Yesterday was one of those wonderful snowy sunny days. It started out with snow and hail.. but the sky cleared and it was truly "frabjous" . My orchids are blooming again... very beautiful. I always feel rather special when the orchids choose to bloom since they are such an exotic flower-- and mine rarely take a break-- but in truth, orchids are an easy flowering plant to care for. In the center of each bloom is an angel. I mentioned on a previous post that even though we have snow.. we are still riding and working horses. OYY Wassee is ridden almost every day now, and he does not mind a little snow at all. Wassee has been sold, but he is being boarded here until spring.

And on Saturday, my daughter took OYY Yemaya out for a quick ride in the big ring... whenever I snap a photo of Zoe and Yemaya together, they are both always smiling. Yemaya is a joy to ride, as Zoe says-- what a difference to ride a well trained horse after a lot of young green horses.

Saturday, 78 round bales were delivered and stacked in the barnyard. They are plastic wrapped so they don't have to be under cover. Looks like a big pile of marshmallows.

I also had to replace one of my frost-free hydrants... so rather than struggle with frozen ground and digging-- I had an excavator come in... 3 scoops and the hole was open for the new hydrant to go in. How handy is that?? Makes me wish for such a machine for myself. Along with lessons with the therapeutic riding program from 8:00 to 2:00... it made for a very busy day. Sunday was the day for relaxing a bit and quiet !

The past few weeks, I had the inspiration to re-do my web site. This is a BIG project and on-going... as you know, change one thing on a page and the entire site has to be altered. I added some new photo's, made pages for some broodmares that were previously not on the list, updated information and checked and re-checked all my links. Check it out !!
www.vermontel.net/~top

My 4 year old grand-son again.. he is turning out to be quite the little horseman. Pictured with the very handsome OYY Hendrix. This photo was taken yesterday.

Off to start another new day-- Enjoy yours ~

Once again I have fallen behind in my posts-- certainly not because there is no news.. as there is always something going on here on the farm. We spent the last few weeks de-worming horses. We finally got our first hard frost and I like to de-worm right after that. This was late for us- the pansies were still blooming up until after Thanksgiving !

Saturday was spent preparing for our first big snow storm. Weathermen work up such an anticipatory enthusiasm when there is a "nor'easter" looming on the weatherboard. They must get a commission on grocery sales as incentive-- the more they talk up a storm, increasing potential inches into feet, the grocery stores are full of distressed shoppers.

I picked up most of the "debris" from the lawn and around the barn-- stray pieces of firewood, any tools left out, the last lawn chair remaining out, coiled up all the hoses so I could find them again in case of heavy snowfall. Got out all the tub heaters and plugged them in. it's been fairly warm to date so I have not needed them. Right now-- this is 6 tubs with heaters-- so the old electric meter is a-whirrin' ! The horses surely love those heaters and I do too.

Sunday-- Teena's Avis Jane (ABC HB-60) left for her new home. She will join her 5 year old curly son (The Sojourner) to be a trail horse. Avis is a very special mare -- beautiful and in addition, out of Teena ~ pretty nearly the BEST horse in the world. OYY TigerHawk was scheduled to leave for TN on the next day, Monday but due to the impending storm, the haulers wanted to skeedaddle out of New England all together, quickly. They were anxious about the prospect of any amount of winter precipitation. They pushed up the their schedule and picked Tiger up at 1:30 Monday morning. By then, the snow was falling rather heavily-- Tiger walked out of the barn, sniffed the ramp and walked right on in to his little slant stall. What a great little horse! After his sale, Tiger stayed a few weeks with us in order to learn some neck reining. I made a short video before he left which you can view here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhcpl6ozOks

Now that the snow is here, I love the look of it. Around this time of year - when the first snow arrives late as it did this year -- I get spoiled and accustomed to the bare ground. I begin to wish the snow would never happen.. but when you wake up to that beautiful first covering, it is so beautiful- you want it to stay. The aspect of plowing and shoveling is not so appealing, but the scenery is gorgeous. Even when the snow is deep, we can still ride and we have the indoor for lessons and other training if we need to use it.

I had to take a walk around the fenceline to shake the snow off the hemlocks that are near the fence in my new areas I finished this fall, which are in the woods. Very beautiful ~ However, I quickly realized that I should have put my hood up before I started .. snow down the neck is not fun.

Enjoy the day ~

Many people have asked me why I have chosen to use the letters OYY as my breeding prefix on all my horses. For the years that I have been breeding curly horses, I have always thought to have a prefix-- mainly so that the horses that are registered would fall together in the stud books and be easy to track. I could never decide what to use, especially since the registries only allow you so many letters in a registered name. Well, at the risk of becoming overly philosophical in my ramblings.. the mystery will now be revealed !! :)

I have 10 delightful grand-children and not really wanting to be called a "grand-mother" I decided they could all call me "Ya-Ya"-- which is greek (going with my heritage) for grand-mother. However, the word Ya-Ya goes deeper than just another word for Grand-mother.

The journey to wisdom is much like a flower in bloom, its beauty changing and evolving through the unfolding of each petal. The full bloom of womanhood, in all of its strength and power, is referred to as "Yaya" in at least two ancient cultures and traditions. In ancient Greek, "Yaya" simply meant "woman." Today, Greek grandmothers are called "Yaya," likely because they have achieved womanhood. In an Afro-Caribbean religious sect, found mostly in Brazil and the Congo, the word "Yaya" refers to a woman who has gone through a religious initiation. It means "Mother" or "Mama Priestess." In both cultural traditions, the word "Yaya" represents the highest form of woman, achieved only through initiation, experience and longevity. It represents the journey to womanhood. And as I am sure-- like all other of us female "baby-boomers" - we do not revel in getting older.. but must appreciate the richness which comes to us as we reach our age of "blooming". It certainly is a kind of bittersweet celebration.

There is a word from the language of Yoruba, a large ethnic nation in Africa whose dialect is also called Yoruba, -- Oyaya (pronounced Oh-ya-ya). It is a noun-- the meaning of which is -- A feeling of great pleasure or happiness or JOY; the expression of such feeling ; a source of pleasure or satisfaction. What a perfect word for my endeavor of breeding Curlies and navigating through life. Very fitting that I am a Ya-Ya, and that I feel that JOY.

Of course one can feel happiness and not neccesarily feel joy.. To me-- they are two different and distinct emotions. Happiness is seemingly dependent upon favorable conditions and situations, while JOY is happiness permanently captured. To me, there is only one real goal in life-- and that is to be JOYOUS and have joy in everything that I do. In simpler more plain-spoken terms-- I always say.. if you are not having fun, what's the point?

My life is filled with joy, I celebrate every day living with genuine joy. I appreciate the sweetness of choosing to be happy, attracting miracles daily- smiling warms my heart and I delight in laughing out loud and watching my Dreams come true.

A few of my favorite "joyous" quotes --

"Joy is the feeling of grinning inside"

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy " (Thich Nhat Hanh)

Or in the infamous words of Lewis Carroll -- "O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy."

When I sign off every day on my blog with the words "enjoy the day" this is my message and wish for all of you who visit here.

Enjoy the day ~~ May it truly be frabjous ~~

Well, as Winnie the Pooh would say.. it was a blustery day in the Hundred Acre wood.. the wind howled all day on the top of my hill and it really seemed like winter is on its way. We managed to get in a short trail ride and work a few horses, bundled in our winter riding outfits.

OYY Buster brown is just a yearling- born last year in October out of our wonderful mare Sudie Bee and Mead's Chocolate Chip. Up until now, he has not done much except the very basics.. but now he is in harness and ground driving. He is catching on fast-- and proud of himself. He's a handsome smart young fellow- and is going to make a super driving horse. He has driving in his genes, inherited from his grand-mother Teena. Buster has a full sister who also drove and now is making a super riding horse for a family in Massachusetts.
I am pretty pleased with Chip offspring as far as trainability and disposition-- and anything from my favorite "Teena" bloodlines is a winner. Even though it was VERY cold I got lots of nice photo's- which are now on the web site, http://www.vermontel.net/~top/born%202006.htm

It's so great when the breeding game results in so many intelligent honest willing horses with so much potential.

Wednesday, while I was working-- I heard the train whistle blowing .. so I knew that Thursday would bring rain-- and rain it did.. nasty and cold. However- the silver lining in that Miserable Thursday was a beautiful colt born in the morning out of Zoe's Day Dream (barn name Reverie) and Classic Dream's Cherokee Storm, my cremello stallion. This is Stormy's fifth foal and they are all impressive, with fabulous personalities and mellow dispositions. The new guy is called OYY Hendrix. He is Reverie's third foal, first colt. The first is OYY Lickity Split, sired by Frostfire's Tadpole and she is in NH being trained and ridden by a young woman now in college. (Lickity is featured in a previous blog entry). The second filly is OYY Olympia, sired by Lynn Downer's WCC Benjamin. This filly I am keeping- a beautiful very sound and correct black curly filly. Little Hendrix is not so little.. as you can see from the photo's. He's a very dark rich caramel palomino with 2 blue eyes right now.. we'll see if they stay blue. What a cutie !! He'll be registered in the ICHO. Reverie is registered in both the ICHO and the ABC. Stormy has a number in the ABC, but his offspring cannot be registered in the ABC anymore as he is 1/2. It's a shame that there are some truly good horses out there that are not eligible for the ABC registry anymore-- but that's a topic for another day !!

Enjoy the day ~

Some of the people who come and purchase a Curly from Top O' The Hill Farm are truly "dream" buyers. One such person is Laurie from New Hampshire. She came and tried out OYY Pyewacket, a nice drafty mare who was born here at the farm out of Teena (my very much loved grade mare) and Dream Maker, a chestnut stallion who was also born here (out of one of our *star* mares, BG Dream Curl and Colonel's Reuben). Pyewacket was at first a "keeper".. and she foaled out 2 very nice fillies, both curly and well conformed. I realized Pyewacket was going to mature to be a larger horse than I like to ride- so I put her up for sale. I could not have asked for a better home for her. Laurie and Pye hit it off immediately.. and Laurie has e-mailed me over the course of her time with Pye-- she and Pye are true "soul-mates".. so Laurie reports. They ride out together alone safely or sometimes with friends. Laurie has done a super job coaching Pywacket to excel and mature in her skills. Quoting Laurie from her e-mail in which she sent this photo-- "we spend a lot of time discussing the events of the world on the ground as well as when I’m riding her." What a great team they make. By co-incidence, Laurie also purchased a maternal sister of Pyewacket's.. My Filly Delphia. Delphia is out of Teena also and Colonel's Pasqualie Kid. She is a smooth coated Curly mare born while I was vacationing in PA. When my daughter called me on my cell phone to say she was born , I was on the road very near Philadelphia-- hence the name. I had sold Delphia as a youngster, and she was subsequently sold to Laurie later in life. Laurie has e-mailed she loves Delphia-- but she and Pye have that something special. Laurie has done great things with Delphia. I am so happy these horses have found such a fabulous home.

Sunday, yesterday, my grand-son had his first ride on our special little Curly pony OYY Arcus. Arcus is a long 2 year old, beautiful silver bay out of a nice also silver bay grade pony (a super little riding pony) and Mead's Chocolate Chip. Arcus started driving when he was a yearling and took it up like he was born for it. This past summer, he drove some more and has gone out on the road some . What a great little guy-- sweet and willing. He's still too young for saddle training, but my grand-son is a little 4 year old peanut... not too much to bear on the back and joints. They make a cute pair !!

Arcus is getting his winter curls now.. in the summer he is sleek and a gorgeous dappled fellow. He will make a fantastic little show pony. Can't you just see him in a pony hunter class?

Enjoy the day ~

More news from owners of horses born here at Top O' The Hill Farm. Top O' The Hill Farm used to also breed Suffolk Punch draft horses-- another super breed of fairly rare horses. Suffolks are the only breed of draft horse that was bred exclusively for farm work-- a somewhat smaller draft, thrifty, sound and intelligent with dispositions similar to the Curly horse. The breed dates from the sixteenth century but all animals alive today trace their male lines back to one stallion, a horse called Crisp's Horse of Ufford, who was foaled in 1768. On occasion, I crossed the Suffolks and the Curlies.. every foal was a winner !

One lovely colt was born from Colonel's Pasqualie Kid (ABC 463) and Tassie, a registered 3/4 Suffolk Punch mare. I named him Ollie. His dam, Tassie, is pictured at the left with a full blood Suffolk colt (Tassie's Snow Prince). Ollie's newborn photo is below.

Ollie remained at the farm for some time-- through training and ultimately became one of my daughter's favorite mounts. She and he did some rough trail rides and became quite an awesome team. Ollie went anywhere Zoe asked him to. They did many Judged Pleasure rides together and one open show. Ollie won lots of ribbons. The time came for Ollie to be sold-- Zoe was at an age where she didn't have so much time to ride and Ollie was depressed. A woman from Vermont came to look at him and it was love at first mount !! Kathy had had an accident involving a horse and sported a bad ankle, hadn't ridden in awhile. Well she and Ollie became the team that Ollie and Zoe had once been. Kathy has visited often to relate happy proud stories of her and Ollie's rides together. They go out for long 5 hour trail rides in tough mountainous country-- Kathy always feeling safe with her new life-long friend. Recently she mailed a photo of her and Ollie taken by a professional photographer. Ollie is 15 years old now. Don't we hope all our Curlies find homes like this one?

Tassie is the dam to another Curly mare registered name- Good Golly Miss Molly-- a maternal sister to Ollie. Molly was bred to Mead's Chocolate Chip and gave birth to the mare in a past blog posting-- A Kurlee Dream.. who has also found her new owner in Maine, Laurice Lee. You can read all about her on the October 18th post. These Curlies are just plain super horses !! And the Suffolk Punch/Curly cross resulted in some really nice offspring.

Enjoy the day ~

Since this video feature is now available.. I had to give it a try. This is my lovely Finn, a quick drive this past week. He did his little turn in the ring and went out on the road for a bit.

What a great little guy !!