Cutting back, but moving forward

I have been working hard on getting things rearranged in my life so that I can retire in the next ten years or so.  At that time I will be turning over the "reins" to my granddaughter, Hayden, so she is moving in to the big house here while I start to show her the ropes and start backing off on training and actual work with the horses and stick more to the paperwork/office end of things.  She will eventually take that over too, but for now, she is helping take some of the strain off my old bones and muscles.  So, what changes will you see? 

Well, first off, we have far fewer horses in the pastures and barns.  There are still plenty to see, 42 in all, but we had 70 or so not too long ago, so things seem a bit quiet around here.  And most of them are getting a bit long in the tooth now.  But, we have 2 upcoming foals so we will soon have more of those cute little whinny's heard in the air.  I have talked to Haybear (a childhood nickname that unfortunately stuck) and she is planning to breed one or two a year and train them herself and even do some of the showing herself.  She was in 4H at a very young age and has shown horses, goats and dogs so she does know the show ring pretty well.  Now, she is ready to advance her skills with higher level horses.  So, there will be more babies around.  She is in the process now of studying our studbook and our current broodmares to try and figure out what direction she wants to take, but I know it will include a lot more outside stallions.  She is the one that insisted I get some semen from Grecian Fire and we are both very excited to see our first foal by him later this year. 

Other changes will be slowly phasing out some of the drafts.  We will still have a few, but only the very highest quality show horses and breeding will be less often than with the Paints.  I am not sure if they will always be here but for now, Haybear intends to keep them going because they are so rare and she wants to do all she can to advance rare breeds here in our part of the world.  And they are such sweet gentle giants, they would be very much missed if they were all gone.

Another change will be some of the staff will be moving on to other ranches or retiring completely.  Jack and Ruth are planning to retire to Arizona.  They have already bought a little place down there and have been working on it in the winter for the last couple of years, so this year they are going down permanently.  They will truly be missed, especially Ruth's fabulous baking, but she is leaving lots of recipes and they deserve to spend their twilight years just playing with the grandchildren and enjoying life together.  So glad I insisted on that retirement plan way back when.  Now, they will be footloose and worry free.  And with Cory and Cate having the new twins, Ruth will be a big help.  Cate took a position with an equine vet clinic near where Jack and Ruth's place is, south of Tucson, so they will all be near each other.  Andrea will be staying and I think I am seeing a bit of a romance developing between Lucas and Kayley, so I think they will be staying too.  It is nice to see him talking to someone and he smiles more now. 

So, that is what is going on around here.  I am going to continue to add things to the blog, but I am also going to try to get Haybear to add a post now and then, as she will be keeping it up after I am gone.  That is a long way off, but you never know, I may want to head south myself before I get too old to enjoy it.