Not much new!

Nothing much happening around here, except the same busy schedules! :) Should alleviate soon as Equine Affaire is next week (hard to believe) and hopefully after that it settles down a little. One training horse will be leaving April 1st so that will help too! Hoping to show Will at a reining show at the end of May, but that is still up in the air depending on how he keeps progressing! Had a call last evening about a new student so we'll see if they call back. Hopefully I didn't scare them off with what I expect! :)

We did add a new addition to the barn (horse not actual barn addition even though that is a dream of mine) :) She is a 2 year old filly names Jackies Jullie (think that spelling is correct), we are calling her Jules. She is supposedly trained to drive, so Terry will find that out as soon as there is time and the rain stops and the ground dries up! :) She is not going to get above pony size and she is just a little doll! Bossy to the yearlings she is turned out with, but a baby doll to us! She will eventually be for sale, but if she doesn't sell (by the time she is 4), once her training is complete, if her personality stays like it is, she may end up a lesson pony! We'll just have to see! She is related to Terry's beloved Janie who is now in CT and he misses greatly. That is also why we have Gaby! I hope people quit consigning these mares/fillies to sales so Terry won't want to bring them home! We are running out of room! :)

Other than that, it's pretty much same old same old! :)

I wonder.....

Another CRAZY weekend! Still trying to catch up on laundry! Ugh! Terry is on vacation this week and I will be taking Friday off so we can spend Friday and Sat. together before he goes back to work on Sunday. But guess what? We will be spending it with horses! Funny Huh? Those of you who are into the horses know what this is like! All your vacations are spent around a horse show or something horse related! It makes me sometimes wonder how the "other" side lives. I know my life would be empty with out a horse, but I do wonder and think.....I think about how much money we would have if we didn't have the big truck, trailer, show clothes, tack and just the cost of having horses in general. I wonder what we would do? Travel maybe, probably not as neither Terry nor I are big into being away from hom too long. A couple days and I'm ready to go home! Entertain more as we would probably have a nicer home? I enjoy entertaining, but our home is far from big enough to hold large parties. So maybe that would be something that we would do. I do know I would read more, exercise more (even though working with the horses is excercise) and probably do more with the dogs. Not really sure!

This post seems to be turning into kind of a downer. But that is my mood right at the moment. I am VERY tired after this past weekend of lessons and training horses and a tack swap with Nichole. We also fed horses and watched a friend's dog while they were gone for the weekend. I am at work right now, during a slight lull and decided to post. It is 4:00 ET right now and 1 hour to go here and several hours to go as I head straight to the barn. I know my mood will pick up as I enter and see the 3 Haflinger heads over their doors greeting me when I walk into the barn! Hopefully they all are good tonight and we can get things done and get home before 8:30 or 9 tonight. Keep your fingers crossed for us! :)

Just for Fun!!

Varied musings!

Well this has been a crazy time of the year for me for the past 3 years. I have been the Ohio Haflinger Assoc. Equine Affaire coordinator for the past 3 years. At times I have loved it and at times I was ready to throw in the towel. For those not familiar with Equine Affaire it is a huge horse expo at the Ohio State Fairgrounds that hosts over 105,000 (yes thousand) attendees a year. They offer clinics by top clinicians, TONS of shopping for anything and everything horsey on the planet! The OHA (Ohio Haflinger Assoc) that Terry is President of, has taken horses down for breed demos and a booth to introduce all the attendees to our wonderful breed. We normally have 2-3 15 minute demos, have to man the booth while the expo is open and also do a youth demo with a q&a session after the presentation. I have to work as coordinator between our members that are taking horses and the Equine Affaire. I coordinate all of the demos by writing the 15 minute scripts and putting the music together. Praise God for Bonnie VanWinkle who stepped in last year to help me and took over the coordination of the booth and breed stall! Bonnie, if you are reading this.....THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU etc. a hundred times over! I couldn't do this without you my friend! I don't say all this for the atta girl or praise, just trying to clarify why my life gets so crazy at times. Add into this having Will at the indoor to work so that we can hopefully participate in our first reining show since 2007 in May! Plus 2 training horses. Plus all the dogs and horses at home to take care of! But do you know what?....God has blessed us with this life, He has given us these opportunities and through these he has brought so many blessings and special friends into our lives. For this we are forever thankful!

Ok brag time! I am so proud of my husband. He really did not know what he was getting into when he married me..... :) He has always been around livestock, mainly cattle and sheep and dabbled in horses a little when his daughter Nichole was showing (that is how we met, at a barn where Nic boarded her horse and I boarded mine). He jumped into this horse thing with both feet and is now our main rider for starting our young horses and training horses. He is usually the first one on then as they progress, I take over to put finishing touches on them! But he is getting to the point where he is starting to put some of those finishing touches on them too! You would think it would be hard for a guy to take direction from his wife on how to do something, but he is normally very easy to work with and listens well! (only with the horses though mind you!) :) Here is a video of his first unattended ride on Chip, one of our training horses in to be broke. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NBbnvT1Vzw . I am so proud of Terry and Chip! Chip is a 3 year old Haflinger owned by our friends the LaRoe Family from Michigan! They purchased Chip from us last year and we can't wait to see them in the show ring this year!!!

I think that is enough for today as my script deadline is tomorrow and I need to finish up the last one!

Need to Vent!

Ok here goes!

What is it with riding instructors who think they are all that and a bag of chips and think it is appropriate to yell at young riders and tell them their horses are worthless and they need something new!!! I understand that if a horse is not appropriate then yes the issue must be raised.......but not to the child!!!! Talk to their parents and NEVER say anything detrimental about their current horse in front of the child. I don't care if it is the ugliest, nastiest buck toothed, knocked kneed horse you ever saw, it is still that child's pride and joy!!!!!

I really don't want to go into the details of what brought this up at this time, but I just had to vent a little!