Happy New Year!! Whew! Sorry to be so late with an update. I'm sure y'all have been the same as me, busy, busy, busy! O.K. one difference; I'm warm! Hah! That was just mean. The last two weeks brought lots of company to "Daddy Oaks Farm." Yes, that's the name of the farm. It is filled with daddy sized oaks, but, most of Ocala is anyway. Karen Kennedy and her Mom stayed overnight with me to celebrate her son Jacob's 20th birthday. He's in Ocala working for Buck Davidson. Karen came back the next weekend and did a photo shoot of Moose and I and the ponies for a Christmas present for John. She's a great photographer. Check out her website at http://www.iconstudios.smugmug.com/ John took all but one photo home with him. My favorite shows too much Moose tongue for John.





Next to visit was Roy Williams, farrier extraordinaire. He stayed overnight and reset my horses shoes the next day. You'll see that I introduced Roy to a new activity during his stay. I think his skill at horseshoeing is superior to his skill at the hula hoop. I also met up with Cindy Piper and family at the HITS show grounds. HITS stands for Horse shows In The Sun. I know, I know, the acronym should be HSS (Horse Shows in the Sun) or at least HSITS. But think about the pronunciation of each. Hissssssss sounds evil, and you can easily see the transposition of letters causing really BAD publicity with the second choice.





Regardless, I went and rode Popcorn, a 17.2 hand eight year old pinto Hessian (German Warmblood) Cindy imported from England. He has been in dressage training with her daughter, Betsy Labelle, in Orlando, FL. Betsy is not only a successful dressage trainer, she owns her own web design company, too. Busy lady, just like her mom. Cindy's family was together for the jumping show and to celebrate Christmas. It was great to see Cindy and Tad and meet more of their family. Popcorn was really fun to ride. I schooled his dressage and did a little jumping with him. He may be expanding his resume to include eventing this winter. I'll keep you posted. HITS Ocala can house hundreds of show horses and has four rings going--all hunter /jumper. It was fun, but, they do not mark their jumps 'red on the right' like we eventers so the warm up can get pretty interesting. I was on a huge painted horse so I got the right of way most of the time.



I went to a real Cowboy nightclub called Midnight Rodeo in Ocala. These people take their line dancing VERY seriously! Every song has a it's own line dance AND everyone in the bar knew it. . . except me and my party. I heard that the nightclub can house 1000 people. There are four separate bars; country line dancing, sports bar, comedy club and a, um, 'young people gyrating dance club.' Very different clientele in each area. I stayed in the line dance room and mastered the Cotton Eyed Joe, the Two Step, West Coast Swing, and one of those "Pass the Boy on to the Next Girl Circle Dance" things. It was a hoot! There were people of all ages dancing AND it wasn't a pick up spot as much as a "GOTTA DANCE" spot. (Or maybe I'm saying that because NO-ONE tried to pick me up and I'm bitter.) We got home at 2:45 AM--waaaay past my bedtime, but, I was the DD so I felt pretty good.

I spent Christmas Eve laying on the floor. No, I wasn't over imbibing in egg nog! I hurt my neck and was trying to put myself in traction by using items found in my barn/apartment/bedroom/tack room! My purse, my riding boot, my exercise rolly thing. I felt good enough Christmas Day to spend two hours plus on Skype opening Christmas gifts with my family in MN. It was a bit disjointed, but, still felt like Christmas morning with my family to me. They had way better eats than I did, though. I had invited K.T Harrington, Madigan Murphy and Jacob Kennedy over for Christmas dinner. K.T. is a working student for Wim Foekema (Dutch trainer from MN/friend of mine/reason I am here and having so much fun). Madigan is an event rider here to train with Wim for dressage and Robin Walker (English eventer from MI) for jumping. And, Jacob is a working student for Buck Davidson which has, so far, had more emphasis on 'working' and less on 'student.' We had a good meal and nice time thanks to K.T.'s green bean hotdish--yep, you betcha; frozen green beans, cream of mushroom soup topped with french fried onions! You can take the girl out of MN but not vice versa, thank goodness. Jacob received a last minute invitation to have Christmas dinner at Bruce Davidson's (eventing icon) house. Hmmm, which should he choose?? His Christmas present, 10 lottery tickets, is still wrapped and nestled in my Christmas tree boughs. I wonder how many millions I'm harboring in my $9.99 Norfolk Pine from Home Depot?

Here is your teaser for my next entry. The day John arrived with our son, Justin and his girlfriend, Desiree, we had a baby!! I didn't even know we were expecting!!

Cheers to 2010!