Summertime with the Horses and an American Style Update

Summertime with the Horses and an American Style Update

By Erin

One reason I love the summer so much, is because it means I can spend more time at the barn with the horses. It’s also been awhile since I’ve been able to give an update on all the boys, so I thought I’d take a minute and let you all know how everyone is doing. 🙂

If you remember American Style, from back in February, he had retired from racing with a left hind Condylar fracture, and had surgery performed on January 23rd, 2015. He has recovered nicely and is ready to start-up training to become a riding horse.

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Styles ready to start his training!

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Styles working in the side reins working on some ground work before his first ride.

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Styles 1st ride!

Styles did amazing on his first ride with Sarah! He doesn’t steer very well yet, but that’s to be expected with such a green horse with no training yet. He stood so still while Sarah mounted to get on him, and he looks like he flexes and bends well. It will be exciting to watch him as he starts to learn to jump. He has started to go over ground-poles so far!

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Styles trotting over some ground poles nicely.

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Marvel’s Ant Man! #AntMan #AntManEvent @AntMan

Marvel’s Ant Man!

By Erin

The Ants finally out of the bag! Sometimes, BIG heroes start out small. Ant-Man is out in theaters everywhere today! If you are not already a fan of Marvel, you are in for a special treat. Be prepared to become a fan after watching this action packed laugh fest with a slight romantic twist and an interesting story line that is very heartfelt. In a nutshell, this movie has something for everyone to enjoy (ladies come on, Paul Rudd stars in the film, how can you not want to see him?). This movie is not your typical macho superhero movie.

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A little bit of background history on this next chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ant-Man brings to us a founding member of The Avengers to the big screen for the first time. Hank Pym/Ant-Man was first introduced to us by Marvel in 1962 in “Tales to Astonish #27” and then later Pym appeared alongside The Avengers in the team’s debut in “Avengers #1” in 1963. Pym became Ant-Man after discovering a chemical substance—the Pym Particl, which allowed him to alter his size and possess superhuman strength. Pym further developed his technologies so that Ant-Man also has the ability to control armies of ants.

Marvel's Ant-Man Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) Photo Credit: Zade Rosenthal © Marvel 2014

Marvel’s Ant-Man. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Photo Credit: Marvel

The action-packed adventure starts by introducing us to master thief Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) who is to become the present-day Ant-Man. Dr. Hank Pym has a genius idea about how to arm Lang with the ant man suit that has the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength. Lang must grab onto his inner hero and help Pym protect the secret behind the Ant-Man suit from the bad guys as a new generation of towering threats grows. Pym and Lang must overcome many obstacles and come up with a plan to pull off a heist that will save the world.

Marvel's Ant-Man..Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd)..Photo Credit: Zade Rosenthal..? Marvel 2014

Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) Photo Credit: Marvel

Marvel’s Ant-Man stars: Paul Rudd (“I Love You, Man,” “Role Models”) as Scott Lang aka Ant-Man

* Evangeline Lilly (“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” “Lost”) as Hope van Dyne, daughter of Hank Pym

* Corey Stoll (“House of Cards,” “The Bourne Legacy”) as Darren Cross aka Yellowjacket

*Bobby Cannavale (“Chef,” “Blue Jasmine”) as Paxton,

*Michael Peña (“End of Watch,” “American Hustle”) as Luis

*Tip “T.I.” Harris (“American Gangster,” “Identity Thief”) as Dave

*Wood Harris (“Above the Rim,” “Remember the Titans”) as Gale

*Judy Greer (“13 Going on 30,” “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”) as Maggie

*David Dastmalchian (“The Dark Knight,” “Prisoners”) as Kurt

*Michael Douglas (“Behind the Candelabra,” “Wall Street”) as Dr. Hank Pym.

Marvel's Ant-Man L to R: Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) Photo Credit: Zade Rosenthal © Marvel 2014

Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) & Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) Photo Credit: Marvel

Peyton Reed directs Marvel’s Ant-Man with Kevin Feige. The story is by Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish and the screenplay is by Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish,Adam McKay & Paul Rudd.

Marvel's Ant-Man Ant-Man suit Photo Credit: Film Frame © Marvel 2015

Ant-Man suit. Photo Credit: Marvel

Before you go see the movie, or even if you have seen the movie, here are some fun facts from the film about Ant Man!

*How does the Ant-Man Suit Work?*

Have you ever wondered how the Ant-Man suit works? Well here’s the answer. The suit encapsulates the Pym Particle technology that allows a person to shrink down to the size of an ant. When the wearer wants to change size, he/she uses a button on the suit that regulates the Pym Particles, which run through the suit and helmet like an intricate system of veins. The particles are volatile and change the distance between atoms, so the suit and helmet serve as protection for the wearer. Ant-Man technically does not  have super powers, but when he shrinks down in the suit, he actually exceeds the strength of a normal person because energy and mass compacted create a more powerful force.

Marvel's Ant-Man Ant-Man/Scott Lang (Paul Rudd)  Photo Credit: Film Frame © Marvel 2015

Photo Credit: Marvel

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Meet the Cast of Ant Man! #AntMan #AntManEvent

Meet the Cast of Ant Man!

By Erin

*I attended the press conference as a guest of Disney.*

This Friday we’ll see the release of the largely anticipated and hugely entertaining Ant-Man which is Marvel’s latest superhero adventure. Starring Paul Rudd as an ex-con who’s talked into participating in an epic heist on behalf of his scientist mentor (Michael Douglas). He is armed with a special super-suit; giving him shrinking powers and the ability to communicate with ants. Expectations are extremely high for Ant-Man, and there is the possibility of a sequel perhaps? But before we get ahead of ourselves though, lets meet the cast and see what they had to tell us about this up and coming film? 😉

Ant-Man Press Conference

Talent in attendance: Paul Rudd (“Scott Lang/Ant-Man”), Michael Douglas (“Hank Pym”), Evangeline Lilly (“Hope Van Dyne”), Corey Stoll (“Darren Cross/Yellowjacket”), Michael Pena (“Luis Pena”), T.I. (“Dave”), David Dastmalchian (“Kurt”), Peyton Reed (Director), Kevin Feige (Producer).

If you’re not into Marvel much, then you might be thinking – who is Ant-Man? Kevin Feige, the producer, told us simply that,“Ant-Man in the comics is a founding member of the Avengers. Ant-Man and Wasp were the two that had been the longest that we haven’t done anything with, so it was always clear that we were going to assemble all the Avengers eventually.”

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Paul Rudd was then asked, what was it about the character of Ant Man that excited him to take on the role? Before Paul could answer, Evangeline Lilly chimed in: ME! When Paul had a chance to answer he told us, “It’s a Marvel movie, come on. The fact that it was different than anything that I’d ever done. I liked the challenge, I thought it would be an exciting adventure, and I enjoyed the fact that when I was cast people went, huh, really –and I think that Marvel likes to do that and I was thrilled to have the opportunity.”

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A lot of the questions focused on how everyone prepared for their roles in the film. Paul told us that he enjoyed being able to do shoulder rolls and kind of could do flips for the first time. David Dastmalchian chimed in “‘Cause there’s one shot where Paul, like he thoroughly enjoyed being ripped.” Wherein Paul replied back, “I was very self-conscious during that day of shooting.” David replied back, “I remember what you had for lunch that day we shot your abs. You had one almond.” And Paul told us that one almond made him fell so bloated. Witty banters like this, filled the press conference, making it very entertaining and full of laughs!

Paul was then asked if his son thought he was cool playing the role of Ant-Man. Paul gave us a very heartfelt response about him and his son. “It’s the first thing I’ve ever done, ever, that he is like legitimately jazzed about. He can see it, his friends know about it, and we were at Disneyland two days ago and they have kind of a sneak preview, the Ant-Man event that’s there, and we went there and I was sitting next to him, and to see like as a parent the look on my kid’s face when he’s watching this – and I’ll never forget, it’s like as soon as it ended he just looked at me. He’s like, “That’s awesome!” And every time a commercial is on, he’s like, “Dad, Dad, Dad!” He’s so excited and I’ve never experienced that, it’s so cool to be able to share this with my own family, and especially my son.”

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The next question was an important one for Evangeline Lilly, about the lack of female characters in superhero movies.  Evangeline was more than happy to answer this one for us! “Amen and touché, sister. I think that there is a lot of excitement in the focus groups that we’ve seen already, with the female audiences, about this character in general, and about the fact that Marvel is really taking female characters very seriously and looking at their lineup you can see that they have great intentions. As a woman who came into a predominantly male film, I had a great time working with Peyton and with the producers, on this character, because I could see a hunger in them to really, really do right by Hope, and do right by their female fans and the female audience. When I pick a role, one of the things that I aspire to is that somebody’s parent will come up to me after the film and come out and say, “My daughter idealizes that character. You’re her hero.” And that’s what we aim for, especially in this brand, right? We’re in the business of making heroes.”

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Michael Douglas takes on a new role in this film. Just like Paul Rudd, Douglas was not familiar with the character before starting to work on the film. Douglas shared with us, “My 14 year old’s reaction was like an agent. He said, “You know, Dad, this could be a whole new audience for you.” So I took that to heart and here I am. I was not familiar with Ant-Man before this movie and Kevin and Marvel were kind enough to send me about two years of comic books, that’s when I read the script, to kind of catch up on this history and background.”

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