Christmas ramblings.

Just a quick update on what is going on here at Cascade Gold. My friend Monica and I have been working and now riding the 3 year old geldings, Magdan and Asil Tumay. Both are doing very well and it's so fun to see them figure things out and come along so quickly. It sure looks like Danny will be our dressage star (that walk is fabulous and he is just so dang elegant!) and I bet Tommy will tear up the endurance trails. I've been letting Andre hang out, as he's suddenly growing like a bad weed. He's over 15 hands now and judging by the size of his butt, he has quite a bit more to go.

Monica, Wendy and I all got our awards from 'Friends of the Akhal-Teke', very nice halters. Thanks Shannon! We're also up for some awards internationally (that sounds so important!), the Teke Cup, done by Michele van Kasternen of Belgium. I think it's great that we have people willing to do this kind of work. I have big plans for competing this next year, we'll see how it goes. I also think I'll do some dressage shows, just for fun. Then, we have the World Equestrian Games in September, foals due, breedings...it should be a very busy year.

We're pretty much ready for Christmas, just a few presents to wrap. Lights are up on the house, tree is up and decorated, cards are sent out, Christmas dinner bought...I just need to go buy a big bag of carrots for the horses on Christmas day and we're good! We're also very happy that we don't have any snow. Last year at this time I'd already wore out one set of chains on the car, we were shoveling the roofs, hauling water for the horses and in general wishing for our usual rainy Seattle weather. This year, so far, we're having typical Seattle weather, foggy, rainy, around 45-50 degrees. YEAH!

My husband and I are getting our list of 'things to be thankful for' ready for Christmas dinner and New Year's eve. Every year we look back at our past year and think of what went right and what needs improvement. Every year it gets better and better. One of the perks of getting older, it seems.

Anyway, now I'm rambling, so Happy Holidays!

Cathy