Your not alone....just up in that high altitude. :o) I've been enjoying your posts. Really like the last one about Errin saving you. We just got back from some errands in town.(5 hours worth) Had the flu shot, dropped off Christmas gift bags of our farm produce to some friends, got wrapping paper and a few more fun things for a couple grandchildren gifts(2 more birthdays this month). Got some nice colored pencils and art supplies to go with the beautiful Haflinger Coloring Book that Emily made. A couple of the grandchildren will get those....they'll love the fact that our Scharly M&B is in their coloring book. :o) So now for some wrapping and then to clean the corral before the next rain storm gets here.
Gotta go, will be back!!
Laura of Cal.
--- In haflingerfriends@yahoogroups.com, "rivervalleyph" <rivervalleyph@...> wrote:
>
> OH NO- I didn't mean to put you all in a coma! This seems to happen when I write I guess, but please, come back, wake up, breath and write something....anything! I am feeling ALL ALONE here!!
> Where is everyone? Where is the regular chatty stuff?
> Dawn :o)
>
> --- In haflingerfriends@yahoogroups.com, "rivervalleyph" <rivervalleyph@> wrote:
> >
> > Victoria and Friends,
> > I wrote this big response to you earlier, but it did not go through I guess. My computer is quit tempermental at times!
> > Anyway- I will try to remember what I had written:
> > Oh ya- first of all.....Victoria, oh Victoria, I do not think I am qualified to write a book! My mother has been an english teacher for nearly 40 years- can you imagine what she would say! She is forever trying to get me to read and write more. She literally spent dang near twenty years trying to teach me to spell correctly. Sorry ma- I still have issues! Even money couldn't pursued my mind to see letters in sequencial order!
> > Aside from that, as most of you know, I am not a politcally correct person. I say what I think, sometimes without over taxing the thinker first, and am all the traits of a mule without long ears! I am hard headed, determined, loyal, proud, honest, and quick to respond with one-liners if I deam it needed ( a down-eastern thing I can't seem to rid myself of)! How else do you think I live here, in the middle of a pile of mountains at over 8300' with a "LOT" of horses, my dogs, cats and chickens that all rely on me! Not anyone else but me! For those of you that don't know me, I live here and Tony lives in Fort Lupton now! (The long distance relationship works rather well by the way!) For ex: just last week, we had severe record lows, being -32 here. The winds blew over 100 mph, blew out another window in the barn, the deal that holds the weathervane on the new barn- well it went to Kansas I guess! That gracious wind took our 16"s of beautiful snow and tossed it around making the ground bare in many places and piling snow solid as a brick in front of every barn door on the place with drifts 4-8+'! Yup- I woke up to the three studs (Merl and his two sons, one a 2 yo, one a yearling) wondering around the yard and visiting the mare corral (imagine that!). Take a guess how they got out? Yup- they walked over the fence! The snow is literally drifted and packed over 2/3's of their corral! Also- so I put them in a barn right and come in for a shower, a nice hot shower! NOT- the pipes are frozen! No hot or cold water! The snow has blown into every building here, including my truck and the kitchen window! Now are you begining to understand why I am the way I am? Oh ya- don't forget to add the female illness with it! And the fact NO tractor would start, the feed truck wouldn't start, not even a sputter out of her! Yup- I drug hay around by hand and in case you don't understand what that means around here- my hay shed is way up on a hill for starters, almost a quarter a mile from the house, then my hay bales are about 80lbs. Drifts are about 6' and when you walk across them with a bale of hay- you suddenly go poof- and fall through! As you get a bale to the corral and open it- it flies away! Oh ya- fun fun fun!
> > Now- when you might wonder why I am so hard-headed, just think of the situation- I HAVE to be! How on earth would I take care of my golden ponies if I weren't?!
> > For those of you that think breeders breed to make good fortune, well let me sqwat with my spurs on and as they poke me in the rear I will laugh!!
> > Most of you can easily understand that it is generally cheaper to just go buy what you want! But try to look at it like this:
> > With christmas stomping around the corner...Sure you can go buy your friend a gift, or you can spend the time to make something. This something then has a part of you in it that nothing bought will ever have. I personally like homemade things!
> > Although I can't take all the credit for my breeding program, as I have had the luxury of grandpa and mom and dad and they have started me in this endevour, I do want to say that my breeding program is not like there's was however. It is mine. It is based on the type of horse for my-liking, one that if it does not sell right off I don't mind having around! One of good temperment- how could I have a stud for instance that walks over the fence and then is hard to catch because he is a poop head? Merl is good enough to stop when I say whoa and drop his head in the halter even with a mare or two backed up to the fence showing her stuff! I want a head I can stand to look at when I feed! Why feed an ugly headed horse when it cost the same to feed a pretty headed horse? I want a haflinger I can ride, wherever, however! I want one I can drive to town, or I can slap a harness on and hook to the feed sleds to help feed! I want one that has good feet and legs- no cripples! I want one that has heart! I want one that is tall enough but not so tall I have to get out a step latter to get on! I still prefer to ride bareback in the winter! I want one that looks like a new penny, has a pure white mane and tail- when washed of course! I want one that is athletic- can jump a stream, wade through a lake, jump a down tree, keep up when gathering cattle, smart enough to stick around when I get off to doctor, and most of all, is a friend at all times no matter the weather! I then, obviously, like all breeders, want something that is marketable. But not without keeping the integrity of the breed itself! To me, That is what sells haflingers. I still have never sold a haflinger, they tend to sell themselves!
> > So maybe this might shed some light for WHY I breed haflingers! They have done great things for me throughout my life. Two haflingers at different times have saved my life. Not a joke. One when I was a kid, number than a pounded thumb! And two- a few years ago, Errin in a blizzard here the first winter I was here. I was lost trying to get to the feed shed to feed, winds were trecherous, a complete white out, not uncommon here, but I couldn't see, hear, and was so cold I was numb to it. I called and called, but my voice was lost in the dark with the wind taking my breath away. When I couldn't walk anymore, I was on my knees crying and praying when I felt a warm nose breathing on me. I reached up and grabbed Mane, that horse drug me to the feed barn! I spent almost an hour catching my air, then I fed. Then I didn't dare to go back. So I went over and climbed on Errin to stay warm. She very easily, like it was her everyday job, took me all the way to the gate to the house. I remember it very well... I was confused even then, as I couldn't see the gate and kept asking her what on earth she was doing. She then turned sideways and bumped my leg on the gate like- look dumby- your at the gate. I made it to the house and I stayed there for two days while the winds blew. Good thing I fed lots and have haflingers. Can you imagine a TB being left to that for two days? The haflingers were fine with it- hungry- but when aren't they?!
> > For that- Errin WILL NEVER GO ANYWHERE! Her foals will always be special and I don't care what others think of her! I will breed that mare!!!
> > For the time when I was a kid, well I drove to ME to get that horse even when he was old. He is now laid to rest as he lived almost 28 years and most of it with me aboard riding like a hun! He was another tribute to the breed for sure!
> > Now the weirdest part- the two are related!
> > So, to those of you that just can't for the life of you figure out why breeders breed- well- how would you have the horse you have if we didn't?
> > Sincerely,
> > Dawn
> >
> > --- In haflingerfriends@yahoogroups.com, "castlerockjacobs" <castlerockjacobs@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi Dawn and Everyone,
> > > Boy, that took me back to the study of color my daughter did for 4 H Many years ago. It was familiar territory for part of the way. I did not know about epistatic or quantative genes/allels.That was very interesting. I look forward to more of your genetic knowledge.
> > > Let me make clear, I am not at this point or the near future breeding anyone...it was a hypothetical to begin a discussion. If I ever do I was hoping to learn from breeders, what process I should go through and to understand when I see horses in the Haflinger Mag. that have won at the different area and national shows, how they were bred.
> > > I would love to have a silver mare but sadly I have not put a mare through the I+C. One mare is Larisa May MLH and the other is Meg HCF. I write Larissa with 2 s's cause it looks more balanced to me. Some people have urged me to put Meg though the evaluation but I am not in the physical shape to get her ready.
> > > When Woden was a baby he went through an informal evaluation and was predicted silver by his score but then he was gelded and that became moot. Victoria
> > >
> >
>
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