Author: Untacked with Angelea Kelly

So I’ve been thinking of horse show and clinic friendly cooking this summer. I ask myself, what will pack/travel well yet be appetizing in the midday heat of horse shows. The same old, same old of PB&J with bottled water just doesn’t cut it sometimes and I’m often tempted to buy a greasy (albeit often tasty and supportive of the event) cheese burger. In the heat that 1/4 pound of meat just sits at the bottom of my stomach like a ton of bricks.

I thought it would be fun to test out different salad and sandwich options and work on being a little creative so here’s my first stab at it. We’ll be taking these tasty treats along to the Carolina Reining Futurity show this weekend!



Chicken Curry Croissant Sandwich:
    2 cooked whole chicken breasts, food processed
    1/4 cup nuts (I use a variety), food processed
    1/4 cup craisins (or raisins)
    4 celery stalks (no need to de-string), food processed
    Salt to your liking (I put 1/2 tsp.)
    4 Tbsp. Mayonnaise
    Curry powder to your liking (I put 1 tsp.)
    8 Croissants (cut in half with serrated knife for cleanest cut)

In a large bowl, combine chicken, nuts, craisins, celery, salt, mayonnaise, and stir until well blended. Add curry powder. Blend well and store in sealable container until ready to load up! Don’t forget your pre-cut croissants & a spoon.



This stays chilled well in the cooler and is easy to prepare from your trailer, tack room or even ringside!

Instead of just bottled waters, treat yourself to a little southern health friendly sweet iced tea! I make a caffeine free raspberry tea and sweeten with agave nectar. I’ve been working on cutting out as much refined sugar as possible and this is a GREAT natural sweetener (Thanks Tanya!). Unlike refined sugar is has low glycemic index. I make a 6 cups concentrated tea in a mason jar, sealed well and just water it down in my cup straight from the hose in the barn aisle!

Happy showing and blue ribbons all around!

I’ve been talking about it since 2007. Talking about returning to my Texas roots of riding western and four years later I’m actually doing it. Last month I phoned up a wonderful gentleman who I interviewed for HorseGirlTV a couple years ago and told him I was ready to get into reining and would he consider lessons. Now we’re not just talking any average reining horse trainer but a talent who’s consistently in the top 20, Mr. Mike McEntire (http://www.mcentirereining.com/).

Mike was gracious on the phone and told me to come out and he’d put me up on a horse to let me get the feel. Apart from my 4-H years, in which I massacred the reining test on my $250 grade mare who could barely neck rein (but thank goodness for the opportunity to have a horse at any price as a child), I’d been on a reiner once before at John Irish Performance horses for our “It’s Reining. It’s Pouring” webisode (which was one of the first webisodes and still one of my favorites).

I drove out 2 hours (which seemed like nothing considering I traveled with my horse for TWO DAYS to train in Holland this past fall) to his ranch, rode this awesome stud who I found out AFTER the lesson was qualified for the WEG qualifier. Holy cow! He put me on one of his GOOD horses. How neat. So… I was hooked and ready to come back the next week and the next week after. Week #2 I was on a cute 5 year old gelding by the same stud as his top horse (by Lil Ruf Peppy) and this last week I got to ride a 5 year old mare that was a very different feel from the week previous. So 3 lessons in all and I’m hooked, my dressage horses are for sale (of course I’ll continue to teach and love dressage) and I’m looking forward to a mellow winter of AQHA riding. After lots of hard work in dressage I think I deserve at least a little break to be a mellow cowgirl

The 2 hour drive is pleasant and filled with LOTS of the view below so I get quite a bit of thinking done and some HorseGirlTV phone meetings as well!


I don’t have any pictures of me riding yet but at some point soon I will and will share them. For now here’s the neat iron entrance.



And I’m SUPER excited to try this innovative new pad that I’m so honored to ride in by a legend in the reining world, Mr. Donn Leson. His wife is a dressage trainer and he’s been making the best western saddles in the world since 1966. This “Security Blanket” pad just seems too kewl and definitely innovative so I’m all about getting the best fit/ride possible whether it be dressage or reining. Can’t wait to try it out! If you want to check out Mr. Leson’s saddles his website is here http://lesonsaddles.com/ and the Security Blanket is on there! I get to ride in one of the Leson Reinmakers at McEntire ranch and can’t wait to have one of my own at some point soon!

A cancer research benefit show was held recently in the HorseGirlTV area of North Carolina called Canter for the Cure. It was a GREAT event that raised $6000 to benefit cancer patients and support the John Hopkins research. I was on hand to show support from HorseGirlTV and to enjoy getting to know some great locals! It was definitely a fun time for all supporting a great cause in the hot humid land known as Eastern North Carolina.

Our awesome sponsor Absorbine (http://absorbine.com) donated a super kewl gift basket which was THE hot ticket of the day receiving by far the most raffle entries.



It was full of awesome Absorbine goodies and I was so excited to see the new UltraShield Green in there as well as their near indestructible fly masks! Check out the number of tickets in that entry! Wow!



There were the CUTEST of ponies!



All dressed to the 9s for the lead line class!



Wonderful young ladies getting to live their dreams! Good job Courtney! Awesome, AWESOME musical freestyle!



Fun support bling on EVERYWHERE including the horses!



Great t-shirts for sale (check out the HorseGirlTV logo on the back, Yeah!)



It was awesome to watch one of my students rock his class with a 68.5% and receive 1st place too! Congrats Tom and Ray!



What would a horse show be without sweets! A custom horse head snow cone.



And mounted cotton candy!



I had a great time, met some fun new people and enjoyed supporting the cause. Jackie and Tanya did an amazing job putting this whole thing together!

So the dude returned! Ex spotted him yesterday evening in front of the barn and I quickly/quietly walked out there to give him some food and just say hello in hopes he wouldn’t run away.

A little shake of some kitty food and a few pauses in his steps he finally made it back up to the barn to say hi. It turned out he wanted love more than food at that point and nearly knocked me down rubbing up on me.

It’s nice to know he’s ok and hanging around and good that lil Kat will have a friend to hunt mice with!



I’m publishing this one for Jason with Attwood and I know he’ll appreciate the tractor makeover. It’s just the start but now much of the front end is looking pretty again with REAL tractor tires and not those wacky trailer tires that were put on there. Between the falling over fence posts and loosely strung barb wire to all the trash that was left behind it’s no surprise there were not real tractor tires on this great classic John Deere but, like everything else we’ve worked the last couple years on out here at the farm, he’ll be as good as new soon and Ex seems to be having a blast in the process!

I bet you thought you’d never hear of this much less see pictures. Miss C is NOT afraid of umbrellas. I think the fact that she flew the Holland and trained at a facility where they were doing MAJOR construction the ENTIRE time we were there with 3 massive cranes always moving stuff around, random pieces of construction materials throw about on the ground and alleyways and such has mellowed her out a bit to her surroundings so…

I didn’t think twice about heading out to get her yesterday with the storm that rolled in quick and got us all a little wet. We’re definitely thankful for the rain, the arena can handle it and I do enjoy the opportunity to wear my Däv Rain boots and pop out my matching umbrella!

The least she could do it take the halter from my and put it on herself eh?


So that didn’t work and I had to close the umbrella but it has this awesome feature that you just push the open button again and it collapses all on its own. Carrara thought this feature was a neat as I do!


Actually being out in the rain was quite nice, Carrara didn’t seem to mind either just standing and enjoying it drop down on and around her but she’s had enough playing outside and it was dinnertime anyway.

Thanks Däv Rain for making such stylish and functional products! Check em out at http://www.davrain.com/

Yup we have a new barn kitty, since Lil Dude’s been AWOL, and as soon as she’s spay she’ll be moving out to the barn with her lush kitty condo next to the awesome Cavalor feed to become the best mouser ever! Until then, she’s been enjoying the high life inside the house and has taken a particular liking to my office chair which she conveniently steals anytime I get out of it! LOL!



Okey the cuteness factor does play a big part in her getting away with it. 😉

Oh and we’re calling her Kathryn Marie. The Marie is in honor of Mimi. RIP Mimi! She’ll go by Kat for short.

We took some fun photos this morning all dolled up in Draper gear! They sent me these new polos they are launching officially in August and in true Draper style they are pretty hot (or cool as the case may) bringing old school function with high tech fabrics. I thought there’s tons of other folks out there that would like to get their hands on a trial of these polos like I just have so I connected with Kat at Draper about putting together a Tales of the Traveling Polo program.

I’m going to properly wash, roll and re-package these new polos and start a contest to pass them along to someone else so they can have a chance at trying them for a week, snapping some fun photos of themselves using the polos, provide feedback to Draper and then pass them along. For participating in the Tale of the Traveling Polo program participants will be given a discount on draperequinetherapy.com products. Win-win!

Now I’m not 100% on all this as I just mentioned it to Draper but I  think they love the idea and I’ll go forward with a contest ASAP. How’s that! Let your horse walk a mile in Carrara’s shoes so to speak trying out these same polos. Nice! Here’s some pictures of us from this morning and you can check them out online at draperequinetherapy.com!

Wrapping. Easy to put on with the nice Draper Holofiber as the base!


Heading out to the arena to try them out…


Checking the tack…


Trotting. Nice bend and flexing! WOW Carrara has a NICE hind leg and the fronts aren’t anything to shake a stick at. Fab trot!


A fun gallop is always nice too!


Thanks Lyndsay. You have magic fingers with the click of the cam!

So this is a GREAT event and it’s this weekend. I interviewed Barbara Strawson about this event last year. Take a look and then read a bit more about the awesome things they have going on!

[flashvideo file=http://horsegirltv.com/episodes/ep51.flv /]

On the Dancing Horse Challenge:

The 2010 PVDA Ride for Life Dancing Horse Challenge Jun 26th will be THE equestrian event for 2010 leading up to the World Equestrian Games! We have such an impressive line-up, one too good to be missed so get your tickets now (a suggested $20 donation – free to kids 12 and under) at www.pvdarideforlife.org and support the cause of breast cancer research!

The performances this year for the Dancing Horse Challenge will be truly special with specialty acts coming from all over the country! KYB Dressage, the famed Barteau family, will be performing Broadway acts, stunts, and beautiful freestyles. You don’t need to go to Broadway for the Lion King or to the lake for water-skiing – you can see it all at the Dancing Horse Challenge, including a patriotic tribute to Lee Greenwood’s Proud to be an American.

The Sons of the Wind are coming from Connecticut with their breath-taking Lusitanos. Mr. Vitor Silva and his horses are nationally renowed for their haute ecole “airs above the ground” and perfectly matched quadrille. This is an opportunity to see the very high school movements that have made the Lipizzaners in Vienna world famous.

We have then many wonderful Grand Prix freestyles with such riders confirmed (subject to horses’ being fit) as Michael Barisone, Sue Jaccoma, Felicitas von Neumann-Cosel, Lauren Sprieser, and Ali Brock.

On the Gala:

This Black Tie affair goes on before during and after the Dancing Horse Challenge. If people MOVE, tickets are still available up until Tuesday!

Join us for the Celebration of Life – Pretty in Pink Gala the evening of June 26th at the Prince Georges Equestrian Center from to 5 P:M to 12:00. Your $100 toward a great cause provides you with appetizers, dinner, cash bar, free wine and beer, VIP seating at the DHC and great music to dance to through the evening. Get your request in by June 19th by going to www.pvdarideforlife.org (click on gala) or by contacting Jeannette Bair at jeannettebair@hotmail.com.

On the Silent Auction:

The PVDA , in addition to its great Sioent Auction at the event, is extending it to the country via on-line Auction at through Mission Fish, with items offered by Debbie McDonald , County Saddlery, great art work and a training and dressage experience/vacation offered by the Sons of the Wind! Please let folks know ot go to this link:

http://shop.ebay.com/potomacvalleydressageassociation/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

We’re working on the HorseGirlTV® iPhone app this week and hoping to get everything finalized and launched very soon. Of course, the app will be FREE and while it will be our beta launch it will have some fresh content, new ways to interact with the show and of course a few wallpapers too! Here’s a sample!

I just heard about this and had to pass it along. It’s a total win-win-win! HorseGirlTV loves the awesome folks at Equestrian Collections (http://www.equestriancollections.com/) and they are huge with the give aways. Looks like they are giving away FIVE Ovation helmets and for a great cause to. Here’s the information…

Equestrian Collections and Ovation are pleased to present the Ovation Helmet Giveaway Contest! Nominate your favorite therapeutic riding center to win four free Ovation Protégé helmets, donated by Ovation and Equestrian Collections.



Post a link to the center’s website or Facebook Page and tell us why you think they deserve to win these helmets. The person who nominates the winning center will also win the Ovation Helmet of their choice! Check our all of the Ovation Helmets at their website, and at Equestrian Collections!

We would like to thank NARHA and HorseGirlTV for supporting this contest by getting the word out, helping us give as many therapeutic riding centers as possible the chance to win.

Did you know that every time you place an order on Equestrian Collections, you can ask us to support NARHA. We give rewards dollars to NARHA for distribution to NARHA centers. Just look for the box to click at check out. We’ll take care of the rest!

The contest begins Monday, June 21, 2010 and runs through Friday June, 25, 2010. Thank you for entering the Ovation Helmet Giveaway and for supporting your favorite therapeutic riding center!