This and That

This is VBF Blue Ridge Mt Girl and me this spring.  Picture by Lucy Cooper.  The first picture is of WOF Drifter.  The others are random pictures from shows last year.  David is riding WOF Rockin Andi.  This was  the first horse that David ever rode here on the farm.  Bob of course is with VBF Satin's Golden Venture.  AKA Satin.  Then there is Sky's on Fire.  The stallion I bought last year.  He is really something to see. 

 

I go through my pictures at random times and enjoy looking back at pictures from shows, family events and baby pictures etc.

 

I have been sick.  I really hate being sick I guess just like most everyone else.  I have known people that I thought "enjoy poor health". 

 

Anyway, I am better and starting to feel like myself again.

 

There are two big events going up on the same day in August.   Why do I do these things to myself?  I not going have the involvement of the up coming trail ride but I also told David I was not busy that day and he planned his grand reopening at his new business.  He owns River Bend in Taylorsville now.  I double booked.   But everything is under control for both events. 

 

David and his dad are in charge of planning the reopening.  I have the ACTHA ride covered in Winchester and will leave that in good hands while I am enjoying the grand reopening. 

 

So here is the deal on the ACTHA ride in Winchester, August 3-4.  We will be having this ride on Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday the 3rd is the deadline for entering the obstacle contest.  We  have a prize of $500 for the winning obstacle.  If the winner is an ACTHA member and particates in the ride the week end of August 3-4 that  will win an additional $250.  If you are also a UMH member, you will win an additional prize, yet to be determined.

 

I hope I am completely recovered this Friday.  Some of my high school friends and I are meeting in Midway for lunch and shopping.  These are friends from over 55 years ago.  Several of us have known each other since we were babies.  That is a lot more than 55 years.  Ouch that is 71 years ago.  Last year to celebrated our 70 years some of us went to French Lick Indiana and spend a couple of days just hanging out together. 

 

There was six of us.  There was seven of us who spent the night at Mary Jane's house back in high school.  At our 50th class reunion, we all had our pictures made together.  The picture was titled "The Slumber Party Girls"  At French Lick we were once again the Slumber Party girls.  We had a lot of good stories and memories to share.  It was nothing like our high school slumber party, of course, where we giggled and talked about boys.  But we did a lot of laughing.

 

I hope to see you all there for the ACTHA ride or if not there, be in Taylorsville for the Grand Reopening of River Bend.  We are having Judge Angus to play for the event.  There will be a ribbon cutting on Saturday afternoon and fried chicken all day.  Vic is going to be grilling all day too.  Come for the fun and food and stay for the free concert by Judge Angus. 

 

God bless and kindest regards

 

Mary

 

New friends are Silver.  Old friends are Golden.  And Donna Kay you are the most golden friend I have. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How I Spent My Saturday

I had a wonderful day today.  First I picked up a mare that was bred to an outside stallion.  Her baby has grown so much and she is really getting a pretty chocolate color with a white mane and tail.  Below is a not so good picture of WOF Livin the Dream.  She is following Mom out to the pasture after a long day on the horse trailer. 

 

This year I don't have a stallion to use for breeding.  Pictures 1, 3,4 and 6 are pictures of my stallion, Sky's on Fire.  He is the son of Sonny's Silver Dollar and is a coming 6 year old.  Sky hasn't been ridden enough to  get him ready to be a breeding stallion and still have his head on straight.  Chris and Stacie Tipton are doing a fantastic job with him getting him to work as he should under saddle.  Sky will be ready to stand as a breeding stallion this fall.  In the meantime, you will be seeing him at events such as the ACTHA rides and look for him at the World Show at the KEC  near Winchester.  Sky will be making a special appearance at the Parade of Stallions at the Rocky Mountain International Grand Championships in September and the Futurity in October at the KMSHA International Grand Championships. 

 

Sky is a very unusual color.  He is a red chocolate roan.  His color is really popping these days under the capable hands of the Tiptons.

 

Pictures 2 and 5 are of WOF King of Pop.  We call him Jackson.  Jackson is a yearling stud colt and will be appearing in the same shows that Sky will be in. 

 

So I had a pretty good day visiting with Chris and Stacie and with Toro at the Pruitt Farm near Mt Sterling.  It is always such a pleasure to be around people who know and love horses.  I learn so much from them.

 

Chris and Stacie gave us a short lesson on setting up a horse to show in a halter class.  I took Dereck along with me so that he too would learn about parking a horse out. 

 

So it was a good horse day.  Once I got home, I got an email from  a lovely lady I had sold a horse to last month.  Brandy and her friend Amy had taken their two horses that were bought from Whispering Oaks Farm to the mountains for a ride.  Every where Brandy goes with Titan, she is approached by strangers wanting to know about that horse she is riding.  She tells them that Titan is three years old and they are in utter disbelief that a horse that young will do what he does.  One man went so far as to look in his mouth to determine his age.

 

It is always a good day to hear of friends having a great time with a horse we have raised here on the farm.  Brandy is so excited about Titan.  He is a son of Venture's Black Fury and Blue Ridge Mt Girl, a mare that I own. 

 

 

 

 

David is so proud of Titan because he was the first horse he had gotten under saddle and now he is doing so well for his new owner.  The last three pictures are of Dah Polish Fury aka Titan.

 

So yes, I had a very good Saturday and now I am headed to bed to get rest so that I can have another good day tomorrow.  First I will be going to Bible Study in Joe Donaldson class at Southeast Christian Church and then on to church to sing, worship and learn more about Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

 

So good night everyone.  Rest well and have a great day of praise and worship tomorrow and every day and remember when you think about your troublea to count your blessings as well. 

 

God bless and keep you in His loving care.

 

Mary

Derek working with Watch me Go.  AKA Phoenix

Phoenix is like his sire, Code of Honor.  He loves to have his picture made. Phoenix is two years old and is learning ground manners and how to work in the round pen.

 This is a coming two year old, Look at Me.  AKA  Poppy.  He is a beautiful red chocolate gelding.  He has been worked with and has been taught how wonderful it is to be around humans.  Lots of love, petting and scratching those itchy spots.  This boy has no "don't touch me there" spots.

Poppy has a beautiful white mane and tail.  He is a real looker.

 

I just let Erica out the door.  I saw a small animal in the back yard.  It was a possum.  Erica immediately ran out to investigate.  The possum dropped like it had been shot.  Erica smelled the small animal laying in the yard.  It kept laying there.  I came back into the house to allow Erica to play with her new found friend. 

 

I know how dogs play with there new  possum friends.  I remember one winter that my electricity was off because of the ice storm the region had experienced.  It was mid afternoon and I went to the creek to fill up jugs of water for the few horses I had then.  The dogs were all too eager to go with me for a run in the snow. 

 

I was busily filling the jugs when my eye caught a possum coming out of the woods and starting across the open field.   The dogs didn't miss the event either.  They made a run for their new playmate.  The possum did as all possums do.  It dropped like it was dead.  The dogs didn't understand the game their new friend was playing.

 

One of the dogs shook the possum with his paw.  The possum just laid there.  Another dog shook the possum.  The possum pretended to be dead.  The dogs kept rolling it over and over.  Finally it was no longer playing dead.

 

Now you may wonder why I didn't rescue the poor little animal.  It was because I really don't like possums.  And that is why I won't call Erica away from the possum tonight.

 

Possums carry a deadly disease that can infect horses and kill them.  There is very little that can be done.  The treatment is very costly and ineffective.  I once had a boarder that lost a horse to EPM.  It was a terrible thing to watch the poor animal suffer through.  Finally the owner gave the vet a word and the vet put the poor animal out of its misery. 

 

The one lesson that we can draw from the possum is how it protects itself.  It of course, plays dead hoping that it's pursuer will assume it is dead and leave it alone.  In the case of the dogs it did not work.

 

All animals and people for that matter have methods to protect themselves.  We have a couple of people that have worked here recently that really know very little about horses.  They are both very eager to learn.  The first thing I tell a person that has very little experience with horses is that horses are prey animals and that is the basis all of their actions.  We on the other hand are predators. When  you learn about horses you will learn about the different ways the eyes are set in a predators head versus how the prey animals eyes are located.  Look at picture number two above. 

 

By the way, these are two of the horses I currently have for sale.  The first is WOF Watch Me Go. My great granddaughter, Melissa calls him Phoenix and I like that.  The last two pictures are of WOF Look At Me.  AKA Poppy. 

 

Do you see the location of his eyes?  Phoenix can turn his head and see all around him.  That is important to a prey animal.  Horses are constantly aware of what is around them.  They are fair game for mountain lions.  Now you may be saying to yourself, "There are no mountain lions in Ky or__________. "  Fill in the blank where you live.    Anyway no one has been able to completely convince a horse that they are safe from Mt Lions.  But there are other predators.   

 

Horses have the quickest reaction time of any domestic animal.  That is why one can be sitting in the saddle one minute and kissing dirt the next.  But that is how horses have survived since God created them.  They have the instinct to protect themselves and to live to see another day.  And a horse owner or rider must learn to think like a horse. 

 

That is what we try to teach people who work and handle horses here on the farm.  For instance, one of the new guys was trying to catch a young filly in a stall to treat an eye injury.  He was walking directly up to her.  She saw a predator.  He wasn't seeing a prey animal.  He was just seeing a horse that needed to be caught.  He may have not caught her all night.  I stepped into the stall with the mare and filly and gave him a quick Clinton Anderson lesson. 

 

He was holding the mare by her halter.  I started approaching the filly.  Just before she looked like she was going to walk away, I walked away from her.  Then she relaxed, I approached her again.  Approach, retreat, approach, retreat.  I did that several times until she finally let me touch her and scratch her shoulder and rub her back.  Everybody enjoys a good back rub and so did It's an Honor (the filly's name). 

 

So she was caught and Andy learned a little about how to approach a horse.  It may take him time to get the approach and retreat thing down where he can actually do it.  I did not look at her.  If I did, I would be acting like a predator.

 

We can learn so many lessons from horses.  For instance, I can draw a parallel to our relationship with God.  God approaches us to draw us to Himself.  He wants to be our friend.  But He doesn't force us.  For who can force their friendship on another.  So God will invite us but if we resist, He will leave us alone.  He will keep trying to become our friend but because He has given us free will He will not force us to love and obey Him.  That would not be free will.

 

But God doesn't give up on the sinner.  Jesus has already paid the price for our sins and it was a huge price.  He died on the cross for our sins so that through our relationship and accepting Him as our Savior we can join Him in Heaven when this life is over. 

 

Watch your animals.  Especially horses.  Learn the lessons God has placed with them for us.  Lessons to help us learn who He is and His love for us. 

 

God bless and keep you in His loving care.  May He surround you with His hedge of protection from all the predators that inhabit your world.  And most of all may you come to a saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

Mary Lipginski

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi there

Oh NO!! It has been awhile since I wrote a blog and now I don't know how to add a horse picture to my blog.  Perhaps I will learn how to do it before I post this.

It has been awhile since I wrote anything and tonight I was taken to task by a very good friend.  We have been busy around Whispering Oaks Farm.  All of the sudden we find we are exploding with improvements we have made and improvements we hope to make.

Despite vowing to sell horses before I buy more horses, I suddenly realize I have bought a lot of horses.  I was thrilled to be able to buy some really outstanding horses this year.  As usual, Larry had some really good deals that he talked me into.  I doubt I could have been talked into them very easily had they not been quality through and through.  I now own the 2011 foal out of Vera's Autumn's Venture mare by Iron Man.  Her name is VBF's Lady Diana.  I also bought Sweet Southern Thang and Rambling Rose. 

Another day I went to Silver Creek and came home with two outstanding horses from the Monhollens.  They are very dear friends and the two I bought there are Ace of Spade get and are awesome horses.  One is my future stallion.  A black horse named S C Ace's Black Jack.  And a mare named S C Ace's Prefect Lady. 

Then to the mountains where we found a couple of nice horses that needed a little TLC.  And over the river and through the woods and lo and behold there were eight (8) horses that needed a new home.

Off we went to Tennessee to Real Horse Farm where we found VBF Venture's Golden Satin's little sister.  Her name is RHF Eclipse.  I might have named her Red Satin.  She is by Chocolate Venture and out of Unbridled.  She and Satin are both by Chocolate Venture. 

Well enough for this time.  You will be seeing some of these horses in the show ring this year.  And it is about time to start marking your calendar for Show Season.  UMH will soon have a schedule which will include ACTHA rides and fun shows.  Go to www.unitedmountainhorse.org for more on that.  That schedule should be up very soon.

I am going to try to add pictures now.  I hope you will be seeing one or more when you read this post.

Wow I did it.  I did it!!  These are some of my favorite pictures.  The top picture is VBF Blue Ridge Mt Girl and her dam LS Mt Wind Socks.  The second is of my gray horse, WOF Ann's Mt Treasure.  The third down is a little boy named Nolin that bought an Arabian gelding I had.  They bonded as soon as they met and then I knew why God had sent me Aladin. 

The next pisture is of Vanessa Crowe and Dixie Belle.  And last but not least is Stanley Tipton on Flair for Fury.  Flair is out of Rebel Rock's Ann and by Venture's Black Fury.

Keep checking back.  There will be more to come.

God bless and keep you in His loving care.

Regards,

Mary

Thank you Mrs Tucker

You can count on whatever the subject I have for my blog, it will usually have a horse picture or two or more. This is SC Lady Ace with "Toro" aboard. 

I had some really good teachers in high school. As a matter of fact all through school. Some were better than others but I ended up with a good education. When I went to school, the teachers were not so bound up with federal and state regulations that they actually had time to teach. Some taught every minute of every day.

I remember especially a day I learned to pronounce a common word correctly. That lesson has stuck with me all my life. I was in the Freshmen class in High School. We were the under classmen and we had the largest class in high school. So they put the entire Freshman Class in the gymnasium for study hall. We had to sit on the bleachers so it was very inconvenient to do home work.

One day I decided I could do better if I went to the Library to study. Or perhaps being a reader, I just wanted to check out a new book. But never the less, I raised my hand. The conversation that followed went something like this, "Yes MISS Rogers, what is it?"

I responded, "May I go to the liberry?"

"Where do you want to go Miss Rogers?" I thought surely Mr King had not heard me since he was rather old. After all he must have been at least 25 years old.

So I spoke a little louder, "May I go to the liberry?" See I already knew the difference between "may and can". That was probably something else he taught me.

"Miss Rogers, I do not know where you want to go." I thought he must be pretty dense if he didn't know what a liberry was. I was also turning red because I couldn't make him understand where I wanted to go. By now my class mates were all listening to the conversation. I heard some snickers from high up in the bleachers

Finally I said, "Mr King, I want to go to the liberry to check out a book."

Now I thought we were surely going to get somewhere and he would excuse me to go to the liberry.

Mr King said, "Oh you want to go to the Library". He emphasized the first r until it rolled around on his tongue before it dropped off and lingered in the air for a couple of seconds before the sound evaporated from the large gym.

Now I was really blushing. But he asked me again where I wanted to go. That time I knew how to answer him. And I finally escaped the giggles of my class mates and out of the gym to the safety of the LIBRARY.

Yes, I was embarrassed. But I learned something that day that has followed me all through life. I learned the importance of good pronunciation. To this day if I hear anybody say "liberry" I cringe and almost look around to see if Mr King was standing there ready to pounce.

Mrs Tucker was our high school English teacher. I loved English and found I was really pretty good in that class. I stayed up with all the smart girls in the class with my good grades. My tests scores showed I worked hard and really had a knack for the spoken language. Mrs Tucker was not a favorite among my class mates. Some really hated learning proper English.

To this day, I catch misstatements in English usage that probably makes Mrs Tucker turn over in her grave. I catch misuse even among professional broadcasters. I heard someone giving a thank you talk a couple of days ago. This lady was thanking everyone for their prayers and support of her family when she was sick. It was all good until she said "Thank you for the ways you helped my family and I though this hard time in our lives".

My mind went back to Mrs Tucker's little test. If you left out my family would it be I or me. Of course it would be me.

Now I think I have carried this all too far. But in my defense, I do not correct people for their misuse. I do try to avoid those kinds of mistakes because I had a teacher that cared.

Thanks to Mrs Tucker and probably Mr King as well, I cringe when I hear someone say something like, "I seen him do it". They wanted us to have a good education and cared enough to see that we learned.

I have had many other teachers in my life. In fact, education lasts throughout one's lifetime.The more I learn the more certain I am that I really know very little.

May God bless and keep you in His loving care. And may your education always begin and end with the God of our Universe.  "For the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord"

Regards

Mary

Bob on Venture's Golden Satin. This was made during one of the Competitive Trail Rides sponsored by ACTHA. To learn more about ACTHA and their CTC programs go to www.actha.us Don't forget our ride on November 3-4. Prizes, beautiful scenery, challenging obstacles and fun will make it a day to remember.

"Do you remember"? That is the words of a song written after 9/11/2001.

It was a day none of us should ever forget. It was a day that death and fire rained down from the sky in New York City.

I remember another such day that is forever seared into my mind. The date was November 22, 1963.. It was also a day of death. Fire did not rain down from the sky but death was in the streets of Dallas Texas that day.

I was hanging clothes on the line in my back yard in Jeffersonville Indiana. My neighbor came out of the house and I stopped to talk to her. It was leaning over the fence in my back yard that I learned our young President had been shot and was most likely dead. I was very young and the thought of someone killing our President was the furtherest thing from my mind. The office of the Presidency changed hands that day and life went on.  But so many like me had lost a part of themselves.

Fast forward with me to the 1970s and the day the Supreme Court of the United States found a right our Founding Fathers would have never envisioned in the Constitution of the United States. That was also a day that death rained down on the ground of the United States. Death and destruction. Perhaps you don't remember that day as clearly as clearly as 9/11/2001. You may even be wondering what happened on that day.

It was the day that abortion was legalized in America under the guise of a constitutional right for women to choose. Some may agree it was a good decision but I bet most of you agree that it was a horrible misinterpretation of the Constitution. It is the day that led to the death of over 50 million American citizens. We are horrified that 9/11/2001 brought about the death of 3000 people but can you comprehend the death of over 50,000,000 people?

We are horrified at the death of people under Hitler that he was able to kill so many people. Not only Jews but those that were handicapped or political enemies. We see the pictures from the Holocaust and we are sickened. We see the pictures of people starving in other countries. Not just hungry but starving and we can hardly look we are so troubled.

Yet the world is a wonderful place. How can I say that with all that we see on the news every night?

God's creation is marvelous. It is man that has destroyed through the prompting of Satan who has come to "kill, steal and destroy". The work of Hitler was through the prompting of Satan. The work of John F Kennedy's assassin was the prompting of Satan. The work of the 9/11 terrorists was the work by the prompting of Satan. The killing of over 50,000,000 unborn babies is the work of Satan.

Why write of this in my blog? My blog are usually not so serious. Those of you who follow usually find them uplifting and often funny as I relate to life, horses and everyday living. Abortion is a horror to me just as the holocaust, John F Kennedy's murder and the 9/11 massacre.

As we approach the anniversary of that day in 2001, I am reading that those who are in charge of remembering that date, the Mayor of New York City has decided that God has no place in the ceremony. How can that be? What is he thinking? Does he not know that our nation has never prayed any harder than people prayed during that time? What about the 3,000? Does he think they did not pray as they realized death had come calling that day and they were about to meet their maker?

So here we are on the eve another Anniversary of the day the twin towers came crashing down.  And worse, the thing that we thought would never, could never happen, on our home soil happened. We have lost our way.  We have invited God out of the classroom and what do we see.  Kids murdering kids in schools.  We have taken the 10 commandments down because it may offend someone.  Murder in the classrooms offends me and a host of other people.Abortions are legal so the "Every child is a wanted child".   And yet we see more abuse than we have ever seen.  Babies forgotten in hot cars.  Babies and young children badly beaten to the point of death. Every day it seems there is another little coffin lowered into the ground because of the mistreatment by a care taker.

Are we as a society better off because these things have come to pass?  May God have mercy on our souls.

God bless and keep you in His loving care.

Regards

Mary

Wall Street Protests at Whispering Oaks Farm

This is a little heifer that is an escape artist. She knows when the electric fence is off before we do. She has several nicknames. David calls her Whopper Jr. I call her Mini-Cheese as in mini cheese burger. My brother Bob calls her Happy Meal. Do you see a theme there? It is apparent that we have food on our minds.

Today the horses got out. All the horses from behind the barn was in David's yard when he got up this morning. He called me to let me know they were out and to get some help getting them back in their field.

I went to the barn and there they were in the camper yard.

We started rounding up horses. By this time they were running into the barn. They soon run through the open gate and back outside the barn to their field. We walked over to talk to them. I asked them why they would want to escape out of their nice pasture.

Flair for Fury was their spokes person. But the others soon added their complaints to Flair's tale of woe.

Flair told us they had been following the Wall Street Occupiers on their Iphones. I knew then it was a mistake to let them have Iphones. I asked them what they had been seeing about the Wall Street Occupiers and what was that all about.

Here was their story.

"We got the idea of our escape by watching the news about all the Wall Street Occupiers across the country. We saw that the occupiers were active in Louisville and Lexington. That is close to us. We didn't know why they were protesting at first. Then we began to realize that they were protesting the unfairness of those who have so much and those who don't have what people on Wall Street do."

At this point I ask them who the Wall Street Occupiers actually are. I thought that was important to know.

Flair responded, "Well many of them are kids that don't have to work and don't have anything else to do because they are trust fund kids."

I knew that was right because I had seen one of them I knew on our local news that was exactly right. A trust fund kid who had never worked a day in her life.

Flair continued her story. "We have worked hard.'

At this point Velvet, Satin and Rockin Andi agreed. "Yes we have." said Rockin Andi. We have to ride people around. We have to go horse shows and they ride us whatever the weather is. It could be cold and raining and hot and humid and it doesn't make any difference. And how about training? We have to train. It doesn't matter whether it is cold or hot. Jamie was riding me in all kinds of weather. David rides me into water and up and down hills."

I stopped them at this point and reminded them that now they are like trust fund kids. They aren't working very much and they still get fed.

Satin now took over as spokes person. "Yes," she said, "but now we don't get as much feed as we used to get. We only have all the hay we can eat and all the water we can drink but we don't get oats but once a day."

"But don't you have everything you need, I asked? After all you all look pretty well cared for to me" I didn't want to hurt their feelings but I was thinking they were a little on the fat side.

"Well we do", Lady Ace, agreed, "But we deserve more."

"Why" I asked?

"We see everyone having more", Lady Ace continued. Look at Mini Cheese out there. She gets to run all over the farm whenever she wants to. She has all of that grass to herself. And besides that Cody gets to stay in the barn. He gets oats twice a day. I know that because he told me. Apple, Celine and Dixie get oats twice a day. Dixie told me she gets four scoops of oaks a day. It is unfair. That is why we escaped from our field and was in David's yard. We wanted to be occupiers."

At that point I told them if they tried that trick again I would be taking their Iphone away from them.
 Well there it is.  Life on the farm.  You have your occupiers and we have ours.

May God bless and keep you in His loving care.

Regards
Mary