Monday, December 21, 2020

All the cuteness for all the months

 Okay... to make up for it...

June:


July


August:

September:
 




October:


November:



And December!




Flecky update, Gratitude, and the Christmas Star!

 Poor beast! He hasn't had any updates since MAY!!! I'm a bad mom! 

So... very quick recap... Covid.... sold our farm. Moved to a new farm. Fleck was a little anxious and sad about Danny going places from the new place. Pulled his shoes as his feet are better. Got a new horse - Funny! Fleck LOVES her. Too much...  Of course he turned into a protective stallion and I had to play musical ponies for a month or so. Finally got them out together for a week or so... and then he lunged at Dan again and didn't get out of the way quick enough and broke his jaw. Sigh... Danny kicked and broke Fleck's jaw. BUT.....

This is what's amazing about all of it. Y'all this year has been weird. Covid has made it weird... less weird for me given my life circumstances but still.  But God is so good. We sold our farm and then panicked about where to move. Everyone kept asking why we were moving and my answer was "because I want someplace cheaper, smaller, easier to maintain, better pastures, easier to maintain/flatter/less tree filled pastures, farther out, with a sunrise or sunset view". Oh, and if it's not still close to Ashland, with an arena. Well, we couldn't find it. Not in our budget. So then we upped the budget and finally found a great farm. Ten minutes from Ashland, a beautiful arena... nice barn... nice pastures... quiet and secluded... garage for Mike.. .and a pretty cool house. But it was way over budget but with the interest rates we could make it work. So we got preapproved. And we did the inspection. And... it didn't appraise. By a LOT. So we negotiated... but the owner wasn't willing to come down enough and we weren't willing to pay more than market value (did that once before and it bit it us in the butt). So we got a second appraisal and I prayed.... Despite the fact that it wasn't cheaper, it wasn't smaller (was in fact even bigger), didn't have sunrise or sunset views, and wasn't necessarily easier to maintain. But that arena though!! And guess what? The appraisal didn't come back a second time, despite using Ag South. It actually came back a hair lower. So... we panicked. We tried to negotiate briefly but we really just weren't willing to pay more than the appraisal price. So we walked away. And I panicked. We closed in 3 weeks and we had already pushed back closing once. We had 3 weeks to find a place to live with the horses, dogs, and cats. And not only did we have the two horses, but I had also committed and paid for the baby horse. So I prayed. And guess what!? God had a plan. He always has a plan. Our realtor rides for a mutual friend and they were close to putting their barn apartment up for sale!! We went and looked and it's tiny, but we liked it enough. So we went under contract. And it's perfect. It's ended up being exactly what I wanted! I have a great sunrise and sunset view. I can see stars galore. I can even see the moon and stars from my bedroom window. I can look out the bedroom door into the barn aisle and see the stalls. It's tiny. It takes me no time at all to clean it. It's cheap to heat/cool. It's far enough out that it's quiet and peaceful but we have great neighbors. (No internet and that's really the ONLY bad thing... well, that and maybe the stinky toilet water which hopefully will resolve once we redo the bathroom and shock the well). It's about half of what we were paying. AND.. it also has an arena that we are owner financing. And while it's 30 minutes to Ashland instead of 10 minutes, it's still only 30 minutes to Ashland. I love it. We've been doing some renovating/painting/etc and it looks so cool. I finally understand people LOVING their house! Like... there were parts about the old farm I loved, but I LOVE THIS FARM!  So yep... God is good. 

So then... baby horse. She's perfect. She's amazing and sweet and smart and wonderful and she loves both boys. We finally got everyone out together and she hangs out with Fleck.. then goes and hangs with Dan... then goes back to hanging with Fleck. I'm so thrilled with her. 

So then... I finally get them all out together and they are doing great. And then Friday... I come home and... Flecks' lower jaw is broken. It's obvious that Dan caught him under the chin. But thank God that I have friends who are excellent dentist vets. Diane was sweet enough to call me back and calm me down. And basically... God is so good! Yes Fleck broke his jaw, but... it was just his jaw. It wasn't his leg or his skull. I didn't have to put him down. He'll survive. And not only will he survive, but in theory it's not even a big expensive vet bill. It's basically antibiotics, pain meds, and hay soup until he heals. So, while it sucks.. I'm so grateful to God that it wasn't worse. I'm so grateful that it wasn't Funny that got nailed. Or even Dan. Because, while it sucks for Fleck, he's retired and can peacefully heal. He's an easy keeper. He's laid back. So... thank you God!

And then tonight... tonight is the Christmas Star! It hasn't happened in 800 years... Saturn and Jupiter will be incredibly close to each other... a conjuncture. And it's happening on Dec 21st... the Winter Solstice. I saw it pulling into Dixie Road... in the hay fields with the sunsetting. And then I saw it from my pastures, with my horses. It was pretty amazing. And... it's just peaceful. I just... praised God for all his goodness and mercy and glory. How blessed are we??!!! 

So yep... really just feeling the Love from above. 


Fleck....          Dan........ Funny....




Tuesday, April 21, 2020

23 years old!!!!

Happy Happy 23rd Birthday Flecky!!!

Man I love this horse! Bless him... he has given me so much. We celebrated with a trail ride. Unfortunately... no friends were able to join us, but... we had fun. 

He was a litttle ouchy on our way out to the lake. We went on the wooded path and he felt really mincy. So bad that I almost got off and walked with him. BUT.... I started thinking it might be our last ride together, so I wanted to at least walk to the lake with him and let him splash before I got off. So we walked slowly... and reminisced. We talked about all the fun things we've done together. 1/2 our bronze medal... multiple AEC's... including the one where we finished 49th out of 51, but... top 50 in the nation baby!.. the one with the bareback sub sandwich ride... the one we almost finished in the ribbons.... beach rides... riding in the Christmas parade... our one competitive trail competition... when we had to practically swim through the trails at the horse park.... all of our photo shoots... He reminded me that I made him pony Dan... so many trail rides... running prelim... successfully too!... jumping that ditch and wall at pine top... twice, but then not again... jumping the irish bank thing at Pine top... oh, and all the gibbs clinics.. the one where he showed Rusty how it was done.... hee hee... And the Lucinda clinic where he would NOT jump the water trough jump...  Oh, and the scary double angled brush verticals at Full Gallop... and schooling some intermediate fences... including the bounce verticals at Gibbs... the time we got "attacked" by the saddlebred and the sulky at the horse park... the time that we rode in the sun and poor Fleck had to walk me back to the trailers when I almost fainted... the time that cute little girl wanted to be the one to find Dan's shoe so she could have his "autograph"..... 
I could go on and on.... Man I love that horse!

Anyways... we got to the lake and he didn't really want to splash. It was such a pretty day, but no humidity, so... fair enough. :) 

Then we walked back through the XC field rather than in the woods and he was much happier and walking better, so I stayed on. We even trotted a little. :) Man... I love him! So much. 

I hope he had a good birthday!