Wow… 2023. Sometimes it felt like 2022 couldn’t end fast enough, yet at the same time I felt the year slipped away. So many things to reflect on and be thankful for yet there were heartaches that weighed me down heavily.

Wrapping up 2022 included a long drive and short stay in Pensacola to visit a good chunk of Doug’s family. We had Thanksgiving all together, spent a day at the museum, and the kids had lots of cousin time. Hopefully we can get back there again before too many years go by!

December was a busy month! Frostbite tournament for Skyler’s soccer team, decorating the house, 2 music concerts, a TSO Concert, and 2 company holiday parties before the kids winter break which we stuck around town for… It turned out to be a good thing as Obi got pieces of a towel/blanket he chewed stuck in his stomach and intestines which required emergency surgery. 😒 Thankfully he pulled through the surgery with flying colors (he is about 10) and we managed to keep him quiet enough that just over 2 weeks later he is completely back to normal.

Skyler added to her collection lol. Ziggy joined us as we celebrated Bella’s 4th birthday and 3rd “Gotcha-day” on Dec 23rd. I never thought a leopard gecko would be entertaining, but she is!

We also endured the cold snap that hit the country for Christmas weekend. At home we had a “flash freeze” and the mud muck created the in the day’s before down pour turned to rock solid lumpy ground in a matter of hours. We couldn’t keep unheated tanks from freezing (despite one being insulated and partially covered) and had to use a sledge hammer to break up the 3-4″ layer of ice that formed. I did have a heated tank for the horses as well, but couldn’t tell if they were using it until I caught them on camera! I got this great little Wi-Fi battery camera that can manage on the 40-50% signal I get at the fence line to check in on things. Until I saw them drinking I was hauling out 5-gallon buckets of sweet-tea 3x day which they gladly drunk down. Both were in medium weight blankets and they were dry, but that wind and drop in temps proved to be a bit much for Prophecy as he was shivering the coldest morning. No one was really ready for -5 to -10 windchills! Generally speaking, the boys are doing well.

Eowyn is doing well, and totally enjoying all the toys Asher requests or buys her. Another surprisingly entertaining pet. Dash is hibernating, occasionally coming out for some water or a dip in his pool when we have a warm spell. And Luna, well she is a spoiled little kitty who rules over all!

Around the crazy weather I finally rode again in December. Struggling with the idea of another horse, and while it felt “good” to be “back in the saddle”, I generally wasn’t feeling it… I was doing it to get Skyler and Scooby back out there.

Then something happened…

Christmas day I woke from a dream of Sully and I. This was the first dream I had since his passing that wasn’t a “nightmare” reliving the day he left me. Whether you believe in these things or not, he came to me and allowed me to find peace with myself, and feel the happiness of that connection between us again. It gave me the ability to think about moving on. I was supposed to travel to NJ & PA to look at horses that last week of December, but with how I had felt the week before riding, the impending weather (they had talked of a huge blizzard at first) and Obi’s emergency, I cancelled it for a TBD sometime in January. Instead I focused on trailer and pasture work once things warmed up again. We got the FRP trimmed so I could install a new screen for the roof vent and I moved the mats around the hay feeder to offer more coverage from the mud and the ruts that had been painful to their hooves once frozen. I kept in touch with the folks I was to visit at a later date, watching for new horses coming in to plan out the when again.

New Years Eve day I woke to a message from the SRF contact we adopted Scooby from – she sent me a video of a gelding less than an hour away. And so the wheel starts turning. This guy ends up being a trail horse deluxe who has also done LD’s in the past. His original off-the-track owner was super helpful answering all sorts of questions from me (he ended up in this situation after his next owner fell on hard times shortly after purchasing him) and made me feel like it was worth the risk to make the jump.

So, to start out 2023 I did several things completely out of character and that I said I would never do!
He’s Grey, he’s essentially a kill-pen horse direct pull, and I didn’t test ride him.

I was able to put a deposit on him and then go meet him before paying the rest of his ‘bail’. While amped from the situation he was in, he was a perfect gentleman letting me pick up all 4 feet, feeling his legs and throughout his body. Due to his circumstances he already had visibly lost weight in the few days between the video and when I saw him in person. I’m lining up a pasture quarantine option for a few weeks, but for the meantime he is boarding in a stall at their rescue barn being quarantined and out of the hub-bub of the feedlot. I’ve become fast friends with his original owner and hope to make it up to PA to a ride near her sometime so we can visit. She thinks he will love being back in endurance once polished up from his diamond in the rough state now. I’ll update more when he gets “home” and I can get him cleaned up a bit… but for now, meet Classic Seabreeze! (Breeze) I’ve included some pics from his prior owner to show what he will get back to too.