Woody’s last outing – the Ingrid Klimke Clinic at the beginning of December where both he and Selena had a great time. Selena said she found it very reinforcing. This is Anne Marie Duarte, Woody’s favourite person in the whole world, fixing his bridle before Selena gets on.
Another busy day at the barn. I don’t know why we always seem to be functioning flat out. I keep waiting for things to ‘settle down.’ I think I am just kidding myself.
I got the go ahead to stand up today! My knee surgery (second one) is cramping my style considerably, and I have not been to the barn since December 2nd, which feels like a lifetime. At least I can make my own sandwiches now; the whole being waited on hand and foot thing palls very quickly. I can’t wait to get back to the barn.
Today we woke up to news of another horrendous barn fire. It is so chilling and so very heart breaking to read of this terrible loss of life. I find I cannot read the news reports; the headlines are enough to make my eyes brim with tears and my soul to get heavy. It is hard to even type this, but I have thought of them all day; they are in my head and I cannot get them out. Poor people who are dealing with unbearable pain today, my love is with my fellow horsemen.
Benny and Rummy had visitors today. My good friend Elizabeth Hay, who is president of the Thoroughbred society, came to cast her knowledgeable eye over them. I think they got the nod of approval.We have some interest in their syndication and we are excited that we might be able to take Rummy with us to Florida if it all comes together in time. The “time” has been set, the girls are looking to leave around the 13/14th of January. There looks to be a fine break in the weather and we will take advantage of it.
The nicest young lady came to try one of our two homebreds today and she rode her so beautifully. I am finding it harder and harder to part with my horses as I get older. I worry so much about them and where they go and what happens to them. It’s SO important that we get to see that the horse and rider and going to be a good match. It’s make or break sometimes for the horses entire future. When it’s a horse you bred yourself the feeling of responsibility is even greater. In a perfect world I would keep everybody.
We have started making 2016 entries already. There is not a free weekend that I can see from the last weekend in January forward, until Woody runs at Rolex and we still don’t have the dates for Canadian Team Training Camps, and we still haven’t factored in the shows that Rummy would want to go to if we can take him South. He will not always be able to run at the same shows as the upper level horses. It seems a step ahead of ourselves to be worrying about shows when we haven’t taught him to jump or even ridden him yet. LOL. But that is horse people for you, the ultimate optimists or we would never be able to stay at it.
Woody’s first outing is going to be an Advanced Combined Training in February, unless he is lucky enough to go to Wellington on Feb 5/6 for the invitational. We are hoping…
