Monday, August 18, 2014

August, 2014

As corny as it sounds, this truly is my field of dreams.    Never a day goes by that I don't look out and think I am the luckiest human in the world.  I was taking pictures of some youngsters and looked out and noticed a bunch clumped together in one of the pastures so had to snap this shot.
Major congratulations are due to Karra!  Although it is difficult to read the scanned image below, Karra and Khan are number one in the All Breed Awards for USDF at training level in their first year of showing!  Khan was Flama's first foal and by Galisteo and Karra came down from way up north and scrutinized my foal choices and selected Khan as a baby.  It appears she made an excellent choice.   You don't get much better than owners who train and show their own horses.   I have such heartfelt pride that I don't deserve since Khan and Karra did all the work so congratulations!
 
 Speaking of congratulations, lots are owed to Audrey Seling, pictured below with Opus.  Audrey recently graduated from vet school and so is not only working as a vet, but she and Opus have become the cover models for the vet's marketing.   The photographer who took this lovely photo generously allowed me to use it and you can see his work at www.dustyperin.com.   Audrey's mom came down and bought a brand new baby from me.  Several years later, sight unseen, Audrey and her mom agreed to buy Opus (Hereje x Colombina).   From everything I've ever heard, Opus has declared Audrey as "his person" and they are one of those magic pairs such that he prefers her to anyone else for any type of handling or riding.   Opus is another one, like the Cooper's Decio H, that is by Hereje and ended up super speckled, which I love, love, love!   A spaniard years ago told me that the flea bitten were the purest of the bloodlines.    Apparently, he loved speckles too!

 
I would enjoy other people sending information about what they are doing with or photos of our former horses.  It is such a treat to see how they mature and to hear stories to know how they are loved, cared for and adored. 
 
We are ready for summer to wind down and looking forward to a full and busy fall.  I may be hosting Ancce revision, depending on how many horses sign up to make the Spanish vet's trip to Texas worthwhile.  Also in September, I am looking forward to buyers/now friends coming for a weekend from Mississippi.   They are allowing me the privilege of having two of their mares with us for a year and a half or so and we will not only be presenting them for revision this fall or next spring, but breeding them.  One is Kisia, sold in utero (Habana x Gitano) and it will be so wonderful to see her grown up after all these years.  The other is Valencia who was here last year to breed and I feel for her head and neck, her eyes, her movement.....well, I fell for her.    So I am counting the days to have two more mares here to love on and hopefully, if they cycle in the late fall, we'll get them bred in November or December.
 
We will be taking Kairo and Prisca for the pre 3 year old halter classes and the futurity classes.  Kairo's will be oh-so-exciting as he is the only one in his futurity class.  Bummer!  But for the last show in Ft. Worth and most likely, the last Nationals we'll ever attend, it will be nice to have a quiet and easy show with no stress.   I may or may not put up the art booth, depending on if I can get some images to make some new andalusian items before the show.   We'll see on that part.  In November, I will set up my art booth at the Feathered Horse Classic (gypsy vanners and friesians) that I was forced to miss last year because of health gunk.
 
This has been a strange year for me but for sure the worst is over and I am very much looking forward to what life has in store for me in the future.   Even though seeing a number of my mares off to new homes was excruciatingly painful, I must say with less help now that it is just Valente and I, the lower number of horses has allowed me to enjoy the ones still here even more and having fewer foals is definitely less work!   Losing so many of the older mares, all in just a few months, seemed totally surreal but as one of my horses friends wrote, it makes me feel better to think they have been together for so long that they wanted to leave together.   And how wise to go before they had to suffer another brutal Texas summer.   We lost Sweet Life Beliza who was 30, Dehesa, who was 26, Ibiza who was 24 and though I had sold her, Karina still lived with us and was mine in all ways but legallly, who had a a freak injury requiring that she be put down at age 18, leaving us with her 3 week old filly.    As all stories should have a happy ending, the filly tolerated us and the milk replacement every few hours, had an older pony friend that she bonded with and now is a big 5 month old that lives in a little herd and you would never in a million years know that she had a rough start in life.
 
On a rare topic other than horses, my mom passed away in April and although I had thought I was prepared as I watched her decline daily the last few years, you are never ready to lose anyone that you love.   Fortunate is an inadequate word to describe how lucky I was to have the two best parents imageinable.   My health has been a challenge with my various autoimmune problems now including Meniere's disease which is basically an inner ear issue that comes on suddenly and leaves you so dizzy that you end up flat on the floor and nauseated and/or violently sick.    The worst of it is that you couldn't tell when it was coming on and when I had big  plans for major video fest or something to do, instead I'd have a whole day in bed and many days, I was unsafe to drive.   I had surgery scheduled last fall, but then had the opportunity through the Affordable Health Act to change to much better insurance, so cancelled surgery until I got through birthing and breeding season.  So I finally had the surgery the end of June and thankfully, the surgery seems to have resolved the worst of my dizziness and sickness issues.   I've lost almost all the hearing in the operated on hearing and am trying out a variety of amazing devices that transmit sound from my good ear to the not-so-good ear.  So bad news for everyone that knows me, I am probably speaking even louder than I used to!!!!!
 
So for those of you who wonder why I've quit emailing or seemed absent, I have had a few months that was focused on the horses, my family and myself.   But now, I hope all my challenges are in the past and I am looking forward to the future and what life is going to be like in the next chapter.  If the first two Kairo colts are an indication of the quality he will throw, I lucked out again buying a colt that has turned into a phenomenal horse.    I have a ball helping Lesley Harrison with her art business.   I hope some of you look at Lesley's art website, www.harrison-keller.com, my business on the side, as Lesley has new paintings coming more frequently of late and we are about to have some new products that would make great holiday gifts like teapots with "The Romantic" on them -- how can anyone with a Remate relative not want something with that image?   And of course, "The Gentleman" is an image of our beloved Dadivoso who has been gone so long that probably fewer of you have any of his relatives.   "The Guardian" and "The Tempest" are images of Hereje and "Pint Sized Friend" is Pinturero.   One of the newer paintings entitled "A Soft Pillow" is from a photo I took of Ibiza's last colt laying on the teddy bear that I borrowed/commandeered from one of Valente's kid's room.   "Mischief Makers" is from a photo of my last litter of corgi pups.   I have not coerced Lesley to paint Gitano yet and she has the weird opinion that he is always too fat when she comes every few years!    She has some photos that I would love to see her paint of Wanapum, but silly Lesley seems to be focusing on people who pay her for commissions than doing more of my horses!  But someday, I'll nag her until she has painted Gitano, Kairo and Wanapum, too.
 
I would love to hear all of your news and hope that anyone reading has the same feeling of peace and truly looking forward to fall and winter.    Terri