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Member 2 Profile

Kelly Boyd and her lovely mare Gypsy.......

Hi, my name is Kelly Boyd and I am 26 yrs old.  I currently own an 8 year old SB mare called Gypsy.  I had always wanted a horse growing up but as we lived in the city this was not possible.  I never got to have lessons due to the cost of them but never gave up hope of owning my own horse one day.  I used to go up to the local paddock all the time & help the owners groom their horses & sometimes I was lucky enough to get a ride.  Two of the horses I used to help out with happened to be Standardbreds & they were the most loveliest horses.  It was them that made me want to own a Standardbred one day.  As the years went by I became a terrible teenager, unfortunately other things became more important and the idea of owning a horse went out the window.

One day about 4 years ago my Father was buying some horse manure for his garden at one of the local racing stables to put on his garden & he would always stop to pat this lovely horse.  One day when he went there he was told by the stablehand that this horse was no good and would be going to the meatworks by the end of the week unless he could find a home for her.  My Dad said, "Well my daughter has always wanted a horse, I shall ring her and she what she thinks".  He phoned me up and told me about the situation & I said yes I was definitely keen to come and have a look.

Gypsy in action at Clevedon A&P	Gypsy at home

I fell in love with her straight away.  She is so beautiful.  She is a very rare colour for a Standardbred.  Chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail, with a white blaze and two white socks on her hind legs.  I led her around the yard, on a windy wintry day and she was freaking out but that did not deter me, it was love at first sight. LOL.  I phoned my Aunty (an experienced horse woman) and other horsey friends to ask them for their advice before agreeing to purchase her.  All the advice came back negative.  "She's too young" (She was 3 1/2yrs), "You are too inexperienced", "She's barely been broken in" and the list went on.  Nevertheless, I followed my instinct & purchased her anyway for $100.  She was picked up the next day and taken to my parents lifestyle block in Patumahoe.  There Gypsy and I slowly got to know each other over the next month.  Finally I managed to get a saddle and bridle and summoned up the courage to try and ride her.  Well that was over and done with in all of 3 seconds.  I had just lifted myself up into the saddle when she bolted.  My Dad was holding onto her and instead of trying to hold onto her to stop her bolting he let go and tried to catch me instead. LOL.  Of course he missed and I ended up catapulting to the ground with everyone around me laughing.  This put a dent in my confidence for a while so I got an experienced friend to come and ride her for the next month.  

After that we decided it would be best to move her somewhere closer to where I lived and someone where other more experienced horse owners grazed so I could learn off others.  We ended up moving to Tooki Riggs place in Flat Bush (another Sb lover), this worked out perfectly as she was also running a riding school from there so I could start having lessons.  Gypsy was really funny in the beginning having only been harness trained and ridden down the race a few times where she was trained.  She didn't really know what to do.  Being a pacer as well her legs went all over the place and her tongue would hang out a mile & flop around.  It was the most hilarious sight.

Gypsy competed at her first A & P show at Clevedon in 2006.  I was still quite nervous then so Tooki handled her for the inhand classes and a fellow grazing mate Karla rode her in the ridden classes.  Gypsy got a second in the inhand mare class by default, as there were only 2 in the class.  And surprisingly she got a few thirds in the ridden and her rider won the best rider class.  I was so proud of her; she had behaved so well in her first show.  The following February we competed in the Franklin A & P show.  We didn't get anywhere in that one, but there was a huge turnout of SB's which was great.  At least 20 if I remember rightly.

The next couple of years we have spent getting lessons from various people and learning heaps as we went.  We have had our fair share of issues as well.  A few years ago Gypsy went from being a nice natured placid horse to a psycho thing that you couldn't even enter her paddock without her displaying stallion like behaviour and rearing up and trying to front foot me.  A friend of mine who does Parelli finally managed to catch her after hours of playing the chasing game around the paddock.  I got the vet out to get her blood tested and it turns out she had a serious selenium deficiency.  She has to have a special vet selenium supplement once a week when her selenium levels are normal she is fine, but if they get too low she goes nutty.

Last year my mate Fiona started to teach her to jump (as I'm too scared).  After jumping for a few days she got up to full barrel height and cleared it.  The Clevedon A & P show was coming up and they had some jumping SB classes so I asked Fiona if she wanted to take her.  She had only been jumping for a few weeks and had never jumped outside the arena where we grazed.  She won the 'Tip & Out' and was placed in a few of the other jumping classes.  I was so proud of her.  Later on in that season I took her in an inhand class at the Franklin A & P show and she came last!!  Never mind, she behaved and did what I expected so that was the main thing.

I have not been able to do much with her lately as I resigned from my job, and as you know horses cost money !!!  She is back grazing at my Parents lifestyle block in Patumahoe and has been turned out for 4 months.  I have just bought her back into work over the last few weeks, lunging her every second day and have ridden her a few times as well.  She has been really good considering the amount of time she has been turned out.  I hope to attend some more shows with her this season, and also start teaching her a bit of dressage.

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Last updated: October 08, 2008.