Monday Morning

"Monday, Monday! Can't trust that day!" Does anyone remember that song? This Monday morning is just gorgeous! The sun is shining, I can smell the mud in the air (spring must be right around the corner), there are bluebirds in the backyard, my horses are munching their hay in the sunshine and there is a mini pin asleep on my lap. Oh, and the coffee is hot! Doesn't get much better than that.
Since this is the beginning of the week, I'd like to start at the beginning.....when Split first arrived here at Crow Frost Farm (that name is a story for another time). So.......................
There I was in September of 2005 - horseless, depressed, nerves still shot from my husband's "near death" experience, and seriously doubting myself on many levels. Because John (husband) had recovered from a surgical complication that should have killed him (he still holds the record at Albany Medical Center for having had the largest pulmonary emboli they've ever seen - and he survived!), I believe he was a bit giddy and delirious with joy when he told me to go ahead and start looking for another horse. But the offer was out there and he couldn't take it back. I placed an on line ad on the Welsh pony & cob list and also advertised on the breed registry home site and soon received several phone calls about ponies for sale - none of which worked out. I had decided that perhaps I should just wait until spring when I got the phone call from Marie Howran of Howran Hills Farm in Ontario. I'd met Marie in 2004 at the Syracuse Welsh Pony & Cob Show. I'd gone to the show with a friend who was showing her ponies and we had the good fortune of being stabled across the aisle from Howran Hills. Marie, her husband, Jim, and daughters Hilary and Janene, were delightful! They had beautiful ponies and were fun, friendly and knowledgeable. Best of all, they offered to help anyone with anything, whether it was imparting knowledge, sharing equipment, or offering us green apple soda (yeah, that's a taste I'll never forget!). When Marie read my ad on the Welsh pony site, she remembered me and gave me a call. She was selling Split because her daughters had out-grown him and he was the only gelding on what had now become a large breeding operation; in short, she felt that he was being "neglected" (not a possibility on that farm!). She'd had many families with children come to look at him, however, Marie was hoping to find a "forever" home for Split - not a home where he would be out-grown and sold on many times. Lots of phone calls and photo exchanges later, I agreed to buy "TM Splitter," aka "Split," registered as Ponderosa Misty Icon. Jim was strong-armed into trucking Split down here from Canada (with the caveat that if either I or my farm were not acceptable, he was to pack Split back up and bring him back home! ha ha). The first attempt to cross the border in Buffalo was a disaster. Jim and his friend, Dave, were detained several hours at the border and told that they had to have a livestock ID number (which usually only pertains to commercial shippers - not privately owned animals). The border guards were very gruff and finally turned them away and they returned to Ontario. Maried called me to ask if I'd like to try again; perhaps they could get an ID # quickly (they did). Of course I wanted to try again - that was MY PONY they were trucking! This time Jim and Dave chose a smaller crossing post and the guards were most friendly. They asked what was in the trailer and Jim told him "a little gray pony I'm taking to his new owner in New York." One of the guards looked inside the trailer, said, "Yep, it's a pony, alright," and waved them across and into the U.S.
When Split stepped off that trailer and onto my back lawn, it was love at first sight! I remember that my words were, "Oh, my god! He's PERFECT!" Of course, I eventually had to eat those words..............and they didn't taste very good, either.
No one and no thing are ever perfect. We all know that although we'd like to believe differently. By declaring Split "perfect," I had set myself up for a series of disappointments. I wasn't looking at him realistically. I saw a beautiful gray pony who would carry me off into my dreams; who would never put a hoof wrong; who would obey my every command; who would be at my beck and call................Wake up, sister! It was a tough wake-up call, too, I'll tell ya.
I hope everyone has a good Monday! If this weather keeps up, the icy footing might actually disappear in my paddock (to be replaced by mud - the 5th season here in the Great Northeast) and we can get back to playing clicker outside.
We leave you with this quote today:

"Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there?" Anne Shirley, "Anne of Green Gables"

Go out and discover something new today!