Thankful Day After Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we headed up to visit my in-laws in northern Virginia.  Along with visiting family we had plans to visit our 2 year old gelding, Marq Your Bible aka "Marcus", who we own in partnership with my mother-in-law and 5 others.  He is taking a short break, as he has grown so much that we decided it was in his best interest to give him a breather so he'd be all ready for a 3 year old campaign, with our first big goal of a first start in March and then head him to Colonial Downs this June and July, for the VA-bred races, hoping he will be stakes quality.

Our trainer, Diana McClure, is a wonderful woman and not only loves the horses she works with, but also loves children and helping them develop their love of horses.   So, whenever we can make it out to her farm, she offers my two daughters a ride on her pony horse, Brownie, who is quite famous in his own right, for being the lead pony for Big Brown before his Preakness win, among other things.

So, on the day after Thanksgiving, we went to Diana's farm and both my girls got to ride Brownie and Diana also graciously gave pony rides to my two nephews, one of which had never been on a horse.

All the children really enjoyed their rides and my oldest even got to ride twice, because she loves Brownie so much that she talks about him all the time and even brought him some carrots this time.   Diana is showing her how to get into a jockey position, which she also did in July, at our last visit, and a picture of that has gotten a lot of attention on Facebook and on Diana's website.

After our visit with Brownie, we headed over to a friend of Diana's farm to see Marcus.   Diana thought her friend's farm would be a better place for a short break, than her own, because of a nice hill in the pasture and he could be left turned out a lot more, with a few buddies.

When Marcus came up to the fence and realized who was here to visit he was crazing our attention.   I climbed the fence and groomed him a little bit.   He is not what most people would think of when they think of a horse who has been in race training.   He's so sweet, I groomed him while he was totally loose in his pasture, no halter, no lead rope, nothing, he just stood there relishing the attention that I bestowed upon him.

A few times, after I was done grooming, he wandered off, but always came right back for more attention.   The picture above is of Marcus coming over to me and giving me a good sniff and kiss.   He did this all on his own, I did not encourage him to put his nose to my face.   I know he remembers me.   I was there helping him come into this world, a difficult birth and he is lucky to be alive and healthy after such a hard time coming into this world.   I guess he and I will always have a special connection because of that tricky situation.

After he sniffed me over really good he wandered off, but came right back and I was standing by the fence talking to Diana and he came up and put his head over my right shoulder and just stood there with his gorgeous head on my shoulder listening to me talk and letting me rub on him some more.   He is so sweet and such a special boy, I can't wait for him to start racing.

After our visit we went back to my in-laws for a late lunch, tried to get our youngest daughter to take a nap, but she was just too excited, so later in the afternoon we headed out for a walk, as our oldest wanted to go see the stream, she had seen on a walk, the day before, with some other family members.   It was my husband, my two daughters, and I alone, this time.   I had my Seeing Eye Dog Dextra harnessed up and I was following behind my husband as we went down the very steep hill behind my in-law's house.   Our oldest daughter led the way and my husband helped our youngest.   After a little while, we realized it was getting dark very quickly, so we turned around to head back to the house, but our oldest daughter was getting a bit upset that she wasn't going to get to see the stream again.   My husband got me to the bottom of the steep hill, where the path led through the thick woods up to my in-law's house and I took my youngest daughters hand and started back to the house as my husband took our oldest a shortcut to the stream.   I couldn't see hardly anything through the thick woods, I just said, "Dextra, forward!  Let's go back to the house."   And Dextra slowly made her way up the steep incline guiding me and my 2 year old daughter around the thick underbrush, bush branches, etc staying on what felt like the correct path, the several hundered feet up to the clearing where the house stands.   When she got us safely to the front sidewalk I dropped the harness and gave her a huge hug, petted her vigorously, and just told her how proud of her I was and what a super star Seeing Eye Dog she is!

These dogs are not trained to go hiking like that, but many guide dog users do go hiking, we just have to do it slowly and use the training they have to expand on it to train them about trails.   So, she isn't in the first to do this, but it was her first time doing it and she was amazing!

Dextra and I have only been together since April and she is only 2 1/2 years old, but she is proving to be so awesome and I can not praise her enough or thank The Seeing Eye enough for partnering her with me.   I look forward to a lot more adventures with this truly amazing young yellow Labrador from The Seeing Eye.

And, yes, my 2 year old was also adding her praises to Dextra, too.   It was so dark by the time I made it back to the house that all I could see was the outline of the house against the fading light.   I went inside and had my father-in-law turn on the flood lights, so that my husband and oldest daughter could find their way back to the house, which they did about 20 minutes later.

So, the day after Thanksgiving gave me a lot to be thankful for.   I am thankful for my sweet family, my awesome Seeing Eye dog, my horses, and my wodnerful trainer, Diana McClure.

Marq Your Bible to race, in part, for The Seeing Eye, Inc

It is amazing how God works and the inspirations that come from His faithfulness.

Already, there are three partners in our racehorse that are graduates of The Seeing Eye, myself, included.   On Sunday, I received an unexpected call from yet another Seeing Eye graduate who wishes to join the partnership.  

She has informed me that any of her earnings, past what will go directly back into the partnership, will be donated to The Seeing Eye, in her name.   This has inspired me to do the same with part of my majority interest in him.

I currently own 42% of Marq Your Bible aka "Marcus" and I now wish to also donate at least 2% of my earnings, past what goes back directly to the partnership, to The Seeing Eye.   I have been inspired by this new member and also by the faithfulness God has shown me and I am feeling led to do this.

So, now, Marcus will not only be owned by 4 graduates of The Seeing Eye and 2 other women, who are not blind, but he will be racing for the wonderful organization that we all love, that has provided 4 of us with amazing dog guides, The Seeing Eye Inc of Morristown, NJ.

Marcus will be taking a short break to do some more growing.   He has nothing wrong, but has been growing so much lately, that we just feel it is in his best interest to let him grow.   He will start his vacation next week and be brought back into training Jan. 1st, with a hopeful first race to be around the middle of March.

Become a fan of this wonderful horse that is now going to be racing for such an extraordinarily great cause

You can find his fan page on Facebook and also the farm fan page, Perfect Peace Farm, where you will receive updated news on what he is up to and see pictures of this totally gorgeous boy.

Marcus' fan page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marq-Your-Bible/193529944025899?ref=ts

Perfect Peace Farm fan page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Perfect-Peace-Farm-LLC/173890696024170

Go Marcus, Go!
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A little background on me and my connection to The Seeing Eye.

I am currently working with my 4th Seeing Eye Dog, Dextra, a 2 year old female yellow Labrador Retriever, who I received in April 2011.  

I received my first Seeing Eye Dog, Ginger, a female German Shepherd, in July 1994.   I have been blessed by this organization and the 4 great dogs I have been given.   I received my 2nd guide, Zach, in May 1995, a male black Labrador Retriever, and my 3rd, Nalley, a male Golden Retriever, in April 2002.   Nalley is still with me, at the age of 11, enjoying retirement.

These dogs have guided me at college, through graduation, on various horse farms and other jobs, down the aisle at a friend's wedding, been my ring bearer at my own wedding, guided me on the train trip we took for our Honeymoon to Saratoga Springs for the horse races, at several other race tracks, including to Churchill Downs for the Breeder's Cup in 2006, been with me when I sing solos at church, when I'm in choir, and countless other things, where they help me maintain independence.   I am forever grateful to The Seeing Eye for their dedication to breeding top quality dogs, training the best guides for those seeking a dog guide, and the support they give students while in class and graduates after we return home with our dogs.   It is a wonderful organization that I am pleased to be a part of and hope and pray that I can give back to, in part, with some of the earnings of this racehorse.   I will be combining my love of dogs and horses all in one, it doesn't get much better than that!

A Full Circle

When I was 7 years old I went to Camp Holiday Trails, for the first time.   It was a camp for disabled and sick children.   The issues ranged from other kids being blind, like myself, to children with Cystic Fibrosis, Diabetes, various forms of cancer, etc.

I had recently seen a show on TV called "Adventures of Black Beauty", loosely based on the novel, "Black Beauty".   I had fallen in love with horses from the first time I saw him running across a green field on the television screen, at my Grandparents house.   To this very day, I can still picture it in my mind.

When I arrived at camp, I was delighted to discover that they offered horseback riding to the campers.   i couldn't wait for my very first ride on a horse, which didn't come for a few days.   When it finally was my turn to go down to the stables, I walked down the row of stalls and petted each horse and stopped when I arrived at the stall of a beautiful black horse with a small white star.   I couldn't believe it, I was looking at horse that was the spitting image of "Black Beauty".

A few minutes later the riding instructor gave out horse assignments and I was overwhelmed to find out that I was about to ride Smokey, the black Quarter Horse gelding, that I was staring at.   he was only a 2 year old, but was quiet enough to be used by this program.

His owner tacked him up, as he was privately owned, and not owned by the camp, like the rest of the horses.  She told me a little about him and before I knew it I was following them to the small riding ring and after I got a helmet, I was put onto his back.

The riding ring had a blue stone type footing around the outside, making a nice sized oval, and to the inside of that was a grassy area with one tree, to provide shade to those kids who were waiting their turn to ride.

I rode Smokey for at least 10 minutes, when he suddenly stopped and stretched out his hind legs.   The riding instructor called for me to be taken off of him, as they didn't want me on him, if he needed to use the bathroom, since it was my first time on a horse and he was still young.

Just to be safe, he was taken back to the barn and untacked and that was the end of my first ride.

The next week, I went back down to the riding stable and this time I was assigned Sir Edwards, a little grey Welsh Pony, who was the spitting image of Merrylegs, from the "Black Beauty" novel.

It was really hot, so all the horses and ponies were tacked up and we were all put on one and with each of us having at least one leader, holding the horse or pony, we went for a trail ride down the country road, that led up the mountain to the camp, where the cabins were, so there was hardly any traffic, in fact, I think only one truck went by the whole time we rode.

I loved that little pony, he was so awesome!  He was at least 28 years old, I think, at that time.

I returned to Camp Holiday trails for the next two years and each year I got to ride Sir Edwards, but Smokey had left the program.   I rode several others, along with Sir Edwards, but I always got at least one ride on him.

After I was 9, I stopped going to camp, not sure why that happened, but I missed it.

When I was 18, I was offered the opportunity to return to Camp Holiday Trails for the week long camp for blind children, as a teen worker.  I arrived on Saturday afternoon, with the other camp counsellors and teen workers, which there were about 10 to 12 of us.   The teen workers were to stay in the infirmary complex on cots.

As we drove onto the country road that led to the camp, I was delighted to see horses still in the pasture and hoped they still offered riding.   I knew I would not be riding, as I was a worker, but I was hoping to get to help with the horses, at least a little bit.

I was given permission to go down to the stables on Monday morning, with the campers and see if they could use my help.   I was again, delighted to see the riding instructor, who had been there when I was a child, was still there and she actually remember me.  

Because of my horse experience, she gratefully accepted my help and I was assigned a little Shetland Pony named Princess, to groom, tack up, and help children with, when they rode her.

She was a cute little pony, a bay and white pinto, about 12 hands, at most, and reportedly 33 years old.  

I asked about Sir Edwards, and was told that he lived to be 36 years old and had died only a few years before.

After I tacked up Princess, I led her to the very same riding ring and waited in line for the instructor to get the kids mounted, one at a time.  There were a lot of children, so two kids would take turns on each horse or pony.

The first kid I was given to help with Princess, was not only blind, but only had one arm.  I think he could see a little bit.   He was so excited to ride Princess and truly enjoyed his time on her.

After his time was up, he was helped off and I went to get the next child.   As I approached, with Princess, I could hear that the little boy was upset and afraid.   They were trying to get him on another pony, but he totally refused, so I was called over, as Princess was the smallest in the group and they thought he might be less afraif of her.

I stopped Princess in the shade of the tree and listened for a few minutes, as they continued to try to coax this little boy, who was totally blind, to even come close enough to touch Princess, but he refused.   I asked someone else to hold Princess for me and I walked over to him.   I introduced myself and then told him that I was blind, too, only with some vision, but not very much.   I told him that I loved horses and that Princess was very gentle and would not hurt him.

I am not sure what it was, exactly, that I told him, that made him trust me, but before i knew it, I had his hand and we were walking towards Princess.   I introduced him to her, at her head, then we trailed her neck, back, and to her tail, so he could get an idea of how big she was and what she felt like.

After a few minutes of getting to feel Princess, he decided it was okay to get on her, but insisted that I be there with him.   I told him that I would lead Princess for him and all he had to do was enjoy the ride.

As we headed out to the rail, after his stirruprs were adjusted, I glanced over my shoulder and noticed he was hunched over and his head was down.  I knew it was from nerves.   I started to talk to him some more about Princess and he talked back with me, but he stayed hunched.   Then I had an idea.   I moved to a place where I could stop Princess, safely, and not be in the way of others.   I held onto the reins and then stood next to him.   I told him, "I want you to not focus on being nervous, but start to feel her moving under you.  See if you can tell when she is moving each of her legs."   I explained to him that at a walk, a horse moves each foot at a different time, to make a 4 beat rythm.   He agreed to try and so I started to walk Princess, again.   I kept talking to him and asking him to feel for her legs to move and then I realized his voice sounded different.   I again, glanced over my shoulder and was amazed to see him sitting straight up in the saddle, his face turned upwards, and even with my limited eyesight, I could see the biggest smile on that little boys face. 

It felt so wonderful to help him.  A joy filled me.   As we continued to walk around the ring his confidence built.   There was a pole on the ground and I asked him if he would like me to lead Princess over it, to see if he could tell when she was going over it.  He agreed to this and knew exactly when her leg moved differently to raise up higher, to step over the pole.   he was so excited, I could tell it in his voice, that he was truly enjoying his first experience on a pony.

I was amazed at how things had come full circle.  I had been given my first horse experience at this camp, in that very ring, and now here I was helping a little blind boy have his and overcome his fears, to experience something totally new and different.

The limitations put on blind children, by some, cause them to be nervous about trying new things, but some of us are lucky and are not told, "You can't do that."  or "You shouldn't do that." with the only reason being our blindness.   Yes, I've heard these things, but not from those who matter and had influence on me and my development as a strong person.  Some call me brave, courageous, and other descriptive words, because of what I have done in my life, despite my disability, but I just see it as I am doing what comes naturally to me.   God gave me a gift with horses and I am using it and God allowed me to help a blind child and to experience the joy that came with it.

Foals in the Pasture

In the spring of 2004, we were expecting two foals.  Messenger of Light aka "leia" was in foal to Waquoit, due in late March and Street Dasher aka "Bunny" was in foal to Land's End the Colonel's Fox, due in late May.   Leia's foal would be apurebred Thoroughbred, hopefully destined for the race track and Bunny, an Anglo-Arabian, was carrying a foal by a Welsh Pony, hopefully destined for the top as a hunter pony.


As Leia's due date approached, I kept a close watch on her.  I set up the camera in the foaling stall, ran the cables to the house, so that I could watch her from the comfort of my den.   I knew she was getting close and started to stay up at night, sleeping in a recliner that was next to the small TV that I had hooked up to the camera.   Finally, I knew she was definitely close, probably within 24 hours.   I watched her all night, barely getting any sleep.   My husband got up about 7 or so and I told him that I thought she was close, but I desperately needed some sleep.    He promised to keep a watch on Leia for me.   He even offered to clean her stall.   So, i told him that when he cleaned her stall that he could let her out, but she would need to come back in as soon as he was done.

So, I laid down about 8 AM and slept for several hours.  I knew he would come to get me if Leia went into labor.   When i woke up, I went to the den and saw him sitting in his recliner and there was no Leia on the TV screen.  He told me he had decided to keep Leia out a little longer and would go out to bring her back inside in a few minutes.   I said, "OK, but don't wait too long."   I was starving, so I went to get something to eat.

I sat down and started to eat and I asked if he could look out the window to check on Leia, because of my vision, I can't see that far.   So, he got up and looked out the kitchen window and suddenly started yelling, "Red Alert!  Leia's having her foal!"

I lept up, leaving my food on the table, threw on my barn boots, grabbed the foaling bag kit and raced out the door, with him behind me.   I raced to the paddock and found Leia down and a foal laying a few feet away.   Leia had luckily laid down where a round bale had been, so it was one of the cleaner spots in the paddock.   As I assessed the situation, Gordon rushed to get Bunny and another mare, Shadow, out of the paddock.    Bunny didn't want to leave her friend, but reluctantly left when Gordon opened up the gate leading to the large back field.

Gordon then came back to help me.   The foal was up on it's chest and Leia was working on delivering the placenta.   I checked the foal quickly and discovered that it was a filly and she was large and appeared healthy.   Leia stood up and delivered the placenta.    Gordon and I then picked up the filly and moved them to the foaling stall.

I dried the filly off and we put betadine on her umbilical stump.   She was quickly to her feet and looking for her mother's milk.   As with Luke, Leia was an excellent mother and we decided to call the long legged dark bay filly, Princess.   She had a few white hairs, so we guessed she would be turning grey, just like her sire, Waquoit.

I was a little upset with Gordon for not putting Leia back in the stall, after cleaning it, like I had asked, but since everything turned out alright, I got over it quickly, as he learned his lesson.

A few weeks later, Leia and Princess left for Leia to go be bred to Zillionair, a rare colored cremello Thoroughbred.

Bunny was not due until late May, but as April turned into May, I started to think that there was a chance she would carry this foal shorter than the last two.   She had carried Tell A Tale for 361 days and Belle for 350 days.   On day 332, I checked her in themorning and she had a decent size udder and I talked to her and said, "Tonight you start staying inside for me to watch you."  

After breakfast, I turned her out in the back field with Shadow and Belle.   Belle loved being back with her mother.   Belle was almost 15 months old and was so beautiful.

That afternoon Gordon and I sat down to watch the Black Eyed Suson Stakes from Pimlico and enjoyed the race.   After the race, I was preparing to head out to feed the horses and bring Bunny in for the night.   Gordon went into the kitchen to put something away and the next thing I heard was him yelling, "Red Alert!  I think Bunny's had her foal!"

I lept up so fast and almost ran into the back door, I couldn't believe it.   I shoved my boots on and ran as fast I could to the back field.   They were in the far back, but were slowly making their way towards me.   As they got closer, I saw Bunny and Belle walking side by side and Shadow was circling them at about a 30 to 40 foot distance.   Inbetween Bunny and Belle I saw an extra head and got them to stop and Bunny, trusting me, let me get inbetween her and Belle to see the new foal. 

It was still soaking wet, but since it was up, it was obviously strong.  But we were still quite some distance from the barn, so I scooped up the foal into my arms and started carrying it.   Gordon finally made it out to us and offered to help, but I was doing okay.   I just told him to open gates and stall doors, on the way and to make sure that Belle and Shadow didn't follow Bunny and I.

Bunny and Belle kept right with me as I carried the foal, who weighed around 60 pounds.   As we exited the back field, heading into the paddock to the right of the barn, Gordon was able to get Belle to back off enough to shut the gate.   This made Belle very upset, she wanted to be with her mother and the foal.

Once we got into the foaling stall, I set the foal down and checked it over, "Another filly!"  I called out, with excitement.   She was so cute, had a huge star on her face, a white snip on her nose, and 3 white pasterns.   But, like Princess, we could tell that it looked like she would be turning grey, as Bunny was grey.

It took some effort, but the filly eventually nursed and was totally healthy, despite the early foaling date and surprise of being born in the pasture.   Because she was born about the time that the Black Eyed Susan was being run, we decided to call her Suzy.

When Suzy was strong enough, I reunited her with her big sister, Belle and Bunny was perfectly content for Belle to help out with Suzy's care.   It was so sweet to watch the three of them interacting.   I had heard of this kind of behavior in wild horses, where a mare's older daughter helped with a younger sibling, but it was the first time I had truly witnessed it first hand.   A lot of times people don't allow this kind of interaction amongst their herd, for fear of the older sibling hurting the younger one, but Belle was so gentle and loving, she'd do nothing to hurt Suzy.

Leia and Princess returned, when Leia was confirmed pregnant to Zillionair and shortly after that Bunny was confirmed in foal to Farnley Belshazzar, who had been the sire of Tell A Tale, born in 1999.  

I registered Princess as Quoit Blessed and she was eventually sold to a client, as a racing prospect, when she was a yearling.   She was given a chance to race, but due to some bad training, running her the wrong distances, and some bad luck, which caused a tendon injury, she never won, 4th being her best finish.   Princess is now the dam of two beautiful Jazil fillies.   I look forward to them racing.   They were born in 2010 and 2011, so I still have to wait a bit longer to see them race.

Suzy was registered as a Half Welsh Pony as Perfect Peace What a Blessing, sometimes seen with no space between "what a" to make it "whata".   I sent her to be trained by Sarah Warmack at Hilltop Farm VA, when she was 3 years old.   Sarah did a wonderful job with Suzy and started her show career.   Despite the starting of the decline in horse sales, we were able to get close to our asking price for Suzy, as she was so nice.   Suzy is a super nice mover and is always winning her hack classes and winning or getting top ribbons in her over fences classes as a Hunter Pony.   She was sold when she was 4 years to Kristin Mangum.   Suzy competes up and down the East Coast at A Circuit level shows, winning ribbons at HITS, Warrenton, Culpeper, Deep Run, Upperville, etc.   We could not be prouder of her success and look forward to hearing even more of her success as she continues to mature and develop.

Back to the Barn

I have been trying for over 2 years to get back to the barn on a regular basis. During a very difficult pregnancy, with my youngest child, I was put on bed rest, and was threatened with hospitalization, if I didn't be a good girl and stay out of my barn. After she was delivered, she was a very high needs baby that ended up with colic and reflux, she also was so overly attached to me that it made it very difficult for me to even do household tasks.

She is now 2 years old and is still high needs, but it is more emotional than anything else, these days. I try to get to the barn, but she would scream the whole time I worked with the horses and it really wore on me, making me choose not to hear her scream, so I stayed in the house, letting my wonderful husband do most of the horse work.

It has depressed me not to get to be with my horses, so I am now pushing the issue and thankfully, so far, she seems more receptive to being at the barn. Now old enough to communicate more, she can talk to me, from her stroller, as I work, and she can talk to her sister, or the horses.

On Sunday, as a family, we all went out to the barn. My oldest daughter, now 6 years old, got a set of kid sized horse brushes for her Birthday and it was time to truly teach her how to properly groom, versus just taking a bristle brush to the horse's coat for a few minutes.

My husband took the camera out and snapped pictures of the two of us, as I taught her how to use the curry and a more proper use of the stiff brush. He also kept an eye on our younger daughter.

Our oldest suffers from allergies, which unfortunately, does include a mild allergy to horses, so after about 15 minutes, she started to sniffle a bit, so I let her go play, while I finished grooming Belle.

Belle, who has been featured in some of my recent stories, is now 8 years old, and despite being 3/4 Arabian and 1/4 Thoroughbred, is one of the calmest horses on the farm, totally blowing the theory that some people have that "all Arabians are crazy" or "All Thoroughbreds are hot." She stood so calmly for my daughter's grooming lesson, I was so proud of her.

After I was done grooming her, I took her out of the barn and stood her up for a conformation picture, something we hadn't done with her in years. It took only one take, to get the above picture. Belle is the bay, you can't see it, but she has a huge blaze on her face, to go with the 4 white socks.

After I put Belle back in the stall, I pulled out her half sister, Myra, who is a 6 year old Half Welsh Pony. They are both daughters of Bunny. I have not gotten to Myra's story, yet, and I will, trying to go in order, somewhat, in my horse stories, unless something just comes to me.

I groomed Myra and then took her out for her photo shoot. Like Belle, I had not taken any conformation pictures of Myra in years. I cleaned them up as best as I could, but there are some mud stains on them, due to all the rain we've had. Myra is a grey, now almost white, so I did as much as I could, luckily, she wasn't too stained.

While Gordon continued to watch our girls and take pictures of them, I put Myra back in the barn and then fed the horses. It felt so great to be out there and working with them. I felt so lifted and energized, that not only did I go in and make 2 pizzas for dinner, I added brownies as a dessert!

Today, I took both girls out, before my husband got home and fed the horses and was so happy that my youngest didn't fuss one bit! She just talked to me as I came near her and talked to her sister and to the nearest horse to her, Mayo. She was so good and it makes me so enthused that I can actually now start going out to the barn, again! I can really truly start working with the horses, training Myra and Belle, grooming everyone on a regular basis, and just getting to know them all again. I can't tell you how happy I feel right now.

Messenger of Light and Feel the Force

A few months before Gordon and I got married, I was looking at a website for a farm that I had worked at, a few years before, and I was just curious what they had for sale, when I saw they were selling a mare, for a client, named Messenger of Light.   She was a gorgeous mare, foaled in 1988, sired by Halo, and out of the Chieftain mare, Tribal Envoy.

At the time, she had 4 foals of racing age, but all of them were sired by low level Texas stallions, a fairly well known pedigree expert actually told me to through those out, as they were "Texas trash".    None of these had raced and the lady selling the mare claimed that she had been told by the lady she bought the mare from, that the foals were being shown, instead of racing.   The mare was so nice looking, it was easy to believe such a story.

Messenger of Light, then had changed hands, after Texas, and was bred to Announce and Jules, quite a bit better than what she had been bred to.   One was an early 2 year old and the other was a yearling, at the time.   The current owner had bred Messenger of Light to Genuine Risk's son, Genuine Reward.  So, again, not to a very promishing stallion.

Gordon and I discussed it, the mare was very nice, came from a nice female family, as her 2nd dam was also the 2nd dam to champion Skywalker.  We were not interested in the foal she was carrying and we knew the lady who was selling her, was not happy about selling the mare, as she really wanted the foal, so I devised a plan to offer the lady the foal, if she would come down in the price.  I got her to reduce the price by almost half, so we decided to go ahead and buy her, upon my personal inspection and a vet checck.

So, Gordon and I went out to see her.   She was in the field and was so sweet.  She was just as pretty and perfect in conformation, as her pictures had shown.   She then passed her vet examination and so we bought her.

Because her cousin, if you think of it in human terms, was Skywalker, and Gordon and I are big sci-fi fans, and love "Star Wars", we decided to call her Leia.

The farm wasn't ready yet for horses, so we kept her at the boarding farm a bit longer and then a new neighbor of ours offered me a stall, so she could be just down the road.  I paid them board and I went out to see Leia as much as I could for the few weeks she was with them.

Once the barn and fencing were up, she joined Baron, Bunny, and Angel, at the new location for Perfect Peace Farm.

I tried to have the four horses out together, but for some unknown reason, Baron did not like Leia and would chase her.   So, I had no choice but to separate the group.   Bunny, who was pregnant with Belle, was kept with Leia, so the two pregnant mares were together, and Baron and Angel were paired up.

Leia was due about 6 weeks after Bunny, but since Bunny carried 10 days late, Leia foaled just a month after Bunny.

Leia delivered a nice looking colt that was a bit weak, at first.  He seemed fine the first 12 hours, so passed his first vet check, but when he was about 30 hours old I started to worry about him.  It was a Saturday morning, of course, and only one vet at the pracitce I used was on call.   I called her and told her my concerns, but since she was a new vet and not that experienced with foals, she was not concerned.  I was pretty upset with her lack of knowledge and concern and I did not like being treated like I was over reacting.

Luke was breathing heavily, his heart rate was high, and he was starting to develop a fever.

Still being new to the area, I did not know all the vets in the area, so I called the people down the road, that I had kept Leia with the previous summer, to ask for another vet recommendation.   They gave me their vet's number and she agreed that Luke sounded like he needed help.

I called this vet, told him what was going on and he said, "I'll be there in a half hour!"   So, that showed experience and concern, that I wasn't just over reacting. 

Once he got here, he said that I had acted quickly and praised me for being aware of what was going on with the colt.   He said that if I had waited any longer, that Luke would have developed pnuemonia.   Since it was borderline, we went ahead and treated him as if he had it, just to be safe.  He got a catheter put in his neck, so we could give him the antibiotics straight into his bloodstream.  We had to flush it out several times a day and give him the meds after flushing it.

Luke was a good patient and he quickly gained strength and soon was a healthy thriving colt.   His owner was very pleased with him.   We sent her pictures quite often.

Leia was then sent up to Northview Stallion Station in Maryland, to be bred to Waquoit, a son of Relaunch.  Relaunch had sired Skywalker, and Waquoit had a reputation of crossing extremely well with daughters of Halo, so we were very excited about this mating.

Leia got in foal quickly and was soon back home.   Luke grea a lot while theyw ere gone.  I'm always amazed at how fast foals grow.

Since Belle was now in the stall, due to her fractured pelvis, Luke had no one to play with, until Belle was finally cleared to go out that July.   They became quick friends and loved playing with each other.   Leia and Bunny were great co-moms, they'd let the other foal come near them, if their foal was at their side.  They helped each other out and took turns babysitting.

Belle and Luke were weaned in late August and in September, Hurricane Isabel hit us.   Belle and Luke shared a stall and were perfectly content.   All the horses were very calm during the storm.  

We were without power for a week, after Isabel, and shortly after that, Luke left us to go to his owner's farm in Pennsylvania.   Luke was registered as Feel The Force, because I could feel his strength as he fought, those first few days and you could tell he was a fighter.  It just came to me, and yes, it has a "Star Wars" sound to it, too.  I suggested it to his owner and she loved it.

I usually try to register the horses I breed with religious sounding names, but as I said, this name just came to me, so I figured it was just meant to be his name.

His owner said she planned to train him herself and race him, but I have not heard anything from her since Luke was a 2 year old.   I do not know what happened, we had a wonderful relationship, had become email friends, so I worry that something happened to Luke and she just didn't have the heart to tell me.   I stay in touch with just about everyone who gets a horse from my breeding program, as I try to keep track of what I breed or what I have even just owned, not bred, for a short time, so I know they are safe and I let everyone know that if they ever need to give the horse away, it needs a retirement home, etc, that I want to be the first person they call and I will take the horse or pony, if I have the space.  And if I can't take the horse or pony, I will do all I can to help them find it a good home.

So, if anyone out there ever hears of a Thoroughbred by the name of Feel the Force, born in 2003, sired by Genuine Reward and out of Messenger of Light, please contact me, so I know where he is.

First Miracle at Perfect Peace Farm

Bunny had given me my dream horse, Belle.  Belle was perfect in so many ways and from the beginning, she was so friendly, sweet, and easy to train.  Her first month of life flew by, with her learning daily and our bond getting closer and closer.

When she was about a month old I came out to the barn to do the morning feed and turnout.   I found her sprawled out in the middle of the stall.  She was trying to nurse from Bunny, while laying down.   Bunny, being such a great mom, stood still and let Belle do this.   As I entered the stall, I realized that they had moved all the bedding out of the center of the stall and had exposed to the stall mats, which were now slick with urine.

Belle could not get up on her own, on such a slick surface.   I quickly moved bedding out of the corners to try to help her get some traction, but she still required my help to stand.   I checked her over, and she was weight baring on all legs, so I just hoped she had bruised something and she would be fine.   When I turned her out she was a little lame behind, but it did not appear too serious, so I decided to watch her and see how she was in a day or so.

But the next morning, when I came out to the barn, she was down, again, but this time there was plenty of bedding under her, she had not moved it out of her way and she was not getting up.  I went into the stall and again, had to help her get to her feet.   It was at this point that I realized that there was something wrong, so I fed them and went back to the house to call the vet.

The head vet came out a few days later, as they didn't consider what I was describing a true emergency.  He looked Belle over, as I told him, there was no heat, no swelling, nothing outward to indicate what was wrong, but she was obviously favoring her hind right.  I told him she had gotten more lame over the few days, so he continued with the exam.  He started blocking nerves, starting with just above her hoof, no change.  Then he numbed her pastern, again, no change.  Next her ankle was blocked, same result.  The last attempt to locate the injury was to block her hock, but again, as before, there was no change.

He felt her stifle and did not think it was that joint, so at that point he started to think it was her hip.   However, we could not be sure what was going on without x-rays.   Since it is very difficult to get x-rays of the hip, I was told I'd need to bring her to the clinic, where she'd be put under sedation to get proper x-rays.

I called a friend of mine, Katie, and she and her father came a few days later to help me transport Bunny and Belle to the vet clinic for the x-rays to be done.

It took some effort, but I finally got Bunny on the trailer, as she remained hard to load from her bad experience years before.

When we got to the clinic, I took Bunny and Belle to a waiting stall, with Katie's help, and one of the junior vets and a tech met us and then sedated Belle.   Bunny remained remarkably calm as they worked on Belle, flipping her onto her back so that a proper image of her hips could be taken.

After the first image, he wasn't satisfied and another one had to be taken.

About 20 minutes later, I was given the bad news.  Belle's hips were fine, but her pelvis was fractured.  I was told that Belle would need at least 6 months in the stall and she still may not be 100% sound, only time would tell.

We loaded Bunny and Belle back up on the trailer, this time Bunny went right on for me, I think she knew we were going home.  

When we got home, I put them in their stall and cried.  My beautiful dream horse had a fairly serious injury.  She would probably live, but I may never get to ride her.  I had given up riding her mother several years before, due to Bunny's mental stress, from what I believe was abuse by a previous owner or trainer, I just couldn't believe I may never get to ride her daughter, who I'd dreamt of having for so long.

I was very worried about how Bunny might handle stall rest for 6 months, with Belle.   Bunny had gone through 6 months of stall rest, herself, in September 1996 to March 1997.  I did not know if she could handle it, yet again. 

So, I started to research how to raise an orphan foal, as Belle was only 5 weeks old, at this point.  I even called a farm in PA that was considered one of the authorities on raising orphans and got some great advice.

After another week, Bunny was starting to show signs of stress from the confinement in a 10 by 12 stall.   I could open up the foaling stall, but I was told not to, because they didn't want Belle moving that much, just yet.  So, I talked to Bunny, because I seriously believed she understood a lot of what I said to her.

I told her that Belle really had to stay in the stall and I didn't want to have to wean Belle at 6 weeks, but if she couldn't handle being in the stall, I would let her go out.  

Bunny remained a bit nervous or high energy, so after my husband got home, I decided to let Bunny out and see how things went.   I held Belle as my husband opened the outer stall door to let Bunny out, and then close it, separating mother from baby.   Well, Bunny went absolutely nuts that she could not get to her foal.  I let her run around outside of the barn for about 10 to 15 minutes and then I let her back in with Belle.  I told her that she had to calm down to get to stay with Belle, and I swear I never had any other problems with Bunny after that and her getting too high of energy.

After about 2 months of stall rest, only going out to walk down the barn aisle to be moved to another stall, I had the vet come out to evaluate Belle's progress, because she was becoming more and more sound as she walked.

At that point the okay was given to open up my foaling stall, which gave Bunny and Belle an area of 12 by 18.   They had two outer stall doors that I could open the windows to and two inner stall doors, but I kept those closed, so I could hang fans, as it was starting to get hotter, as spring was over half way through.

Bunny would calmly stand looking out of one of the stall door windows and Belle would pace back and forth from one to another.  I wish I could have closed one of the windows, but it would have gotten too hot.  So, I figured if she developed a slight pacing habit, I could live with that and maybe she would grow out of it after she healed.

When Belle was 5 months old, 4 months after the injury, the vet came out to evaluate her progress, again.  He could not believe what he was seeing.  She was so sound in the stall that while he was there, he had me turn Bunny and Belle out in the small 1/2 acre paddock, that came off their stall.  Belle behaved herself and did not run around like a maniac, like a foal who had been stalled for 4 months.   She did move around at a walk, trot, and slow canter, enough for him to realize that she was healing a lot faster and a lot more complete than he could have ever imagined.  What should have taken a minimum of 6 months, only took 4, it really was a miracle that she had healed in such a short period of time.

He told me that Belle could start going out on limited turnout, for a few weeks, slowly increasing the time she got outside.   After about a month, Belle was out with the other foal that had been born on the farm that spring, and happily playing with him.

For about another year, she would sometimes stand cross legged, behind, which is what she did, at times, to rest her pelvis, but slowly she did it less and less.   She was sometimes difficult to work with her hind feet, but by her 2nd Birthday, she was fine and the farrier was happy, too.

I continued Belle's training and she would trot in hand, knew all kinds of voice commands, and if i stood in front of her, she would put her head on my shoulder and give me a Belle hug.

Belle has never been broke to ride, there is a chance that her pelvis could be a bit weak, but maybe one day I will get on her back and see if she can handle my weight.  I had the vet check her, when she was 5 years old to see if she would be able to have a foal, safely, and the report was good news.   She stands only 14.2 hands, Bunny was 14.3 hands and Belle's sire, Rho-Quest (Khemosabi) was 15.1 hands, so she definitely ended up a bit smaller than I expected, but the vet said I could breed her, I'd just have to limit it to pony stallions who are known to sire smaller sized foals, even when bred to larger mares.   Belle has not produced a foal, yet, on two tries.  Once she didn't get in foal and the other time she did, but lost it at about 7 months gestation, out in the field, where we never saw it.  I am hoping to try breeding her in 2012 to Land's End the Colonel's Fox, who sired one of Belle's half sisters.  Perfect Peace What a Blessing is cleaning up in the show ring and I'd love to get a 3/4 sibling to her.

Belle, my dream horse, remains the first miracle to happen here at Perfect Peace Farm.  She has a life long home with me, she will never ever be sold or given away, she's mine forever!

The Wild Thoroughbred

From the time of her birth, Goldie was hardly ever touched by a human.  Sure, her owners fed her and her dam, along with her two older half sisters, but no handling was ever done.  She was allowed to live like she was a wild Mustang, instead of a Thoroughbred with a possible racing future.  In the late spring of her yearling year, Goldie's life changed, when she met me.

I was working on a ranch in Texas, where Goldie's sire stood at stud.  Goldie's owners wanted her dam to be bred back to Goldie's sire, so we took the horse trailer to go pick up Goldie's dam.   The owners also decided that we should take Goldie and her older half sisters, too.   They were in desperate need of farrier care and some handling. 

It took over an hour to get the 4 of them loaded onto the trailer.  The older sisters had some handling, but not a lot.  Just enough that a halter was able to be put on them and they would lead a little bit, but not great.  We loaded the older sisters first, then Goldie's dam, and Goldie had to be herded onto the trailer.

Despite what her name may be, she was not gold in color, actually almost a dark bay, with only a hint of red to her coat.  I don't think she even had any white markings, maybe a tiny star, but I don't remember, for sure.

Once back at the ranch, it was my job to start teaching Goldie about humans and start her early training.   Since I had some experience with Mustangs, I decided to treat her similar to how I had been successful with them.

Goldie was put in the barn, if you can call it that, as it was more of a 3 sided building with 4 foot high panels on the front.  You could open them up and give the horses a small run area.   Her area was usually kept open and it measured about 16 x 32 feet, at most.

I would stand by her feed bucket as she ate, so she would get used to my scent and me being present while she ate.  At first, I did this from the other side of the metal panel, and when she had accepted me being there, I would then stand beside the bucket, but on the same side of the panel as she was on, so I was now in her space.  I wanted her to get used to me being there, my smell, my voice, my movements, etc.

Once she became more relaxed about that, I started to hold the bucket and have her come to me to eat.   She could only eat if she came to me and stuck her head into the bucket I was holding.   This took a few days, but soon she caught on and started to accept this, so then I moved to the next step, which was trying to touch her.

At first, every time my hand moved towards her, no matter how slowly, she would jump away and run to the back of the pen.  But, she'd soon come back, hunger for the grain winning over her fear of me.  

A few more days passed and I was soon petting her gently on the head.   So, i then hung the bucket back up on the panel and stood next to it, again, as she ate, this time I had both hands free to try and touch her.  First just her head, then her neck, then her shoulder, each day a little further.

Everyday we made slow progress in where I could touch her and pet her gently.  When I'd try to go a bit further, she'd still wheel and run to the back of the pen.  I never feared her kicking me, even though I am pretty sure she was kicking out in my direction, as she ran away, but something told me that she was not mean, and would not intentionally hurt me.

We were making great progress and I added a halter to the top of the feed bucket, for her to stick her nose through, in order to eat.   This did spook her quite a bit and the next thing I knew the ranch owner was running out of the house and yelling at me that I was doing this all wrong and I was going to get hurt.   So, she decided to take matters into her own hands and show me, what she considered, the "right way" to deal with a wild horse was.

I had spent weeks building up a relationship with Goldie and my heart sank as this woman returned with a lunge whip.  She entered the pen with Goldie and all I could do was stand by and hope and pray she would not undo all my hard work to gain Goldie's trust.

A common practice, which I was aware of before this woman decided to show me, is to use a whip as an extension of your arm, but since I am legally blind, this actually is more dangerous for me, then the way I was doing it.  I do not like using whips, unless I have to.

This woman reached out and started touching Goldie with the end of the whip and GOldie completely flipped out.  She was racing around the small pen trying to find a way to escape, but there was no way out.  Goldie was scared out of her mind as this woman insisted on continueing to touch Goldie.   This went on for what seemed like hours, but was maybe 45 minutes.   Goldie never accepting the lunge whip touching her.  I was almost in tears knowing how scared Goldie must have been.   She had only known my kind hands and now a whip was being flung at her, she was hit with it, several times, it wasn't just used as an extension of a calm hand.

We left Goldie to settle down and I had to listen to this woman tell me that I had to do the same thing the next day.  That my way was taking too long and she thought I was going to get hurt.

But in my way, Goldie never raced around the pen frantically looking for a way out.  For me, with my vision, that is way more dangerous than me standing calmly at one end of the pen, just trying to calmly touch her as she ate, and if she needed a break from me, she could just go to the back of the pen and I would let her have her moment and then she would always return to me.

The next day I tried to stand by the bucket, like I had done all those days, even weeks, before, but Goldie would not have any part of me.   I started to cry, I couldn't help it.  I told her how sorry I was, but that the lady was my boss and I had no say.

I quit that job about a week later, never regaining Goldie's confidence.   I had other reasons, not just the Goldie experience for leaving this job, but it was part of it.  I think the main theme of the difficulty is the lady's insistance that her way was the only right way and that any variation of that was wrong and dangerous.   I tried to explain that I had to do things differently, sometimes, due to my eyesight, but like many others, she just didn't understand or want to understand, she was stubborn in her thinking and not willing to believe that there could be more than one right way to do something.

Experiences like what I went through with Goldie leave me wondering why do people insist on their way always being the right way and the quick way being better than a slow way?   I will never understand people like this.   I need to do things a bit differently, because of my vision, this doesn't make it wrong, it just is what works for me and I still get great results.   I have never been seriously hurt by a horse, but if I do get hurt, it happens to sighted people all the time, it won't be due to my vision or my techniques.

I had been very successful with the Mustangs I had worked with, see my post on "The Mustangs of Hawkeye Hill", for more details, and I know that if Goldie and I had been left alone, just a little bit longer, I would have had that halter on her, had her leading, had her loading on a trailer, accepting tack, and eventually a rider.

Someone else was brought in to work with Goldie, after I left, and I don't know all the details, but she was eventually broke to ride, but I don't think she ever made it to the track.   A shame, as she was a nice filly, just was never given the chance from the start.

Angel of Perfect Peace Farm

I emailed out updates of my horse exploits and other news to family and friends on a regular basis, sometimes including photos.  In the late winter of 2002, after seeing one of these updates, I got an unexpected reply from an email friend.

He lived in California and had been really impressed by the latest pictures, which had shown me turning Bunny loose in her pasture, and then she proceeded to follow me around with no halter or lead rope, she just walked right beside me, head low, content look on her face, etc and Gordon had caught several pictures of her doing this with me.  It was one of those very special memories that I have of my Bunny.

I had been friends with this man since 1997, so he was very familiar with my experience with horses, my history with Bunny and all that I had gone through with Bunny, Mayo, and Baron.   I had sold Mayo in April 2001, so he knew I was down to just 2 horses, due to being out of work, but now I was engaged to Gordon, so things were a bit different.   We had found a house with land, that we had bought in December 2001, to become our farm, planning our wedding, etc.

This friend told me about his mare, Big City Miss, who was boarded at a farm in Kentucky.   The farm was going out of business and she would have to find another place to be boarded.   The problem was her fertility was not the best.   She had not had a foal in a few years and the vets in Kentucky were at a loss as to what was causing her not to ovulate properly.  He knew it was a longshot that she'd ever get pregnant again, but he also wanted her to have a nice home and be safe.  So, he offered her to me.

I looked up her pedigree and produce report and was in shock that I was being offered such a nice mare.   She was by Kris S. and was a full sister to several stakes winners.  She had also already produced one stakes winner, herself, and several of her full and half sisters were also stakes producers.   If she had been fertile, she was easily worth over $100,000, I would imagine, but her fertility issues put her into the situation of needing a safe place, in case she truly was no longer fertile.   He felt I was that safe place.  He told me I was welcome to try to breed her, if my vet thought there was a chance.

Gordon and I discussed this opportunity and though we knew it was a long shot, we just couldn't pass up the opportunity.  So, I made arrangements for her to come from Kentucky to the boarding stable that I was still having to use.

A month or so after the first email from my friend, Big City Miss arrived and this gorgeous big chestnut mare, with a small white star, stepped off the trailer.   She was at least 16 hands and was so sweet and gentle.  We toyed with two names for her, Angel and April.  The barn owner thought I should call her April, but Gordon and I just kept thinking of her as Angel.  Everyone told me that horses nicknamed Angel, were usually not very nice, but I knew different, so we settled on Angel.

After letting Angel settle in for a few days, I introduced her to Bunny and they instantly became friends.

A few months later I sent her to a breeding farm to try breeding her to Secret Hello.  But, it was just not meant to be.  Her ovaries were small and hard and she was not producing viable follicles.   The vet that saw her, a reproduction specialist, was at a loss.  She was tried on several drugs, one finally sent her into heat, but she ovulated a follicle at about half the size it should have been.   They tried breeding her, but she did not get pregnant, so I had her brought home and told her she was retired from breeding and was safe.

In August 2002, when the farm was ready, Bunny and Angel were brought to Perfect Peace Farm, where they were introduced to Leia and met back up with Baron.   Since Baron didn't seem to care for Leia, for some odd reason, we separated the 4 horse herd and kept Leia and Bunny together, as they both were pregnant, and then Angel had to buddy up with Baron, who looked just like her, both bright red chestnuts with stars, Angel was just a little bit bigger than Baron.

Angel and Baron became friends and though Angel was the alpha, they could sometimes be found standing next to each other.  They'd share a hay pile, with no problem or a big round bale.  They got along great.

That fall, I got Admiral, a large Mini colt and he was put out with Angel and Baron.   The three of them really enjoyed playing.

As winter came, it soon became apparent that Angel suffered from arthritis in her front legs.  I tried supplements, pain relievers, and the like, but every morning she was so stiff, I felt so bad for her, as that winter was so cold.   She started to drop weight, so I added a high fat supplement to her diet, but she just maintained weight, wouldn't gain.  I kept hay infront of her constantly.  Nothing really seemed to work in putting wieght on her or to help relieve her arthritis pain and stiffness.

As spring turned to summer, I came to the hard decision that I didn't think it was fair for Angel to go through another Virginia winter.   I talked to her previous owner about the situation and he said it was okay for me to try and find her another safe home, further south.

I had contacts with some horse rescues and started talking to them.  In July, a home was found for her in Texas.  So, we made arrangements for her to head to her new home.   She left on August 3rd and arrived very late on August 4th.  The transport company had known about her arthritis and took excellent care of her.  They gave her breaks, had an air ride trailer, etc.

I knew it had been after 10 PM when she had arrived, so the next day, August 5th, my Birthday, I awaited for word on how she was settling in at her new home.   It seemed like forever, but finally around 2 PM I got the phone call. 

I could tell there was something wrong by the tone of the lady's voice.  She started to tell me about how Angel had arrived.   She said she was put in the paddock that was basically her backyard, so she could keep a watch on Angel.  She checked on her at midnight, at she was fine, but when she went to check on her around 2:30 AM, she found Angel down.   She thought that maybe her arthritis was bothering her, so she turned to go to the house to get some pain reliever.   She heard Angel get up behind her, so she turned to watch, and Angel struggled to get to her, almost made it and then Angel collapsed on the ground.

Angel died quickly, we are not sure if it was a heart attack or some kind of annurism.   She had been completely and thoroughly checked out by my vet before she had left.   i'd even asked specifically, "Do you think she can make the trip to Texas, safely?"  My vet listened to her heart, checked pulses, checked gum color, and more, she got a very thorough exam, and he really thought it would be okay.

When I talked to the hauling company, the report from the drivers was that she travelled fine, was fine at the rest barns, never showed any sign of distress, etc.   The owner of the company called me a bit later to express his condolences.  They felt really bad, too, as they knew it had been a rescue type situation, knowing I was trying to get her to a warmer climate with less harsh winters.

If I had known this was going to happen, I would have just kept her here.   Some have told me, over the years, that Angel wanted it this way.   That she had bonded so much with me that she did not want to die infront of me.  She knew she was leaving and held on to make it to her new home, where she knew she'd die with dignity and be buried properly.

The lady she went to buried her and planted a bunch of wild flowers over the grave.

Angel will always be remembered here at Perfect Peace Farm.  She had a place she loved to stand and dig in the mud.  She dug a hole so deep that it was past her knees.   Through time, it has started to fill in a bit, but there is still a low spot there, by the 2nd fence post to the right of the barn.

Continue to Rest In Peace sweet Angel.

Artificial Insemenation (A.I.) and Thoroughbreds

A few days ago my husband posted to his Blog about A.I. and Thoroughbreds, which seems to have sparked quite the debate on another site (Pedigree Query).  You can see his blog post at: http://perfectpeacefarm.blogspot.com/2011/09/rich-people-apparently-get-turned-off.html

He did a good job explaining the situation, but I thought I might go ahead and chime in on this one.

We breed Thoroughbreds for racing and sport, but we also have bred Anglo-Arabians and Half Welsh Ponies.   We have bred mares via live cover and A.I. so we are talking from experience in knowing the costs of both, the in's and out's of both, and so on.

The Jockey Club refuses to allow A.I., one of their arguements is that it would narrow down the gene pool of the Thoroughbred and there woulod not be as much diversity in the breed, but I strongly disagree, because we are already narrowing the gene pool and I think by allowing A.I. it just might spread it back out, again.

If you look at the number of stallions that the big Kentucky farms stood at stud just 10 to 20 years ago, and compare it to now, you'd see that most of the big farms are standing about half the number that they once had.  

When I went to Kentucky in 1990, I went to Claiborne, Spendthrif, and Gainesway, all 3 had just about all their stallion barns full, very few empty stalls.  I lived in Kentucky in 1997 and visited Lane's End, which also had it's barn full of stallions.  I then visited Kentucky in 2006 and again in 2010, visiting some of the same places I'd visited in the past, along with a few I hadn't been to before, and what I saw was a lot of empty stallions in those stallion barns.

These farms weren't really breeding any less mares than before, but what they had done was increased the number of mares each stallions bred, so standing fewer. 

Kentucky seems to get rid of stallions a lot quicker than they used to, if it doesn't get good sales prices of it's first few crops and if it's first two crops to race don't set the track on fire, they quickly send it to a regional market or even sell it to go overseas.  

I have seen on quite a few occasions, that they get rid of a stallion way too quickly and the year after it leaves Kentucky, it gets a hot horse.   Sometimes the stallion is welcomed back to Kentucky, but most of the time they have moved on to the next hot retired stallion prospect.

Now, I realize that the number of mares bred has dropped the last two years, but this is due more to the economy.   I will be perfectly honest here, if A.I. was allowed, I would have a lot more foals than I currently do.

To breed my mares to anything decent, I have to send them out of state, because of the lack of quality stallions standing here in Virginia, these days.   I could go on about that subject, but I'll save that for another time.   We have bred Thoroughbred mares in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, when there was something worth breeding to here.

Shipping has cost us anywhere from $300 to $700, one way, depending on where the mare was going.  Kentucky is usually the most expensive place for us to ship to, but I have looked into shipping to Florida and that would have actually cost me more.   Then, once the mare is at the boarding farm, which is usually not where the stallion stands at stud, it costs $25 to $30 a day for a mare without a foal and $30 to $35 a day for a mare with a foal at her side.   The shortest time I have kept a mare at a boarding farm was about 45 days, because she cooperated, came into heat as soon as she got to the farm and got in foal (pregnant) on that first heat cycle.   You have to wait 14 days, minimum, to see if a mare is pregnant, and a heartbeat can be detected between 28 to 32 days.   I usually try to wait for this 2nd check before I will go ahead and make plans for the mare to come back home.   Add the vet costs ontop of the shipping costs and boarding costs and we have spent between $3000 to $5000 for just one mare, in one breeding season, to get her pregnant, and that doesn't include the stud fee that we pay for the privilege of breeding our mare to the stallion of our choice.

If I could breed via A.I., I would not have the mare's shipping costs to worry about or the boarding costs.   Yes, I'd have vet bills, but my home vet charges less than the Kentucky ones and the cost of shipping semen is no more than the cost of one way shipping of a mare.   There are collection costs and shipping costs for the semen to get to you, but this usually costs me, in total, for one shipment, between $250 to $350, depending on the collection costs that the stallion's vet charges and the distance the semen has to travel, as it has to be shipped overnight, if it is just cooled semen, versus frozen semen, but even that has to be sent quickly.

I'd save anywhere from $2000 to $4000 if I could breed via A.I. and I could put that money towards paying for a higher quality stallion to breed even better stock.

Now, just because The Jockey Club opens up A.I., hypothetically speaking here, this does not mean that every stallion or farm has to do it.  There are plenty of non-Thoroughbred stallions that are in registries that allow A.I. that do not have shipped semen available for a variety of reasons.

There are stallions who's semen just doesn't ship well, for some reason, the stallion may not like the collection process, and so on.   And there are also mares that do not do well with receiving shipped semen, I've had one of these, so know the troubles that can come with a mare that reacts badly to the extender that is used to help keep the semen alive during shipping.

The Quarter Horse registry, AQHA, when it first opened up A.I. to the registry, first allowed only on site use of A.I., which means the stallion and the mare had to be on the same farm at the time of collection and then insemenation, no extender was allowed.

When I was in college, I assisted and watched as one of my riding instructor's AQHA stallions was collected and then we insemenated 3 mares from that one collection.   All 3 mares got in foal.  Then during a breeding class, we went to a Tennessee Walking Horse farm and watched them collect a stallion and then insemenate 4 mares from that one collection.

In Kentucky they have to breed the stallions up to 3 to 4 times a day to cover the number of mares they want to, especially if he is breeding over 100 mares.   If they allowed A.I. they could just collect him once and breed all of those mares at one time.   And if there were more mares than 3 or 4 in heat and needing breeding that day, they could collect him twice and double it to 6 to 8 mares being bred in one day and since he was only collected twice, he's not being overtaxed, overused, and so his semen quality will remain stronger.   This could possibly help stallions that are starting to suffer some fertility issue.

The Jockey Club already allows the collection of the dismount, which not to be crude, but to explain, is the semen that spills out of the mare or is dripping from the stallion, after he is done breeding her.   They can collect this and then put it into the mare, so they are already insemenating her artificially helping.

Collecting a stallion is safer than live cover.  Stallions have been kicked and killed, have been thrown off balance and fallen, breaking legs, which has led to their being put down, and many other injuries to the stallion or mare, not to mention the injuries that can happen to the humans involved in this process.

Stallions that are having back trouble or any other issues that make it uncomfortable for them to live cover a mare, could be used longer if taught to ground collect, which means that all four of their hooves remain on the ground, while the semen is collected from them.

Allowing A.I. and shipment of the collected semen would mean that I could then breed to the Florida stallion I like, the California stallion I like, and so on, I wouldn't have to limit myself to breeding my mares within a few state proximity.  Plus, I could spend the saved money on breeding to a higher quality stallion or even the purchase of another quality mare.

I think opening up A.I. and shipped semen would give others that chance to look all over the US for stallions for their mares and hence would increase the gene pool and not shrink it.   Sure, there will be stallions that will always get over 100 mares, but the farms standing them could always help themselves and limit the number of mares that the stallion breeds, something they already do, but just because you can breed more, don't, so the value of the foals stays up, for those wanting to sell the offspring.  But, for someone like myself who wants to breed a racehorse, not one that looks pretty in September of it's yearling year, looking like a 2 or 3 year old prematurely, it really would help me and the others like me, to get to that stallion who sires consistant solid runners.   I already try to do this, but I have seen stallions in other states that I'd love to breed my mares to, but logistically I just can't do it and can't afford it, as I'm not rich.

And I don't think Kentucky would have to worry about a mass exodus of mares, because they still have the limestone rich pastures that are sought after by breeders and if they have a good incentive program in their state, make it even stronger than it currently is, it will just keep mares there so they can keep producing Kentucky breds.   They may lose some of the seasonal boarders, like myself, but not the year round boarders.

I honestly don't think rich people are turned off by A.I., they don't care, they want whatever will get them the return on their investment.   In fact, I bet they'd go for A.I. if they were a stallion owner and realized their top stallion could sire even more foals, meaning more money.

Part of this is tradition.   Things seem to move at a snail pace, when you talk about change in the racing industry.   They don't want to change their traditions, but times are changing and you need to move with the times to stay alive. 

Again, Kentucky stud farms would not have to offer shipped semen or A.I. if they don't want to and it may not hurt them, because of the year round boarding mares that are already there, they'd stay there to breed to those stallions and if there is a stallion you really want to breed to and shipped semen isn't available, if you can afford to ship the mare and pay for those additional boarding costs, you'll ship the mare to breed to that stallion.   This would only open up choices to everyone.  

If there was a stallion in a nearby state that I really wanted to breed to and it was by far and away what I considered to be the best match for my mare, and they did not do shipped semen, I'd send my mare to be bred, if I had the money.   So, there should be no threat hear by allowing A.I. and shipped semen for the Thoroughbred.

They are restricting trade here and also, I believe, hurting themselves, by not allowing A.I.  I think it is fear of change and such, but I really don't think it would change the look of Kentucky by that much.  So, I sure hope they will start allowing A.I. and shipped semen and sooner than later, please.

Baron's Early Training

As Baron healed from his leg wound I started to begin light work with him, on my visits to the boarding stable.   I still only got out to see my horses about once a week to once every two weeks, depending on Gordon's schedule or if I could get a ride out with someone else, which was pretty rare.

At first, I just worked more on his ground manners, which didn't take me long, as he always had excellent manners. 

He was so small, for his age, only about 14.1 hands at his 2nd Birthday, that I didn't want to do a whole lot to stress his bones, joints, etc, so I just had fun with him.  One of the first extra things I taught him was to bow.

After he was gelded in April 2001, right before his 2nd Birthday is about when I started doing this, I think.  I would use a carrot, which he loved, as his reward.   I started out saying the words "Baron bow."  Then I'd put the carrot just below his nose, starting to work on him learning to lower his head.   As he caught on, I put the carrot lower and lower, eventually I had it placed between his knees and he'd flex his neck to get to it.

After that, i started working with him on moving his legs so he could reach even further back and lower.  He would put one leg forward and move the other back, eventually having them about two feet apart or more and I'd put the carrot down around ankle level.   He was so smart that all of this didn't take long and he learned it with very infrequent training sessions, due to my lack of transpartation to the barn.

After he mastered bowing, to my satisfaction, he had grown a bit and I thought it would be okay to start putting him in the really big round pen that the barn owner had.    I started teaching him to lunge, just with a lead rope, at first, going in circles in both directions, around me and around the roundpen.

Again, he learned quickly and I soon was using a regular lunge line and also working with him on free lunging.  I knew not to do a lot of trotting with him and no cantering, at first, until he was closer to his mature height.

As I worked with him he grew and learned quickly.   I started adding a circingle and then the side reins that, at first, I just attached loosely to his halter, so he could get used to a girth like piece of tack around him and the sensation of reins next to his neck.

I did what I could to work with him through his two year old summer and into fall, but when winter came, it was just too muddy to do much in the roundpen, so when I got to go visit, I just spent a lot of time grooming him and Bunny.

As it started to warm up and Baron approached his 3rd Birthday, he was now almost 15.1 hands, so when I started him back in the roundpen, I was able to do a lot more with him.   I was amazed, we picked up just about where we had left off months before.   I had always known he was a smart horse, but this truly solidified it.

He quickly progressed the spring of 2002 and by June it was time for me to start getting on his back.

I had been given a nice senthetic western saddle that I had been putting him.  I mostly ride english, but this was a nice saddle, so I figured I would use it.   Baron didn't seem to mind and it fit him fairly well.

I admit being pretty nervous as Gordon gave me a leg up that first day, but Baron was perfect.   I swung my right leg over his back and eased my way into the saddle.  After letting Baron stand there for a few minutes, to get the feel of me on his back, I had Gordon lead us around the roundpen a few times.  Baron never showed any signs that he was going to buck or do anything wrong, so I praised him and dismounted after about 10 minutes.  It was a flawless first ride, I couldn't have asked for anything more from him.

Gordon and I were getting married in July.  We'd be gone for a week on our Honeymoon, to Saratoga Springs, for opening week of the Saratoga racing meet.  Then when we got back I had a barn builder set to build the barn in mid August and a fencing company to come out about two weeks after the barn was finished.

Because I would not be ready for Baron to come to our new home until late August, I decided to send him to a trainer.   The boarding stable was 1 1/2 hours from where I would be living, so I would not be able to visit him, anyways.

I trusted the lady I boarded with, she had never given me any cause not to, so when she recommended her trainer, that she sent all her youngsters to, I didn't hesitate.  I had seen a horse come back from him and it was fine, so I figured that Baron would be, as well.   So, in early July, Baron went to this trainer's farm to continue his education.

Bunny and Angel, who we had been given, would remain at the boarding stable, until the farm was ready.   Gordon and I had also purchased another Thoroughbred mare, Messenger of Light, who we nicknamed "Leia", and she stayed at the barn she was already at, until my farm was ready.   Leia, like Bunny, was pregnant, so I didn't want to move Leia too much.

In early August we went to see Baron at the trainers farm.  He looked fine and I watched the guy ride him, putting him through his paces.   Then I got on for a short ride.  I was pretty happy, but I could tell Baron wasn't quite as relaxed as he'd been even on his first ride with me.  I just figured it was because I hadn't seen him in over a month or something like that.   So, I dismissed that feeling, but I should have listened more closely.

After the barn got put up we were still waiting on the fencing, when Gordon and I decided to go see Bunny and Angel and make arrangements for them to be brought to us.   It was about 2 weeks after I saw Baron.   We were standing out infront of the lady's barn and we were talking about Baron.   When suddenly the lady said, "The trainer may be the town drunk, but he is really good with horses and I've never seen him drunk around the horses."

I swear I must have turned ashen, as I felt all the blood drain from my face and thought I was going to pass out.   I couldn't believe she had not told me this key piece of info before, I would have definitely remembered something like that.  

She lived almost two hours from the trainer, so how did she know if he was drinking around the horses or not?   I was so mad.  

As soon as Gordon and I got in the car, I told him that I was going to have the trainer bring Baron home immediately, fence or no fence, i didn't care.   Gordon agreed, we wanted Baron away from "the town drunk" as soon as possible.

So, I called the trainer and told him that the fencing would be done sooner than I thought and asked  if he could bring Baron home a little earlier than planned, to which he agreed. 

If I had my own truck and trailer, I would have gotten him myself, but we didn't and still don't.  I didn't know many people with trucks and trailers, so I had to trust the trainer to not drink before bringing Baron home.

Luckily, Baron arrived home safely.  I had opened up the foaling stall for him, so he had a 12 by 20 stall.  I deeply bedded in shavings, too, so he would be comfortable.  I also hung two fans for him.  

We may not have had horse pastures fenced, but we did have hte back yard, so I did bring him up to the back yard for grazing, for an hour or two a day.

Baron watched from the stall as the fencing went up about a week after he arrived at Perfect Peace Farm.   The workers were amazed at how calm he was and when I told them that he was a pure Thoroughbred, they were in even more shock.   He just calmly watched them work, driving the posts into the ground and hanging the Centaur brand fencing that I had chosen for my farm.

As the fencing was being finished, we moved Leia to a neighbors farm, just down the street, where she stayed for about a week or so, then we brought her home the day after the fence was finished.   A few days later Bunny and Angel joined them and our small 4 horse herd was finally all together.

Baron and Leia didn't get along, at first.   Leia is just so calm and laid back, she is easily picked on.  I'm not sure, exactly why he didn't like her very much, but he'd chase her, so we eventually had to separate him from Leia.   We put Baron in with Angel and Bunny and Leia, the two pregnant ladies were in the other small paddock, on the other side of the barn.

After Baron had settled in, I started trying to work with him again, but my horse was different and I couldn't figure it out.  I would get on him and he'd go a little ways and then freeze.  I could feel the nervousness in him and I knew something must have happened with that drunk trainer.  I apologized to Baron and told him I wouldn't have sent him there, if I had known what I learned later.  I told himt hat if I sent him to any other trainer, I'd do more research, visit the place, if possible, and stay on top of the trainer to make sure that this kind of thing didn't happen to him again.

Little did I know, that even if you do your research, get tons of good recommendations from people, stay on top of the trainer, bad things still happen and trainers can sometimes turn from what seemed like a very reasonable person that you got along with to someone completely different.   Poor Baron ran into his fair share of trainers that went nuts while he was with them, but at least he doesn't have to worry about that anymore, as he is safe with his new owner, Laura, who has now had him for 2 years.

My Dream Horse

For a very long time I had dreamt of having a spectacular blood bay with a blaze and 4 high white socks.  I even drew pictures of such a horse when I was in middle school.   I always figured I'd have to find one to buy, at some point in my life.

Since Bunny was not rideable, and I had learned that since I had rescued her, several of her foals had started winning big at A rated shows as hunter ponies, so I decided I would breed her, again.   I had sold Petey, her colt, that she had in 1999, as a yearling, so it had been a few years since her last foal, it was time to breed her again.

I had sold Mayo the month before and paid off all my bills and I had some money leftover, plus I was in a steady relationship with Gordon.  Though he hadn't asked me to marry him, yet, I think we both knew it was heading in that direction.   So, I discussed breeding Bunny with him and we agreed that it was the right thing to do and he would help me a little bit, in accomplishing it.

I started looking at stallions, ponies, Arabians, and small Thoroughbreds.  I did a lot of praying, thinking, and research.  I decided that it was time to try to breed to get a horse for me to ride, hoping for Bunny's superb movement and I would hope for a filly that I could always keep and that would also eventually be Bunny's replacement as a broodmare in my pony breeding program, that I dreamed of.

I had not started out wanting to breed ponies, but Bunny's first 3 pony foals all did well at the A circuit and in Virginia, which is very tough, so I kind of fell into it, but decided I liked it, too, and wanted to continue Bunny's legacy.   The free horse that no one had wanted had proven that she was worth more than just about anyone else had thought.

So, I decided, for this breeding, I'd look at Arabians and small Thoroughbreds, so I could get something big enough for me to ride, since I'm 5'7" and I'd look really funny on a pony.

I just couldn't seem to find a Thoroughbred that fit my needs.  Bunny being only 14.3 hands, I did not want to risk breeding her to a large stallion.  So, my focus then turned more towards Arabians.   If it was to eventually be a broodmare, if I got a filly, for me to cross on ponies to get hunters, I needed a specific type of Arabian.   It could not have too much knee action and it needed to have similar movement to Bunny, who was and Anglo-Arabian, sired by a Thoroughbred and produced out of an Arabian mare.

From my previous research, I knew that Bunny's Arabian side was over 90% Crabbet, about 95% CMK, and the other part was Davenport, as her tail female line went to a mare that Davenport brought to the US straight from the desert.

I narrowed my search further to high percentage CMK stallions and in doing so, I stumbled on a stallion standing not 5 miles from where Bunny was boarded.

His name was Rho-Quest a Champion son of the legendary Arabian stallion Khemosabi.  Granted, there are a lot of sons of his at stud, but I saw something I really liked int he pictures of Rho-Quest, so I made contact with owner.

I made arrangements to go see him in person and one Saturday morning Gordon and I went over to take a look at him.

He was very nice, a gorgeous sleek 15.1 hands, beautiful bay with 3 socks and a star that looked almost like a questionmark on his forehead.   His owner put him int he round pen so I could see him move.   I liked his trot, but when he picked up the canter, I was sold!  That was the stallion for Bunny.   It wasn't an identical canter to hers, but it was the closest I had found. 

No, with my vision being bad I can not see how a horse is moving like a sighted person can.   I can see a little bit, but what I can tell is with my ears and I can tell a lot more with my ears than most sighted people can comprehend.   I can tell how long a stride is, how sound a horse is, how heavy or light they hit the ground, and I believe I can get a good idea of how much knee action or lack thereof, by how they sound.

I can also use my hands to tell me a lot about a horse's condition, conformation, etc as an added assistance to my limited eyesight.   I can tell a lot in conformation and condition with my eyes, but I will admit I can miss some flaws, as they are harder to judge visually for me, but my hands can pick up the slack there, quite a bit.

So, I signed the breeding contract for Bunny to be bred to Rho-Quest and they came and picked her up a few days later.   I believe it was early June of 2001.

Bunny was kept there for a few heat cycles, but never conceived.  I had asked the vet about giving Bunny a shot to help her ovulate, but he didn't think it was necessary.   I told him that she had been given one when I bred her and got Petey, but he just argued with me about it not being necessary.   And the breeding season of 2001 ended with Bunny not pregnant.   The vet just said she was getting old and maybe was done.  But I knew different, she was 19, which is getting older, but my intuition told me the vet was wrong and had made me lose money and a breeding year.   But I trusted God and that he knew what was best and that there was a reason.

But the following year, I decided to get an early start, just in case it took a few tries to get Bunny in foal, but this time I absolutely insisted Bunny be given something to help her ovulate.   Since it was early March, he didn't argue with me this time, and Bunny was given a shot.

Well, she was bred and 18 days later she was confirmed pregnat!

I was so excited and started hoping for that filly that I so wanted, to continue on Bunny's bloodlines.

Gordon and I got married in July 2002 and in August the barn went up on our property, followed a few weeks later by the first round of fencing.   Baron was the first to arrive on the farm, actually two days before the fencing went up, so he lived in the brand new barn, by himself, but I opened up the foaling stall, so he'd have plenty of room and then I also put him in our backyard, for a few hours, to let him stretch his legs and graze a little bit.

Leia arrived the day after the fencing was completed and Bunny and Angel arrived a few days later.   I will write more about Leia and Angel in future posts, and the stories of how we got them.

Bunny settled right in here at Perfect Peace Farm, happy to be with her buddy, Angel.   She also made quick friends with Leia.

As winter approached and Bunny and Leia's pregnancies got further along, I separated them from Baron and Angel.

Bunny was due February 11th, a lot earlier than I had really wanted, but I would deal with any issues of it being cold, as they arose.   That January had been so cold that the water pump infront of the barn was constantly freezing and I was having to tote water from the house to the barn on a daily basis.

Bunny's udder started to develop in early January, so I started to worry about the foal coming early, but I also knew she had taken her time with Petey, carrying him 21 days past her due date.   But as her udder filled, I started watching her closely.

We bought a security camera and cables, placing the camera in the foaling stall, running the cables to the house, and hooking them up to a spare TV, so I could watch her from the house.   Bunny liked her privacy and I wanted her to have it.

February 11th came and went, with me diligently watching.   The lady across the street wanted to see a foal being born, so she was on standby and was getting daily updates from me.

On February 21st things were a bit different and I had a feeling she was even closer.   When Gordon helped me milk a drop of milk from her that evening, it was bright white, so I knew then we were in the homestretch.

At 10 PM, Gordon and I went out to the barn to do our nightly check of water buckets and I put my hands on Bunny to see if there was any change from the 6:30 check and sure enough I could feel a bit of sweat starting to develop on her coat, despite the temperature being in the 40's.

Gordon and I raced back to the house to gather up the supplies, grab the phone, etc and as we were doing this, I saw Bunny lay down and suddenly heard her water break.   I started calling for Gordon to hurry with what he was doing, as she was about to give birth.  I called the lady across the street as I raced back to the barn.

Bunny and I had a special connection and as I re-entered the barn and opened up her stall door, she got up and met me.  Now, I may not be able to see very well, but I can tell you I can sense things and what I sensed from Bunny was the message, "You came back!  Thank goodness!  I need you!"   

I gave her a reassuring pet and she circled the stall and laid back down.   Gordon made it out to the barn at this point, as I was kneeling behind Bunny to check for the foal's birthing position.   Everything was fine, as I reached my hand in, I felt one hoof, then another slightly staggered, and then a nose, just above the ankles, so everything was good.

As Bunny pushed with her contractions I kept talking to her and she started nickering to her foal who's head wasn't even out, yet.

Soon I saw the first white foot, then the other front, which was also white.  My heart started to pound in my chest even harder.   Bunny did seem to be having some trouble, so I grasped the foal above the ankles and gently helped pull when she was pushing.

The lady from across the street arrived as I was helping Bunny deliver the foal.   Once Bunny got the shoulders passed, she was able to get the rest of the foal out with no trouble.

I ripped the sack and exposed the little foal's nose and head to the air, as it took it's first breath.  It had a huge white blaze on it's face and we also now knew it was a bay.   The hind feet then came out and the foal had 4 very high white socks, to go with it's blaze.   My heart was leaping in my chest, it was the horse I had dreamed about for so long.   I quickly reached my hand under it's tail to find out it's gender.   My face lit up like a Christmas Tree, I'm told, and I could barely speak as I gasped, "It's a filly!  It's a girl!"

I immediately knew what to call this beautiful dream filly, "Welcome to the family, Belle!"

As Belle grew and learned how to use those beautiful long legs of hers, within a few days, I knew, Belle had received her mother's movement.  I had gotten everything I had hoped and prayed for and more, Belle was unbelievable, so perfect.   I was beyond happy with my dream horse.

Belle's formal name became Bella Serhafina, which means "beautiful heavenly angel", because that is what she was to me.  I put the "rh" instead of just the "r" in the Serhafina, in honor of her sire, Rho-Quest, and his sire, Khemosabi.  Belle bares a striking resemblence to her grandsire, Khemosabit, down to the same jagged sock on the same front leg.   What a blessing she is and a wonderful addition to Perfect Peace Farm.