November's Flying By

Happy upcoming Turkey day to ya'll :)

So far this month I've been in the saddle only about once a week, and fought off another sinus infection. Not quite the way I planned to enjoy the on again, off again good weather we've sporatically enjoyed, but somehow the month is just slipping away faster then daylight right now.

I've said good bye to three of my racehorses in the past month as they moved on to other careers. Two geldings and a filly went out to the east coast of Canada to new families and new adventures. After the months and years they spend with us, and how we've cared for them all, I get emotional to see them go but I do rejoyce in hearing how happy their new people are and how well they are doing. I have one more to retire from the track, our 10 year old stakeswinning stalling Sea Pleasure (Porky). Porky's arrangements to stand at stud will be finishing up in the comming months. He's been a consistant hard running superb example of a racehorse, and I look forward to seeing his offspring hit the track in a few years.

Sea Pleasure, back on our farm after his 2010 season

Sea Pleasure at play

November is also time for the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) aka Canadian Royal Exhibition. I'm still not quite sure what the proper designation is, but if you just call it the Royal around here, people know what you're talking about. This year was my second time to the Royal, and my friends and I went the first weekend. We saw some wonderful demos and gorgeous animals along with farming and agricultural exhibits. The Royal is not a horse show, though horses probably do dominate the majority of the events. There are cows, sheep, goats, llamas, bunnies, dogs and more along with crops farming and other rural activities. It's suppose to bring the country to the city (Toronto). We got to see top level indoor show jumping (the Millars, et al), top jumpers, top indoor eventing, heavy horses, hackneys, roadsters, and more. One of the highlights for me was watching Stacey Westfall's demos 3x that day. Here she is in the more up close and personal Spirit of the Horse ring. While the demos in there were very short, Stacey aboard her new stallion Vaquero was able to show us much easier how she was signaling and what she was training him to do. Here he is doing a reinless spin.

The Royal trip was a Saturday and as the evening performance ends very late we stayed over with local friends. We left very early on Sunday morning though as my two geldings were heading east that morning and I really wanted to say good bye. The trailer was already in my driveway when I got home, and I rushed from my truck as my husband was leading the last boy aboard. I ran to pet noses, scritch withers and take a last shot of them in their slants.


Le Sigh.
I know though that they are already well settled out there and making their new family happy so that's what matters most to me.

We also had some new life on the farm in the past week. Our new sheep had her twins, little girls, and they are adorable



Bella's being a great mommy to Mopsy and Flopsy

So we're down to 4 horses and the mini, soon to be 3 horses when Porky leaves for his fathering duties. This is "Chewie" in his first day out with my two mares.

And the reason we have this blog, the Be-aver!

Marie, who turns 22 next year. She's showing off the mud they are all finding fun to roll in

Chewie and Be in the back field

So, while I might not be riding a whole bunch right now, there are still lots of horsey things going on and farm stuff too. Be and I are still progressing, just slower this time of year. Hopefully the winter will stay mild, but even so a few dashes through the snow would be fun right about now :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!