Remembering Ribbon

We walked this morning but it wasn't easy, just so much ice and now tonight snow is falling on top of the ice. Mark just came down from putting his car in the barn and reported it is VERY slippery.  With the snow coming down, it reminded me of when we took Ribbon out and had her give sleigh rides pulling kids on their sleighs while galloping through the fields.

For a big 2000 pound mare she was light on her feet and had a wonderful canter. Everyone that rode her enjoyed her canter. 

 She really was a gift from God. We had been looking for a vaulting horse and heard about a draft auction in Arthur, IL. I drove down the night before with the living quarter trailer and slept in the trailer so I could have plenty of time to look over all the horses before the auction started.  Mike and Diane drove down later that morning after the auction was over with a car full of kids all anxious to see what we bought. What is interesting is I didn't see Ribbon before the sale started. All of the horses I had marked that may work either went WAY to high or were not suitable for what we needed. The auction was well attended and I was only able to find a seat pretty far up on the bleachers.  I just started praying, "Lord, we just need something with a good attitude." Just then Ribbon was brought into the ring. The announcer announced. "This is a 4 year old  Percheron mare that has never been asked to do a lick of work since she was born and is not trained for anything but she has a good attitude." That was exactly what I needed to hear and put the the first bid on her at $500.00. Only one other person bid against me and when the bidding stopped I was the high bidder at $750.00.  We went straight to the barns to find the mare we had bid on and when we found her I was shocked at how wide and tall she was. She didn't look that big from up on the bleachers.  Of course the first thing we did was to throw a child up on her and were pleased to see she really did have a good attitude. She was taken right home and started in vaulting. 

Below is a video of one of our performances at the Midwest Horse Fair in Madison, WI.

Ribbon was a wonderful vaulting mare. Karin was able to host vaulting camps for pony clubbers that came from all over. Ribbon was in big demand and Karin was asked to give clinics to different clubs all over the state. We were all shocked when we lost this mare. If you would like to read about that day click HERE
It really was a nightmare. Now I am too old and too tired to try looking for another suitable mare and we are all too tired to think about training another vaulting horse. And wouldn't you know I have all these grandchildren that would love to learn to vault.

We picked up mom for church and it was just starting to snow on the way in.  The ICC/Bradley young group came (it was Peoria's turn for that rotation) so the singing was beautiful. Dave Obergfel had the message. It was snowing pretty hard by the time we arrived home. Joan was hosting the young group after church and many of the kids came in cars without snow tires. There was a pile of cars stuck on the drive. We could see the young men pushing cars up the hill for the girls but we also saw some give up. Not sure if they parked then walked or someone gave them a ride.  Winter is hard around here. All who live out here make sure to have good tires and hopefully 4 wheel drive. 

David, Rachel's son was featured on the front page of the Limestone News.

This newspaper picked up his comic strip. David now has a book out, if you would like to learn more about this or want to order one yourself click HERE.