This message is from: JoAnn or Dave <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> With profuse apologies to the person who had to sort out a bounced digest today, I'm back in Japan with yet another new email address!!! (I don't think I can unsubscribe the old address now that I'm using the new one.)
My vacation to the states was actually a grueling relative-visiting expedition which burned 200 gallons of gas in three weeks, all so *everyone* could tell me I don't do enough to stay in touch with them :-/ That's not a vacation!!! Next year, to Australia, where we know nobody! :-) We drove south through North Carolina & I was looking forward to seeing some fjords, but hubby's "internet ax-murderer phobia" prevented our stopping at Fjordhest! Boo! Well, it *was* pretty late at night when we went past, thanks to miscalculating the time we spent driving through & hiking in the the Shenandoah National Forest, so we wouldn't have been convenient visitors anyway. Interestingly, my mom, who drives team interstate trucking, had recently noticed some fjordhorses in a pasture and might want to buy one once she & Dad get their retirement property in TN. She used to ride before I was born, and is thinking about learning to drive now. I think her reasoning is to find an even-tempered small horse for her grandkids when they visit. (My sisters have children; I have a horse obsession.) The only horsey things we did on vacation was go for a trail ride on some cool draft mules in the Poconos, buy some stuff from a tack auction, and go see a team penning in FL. I had a good time anyway. In IL, there was a Friesian farm listed in the yellow pages under horses for rent, so I called & made a complete fool of myself by assuming they were rented for trail rides; I guess instead they provide carriage rental. They told me on the phone - "no, we wouldn't let people ride them; they're too expensive." LOL! I knew that... I fell in love with a really cute appaloosa gelding at the auction but had a hard time describing his color. Then I got back here & realized that the gelding's color exactly matches Tarot's (which isn't quite fjordlike since there's no stripe), except with big dark spots on the roanish rump. Too bad the military won't ship any pets besides cats or dogs! I'll go catch up with the digests now & see what's been happening :-) I did see that Bonnie Hendricks is on board now -- welcome! She's a real expert on all the little Japanese horses over here. JoAnn doin' the important chores before unpacking suitcases ;-)
