Valentine's Day: Love at First Sight

We've known for a long while now that the right horse would find his way into our family at the perfect time.  Shanna's spent countless hours surfing the Web, willing Mr. Right to make himself known.

So on February 10th, after scouring the internet and locating an ad that for a horse that seemed to be just who we were looking for, she sent Erin an email entitled "He's perfect!  HE'S ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!"

The "other Erin" doing a beautiful job with Guinny.

Four days later Erin finally returned home from a trip. Having a good feeling about this guy we picked up our good friend (and veterinarian and event rider) Karen en route north to meet Guinness for the first time just over the border in Canada.  Guinny was a perfect gentleman as we all took turns putting him through his paces. We were absolutely smitten with the big guy -- not only is he stunning to look at, but he's got a very kind soul and a rather large brain. He's got talent and ambition, a tremendous work ethic and he clearly loves to please.  He was trained with kindness and patience and has been coddled and spoiled during his decade on the planet.  He's a rockstar and he knows it. As does everyone else.  His fatal flaw seems to involve removing the fly masks of his stable mates.....

Goodwill, Guinness' talented grandfather.

It wasn't a hard decision at all to part with a chunk of our savings account to have Guinness join The Brood.  And it's been a pleasure to get acquainted with his humans, Shirley & Stan.  We know he'll miss them, and they'll be sad to see him go, but we've got an open door policy at our barn -- Guinny's fans are always welcome to show up and lavish him with praise and affection!  And that includes one of his favorite people, "the other Erin", who's done a fantastic job of keeping him fit and healthy until we arrived on the scene!

Gargoyle, Guinny's handsome sire

Our handsome fella is due to arrive at our barn in the Seattle area in just a few days.  Wednesday feels like it can't come soon enough, really.  For the last 10 days we have been like kids anticipating Christmas. We've stocked up on all the good things we can think of for our boy and we're on a first-name basis with the lovely ladies at our local tack shop The Gift Horse!  The folks at the stable we're boarding him, RockMeadow Equestrian Center, are eagerly awaiting his arrival as well.  We've got a special stall with his name on it, literally!

So tune in as you'd like to hear about our adventures with this special equine. We've got big plans for him -- everything from super-fun forested trail rides with our cadre of hilarious horse buddies up north to weekend schooling shows to bona fide eventing competitions throughout the West.  Eventually we'll bring him home to our new place on 4 acres, but for now we're going to take advantage of the plethora of talented trainers in the equestrian mecca that is the East Side of Seattle and the fabulous facilities that will allow us to ride day and night in any kind of weather.

For now we are thrilled: We've almost Got Guinness!