I do so enjoy being positive about our horses and the life of a horse breeder, but sometimes it just isn't much fun to take a good, hard, practical look at your situation and realize that some things you'd like to do just won't be possible. In the current economy, we're constrained by many challenges to our ability to place our horses (properly handled and trained) with new owners, so Mark and I have had to make some tough decisions to pare back a little. We are, for example, going to limit our 2008 breeding to one instead of two--Bessie is still slated to go for a date with Bayside Rainman for that reserve breeding I have, but Maggie will remain open. We had considered breeding her to Randallane Genesis, but the finances and circumstances don't permit it--plus if we're going to make a cross with that stallion, we'd do far better to reserve it for Bessie given the bloodlines, timelines, and expenses involved. We'd also considered trying Mags with Stevie this spring, but after careful consideration, we've decided that the best situation for Stevie is to geld him and train him to harness. He's a terrific colt, but at almost two years old, our observations about him point him in the direction of being a performance horse rather than a stud—and in Ray, we have a colt who probably will do better as a stud than Stevie. The final factor in our decision: an article by Tracy Meisenbach in the LMBA Guide Newsletter that challenges breeders to understand the difference between a "prospect" and a "project" horse, and breed accordingly. I recommend it to anyone thinking of breeding any horse, pureblood or not—it's blunt, to the point, and very, very well written. In the current economic climate, we as breeders must be responsible enough to make ONLY those crosses with the highest potential to produce excellence, and also to restrain ourselves from breeding horses simply because we have the ability to do so. Maggie's genes are already very well represented among Lippitts through her various foals; Stevie's are not, but his sire and dam are still actively producing offspring, so I'm not concerned that his admirable traits (and he does have many) will be lost from the Lippitt bloodlines. In better times, maybe we'd go ahead with a cross of Maggie and Stevie, but... I don't think I need say the "R" word here, we all know it's true!

We survived the holidays and have begun 2008 with a dilemma: it appears that the Vermont Heritage Days show and the Maine Morgan Horse show are on the exact same weekend this year. What to do? We very much want to support Maine Morgan, but had our hearts set on taking Stevie and Ray off to Heritage Days. After some thought, we reluctantly decided to go to Heritage Days, largely because with the two little boys in tow, most of the work is going to be done by Mark, alone, while I keep tabs on the kids. Heritage Days is a much more relaxed venue, so... that's our destination this year.

Other than that, all is well. Mist had her EHV shot a week ago and Nicole says she's looking fantastic. Ray's weaning has progressed to the point of separate stalls for him and Bessie. In contrast to the early days of the weaning back in November, now he's good with it, she's not, but so far she hasn't tried to knock down the barn to get to him. Now that she's lost a lot of her foal weight, Bessie looks FABULOUS—I must get some pictures posted, but that will need to wait till Mark and I are in a position to do a photo shoot. Meanwhile, Ray spends his days in with Maggie and Mist, getting chased all over the place; neither of them put up with much of his youthful antics. The little habit he'd developed of playfully jumping up on top of his mama's back is definitely done with, as both those mares are far less tolerant than Bessie was. The only unfortunate thing about weaning Ray is we have 5 stalls, and 6 horses—ergo, 2 horses have to room together. We eliminated the little alcove where the ladder to the loft used to be and widened the end stall. It's now 12 x 15, big enough for two: Maggie and Mist will share it for the time being—until spring comes and Mist is ready to foal, at which point Maggie is going to have to live in the outdoor shed with... someone. Not sure who. Possibly Rusty, possibly Bessie. In any case, the big stall is going to be the foaling stall and Mist will have sole access to it come May. Maggie won't mind—she likes the outdoors, and frankly I think any of the other horses would be just as happy, once spring is here, to stay out at night too.

Oh, and one other thing: As of Wednesday, we have welcomed into our family two new kitties: Jake and Elwood, 11-week-old black and silver tabbies rescued from a garage in Caribou, ME. They’re big boys and probably have at least some Coon cat in them. They’re still pretty shy, but of the two, Jake is louder and more outgoing (which is why he’s Jake and the other one is Elwood).

Zoe knows they’re here—she was sniffing at the laundry room door the other day—but she hasn’t yet met them face to face and we aren’t sure of her reaction. She’s been yowling disconsolately and searching the house from top to bottom ever since Fenway went to that Great Scratching Post in the Sky, but that doesn’t mean she’s actually going to LIKE these little boys. So we’ll have to wait and see.