Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Settling Down

We woke to a blustery damp cold day, a foretaste of winter. Mom and I were the only walkers this morning.
It was spitting rain with a few harder showers most of the day. Not a day to be playing outside so most of the day was spent inside doing laundry and making meals for the future.
It makes Mark happy when I play the housewife, although not a lot of cleaning got done today. Spark got us a car today at the auction. It is a 2007 Prius, kind of banged up a bit but not a lot of miles. He said, "it looks like a Judy car." Evidently it wasn't cleaned up before being auctioned off, there were even clothes in the back. I needed something that gets good gas mileage but not fancy as we haul dogs, horse equipment, feed, bedding and sometimes even hay bales, this fits the bill. It will be picked up tomorrow. Sarah and Nolan are going to buy the Matrix.
A couple good things to report. Darcy had no accidents in the house last night or today and the new mares are finally starting to settle in. By that I mean not spooking each time someone comes out of the barn or drives up on the golf cart. They don't understand why they are not being taken in at night, they were afraid to stand in the shelter even when it was raining. They would grab a bite of hay off the round bale then run back out and chew while looking to see if something was going to attack them. Silly mares! At least they are eating and drinking.
Mom, Rachel and Jessica left for Bluffton, to visit Bethany, Bill and their new son Joshua.

Rachel always takes newborn pictures as a baby gift for her nieces and nephews. Diane is keeping Molly tonight. No new pictures, the camera wasn't even picked up today. How about some old pictures of past ponies to keep things interesting? Below is Ella and Bethany crossing a creek at Middle Grove.
 Below is Bethany and Duke. He was an amazing pony and only sold because he was just too smart. We couldn't keep him in any fence.
 Below is Rebekah and her pony Cindy. Cindy had 3 or 4 foals for Ruth then was sold to a lady far far away. She had a beautiful black filly for the new owner but we haven't heard from her for a long time. Rebekah and Cindy had a special relationship. Cindy was born on their farm and Rebekah did pretty much all of her training.

 Below is another one of our special ponies, Sunny the Haflinger who now lives with Cynthia. We say he ended up in Horse paradise living with her.
Below is naughty Lilypony. She had the typical pony attitude.
Mindy was a cute paint driving pony Rhoda taught to bow. She ended up going to a person that had a pony that looked just like her and wanted a matched team.

Bonnie pony was one of Rhoda's favorites to work with. 
 She moved like a miniature Andalusian
 Was willing to do about anything Rhoda asked but needed a better than average rider, she was smart and would take advantage of a beginner. Sadly she was hit by lightning during one of the big storms in 2014. She is buried at Middle Grove.
Below is Sarah on Ranger and Rhoda on Patsy
 Ranger was the best pony ever. He was a registered Welsh section b. Rhoda trained him, Sarah competed him and everyone loved him. He was sold to a ponyclubber up in Wisconsin. We tried to find him a few years later to buy him back but could not. 
Below is Dan the driving pony. He was just purchased as a resale project for Sarah. She did very well training him under saddle then selling him.
 Below is Macgregor, a rare Highland pony from Scotland. He came with a passport and registration papers. He was a handful until Rhoda started working him. He turned out fantastic and went to the east coast to be a driving pony.
 Below is Tinkerbell. We didn't own her very long, She was a blast to drive but just too small at less than 12 hands. 
Probably the most famous pony of all is pictured below. This is Rhoda riding Blaze. He was purchased by my parents for $125.00 when I was 13 years old. He lived with our family until he was almost 41 years old teaching many many children how to ride. There are hundreds of stories about Blaze. If you would like to read one of the more remarkable ones click HERE
 I can't quit this post until I write about our original pony. His name was Champ and he is pictured below. He taught us how to ride,how to fall, how to get knocked off by low hanging tree limbs, how to stop a pony from biting (ouch) how to tighten a girth then watch it slide right off the pony with the rider struggling to stay on, how to sit bucks and most of all how to love. A big thank you to our parents who knew horses were a good thing to get their children involved in.

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