our newest addition

Here's a pic of our guys! They get along sooo well, I am very impressed. Not a whole lot of snortin', kickin', or screamin'! Tuffy established his position early on with a quick kick, and that was it. They're buds now. Tuffy is still the boss, but that's okay, someone's gotta be! Tuffy is the white horse (appaloosa actually) and Roman is the sorrel one.

Okay here's a quick story about how amazing God is to us mere mortals. We have been selfishly praying for our horse dream. In Spring we started praying specifically for horses. Ones that would fit really well with our family, be gentle and fun and be horses that we'd be able to ride where-ever, when-ever, kid friendly, etc. etc. We thought, well if we're going to ask for this, let's be specific!

So, in spring, Tuffy pretty much fell into our lap. (oh, yeah, did I mention the horses had to be realllllly affordable?) This older man had hurt his back, couldn't ride anymore, and the horse that he had bought primarily for his grandkids wasn't getting ridden. So he was ready to sell him at a loss. He said to us, "I never make money on my horses. I buy them 'cause I like what I see. Then I end up selling them for less." We're like, umm, okay then. How much less? So at a very affordable price we acquired Tuffy, who has been AMAZING for us. The kids ride him, we ride him, he's got go and he's got whoa - perfect for us.

"That's awesome God, but ... ummm ...we'd like another horse. Would that be possible? Same criteria as before?" God answers with a resounding "Sure!"

Here's Roman's story: We are looking around for another horse, going out looking at horses in Portage, Selkirk, Anola etc. Nothing yet, but we have faith (sort of) and try not to get discouraged. After all, we've only been seriously looking for, what? 1 month? So we (I) try to relax and have some patience. Well, Pat responds to an ad that some guy put on a couple of months ago, and we hadn't really seen it before. This guy is a trainer for horses at the Downs, and he had an accident and has some internal bleeding (the things you find out about people) and has to sell off all his 15 horses. Here's an aside: Let's backtrack to a couple (16) of years ago when we had two foals by a sire named Sabre Tiger. We LOVED Sabre Tiger babies. They were wonderful horses and we always said we'd love to own a horse with Sabre Tiger bloodlines again someday. Okay, back to now. We go look at this horse - he's wonderful, gentle disposition, really friendly eye, calm, pretty quiet. We checked him out on Saturday, and I said to Pat "Doesn't he look like a Sabre Tiger horse?" We really liked him and on Sunday Super J and her kick butt truck hauled us (Pat, Me and her husband) and her trailer out to Selkirk to pick him up. The owner says "You know, buying a horse is like buying a car. You gotta try him out before you know if you are a fit. So come pick him up and try him out for a bit. If you like him, I'll sell him to you for $1000.00." Ummm, OKAY! He was asking $2000.00!!! But said he'd take a loss as long as Roman went to a good home. Well, we ARE a good home, apparently! Here's the best part, he hands us the registration papers (he's a registered AQHA quarter horse, which means nothing to most of you, but there it is) and I almost screamed out loud when I saw his bloodlines. His granddaddy is Sabre Tiger!!! Man, when God says yes, He say's it loudly!

So now we have two horses, and we get an email from another chick in Neepawa. She has two horses, one is very well broke, older and great for kids. She also has a whack load of tack (that's like saddles and reins and bridles and stuff) that she has to sell. Why does she have to sell? Well, she had a car accident and can't ride or train horses anymore! Okay, do you see the trend here? I'm beginning to feel like a vulture! I really want to believe that God is directing us to unfortunate people so we can help them, not necessarily so that we can profit from them!! So we are going to look at her stuff and her horse on Thursday. This may or may not pan out, but I am looking forward to the trip out!

Pat has been calling me down for breakfast for the past 10 minutes now, I guess I better go. Talk about patience :)

Enjoy your day!