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Our horse adventures all started late in 2004 when Rhianon [16 at the time] was at a friend's place in Missouri. I was home in Minnesota at the time and one evening I received a phone call from her, she started with "I'm alright but..." She had been thrown by her friend's horse, her foot caught in the stirrup and she was dragged along with her head banging on the ground repeatedly. I told her that she was never to get on that horse again, and at that stage I was convinced that I didn't want her on any horse again, but she and her sisters had a different plan.
When she came home the girls ganged up on me and informed me that not all breeds of horses had the same temperament, so I started searching on the Internet for "cold blooded" horses... that means that they have very stable personalities and are less likely to be spooked. I found Gypsy horses and something stirred within me, maybe because of my Great-Grandmother's Romany blood coursing through my veins. Anyway, I got sticker shock and knew I couldn't afford one, so I started looking into their history.
Dick said that if we were getting a horse that we should get a "draft horse", so that it would be more suitable for the work we had in mind for it. So we started looking for a Shire since that breed is a substantial part of the genetics of Gypsy horses. Luck was on our side, I found May, a beautiful purebred Shire mare at a price we could afford. She had been registered at one stage but I could not track down her breeder to find out her original name. I tried long and hard to see how I could get her back on the American Shire Horse Association registry, but eventually gave up, which turned out to be a good thing.
Without the Shire breeding program that I had imagined I started getting interested in Drum Horses, since that was one registry where May could be included. I procrastinated on getting her registered, still not sure of which course to take, until I found a Drum Horse filly Zara for sale and knew for certain that breeding Drum horses would be our new course.
My number one concern with horses is their temperament, and luck would have that I have found a breed of horses whose beauty is more than skin [and feather] deep. So we have the best of all worlds... draft horses that can be used to pull wagons, horses to make the girls happy and sound good natured animals... and as a bonus I discovered that I do like horses after all.
Zara was a wonderful find, providence in action again... After watching our Farm Collie working hard to get wayward animals back where they belong I decided to look around at different dog breeds to find a puppy to work with her. So I did a web-search for "English Shepherd puppies" and came across the Whispering Willows Farm website. To my surprise they had a Drum Horse filly advertised for sale, I couldn't believe my luck. Zara was the horse of my dreams, in just the color that I wanted. Thank you Jim and Teresa for this wonderful horse, I can tell by her personality that she was very much loved at your farm. Jim and Teresa breed Dales Ponies and English Shepherd dogs.
In 2006 we finally were able to get Gypsy Horses, Taggart and Victory. Taggart is in CA now and I hope to one day have a daughter of his, to bring a part of him home to us. Hopefully we will soon have our new Gypsy mare home, she will be in foal to Taggart and I am keeping my fingers crossed for a filly for a keeper.
As well as horses we have many other animals in our lives. There are the dogs and cats who are mostly pets, yet even they have a purpose. The dogs protect and herd the livestock and let us know when visitors arrive, the cats keep the mouse population very low, plus of course they are nice to have around.
We have a few sheep, goats, chickens and one cow that I class as Homestead Animals. They provide us directly with meat, eggs, milk and fibre for our own use, whereas our beef cattle and hogs provide a monetary income.
Here is The Winona Farm website, all about the farm, our non-horse business ventures and lots more.
My youngest four Aussie kids came here with me in 1998 for a visit and we stayed. They have been homeschooled using the approach of following the child's interests, this method is sometimes called "Unschooling", but I prefer "Natural Learning". When we first started out it used to amaze me just how much ground they would cover and how deeply they would delve into subjects that fired their interests, now I guess I just take it for granted that they can and will learn all they need to know.
Stephanie and Madeleine are my youngest children, their interests include horses, goats, raising calves, chickens etc. When the weather is good they love to spend endless hours with their favorite animals or out in the woods. In Winter they spend more time indoors, that is when they like to draw and write. I have some photos of the girls and their drawings on Madeleine and Stephanie's page.
Rhianon, my oldest daughter living on this side of the world has been unschooled since half way through second grade. She started working at the local ranch at age 12 and baby sitting at age 14. She saved all her earnings and bought a horse of her own, a Thoroshire filly Epona, daughter of our Shire. She nannied for over a year, and worked at the ranch too, during this time she worked on develping her artistic side. She is married to Ben, and they have a beautiful baby girl Amber, born on December 20, 2006. Now Rhianon is finally back in the saddle and working with us training our horses and back at work nannying, taking Amber along with her.
My son Nathan was unschooled since sixth grade. He is a self taught musician who plays a mixture of many styles of music with a wide ranging audience from teenagers to the retired people of Winona. Over time we have seen him go from a kid picking away at an old banjo that was left at the farm, to a young man playing guitar in his own left handed style. He has progressed very well and every time I hear him play I notice improvements in his already good technique.
My older four sons aged from 25 to 32 live in Australia. My oldest daughter will soon be living in Dubai with her husband and two daughters. I miss them all terribly even though they were all grown when I left there...
I have seven Grandchildren, six little Aussies and one American.
Some of my thoughts on life, children, schooling etc can be found on my pages.
