Another great year, but I say that every year!  Well, it is true.  Too many mountain horse blessings to count them all.  In March, for our very first time, we got to see a foaling from beginning to end.  What a miracle!  In May, our grandchildren took their very first turns up on Lady with me (with their helmets on).  Another blessing thanks to a gentle mountain horse.  Chris and Stacie Tipton of Cool Shade Mountain Horses handled our horses for us this year.  We had a great show season at UMH, RMHA, and KMSHA shows.  All the details of these mountain horse blessings are on our In Kentucky  and At Home In Illinois pages.  I took Fury to a Racking Horse show and Lady to mountain horse classes in a Saddlebred show and had 2 great times.  I got the thrill of personally handling a yearling colt, Flash, in an open conformation Grand Championship and having the judges consider him repeatedly before placing him as Reserve.  Michael said they were hoping he would turn 2, so they could place him 1st.  What a rush, all the sweeter because he is by Fury and because he was such a young gentleman in the ring.  We did most of our trail riding at home this year.  Michael has created trails through our woods and it is very nice to not have to haul to anywhere to ride.  We enjoy wandering around on horseback for hours without a care in the world.  That is what a real mountain horse blessing is.

Foals and ribbons and trails, oh my!  It sounds like the Land of Oz, where wishes are horses and we get to ride.

We haven't stopped enjoying them since the day we first found them and they have led us to places we couldn't go without them.

2007, what a year.  We were blessed with beautiful, healthy foals in the spring, and had our first experience with body clipping and training babies in hand for show.  Fury's breeding calendar was full, with breedings from Pennsylvania to Washington and two mares headed for Australia.  Fury's first babies were in the show ring, they did their Daddy proud (Seems strange to think of him as a "Daddy".)  Michael started trail riding with me here at home and joined me, for the first time, trail riding in Tennessee and Kentucky (and has plans to go back).  This year we were lucky to have Fury with HT Derickson, Misty May with ST Tipton, Spice with Chris Tipton, and Freebird with Stacie Tipton.  While every horse didn't see the blue at every show this year, great progress was made in each horse's training and in my experience with each horse.  I focused here at home on getting Lady back in shape for the International, after foaling.  I aimed for the Amateur Owned and Trained classes, but ended up putting her in other classes "since we were there".  BOY, am I glad Michael talked me into that!  I got the "ride of my life", when we surprised ourselves by winning at the International.  I'm still pinching myself to be sure it's real.

(The second chapter of Lady's story is on our "Bragging" page.)

2006 was a very good year.  Fury's first year on the show circuit was a tremendous success, check out his record on "Our Stallion" page.  Thanks to trainer, Derrick Tipton.  He told me this stallion was gonna be some thin', and he was right.  Lady, to our great joy, finished her professional show career by winning the Sam Tuttle award at the 2006 RMHA International.  We are grateful to Erin Lawson for all her work with Lady.  Misty May proved to be our biggest challenge, but I do love a challenge.  Thanks to the leadership of our devoted trainer, Chris Tipton, we captured the reserve UMH High Point Award in the Amateur Park division.  Our first foal carrying our own farm name made it to the show ring, making us very proud.   Sugar and Spice with Chris Tipton brought home the UMH Breeders' Cup Weanling Fillies Division Trophy and placed Reserve in the RMHA Intn'l Weanling Fillies Division.  Floyd, Hurricane Warning, and I campaigned throughout the show season and managed Reserve High Point honors in the UMH Amateur Owned and Trained Trail Pleasure division.