I have given away many things that were dear to me over the years.  I have tried to do the best I could for the people and the animals that I love.  I have also been the recipient of many wonderful gifts.  Gifts, I do not deserve.  Life has been abundant with opportunities for me to both give and receive.  I have been blessed in both areas.  And although sometimes my heart tumbles when I make a promise or statement that I am giving away something that I dearly love, I have found I have been paid back in spades for my paltry offerings to others.

One of the recent gift I gave was the gift of my rescued dachshund to my friends in Bartlesville.  We had taken in Sammi after the floods left her homeless in the Heights of Houston a couple of years ago.  Here is her story if you want to read it.  It was pretty remarkable.

Seriously, Cindy?

From the moment I picked up tiny Sammi from my friend Renee, I instantly fell in love with her. We got through the vet visit without issue and headed home so all our barn family could meet her. Sammi was always happiest when we held her. Jo Ann and Lainie were the most likely to be hauling the small pup around. 

I dearly wanted Sammi to go live with Jo Ann and her husband Tom. But Jo Ann while she loved the dog was traveling a lot and not able to take her. 

When my camper Kenna came from Oklahoma her parents instantly fell in love with Sam. They asked if they could have her and I jokingly said yes. I did want Sammi to have her own family but I was not quite ready to give her away. 

Later as Amanda and her husband Leon talked on their long drive back to Bartlesville. They called and asked if I was serious about letting them have Sammi. I said sure but actually had lots of regret.  

Sammi went home from camp with her new family. I miss her next to me at night.  I don’t miss her biting at the horses. 

But in the category of the doing the right thing, giving Sammi to this family was such the right thing to do. I have heard about how Sammi spends her evenings with Makenna and family. In the mornings Sammi’s “grandma” picks her up and they are off to see the town. 

I had told Jo Ann over and over to get Sammi a sling so she could be carried around hands free. Sammi’s grandma got her one and they go everywhere together. A dog could not be loved more. 

I am so incredibly blessed to have the benefactors in my life that make huge differences for me and my family. But I am also so happy that occasionally I have had the opportunity through Ginny or Sneaky or Theo or little Sammi to give something that brings some love and happiness to others. 

God bless the givers for their open hearts and unselfish ways. God bless the receivers for having an open and grateful heart to receive their gift. 

Thanks for riding along!!

For as long as Jordyn could vocalize the sentiment, she has wanted a dog of her own. My sometimes insecure and anxious granddaughter felt safer and braver when she came to Granny’s house and had one of Granny’s dog sleep with her in her room. Sometimes it would be the little lost Muffy dog that would sleep right up by her head. Always available for a midnight pet or a lick on the face. Sometime she would want Kena to sleep with her -the big Doberman who always insisted on sleeping under the covers. But the one thing that was always the same is she always wanted the dog to sleep with her. 

Every year the request has been the same and so has the answer -no puppies!  The answer has always been the same until now. I don’t really know what changed this year to make Ally and Luke decide that this Christmas Jordyn would get the puppy she always wanted, but I don’t care. I am just so thrilled that they chose to do something that I think it’s going to be so important for Jordyn’s confidence, self-esteem and her capacity for love.

My Denver daughter, Amber, recently got a new puppy too. They chose a wired hair German  pointer. A good dog for Colorado and for kids and a dog that Amber can run with. The puppy is adorable.

But over the years I have certainly sided the poodle way. Granted I had them on the ranch as a kid. But I never expected my house to have two poodles and one at my daughters. But that is the type of family we are now, in fact Lauren counts the days for other dogs to die so she can replace them with different colored poodles. I mean she means them no harm but would love to have the house hold a rainbow of poodles. 

Some of you may agree or disagree with our choice of dog. Just as I might disagree with yours. But for the highly allergic family we are, in the busy robust family activities we engage in, these are perfect dogs. There’s never a moment these dogs don’t want to be with you-playing,  fetching, running and jumping. Plus they fit in perfectly with the horses and even the horse show world.

I was in third grade when I got my first dog that was my own. Jordyn is in fourth. My first dog was with me all the way through my college years and the grief I felt of his passing was enormous.  He was my childhood.  Jordyn has no idea today as she takes on this new life all the memories they will share and all the times they will have. And also the open ears she’ll get from this little Man when she wants to talk about something private that no one else can know about. Poodles tell no secrets.

Today we picked up Jordyn and told her we were going Christmasj shopping. She had no idea where we were headed. Way out in woods past the Renaissance Festival we pulled into a tiny hidden driveway. 

This is how it went down. 

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So for today my heart is open and I am so glad that I can help them to have this wonderful dog that I hope has many, many, many years with them as a family.  As Jacqueline Suzanne once wrote in her book “Every Night Josephine”, no matter how much someone else in your world loves you, be it your parents or your boyfriend, girlfriend or whomever, no one will ever show as much joy when you come home in the evening dancing around jumping up-and-down ignited with love for you than a dog that you love.

Merry, Merry Christmas Jordyn, may Kai be the gift of a lifetime!

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The weekend before last, I got to the barn in the early hours to feed. It was a Saturday and I was looking forward to getting all 14 horses in their stalls and fed, then getting myself back to bed (my favorite weekend activity-sleeping in!).

It wasn’t going to happen. I flipped the switch on the barn lights to find our rescue pony Snowboy, cast along the side of his stall. Normally a white pony, he was covered with a layer of dirt, sawdust and blood. Immediately I knew he was colicking. Colic in horses affects their digestive tract. If they get a belly ache they cannot throw up like you or I. The blockage, bad food or whatever must pass through the gut and out the other end. (Great information to know!)

I got Snow out of his stall to the grass where he promptly laid down again. Dr. Criner arrived quickly and before dawn.   We got enough drugs on board to get him loaded in the trailer and off to Wharton Vet Hospital. Neither doctor gave much hope that Snow would live. In fact, both only gave him a few hours. We started IV fluids, pain killers and prayed.  At age 23, Snow was not a candidate for surgery.

The day wore on as tears many times filled our eyes. We would be okay for a few minutes then the tears poured down again. We have had this pony for most of Lauren’s life and certainly all of Jordyn’s.  And young Kendyll is just starting her love affair with the round white pony. I faltered as I began explaining first his absence from the barn and then his probable death to my four year-old granddaughter. This was not on my list of how to start a weekend.  I explained to Kendyll that Snowney was sick.  In fact, very sick.  I told her that God might need a really super pony in Heaven for all the kids there.  She seemed to accept that.  We cried a little more. We waited.

Dr. Poehler checked in several times on Saturday to tell me the pony was hanging on.  They had gotten a lot of fluids in him but he was not better.  He told me to keep the phone close by Saturday night in case it was time to put him down.  I was surprised Sunday morning to awaken and find no calls from the vet.  I didn’t have to wait long.  Shortly after 9 am, the doc called to tell me he had come into the clinic to find Snow on his feet, no worse for wear, demanding his breakfast. This was a miraculous turn of events. 

Once again, this little rescue pony that has defied the odds so many times, did it again.  He pulled off a supreme come back.  Except for several serious scrapes where he thrashed around his stall, he was good.  Even his feet held up okay.  Nothing but a miracle!  I guess God decided Kendyll needed to keep this white pony for a while longer.  With much graditude, Kendyll, Jordyn, Lauren and I trailered down to get him that afternoon.

Out of the clinic he came, whineying at all of us, ready to head home.  We are so grateful!   My friend said it best when she said “maybe Snow is getting an additional chance at life for every little girl who loved him”. There have been many. 

I don’t know why he was saved I am just so happy that he was.
As always, Thank you for riding along!

Some shots over the years with Snowboy and the family.

This Jordyn on Snowboy at almost a year of age.  My friend Linda superimposed a picture of my dad riding his big quarter horse Storm, into the picture with Jordyn.  Great-grandfather and great-grandchild were born almost 90 years apart but share the same love.

Lauren and Snow at an “A” show. Look at those knees!

Jordyn at her first horse show with snow.

Lauren at an “A” show with Snow and Jordyn (age 2) at her first horse show with Snow.

Ally pregnant with Jordyn on Snow with Luke. Love this photo.

Jordyn with toddler Kendyll grooming Snow and Kendyll hanging out with Snow.

And the pony gallops away!

I have been more than a little obsessed with Rich Fellers and the Irish Sporthorse Flexible since his big win at the FEI World Cup in 2012.  This horse has more heart and desire to win than any horse I know and has come back from three potentially career ending incidents- to compete again at the highest level of show jumping.

My bucket list included bringing up some babies, including having at least one born at my own farm.  I have had the tremendous opportunity to bring along Betty Sue (Special Occasion GES) who I snatched up the minute I saw her baby picture (who wouldn’t?).

Then we had the birth of our Flagmount horse, Sims (Flagmount’s Semper Fi) three months ago.  Another seemingly good plan as he is a big boy and should mature into a promising jumper.

Fargo (Silhouette’s momma) and baby Sims

My dream was to have a Flagmount/Flexible baby; uniting some of the best Irish blood there is.  We even talked to Olympian Bernie Traurig about it after he had coached Feather in a couple of clinics.  He knows Flexible well, too.  And he had worked with Feather closely. After hearing of our plan to breed Feather to Flexible,  his words to me were-“let me know the minute that baby hits the ground”.  Those words were pretty inspiring.  But we did not want to take Feather out of work for a year to have a baby.

SO–if I couldn’t have a Flag/Flexi baby then what?  How about a Fargo/Betty Sue and Flexible baby?  Say what-Betty Sue is a little young don’t you think?  Well, yes she is but what we chose to do is use Fargo’s daughter and Betty Sue’s mother, a pretty horse named Silhouette GES,  as the mother of our Flexible baby.

My friend Stephanie at Golden Edge Sporthorses( http://www.goldenedgesporthorses.com/ ) in Colorado graciously has offered to let us breed to her mare and to care for Silhouette during her pregnancy and in the baby’s early days, sending him/her on to Texas when weaned.

This will bring strong German lines to Irish ones hopefully adding a little height to the Flexible side. Many decades, perhaps a century, of strong jumping on both sides.

It is official.  We had a sonogram with a heart beat yesterday.  YIPPEE!!   Three’s definitely is a charm.  These three babies should keep me busy for the next ten years or so.

Flexible above showing how to fly.  Here with rider Rich Fellers in Spruce Meadows.

Some detail on the parents-

Daddy

Flexible is the small but mighty (15.3 hands) 1996 chestnut Irish Sporthorse stallion that I have admired for so long.  He is by the Irish stallion Cruising (16.2) and out of the Irish Sporthorse mare, Flex, by the thoroughbred stallion Safari. He has had an amazing career spanning now into his 20th year, which is quite a feat for a Grand Prix horse.

Noelle Floyd said in her recent article; Past, Present, Future: Flexible–“For eight years, Flexible has been winning at the five-star level of show jumping. Eight years. It goes without saying that the 20-year-old Irish Sport Horse (Cruising x Safari) and his rider Rich Fellers are no strangers to the international level of competition. The stallion’s partnership with Fellers stretches over 14 years in total, with countless wins and successes too numerous to list, with standout moments such as their 2012 FEI World Cup Championship and London Olympic Games appearance (as the highest placing US horse and rider).

Just this week, Flexible and Fellers finished 3rd in the $35,000 ATCO Energy Cup CSI5* at Spruce Meadows, proving that they are still going strong, competing at top venues and trumping the best in the world.”

Momma

Silhouette GES is a 2010 perlino RPSI mare by the imported 16.2 hand perlino Czech Warmblood stallion Sagar, out of the 16 hand palomino RPSI mare Blonder Reflection (my horse-Fargo).  Her sire Sagar is a remarkable young stallion who has inherited his incredible scope over fences, lovely gaits and fantastic conformation through successful competition bloodlines that includes the famous Holsteiner stallion, Landgraf I.  Her dam’s sire, Blonder Hans, is a 16.3h, palomino registered German ZfDP stallion.  Blonder Hans has three spectacular gaits with fantastic elasticity and impulsion. He also excels at jumping with beautiful form.  Silhouette is a lovely mover as well.

Here are a couple of other blogs I did on Flexible.

Rich Fellers-Irish Sport Horse Flexible

Don’t Forget-US Riders Go for Gold Tomorrow!

As always, thanks for riding along and watching dreams unfold.