Well there are not really stockings (see photo) and it’s not even December yet but there IS a fireplace and Picollo WAS enjoying it so it just seems like such an “it’s almost Christmas” kind of scene that I couldn’t resist snapping a cute pict of him.

The re-scheduling has been hectic but things are starting to fall into place now. Joewell has his second set of blood-work tomorrow morning and hopefully this time it will be dated correctly and all will be well in the universe. I’ve found a few flats online near Krefeld that look very simple and cute and perfect for Picollo and myself but I think I’m going to wait to setup something until I’m actually there and know a bit about the areas, etc. Debra has connected me with a fabulous friend of hers living in Hamburg named Steffie and she’s offered up some helpful notes!

I’m heading into town today to spend the holiday week at my old apartment downtown. Thanks Sage, Elise and Riley! I’ll have the perfect location to watch Ashland’s Festival of Lights on Friday and I’m pretty excited about sharing my Thanksgiving holiday (my first one stateside in a couple years) with Gary, Pam and Abbey and helping Susan (and crew) decorate the tree at The Sheep. I’m not sure what my Christmas will be like over in Germany so it’s the perfect pre-Christmas, Christmas!

So yes, yes, yes… It’s a rough life but somebody has to do it! Joewell is absolutely loving his enormous 16 by 16 padded stall. He can hear the trickling of the water fountain out front rather than having a waterfall coming INTO his stall from a broken rain guard. Ha!

Yes it’s chilly in Ashland but the barn is warm, the alleyways are paved in rubber bricks, the tack stalls are equipped with heaters, he has a comfy turnout next a fellow Trakehner named Karoe (see photo), a bright arena to work in with a chill atmosphere. Needless-to-say, we are all getting spoiled with our stay at my friend’s facility AND it’s a good thing we’re so comfy as there was an error made when dating Joewell’s blood-work resulting in a complete reschedule of our trip! Overall it has been a HUGE stress having to reschedule my flights, ground transports, not to mention the changes, etc have lost/cost me a little over a grand thus far.

Today might have well been a Friday the 13th for me! Bummer!
We’re rescheduled to depart on the 30th of November so I’ll be driving down on the 28th to Los Angeles to organize my Jeep for packing/dropping at port, Joewell will transport on the 29th and my little family should be in Krefeld, Germany the afternoon/evening of the 1st of December!

It was a long and EXTREMELY wet drive down from the Seattle area on the 6th of November. Dr. John was a bit late in arriving to finish Joewell’s final paperwork so Morgan and I got a later start than planned. BUT!.. at least we were able to leave the farm as it was flooding central mere hours after we departed.

About 7 hours, 1 mocha, 2 Red Bulls and several bags of chips later we (albeit a bit “cracked out” from excessive caffeine) arrived in Ashland at my transitional home. It was bittersweet saying good-bye to Morgan and I think I’m actually gonna miss being picked on by him! Hehe! Thanks for the hauling Morgan and EVF!

So Joewell, Picollo and myself got settled into Lara’s facility and headed to my second home in ye ole Ashland, The Black Sheep for a pint of their finest, good cheer and catching up with some near and dear friends!

So I’ve been meaning to start a blog for a while now anyway and several of the Donida crew asked me for regular updates of my travels and training with Joewell so there you have it.

Not quite sure where I’m going with this so I’m just planning to journalize travels, horses, picollo and life and see how it develops! Perhaps this blog will carry over into a HorseGirlTV blog or just point to it? We’ll see!

This photo is from one of my last days up near Seattle. It’s Chelsea and I trying to keep warm at a HorseGirlTV shoot! I’m gonna miss you Chels but hopefully we’ll get to hang out this summer and catch a few European horse shows together!