I could start off with many excuses for not being faithful to my blog.......like a new baby granddaughter and prior to her arrival in to the world, I dedicated 2 of my days off to babysitting my 3 year old grandson as mom was on bed rest. Of course my oldest grandson graduated 5th grade, YEAH buddy, you go......then my youngest daughter graduated high school, which was a HUGE present to me on my birthday........yes I have even aged during my time away.
So now that I have validated my lack of blogging with some excuses I feel better, but what I need to blog about is my mare!
My mare.....I will have to blog her whole story soon as she will be bigger than life on this blog......however today I just want to make the announcement that I, an older responsible (or so I like to think) woman, who supports rescues and always will, made the well thought out decision to breed my mare.
Yup that came as a shock to many people and yes many raised an eyebrow at my decision....I agree wholeheartedly that there are TOOOOOO many horses in rescue, and in need of homes, I agree with that statement! I will help in anyway I am able when it comes to those horses in need, that's a given.
So here is my story .... I used to fantasize about raising my very own from day one foal .... well myself and the mare of course.
Sometimes with quiet time at work I would look through dreamhorse.com at possible sires to said foal........during one of my peeks at the site I came upon a perfect QH stallion, chestnut with 4 white socks and appropriately named "Wrangle socks", I even sent pictures of him to my sister stating that this should be my foals sire.
As fate would have it I meet a woman and her husband at my horse trainer/ friends place, where my mare was in training.......in speaking with them I find they own "Wrangle socks".... OK some may call me a foolish old woman but I just knew at that point this was meant to be. Now that wasn't logical at all was it......so then agonizing over the very real decision started, should I breed my mare when there are so many un-wanted horses in the area never mind the country.
So I began the internal debate......I have dedicated my life to rescue.....all my animals are rescue with the exception of my gelding "Red", who had been another agonizing decision to buy a young healthy good minded horse as apposed to adopting another rescue.......that one was easy.....heck yes I needed my kids to have a safe, healthy, young horse to ride. As we had just had to put down a wonderful rescue horse that was to far gone to make it (I have never seen my youngest daughter stand for hours keeping a horse company as she did with that one) then the hours spent crying when we had her put down, with that I felt I was allowed to give my kids and myself a gift.
So with all of that in mind, my decision to breed my mare I decided is my gift to myself and my grand children, I will of course keep the foal for life as that's what I do...he or she will never be at risk nor will mother or is Red horse (I have to add that Piper LOL a sense of responsibility)....I will from day one be able to have contact with he or she and develop a relationship and bond that will be like no other, I will have my family take a big part in the foals life so the bond will develop with them as well.
My other hope for this foal is that he or she will turn out to be a competitor in the barrel racing world.....that may or may not happen, but the breeding is there so chances are there as well........again if this isn't meant to be then it wont happen, but that is OK!
So, with all that said I do hope to have a little one next year and yes this is the only one I will take part in bringing in to the world, what fun will be in store if all works out and we are blessed with the gift of "Bobbie socks" or "Bobby socks", if is it's a boy.
It's an old ladies dream and I AM ALLOWED TO HAVE IT AND MAKE IT REAL ...... to all those that have raised your eyebrows!
For everyone else I will keep you updated as this is truly an adventure of a lifetime:)
Until next time.....happy trails!
