This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hi friends!
We got our first issue of the Fjord Herald today. It was good to see "faces" behind the names I've been seeing on this list. The pictures are the best part. The Jacobson article is great. And of course we checked the listing to make sure our name had been added to the farm directory. "Just like I asked them to do it," Hannah said. The Old Hickory ad with Erlend is special--we have one mare sired by him, and one carrying a '99 foal by him. When I joined the list late this summer I gave a brief intro to our farm. We still have just four Fjords: Viola and her gray filly, Tulie (thank you, Julie!), and Onalee with her filly, Tiana. But we have gained loads in understanding these beautiful individuals in the few short months since Julie sold us Viola, and later, Onalee and baby. Viola, 12 years old, is getting over her stubbornness and quite willingly leaves her baby for riding. Hannah has been working with Onalee, 3 years old, in the past few days and reports she is "a charm." It's Hannah's first experience at training, although she did some pretty advanced cowboy work with horses in Belize, Central America, when we had a mission ranch there in the 80's. She roped wild cows from horseback, our main mount being a buckskin spanish cow pony about the size of our fjords. I don't have all the spunk Hannah does, but I spoil the babies and groom the mares every day. And ride Viola when she's saddled. My youngest sister, Susan, ownes Onalee, and almost can't wait till Hannah get's her ready for riding. Tulie is my great big teddy bear. Every night when she comes in from pasture she asks me to take the burs out of her fur. Tianna does the same, but she waits till Tulie is done, so she can get her itchiest spots scratched with the comb afterward. Tianna is much braver than Tulie. She'll cross the creek with the mamas, and leave Tulie behind, as Tulie runs and screams for help. Hannah helped her across once or twice, but she's still such a coward. Tulie you can coax into going almost anywhere by putting left hand on her chin, right hand on her mane, tugging lightly. She possesses her mother's (Viola's) outstanding steadiness and thoughtfulness, and needs time to make up her mind on things. Tianna is more quick, walks with her head and ears up. She's feisty, but very managable. I think she'll be an easy learner, like her mother. We're looking for a good home for Tianna. (My ten-year-old nephew adores her, but we can't afford to keep her for him.) Hannah and I admire her keen spirit and easy movement--especially since we see how nicely Onalee is training. But we can't keep both fillies, and Tulie has the drafty qualities we were looking for when we brought Fjords to our farm. Tianna is sired by Elof, a 15 hh stallion, and her mother is sired by Erland. Price is $3,000. For now, the four Lapp Family Fjords are living happily in the 100 year old barn that we used for a cow stable before we built the 60-cow dairy barn 25 years ago. Every afternoon they roam pastures all over the valley and hills where the holstein heifers didn't clean up. Every evening after milking the cows I go out to get them--and since it's dark at 7:30 these days I have to look for their creamy white figures--my little ghosts--in the dark. Viola, the herd leader, gets the halter, and we trot in side by side. She needs the run to keep her from getting fat--and that quarter mile run (in my barn boots) makes me the healthier, too! Now I see the clock says almost midnight and I have to milk cows at 5 AM. So that's enough Fjord chat for tonight. Barbara Lyn
