For all who we’ve missed
Walking in the winter wonder land……well, we might not have a lot of snow in Florida at this time of the year (or ever for that matter), but the radio has been playing Christmas music around the clock for the past month, so how can we not get into the spirit?!
Wow – once again, the year just flew by! It’ll be Christmas before we know it! Time for us to gear up again and write our yearly Christmas letter…. Since Patrick was spending some time in Switzerland last Christmas and New Year’s, I was able to show at the FCHA Winter Circuit – my first time. Always wanted to go, but it’s just such a family time that it never happened. Sue and I ended up winning the 10’000 NHNP Circuit Championship! Now Scooter better follow in her footsteps.
Andy, Patrick’s brother came to visit us for a couple of weeks. Of course we always love his company and were excited to see him again. It’s been way too long since we’ve seen him last! The time just passed way too quickly though. After a rather cold and gray Florida winter we embraced the Spring and the foaling season. We had two foals arrive out of our own Quarter Horse mares and a few outside foals that were Thoroughbreds who belonged to customers. All the foaling and rebreeding went over just fine – little bumps here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary. However as time progressed, our one filly, Crystal, wasn’t doing well…. We think that she ended up being born with a partial blockage of the small intestine that enabled her to digest the mare’s milk, but once she started taking in solid food, she was going downhill pretty fast. Needless to say we were heartbroken to have to put her down, but such is life. Chicco, the other colt though was blooming and continues to do so. He’s out on the pasture with our last year’s colt, Hank. We were lucky to find a new home for one of our horses we bought in Texas last year. Gucci calls Oregon her new home now. Good luck with her Patsy! Of course one of our highlights is our yearly trip across the country to Montana. Patrick had the opportunity to spend a few extra days with me up there, which we both enjoyed greatly.
The Summer just passed way too quickly -at least for me. It’s always hard on Patrick, having to stay home during that time and mow the pastures all day long as the grass is growing faster than the horses can eat it. But September came and our trip back to Florida with it. We once again lucked out and had an eventless trip other than stopping to admire the beautiful scenery along the way. We always try to make the best and most fun out of our trips and include some extra time to see some of the beautiful country we decided to live in. So we stopped in Cody, Wyoming for an extra day. Went to the fantastic museum and did some local sightseeing. Then we took the route through Texas again, where we once again stopped at the Big Texan Steakhouse.
We didn’t have much time to get bored, we had back to back company from Switzerland. Long time friends and ‘ a long lost cousin’ made our days brighter and we enjoyed every minute of their time spent with us. Thanks for visiting!!!
Smarty our second horse from our last year’s Texas trip found a new home with Antonio – what a great pair they make. The annual Pat Wyse Community Clinic was coming up pretty quickly and was just around the corner in November. We had a GREAT turnout – thank you all for participating and making it another successful year!
Well and with that, the year started to head to an end. The next and probably last highlight this year was our trip to Texas, to the Cutting Horse Futurity
– of course we couldn’t help attending the horse sales and came home with two nice mares again. And now we are in our last stages of the year… Next week we’ll be celebrating Christmas. This time we’ll be celebrating it at our place, hopefully amongst our dearest friends and closest family here.
We hope that your Christmas will be Merry and your New Year to come will be Happy, Successful and Worry-Free. Keep in touch – we think of you often
Hugs from the Gruningers at Cambridge Star Farm
Sandy and Patrick and all their Critters
in case you would like to know what we are up to throughout the year – we’d love for you to check out our blog. We try to keep it updated, as to what is going on here at the Cambridge Star Farm www.thebasichandle.wordpress.com or our website www.thebasichandle.com !
