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2011
November, 2011
November 1
When you procrastinate and don't
stay current on the news, it is
difficult to remember what
happened. Vicki Livasy keeps
telling me to write things down,
but of course I don't. Today Mike
is gone to Madison and I decided
that I would take the time and get
up to date. I know that I have a
lot of pictures but don't know if
there will be much news to go along
with them.
Please click
on smaller picture to enlarge.
The end of July the the EAA was in
Oshkosh. This event brings in
people from all over the world to
Oshkosh. It is like the World Horse
Show for airplane enthusiasts. Mike
and I do not go near the city of
Oshkosh which is about 5 miles from
us, during the event. It is really
a sight to see the different planes
fly over our place as some of their
flight patterns take them this way.
I tried to take some pictures but
really didn't get many good ones
this year.
July and August were very hot and
dry in Wisconsin. The temperatures
were well above normal. We were
able to cut and bale our second
cutting hay and combine our oats.
Due to the dry weather, the oats are
very light this year. But, I guess
I should be thankful that I have
oats as the price of them and hay
has skyrocketed all over the
country. Mike says we are like the
squirrel getting ready for winter as
we have plenty of oats, hay and
shavings to get us through until
next year. Our neighbor Jack
Cowling has been a wonderful
neighbor. He plants and harvests
our crops except for the hay,
which Mike and Bob do. I don't
know what we would do without the
Cowlings.
I
sold several horses since I last
wrote. Abner, the NN stud colt by
Mr Elusive out of Shanes Night
Lady went to Nebraska. He is huge
and will make a really nice stallion
in the future. Then, one day I had
such a nice visit with Terry
Bradshaw. He loves the Tee Jay
Roman mares and Lanis and I decided
that I had too many horses to take
care of and we needed to cut down
for winter. Terry bought Shanes
Lady Romantic and her big 16.1
daughter, Sucha Classic Miss. He
also bought the 2011 gray stud colt
by Mr Elusive out of Shanes Lady
Romantic. Connie Mason, who manages
Terry's business told me that they
named him The Big E. I will be
anxious to see how he has matured
and plan to go and see him during
the World Show. I really hated to
part with these mares but I still
have the big gray mare by Malibu Ken
out of Shanes Lady Romantic.
I
took some pretty pictures of our
place and the horses this summer.
Since the numbers have gone down, it
will probably be boring looking at
pictures of the same horses over and
over again.
A
big event for me in September was
the Iowa Futurity Extravaganza.
What a weekend of futurities. Lanis
Noble, Vicki Benker and I met in
Iowa and spent several days watching
baby classes and of course, eating
great food in the evening. It
seemed as though everyone was
there. My good friend, Donna Davis
raised the winners of the both
divisions of the Breeders
Cup Futurity. Josh Weakley bought
both colts and they were superbly
fitted by Kendall and Andy Station.
The money paid was over $20,000 in
both classes and from what I
understand it will pay even more
next year. I am excited as all
three of my foals will be eligible
for it next year. The World Halter
Conformation was also a great event
and it was held the same weekend.
A lot of money was also paid out in
this futurity. Along with that,
the Iowa Futurities were also held
at the same place and time. I think
that a weekend like this will go a
long way to revive the halter
industry. I should mention that the
Big Money Halter Futurity held the
weekend before was also a very
successful event. I wanted to
attend that but since they were so
close together, opted to go to Iowa
instead. Hats off to the
promoters of these events. It gives
us, as halter breeders, an
opportunity to get top dollar for
our babies and also for the buyers
to get money back.
On a sad note, we lost Mickey the
first part of August. If you
remember Mickey was one of our two
cats. He evidently was pretty old
and we had to keep him on
medication. One day I found him
just laying there as though he fell
asleep. It was pretty sad around
here. Since we don't have any
children, our animals have taken
their places in our hearts. I
thought, what would Minnie, the
other cat, do without her buddy so I
got a kitten. Dr Fox found her for
me and she is the most beautiful
baby. She looked like a blue roan
when we got her as was black with
this long white hair all over her
body. Guess what, the white has
been replaced by black and she is
now a black cat. Besides that,
Minnie does not seem to tolerate
Smokie as we call her. They are
getting better, but Smokie picks on
the older cat and Minnie doesn't
want anything to do with her. We
keep thinking time will take care of
things and hopefully they will
eventually become buddies. In the
meantime, Smokie lives in the office
of the barn.
Molly, our dog became 11 years old
on October 14. I know that she is
overweight but Mike is not very
disciplined about giving her
treats. He keeps telling me that he
doesn't but then I catch him just
"giving her one little one" I took
many pictures of her since I last
wrote and since she is our pride and
joy, I will have Vicki show them to
you.
Please
click on smaller picture to enlarge.
Exceptional Candy and You Bet Im
Cool (Rebecca) have become best
buddies. I love looking at these
two NN mares with all the muscle you
could put on a horse. I guess we
need to realize that you do not need
to have an NH horse in order have
muscle on horses.
Please click
on smaller picture to enlarge.
I
turned the 3 younger girls outside
in a pasture. They had been
pampered too long and it was time
they learned to be horses. Of
course, they follow me around when I
go to feed and want me to put them
back in the barn. I plan to breed
Juliet (Malibukini) this year but
will probably leave Annie (Mailibouqet)
and Ginger (Phenomenally) open. I
would sell them but guess I really
don't care if I do or don't.
Ginger, the double registered TD Kid
filly should really be shown as she
is Kentucky bred and also Incentive
Fund and Breeders Trust. Someone
could make some serious money if
they wanted to show her.
Bob, our long time helper who is
like part of our family broke his
foot. He will be gone for 10 weeks
and he had surgery on his other foot
right before he broke this one. I
guess you don't realize how much you
miss someone until after they are no
longer here. Mike and I have been
doing all the chores. We had become
so used to Bob doing things that we
don't even know where some things
are around here. We have been doing
fine and have some wonderful
neighbors and friends. Dickie
Kaufman has been a real help as he
can fix just about anything. Katie
Samuelson has also been great and is
always willing to help. With the
help of them and Becki Skulen, we
will get by. We are so lucky to
have such good neighbors.
Please click
on smaller picture to enlarge.
I
watched the Quarter Horse Congress
on the internet. I was so happy to
see that A Classic Edition again won
the Performance Halter class. She
is sired by Kids Classic Style and
out of Cooleah by Ima Cool Skip. A
Classic Edition is incredible. She
has won the World 4 times and the
Congress 4 times. Besides that she
is leading the nation in Performance
Halter Mares an award she has won
before. I checked with AQHA and the
mare has a total of 875 points not
counting the Congress win. She has
also 4 World Championship titles and
2 Reserve World Champion titles
besides having 10 high point in the
nation awards. Needless to say, I
am looking forward to the 2012 foal
out of her dam, Cooleah and My
Intentions.
Soon, I will be going to the AQHA
World Show. It is my big event of
the year. Mike stays home to look
after things while I meet many of my
horsey friends and we have a great
time watching the classes and
discussing conformation. In the
evening we enjoy the wonderful food
in Oklahoma City and talk about (of
all things) horses. I will have a
full report when I return. Winter
is right around the corner. Our
winter wheat is planted and the
geese are flying south. Mike thinks
that we should be going south too
but being a Wisconsin girl all my
life, I can't imagine leaving the
horses. Besides, I can take pretty
pictures of the horses in the snow.
Sandy
July, 2011
Please click
on smaller picture to enlarge.
 Sometimes
in life we don't appreciate our
friends as much as we should until
we lose them. I was called by
Ray Ramirez daughter, Andrea in June
and she told me that her father was
in the hospital after a vehicle
accident and they did not expect
him to survive. Ray and I were
"phone friends" He bought some
horses from me years ago and we
would talk and discuss horses over
the phone. I can remember when I
would answer the phone, his first
comment would be "hello darlin" and
he would always end with "have a
wonderful day". Ray was from
Scottsbluff, Nebraska and if anyone
is looking for some good horses, his
children have to sell all 38 of
them, as they do not live there and
have no interest in the horses. The
fact that the horse business is bad
is not helping either and I am at a
loss to find homes for them. Laura
Lehsten has been wonderful to help
sort out the papers. From what she
tells me, there are some fantastic
mares and he also has some good
stallions including The Cluemanator
a World Champion producer who is one
of the few horses sired by Clueman
who was sired by Obvious Conclusion
out of Miss Bunny Tardee. The
Cluemanator's dam is sired by Ima
Cool Skip and is a full sister to
Cooleah, the dam of A Classic
Edition and An Obsession.
It
seems as though we have spent the
whole month of June baling hay. We
were lucky with the weather and were
able to get most of our hay baled
without rain. Thank goodness for
our neighbors as we have had
wonderful help unloading wagons.
We did have two catastrophes. Mike
was pulling a load of hay through
the gates and the wagon swayed and
broke one of the
gates
off. We are lucky to have Dickie
Kaufmann, our good friend who can
fix anything. He replaced the
cement and mounted the gate again.
It was a major project though.
The other thing that happened was
when Mike pulled a wagon in the barn
and the bucket on the tractor caught
the bottom of the door and broke the
track off of it. I guess that if
those are the only things that went
wrong, we are lucky. Dickie
Kaufmann spends quite a bit of time
repairing things around here. He is
definitely an asset and we jokingly
call him "facilities manager".
We have a new Kubota tractor.
Well, it is new for us. Our
good friend and partner on some
of the horses, Lanis Noble sold
it to us and it is going to be
nice to have something newer
around here. Up to now we have
used our 2 old Ford 4000s and a
Ford 600. Allan Platt, who we
call "Big Al" has kept our
equipment running even though it
is pretty old stuff. The new
tractor will be nice but I
wonder if Mike is a bit leery
about using it as he drove the
old Fords to bale hay. I guess
it just takes getting used to
different equipment.
My flowers are beautiful.
Dickie and I bought hanging
baskets and Dickie planted the
big flower pots at the front of
the barn. June is such a pretty
time of the year in Wisconsin.
"Polly Peony" was beautiful this
year. A few years ago I lost a
beautiful Kid Clu filly when she
broke her leg while playing
outside Roseann Albert from out
east sent me a peony plant and
she kept the sister plant. Mine
has bloomed every year and every
year it keeps getting
prettier. We buried Miss Bunny
Tardee in the area by it so
there are two wonderful memories
when I sit there and reflect
on the past.
Sire: Mr Elusive
Dam: Shanes Lady Romantic
Pictures
taken July 7 and July 8, 2011
Please click
on smaller picture to enlarge.
Sire: Mr. Elusive
Dam: You Bet Im Cool
Pictures
taken July 7 and July 8, 2011
Please click
on smaller picture to enlarge.
My foal crop is not going to be
big next year but the I guess
that is good. On two different
embryo flushes we got beautiful
grade 1 embryos out of Rebecca
(You Bet Im Cool) and My
Intentions and the first
recipient didn't take hers and
the other recipient lost hers at
45 days of pregnancy. Kids
Classic Gal (Janie) and Cooleah
(Olivia) are both in foal to My
Intentions. Adding Exceptional
Candy to the group also added an
additional foal to be. Next
year will be the year of fillies
for me (I hope) After all, 9
straight stud colts is enough
for any horse breeder, isn't it?
Supernatural Fella owned by Russ
and Felisha Ellis had two
Reserve World Championships at
the Pinto World Show. It
couldn't happen to nicer
people. Their stud is the first
cremello stallion to achieve a
ROM in halter in the Quarter
Horse Association.
Please click
on smaller picture to enlarge.
I have decided that I do not
need to keep all of my horses.
I will accept offers on Annie (Malibouquet)
, the NH mare by Malibu Ken and
out of Dandy Dee Gal. If you
remember, she is the orphan.
She is now 2 years old and she
has made quite a mare. She
thinks she is more human than
horse but she has all the
attributes of a great broodmare
or show mare. Also, I should
sell Ginger (Phenomenally) She
is also NH and sired by TD Kid
and out of Phenomenal Affair.
She is 2 years old, double
registered and needs to go to a
show home as she is Kentucky
bred and eligible for that money
plus the Breeders Trust and
Incentive Fund monies. Since I
do not show, it is foolish to
keep her. Last and certainly
not least, for those of you
looking for a great NN mare,
Sucha Classic Miss is that. She
stands 16.1 and is sired by Kids
Classic Style out of Shanes
Night Lady (Angelica) All of
these mares would make great
additions to anyone's program.
Contact me if you are
interested.
Now, many of you have inquired
as to what is going on with Fred
(Classically) He is the last
foal out of Miss Bunny Tardee
and is sired by Kids Classic
Style. He is NN, palomino and
stands a good 16.1 as a three
year old. I am ashamed to admit
that I have not seen him for a
year. The reason for that was
that I had so many surgeries
last year and a two
year stallion is not a good
thing to have when you cannot
handle horses due to the
surgeries and have no one that
can. Therefore, decided not to
breed him and sent him to be
broke. It seemed as though every
time we planned to go and see
him, something came up. It
didn't help with the mess in
Madison as Mike is a senator and
he has been so busy. I do have
a few pictures of him that a
girl took for me and I will have
Vicki put them up. I don't know
if you remember my old pictures
as a foal, but he was what I am
looking for in a stallion. His
legs are great and he has an
awesome neck and head and a
great back. Besides that, his
pedigree is what I want in my
program. Mike and I plan to go
an see him this month and I
promise new pictures.
I am sure that I have forgotten
a lot of things. That is a good
reason to update the news more
frequently. I appreciate so
much my wonderful friends on
Face Book. Sometimes I don't
respond as much as I should but
I want you all to know that I do
relish your comments.
Sandy
 |
June, 2011
June 2011
As most of you know, my website has
been missing for months. The server
that I was using "lost" it and kept
promising that he could revive it.
Of course, I wanted to believe him
as there were years of pictures and
news on it and I had no backup for
it. Vicki Livasy kept telling me
that I needed to start over--that
everything on it was gone
forever and she would rebuild a
completely new site for me. I
dreaded the idea of starting over,
but if you know Vicki, she doesn't
give up on anything. I am
excited with her incredible work
and once I get the write-ups done, I
feel it will be better than it ever
was.
I
don't even know where to start with
everything that has been going on
here. Vicki Benker, Lanis and
I took a trip to Oklahoma and Texas
in May. It was good to get away and
see all of the horses and visit with
our friends. I particularly wanted
to see My Intentions as I have
always liked the horse since I first
saw him as a baby at Russell MacIntosh's.
He certainly didn't disappoint us as
he has matured into a magnificent
stallion. We will be having 3 foals
by him next year. They will be out
of Cooleah, Kids Classic Gal and
Exceptional Candy. I sure hope he
is a filly producer as the last 9
foals born here have been stud colts
and I feel I deserve some
fillies.
Our weather has been weird but I
that is the case all over the
country. We finally got our hay and
oats and soybeans planted but my
neighbor farm advisor tells me that
I shouldn't expect much from the oat
crop because oats should have been
planted over a month ago. Now, we
are trying to cut and bale hay and
the weather just doesn't want to
cooperate. Whoever heard of
temperatures going from freezing to
95 degrees in a few days. We were
able to get one field in without
rain but it is basically grass hay
which the horses love. Mike and Bob
really worked to get that in and
I am so grateful that they did.
 We
took Molly, our dog to the vet
clinic to get her rabies shot.
Well, they found that she had
6 teeth that needed to be pulled
besides a lump on her side that they
removed. As you know, Molly is like
a child to us as we have
no children. I don't know, but
sometimes I think pets cost as much
to maintain as children do.
Mickey, one of the two cats also
needed veterinarian attention and he
is still on medication. Thank
heaven, the horses are all
healthy,.
We had two weekends of horse shows
in Oshkosh. The fairgrounds is 5
miles from us so I was able to go
and watch the halter classes. The
size of the classes was not that big
but there were quality horses
shown. Larry Lemke has a new
gelding and he did great with him.
Rita Crundwell had some of her top
quality horses at the shows and
they deserved the winnings that they
received. Mike and I met Rita, Jim
McKillips and Buddy Laney for supper
and had a great visit with them
about "old times" I admire Rita's
breeding program. She has such
great mares and breeds them to her
own stallions that she has raised.
She certainly deserves everything
that she has accomplished in this
horse world. Of course, I can't
forget to mention Jim McKillips as
he coordinates the whole
program. He is as good a judge of
horses as I know.
Please click
on smaller picture to enlarge.
I
am the one who tells everyone
that "you cannot give me a horse"
and guess what? I have a new
mare. This is how it happened.
Mike and I went to a wedding in
Omaha, Nebraska. On the way home,
we decided to take the northern
route and stop and visit Carri
Jones. It was sad to see her horse
facilities converted to dog
kennels. She had sold
Henrietta and only had Exceptional
Candy and her filly by My Intentions
left. This was the first time I had
seen Candy and I immediately fell in
love with her. I did not believe
that there could be another NN mare
with as much muscle as Rebecca but
Candy definitely has the same kind
of muscle. I guess it goes back to
Miss Bunny Tardee. Rebecca is an own
daughter and Candy is bred very
similar. Her pedigree includes a
lot of horses that I raised over the
years. Needless to say, since I
am addicted to good horses, Carri
and I worked things out and now she
and I are partners on the
mare. The following week, Randy
and Barbara Rhulen hauled both the
mare and filly to our place. I was
looking forward to Carri showing the
filly at the high dollar halter
futurity in Des Moines but Gary and
Carol Ellis bought the filly and
they will show her instead. Talk
about a super filly, Elecktra has it
all. She is big and has the most
gorgeous back, hocks, head and
neck besides an outstanding heart
girth. I guess Carri and I will
just go and watch Gary show her in
the fall. I am amazed that not only
did Gary and Carol Ellis buy the
filly but Russell and Felisha Ellis
bought Valentine from me earlier. I
had never met either of the Ellis'
and Mike and I are not related to
either one of them. I guess it is
just a small world.
If you watch the news at all, I am
sure you have seen the
political mess in Wisconsin. Mike,
my husband is right in the middle of
it as he is a state senator. We
even had protesters outside of our
gates at the farm. I was home alone
and thankfully did not get hurt
trying to put the horses in the barn
with the protesters yelling right
outside our gates. I was
particularly nervous as Cooleah
(Olivia) is blind and she was afraid
of the noise. I will be happy if
and when the political climate in
Wisconsin gets back to normal.
 The
Youth Paint World is fast
approaching. Scott Francois bought
our last paint mare, Laced N
Sensation and her filly sired by his
stallion, Awesome Looking Kid from
us. His son, Tommy is planning to
show the filly at the Paint Youth
World. I wish him all the success
in the world. The filly is
currently intraining with Olin
Parker.
After all these years, we are
remodeling our house. I am a "barn"
person and not a house person, so we
had done nothing with it since we
moved in. We still had the original
furniture and flooring. It seems
nice to have it look "new" I was
able to get the most beautiful
granite for the kitchen and wanted
to get new stainless steel
appliances but I could not find a
refrigerator that would fit in the
space we have for a refrigerator.
So, I had to keep the bisque colored
one and get a new bisque range. I
very seldom cook but suppose a
kitchen doesn't look too good
without a range. Now, I have to
decorate and I am not very
creative. Rita Bangs painted some
incredible watercolors of my horses
so I plan to hang the drawings on
one of the walls in the living
room. They are absolutely
gorgeous. I purchased a painting by
Suanne Wamsley from Carri Jones and
that will also decorate one wall.
All in all, when it is finished I
will show you pictures of the "new
house".
Watercolors by
Rita Bangs
Please click
on smaller picture to enlarge.
 I
have been enjoying many of you on
Facebook. I appreciate your
wonderful compliments on our horses
and truly enjoy seeing what so many
of you are doing with your lives. I
love sharing experiences with you
and welcome anyone who would like to
be my friend.
There is still so much to do on the
web site. Please be patient while I
finish the write-ups. Our weather
has been nice so I have concentrated
on getting new pictures instead of
writing. I will get caught up on
the next rainy days Not only have I
been taking horse pictures, but I
have also taken several of the
beautiful nature scenes. Hopefully
with the new web site, I will keep
current with the news. If I don't
do it often, I forget what happens.
I guess it comes with old age.
Sandy
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