Transplanted in Texas

With the Triple Crown season in the U.S. now at an end, I thought I would make a post about the impact A.P. Indy has had on the Crown. A great-great-grandson won the Triple Crown this year, becoming only the 13th horse to win it in 100 years. A.P. Indy, a 1989-foaled son of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, was out of a winning daughter of the famous Triple Crown winner Secretariat. In turn, he was an early betting favorite for the Kentucky Derby of 1992, reflecting his superb racing record at two and three, but had to scratch due to injury shortly before the race. The injury had him miss the Preakness, but he rebounded to win the final leg, the Belmont Stakes. His half-brother, by Storm Bird (who also sired champion sire Storm Cat), won the 1991 Preakness Stakes. The striking bay stallion was retired after a victory in the 1992 Breeders' Cup Classic, and his first foals were born in 1994. He was retired from breeding in spring 2011 after failing to get any of the mares he bred...

...now what do we do with this extra money? Hehe. For thirteen months, we've been pouring out the thousands of dollars needed to get our loan paid off. And finally, on Wednesday, my father-in-law, who could do this because he had to co-sign the loan, handed them a signed blank check. Signed by my husband, from our own account. And with that, we became debt free. It is an enormous weight off our shoulders, for about 30 cows were riding on that loan. If we hadn't paid it off - or if we hadn't been able to keep up with paying interest off every year - they would've been taken as collateral. Today that worry is gone. So. Now, what? Well, we've got a few things to buy, like air conditioners (the two window units we have can't keep up), and other miscellaneous items we've been holding off on. We need to pay the midwife. And have her completely paid by October 30 (36 week appointment). Not too big a deal, but just something we definitely need ...

Well, Dingus won't be ridden for another few months. He won't take the saddle (to be honest I don't blame him, but he's handled everything else with such ease that I was surprised), he's actually starting to thicken and grow wider, and his height seems to be improving. He reaches his second birthday on July 24, and with all of his bodily changes and this roadblock, I've decided to reduce work sessions to twice a week, with a turnout with the saddle in the round pen on weekends to let him become accustomed to it. We did do some work with him last week, turning him out in the round pen for a couple hours with the saddle hanging on a panel for him to investigate. One day he was really shy and spooky so we also worked him individually, my husband and I did, and once his mind was a bit better had him stand parallel with the saddle and investigate it. It's the noise the large piece of equipment makes that throws him off. Squeaking and clanking and banging is qui...

We haven't been up to my hometown in a very long time. More than six months. Last year, we visited almost every month, but this year we've been pinching pennies in several ways to make our July 4 debt free goal. And so, we finally will make the trip up this weekend. We are leaving tonight, and we will come home Sunday night. Next week, we will have our debt down from $4100 to at least $500 - hopefully less. And we will have that knocked out in the last week of June. We are excited and setting our eyes to the next step along our way! But that's a story for another day. This weekend, we will be enjoying ourselves, enjoying the mini vacation with my family, and I, personally, will be glad to be away from home for a couple days with several babysitters. Aka siblings. Yance won't enjoy being strapped to his seat for three hours, six hours round trip, but I'm planning on bringing plenty of toys to entertain him. And, hopefully, he will sleep some of the way. I spent...

This week is an update on several parts of our lives. Debt: no tax return; had to pay because I screwed up on the paperwork and didn't realize we had taxable income (oops) partly because we didn't last year. Sold cows yesterday at auction and will get the check within the next few days. Praying that they sold for more than expected. Will definitely get the debt paid off by our goal date regardless. Baby: starting to roll around and make its presence known! Looks like it could be a spunky kid and give Yance a run for his money. We're almost at 15 weeks now (June 3), and we'll visit the midwife again on June 12. Marriage: never better. I love my sweetheart! Sneaky: still here. Argh. Nobody wants him. We're making plans for next year should he fail to sell. There is still an ad on EquineNow that will stay through August before it gets taken down permanently. Dingus: it's been too hot to work in the afternoon so I haven't touched him this week. Regardless, ...