12/26/2012
Merry Christmas!
We hope you are all having a good year. We have been very blessed in our lives this past year. Andrea graduated with her RN degree this past May. She went back to working full time on the ventilator unit in Lake City (Mayo Clinic Health System) this September. Breanna started middle school in Ellsworth this fall -- needless to say she loves it! Alexis is still at Prairie View. Both girls have good teachers again and are doing well in school. The girl's both continue to be interested in the horses, kittens, dogs, chickens, and guineas that live here with us!
The year has gone by so fast -- too fast really. Some of the highlights were going to the Horse Expo this past spring. Breanna rode Gypsy, something she really enjoys doing. We also did a few spring shows when Andrea didn't have to work. Both Breanna and Alexis racked up the ribbons. In May we traveled to Texas to drop off one horse and pickup three. We had the opportunity to take Golden Earth Girl one of the last 100% Bookcliff's strain horses in the world (I think there are only 3-4 left if I remember right) from Iowa to Karma Farms in Texas. At Karma Farms we picked up "My Dancin' Katie" a 50% Belsky bred Spanish Mustang mare. The Belsky strain is getting harder and harder to find also. She is bred to "Spirit Song" an AIHR National Show Champion for 2013. We also picked up Accelerate a dun curly coated purebred Spanish Mustang to be our herd sire. He is sired by Rowdy Yates - a multiple time AIHR National Halter & Performance Champion as well as a NATRC Champion. "Rowdy" is also a breyer model. From there we went to Rockin' B Ranch to get Cheyenne Sueno Nina a wonderful, broke Spanish Mustang mare (She is a daughter of Broom - sire of champions). She has become a favorite as she can be ridden by anyone, and is the type of horse that can just go all day and never seems to tire. Breanna also rode her in some gaming classes this fall and even placed a few times! She is excited to use her for games next summer. (Don't tell Brownie, but Cheyenne is much faster....). We also took Gypsy down to Windy Ridge Spanish Mustangs in June, where she was bred to "Dan de Lion" a buckskin dun stallion who is an own son of the champion El Tigre Segundo.
Gypsy has continued to accumulate more awards with winning the HOA Farm Ranch Work Horse of the Year award, as well as the HOA Pleasure Trail Driven Horse of the Year. Breanna also earned her Buckaroo award again using Gypsy and Cheyenne.
We had "A King's Ransom" aka Tannefaun aka Ransom aka Tishmack (he was bred by Kenny Tishmack) to drive. He has proved to be an excellent driving horse. We went 30+ miles with him on the buggy several times this summer.
Andrea entered a pie for the Pierce County Fair in August and was surprised when she won 2nd place in her category. Mac despite getting injured in a horse related accident this spring (April) was up and at 'em riding green horses by July.....He thinks he's going to break some more horses come spring...but Andrea is trying to convince him to just keep Tannefaun and forget the young ones. We'll see who wins that battle!
We had an orphaned foal this spring also. Little "Barq" was 2 months old, but Annie (Registered as Acaso's Cheyenne) adopted "Barq" despite still having her own c**t on her. Annie fed both of them until they were old enough to be weaned.
We made our annual trip up north to McGregor, MN to stay with the Turnocks and put in some good riding. We were blessed with Jo's wonderful cooking again also. This year we brought along the girl's great uncle - Wayne Wood.
We were blessed to have lots of help this summer. Danny & Tim Westerberg helped us with the young horses and even some of the riding that needed to be done. Danny's friend Ryan helped also. Several Amish friends came out at various times to work for us this summer. Mel Jean came home right before Christmas this year and has already been a huge help! So has Mike Gray her boyfriend. We also have Andy Otto (Menno Otto's boy) coming during the week to help with chores.
On the downside, we have had numerous cats dropped off on our road - as well as feral barn cats migrating into our pole shed....We still have two kittens from some barn cats we would love to give to someone! *Hint, Hint*
One of the cats that got dropped off we named "Turtle" she was more crafty than the others and snuck in the house. She however has not been much of a bother as no litter box is needed for her - she goes to the door and lets you know when she needs to go potty like a dog would!
God has blessed us this past year in more ways that we could imagine. His timing has been perfect, exactly when we have needed help he has sent it. We hope you are all just as blessed and we hope you have a great 2013.
Love,
Mac, Andrea, Breanna & Alexis
