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3/24/2011

Rescue Me

The horses are so bored, it is painful to go out to the barn each day when I feed them and try to explain again that I just cannot take them out of the barn and paddock area yet. 

Even though it is beautiful, the kids and I are hanging on to the last vestigials of our patience as snow melts each day but also continues to fall.

The snow is still deep and crunchy and the footing is unsure. I cannot judge the ground underneath the uneven snow. The path leading to my house is narrow and freezes at night.

To a horse sunning itself and shedding in the sun each day, this makes no sense. I look like a total lame-o.

Sometimes Dream will find any excuse to burst out of the in-and-out stall like it’s a starting gate (kids making noises with buckets, pitchforks, anything) and will run Ebony around the field. They roll in unison and Aislinn calls them "Reverse Appaloosas" because they are snow dusted with white spots.

At least the snow has melted to a point that the fences are at a dignified height. This summer, we have to add eighteen inches to the fencing along the horses’ winter area. In winter, the snow gets so deep on the hill of the paddock that the top wire of my fence eventually falls below Dreamport’s knees! He just stands and stares at the white wasteland over the fence and decides that crossing would bring him nothing, except further from the barn area.

I think the situation insults his royal bearing and takes advantage of his generous nature, two things which I do not want to do.

We need hay again, and today I have decided to write the children’s books that are on my list. We need hay a lot since this big Ferrari of the horse world with the speedy metabolism has moved in, and I’d like to earn some income to help out.

So I hope others are enjoying spring, whether it has actually come to your little corner of earth yet or not.


Ebony


Rescue Me, 1974
Native Dancer, Bull Lea, John P. Grier, Princequillo

3/12/2011

One More Time

I could not put Aislinn's drawings up without posting this watercolor by Saul a few years ago:

Chincoteague foal


It's one of my favorites by him, not just because it's a foal, but also because I think he captured its wobbliness pretty well.  I also love the bright cheeriness of its colors.

The watercolor Saul did of the day Dream and Ebony met is here.

I am headed out to the barn to give Dream a shedding-grooming. We've had wet weather and have lost fourteen inches of snow so far.  Two more feet of melt and I will see the ground!


One More Time, 2009
Northern Dancer, Secretariat, Mr. Prospector


3/10/2011

Real Quiet

My boys have been busy with their visiting cousin all week, so my daughter Aislinn finally had a chance to view the horse drawing video she received for Christmas. 
Easy 2 Draw Horses with Cordi

She has been having a wonderful time with it. The video shows her blocking, shading, blending, texture—and she’s more able to draw horses like she’s always wanted to.

Since we are all horse lovers, I thought I would share some of the drawings. Aislinn is eight and a half, but has been working on drawing horses for years.

This is the first thing she drew, after the first lesson:

#1 Appaloosa

Then the rest of the day she drew these:

a foal

full horse


horse rearing, colored with chalk



Then the next day she drew:
her favorite drawing so far


mare with attitude

the second Appaloosa

She's using more texture in these last two.


And today it was:  


a bucking horse

So Aislinn's been bringing these up to us for three days and I really wanted to share them.

(I really need Cordi to make a sequel to her drawing video!)


Won Kentucky Derby, Preakness S., 2nd in Belmont S. (1998) at 3.
1998 Champion Three-Year-Old Colt
Died in paddock accident (fractured vertebrae) 9/27/2010.


3/07/2011

Blizzard

World's Best Team
We got a March blizzard! So far we have 24-30 inches of new snow. I canceled a farrier appointment for tomorrow. I shoveled out Ebony’s stall, which faces north and got a lot of snow blown into it during the storm. I bedded the horses well and made sure they have plenty of water and hay to last the day. We will be wading ourselves out there twice more today, for snack (soon) and evening feeding.                                

We accumulated two inches of snow during the hour I was outside.

UVM is closed, so Scott stayed home. A fire department volunteer friend of Saul’s came in a pick-up to bring him to work. The guys had shoveled our 200 foot driveway; plow trucks were getting stuck in driveways all morning. The guys/men/boys just went outside to shovel the driveway again for the evening.

My nephew Dan is up here for spring break from college this week!

Our Danny
My sister also has three daughters. Dan is her youngest child and only son. He has always been like the ‘6th Brother’ in our house. His Mom's brought him for vacation time with us since we moved out of state when he was two. While with his younger male cousins, he always got to be the ‘big boy.’

Now it is a constant contest of strength, wits, intelligence, physical feats, and you name it-- when they are together. Dan just turned twenty one.

He usually has a mild curiosity about the horses. He always visited Ebony when she was a baby.

Dan lives with my Mom in New Jersey and goes to college there. He and Mom look after each other, and it is really sweet. I depend on him to know where she is if I can’t reach her.

Dan may spend the summer with us this year, or he may come up with the rest of the families in July for their 2nd camp-out on trip our property.

I’m always happy when he spends time with us~!

Ready to tackle that double black diamond sledding hill behind them

 ________________________________________________

I wanted to share this view from my desk window:



The black arch is the snow pressed against the window.
A lot of snow came off the roof, too, to make the pile that you see.


This time of year is a real test of patience. Spring Fever hits terribly during the month of February, and a March blizzard can really set one back. But I know all things work for good!

Blizzard, 2010
Secretariat, Affirmed, Buckpasser, Round Table
A Storm Cat horse
Good luck, young guy. 


3/04/2011

Happy Birthday

~Happy 10th Birthday to Dreamport!~

In honor of Dream's birthday,

And we met him four years ago, yesterday. 
~
 We are making batches of his favorite treat:
Oatmeal cookies w/raisins, served warm 
over a cold stall door.

Dreamer will be sharing his Birthday treats with the rest of the family.

Happy Birthday, my friend! 

Every single day I am grateful to see you at the barn 
and thankful for you in our lives.

Summer 2010



Nijinsky, Ribot, Nashua