The WEG and my love affair with horses

The World Equestrian Games (WEG) open here tomorrow.  It is a pretty big deal for us, and the area has been constructing, remodelling and sprucing up for over a year to get ready!   I won't be attending as the tickets are so pricy, and a plan for volunteering through a charity didn't pan out.



It would be interesting to see, though.  There will be jumping, cross country, dressage, endurance, reining, and even vaulting (a sport I didn't know existed before this).

I attended a Continuing Ed class this week at one of the nicer hotels here.  As I walked to the conference room, I passed many athletic looking people in their spandex britches, intently talking with other people (coaches?) each in a different language unknown to me. But, as we passed each other in the hall, each one would smile, then slowly and carefully greet me with "good morning."  It was so cool!

My passion for horses goes way back. I was the typical horse-crazy little girl. I even had a horse (grade) of my own briefly at age 15, and had all the usual bumps and tumbles trying to learn to ride (I never did, due to very poor balance and sensory integration issues) but a particularly traumatic fall made me lose my nerve, and that brought an end to that.  The mare happily went back to her original owners.

 My true love though is Arabian horses.  To me there is almost no other breed.  At some point in my central-Ohio-based teens, I attended the Ohio State Fair and wandered into one of the horse show classes.  The horses were mostly smallish, mostly gray, very beautiful, and had exquisite heads. I was in love with the Arabian horse.  I found out later that one of the early and most important importers of Arabian horses to the United States was Roger Selby of ......Portsmouth, Ohio!

He bought a group of horses from an important breeder in England - Lady Wentworth - who, along with her parents, brought the breed to their Crabbet Stud in Britain from Egypt, and elsewhere.

Lady Wentworth and her stallion Skowronek

Raffles was a son of the Crabbet foundation sire Skowronek, out of a Skowronek daughter, Rifala. Lady Wentworth deliberately chose an inbreeding cross in hopes of producing a suitable Arabian for crossing on Welsh ponies.  She partially succeeded, as Raffles only matured to be 13.3 hands, but he was never able to settle any mares in England and was thought to be sterile.

He was 'thrown in' as a free gift with a group of Arabians that Roger Selby imported into America in the late 30s.  After proper management,  Raffles successfully sired well over 100 foals.  I'm sure it was some of his offspring that stole my heart in the show ring that day. 
 

Raffles - slightly stretched.  A flat croup is not one of the Crabbet-based Arabian's strong points. 

As the early breeders died, Mrs. Bazy Tankersley of Al Marah Ranch bought up some of the most important foundation stock and continued the dedicated linebreeding.   In a 'full circle' kind of incident - Mrs. Tankersley provided the primary funds for building and opening the new permanent Arabian Horse exhibit that opened this Spring at the KY Horse Park.

When I saw my first Arabian in the early 60s, they were still pretty rare, and Crabbet breeding was THE thing.   They have fallen somewhat out of fashion now. (op ed: they are now breeding Arabians to be 17 hands with giraffe necks and looooooong backs and a trot with their knees up to their chin - if they want Saddlebreds, why don't they buy those!?)

Skowronek proved to be such a prepotent sire, and in the US his progeny were so intensively linebred to Raffles and Raseyn (a Skowronek son on the west coast) that the 'look' was cemented in - to the point that they can still be easily identified at a distance.  When I moved to Lexington in 1990, I took advantange of the many horse-related activities here, and picked up my 'horsey' interest again - albeit as a spectator.   One day at the Horse Park I saw a lovely, light gray mare in a paddock that I immediately knew as an Arabian, and from the 'Raffles" head, knew where she was from.  Sure enough, when she came to the fence for an ear scratch, her halter said "Al Marah (something or other).'

They are promising cooler weather beginning tomorrow.  Whether or not you get to the WEG, I hope you enjoy the break from the heat!   (now if we could just get some rain......)

What I did on vacation

As a person of (ahem) 'modest means,' I don't take vacations. This one started out to be semi-business for me, and when that fell through, the friend who agreed to go with me and I decided to go anyway. Destination....Amish country in northern Ohio. I am from Ohio originally, but farther south than where we were headed. We both wanted to get away and think about something besides work for a while.

After stowing our stuff in a motel in the nearest town of any size, we took off. First stop - Lehmans in Kidron OH.

Lehmans is famous among homesteaders, folks off-the-grid, and those with an admiration for old-fashioned ways and things. I've purchased several items out of their catalog over the years and have always wanted to go there. I must admit, it was a little different than I expected. Since they have been in business for many years, catering to a largely Amish clientelle, I thought it would be kind of an old, dusty, giant hardware store. It is anything but. It is huge, but newish, and geared to the 'visitor.' It was FULL of tourists at 10 a.m. on a weekday morning. It may not have been exactly as expected, but we still managed to spend a couple of hours there, and still didn't see everything! I bought a burner and lamp chimney to convert a canning jar into an oil lamp, some wicks for the oil lamps I already have, and some wooden spoons.

By then we were starving, so we headed up the road to Mt. Hope, to 'Mrs. Yoder's Country Kitchen.' (of COURSE it would be Mrs. YODER) The weather was dark, gray, rainy and COLD the whole time we were there, but the fall color was gorgeous. We so enjoyed the drive through rolling hills with tidy, neat, beautiful farms. Not many cars, but lots of Amish folks in their buggies - some also going to Mrs. Yoders for lunch, as it turned out. When we got to the restaurant, it was packed. We had to wait 20 minutes or more for a table, with at least 50 other people. It was worth it though. The food was plain and simple (of course) but wonderful. I asked our server and found out no, the business is not Amish-owned, but they employ large numbers of Amish people - about half the staff. All the food is LOCAL - the chickens (some of the best chicken I've ever had!) and the fruits and vegetables come from a local co-op of farmers, in season - like now. Mt. Hope seemed to be just an intersection with a few houses and businesses. This feed store was right across the street, and seemed to speak to me of the real spirit of the area, we tourists notwithstanding.

Following suggestions from a fellow blogger who lives in the area, we went on from there to Berlin, only slightly larger than Mt. Hope, but with quite a few shops - and traffic jams! The traffic was backed up a long way in either direction of the (only?) street light. We had already figured out the pattern - wide open spaces with beautiful scenery, and then - boom! Literally HUNDREDS of people all trying to park and cram into whatever site or shop we were also there to see.

On the way to Berlin we stopped at Heini's Cheese and candy store (Heini's - I'm not kidding) and discovered .....bulk spices! We didn't get all that excited about the cheese or the candy, but when we discovered the spices.....! Large quantities of about anything you could think of, with prices lower than I could imagine. A cup-sized container of cinnamon - $1. A fist full of bay leaves - $1.20. Wow!

We stopped at the Country Primitive Store in Berlin, and also several other stores. Intimidating crowds (it WAS 'peak color' weekend) and a looming time crunch (everything in the area closes at 5!) sent us on down the road. We went to the last stop on our journey of recommendations - Walnut Creek Foods. Why drive 5 or 6 hours to go to a grocery store? Wonderful stuff and incredible prices! I bought half a cart full for $22 - including more spices: Cilantro, cinnamon sticks, cream of tartar (for home-made baking powder) sure-jell (for canning a recipe I found for apple pie filling), etc, Amish noodles in several sizes, locally grown potatoes...it was great.

Exhausted but satisfied with a wonderful day, we drove back to the hotel and crashed. The next say we headed back to a different world. It was a great time. With only a 3 days, including drive time, we only stopped at a few places, but saw a lot more we will put on the list for next time.