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All About Nicky
CAHR Pending Name: MB Sateek
Breed: Straight Egyptian Arabian
Sire: Imperial Saturn (Ibn Safinaz x Imperial Mistilll)
Dam: Moneeka (Orashan x Ak Monisa Moniet)
Sex: Gelding - Gelded: April 21, 1997
Born: February 28, 1996
Height: 14.3 hands
Color: Rose/fleabitten grey
Markings: white - right hind pastern, star, snip, and lip markings, he also has "bloody shoulder" markings on his right flank, hip, and a little bit on his whithers.
Bred By: Montebello Egyptian Bloodstock Inv. in Ontario
Bought From: Shyloh Ranch in Kelowna
Nicknames: Nicky, Nick, Pickle, Mr. Horse, Spaz, and Lippy
How I Got To Meet Nick
I first met Nicky when I went up to Kelowna, British Columbia in the summer of ’97 with the rest of my family to visit my aunt Suzette who worked on a straight egyptian arabian breeding farm called Shyloh Ranch. After a few days visiting my other aunt Loretta (who also lived up there) we finally got to go see Shyloh Ranch and get a tour. First stop once we were there was the manager building where we met up with Meesh (the head groom and my aunt Suzette's good friend), and from there we were shown the main barn where I got to see a new foal that was born only a couple days before hand. After that we went out to collect the mares and foals from the fields (I got to lead in a big bay arab mare and her fiesty colt) and brought them to their stalls.
When we finally came to the last barn which was a big indoor riding ring with a few stalls at the end and a BIG grass paddock that was connected to the barn, there were 3 geldings there: a beautiful gray spanish arabian, a bay egyptian arabian yearling, and a red colored egyptian arabian yearling - Nicky. ...I have to admit here that I was more interested in the bay back then as I thought the "red colored" one wasn't as pretty as the bay! I know now though that Nick is the most prettiest, lol. Back to the story though...while Meesh was feeding them I asked her if the yearlings were for sale and she said that they were and that they were priced at $500 (CAN) each. I was thrilled and asked my mom if we could buy one of them, but my mom kept saying ‘where would we keep him, horses cost money’ and so on. But I wasn’t going to go down that easy so when we were outside by their paddock they all came over and while we were petting them, I asked my mom again and she said she would think about it. BUT when I looked over at my dad who was petting Nicky, Nicky seemed to be bonding with him and everyone was laughing because of how he had "bonded" with my dad (ie. letting it all hang out)!! I just sort of knew after that, that my luck was about to change.
About a week later when we were back at home, the owner of Shyloh Ranch phoned us up to ask if we wanted to buy Nicky, so my mom and dad said that they would give him $200 if no one else wanted to buy him (they didn't tell me this as they didn't think the amount would be accepted). So they left it at that until a couple of months later the owner of Shyloh said that he had a buyer who was going to pay the full $500 and if we could go higher he'd sell him to us, but of course we couldn’t so once again they left it at that. Soon after that though, my aunt Suzette and Meesh persuaded the owner to let us buy him for the $200 since he was just costing him money for feed, vet, farrier, and that he would go to a good home with us! So on February 28, 1998 (Nicky's second birthday) he arrived on Hatzic Island at my mom and dad's friend’s place where I got to see him for the second time!!
Boarding Stable Blues
Hatzic Island - My parents bought and helped put up the fence on the one and a half acre field. We bought the hay, the other horses cribbing collar, the grain, the brushes... I fed them, I cleaned the stalls, I righted the fences after they became loose, I gave them water...11 months we were there, at the beginning it was awesome - both horses were well looked after. In the end it was a nightmare full of mud, falling over fences, a barn smelling of urine, and both horses looking like skeletons even though there was 80+ bales of hay in the loft. Free board indeed. Nick got on the trailer without a fight, and we left for a new beginning feeling just a little bit shocked.
Ron's - at 2 blocks away from my house it was to be mine and Nicks haven, or so we hoped. I saw Nick just about every single day never missing more then 3 days in a row. There were 2 other boarders who had been there a couple years before I had shown up, and from what I saw and heard from the owner (Ron), they didn't come by that often. That is until they found out I went there more then they did, and thats when the trouble started. They started coming a whole lot more often (which I was happy about at the time as it gave me a chance to interact with other people who loved horses as much as me). My riding and training of Nick was critisized (I mean come on I was what 13 and I had never had a riding lesson in my life what did they expect?) I was blamed for numerous things (even getting a nasty letter which I stupidly threw out because I was so upset) included using their grain, riding there horses (I found sweat marks on NICK and it wasn't from me), leaving gates and the barn door open (found out after the fact that Nick can open them), and other stupid things like smoking in the barn when I've never touched a cigerette in my life and even if I did I wouldn't have been stupid enough to smoke in the barn. Needless to say we moved Nick once again - a day under a year since he came there.
Sierra Stables - What can I say this was the best place Nick has ever been to. Nice owners, nice boarders, facilities were always clean, and I was trusted there. The only downside of this place was that it took 15 minutes by car to get there and it involved going over an extremely busy bridge so I didn't get to see Nick that often. But he was there for 2 years, and the only reason we left was because the owners wanted to move closer to their family and that involved selling the place.
ShadowMountain Stables - Nick was here for 2 years as well. After the first year things started going downhill, the track and riding ring were never harrowed, the blackberries never cut back, the stalls weren't cleaned as often as they should have been. To begin with it was good, and it was here that I was finally able to start going to shows, and meeting horse people that were nice and straight forward. People you could trust. But then the owner of the place grew disinterested in horses and she told us boarders that she was moving (she was only renting the place, and the original owners wanted to sell the property anyways).
Brookside Stables - After all the moving from barn to barn I've come to expect it. Not 3 months after I landed Nick here we were told that they (the owners of the place) had bought a place and were moving in a couple months. Joy. I don't trust people much at all anymore, not after 5 stables in 6 years. Even Nick seems to become accustom to moving from place to place, and I feel bad for that because he shouldn't have to.