Spain trip highlights

We’re back from our 10-day trip to Spain (September 7-17). I thought you’d like to read some of the trip highlights!

Sunday, September 9
The flights on Friday, September 7, were fine - no delays from Minneapolis or Newark, New Jersey. I did not sleep in the plane from Newark to Madrid, but I was busy reading “The Collectors” by David Baldacci and I watched the latest “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie twice. We arrived in the Spanish capitol at 10 a.m. and it was sunny and warm. There was a momentary snag with a credit card not reading properly when getting our rental car, but it all worked out.

After that long flight, Ian drove the five hours from Madrid to Riumar, which is on the Mediterranean coast. We stopped for potty and leg-stretching breaks. I dozed off now and again, but the 2-door Volvo was not really car-nap comfy. It was nice to get to Riumar and our chalets. We bought groceries, made a light dinner, drank some Spanish wine and watched the BBC on the TV. By 8 p.m. local time we were SO tired we went to bed. We slept soundly until midnight, then got up, got dressed and went for a walk around the village. You'd be surprised how many of its small, family-run restaurants were still buzzing with people at that late hour. We came back after about 45 minutes, had another glass of wine and went back to bed. I slept until 8 a.m. local time (Spain is 7 hours ahead of U.S. Central time) and Ian got up when I brought him coffee at 9.

This morning we're moving personal items from chalet 10 (the one that will be sold tomorrow) to next door at number 11. After waiting for three Irish ladies to leave (they've been our guests for nine days) Ian and I went over to ask what time they would be leaving. We spoke to one of them, who said they had a marvelous time. We like to hear that. They will be our last rental guests. We are hoping the remaining chalet (11) sells soon. Regardless, I don't think we'll rent it next season either. It's tough to do it long distance and if someone wants to buy most often (even if they're buying it as a rental property) they don't want it already rented.

We'll spend today taking stuff from one chalet to the other and then at 3:30 we'll meet my son Michael and his wife Natalia at the train station. They’re coming from Barcelona, which is 2 hours away and they'll spend the evening with us and go to the sale with us in the morning. I want Natalia along because I don't comprehend all the Spanish legalese that she does and if there are questions I want her there as a translator that we can trust to ensure all goes well. Besides, it will be nice to see them both. We saw them in MN last August when they visited for 10 days. We've not been together in Spain for 2 years. Ian and I came to their wedding in September 2005. It's wonderful to see them doing to well; personally and professionally.

I will be SO happy when the sale is done. It will be a tremendous relief and an answer to many prayers.

Thursday, September 13
The sale of chalet number 10 went through on Monday. I wish I could say it went without a hitch, HA, it was a nightmare. Thank goodness Michael and Natalia came along to the signing. Our agent, Chris the drama queen, was in true form; completely disorganized and did nothing to engender confidence. In the end it all went OK, but it was enough of a bad experience that we cannot imagine doing any business with Chris again!

After the sale, Michael and Natalia returned to Barcelona by train Monday and we came up by car on Tuesday. We stayed at a hotel that was supposed to have wireless Internet connection in every room, but our room did not have a signal and the front desk could not get it sorted out. We decided we would just stay one night and then come back to Riumar and stay in number 11.

September 11 is independence day in the province of Catalonia so the banks were closed. We visited with Michael and Natalia at their home and went out for both lunch and dinner together.

Earlier Tuesday morning before traveling to Barcelona, while we were still on the delta, we got into a small car accident. We were PARKED on a side street in the neighboring village of La Cava, sitting in our rented car, when a local guy driving a dump truck came by us and snapped off the driver's side mirror. Ian beeped the horn and screamed at the guy as he jumped out. The man stopped, got out and began explaining in rapid-fire Catalan, with big arm gestures that we were wrong to be parked where we were, blah, blah, blah. I called Natalia and asked her to send the local police. The guy had had a bit to drink - not sloppy, but certainly foggy. He was walking around the side street and out to the main street and we worried about him leaving the scene. Ian went to his truck and took the keys from the ignition. The police arrived and listened to his version and informed him quite quickly he was in the wrong. This guy's entire demeanor changed and he became even more contrite as the accident report was completed. The officer explained that because the accident was not serious and no one was hurt, he would not test the other driver for alcohol (how novel), but the officer did shake his finger at him and told him to go straight home. Ian was able to reassemble the mirror pieces so we do have a driver's side mirror, albeit a cracked one. The accident report with the other guy's insurance info and that we were not at fault should be plenty enough for Avis.

On Wednesday morning, after we deposited the sale check our Spanish bank account we visited our friends Caroline (a Canadian married to a Catalan) and Christine (German), who both live just outside Barcelona in Sant Cugat. Oh, it was SO good to see them. We met through the Barcelona Women's Network (BWN) when we were all members of this English-speaking women’s group. There were some emotional moments and tears as I remembered just how precious they are to me. I also spoke by telephone to Doreen and Patricia; more great BWN friends, but ones we would not get to see this trip.

We have been running errands since we returned to Riumar. This morning we met Martina, a German realtor who works for an agency that is just up the coast from Riumar. We had corresponded by email and it was nice to meet her face-to-face. Already she is miles ahead of Chris. Another bonus is that she is a horse person! She has Quarter horses and Arabians plus she is in the process of getting a license for her own horse riding stable. As you can imagine, she loved photos of our Arabian stallion Legacys Renoir.

We also have the chalet listed with the Inmodelta agency right here in Riumar. Between the Catalan/Spanish agency and Martina's German agency number 11 should sell! We also bought BIG signs that read "Se Vende" (For Sale) and I've put Natalia's cell phone number on these signs. Naturally, if we can sell the chalet without paying a 5% commission to an agency, all the better.

Today, we had lunch with British transplants Janette and Brian. Janette has been handling summer rental changeovers for number 11. We met her through Chris (one good thing she'd done), but this was my first time meeting them face-to-face. Ian met them when he was here a few weeks ago. They too have unbelievably nutty Chris stories. Unbeknownst to us, Chris has quite an unsavory reputation and has many debt judgments against her. Lovely! Anyway, Janette and Brian are wonderful people and ones we plan to stay in touch with.

Tomorrow (Friday), our last full day on the delta, there will be more running around and Ian will fix a leaky toilet hose and replace small, cracked tiles on the bathroom countertop.

Yes, we want to sell number 11 and focus on the Auld Macdonald Farm, but this trip has also reinforced that we want to return too. I just love it here and surely we could find a suitable place for us here that would allow us to have horses either with us or nearby. There's no rush, we're happy on the farm, but Spain or France are certainly in our future plans.

Saturday, September 15
Today we closed up the chalet and said goodbye to Riumar and I wept as we left and for a good way down the highway. For me, it’s a challenge because I don’t know when I’ll be back. I’m also torn because I do love it on our farm in Minnesota with our horses and other animals.

The drive to Madrid took five hours and we are spending the weekend with Cynthia and Claude, our dear Canadian friends who we've not seen since their wedding in Montreal. On Monday, we fly Madrid-Newark-Minneapolis.

We returned the Volvo to Avis at the Madrid airport. There was some discussion about the police accident form we presented, but it was quickly resolved at the returns desk. At least, I hope that is the end of it! I’m always nervous when a company has a Visa card number!

Cynthia and Claude have lived in Spain for 10 years. Claude collected us at the arrival area and we made a short drive to their home. I don’t know what section of Madrid they live in, but it is gorgeous and very safe. Apparently, it is fortress safe as a famous Spanish footballer (soccer star) had lived in one of the townhouse-type apartments and extra measures were put in place to keep his adoring fans at bay.

There are people in this world who are born as gracious hosts and Cynthia and Claude are certainly that. We just love to come to visit them, wherever they are. After we settle in our room, we four sat on their patio veranda and ate grilled shrimp and barbequed white fish with fresh oven-baked veggies and other local lovelies; delicious olives, course bread, bottles of well-researched Rioja! The conversation, as always, was stimulating and wide-ranging.

Sunday, September 16
We woke up to a sunny and comfortably warm day and we four went to the Hipodromo La Zarzuela (the horse racetrack) in Madrid. What a GREAT time. Before each of the races we viewed the horses in the paddocks, then places our bets and went to the stands to watch! We did pretty well for being somewhat unscientific. Really, we bet just to add some interest, not to retire!

Afterwards, we ate at a nice restaurant and had Spanish rise dishes, named paella and arroz negro and drank chilled rose.

Later, back at the house, we fought the siesta urge, and watched a movie and chatted.

Monday, September 17
This morning, Claude left for a business meeting in Poland a few hours before Cynthia took us to the airport for our flight home. Since I’d devoured a Baldacci novel earlier in the trip, Cynthia gave me a Jonathan Kellerman novel, “Rage”, which introduced me to protagonist Alex Delaware. With less than 100 pages left to read, I’m hooked and have reserved the Alex Delaware series to buy in publication-date order on my Amazon wish list.

Ian and I arrived home on the farm Monday night at 8:45 p.m. Minnesota time, which is 3:45 a.m. Spain time. As you can imagine, we were a bit tired, as we gotten up in Spain at 8 a.m. Our flight from Madrid went well and there was only a slight delay leaving Newark. We’d parked our truck at the airport.

When we arrived home, I went to the barn and patted all the indoor horses. Naturally, our barn helper Tina took such good care of all the animals! Tiger the cat greeted us and spent the night here in the trailer purring and loving us up. I picked up our dog Lady from the local kennel Tuesday morning and she was thrilled to see me.

Basically, we’re good. Sometimes the jet lag gets us, but that will be over in a few days.

Next week Tuesday, Ian is traveling on business to Cupertino in Northern California for 10 days. I’m staying home and going to a big horse show at the state fairgrounds. Renoir will be there and will be shown Saturday afternoon in the stallion parade before the futurity auction that happens in the evening.

My son Richard is going to come up and work on renovation projects and keep me company. It will be nice to have him here while Ian’s gone. He’s learning more and more about horses, which I think is good for a city kid!

Our next big push is to get things done in the house so we can move back in – winter’s a coming!

E-I-E-I-O

Spain – buen viaje

Tomorrow, September 7, Ian and I are traveling to Spain. We have been waiting for the sale of chalet number 10, which has dragged on in fits and starts since Easter. Finally, we have a green light and an appointment to sign papers at a notary office on Monday, the tenth. A young Spanish couple is buying the chalet as their primary residence.

We will be in Spain until the 17th. We will visit friends and family in Barcelona and Madrid. Our flights are in/out of Madrid and we will drive to/from Riumar, which is a five-hour drive. It will be nice to see the Mediterranean again and all the changes since I last visited, which I think was two years ago this month when my son Michael married Natalia. Ian has been twice this year; at Christmastime for his visa and a business trip two weeks ago.

Tina is taking care of the farm and all of its animals, except for Lady, who will be boarded for the 10 days we’re gone.

We are listing the remaining chalet, number 11, with two additional local real estate agents in hopes it sells soon. We have enjoyed owning our Spanish properties, but its time to consolidate here in the U.S.

The money from the sale will allow us to restart renovation projects that have languished in recent months. We look forward to moving back into the house and enjoying our living quarters trailer on trips to horse shows.

Our stallion, Legacys Renoir, will be in a stallion parade Friday evening, September 28, in the Coliseum at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds during the Fall Fest Arabian horse show. After he struts his stuff, hopefully booking breedings for the 2008 season, Renoir will have a long break before he shows again – which will be in Scottsdale, Arizona in mid-February. We hope to be there with him from the 9th to the 25th.

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August tale and travel

It continues to be warm, humid and with little or no rain. The lawn grass crunches when we walk on it. The pasture is dry too and nothing but weeds are growing so we’ve been feeding hay to the outdoor horses for the last month. The corn and beans planted in area fields are looking quite thirsty.

In my last post I wrote about two kitties I found to at roadside. I tried to nurse them using kitten milk replacement, but sadly they both died. Bless their little kitten hearts.

We have two apple trees on the property; both are laden with ripening apples. I’m going to collect some and will begin making applesauce, apple pie filling and maybe even some apple jelly in the next few days.

Ian is on his was to Barcelona. He left Minnesota yesterday but because the plane left so late the connection was missed in Newark, New Jersey. So, he’s booked on a flight today to arrive on Sunday morning in Barcelona. He’ll return on the 22nd.

We’re on a roller coaster when it comes to selling the properties in Spain. First, one is sold, then not, then there’s interest in the other and then nothing. I THINK we’re about to actually sell one, but until the papers are signed and money changes hands it’s all conversation.

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Kitty, kitty

Saturday during our morning walk, Lady and I found 2 itsy-bitsy kittens meowing and dirty on the side of the dirt road. One is black and white, the other is all grey, and both are females. The black and white one has her eyes open and the other does not yet – so they are very young. I don’t know if someone dropped them off or if they were abandoned by the mother, but they are here now.

I researched what to do on the Internet and then bought an electric heating pad, a small feeding bottle with nipple and some kitten milk replacement formula. They’re to be fed every 2-3 hours around the clock. They do not have enough suck power to get milk from the bottle, so I am feeding them with a syringe. Frankly, they’re not too impressed with having their mouths pried open but they’re getting the hang of it.

Our housecat Tiger has not taken too kindly to them. I’m sure instinct tells him that if their mother is not around to protect them, they should be killed. I put the kitties, along with their towel and heating pad in the bathtub and closed the bathroom door.

In a week or so they can go longer stretches between feedings and before I know it they’ll be eating solid food and using a litter box. A girlfriend mentioned she would be cat shopping as soon as she moved into her new place. I called her yesterday and she was in the process of moving then. If she decides not to take them, they can always stay here. A farm can almost always use another (neutered) cat.

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Depths of summer

Hello! It’s been WEEKS since I’ve written an update; so let me give you some highlights.

Our stallion Legacy’s Renoir went to his first horse show in two years and wowed the judges and the crowd. He showed in a stallion halter class in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Wednesday, June 13, and won a blue ribbon, which qualified him to compete in the Region 10 Championship show the next evening. We did not know it at the time, but in winning that blue ribbon Renoir beat out the Brazilian National Champion! On the 14th, Renoir was awarded a Top 5 Ribbon and then was judged Reserve Champion for all of Region 10 (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Upper Peninsula of Michigan) in the stallion class for ages two years and over. Of course, we’re thrilled. It was fun to see him do so well and Region 10 is one of the toughest regions in North America. His regional win qualifies him to show at U.S. and Canadian Nationals this year and next year.

Renoir’s next show will be in Des Moines, Iowa over Labor Day weekend (August 30-September 3). Then later in September (27-30) he will in St. Paul again at a big show we call “Fall Fest.” Each time he shows Renoir’s handlers will be professionals; either Jeff Schall or brother Jerry. We’re not doing amateur owner to handle (AOTH) this season. After Fall Fest, Renoir will probably have a long break and not show until February in Scottsdale, Arizona. Of course, he can be called upon to begin breeding mares in February 2008 too.

Renoir had two photo sessions with different professional equine photographers in late June. He also was videotaped and we’re watching to see the final DVD version. These are used in promoting the stallion. Renoir will have a full-page ad in the Arabian Horse Times in the August and September issues; both ads are related to the above-mentioned shows.

In mid-June we went to South Dakota, very near the Minnesota border, to see Mona (see “Spring Update” entry). She is a beauty and we fell in love with the chestnut colt at her side and he will come with her to the Auld Macdonald Farm this fall. We have dubbed him Clifford. He is a large, fiery red chestnut Half Arabian with three white socks and a white star and snip that travels down his forehead. When I picture any big, red animal the children’s storybook “Clifford the big red dog” comes to mind. I’m not sure what we’ll officially name him. His sire is the palomino American Saddlebred stallion Goldmount Royal Design. During our South Dakota daytrip, we met Royal along with another stunning stallion, purebred Arabian, Bey Shahzon.

Sax Fifth Avenue, the Arabian mare I mentioned in “Happy June” is back with us. She is confirmed bred to Sirius Trouble for an auction foal in 2008. Windy (Arabian) is bred to pinto American Saddlebred stallion Famous Echo SCA for an auction foal in 2008. Auction foals can compete in special purse-winning classes at specific shows. We also bred Khatalina Bey (Arabian) and Yukon Miss (Thoroughbred) to Renoir for foals in 2008. On Tuesday we will have these three mares confirmed in foal. The mare we’re leasing in Wisconsin, VG Elambra (see AMF Spring Update), is also in foal to Renoir, so that will be it for our breeding season. There’s only so much money in the world.

Our three-year-old geldings Cairo and Whisper will be going to nearby Rush City to be started under saddle (see “Happy June”). Our other gelding Jay is enjoying his time in Buffalo, Minnesota with his teenaged 4-H handler Darrah.

Ian set up a 60-foot round pen and we use it to work on our horses’ ground manners. Lately, it’s been blessed hot with high humidity and not a sniff of rain, so we’ve given the horses a training break. We do take the hose into the pasture to rinse them off – some like it, some are not really impressed, but it makes me feel better knowing they’ve been given a break from the heat.

Windy’s filly is growing up nicely (see “It’s a girl”). She’s got a nice personality and a lovely Arabian head and neck with a tail that stands flag straight. Kisses seems to have the finest attributes of both dam and sire. We’ll be working with her more and more and, if we have not sold her, we’ll look at showing her in the spring of 2008.

We’re (still) waiting to learn about the sale of one of our two chalets in Spain. Number 10 has been off the market since the end of May. You can imagine how frustrating it is to wait at this distance. I should know something definite next week.

Meanwhile, at least Ian will be going to Barcelona. HP has asked him to travel there and to Grenoble, France related to this latest consulting project. He’s to meet in Barcelona beginning Monday, August 13, and running through Thursday or Friday of that week.

I’ve seen the latest Harry Potter movie and this morning I finished the final book. I really enjoyed the series and I hope that J. K. Rowling doesn’t just sit back and spend her billions, but that she writes another adventure to share.

My son Richard came to visit earlier in the week. We tore off siding as high as we could reach without a ladder. Of course we did it on the two hottest days of the summer. A lot of water was drunk those days! Before residing and installing new windows and doors, we will put a house wrap on all exterior walls. The siding we’ve chosen resembles cedar shake, so with the doorways and windows trimmed in white it should look quite gingerbread-ish! LOL

We’ve also begun tearing out the living room/dining room floor. Why people want us to take up the boards carefully and try to re-use them is beyond me. They are old, dried up, warped and should go exactly where we took them – to the fire pit for a great bonfire. Once the floor is replaced, we will lay down the same ceramic tile we have on the kitchen floor. Ian’s also installing radiant heating, so with that, the house wrap and the corn stove we’ll be cozy this winter.

Meanwhile, we’ve moved into our living-quarters horse trailer. It has all the creature comforts and when we need to haul a horse, we just unplug the electricity and disconnect the water, load a horse or two, hook it up to the one-ton pick up truck and we’re off!

Yesterday, I took Mom to Pine City, Minnesota to visit her brother Bob and his wife Carol. They live just outside this small city on a 200-acre farm they’ve owned since just after WWII. Aunt Carol is a great cook and we had a simple, tasty lunch. The farm has been both a working dairy farm and a show horse business, but now its only animals are outdoor cats.

We’ve had friends and family come to visit and we are expecting more visitors in a few days.

Those are just some of the things going on since I last posted.

E-I-E-I-O

Summer rhythms

Summer officially begins on the 21st, but I feel that we’re already into a summertime rhythm. This time last year we hadn’t been to our first horse show yet. This year, we’re showing less as handlers and we’re focusing almost solely on Legacy’s Renoir and all the marketing needs of a breeding stallion. I like horse shows and could go to one every weekend, but this big picture/long term view has its appeal as well. The energy that comes from bouncing our ideas off others – renowned trainers/handlers, breeding specialists, and other stallion owners — is refreshing. There are measured steps to take in successful stallion marketing; conditioning, training, showing and doing well, which create what our trainer calls [marketing] “hot buttons”, the breeding, settling mares, which is horse industry speak for “impregnating”, the resulting foals, advertising at the right junctures; all take time.

Another added bonus to being Renoir’s owners is that when he was a yearling he created quite a stir at the Scottsdale show by winning when he was supposed to be “just another pretty horse in the ring” with a handler who was young, Latin American and had never shown in the U.S. Renoir and Gil won first place and reserve champion ribbons at that show in 2003 and people are still talking about it. Many are also excited to see Renoir in the show ring again.

So, being less frantic about going to shows, we have time to settle into the pace of farm life. Oh, a friend who is in agri-business explained that while this is Auld Macdonald Farm we are not “farmers” but ranchers. I suppose I can agree with that, as we don’t plant/harvest anything. When I think of “ranch” I think of wide expanses and words like hacienda and the “the back 40” come to mind.

Before our housecat Tiger came to live with us, he was an indoor/outdoor cat in the city. Now he likes to sleep all day and go out at night during the warm weather months. Who doesn’t? The sky takes on the right cat-about-town tint at 9 p.m. and he begins to display departure behavior. I open the door and he pads out. Providing there’s no inclement weather Tiger’s night out ends at 5 a.m. when he meows at the dining room window, which is adjacent to our bed. He and I have fallen into this wee hours dance that coincides with me going potty. He meows, I get up and let him in, make a pit stop and we all curl up in bed with sleeping Ian, who remains dreamily oblivious.

We have 11 hens that lay between six and eight eggs daily. I did find the rooster John Wayne dead in a hidden corner of the coop. Sad, because he did not look poorly – well, other than the fact he was stiff as a board! We have not had the sickness on the farm this year that we suffered last, when we had days when as many as three chickens died in a single day. With that behind us, having these chickens that have been with us through the winter is really special. They are quite friendly, although not the jump-up-in-your-lap kind of friendly. They do come when I call them and I scatter seeds, peelings, and fruit cores daily. The weather has been so nice lately that we often leave the back door open and we’ve had curious feathered guests – sometimes leaving their calling cards.

Ian is between contracts right now [a new one begins late June] and he’s grooving with the kitchen project. The drywall is all up and taped, the countertop bases are built and very soon he’ll be able to install the ceramic tile. Once that’s done, the kitchen drawers, dishwasher and sink are next on the list!

Tomorrow, we leave Tina in charge while we take Lady, truck and trailer to the fairgrounds to watch Renoir show Wednesday morning and Thursday evening. Then late Thursday we will head to South Dakota and plan to return to the farm late Friday or early Saturday.

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Happy June

Kisses is one month old today. She enjoys running in large loops in the grassy pasture under her mother’s watchful eye. Windy is actually a rather laid back mommy. Ian and I get to handle Kisses quite a bit, as does Tina when she does barn chores.

Today, I noticed that the rooster John Wayne is no longer with us. I thought I’d missed him yesterday, but made a concerted effort to locate him today. No rooster. We’ve got 11 hens and that’s it. I began collecting eggs daily again. The hens have done me the favor of laying eggs in one nest in the coop, so I don’t have to hunt for other nests. My Mom and younger brother Matthew came to visit on Friday. I sent Mom home with two dozen. Friend Marcia is bringing me several dozen cartons from her dad’s place in South Dakota. I’m always running out of cartons.

Yesterday, Ian and I hauled 15-year-old mare, Sax Fifth Avenue, to a farm in Buffalo for her to be bred this month to Sirius Trouble for a purebred Arabian foal in May 2008. Sax belongs to a friend and we are leasing her for the purpose of the 2008 foal. We like Sax very much. In fact, we own her three-year-old son Jay, who is making a 14-year-old girl very happy this summer as her 4-H project horse.

I’ve found a local woman who starts horses under saddle and have scheduled both Cairo and Whisper to go and work with her in August. She has no slots before that time – a good sign. These two are not slated for the show ring, but we do want them for trail riding. Sooner or later we would like to sell them to good homes and to do that it’s important that they be broke to ride.
I am hoping that sometime this summer we will set up a round pen and begin working on developing better working relationships with the horses we have here. Ian and I still want to go to classes in California at Monty Robert’s Flag Is Up Farm, www.montyroberts.com but getting into the horse business has taken us on a bit of a detour. We’re also taking about hiring our own horse trainer in 2008 or 2009; someone who will train our horses here on the farm for show and come with a Rolodex of contacts that will help us to be successful in selling horses too.

The weather has been delightful here. There has been a nice balance of sunshine and rain. The lawn, gardens, pasture and fields are green and growing very well. Farmers are ready to cut their first hay crop. Knowing that we’d rather not run for hay as much as we did this past winter, we will be buying hay earlier and in more numbers (of bales) soon. Tina is cleaning out the hayloft so that we can use it for its intended purpose.

Our stallion Legacy’s Renoir will be showing at two shows held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul in mid-June. First, Renoir will show in an open halter class with a professional handler. If he does well in that class he will qualify to show at the regional championship show that follows the first show. The two shows run almost seamlessly. This is the first time Renoir has been shown since 2005, and we are curious to see how he does. We believe he will do very well.

There is other good news related to Renoir too. There are two mares that are in foal to him, due in April 2008. One of the mares, VG Elambra, we are leasing from her owner so the resulting purebred Arabian foal will be ours. We are planning to breed both of our Thoroughbred mares (Bentley and Missy) and a purebred Arabian mare Khatalina Bey to him in June for foals in May 2008.

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Outdoor chores, Spain and Newsletter Lady

Yesterday afternoon the rain finally found us here on the farm. It did not arrive in angry bursts like in other areas of the State; instead we got about a inch of rain so needed by lawns and in the recently planted fields and gardens. Many farmers are planting corn again this year. I’m told the prices are very good. Must be due in part to corn stove buyers like us.

We’d spent yesterday morning in the back pasture, Ian pulling out T-posts and old barbed wire and me atop the John Deere riding mower laying low thistle, dandelion and cocklebur plants before they went to seed. It’s nice to see how the pasture has changed since we did mowing with the brush mower last year. The fact that I can mow with the John Deere versus the brush mower is testament to what last year’s sweat accomplished.

Soon all the old fencing will be removed and we can move on to replacing the perimeter fence, which will be a big job. The idea for the interior is to segment into large paddocks that we can shift horses to, allowing the others to rest and regroup.

The local news is reporting that right now the Minnesota mosquitoes (we joke that these are the State bird) are the largest they will be all year – about a size of a nickel (a shilling, a 20 cent Euro). Later in the season they get smaller and faster. I just despise these little witches! And, of course, it is the females that bite.

Today began with rain that ran through early afternoon. It was a steady pelt with occasional breaks. I had run electric fence around the front lawn, which is now well-fertilized and eaten golf-course short, so I decided to move the four geldings into a back pasture while I relocated the step-in posts to another area. I donned a rain poncho and began unthreading the white fence tape and then pulled a cart and collected step-in posts. I stepped off the new fence line with four of my own steps in between posts. It is a task that allows me to ponder other things. I just walk, place a stake, step it in, count to four, make sure my line is true, step in another post, and repeat. Surely you have something productive yet mindless like this … doing puzzles, needlepoint, knitting, cleaning stalls.

While I was re-fencing, Ian set fire to a large pile of wood limbs and other burnable scraps we’d piled in the pasture earlier in the spring. Bless his heart, it really got hot and has burned a five-foot x five-foot pile into nothing more than white ash. I really love that we can burn here without a permit, as long as we are responsible and are aware about the level of fire danger. We don’t burn our garbage, but its nice to be able to save the odd boards, fallen limbs, etc.

It’s possible that Ian and I will be traveling to Spain soon because a young Spanish couple wants to buy one of the chalets. The couple has been approved for a mortgage and now the property must pass an inspection. As soon as that’s done the date will be set to sign the papers and that’s when we’ll book tickets. This is the second time we’ve had interested buyers, so we’re trying not to get too excited! Our agent emailed me that a woman is coming this weekend to see the other chalet and she’s looking for a rental property. The young couple is buying their first home. I remember the year we lived in Riumar. It was lovely. I’m not sure how long we’ll be there, but probably 10 days to two weeks. We would be truly blessed if the sale of number 11 comes together during that time.

One thing we will be doing is packing the personal items we have left there and ready all for the overseas shipper. We also need to get our 1986 Porsche 944S over to the UK. It needs to have its fuel control system worked on and then we’ll store it somewhere in England; somewhere reasonably priced, and accessible so that we can use it when we travel to Europe rather than renting a car. We cannot import it to the US until its 25 years old.

Thankfully we have Tina who is more than up to the responsibility of taking care of the farm while we are overseas. She will come morning and night to handle horse-related chores, keep an eye on the property and see that Tiger and Lady are good too. We’d considered boarding Tiger and Lady, but thought that would be so boring for both, not to mention the expense.

As if there aren’t enough irons in the fire, I formally launched my company Newsletter Lady with a targeted postcard mailing to local businesses. You can read more about it at www.newsletterlady.com

E-I-E-I-O

Country Life

There are definite advantages to living in the country. For instance, you can have horses eat your front yard lawn and fertilize at the same time! Yes, there are piles of poop, but the chickens like to scratch the piles to find treats and distribute them into the grass, so I don’t have to do that either. Not a bad deal.

It’s fun to look out our living room windows and see the one or all four of the geldings eating or trotting by. We have electric fence that allows this moveable feast for the horses. Every 10 days or so I move the electric fence posts – they’re called “step ins” because you place a post where you want it and step it into the ground - then I string white electric wire tape from post to post making a pasture fence loop that plus into a fencer that provide the jolt. This gives other grazing areas time to rest and regroup before I let the horses feed on them again. We have fenced off our front door so that we don’t have a curious horse come inside – they are that friendly!

Some weeks ago I discovered that we had a rooster in the hen house. Last fall, Trixie hatch a brood of chicks shortly after our last rooster died. Most of the chicks made it through the winter. They are black, like their mother, so I never thought about any being a rooster. Well, about three weeks ago when doing morning chores I heard a definite cock-a-doodle-do and sure enough there was a rooster in all his colorful glory! I’d been thinking about ordering some more chicks and then thought if we have a rooster sooner or later if I don’t collect eggs we’ll have chicks. Well, about seven dozen and about five different nest of eggs later – no chicks! So, I’m going to toss all the now abandoned eggs and start collecting them daily. Maybe the rooster needs to get a bit more lead in his pencil. At least he hasn’t taken to chasing me like the Honeymooner roosters Ralph and Ed. I think I’ll call him John Wayne, for the actor whose only Oscar came from his role as Rooster Cogburn in the movie True Grit.

Yesterday. Marcia came to visit. We had a wonderful time catching up and had an impromptu BBQ. She brought blue corn chips and homemade salsa and guacamole. The temperature was wonderful as we sat outside and chatted. Ian went back and forth from our conversation to working on his kitchen project – getting the countertops ready for ceramic tile. Later in the afternoon the wind turned cold and both Marcia and I went for our sweatshirts. Then we came inside to watch the Preakness Stakes, as the Kentucky Derby winner was beaten by a nose.

Today, the highs are in the 50s and we have overcast skies. If it would rain I wouldn’t mind, but being cold and overcast just seems so unproductive! Ian lit the corn stove this morning and it’s cozy in here.

E-I-E-I-O

AMF Spring Update

We continue to enjoy watching Windy’s third foal and first filly develop. Since the last posting, we've decided her registered name will be Troublesome Kisses, as her sire’s name is RSA Troublesome and Windy’s is RJ Kiss The Wind. We call her Kisses. Windy’s 2006 foal, AMF Xtreme Kiss, comes when called by his barn name “Kiss” and so far it’s not confusing. We own Windy’s first foal too, Windstorm GTC, whom we call Cairo.

As of yesterday afternoon all of our horses are vaccinated for the season. We own 14 now and 11 are here on the farm. Not so strange since we're an Arabian horse breeding farm.

The three that aren’t here are Jay, Legacy’s Renoir and MAF Last Dance. Our three-year-old Arabian gelding Jay is spending the summer at a friend’s farm with a teenaged girl as her 4-H project horse www.mn4hhorse.com. The girl’s parents may decide to buy Jay in the fall, so we’ll see where it goes. I’m pleased he’ll be well looked after, will learn some new skills and has helped to paste quite a large grin on the young lady’s face.

Legacy’s Renoir is our five-year-old Arabian breeding stallion. At the end of April we made a business decision to move him to a new training center named Shada Inc. www.shadainc.com located in Elk River, MN. This is Renoir’s first year as a breeding stallion. A veterinarian comes to Shada three times a week to collect his semen, which is then cooled and made ready for shipping to whatever mare owner in the continental U.S. has paid to be bred to him. We plan to breed five mares to Renoir ourselves for foals in May and June 2008. Renoir will also be trained and shown in halter classes by Jerry Schall. Ian may show him too in some amateur owner to handle (AOTH) classes. As soon as Renoir has professional photos and video done he will be listed on the Shada site and we will begin an advertising campaign within the Arabian horse community.

MAF Last Dance (“Mona”) is a beautiful chestnut-colored Arabian mare that we are buying from Whispering Pines Arabians in South Dakota. She is pictured at this link: www.whisperingpinesarabians.com/mares.htm

Mona will come to us in late September bred to a palomino-colored American Saddlebred stallion named Goldmount Royal Design www.arabiansbydesign.com/Stallion.htm. Mona has had four Half Arabian foals by Royal and they are all eye-catching!

We’re also leasing a mare from a friend in western Wisconsin. VG Elambra is a 10-year-old chestnut-colored Arabian mare. She has awesome bloodlines and should cross nicely with Renoir. We will know on May 29 if she is pregnant by Renoir. Provided she is in foal, Elly will stay with her owner in Wisconsin and carry her foal to term there. The foal will come to us when it is weaned at four months.

In April, Ian traveled to Illinois to pick up Khatalina Bey, a mare we bought from Salem Ranch www.salemranch.com/horseprogram.htm. She is 13 years old and what we call a flea bitten grey mare. We will breed her to Renoir too. Ian’s trip to Salem was uneventful, but on his way back the two right rear tires of our 1-ton dually sheered off on the interstate as he was pulling the trailer loaded with the mare! He got to the side of the road, called me, I called the Illinois State Troopers and they got Ian, the mare, truck and trailer to a truck stop mechanic that was able to get everything fixed and/or replaced in three hour’s time … and for $1300! Neither Ian or Khatalina Bey was hurt nor did she need to be unloaded during any of the repairs. She stood happily in her trailer stall eating hay while surely wondering what was going on!

We had some unexpected news yesterday when our vet Dr. Jennifer visited. Missy, the black bay Thoroughbred mare we bought sight unseen off a slaughter truck in October, absorbed the foal she was carrying sometime between November, when she was confirmed in foal by Dr. Jennifer, and yesterday. When we got Missy she was underweight and in general poor health. We put her on a good feeding regime, treated her arthritis and brought her into a stall every night. Sometimes Mother Nature steps in when things aren’t going well, and this is the case with Missy. Now she is strong, the correct weight with a coat that glistens in the sun has a good attitude and should be ready to breed and carry a foal to term for us. We will breed her to Renoir next month.

Earlier in the month Dr. Jennifer operated on Whisper, our three-year-old cryptorchid stallion. A cryptorchid means that one or both of its testicles have not dropped and to geld them ("fixing" them so they cannot breed) means abdominal surgery under anesthesia to search and remove the undeveloped testis. We bought Whisper last year at an auction for $75. We learned a week later when the vet came to geld him one of the reasons why he was so cheap. He has always been a delightful horse, easy to handle and handsome as he gained weight with good feed and care. Once started under saddle, which will happen this year, he will make someone a great trail horse.

Recently we said good-bye to Heide, who cleaned stalls for us during the winter months. We hired Tina as our part-time barn manager in early May. Tina comes with two years experience working for a horse vet, likes to organize, owns her own Arabian horses, including a breeding stallion, and can come every other day to attend to whatever needs doing in and around the barn.

Our farrier comes on Monday morning to trim hooves and put shoes on tenderfoot 19-year-old Bentley so that I can ride her this season. She’s a lovely, well-behaved ride.

Last weekend a girlfriend came to the farm for the first time. After we walked the pastures meeting the horses and toured the house to see its renovation progress, we sat outside snacking on goodies she’d brought and Lisa commented how reading this blog makes her tired. As I look at what’s written, knowing what I edited or did not include, I can see why!

E-I-E-I-O

It's a girl!

Well, actually, it’s a filly! This morning, our purebred Arabian mare Windy (RJ Kiss the Wind) had her third foal and first filly just before 7. I’d gone to the barn to feed breakfast and she was pacing her stall and lying down. I ushered out the two Thoroughbred mares from neighboring box stalls into the pasture and Ian came and put all the horses in a pasture that is one further away from the barn. Our Quarter horse mare Nutmeg likes to pick up the sliding barn door with her nose and slam it, indicating I’m not fast enough with her food. No mother about to give birth wants to hear that noise!

Windy got up and laid down three different times and then she went down once again in a contraction and rolled over on her back with her four hooves in the air and pushed her daughter into the world. I’ve never seen a mare give birth quite like that before! While this was going on I sat outside the stall on a turned over bucket, the barn cats and Lady near me watching this miracle. Ian, coffee cup in hand, and I watched for the next hour as the filly stood, wobbled, found the right faucet and began to nurse.

We’re going to register her as AMF Troublesome’s Kiss and call her “Kisses.” We own all three of Windy’s foals, Cairo, Kiss and now Kisses.The filly’s sire is the handsome purebred Arabian stallion RSA Troublesome, owned by our friend Gerri Ann. I called her when I came into the house to get Ian … before the foal was born! We’ve talked several times already today. Friends in Iowa had a mare bred to Troublesome too and they had a filly this morning as well! In fact, a few weeks ago, Windy’s dam (mother), also in foal to Troublesome, had a filly too!

We have another foal due this month too by our Thoroughbred mare Missy (Yukon Miss). She’s in foal to a Thoroughbred stallion named Foolish Lover. This is her sixth by this stallion. We bought Missy last October and she was already in foal. That one should be very long-legged, as Missy is a giant at 16 hands (4 inches per “hand”) at her withers (shoulders) and her head is held much higher.

Fun, fun, fun!

E-I-E-I-O

Spring unsprung

Not too many weeks ago we were enjoying 70 and 80-degree weather here on the farm. Today, April 5, it is minus 2 degrees below zero Fahrenheit with the wind chill with actual temps in the teens. The wind has been briskly blowing from the north most of this week. The weather report predicts this spring deep freeze will continue through Easter Sunday.

Yesterday, was the coldest April 4th in Minnesota in 86 years! I feel sorry for the robins that recently returned from their winter holidays. Last week they were happily pecking for worms and this week the red-breasted ones, who eat bugs, earthworms and berries, are trying to figure out the birdseed feeders. This is the second day in a row that it’s too cold for the horses that spend the night in stalls to go out. We’re supposed to have even colder temps tomorrow!

We’re into our second year here on the farm. Ian’s had some interesting things happen with clients, he’s added a stockbrokerage firm to the mix and is helping them to build an on-line system to train brokers. I’m getting ready to launch Newsletter Lady, which I’ve created to meet the needs of small or medium-sized businesses that have little or no staff to design newsletters and websites.

Recently, the fourth anniversary of the start of the current Iraq war passed. We remember watching the initial salvos from an apartment in Fort Collins, Colorado. At the time we were away from home in Spain for six-weeks worth of HP meetings. I remember how all of the various network expert commentators consumed our television-watching hours. When the U.S. attacked Iraq under the first President Bush, my sons and I stood with many others looking at a wall of televisions in a local Target store. That U.S. and European-armed forces are still there and are even more mired is frustrating. One interview I read while we were in Colorado was entitled, “Iraq: the 51st State.” Its author contended that if we attacked Iraq and overthrew Hussein, we would be so involved in that country for so long that it would feel (and cost) as if it were added to the union.

The local horse show season begins for us at the end of the month with a show in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Ian will be showing more this year than I will. In fact, on Sunday, Trouble and Kiss came home from the training center. They are going to just be horses for a while. They will run in the pasture, see blue sky, eat grass, and socialize with others finding their place in the herd’s pecking order. Kiss is for sale and there are interested buyers in the UK and Canada’s British Columbia.

This show season Ian will be showing our most recent horse purchase, a five-year-old purebred Arabian breeding stallion named Legacy’s Renoir. Renoir lives at the Genesis Training Center where Kiss and Trouble were for a good portion of last year. He is a handsome chestnut with flaxen mane and tail. Renoir will also begin breeding mares this year, albeit via artificial insemination. His foals will begin arriving in April next year. Both Ian and our trainer Tony will show Renoir in halter classes. Renoir is not broke to ride, but we hope to show him under saddle next season.

We are expecting two foals to be born here on the farm early next month. Windy is carrying a purebred Arabian and Missy a purebred Thoroughbred. Ian and I have never “foaled out” any mares, but both are seasoned broodmares and should not have any complications.

In May and June we will be breeding as many as eight mares for babies in April and May 2008. Some will be bred to Renoir; others will be bred to stallions whose breeding we bought via different programs to promote the Arabian breed. Windy will be bred to a pinto American Saddlebred named Famous Echo SCA and we’ll see if we can get another fabulous foal like Kiss.

Meanwhile we await the warmer weather so we can continue to work on various projects inside and out.

E-I-E-I-O

Accident-prone horse

As part of doing morning chores on March 7, I looked at all of the outdoor horses in their paddocks. I saw that Cairo, our now 3 year old purebred Arabian chestnut gelding had gouged his back right leg on its front side and it was open and red. Cairo is the first horse we bought, so he’s very close to my heart. I got Ian from the house, rounded up the First Aid kit, some of which was frozen in the barn, and brought Cairo into the barn. I could see it hurt him to stand on it. He was not too happy with me cleaning it out either. I had a small bucket of warm water that I soaked a square of cotton dressing in, and then I cleaned out the cut by first pouring peroxide on it followed by betadine (brown antiseptic stuff) and rinsing clean with warm water. I got it cleaned as best I could and with a two-step dancing horse it ain’t easy. When clean it looked like a deep scrape and did not require the vet visit.

Last year Ian and I became quite adept at dressing leg wounds when Whisper cut himself on a metal gate panel, so this looked like something we could handle. I slathered the cleaned wound with triple antibiotic ointment and wrapped it with cotton dressing cut to fit his lower-leg size and then wrapped it with red-colored vet wrap. Cairo was able to walk on the leg, although it looked sore. We gave him some herbal painkiller paste orally, which he wasn’t too happy about either, but in the scale of unhappy it was on the low end. I put him in the extra fourth stall to promote rest and healing that he wouldn’t get being turn back outside with his two buddies Jay and Whisper.

Cairo was well on the way to being healed and back to freedom when he cut himself again on a different leg on the 21st. Maybe he doesn’t like Wednesdays! I went out as usual to feed breakfast to the horses in the barn – all was well – but when I returned 45 minutes later to turn them out (Cairo was able to go into his own paddock during the day) there stood Cairo with his right front leg drenched in blood! This cut looked bad and I once again got Ian so we could assess the situation together.

I turned out the three mares from their stalls and with my bucket of warm water, cotton dressing, betadine, etc. began cleaning the cut. I was rinsing it out when it began to spray blood like pinprick holes in a garden hose. Freaked me OUT! Ian told me to put the wet cotton dressing on the wound; he’d hold it while I wrapped it with vet wrap as a compress. Good idea and Cairo was cooperative! I did that and then bolted for the house and the phone. I called the vet and she arrived about 45 minutes later.

Unusually, Heide and her youngest son Pierce (4) were also on hand that morning. Pierce got to see the horse’s owie. Heide usually comes on Tuesday and Fridays to clean the barn, but it was lovely to have her on hand just in case.

The vet gave Cairo some happy juice, put five stitches in the cut above his right knee, gave him a tetanus shot and after complementing me on the leg wrapped dressing on his rear right leg suggested I dress the new one too with a bandage that extended over his knee joint to help restrict movement. I did this and for two days Cairo walked the stall like a peg-leg pirate. I felt so bad for him because his leg was swollen up into his shoulder. We dosed him twice daily with the herbal painkiller paste, fed him lots of hay, a handful of grain when the others were fed and all the water he could drink.

Yesterday, I took Cairo out for a little walk. He’s feeling pretty good and decided he’d try crowding me a little and added in a bit of rearing for good measure. I gave a couple of good yanks to jolt him back to reality where that behavior is not acceptable and then the time out of his stall was pleasant for all involved. He’s on stall rest until Thursday and we’ll see how the wounds look before he can be turned back outside.

Putting on our Crime Scene Investigator hats and following the blood spatter that was at human eye-level, Cairo must have gotten impatient after breakfast and reared up in his stall where his right leg reached out over the top of the panel and caught the edge of the metal light switch cover (a good six inches away) and after cutting himself he then traveled along the top of the stall, sliding until he could get his legs down again. What a nutball. He is now in a stall that has wooden planks form floor to ceiling. Its window to the horse pasture keeps him occupied and connected as each horse in turn comes up to greet him sometime during the day.

It’s never dull on the Auld Macdonald Farm.

E-I-E-I-O

Home Sweet Home

We were welcomed home by our very own Frosty the snowman built next to our door by one of Heide’s boys. Ian and I both slept well. Tiger nestled in between us, as he usually does, and Lady found her spot of run next to the bed and stretched out. After all the sleeping she did in the truck it was a wonder that she was quiet all night.

This morning, thanks to Heide doing the morning chores, Ian and I could move slowly to find our rhythm. I finished the laundry this morning and have sorted through a big box of mail – you can’t believe how much was junk!

As I was filling the Mr. Coffee and pondered what to make for breakfast I thought about how different living in the trailer had been and how I really liked its conveniences. Usually, when one goes camping, it’s home that has all the easy stuff and ones makes due in a trailer. Not so for us. Living in the trailer I cook/bake with a stove/oven that uses propane, which I prefer to home’s electric. The bathroom is not our only source of water (in fact, it’s our third) and I wash dishes in the kitchen sink, rather than the bathtub. We ate on real versus paper plates at a kitchenette table versus balancing meals on our laps or at our desk. Thankfully, like home the wireless broadband service we subscribed to from Sprint worked very well and this allowed us to work and generally stay in touch!

Lady has been reunited with her pups, Agnes and Bernie, who are Donna’s dogs. I do think she prefers to be with her people, leash or not, but now that we’re all home it’s clear that Lady enjoys running around our end of the road under her own steam to being on a leash everywhere she goes. We appreciate her flexibility and love to see joy in a way that only a dog can express.

The weatherman says we’re looking at six new inches of snow overnight and as much as another 14 inches by Saturday. That will lie atop the 16 inches that fell here last week. The wind will kick up so there will be drifts to deal with too. This is exactly why we hire a guy to plow our driveway and parking areas. He brings a skid loader and gets a 1000 square foot area cleared in less than 15 minutes. We’ll go to the grocery store sometime this afternoon to stock up and ready ourselves for the coming storms. Getting somewhere is not a problem since both our trucks are 4-wheel drive.

The horses and chickens are all fine and the barn is as tidy as it’s ever been. Thanks to Heide … she even took time to tidy the house, so we could just relax in our home sweet home.

E-I-E-I-O

Heading Home

Later today (Monday) we will secure things in the trailer, hook it up to the one-ton truck and begin our 35+ hour trek home to Minnesota. We’re traveling northeastward between two snow systems; one that dumped 12 inches of the white stuff on Auld Macdonald Farm, then blew it into three-foot drifts, and another that promises more snow on Wednesday. We plan to caravan with our trainer Tony and his co-driver. Ian has a co-driver too, but she has yet to be pressed into service. LOL We should arrive home Tuesday evening.

We have really enjoyed ours 2+ weeks in much-warmer-than-Minnesota, more-sunny-than-not Arizona. Our two horses taking Top10 ribbons two times each was an honor at such a large and competitive show. Scottsdale kicks off the 2007 show season for us. It's also nice to know that Ian will be showing horses in halter classes as well. I'm SO proud of him. We’re going to a horse show in Las Vegas in late April and may go to one local Minnesota show in late March, as a tune up before Nevada.

March and April will have us busy breeding mares; we have five we’d like to get in foal for babies in 2008. Our mares Thoroughbred Missy and Arabian Windy are each due to deliver purebred foals in May.

We like to travel, but we also like to return home to the farm! It’s never boring.

E-I-E-I-O

Winning at Scottsdale

This morning I showed Trouble in the three- and four-year-old gelding AOTH class. Trouble is three this year. It was a sunny but cool morning and the stands were beginning to with weekend spectators. It was a fun morning watching Trouble as he was groomed. I almost never wear make up or decorative jewelry, but I get glammed up for the horse shows. When the announcer called for our class to begin assembling outside the gate, a small posse of GTC friends walked over to the Wendell Arena. Tony reminded me of the things I should do to get the best performance out of Trouble. He’s very positive as a coach and I’m always glad he follows me around the arena in case anything goes wrong – like a halter breaks – and also giving me guidance from the sidelines … all of which is legal and very helpful!

One of the many things I’ve needed to concentrate on is slowing down the process of showing Trouble. I tend to jump right in and forget that the horse and I are partners and that to be successful I must have him on board with how we are going to proceed.

Trouble was really ready to show today and he likes it. When we came in the ring he was high stepping, snorting, tossing his head and generally strutting his stuff. The crowd liked it. As we went to the middle to stand for the 3-judge panel I tried to be slower and set him up as well as I could. I think we did OK and again as we stood along the rail for final judging things seemed to come together. Later, as we walked back to the stalls, Tony said I looked competitive out there today as an amateur handler and that was nice to hear.

Trouble and I won a Top 10 ribbon and plaque. Ian videotaped my entire session and snapped one photo of me being awarded my ribbon. Nice! Winning at any horse show is very nice, but winning at Scottsdale is extra special because the competition is very tough. I am proud of all I've learned since I started taking handler lessons in June and I am even more proud of how Trouble has developed. Now that Ian debuted as a handler at Scottsdale both he and I can look forward to a fun showing season this year.

Tomorrow afternoon, the last day of the show, two-year-old gelding Fire Hawk TL shows again. We wish him well. After that class we can begin packing up the trailers and thinking about the long drive home. Tomorrow night we'll relax and watch the Oscars and we will begin our 32+-hour trek home to Minnesota on Monday. It has been a wonderful experience and one I hope that we can do annually.

E-I-E-I-O

Top 10 again for Kiss

This morning under a blazing Arizona sun Ian made his debut as an amateur horse handler. Ian showed our seven-month-old gelding, AMF Xtreme Kiss, in the Half Arabian/Anglo Arabian In Hand Stock/Hunter Type Yearling & 2-Year-Old Geldings Amateur Owner To Handle class. There were 11 horses entered and I was surprised how many of them are pintos. Of course, the two-year-olds were bigger and more mature in look and behavior. This type of class pushes the judges to judge each horse on its merits rather than against its contemporaries.

Kiss’s sire is TF Xtreme and he is a purebred American Saddlebred tri-color pinto. Xtreme is a homozygous tobiano pinto, which means all his foals will be pinto patterned. Kiss’s dam is our purebred Arabian mare Windy, who is pregnant and due to deliver in May. The AMF in Kiss’s name stands for Auld Macdonald Farm.

Ian and Kiss entered in age order, so he was near the end of the 11 entries. They came in well, although Kiss was a bit resistant when Ian asked him to trot in a large circle to show off for the judges. Ah, well, that small hiccup behind the two trotted off again down the rail to fans screaming with glee. As I said the sun was blazing and there is no shade in that arena. Ian kept Kiss calm and the judging progress and that helped to retain some energy for showing. The two did a good job posing on the rail and again in the middle surrounded by three judges. Then we waited as the judges submitted their scores and the Top 10 numbers began being called, which they do in numerical order. Who would go? The announcer read “2153” and we cheered. I was so excited I pressed the video camera to begin recording again and didn’t remove the lens cover right away. LOL

Our trainer Tony said he’s never had a student win a Top 10 at Scottsdale on their first time showing!

Tomorrow and Friday I will school with Trouble. We show in the AOTH class on Saturday morning … pressure!

E-I-E-I-O

Trouble comes to Scottsdale

Yesterday afternoon it began raining. It came in everything from cats-n-dogs to sheets and drizzles, but it never let up. West World, where the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show is held, has several covered arenas, but the halter classes are conducted in Wendell Arena, which is out in the open. The Arizona desert sand turned to a red sandy soup. The seating in the outdoor arenas left butts and backs with imprints, even those who tried gingerly balancing on chair edges got wet. Gone along with the sunshine were the warm temps. It dipped into the 40s last night, which is just as warm as it is in Minnesota today! The local weatherman said it would stop raining around midnight, but at 3 a.m. it was still tapping the trailer roof.

Today began chilly and overcast, and we rendezvoused at the horse stalls in fleece jackets and hooded sweatshirts. Tony and the Siddell family from Iowa, who also show during the year under the GTC banner, had already seen to breakfast and were beginning to groom the two geldings showing this morning; two-year-old Fire Hawk GR, owned by our friends at The Lake Arabians in northwest Iowa and our three-year-old, Lookin For Trouble. Tony was showing both in back-to-back classes, so both horses needed to be groomed and then ferried up to/back from the Wendell Arena. Ian and I were very pleased and thankful the Siddell family was happy to pitch in, as this left us to enjoy the classes as spectators.

Hawk and Tony joined 19 other horses in “Lake Wendell”, renamed for its newly formed puddles and swampy edges. Both handlers and horses tiptoed in to find footing in the less wet area before starting up their entrance trots. As you can imagine shoes were caked with mud and suit pants and horse legs were splattered up to the knees.

Hawk’s class was tough. To me, he looked great and he and Tony worked well as a unit. But, I’m not one of the three judges and sadly Hawk did not win a Top 10 as all of us working the GTC stables had wished.

As the sun broke through and warmed the stands Trouble and Tony came in the arena first in a field of 11 and that gelding of ours looked so handsome on his first pass that he brought tears to my eyes. I just love this horse! As I watched the class I wondered which one of all the good-looking horses would be eliminated? I tried to honestly assess each one with what I know about conformation and working attitude and I could not find fault with any, but Top 10 means 10 and only 10, one was going to go home empty handed. Would it be Trouble? I kept watching Tony and Trouble and I could not see how that well-oiled machine working so well together could be left standing without a ribbon.

As the class proceeded I stood at rail’s edge chatting with a man I’d recognized from shows in Minnesota. He agreed it was a tough class and that all 11 were worthy of a Top 10. As we gazed together trying to second-guess the judges he said, “Well, it could be that small black bay over there with Tony Steiner.” WHAT? I thought, my Trouble? I smiled and said, “I hope not.” That was when he realized we were looking at my horse. He smiled apologetically and said it could well be his horse, a dancing black beauty being shown by his wife because he wasn’t really in the best condition. Nice of him, but he’d spoken his mind and I took his comments in stride, after all, he’s not one of the three judges either!

In the end, the judges gave both of our horses and eight more Top 10 honors. Naturally, we’re thrilled and proud. When I gave Tony the conversation highlights as we walked back to the stalls he said that it’s hard for the judges to eliminate Trouble because there’s nothing wrong with him [conformation-wise] and when given the right cues by his handler Trouble does his job well. Then Tony patted me on the back, smiled and added, “You’ve got your work cut out for you in the amateur class on Saturday,” which is when I show Trouble in the amateur owner to handle (AOTH) class.

Tomorrow morning Ian shows seven-month-old Kiss in an AOTH class. Kiss and Tony won Top 10 honors last Saturday in the Half Arabian In Hand Stock/Hunter Type Yearling Geldings class. Kiss was also marked in first place on one of the three judging cards, which is a thrill to learn. Judging cards are posted for review so people can learn where their horses scored relative to others in the class. It will be interesting to see what Trouble’s marks were.

E-I-E-I-O

Thursday in Scottsdale

Today is sunny and in the 60s. It is cool enough to where a sweater or light jacket. I’m sure as the sun rises further it will be a lovely day. Lady and I have been for a walk and it is so much fun to see all the various work areas full of horses, trainers, riders and handlers. It’s also nice to hear birdsong and not to have to dress in layer after layer before going outside. Lady is enjoying sitting outside the trailer on our square of green indoor-outdoor carpet.

Ian is meeting with a potential client this morning, so he’s all dolled up. I cut his hair and trimmed his beard on Tuesday. He’s such a handsome fellow. Yesterday for Valentine’s Day we exchanged cards and cooked a very nice dinner of BBQ salmon filet with spinach & bacon salad. We had some pinot noir and finished everything with cheesecake. When we were at the grocery store we saw that Philadelphia Cream Cheese now makes a ready-to-eat cheesecake filling and decided to pick up a graham cracker crust and give it a try. It was OK, not to die for, but OK. LOL No great cheesecake comes easily.

The show begins tomorrow with youth classes. One GTC horse is a beautiful mare named Teyna Turner. She will be shown tomorrow by a teenaged Jen who is flying with her parents this afternoon. Our Half Arabian yearling Kiss will be shown by Tony on Friday. Ian shows Kiss on Wednesday morning. Tony shows Trouble on Tuesday and I show him on Saturday the 24th. There is another gelding, Fire Hawk, a tall, leggy chestnut, that is stabled with us and he shows this week too, although I don’t know which day yet.

We’ve found the local grocery store, dry cleaners, Lowe's and Target, and today after Ian return we will find the local Laundromat. I suppose we have one load, but it’s an important bunch of dirty clothes!

We went to Lowe's and picked up some flowers and potting soil to dress up the GTC stall area. Tony had already purchased wood chips and now it's dressed up. Some stable areas are quite exotic and beautiful. As the week goes on I'll send photos of some of our favorites.

Last night local TV was dumb so Ian and I watched some The West Wing final season episodes. When we lived in Spain this series didn’t air so we bought the DVD sets from Amazon when they became available. It’s so nice to watch the program without commercial breaks.

This morning just before I was completely awake I distinctly heard Bentley our Thoroughbred mare whinny. Sure, considering where we are it could have been another horse, but it really sounded like her. I like to travel but I miss being home too. It’s another week before we begin our trek home and I plan to enjoy every day.

E-I-E-I-O

Monday

Today more people and horses arrived. The air was filled with the sounds of trucks working hard at pulling trailers, horses whinnying at new neighbors and dogs barking as they figure out new territory lines. The sun was out today with temps in the low 70s. That’s 70+ degrees improvement from last week in Minnesota!

Kiss was body clipped getting him ready for the show. This means his winter coat was shaved. His chestnut brown looks a few tones lighter and he should be quite eye-catching to the judges. Tony says Kiss will mature a lot from this show experience. He’s kind of thrown in at the deep end of the pool and expected to swim; the travel time is long, he is stabled away from home for two weeks, he is schooled in new surroundings and shown twice and each time with a different handler. That’s a lot for a young horse.

Ian and Tony built the frame that holds the Genesis Training Center logo canvas that marks the stall areas. Tony took all four horses for a stroll around the compound. Tomorrow each will be exercised in an effort to keep them limber. Kiss debuts with Tony on Saturday.

One of the other many pleasures of being the trailer is being able to easily do things like prepare a meal and clean up afterward in the kitchen! Usually when folks “go camping” it’s the other way around – you kind of rough it on the road … not us, living in the trailer is a luxury! It’s at home where I wash dishes in the bathtub and cook in a makeshift area. Ah, well, soon we’ll have the farmhouse renovated and will enjoy luxury at home and on the road.

E-I-E-I-O

Coming to Scottsdale

We began our trip at 9 a.m. on Friday and arrived on the show grounds in Scottsdale, Arizona at 11 p.m. Saturday. A childhood friend, Reah, wanted to caravan with us for part of the way so that she could ferry her Honda CRV to Austin, Texas. We met Reah south of the Twin Cities and pointed south along I-35. After a few hours Reah asked me to spell her driving. Her CRV drove quite nice and we talked nonstop from Missouri until 1:30 a.m. in Oklahoma City where we bid Reah farewell. She got a hotel rom and I rejoined Ian and Lady in the truck and we headed west on I-40. At 4 in the morning at a truck stop in Clinton, Oklahoma we stopped for a sleep break. Actually, I had crawled into the backseat some hours earlier, allowing Lady to ride shotgun. At 6 a.m. Ian started the engine again and off we went. I popped back up front at our breakfast and gas fill-up stop. The Texas panhandle was foggy but the temps were finally bearable after the subzero of home.

In sunnier New Mexico the scenery reminded me of a John Wayne movie set with its sagebrush, straw-colored grass and thick green trees dotting the rolling landscape. The rock outcroppings got more and more interesting, as did the billboards touting dinosaur bone parks, and various Indian tribe-made pottery and jewelry. We climbed into Albuquerque and treated ourselves to a cheeseburger and fries lunch at a Route 66 diner on the far side of town.

We continued across New Mexico and as the sun set we gassed up for the umpteenth time since leaving home at a Hopi Indian-run truck stop. I didn’t note the time that we crossed into Arizona, but I did telephoned our trainer Tony who was about four hours ahead of us on the road. Tony hauled the four horses that Genesis Training Center will be showing here. We hauled hay and feed in our trailer. We brought our own supplies for a couple of good reasons; buying either at a horse show is really expensive, and it’s best for horses to maintain their regular diet to help minimize gastrointestinal problems.

The descent from Flagstaff to Phoenix is substantial under any conditions; pulling a 36-foot trailer makes it very interesting. Ian wasn’t familiar with the road and after 30+ driving hours was working hard at getting us safely through that last little bit. After a couple of wrong turns we arrived at Westworld in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale and easily found our rented RV spot. Ian backed the trailer into its slot and we three climbed into bed and slept. Ian commented that he hadn’t driven that many hours straight since his days driving tours from London to Nairobi.

This morning we rendezvoused with Tony and saw the horses. All looked good as we fed them breakfast and topped up water buckets. This is our yearling gelding’s first show and road trip and Kiss looks none the worse for wear. He will be body clipped tomorrow, as Tony shows him on Saturday. He’s had his face shaved but hasn’t had his entire body done. I’ve never seen it done, so I’m interested to see how it goes. Today is a rest day for all of us. The show starts on Thursday, and we came early so the horses and people have time to recover from the trip.

Today the weather was overcast and it did rain this afternoon, but earlier we were running errands in shirtsleeves, calling people at home in the Midwest saying how nice it was! I spoke with Donna earlier who told me it was 10 degrees, which must feel balmy after many days in the deep freeze. During our walk around the grounds we saw a hummingbird hovering near an acacia tree.

After getting clothes, food and other supplies put away, I baked a pan of brownies (I had to test the oven LOL) and have a loaf of oatmeal bread baking in the bread machine. We’re having broiled steak and salad for dinner with a glass of wine.

Ian’s hooked up the wireless broadband so his laptop has Internet access and we can stay in touch with clients (and you, of course).

E-I-E-I-O

Cold weather sucks!

Today the HIGH is 9 below zero (Fahrenheit) and the wind chill is around –19! Outside it looks picture postcard perfect with clear blue cloudless skies. When I walked to the barn to feed breakfast the skin on my face stung from the cold. OK, THIS is why I don’t like living on the frozen tundra! And the horses, bless their hearts, are braving these temps like champs. All have very thick coats of hair and munch on 1800-pound round bales of good quality hay and sip heated water. They’re actually in better humor than I am about the climate, as all come to the fence line for pats, scratches and rubs.

The house is cold at 60-some degrees. It just cannot maintain warmth in the deep freeze. Until we finish its renovation in the warmer weather, we will have to manage with the various drafts and freezing floor. The corn stove is doing its best and it is cozy when we snuggle in bed. Tiger and Lady have joined us the last couple of nights when wind chills bring temperatures to –30.

We have a new water heater, changed from propane to electric. It works great, but the water lines froze last night, so we’re waiting on the basement heater to get that running again. When the water and the temperature are right I look forward to taking a shower! As I write I am dressed in layers that include snow pants, a lap blanket and my beaver hat!

The hens continue to produce an average of nine eggs a day. We have a small group of people who buy a dozen here and there, so we’re not stocked to the gunnels having to make quiche, omelets and soufflés. They have heat lamps in the coop, which is a screened in area inside the barn. Some hens have snuggled so close to the lamps their feathers have singed. Donna gets fresh produce scraps from an organic grocer and they feast on that regularly in addition to the egg crumble feed from the mill.

Lady’s puppies are 11 months old this month. Last summer, Donna took one of each, Agnes and Bernie, and our trainer, Tony, and his family bought another female they named Si-Si. Lady enjoys seeing these three pups regularly. They rip and run and play until all are winded and then they start over again. Si-Si was spayed last month, Bernie was neutered last week and soon Donna will make a date for Agnes to be fixed too. Lady was spay shortly after the pups were weaned last year. We had lots of surprise babies on the Auld Macdonald Farm last year and we’re trying to exert some control. We hope the other four puppies are doing well in their homes too.

On Friday we’re planning to hook up the trailer and begin heading to Scottsdale, Arizona for the big horse show. It is mostly sunny and in the 70s there today! I’m looking forward to that. Heide is taking care of the animals while we’re gone (Lady comes with us) and if there’s anything she can’t handle Donna is just down the road. We’re thankful for them both.

E-I-E-I-O

Heide comes to the farm!

Last month I placed an ad in a local paper searching for someone to help with barn chores six to eight hours a week. I must have received 50 calls but I only interviewed two people face-to-face. The second person got the job. Heide, yes, spelled with an “e” at the end, is a recently divorced single mother of four boys ages 4-13. She is strong, has a good sense of humor, a solid work ethic, and balances taking initiative with making suggestions for what the barn needs. She’s a crack shot with the pellet gun and has significantly reduced our pigeon population. In addition to cleaning stalls twice weekly and straightening the barn, she tops up water tanks, stacks square hay bales, fills feed bins readying them for feeding and, when there’s time, she’s begun stripping out old wooden planks on the side of the barn where we’re going to put in four new stalls in the spring. Heide told me she wanted the job because she loves being outdoors and that shoveling horse poop helps her to focus on what’s important and the flexible schedule would allow her to be home with her boys when they are not in school.

We have assembled and placed eight of the 11 cabinets we will have in the kitchen. The photos of these base units are not that exciting, but the fact that we are progressing is! While Ian worked on consulting projects, Heide and I spent two afternoons assembling IKEA cabinets and we got darn good at this! The next steps are bolting the units to the wall and then cutting countertop bases from plywood and cement board. The countertops will be ceramic tile, as will the walls in the cooking portion of the kitchen. We won’t begin these steps until we return from the horse show in Arizona. We’re looking to head to Scottsdale somewhere in the February 8-10 window, weather permitting. Heide will look after the horses daily and keep an eye on the house while we are gone with Donna as her back up.

Ian and I bought six 1800-pound round bales of hay from a local farmer to feed the seven horses that live outdoors (they have a run-in shed for protection). At $35 a round bale this is a less expensive way to feed hay then square bales, which weigh about 50 pounds each, cost $2.50 per and the seven can easily eat five bales daily. There’s also a round bale placed in the pasture for the three mares that come in at night. Knowing this hay is available to them all day I feed less hay inside at night. In the winter healthy horses generate heat from foraging, which they can do naturally almost ‘round the clock, and having access to temperate water. Each horse drinks 10-15 gallons a day. All three of our 100-gallon stock tanks have heaters to keep them from freezing and the barn mares have heated 5-gallon water buckets in their stalls. Of course all 10 have heavy, rug-like winter coats and even the hard-to-keep Thoroughbreds have put on weight and are looking very healthy.

E-I-E-I-O

Today we bought a corn stove!

A corn stove is a type of pellet stove, which is a type of biofuel stove. “Biofuel” is any fuel that is derived from biomass — recently living organisms or their metabolic byproducts, such as manure from cows. It is a renewable energy source, unlike other natural resources such as petroleum, coal, and nuclear fuels.

The shelled dry kernel of corn, also called a corn pellet, creates as much heat as a wood pellet but generates more ash. Corn pellet stoves and wood pellet stoves look the same from the outside. In fact, the brand we bought, Pelpro, burns both corn and wood pellets. Since these stoves are highly efficient, they don't need a chimney; instead they can be vented outdoors by a four-inch pipe through an outside wall and so can be located in any room in the home. You can see a photo of the one we bought here:

www.pelprostoves.com/corn-stoves.htm

I know, I know, more than you ever wanted to know about corn stoves! I am very pleased to get away from or at least greatly reduce our personal reliance on propane. We filled our 500 gallon propane tank at the beginning of December for $730 and now the gauge reads 10% only six weeks later. And to date this has been an unseasonably warm Minnesota winter! One ton of dried corn pellets, bought in bulk from the local feed mill, costs $142. There are about 30 bushels in a ton and we will use about one bushel a day to heat the house. Yeah, I already like those numbers!

We’ll need to shuffle things around in the living room area (like the bed, dresser and couch) to accommodate the stove, but we’re happy to do that. We’ve wanted a corn stove since we learned about them shortly after we bought the farm. We had to special order the 4-inch vent pipe, which will be ready for pick up tomorrow, and then Ian will install the stove. We’ll get a pick-up load of corn from the feed mill tomorrow too, so we should be up and running tomorrow afternoon. It will be nice to turn the propane thermostat down. We cannot be completely propane free as we will use it for cooking in the new kitchen and it heats our water heater, but we can reduce how much we use.

E-I-E-I-O

He's baaaaaaack!

After 15 days on the road, Ian’s back home and none the worse for wear! Lady and I met him at the airport around eight last night. He came bearing gifts too! The highlights included pure butter shortbread cookies, our favorite mint shower gel from Boots (a pharmacy in the UK), a bottle of Chanel No. 5, (my favorite – and I was out) and a bottle of my favorite Champagne, Verve Clicquot Ponsardin, which came in its own orange neoprene bottle jacket to keep it cold! All that aside, the best thing Ian could ever bring home to me is himself, as he did, safe and sound.

While Ian spent a good portion of his day flying transatlantic I made fresh bread and corn beef with cabbage, potatoes, carrots and onions, which we sampled when we got home. Neighbor Donna donated two pieces of homemade peach crumble for our dessert.

Now Ian is here as a permanent legal alien. This status is good for life. Even if we decide to relocate abroad again, all he needs to do to keep this status intact is to travel to the U.S. once a year.

We’ll see what fun these next weeks have in store as we settle into what’s “normal” for us and as we get ready to attend (and show at) the 52nd Annual Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show in Arizona February 16-25.

E-I-E-I-O

Happy New Year! Here, there and everywhere

Ian has been traveling since Christmas Day. He needed to go to Madrid for an appointment regarding his US visa (green card), which allows him to reside and work here fulltime. Ian had to undergo a physical exam at a Madrid clinic approved by the U.S. Embassy. He had to have his vaccinations updated. He had to get a police report stating he had no police record in Spain. What’s amazing about this is that when you read the information given to you about this process, it gives the impression that this can all be done in a day! HA! And he's doing some of it in Spanish too. As I said, Ian left Minneapolis on Christmas Day, changed planes in London, then to Barcelona where he spent one night with Michael and Natalia, then took the train and arrived Madrid on the 28th for his medical appoint and was busy for the next two days running hither and yon throughout the Spanish capitol. We are very grateful that throughout his trip he has been able to stay with family, at our Spanish house or in a hotel chain where he can cash in points! After busy days in Madrid, he took the train to the coast and stayed in our beach house in Riumar for the New Year’s weekend. We celebrated New Year’s Eve together on Spanish time with a phone call, even though 2007 would not greet me in Minnesota for another seven hours.

While in Riumar, Ian sold our trailer to the man who did the renovation work on the houses. He tidied up our Camel Trophy Land Rover that had been parked there and readied it for travel. On January 2nd he drove the Land Rover five hours to Madrid and was there for his 9 a.m. appointment at the consulate on the third. All the papers were reviewed and he was told his visa would be issued … good … although it and his passport would be mailed from Madrid to his Spanish address in Barcelona! What?? Yup, thanks to changes made by Homeland Security nothing could be done to change this “security” procedure.

The reason Ian was driving the Land Rover is because it was going to be sold to one of two interested buyers; one in Lisbon, Portugal, the other in Peterborough, England. Lisbon is much closer and on the Iberian Peninsula, but that guy did not get it together by the Thursday morning deadline. So, Ian headed north through Bilbao, up through Bordeaux, France, through Paris in the wee hours and up to Calais where using his Canadian passport he took the car ferry to Dover and made his way northwest from the coast to Peterborough in Cambridgeshire. He arrived there Friday after almost 24 driving hours. Unfortunately, the man who writes the check at the Nene Overland car dealership was taken to hospital a few hours before Ian arrived, so we won’t get a payment for the Land Rover until early next week. Ian’s fine with that (and the man is OK healthwise too), as this is where Ian purchased it.

While on the road good news came from Barcelona, Ian’s passport and visa had arrived by special courier.

Road weary, Ian took the train from Peterborough into Stansted and checked into the airport hotel – one of our favorites, with its tower bar and athletic bartenders that use mountain-climbing pulleys to retrieve bottles from various shelves that go up a few stories above their heads. He slept well last night and caught an EasyJet flight back to Barcelona today. He will stop through Michael & Natalia’s this evening where he’ll collect his UK passport and sealed US visa packet and in a rental car will head down the coast to spend two nights at our house in Riumar. He flies back from Barcelona into London Gatwick on Monday and has a Tuesday morning flight home. Barring any delays along the way, I will meet him at the airport at 7:30 p.m.

When Ian comes through Newark, his first port of entry into the U.S., he will meet with someone from U.S. Immigration, have his identity confirmed and the visa will be affixed in his passport. I’m not sure if there’s a time limit on it or not, but making this hurdle is the most important. Having a visa allows Ian to live here, have a social security number, work and pay taxes. He will have legal immigrant status, but not be a U.S. citizen, which would allow him to vote, have a passport and hold political office (except for President, you’ve got to be born here for that). The visa and related fees (medical, record searches) were near $1500. That does not account for all the airfare, train fare, hotel fare (although we did well there), food and just plain body wear and tear!

It will be very good to see the Auld Macdonald.

Well, I’d better end here, as a local farmer’s coming to deliver hay for the horses and I need to run into town to buy chicken feed later too. Thankfully, the Minnesota winter weather has been unbelievably mild so running errands and doing chores aren’t hardships.

E-I-E-I-O

The traveling Auld Macdonald

Ian’s traveling this Christmas to Spain, France and the UK, primarily, because he’s got to go to an appointment in Madrid regarding his US visa. Since we started this process before we left Spain, all appointments must be conducted there. Part of this appointment requires him to undergo a physical exam at an approved clinic in Madrid, which must be done before meeting with the paper pushers. Being’s its holiday time Ian has that appointment on the 28th, will spend New Year’s at our place in Riumar and return to Madrid on the 2nd for a morning appointment at the embassy on the 3rd. The real kicker is to get all of this done he will leave here on Christmas morning! I contemplated going along, but we’ve got lots of irons in the fire here and I’m fine to stay behind and look after the animals. My mother is also recovering from surgery on a hip replacement and is still in hospital recovering. I’d feel better being closer as she recuperates.

We’re selling our Land Rover to a reseller in England, so when Ian’s in Riumar, where the LR is parked, he will get it ready for the trip from Catalunya, up through France, crossing by car ferry at Calais into Dover and up to North Hamptonshire. While in Spain he’ll get to see Michael and Natalia in Barcelona for a night or two.

I envy the drive through France and am hoping Ian stops to shop for Christmas chocolates called papillottes. He flies home from London Gatwick on Tuesday, January 9.

My son Richard is going to spend Christmas and possibly New Year’s with me at the farm. That should be fun. I don’t mind being here without Ian, as this visa stuff needs to be done and it’s not like I’m alone! LOL It will be good to welcome the Auld Macdonald home though.

E-I-E-I-O

Slippery straw

Yesterday, Ian and I helped with a live nativity scene at my cousin Brenda’s church in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. I hauled about 40 bales of straw piled and strapped in the bed of our blue Chev truck, while Ian took the trailer over to collect 2 llamas and 2 sheep and their 2 owners. Straw piled high, I began my trek to the church around 11 a.m. and hadn’t gotten five miles from home on highway 65 headed south when a bale or two wiggled loose and toppled three onto the road. I saw this happen in my rearview mirror, pulled over immediately, hopped out and dragged bales off the road. Three cars stopped and helped too. I telephoned Ian, who had not left yet, and he came towing the trailer and re-stacked the straw and took a layer of bales off and stacked them in the trailer. Off I went down the road and arrived without further incident at the church around 1p.m.

While the nativity crèche was being built from the straw I went into Minneapolis and visited my Mom and younger brother Matthew. They followed me back to the church, where the parking lot had been transformed into areas that were ready to depict verses from the Christmas story. Brenda had been asking the church’s board members to do this for several years and this is the first year they said yes. It was lovely to see how teamwork was bringing it all together.

Ian went to Harris, MN to collect Robin and Gigi and their sheep and llamas. They arrived at the church in plenty of time to take their places before the drive thru parade of onlookers began at 4. The cast of angels, shepherds, wise men, Marys and Josephs rotated into the warm narthex for hot chocolate and cider, as the temps dipped into single digits. As cars exited the scene they passed a cozy bonfire kept burning by industrious young people. It looked to be a heartwarming success.

While the nativity was open to car traffic Ian and I took advantage of being close to a Fleet Farm store and went to shop, buying among other things 5-gallon heated water buckets for the horses that overnight in the barn and a smaller heated water dish for our chickens.

When the show was over and while the sheep and llamas were being reloaded, Ian re-stacked straw bales and tied them extra tight using bale straps we’d bought at the farm store. It looked to be a snug package on the back of the truck and we were off once again. I was heading north toward home and Ian headed northeast. I got about halfway home when, I think, a bale broke in the stack and as many as six bales tumbled onto highway 65, only this time in the dark! I pulled over immediately, put on the flashers and watched horrified as drivers dodged or hit the bales. THANKFULLY no one was hurt and the light bales were bumped or blown onto the median in less than a minute. I telephoned Ian, who was a good 30-minutes away, dropping off the animals. I limped to a side road not dropping any more bales and waited. Soon a county sheriff's deputy pulled up. Deputy Franklin asked if I was OK and asked what had happened. I told him about the live nativity, that I was about halfway home, that Ian was coming with the trailer and could put bales in there. He took my license and insurance info telling me that one of the cars that hit a bale had caught on fire and was at a gas station just down the road. Its front grill was melted and it was being towed. The deputy let me know that no one was injured but that there would probably be a claim to my insurance company. He looked at the straps and said it was apparent that the bales had been tied down very well and that this was truly an accident. He did not ticket me, but asked that I wait where I was until Ian arrived. So, there I sat listening to a book on tape or talking to Donna on my cellphone until Ian arrived with a warm hug. We stacked the bales in the empty trailer and headed home. I emailed my insurance agent and we’ll see what happens regarding any claim.

Yesterday was a long day and our bed felt particularly good last night. This morning we awoke to a covering of snow! Everything is white and looks clean.

E-I-E-I-O

Turkey, travel and tragedy

Ian and I spent a lovely Thanksgiving Day with our friends Beth and Tom and their daughters who live in Minnetonka. Beth and I met in 1993 when we worked at Public Radio International. Now she’s reinvented herself into a registered nurse and I’m a horse farmer! LOL Because we were going to begin our drive to Kansas City, Missouri after our turkey dinner we arrived towing our 3-horse living quarters trailer behind our one-ton truck. We swung through Minneapolis and picked up my son Richard. Our dog Lady comes with us to the shows, so she snuggled up to my son in the back seat. We had a lovely time at Beth’s, where we always meet interesting people. This time it was a politically involved and savvy family and we discussed all the over dinner taboos, like politics and religion. My cousin Brenda and her family live down the street from Beth’s so they came over and joined us for dessert and conversation. We gave tours of the living quarters and assured the neighbors that we were not hauling horses as well!

After dinner, we took Richard home and jumped on 35W headed south toward Missouri. It is an eight-hour drive and we got as far as Ames, Iowa that night and parked ourselves at a well-lit truck stop. The trailer is self-sufficient with its own heat, water pump, toilet, frig, stove, well-stocked kitchen and cozy queen-sized bed. We snuggled in and slept until about seven when the neighboring diesel trucks began pulling back onto the highway.

We arrive in Kansas City, MO around 1:30 Friday afternoon. Our trainer Tony and his family, who were hauling the three horses to be shown that weekend, were about four hours behind us. We checked in with the show office and prepared the box stalls with wood shaving bedding and water buckets.

Just before we arrive on the show grounds we received some tragic news. Our four-month-old American Saddlebred/American Paint cross weanling colt was dead. Our neighbor Donna who has had horses all her life and who watches our animals when we are traveling, called sobbing that sometime during the night Thursday Chocolate had caught his head in his stall gate and broken his neck. He was such a sweetheart of a horse and we three are heartbroken. The only consolation is that he died quickly. He was laid to rest in a peaceful spot. We close our eyes and see him galloping, kicking and bucking across Heaven’s hills playing with all the horses that waited to welcome him home. Amen.

Setting our sadness aside, we focused on the business at hand of participating in our last show of the 2006 season. The American Royal Arabian Horse Show is held in beautiful facilities that were built in what was once the country’s busiest stockyards. We and another client showed under the Genesis Training Center banner, and we did well. The three horses shown got either first or second place, which allowed the horse and handler to show in the championship class where we took either champion or reserve champion ribbons. Tony showed our horse Lookin For Trouble on Saturday and they got a blue ribbon followed by a reserve champion ribbon. I showed Trouble on Sunday as his amateur owner and won a blue ribbon and grand champion gelding for the show! My first grand championship and when I came out of the ring, Tony was there to greet me with a high-five and while he took Trouble back to his stall, Ian gave me a big hug!

On Saturday evening Trouble was entered in his first liberty class. This is a real crowd pleaser as the horses come in the ring one at a time and run around the ring without halter (at liberty) for two minutes to music. I chose Travis Tritt singing “T-R-O-U-B-L-E.” Trouble looked beautiful and Ian and Tony worked in tandem to keep him moving around the ring. When the music stops and time is called, the handlers have two minutes to catch their horse. Trouble had other ideas. With a full house watching, he ran full speed from one end of the arena to the other dodging or ignoring all efforts to get him back under control. The little bugger! Finally he snorted to a halt and Tony slipped his halter back on. The crowd cheered and they were on to the next entrant. Needless to add, we did not win that class. LOL Tony said a lot of his behavior could be attributed to the fact that this was his first at liberty class and that he’s still a youngster.

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Meet Jay & Missy

As if we don’t already have plenty of horses, we bought two more! First came Jay, a two-year-old purebred Arabian gelding. More than 15 hands tall at the withers, Jay is taller than Lookin For Trouble, who is three months older. There are 4 inches in each “hand” measurement and withers are shoulders. Jay joins the other two year olds Cairo and Whisper in the boys pasture. We are in the process of getting Jay his purebred papers, which means we will be able to show him at Arabian shows as we do with Trouble. Jay will be three years old in May and looks sturdy enough to begin under saddle. We plan to take him to a farm in Wisconsin in the coming weeks to have his readiness assessed. Jay’s sire is a beautiful stallion named Legacy of Fame (www.legacyoffame.com) and his pretty dam (mother), Sax Fifth Avenue, is also with us on the Auld Macdonald Farm. We are leasing Sax from her owner for two years and will breed her in the Spring 2007 to Famous Echo, an American Saddlebred bay pinto-colored stallion for a tall spotted National Show Horse foal similar to Kiss in early 2008.

Our second acquisition, Yukon Miss (“Missy”), is a 12-year-old registered Thoroughbred mare that we bought site unseen. Donna, who works the monthly horse auction near Pine City, Minnesota, saw her last Saturday afternoon and telephoned us while we were at the U.S. National Arabian horse show in Louisville. Missy had been bought by a killer buyer and was on her way to the glue factory. She is 17 hands tall and about 200 pounds underweight. Thoroughbreds are notorious for being hard to keep at optimum weight. I think this is because of the breed’s nervous nature coupled with the fact they are built on the lean side for speed and spend often too many hours in stalls as racing youngsters. Missy is a black bay with no white markings and like Sax she will be a perfect broodmare.

Another bonus, which is the way we choose to see it, is that Missy comes bred to a registered Thoroughbred stallion named Foolish Lover and should deliver her purebred foal in mid-May 2007. Lisa, the former owner’s contact info was included in Missy’s auction papers so I telephoned her and learned that this foal can also be registered, so Lisa is sending me the necessary forms to do this. She also told me that Missy’s racing career was ended when she did not recover fully after surgery to remove a bone chip in her left front kneecap and that she’s been a broodmare ever since. In fact, her last six foals have been with Foolish Lover and the first two foals are now racers. So in May 2007 we will have Windy’s purebred Arabian foal by RSA Troublesome (who is 3/4 brother to our Trouble) and Missy’s foal. Now won’t that be fun?!

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