Ho, Ho, Ho and All That Jazz

It's happened again. The holidays have come and gone much too quickly. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at home this year. I defied tradition by cooking a ham instead of turkey. In years past I had faithfully stuffed, roasted, and carved a huge turkey because I thought that my children would be scarred for life if I didn't. However, after several pounds of uneaten turkey, I decided to make something that everyone would eat. Luckily, as I found, many of the traditional side dishes go amazingly well with ham. Yum!

Dan surprised me (I mean, REALLY surprised me) with a new horse right before Thanksgiving. I had been getting increasingly frustrated with Flash's lack of enthusiasm for dressage, which I enjoy immensely. My trainer had a horse that she had trained up to 2nd level dressage and she wanted to sell. I took some lessons on her and fell in love. The fifth addition to the Sroka equine family is Empress, a 7-year-old, 15.3-hand, chestnut thoroughbred. Pictures will be coming soon.

Christmas was wonderful this year. We did something new--Alex and Margaux were in the Christmas pageant at church. Alex did a reading and Margaux played an angel. I loved watching the pageant and attending Mass on Christmas Eve. I loved just lounging around the house on Christmas, watching the kids play with their new toys. Here are some pictures:

Of course our new year has already been full of horse events. I have lots of video footage that I am slowly putting into viewable form. Here is my first attempt. Happy New Year!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

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Updates, News, and Other Things

Wow! Time sure does fly! I can't believe it's taken me this long to update this blog. So much has happened in the last few months. Wake, Dan, and Margaux have all had birthdays. Wake turned 6 on September 12, Dan celebrated his unnamed birthday on October 12, and Margaux just turned 8 on November 2.

We have had lots of horsey happenings lately. Flash went to State to have his sarcoid removed and treated with chemotherapy at the beginning of August. He was at the vet hospital for almost a week. But as soon as we returned home, he colicked and had to be rushed right back to State. For a few days we weren't sure he was going to make it or if he would have to have major surgery. Luckily, he pulled through with treatment and has fully recovered. He is still going back monthly for more chemo, but the vets are optimistic that his sarcoid is going away. During this time, Trigger also had a bout of lameness, but has recovered with medication and new shoes.

Margaux has a new pony named Jazz. She is a 14h dun pony and she is very cute and petite. She is an older pony with lots of experience. She and Margaux get along extremely well. We are hoping that Alex and Trigger and Margaux and Jazz will be competing in a few Pony Club rallies next year. Here is Margaux with Jazz:

Halloween has come and gone and the kids a great time trick or treating again this year. Our neighborhood really gets into the spirit of this holiday. Many people go all out decorating their houses, dressing up and giving out candy, and even having mini-bonfires in their yards. You can see what cute characters they made this year:

That's it for now. I will post more later!

Pony Club Rally

On June 14, Margaux and Alex participated in their first Pony Club rally. The rally consisted of competition in four areas: dressage, cross-country, show jumping (the riding phases), and horse managment (the off-the-horse phase). Margaux, having just acquired LuLu, participated as a horse manager, assisting her team with making sure their horses and tack were ready. Alex, as a new Pony Club member, competed in the first level of each phase. He completed a novice level dressage test, an obstacle course (in place of a cross-country course), and a ground-pole jump course. Trigger was a real trooper--he was calm and under control and tolerated the 90-degree heat. I assisted with the scoring and learned A LOT about Pony Club rallies. In the end, Margaux won two ribbons and Alex won two ribbons and a medal.

Here are some photos from the day:

House for Sale

Now that we have THREE horses, we have decided that it's time to move out to the country. We are spending more and more time and the barn, and still wish we could spend more. So our house (which we JUST got finished renovating!) is up for sale. We LOVE this house and this neighborhood, but we really want to be with the horses. Right now we have our eye on a 30-acre farm in Rockingham County that already has a small barn and some cleared pasture land. It's going to be a big change for us. We are so close to everything now. It has been a long time since we have lived out in the country. But I know that we will be thrilled to be able to ride more often. It will also be a change having our own barn that we have to muck, horses to feed, pastures to mow, and all of the other daily chorse that come with owning a farm. And when it is the middle of winter and I am out early in the freezing weather breaking the ice in the water troughs, I am going to try hard to remember that I really WANT to do this! :-)

Welcome to LuLu!

Here is LuLu--the newest member of the Sroka clan! She came to us via Townsend Farms, the barn where we first learned to ride. She is a registered Quarter Horse, 14.1 hands tall, and her name is Zip Me a Clu. She is very sweet and loves to be rubbed. She has settled in quite well at Still Water. Margaux absolutely loves having her own pony to dote on. LuLu and Margaux competed in their first show together at the barn this past Saturday. They won two 2nd place and two 3rd place ribbons! We are so happy to have found LuLu and we are so glad she is a part of our family.

In other horse news, Alex and Trigger also competed in the barn show on Saturday, taking two 2nd place ribbons and one 6th place. Unfortunatley, Trigger got a little excited during the crossrail jumping and took off across the arena at a full canter, dumping Alex unceremoniously at the gate. Bravely, Alex jumped back on for the next class. The three of us (Alex, Margaux, and Kelly) placed second in the relay race. Margaux walked down the arena on Trigger, I trotted back (with no stirrups!), and Alex cantered to the finish line. It was a fun day!

Finally!

After almost three weeks, I finally have my computer back! About two months ago, I upgraded my computer with more RAM and a bigger hard drive to accomodate all of the blogging, scrapbooking, and photography I was doing. One day, my computer wouldn't boot up anymore. It seems that one of the startup files was corrupted. I felt sooooooo lost without my laptop! But it's back, and I am starting to blog, scrapbook, and upload photos again. Yay!

Lastest from the Sroka Clan

The last month-and-a-half have been full of exciting events in our household. Alex celebrated his 9th birthday last month. He is getting so big! Margaux received her senior green belt in TKD at the beginning of this month and Dan earned his senior brown belt in HKD a few days ago. I competed in my first dressage test on March 15 and I didn't come in last in either event! I was very nervous and this show was a low-key local show. I learned a great deal, especially from the judge, and I might even do another show in the future. Flash was really good--he stayed calm even when I didn't. I was very proud of him.

We are looking forward to a nice, relaxing Easter holiday. We will take a few days off from school to work around the house in the yard, ride horses, and enjoy the (hopefully) spring weather.