Ashly

Ashly 1982-2002

Written by Becky Marland, Camp River Haflingers

Ashly was born in May of 1982. I first set eyes on him as a yearling in 1983 when I took my mare, Laurie, up to M&B Farms for breeding to Alex M&B, Ashly's sire. At that time M&B Farms was a growing concern and I was just starting to convince myself that a stallion would be a good idea. After seeing Ashly I didn't look any further. He had that "something" that is indescribable and undefinable but made him stand out from any other Haflinger that I had ever seen before--with the exception of his dam, Schwesterle. Schwesterle was an Austrian imported mare, and in my opinion, was of outstanding quality.

I was in partnership with Elaine Bagg during those years and she and I split the cost of this dandy little horse and brought him home to our house. Jim was wonderfully supportive and we began the adventure of our lives as potential breeders of Haflingers. After a while Ashly went to Elaine's farm as she had more space and less mares! While we waited for him to mature we used the stallion Alert on our mares. Alert was Alex M&B's half brother. The time went fast and I am not sure exactly when Ashly came back home to me; I think he was about 3 years old. Anyway, I bought Elaine's share of him and he became wholly mine. That summer I started to ride him and he came on our annual summer camping holiday--all the mares were pregnant so that was easy.

At 4 years old we began to advertise him as a breeding stallion. His first two mares were local--a quarter horse and a morgan. I am sure you purists out there will be shocked by this news, but it really made a difference to his being known as a great breeding stallion. The offspring from those crosses were remarkable and are still being talked about in these parts. Of course, at the same time I was starting to breed my own mares to him and now there are Louella, LaReina, Dharma, Larkspur, Lorien, Ashly rose, Airlie, Anneka and numerous other mares and geldings that I cannot remember at the moment. I never did keep any of those foals but now have two of his fillies. I was very fortunate to be able to purchase LaReina (out of Laurie) last fall and I kept one of his latest fillies out of Ailsa, another one of my mares that was sierd by Aladdin Van de Peelkant. So his bloodlines continue in my breeding program.

I think one of my favorite memories of Ashly is when Dayl Phillip came to look at him and his first filly foal, Louella. He was running in the pasture with the other horses and I called them up to the barn. Horses were everywhere, milling about, a potential hazard for small children and adults alike. Then my son, a strapping toddler of about 2, ran out of nowhere and clung to Ashly's front leg with both arms. Trying not to look or sound alarmed I sucked in a deep breath and wandered over to disengage the danger as though it was an everyday occurance. Ashly just stood quite still, never moved a muscle, until I grabbed my son and laughed the whole thing off, breathing a sigh of relief! Ashly was like that--he would stand quite still whenever he was in trouble. Like the several times he tried to breed the pony over the other side of the fence--when the pony got fed up she would walk away, leaving Ashly strung out over the fence--front legs on the ground (on her side) and hind legs stuck over the top rail of a three rail fence. This happened three times, every time Jim was at work. You would think I would learn after the first time--what I did learn was how to saw through a 4x6 with a pruning saw in 20 minutes! All the while, Ashly would hang there and grunt once in awhile. Great sport!

Another fond memory was of Erich Hall and family. Ashly, at 5 years old, had been in training for only a few weeks, maybe a month or so, and Erich drove up with everything he owned in his van and horse trailer. He was driving across Canada and I invited him to set up his Teepee in the front field. Then we went to see Ashly and Erick asked to ride him bareback. Well, I had never ridden him bareback at this stage, so I wondere--but true to form, he did splendidly! He was in that barn, with a lady called Sue Holtby, on and off for two years. She did a very good job of giving him the basic training in dressage. He got up to medium level and went to some local shows in the Chilliwack area. Then it was time for some harness work.

Sue Holtby had taken him home to her farm by this time. She had a great arena and suggested I get a cart and start applying the riding skills to driving from behind. She had done some long lining and it was now up to me to get in behind and go from there. I had three babies then, maybe four, I can't remember! Ashly was easy, but no pushover. He sometimes made the effort to assert his will as the stallion in this herd of women and consequently we did have to provide Sue with a few new boards in her arena fence! He learned something else in Sue's barn--how to blow raspberries with his tongue--a unique sound that has unnerved many a visitor to his stable!

It was also about the same time that I took Ashly to the Clark County Fair in Washington. Dayl Phillip organized this for us and we drove all the way down to take part in the first show of only Haflinger horses. We took first prize! I like the sound of that --even though we were only competing against one of his sons! The son in question was called Amiracle because he was the survivor of a twin birth--born a week after our 5th child--in a snow storm!

Once in training with Deb Harper, Ashly started to go out into the world. She took him to various driving competitions in preparation for Combined Driving. He won most of the driving shows he entered, or was runner up! He took part in many demonstrations of the Haflinger breed. Deb took him down to Longacres racetrack in Washington --he wowed the crowd time and again, especially when he won an impromptu race against a group of Tennessee Walkers. Jim and I and the children took him to Hastings Park, the racetrack in Vancouver, B.C. We did this two years in a row, demonstrating the versatility of the breed. Ashly drove in a cart while the children rode the other Haflingers in either western or English tack leading a packhorse. He even featured in a movie--a very good video made to promote horse safety and health. For several years he was out and about winning ribbons whereever he went--in English classes, western classes, driving classes, and dressage classes, against every other breed of horse you care to name. I have two big green garbage bags full of red and blue ribbons from those days.

During his latter years at our farm we put him to work occasionally. I have a Mill Creek manure spreader and it is the perfect size for Haflingers and small farms. I hitched him up with another gelding, Alfie, and we would spend a happy hour or so dodging stone flying out of the mechanism from behind! Truthfully, I think it was more fun for me than useful, but Ashly was a stoic and plodded faithfully on while Alfie danced and pranced every time the tractor came to fill the spreader! It was a great sadness to me to think that I was never able to find the ideal teammate for him in harness. His temperament was so great that all my children could drive him in the cart for pleasure, which they did quite often. What Ashly did best was be a great family pet. No matter what happened the family always took him on holidays for two weeks during the summer. We go camping with our Haflingers adn Ashly always came too.

Another leisure activity he enjoyed was jumping. We have an event course near our home and often we would take him down there to try the jumps. We never competed in jumping, however, because being a stallion, my children were too young to ride in competition with him. That is also why we couldn't use him for vaulting on a regular basis. I always felt it rather unjust as, of all the horses I have ever owned, Ashly has been the kindest and most gentle--the perfect kids pony, except for his being a stallion. He would always come with us each year at the Western Haflinger Association meeting. He would most often take part in the vaulting demonstration. During these demos, he would put in the extra effort to canter in a small circle, in spite of being out of practice (and shape!) and then he would walk patiently for hours while hoards of children would come out and try vaulting, one at a time.

Fortunately for everyone, he has left a legacy of Haflingers that carry on his temperament and his versatility. And in 2001, he went to the Classification/Inspection as well. In spite of his age and taking into account that the style for Haflingers today is rather different from what it was in the 1980s when he was considered to be the ideal Haflinger, he scored a magnificent 76 points and a Silver ribbon! He truly was the "best horse' and we miss him dreadfully with his thick forelock and his unnerving raspberry blowing.

There are so many memories but what more can I say--Ashly we love you.