I recently read one of my favorite thinkers and writers passed away last month as a result of a long battle with lung cancer. I’ve been out of touch from “that world” and it occurs to me how sad it is when we have separate worlds we loose touch with as we move our lives about the world. There is no reason writers and thinkers like Paula Gunn Allen shouldn’t be known by millions, yet they seem to get lost, relegated to separate entities of thought and being. I was lucky enough to have been in a world where she was able to enrich my life and my soul so deeply and while I miss those days, one can only hope the worlds don’t need to be so far apart.

 I’ll leave this post with Paula’s words and a link. I can only hope people will take an opportunity to move outside of themselves for a moment and visit the links and allow Paula’s words to touch someplace where their body has missed them for so long.

“In the beginning was thought, and her name was Woman. The Mother, the Grandmother, recognized from earliest times into the present among those peoples of the Americas who kept to the eldest traditions, is celebrated in social structures, architecture, law, custom, and the oral tradition. To her we owe our lives, and from her comes our ability to endure, regardless of the concerted assaults on our, on Her, being, for the past five hundred years of colonization. She is the Old Woman who tends the fires of life. She is the Old Woman Spider who weaves us together in a fabric of interconnection. She is the Eldest God, the one who Remembers and Re-members; and though the history of the past five hundred years has taught us bitterness and helpless rage, we endure into the present, alive, certain of our significance, certain of her centrality, her identity as the Sacred Hoop of Be-ing.”

Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Sacred in American Indian Traditions (Boston: Beacon, 1986), 11.  

“Faced with the terror of our situation vis a vis the sacred, perhaps we can learn what we so urgently need to know:  the powers that inform our universe must be treated with respect.  The transformational process is sacred and is to be approached cautiously, humbly, and in awareness of its actual nature.  At the very least, perhaps we will realize that it is futile to imagine ourselves as threatening the Earth’s survival, when the truth is quite otherwise.  Should we attempt to nuke the planet, we can be sure she alone will survive.

I die, but the earth remains forever.
Beautiful earth, you alone remain
Wonderful earth, you remain forever.”

–Kowa Death Song

– Paula Gunn Allen, from her introduction to Gossips, Gorgons & Crones, The Fates of the Earth, by Jane Caputi, 1993.

http://www.paulagunnallen.net/

Thanks for stopping by!

Toni

Posted with permission from the organizers.  Some excellent ideas coming out of the workshop, thanks so much to these folks for their hard work and dedication to the app club. For more information on other workshop summaries or on the ApHC please visit www.appaloosa.com and the ApHC Blog updated by CEO Steve Taylor http://appaloosablogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

Toni

Territory 1 Zone B Workshop

Missoula, MT

April 26-27, 2008

Thank goes to all the dedicated Appaloosa people who took the time
out of their busy lives to make this workshop a success. Due to
various reasons, attendance was not quite as large as expected. Many
clubs sent representatives who did a excellent job of conveying their
views and concerns. Clubs represented were the Alberta Appaloosa
Horse Association from Alberta Canada, Montana Appaloosa Club,
Vigilante Appaloosa Club, Mountain Country Appaloosa Club, Western
Montana Appaloosa Club, Intermountain Appaloosa Club, Dal-Worth
Appaloosa Club and Palouse Empire Appaloosa Club.

Thanks also goes to Steve Taylor, CEO of the Appaloosa Horse Club and
Kevin Pullin, the Appaloosa Horse Club Trail and Distance Coordinator
for their attendance and participation.

Good discussions, good food and great ideas happened and we hope the
success of this workshop will encourage other areas to organize a
workshop of their own. They are great tools for the exchange of ideas.

Following is a summary of the discussions of member and regional club
concerns and the current changing horse world challenges the ApHC and
its regional club faces and some ideas of how to successfully
navigate thru them.

Have the ApHC add 3 and 5 year membership

Memberships without the Journal.

Associate memberships just for specific things without voting rights.

Offer awards for ACAAP in 2 or more different divisions, all with
comparable awards.

Expand the ACAAP program to include some sort of recognition for non-
traditional events that offer awards and placing such as parades and
non-arena type judges trail classes.

More promotion for ACAAP.

Research giving regional clubs and individual members reduced rates
to buy subscriptions of the Appaloosa Journal so that they may place
the Journal public venues such as schools, libraries and museums or
to put in stores on a consignment basis.

The Journal should focus more on what everyday Appaloosa members do
with their horses, more articles on what regional clubs do and more
information each month on the different programs. Show more of the
different things the members use their Appaloosas for.

Include the ACAAP newsletter in the Journal or at least have an
article each month about ACAAP

Develop some sort of reply system for all correspondence received by
the ApHC, whether via email, phone or regular mail.

Have the website have a page for links to different groups promoting
the many diverse types of Appaloosa being bred, from foundation bred
to modern breeds from trail to racing.

More information on the website about the F numbered horses and
present day foundation bred horses.

Have the ApHC forward questions to regional clubs on things such as
breeders of a certain type of horse or trainers in a certain area of
expertise. Encourage the regional to have a contact person who has
information on the members in their area in order to answer these
questions that the ApHC cannot ethically answer.

The ApHC as an organization, it’s regional clubs and it’s membership
need to be more proactive to industry affecting equine and
agricultural issues. Land use and horse transport are just 2 examples.

The ApHC should send contact information on new members to regional
clubs in the members area and also include information on the
regional clubs in the area to new members.

The ApHC, regional clubs and individuals should look at joining their
state and the national horse council.

The ApHC look into group liability that all clubs can buy into.

Have a more user friendly rule book.

Look into the ApHC developing their own horse show software program
that regional clubs can purchase.

Concerns were expressed about regional club officers being required
to be ApHC members and regional clubs needing to give the ApHC a
financial report.

Directors need better communications with members and keep them more
up to date on ApHC matters.

Encourage regional clubs to have awards for saddle log hours and
other goal oriented awards that are non horse show related.

Develop an on line suggestion box and maybe offer a suggestion of the
month prize.

The ApHC, regional clubs and individual members need to remember that
not all members use the internet and keep other lines of
communication open with members also. Suggested having regional
calling trees and good newsletters.

Regional clubs could provide information about local Appaloosa
breeders and the Appaloosa in general for local welcome packets given
by realtor’s when someone purchases a home in the area.

Utilizing YouTube as an advertising tool along with your traditional
forms of advertising.

Regional clubs need to be sure and do all the little things that make
people feel welcome at your events and always be positive in their
attitude and leave the negativity at home.

Ideas for shows: BBQ’s for exhibitors and staff, welcome wagon at
barns when exhibitors arrive to show them their stalls, answer any
questions they have, offer snacks, coffee and water and generally
provide them with a positive first look at your show.

Always present a positive attitude to the public and leave the
controversy and negativity at home.

Regional clubs can make a list of organizations their members belong
to and then work with those groups not only to help them, but to
promote the Appaloosa.

Provide educational opportunities for the public outside of organized
horse expos. Examples– do a horse safety demonstration for a group
using Appaloosas, have a booth at your local farmers market with
Appaloosa information and a live horse if possible.

Organize a local horse club day for all breeds at a local feed store
or some large parking lot with much public exposure.

Regional clubs could organize a youth royalty program to attract
youth to their club and to attract publicity.

Offer local show circuits, could be open, breed, breed/combo or
combined with other breeds.

Combine events with other groups to defray costs and work. Offer your
clubs help at their show in exchange for their work at your show.

Private treaty all breed sales that offer test rides, veterinarians
on site for inspections and a short presentation of sale horses.
Might combine with a stallion presentation.

Include 4-H and FFA classes in your events.

Do not skimp on advertising as it makes you look successful and tells
the public that you are still viable.

Always present a professional and successful look. Presentation is
very important to success.

Regional clubs could look into group purchasing of feeds, hay, tack,
supplements, etc.

Focus on many small local things rather than large regional things.

Look into multi-regional club sponsored large events.

Sponsor a 4-H/FFA horse judging contest using all Appaloosas.

Many marketing ideas were talked about.

Affordability not only in purchasing, but in many phases of
Appaloosadom as compared to other breeds; Color, both loud and non;
Grandparents; Non-pros; Youth

I am sure there were some things that I missed, if so please contact
any of us with them.

Jan Phillips, organizer, Territory 1 Zone B workshop

Sandra Jones and Lynette Thompson, committee members

If you have sent us an e-mail recently and not received a reply back, I apologize. It appears as though I am not receiving all of my e-mail. I will be updating the e-mail on the website, but in the meantime, please use the following address to contact me:

info@sanddappaloosas.net

or, you can always call me on my cell. I work during the week and am usually busy on the weekends, but please leave a message and I will return your call as soon as I can.

Thanks for stopping by!

Toni

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

“…I … believe that words can help us move or keep us paralyzed, and that our choices of language and verbal tone have something—a great deal—to do with how we live our lives and whom we end up speaking with and hearing; and that we can deflect words, by trivialization, of course, but also by ritualized respect, or we can let them enter our souls and mix with the juices of our minds.”
-Adrienne Rich

“What I think the political correctness debate is really about is the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them.”
- Toni Morrison

Two quotes that are as relevant now as they were when first written. I normally keep this kind of thing separate from the web page, but it is a new year and I’m starting the year by “going back” to where my roots were most watered.

Thanks for stopping by and here is to hoping we all find that which drives us most and allow it to flourish.

Toni

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and has a great start to their new year!

I’m not even going to say that I will be better about keeping things updated, because inevitably it won’t happen the way I intend. Hopefully, there will be more news and better news to prompt me to post to the news page more frequently.

Christmas and vacation time provided me an opportunity to do something I’ve been wanting to do for years . . . finally get the video from my camcorder tapes onto my computer! Yea!

So as a result, I have uploaded some Very early reining training video of my stallion Joe onto his page (http://www.sanddappaloosas.net/meetjoeblack.htm) via Youtube and also have a youtube page at http://www.youtube.com/sanddappaloosas with a couple more. I did finally get a couple uploaded to my web hosting server, but for now I’ll stick with the youtube links and see how that goes.

Found out UC Davis now has a test they can do for Dun and got myself all excited to test Ruby only to find out hairs are required from the sire and dam in addition to the horse in question. Guess will just have to wait until she has a foal with apparent dun factor and test the foal instead. Without the hairs from the sire and dam the test is not guaranteed accurate, so there is really no point testing when I have a more accurate idea just by looking at her. I’m 99.9% sure now that she is a dunalino (sire is a palomino and her dam is a red dun). Her dorsal stripe is very dark right now even with her winter coat and can’t wait to see how she sheds in the spring. Doesn’t really matter to me what color she is though, she is going to be a great mare once she stops hurting herself!

Speaking of Ruby, she must know when I am going to start getting her ready to start under saddle because she has managed to injure herself each of the times I was going to start her. This time was right at the beginning of my vacation. So, once again we wait until the injury is healed enough to try again. Have to make sure I don’t make any comments around her when the time is coming!

We have had some wild weather in our parts and while I loved the record breaking 71 degree day in January, I didn’t much appreciate the tornadic storms that came with it at the end of the day and into the early morning hours. Last total I heard was 20 some tornadoes touched down in our part of the state. We were fortunate enough not to have any damage, but I wasn’t pleased when I found out there was an F1 that touched down about two miles up the road from us.

I will have new app mare coming in the Spring and am really excited about her addition though still trying to decide whether I will breed her this spring or ride her. Will have more information on her soon.

My dad is the same–not much to say there except he is not on the road to recovery by any stretch of the imagination. I guess there has to come a time when we have to make a decision as to whether to continue to push (having the best interest of our parents at heart, but clearly not having any impact and only creating bad feelings) or just let them be and enjoy the remaining time we have with them in our lives. I guess I’ve chosen the latter at this point. It just amazes me as I talk to more folks in my situation how much our parents become like children.

Well, I guess that is all I wanted to catch up on, so until next time . . . .

Thanks for stopping by! Wishing everyone a prosperous and healthy 2008!

Toni

A wonderful barn cat who was so much more than a barn cat. She lived an outstanding life and was never sick a day in her life. She caught everything you could imagine and even escaped from the mouth of a coyote. You will be missed, but we know you are with your daughter now and all your old friends and some day we will see you again.

Toni

Well, where should I begin this week’s update . . .

Post surgery physically went pretty well for my father with a couple minor exceptions. The major problem was something called sundowners. I have never heard of this before, but it is very much like alzheimers except that it literally shows up with some people when the sun goes down and when the sun goes up they are back to themselves again. The nurses didn’t seem too concerned with it, but after it continued after 48 hours I started to get more concerned. After doing some research I had reason to be concerned, but also thought all the activity that goes on in a hospital setting was probably was making it worse. My grandmother (my father’s mother) had alzheimers and have thought over the last several years that he was showing early signs. I’m honestly not sure whether this will continue or not or progress. We will just have to wait and see how he does. During one of his bouts of sundowners someone apparently told him he was being sent to a nursing home because the nurse called at 6:00am one morning because he was agitated. So, they tell someone obviously having some confusion anyway that he is going to a nursing home–heck, I’d be agitated as well. This is apparently something that is pretty common–your not sick enough to stay in the hospital, but you aren’t ready to go home either, so you get to go to an extended care facility (nursing home) on a short term basis. Well, that makes sense, but try convincing a 79 year old man who is already having problems with reality and whose mother died shortly after going to a nursing home in the 70’s this is a good idea. Even harder to try to get my mom’s head around the idea.

So, we find a good facility right in Marshfield and we are ready to go, but we don’t know just yet when he will be discharged. One moment the surgeon is saying he isn’t ready to be discharged yet and the next minue the physical therapist is saying “good luck.” We find out mid morning Friday he is in fact being discharged (he is already all set up with a room at the extended care facility) but I’m at work and don’t know any of this. I find out the nurses or whoever has convinced my 75 year old mother that they don’t need an ambulance to transport my father because after all their insurance only will pay $200.00. Well that is just great, send a 79 year old man who by the way needs 3 men to help him into my mother’s jeep liberty and just send her on her way. Mind you, my father is still in his hospital gown, still has a catheter in and has just had open heart surgery the Thursday prior! What if something would have happened on the way to Marshfield?! Well, thankfully all ended safely, but good grief!

Since being at the new facility, my dad seems to not be having the sundowners as bad, though he still does seem confused at times and more so than usual. I’m honestly not sure he will ever completely go back to how he was. He had a low grade fever on Saturday, but that improved by the afternoon. Other than that, he is walking better and sounds better and we just hope after the next 20 days he will be back at home with us. They are getting to work on the physical therapy this week!

Saturday morning. My usual routine on the weekends is to get up a little later than usual. I feed Clarissa and Ra and let them out to do their business, get the coffee going and then head to the barn to feed everyone out there. Clarissa is usually barking at something in the mornings, but Sat. was different. She ended up coming right in, but I should have known something was up when she was barking in the direction of the barn and paddock. So, I head to the barn through the garage and usually Roxan, Sally and Ruby are all waiting for me. Not this morning. Hmmm wonder what is up. As I start walking toward the paddock I see Roxan trotting around in a bit of a frenzy and again I think, hmmmm that is weird. As I get closer I realize that the gate closest to me is not right. It is no longer attached to the post where it swivels and sort of leaning there diagonally. In a split second I realize what has happened turn my head and there goes Sally and Ruby down past the indoor arena. Well, CRAP! As I run to get their halters thinking the whole time gosh I hope they don’t run down the driveway and onto DD–wouldn’t that be fun LOL Our property is completely fenced with the exception of the driveway. Well, they cut in front of the indoor facing the road and then made their way back toward me down the other side. They came running right to me (as if to say look what we did mom!). Fortunately they are both really easy to handle, so no problems getting them and walking them both into the front pasture until I could go get Roxan and put her with them so she would settle down. Dee came out when she saw they were all in the front pasture–we fixed the gate and then got them all back in the paddock again. Let’s just say they were tired most of Saturday LOL No one suffered any serious injury, though I guess Ruby decided that she might like to try the gate out as wardrobe, or maybe she thought she needed to do some remodeling for me–the most important thing was no one was hurt seriously and Sally didn’t have a scratch on her–how she managed to get out without a scratch is beyond me. Ruby scraped up her neck and knee a bit, but is fine thank goodness! Hopefully Ruby has learned her lesson about sticking her head through the gate!

Sunday. Fortunately nothing dramatic, but we did get a new visitor. Early in the evening, a beautiful german shorthair mix came to visit us while we were watering the garden. Think she might be part black and tan coonhound as well.

We are calling her Maggie and anticipating she will be staying with us. Our area is pretty bad for dumping dogs/cats though our neighbor up the hill usually has them all come to their property. We’ve only had one stray dog besides this one in the past year and a half and the first one took off before we could try to care for her. Well, our visitor yesterday looks like she may be having a permanent home if we can’t find her family which I’m sure we won’t. She looks like she was dumped. No collar, covered in ticks, skinny and several scratches and scrapes like she may have had a few tangles with something. She is so sweet and really still a puppy–maybe only 9 months old.

Things usually aren’t this eventful for us, but this past week sure was packed with adventures! Hopefully enough for the rest of the year!

We sure got spoiled last week with temps in the 80s and cooler nights, but the heat has returned. Can’t complain–I’ll take it any time over the excessive heat we had last year.

Hoping next week’s update will be more horsey.
Toni

My dad’s surgery went better than expected on Thursday, thank goodness! He is now recovering, albeit slowly. After a triple bypass at 79 what else could be expected?! The fourth blockage was not as bad as they thought it was, so he only had the triple. We are now just holding on and hoping he continues to improve. He so badly wants to come home, but looks like that will not be any time soon. We are looking into extended care options right now for continued therapy once he has to leave the hospital. Goodness forbid insurance companies and medicare allowed a person to stay in the hospital for the entire time they actually needed.

Will try to do an update on the horses soon!

Toni

Wow, here we are almost July! Time is sure flying by this year.

My father’s surgery is scheduled for July 5th, so we could sure use your good thoughts! He goes in for pre-op on Monday, July 3. I can’t believe he is having another open heart surgery and in his condition. They will do as many bypasses as they can and as much as his heart can take. Will just have to take next week as it comes. Fortunately, I am on vacation all next week!

We will have updates on Roxan and Sally as soon as it is time to get them pregnancy tested. Didn’t want late foals, but they sure were tricking me with their cycles this spring!

Also hope to have some extra time starting this weekend to get some pictures of everyone. We will see how things do with my dad. Would also be great to take a short morning trip up to Bennett Spring, but that may have to wait for later this year.

The vegetable garden is already getting out of control, I hate WEEDS! The peas and sugar snap peas didn’t do well this year, but we are going to have summer and winter squash coming out of our eyeballs soon. Already got to cook up some straightneck squash this past weekend. YUM! Nothing better than cooking up something that you grew!

What is with businesses that can’t keep things stocked for you?! Went to Orschelin this weekend to try to get Woody Pet again and they had three bags. I love the pellet bedding, but I usually use 6 bags/week for the three that are stalled. I’ve asked them the last three weeks to make sure they had enough for me only to show up and have some guy tell me they sold 20 bags the previous night. Gosh, I don’t know, stocking isn’t rocket science, is it? Well, they lost my business. I don’t have patience for it anymore. So, back to our MFA in the hopes that they can keep their pellet bedding stocked! I actually prefer their brand, but started going to Orshelin when they opened a store in Marshfield and because MFA never seemed to keep it consistently stocked. Why is this stuff so hard for some businesses to figure out? Had the same problem with the feed store I was initially using, I finally got fed up and used a different feed store in a neighboring town and they have been outstanding. Goff Feed in Strafford is outstanding to work with! Fortunately there still are some businesses out there that care about taking care of their customers. I guess I am just getting old, crabby and impatient with people LOL

I did get around to scanning and uploading some of the old show/horse pictures into the photo gallery. So many more to sort through and will upload some more, but has been kind of fun looking at the old pictures even though it makes me feel OLD. LOL

Good luck to everyone traveling to and from and showing at the ApHC National show this year in OKC. We wish everyone the greatest personal performances and success.

Until later!

Toni