn't get out, he almost hung himself on the gate so I called the person that had Blizzard and asked if she was ready and thankfully, she said yes :) . So I quickly ran and got his momma and brought her home. Storm was the happiest thing on the planet when he saw her. I put her in there expecting a happy reunion, and what happens? Blizzard full on head-butts Storm X'D . She wanted nothing to do with him. I felt so bad but I couldn't help laughing. So lastly, I take the temporary fence out and let them work things out. About an hour later, it's quiet. Too quiet. Sure enough, I go downstairs and there they both are, right outside the door. They both jumped out... So now, the temporary fence is surrounding the spot they jump out at, so if they jump out, they're still in a pen. And it worked great... Until Storm learned how to open the gate...

I wl be doing this later tonight.

I would like to try for a barn please!
ID: 457
Show ponies: 15+ (all my stock show?)
DSB: 193

I worked at a dairy farm for a few years, it was right around Christmas, we decided to give hutch & hay/grain calves apple slices as a special treat. Slicing the apples had made put us a moment behind for feeding hutches, the calves heard us coming & as usual got excited, but were antsy. Now some hutches had cattle panels, some had hog panels, jumpers typically were put in cattle panels or given stacked hog panels. This darling little red holstein couldn't have been taller than my hip, evidently she was past waiting patiently for her milk bucket as she cleared her hog panel. Usually when this happens you can bait them with a milk bucket & get them back in their hutch. Little Red had others ideas & went tearing down the row into the field toward the road. One of us went on the far side to keep Red from bolting farther out, I went behind her to keep her from the road, & the other went in front to keep her from the grove. It was going so well until the side person spooked her toward the front person, then Red squeaked past the front person. By some sort of black magic I managed to sprint almost a football field, over rough ground, in heavy chore boots, & tackle little Red. We picked her up, checked her over for injury (she was fine), & plopped her back in her hutch. All little miss Red got for Christmas was another panel & a bruised ego. (of course she got her supper)

Thank you for this wonderful opportunity! Good luck to everyone!

I have dairy goats. I had a doe kid on valentine's day and 1 baby almost froze. I warmed her up and mom wouodnt take back. So I had a bottle baby. It was in negative digits outside so she had to stay inside. I had her in diapers and onesies and she went to work with me (I am a veterinary technician ). She always slept in my car on the floor to and from work. We'll I stopped at my brothers to take care of my goats there and someone decided to wake up and throw a fit. She somehow got on the seat. Tried to get to me and hit my lock button. And of course I had the car on so she didn't get cold. So I was locked out of my car for almost 2 hours. And I just wanted to stop and check for babies so I didn't have a coat on. It was terrible. Funny to laugh at now.

I would like to try for the upgrade. :) Thank you so much for hosting!
ID: 17523
Show Ponies: 10
Daily Showing Bonus: 448 hbs
Story: Hopefully this isn't too long. lol! Okay, so I have a 15h Palomino TWH mare. So We bought her at a auction. She was 3yr old when we got her. The auction was at this huge TWH farm in Shelbyville, TN. My trainer, my family, and myself all were sitting in this huge show room in one of there training barns. I went and explored the horses that were for sale that day and I knew I wanted a mare. Now, I had a gelding before but he passed from old age. I said I would get a gelding but my trainer said we should try a mare. So, I was set on a mare. While looking around I saw this gorgeous palomino. She looked like a brick gold that had been polished. Her coat gleamed. The second I saw her I knew I had to have HER. She was sweet and loved on me. Of course, I ran back to my seat and raved about her to my family and my trainer. Now at this auction they gave everyone a huge book with every horse that was to be sold that day. It also included their pedigree. The mare I had seen had an amazing pedigree but it also had notes about each horse from the owners. Her notes were full of how sweet and smooth her gait was. So my trainer said okay we look at her. Well, when she came in the arena she started bucking and crow hopping . I looked at my mom and dad and I died of laughter. My trainer yelled No at me and then out of the corner of my eye I saw her gait. And oh my gosh! It was beautiful! So I made my trainer bid on her and he had a bidding war where we stopped at $300. For her pedigree and her gait It was a steal! Of course she is crazy! It was the funnest thing ever. Just the look in my parents eye's. Gosh I will never forget it! Dixie, my mare is still crazy as ever and she a klutz!

Aww, Paints, that made me laugh and tear up a little. Those worth their weight in gold horses don't come along every day...

Dixie, I can see the look in both your parents' and your trainer's eye when that mare came into the ring and threw a hissy fit! However, many excuses can be made for a three year old I suppose...

Angel, I hope you are training your boy up for eventing or foxhunting! It sounds like he is a natural jumper and certainly not afraid of jumping over ditches or in rough terrain! I'm also very glad he's grown out of his escape artist ways...wandering ponies are never good for the heart rate and rarely good for the pocketbook either!

I'd like to play for a barn please :)

ID: 18372
Show Ponies: I'm showing everything right now but am looking to start a gelding/spayed mare barn of good showers
Show Bonus: 29/day

My animals haven't been that entertaining over the holidays - most of my kitties have even managed to stay away from the christmas tree this year!

The only story that's fresh in my memory (because it was yesterday :P) involves my dogs. I had two of them out in the backyard to play a bit of fetch. Chuckie (Kelpie/Koolie) is super into fetch and my other dog Sam (Deerhound/Bullmastiff) just likes to follow me around in the hopes of getting a belly rub. At the time, Chuckie was running around with his ball and Sam had a ball of his own he was just holding in his mouth. I told Chuckie to come and he did but dropped his ball well before he got back to me but he's fully expecting me to throw the non-existant ball anyway.

Since 99% of the time he struggles to remember to come and bring his toy we have a command for 'go back and get it you adorable idiot' so of course, I ask him to do just that. He gets a very serious look on his face, looks up at me, looks over at Sam, runs across the yard to look at the toy he'd dropped, comes back without it and promptly sticks practically his entire face into Sams mouth to take his ball!

He was very smug about it too, prancing about with a 'I did what you asked I am such a good dog' expression xD

Yeah, i've definitely been lucky with my three boys (third dog was inside while the ball incident went down) mostly behaving themselves - and fetch is a lot easier with just the one player and two supervisors haha

If you enter and win the barn, can you put your best showing Horses in it but still breed them? Does that fall under what you want? If I enter and win, I would like to breed the horses I keep in the barn to get more good showing horses. I wouldn't keep Foals in it, but I wouldn't want to not breed them at all. Some of my best showing Horses have had great Foals and I would like to keep breeding them. Please let me know so I can enter as soon as possible. :)

16418. I'd like a barn please. My current show bonus is 1167. And I have about 20 show ponies.

I recently was gifted an OTTB mare. I usually don't like TB as I don't like the shape of the head amd I prefer drafts, but she is a lovely chestnut with lots of beef. Easy keeper, no grain needed and she's built like a very tall quarter horse. I got to ride her for the first time last weekend. Never had a western saddle on and not ridden for months. Aside from a cough we are now taking care she was a champ. But she does not like mirrors. Every mirror we passed in the arena she had to stop and snort at. Think she might feel a little fat lol. But I'm hoping a good grooming will make her feel better. She won 5 of the races she was in, good bloodlines, and I can't wait to get on her and go full out. Please forgive my grammar I always barely passed English class.

Loved your funnier story too, Best! Glad Sky was smart enough to freeze instead of panic!

@olio900--Great Show Horse foundation mares will never be as good a show pony as upper gen spays and gelds. While I wouldn't mind you temporarily housing some mares in the barn, the point is to build your show bonus so you can start to become self sufficient in the game and buy your own new barns, etc with game cash. At 200k per day I'm still small potatoes compared to some of the older big barns out there...but I can afford all of my creation, buying, breeding and testing on my show bonus without needing to sell horses or buy cash infusions. The only way I can do that is a huge dedicated herd of spays and gelds with the training bonus showing their hearts out for me every week! Go ahead and enter--it's not like I'm going to police this--but please keep the spirit of the Giveaway in mind and start filling those stalls with show ponies instead of broodmares as you can afford to pick them up.

Dreams, I am so glad you were able to rescue Kit! Growing up one of my friends had BLM mustangs and they were the sweetest, most reliable horses, especially out on the trail or foxhunting. My dad rode one of the ponies,a 14 something hand rolly polly dark bay mare named Sweet Pickles. She was perfect to ride in close woods, never knocked his knees or drug him through brush or vines, and if you got separated from the herd you could just drop your reins and she would take you back to the barn or the trailer. She gave dad so much confidence, especially after he had a bit of a disastrous string of random horses he looked at buying for himself, most of which were crazy as loons...

Foxx I am an OTTB junkie. My last horse back in high school was a 15.0 hand blood bay OTTB and he rocked! Not the prettiest horse in the paddock but athletic ability and personality out the wazoo! Definitely not a draft sort of personality so have fun with that adjustment! Especially since you've decided to go for a red headed female...she will have some fire in her belly! I love that she's not wild about the mirrors in your ring. I can just see you sitting on top of this big, fiery red TB who's gone a bit chunky in a great big Western saddle and her stopping at the mirror and going, "what IS this? I used to wear one of those little postage stamp saddles! This saddle makes my butt look big!!!" Hope y'all get that cough sorted out! And btw, your grammar was pretty near perfect!

Account Number- 12698
Show Horses- 7
Showing Bonus- 667
I am entering for a barn!

I have lots of animals, 2 dogs, 2 horses, a fish, a bird, and 3 frogs. (Yes, frogs) One of my dogs, a mutt we found at the SPCA, is relatively new to our family, this is how we got him. We were looking at the SPCA for a new dog because our other dog, a red heeler rescue, was getting lonely and wanted someone to play with. We went to the SPCA not looking for a puppy. You will learn later that that didn't really work out. :) When we walked in we had certain traits that would fit our lifestyle in mind. However, if you have ever adopted a dog you know that once you walk in there, all that flies out of your head. We were at the very last row and had one dog that was a maybe and we're just about to look at him again when we saw this adorable face looking at us through the cage. With a brown head, white neck and chest, speckled all over with a little brown spots, a scrunched up puppy nose, and one ear that stood up and one ear that folded over, a little 35 pound dog was looking at us. We saw his face and immediately had to get him out. When we were just about at the room my whole family looked over at him and noticed that his back right leg was missing! :( we took him in the greeting room and immediately fell in love with his cute, dorky personality. We ended up taking him home that day. We learned that he was a six month old puppy who had gotten picked up by the SPCA animal ambulance. When they found him he had a shattered pelvis. They thought they would be able to save his leg and sent him to a foster home. However, a little while later they had to take his leg anyway. Besides the whole missing leg, it turns out he had a few other problems. He had a nasty case of mange and kennel cough. Even though he had all his problems, the SPCA still devoted lots of time to taking care of him and got him back to health. When we were driving him home in our car that day, we were talking about names for him. The name the SPCA had given him was Franco, but we didn't really think that fit his personality very well. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and I finally got my sister to read them and she fell in love with them too. I was looking up Harry Potter names for dogs and found one that I thought fit him perfectly. Dobby! Dobby gets along great with our other dog Lucy. They play and have fun. (He loves bouncing around the house!) Dobby is a happy puppy now and enjoys having people who love him! :)

Oh wow you had some injuries aswell,i was pretty lucky she was such a sweet mare

Oh Color I have to say I held my breath through that entire story. Last year I had a Lab puppy patient who pooped rainbows for days after eating the tinsel off a tree....tinsel and pets is rarely a good mix! But I'm thrilled your pups handled the Christmas chaos well! The shooting and car chase is not nearly as cool--glad you're all well and hope that was an isolated event never to recur!

We didn't get around to decorating the tree this year but we did put it up. I bought us a tree skirt made of burlap/hessian material because, you know, we are pretending to be grown ups and all. Failing, but trying. The dog decided the tree skirt was another dog bed (she has quite a few...not spoiled at all. In my defense my clinic is attached to a pet supply store and I get a discount and I get first shot at all the sales....I'm a really soft touch!). Anyway, the dog, who is a not insubstantially built 35kg mixed breed, has been trying to crawl under the tree several times a day to lay on the tree skirt and nearly knocking over the tree every time she tries. My husband sent me a pic this morning showing that she finally succeeded in wedging her head, neck and shoulders in there on her side with the rest of her sticking out! Goofy girl!

I'm not entering for anything since I recent got a nice roomy stable for my show ponies that should take me a while to fill up, but I couldn't resist not sharing a story. Most of my Christmas story's end up at the vet (I think my horses and dogs have it out for the holidays) but I do have one good story.

This happened when I was 16, so about 2009. My grandparents have 16 acres out in the country, surrounded by cattle/farms. Well me and a friend were out at the barn towards the back of the property when we heard their low wailing noise. Sounding very much like a lost calf. It sounded like it was right next to us, but we were in a valley so it could have been coming from the farm a mile or so away. We decided to go down to the river that marked the property line just to check things out when 10 min passed with no let up. We were about 5 min into the woods when we first saw him. A solitary black calf stood on trembling legs just a few hundred feet from us, starring at us just as surprised as we looked at him. As soon as I broke the stare to turn to my friend, off he went! Gangly legs carrying him much faster than I would have imagined! He was headed along the river towards the far corner of our property which was marked off with barbed wire still since the horses weren't allowed back there. I called my grandmother to ask what we should do. Given that it couldn't have been more than a few days old, we decided the best course of action would be to capture it, put it in a stall and then call all the neighbors to see if they were missing any calves.

We trooped back to the barn to grab some rope halters and leads since we doubted our ability to haul a calf around. And at this point I must note that it was only me, my friend, and my grandmother on the property, and none of us had any experience with cows. We set back out to where the calf and run towards with the sound of his calling leading us. When we finally stumbled back across him, he had somehow made it through the barb wire and into the next property. We follow suit, him just quietly standing and watching. He was visibly trembling, standing with his head down as if it was too heavy for him to carry. I was incredibly worried about overstressing him and thought that at least in his weakened state we should be able to catch him with ease. Boy, was I proven wrong. Just as my friend and I circled in front of him, attempting to flank and use the fence as a barrier, he took off again! This time we decided to follow suit. Thankfully he wasn't fast enough to outrun us, but we were booking it. He was following the fence and I was able to get up on his other side. My friend unfortunately had the halter and ropes as I had dropped mine. So I'm running as fast as I can next to a baby calf, touching him but unable to slow him down any and quickly running out of stamina! My friend is screaming at me to just tackle him! Unable to think of a better idea, I follow her advise. I leaped towards him, wrapping my arms around his pounding little chest and neck, dug my heels into the dirt, and held on for all I had. The moment I touched him he gave out the more pitiful call, full of panic and fear. I managed to hold on to him till my friend got there, and we put the rope halter on him. Thankfully our Arab had a tiny head so it was able to adjust to fit the baby calf. He eventually went quiet, settled down, and we were able to half push half carry him back.

He was a black angus, which none of the surrounding farms raised. We never did figured out where he came from. He was just a day old from what the vet told us, and extremely dehydrated. We named him MJ for Miracle Jack, since we had basically saved his life. He would likely not made it through the night with the dehydration and the amount of coyotes we had around. He stayed with us till he was a year old, living with the horses and acting more like a dog than anything else. At a year old we gave him to a farmer a ways down the road who kept him to breed. Even years later my grandmother could do down, call his name, and even if he was out of sight, he'd eventually come running down to get hugs and ear rubs. :)

Sorry that ended up and a bit of a novel :P

Awww! That was a great story! @Lacy512

That's a fabulous story. I wonder where he came from? Thrilled he found a good home where he was appreciated and that he remained a bit of a puppy dog. Rescue steers are becoming popular pets/lawn mowers in the rural suburbs here and surprising people with their cuddliness and intelligence.

We used to run a few head of beef cattle on our family farm--we may still. They weren't ours, we let the guy who did all the cropping and fence maintenance run them in a big orchard and area that wasn't suitable to cropping. Anyway, he basically ran enough head to keep him and his family and friends in beef and have enough left to sell to break even, so maybe 20 or 30. There was a huge gray brahma steer that ran with them for a few years as a coyote deterrent. He would come up to the fence and eat out of your hands. A few years later there were a few llamas in the herd for the same reason, and then a few burros. I think the burros were the most successful at that job. I think the llamas weren't bad but wouldn't let humans get close to the little mob either!

11524
I have 87 show ponies last time I checked (Have been shuffling my barns a bit and working on gelding/ spaying some of the extras. I show most of my stock though, so that would equal about 330 horses.
My daily show bonus is 2634 hbs.
Playing for a barn to put more show ponies. :)

There was an amusing story that happened recently, do I'll share that.

I raise goats, and unfortunately that means I have to sell some of them. I also ended up with six wethers (geldings) that I needed to find homes for. Most of them did, but I had this huge growing boy that still needed to find a home, and I was getting nervous because even though he was from pack goat/ dairy lines he was getting to the side where people from the orchard behind me started wanting him. He was just the friendliest boy though, so I was really hoping for a good home (Not that I don't try to avoid meat buyers anyway)

Well one day one of my friends who had come out and visited him called and asked if I still had any wethers for sale. Her husband kept on telling her no more animals when she asked him about the goat in the past, but he loves Christmas Decorations, and had since built a whole separate and absolutely gorgeous stable for a nativity scene and asked her to buy a mule... and decided that along with the sheep and goat they brought up from the pastures, the scene would look better with one more goat. :)

So I loaded up the goat and brought him down and we put him in the little pasture area going around the nativity stable. He met the sheep and the goat that was hanging out with the sheep, and they really didn't know what to think of each other. Eventually the wether decided he wanted to check out the place a bit before decided what he thought, so he went around to the other wing of the pasture by the other side of the barn... and that's when he saw the mule. The biggest thing he'd seen previously was out 250 lb pack wether, Bruce the Moose, but a full horse sized mule is a bit bigger. He stopped stalk still, eyes almost bulging out of his head, but she was looking the other direction, so he got closer. He got closer and closer, training his neck to look this way and that, till he went and sniffed her tail. And then she turned.

That goat was sure he was going to dye. He spun around so fast he almost tripped over himself and bolted as far away as he could. The mule, however, looked at him with a sort of amused expression on her face, laid her ears back, and charged. It was so terrifying watching the two of them disappear around the back of the barn from outside the fence. I had just sent my goat to get eaten by a mule as Joy to the World played from the nativity set. I was almost about to jump the fence when they came around the other side, the goat running over to us with the mule trotting right past after he had stopped. He had no qualms about being friends with the other goat after that! lol

He is now doing great. My friend says that he is not helping her tell everyone that they aren't supposed to feed the animals, but it is about time to put them in their normal pens now. Haha. He gets along with the mule now and is best friends with the other goat, Ben. His name is Jerry.

Sorry, that was the story that was on my mind.

This contest is now closed. Winners to be announced shortly!

Im so excited for everyone! :x

Great stories everyone and it's been hard to decide on just three.

Dixieland, you've won the upgrade. I just can't imagine how you sold your trainer and parents on a crazy mare, as I really can imagine my trainer and parents opinion if that had happened to us!!

Wildland Acres you won a barn for your tale of a Nativity goat.

Galifreyan Angel, you won the other barn with your story of a pony that wouldn't stay put!!!

It may take a couple of days but you will all find yourselves with enough hbs to buy IVs to purchase your prizes. Please enjoy!!!

Great job everyone.

Thanks Cheers!
Congrats everyone. There were some awesome stories out there. :)

Thank you Cheers, it was fun