June 4, 2006
WOOOOOWWWWW,
Bet you thought you'd never hear from me again, didn't you? I haven't known which way to turn since my last foster child moved out. I got really busy teaching school, and the school that I adore teaching at was calling me almost every day. How could I resist making a little extra money and seeing my former students and doing what I love best?
I am also so happy to report that I landed the second grade teaching position for summer school in Viroqua this year and am so eager and ecstatic about it that I can hardly contain myself. After a lot of soul searching I have decided that eleven years invested in one school district means that is the place that I belong. I had toyed with the idea of applying at Head Start in the area as well as other school districts, but my heart tells me that Viroqua is where I belong, whether or not I am full time or part time there. So, no more changes for this lady - I am at the point in my life where it feels good to have a niche... the horses, my husband and children, my teaching career - the familiar feels safe and warm inside!
Where did I leave off about activities of ASAP? We had the horse fairs since the first weekend in March - soooo busy with that and want to publicly thank Theresa Pendleton and Denise Kroeger for picking up and being willing to demonstrate at Iowa Horse Fair this year! And Adrienne de Master and her girls, Kim Cleminson, Linda Bair and everyone else who were at Minnesota Horse Expo. You all are so precious and share the passion for the horses. You all are so proud of the horses you have and love... I just want to thank you!
We have had a chance to work with more horses this past couple of weeks now that horse fairs have ended. Lone Oak has had saddle and rider on and is adopted and we are just working daily with him now to fine tune him before he goes to his new home in Waukesha. A man inquiring about the horse program stopped by this past week with his wife. He looked around at each horse, then stated that he didnt know if he wanted to adopt one for average adoption fee of $450 - $550, or if he wanted to work with a horse that was less money due to age or lack of saddle training yet. He came back a few days later.....and asked to work with Zerkel Toden. Well... "Zerkie Turkey" as I call her is 18 years old. She is a smaller size, sorrel, and has been a brood mare since retiring from the track after making over $100,000. She is a real thinker, a tail swisher but that just means she is thinking, and NOT thinking about something bad, just thinking. She doesn't particularly like to be caught, but the guy who stopped by walked right up to her. He took her out and we tied her to the hitching rail. Instant hype as she resisted being tied, but didn't pull back hard. Just wiggle wiggle prance prance. We groomed her and found her "spot" and she settled right down, but this is no deadbeat horse! The guy asked me to put a saddle on her. I did. No problem. The guy asked me to put a; bridle on her - I said I didn't think so. I explained that this horse had probably never been ridden and needed to start slow. I explained we could work her in the round pen. He agreed. I got the bridle.
My daughter stopped by with little Julien so I walked over to the car to talk with her and turned around . THE GUY WAS ON ZERKIE'S BACK AND HEADING PAST ME DOWN THE DRIVEWAY! Craig came out and asked me to ask him to go to the round pen... he continued down the driveway! Down the road he went, gone from our sight and gone for over 15 minutes. I began to panic, explaining to Craig that I told him we could NOT ride her besides in the arena (good thing we have liability signs posted in the barn). Craig shook his head. The wife said, "Forget about it - he'll do what he wants to do and has no fear of horses".
Just about when I was beginning to think about dialing 911, down the road came Zerkie with guy astride... calmly but at a slow pace. He came into the driveway and said she did fine - he rode her about a quarter mile and then worked her in an open field. Then he rode back. Simple as that. She was still a bit prancey, but had been obedient and for her first time being ridden at age 18 what does that say about her? She is one darn good horse!!!!
That, my friends, is a Standardbred!!!!!
Anyway, I wanted to include a picture of a very special little girl who was at our house recently, as is actually the friend of my daughter - they go to school together. This little girl has been through some hard times recently - her father was tragically killed in a car accident in April. We are blessed enough to be able to help her through, and part of this healing, I can tell, takes place through the horses here at the farm. She spent all of last Saturday while here wanting to ride. She also helped feed. Our hearts go out to this family, as there are three children who very much miss their father. While we cannot do anything to change what has happened, the horses are here to help heal broken hearts.
Day camps are going strong here - come and be a part! We are going to be at Hawthorne Park Race Course with Janimal and Honey Fitz this Saturday night for Night of Champions - we are honored to be sponsored there. Hawthorne is making a $500 donation to ASAP for coming - will send pictures next week!
Until then,
Susan
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