Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyBuddy!!! Yes, it has been a while. Lots going on! We’ll bring you up to speed…

The biggest news is that Erika, our renter/boarder/helper/trainer, was in a very bad car accident last week. Thankfully, she is fine for the most part. Her truck was hit by another car and rolled over several times. All in all, Erika was VERY lucky. She is also a tough lady; most other people would likely have been hurt much worse. Erika was released from the hospital after a few days and we wish her a speedy recovery.

In Erika’s absence, Joe and Sarah have stepped up their chores, helping Susan out with laundry, cleaning, dishes and such in the house, as well as pitching in at the barn to cover chores there with Dad.  They are such good kids.
The horses are all doing well. Everyone has their thick, wooly winter coats, which came in handy with the all the cold, windy, snowy weather we’ve been having. Cookie and Frosty are now under lights every night.  Won’t be long and it will be breeding time, and then foaling time. Tomorrow I will be riding the geldings as we are having someone come look at them and ride them this week and we want to make sure they are ready. It is an 11 year old girl so the horses should be perfect for her.
The second biggest news is that we sold Moxy and Matilda. A very nice couple bought them together so she would have a horse to ride (Mattie) and he would have one to train (Moxy.) We met with them several times and are confident the two ladies are in excellent hands.
I’ve been working on several BarnCam installations at local farms, and last Friday was able to get the last Dairy Cam installed. It is in Watertown, a city near where Buddy Gail lives and so not too far away from here. It went well and the owner seems very happy with it. All of the snow started coming about half way though the day and so it was a tricky ride home. The snow was really heavy and it seemed like more than 6 inches when I was plowing last night. Heavy, wet, snow and in the morning all of the chains on the gaits were frozen. That is always a pain as it is a little more time consuming moving everyone around.
We’ve taken in some additional new boarders, so we are now up to nine in all. With our own 14 horses plus the cows, we decided to add some outside space. So we opened up the smaller enclosure in the back paddock and made two larger halves. Then we put a shelter in the middle. Now we could have as many as four horses sharing the back. We also put a new shelter in the bee pasture, so horses can stay out all the time there too.

We also have been tracking down Dixie. We got the cell phone number of the last owner who bought her at the World Show a few years ago and have been trying to get a return call.  I really hope we can find her and make sure she is in a good home. We will keep you posted.

Looking out at the colts in the backyard pasture it is startling to see how big Chief is getting.  He almost could pass for Frosty from a distance!  Not as big as Rudy was at this age, I think, but big. If we still have them both next Spring it will be hard to choose one to maybe work with as a longe liner.

We ordered two new shelters for the west paddocks by the new barn and the bee pasture.  We have had more inquiries about boarding than we can handle, so if we convert a couple more turnouts to year-round pastures we could take on a few more *well-behaved* horses.  We built our own shelters the first time around and they are still serviceable, but we just don't have time to do that right now so we are going the commercial route.  When we penciled it all out it was not that much more money for the ready-made, steel-clad ones, and they deliver. Can't beat that!  They should be ready in about three more weeks.

Erika has started working more hours now that the weather is cooling off and fewer sprinkler systems are needed. (That is what she does in the nicer months - her dad owns the business.) Most of those additional hours will be riding our your horses to get them riding really well. Practice makes perfect and they are all pretty young.
Last week Bill went to Verona, Italy for the ApHC at the big Italian Horse Festival. It is huge. Much bigger than any he's seen in the US and it seems as big as Equitana in Germany which is for all of Europe. The big problem was that he had a booth, but no stuff. The ApHC had a little problem with the shipment (to put it nicely) and the materials arrived the day after he left! Luckily he was sharing the booth with the POA National club so the booth is not a total waste. The Italian Appaloosa Club was also there, but in a different booth. He spent a lot of time there also, but since Bill doesn't speak Italian, he couldn't really help much. In Germany many Germans speak English, but at this show very few Italians spoke English at all. One highlight was the Appaloosa Italian president took Bill over to a booth to show him something. Behind the booth was what looked like a bowl. He told Bill in broken English that he was from Parma. Bill didn't understand at first, and then the guy took a small shovel and chucked out a section of the inside of the bowl. It really wasn't a bowl at all, but a round of cheese, parmesan cheese. Get it, from Parma? It suddenly dawned on him that that is where that cheese comes from. It looked like a bowl because the middle had all been dug out. It was not grated as we normally have, but in nice chunks. Bill said it was the best cheese of any kind he had ever, ever had. It tasted like ours, only smoother almost like milk. He could have eaten there all day. The guy was so proud of it, and we don't blame him.

Thanks for watching.
S/B

The weather started getting cold today. We are ready, and the horses are ready. Boy, this summer went fast!  The kids rode Cash tonight and Joe started to learn to rope. He roped from the ground today, but after Erika gets Cash used to things he will try it from a horse. Erika is so good at keeping kids interested in things.  She always gives them something new just as they are getting bored with the stuff they have been doing. Erika also had a couple puppies running around the place last night. They are owned by a friend of hers and they are cute. The little girl pup even has some spots. They are Australian Shepherd and cattle dog mix.

The horses are all doing great, they have started to get their winter coats and so far the weather has also been very easy on them. Zippy was a little sore on his back leg last week; I am guessing it is an abscess coming as he has only been in the round pen and the stall lately. We will watch it and make sure it gets better once it opens up.

The three “baby” boys are getting along great. Sport, Chief and Scoop, our new boarder, have buddied up so well that we have to call them the Three Little Amigos! Maybe they are taking their cue from Luke, Java and Mason across the path.

Cookie pulled a Fanny the other day. No, not a putt muscle, lol! She was leaning over the fence to try and get at some nice long grass near The Hole when she broke a couple boards. It’s a hard spot to get in and mow, and it never really occurred to us that well-mannered Cookie would be one to really reach for it. Erika saw it happen. She said Cookie looked like she was sizing up the fence to judge whether she could actually jump over it! Erika ran some hay out to distract Cookie and Frosty, and repaired the fence, so all is well. 

Fanny should be back home soon from the Appaloosa World Show. Most likely Andy will keep her another week or so after that until Bill can get her home and we can move everyone around. She doesn’t have a winter hair coat at this point, so we will need to keep her in the warm barn and blanket her when she goes out when it is very cold. She had her ups and downs at the World Show but overall did very well. She earned a Reserve World Champion in Judged Calf Roping! Then she had two games classes both of which she did not get a qualified time. Andy hit a pole with his foot in the Poles and hit the line in Keyhole. Both things that will knock you out of the competition. It happens to lots of people as there is a fine line between lots of speed and knocking yourself out of the class. Fanny was one second too slow at barrels so she did not make it to the finals. She had a really good run, but the games classes are always going to be very competitive. The good news is that World and Reserve World Champion Junior Hunter under saddle horses were both sired by Mr. Cool Hand Luke. That is the same sire Spice and Fanny are bred to for 2008.

Thanks for watching.

We are looking at one or two more horse shelters for some of our pastures.  We built the three we have now about ten years ago.  They have been serviceable and snug but this time around we may buy some in a ready-to-assemble fashion to save time.  We get inquiries all the time about boarding here and would like to have a couple more boarders, but pasture board would be strongly preferred so we don’t have the labor associated with stalls. 
The horses are all doing well. Moxy had a little lameness earlier in the week. We were not overly concerned but kept an eye on her, as it could have been the beginning of an abscess. After a day or two she was just fine, walking and running just like before.
I got some new pictures yesterday of Cash and Spice being ridden. Erika was working with the girls on jumping poles that were on the ground. They worked a little on this with Java last week, this week it was their turn.  Erika is so creative with her lessons it really keeps the kids interested.
It looks like at the end of October we are going to have another boarder here. She is a friend of Kate’s and has one 6 month old colt and a mare. We will probably pair the colt up with our colts and we are not sure where we will put the mare as of yet.
We got a nice email from the New Zealand Appaloosa Association wanting to put a picture of Zippy on the cover of their newsletter. When I see a copy of the magazine I will post it. They also plan to put a little article in there about him. Maybe we will get to breed some mares there in 2008. Their breeding season is right now and the rules don’t let us breed mares there until 2008.
Thanks for watching.
Bill

The horses are all enjoying the warm weather, rolling and playing. Plus because of the recent cold, there do not seem to be as many bugs.  I am sure the will be back, and they are not all gone, but it is better.  Everyone is vaccinated here, but there was just a case of west Nile reported in West Bend about 1 hour from here.  With all those mosquitoes it is no surprise.

This past week the kids rode Java, Luke and Cash. They all did really well and are really starting to get into the swing of things again. Matilda and Haley (QH boarder) seem to be getting along great together and Haley so far seems to have stopped chewing the fence.  I will keep my fingers crossed, but either the company is helping her, or the electric fence has made her forget that bad habit.

I was able to update Cash’s site with some new pictures. I also added a couple to Sport’s page, though I really need to get some better ones.

Steve the Bee Guy came out to work on the honey production. It turns out the bees have made lots of honey, but it was not ready yet. A couple more weeks and the bees will have capped off the honey and it will have much less water in it.  If you pull it too soon, it can ferment and mess up the honey.  Did you know that the bees dry their production to a precise % water content by fanning their wings?  Bees are quite amazing!

We got the official word that Fanny is qualified for Worlds Best Appaloosa and the Roping Extravaganza.  She qualified for the world show in 10 events! All of the roping, all of the games, Hunter in Hand, and Reining. Should be alot of fun to watch.

Thanks for watching.