Sarasota

This was our day to go to Sarasota.  Dave thought it would be too cold for fishing, so he didn't even take his pole.  His dad assured him, however, that fish weren't affected by the cold in the water at Lido Beach.  Too bad.  So instead of fishing, we had to come up with something else to do.  We heard that the Lipizzaner stallions were housed near Sarasota, so we went to try to see them. 

We drove to the place where they live and there were no cars, but the barn was open and there were 4 people in there.  So, we went in and asked if we could just look at the horses.  They had no problem with us being there, so we walked around and looked at these BIG horses.  They are beautiful and powerful and a bit unpredictable...they are stallions, after all.  This first guy just laughed at me when I told him that he was beautiful!! 

I thought these two just looked angry!  I know that as a general rule stallions like to fight with other stallions.  It must really be loud in this barn sometimes.  One of the trainers took on the of stallions out to let him get some exercise.  As she was putting his halter on him, she said that he screams when he comes out of his stall...AND BOY DID HE EVER SCREAM!!  He was excited to get out and he let everyone know it!!



Aren't they just majestic looking?  I love this picture.  He's so regal looking...hmmmm, I think they're called the Royal Lipizzaner Stallions from Austria...no wonder he looks so royal!!!






The trainer took this big guy out to lunge him.  He'd been feeling a little under the weather the last couple of days.  The owner said he didn't like it when low pressure systems came through - they really bothered him. 

He's 23 years old and they said that wasn't unusual for Lipizzaners!

These two stallmates got after each other at the show this past week and the owner said she had a really hard time controlling them.  The owner is a very small lady, probably about 45-55...and the trainer, as you can see in the picture above is also not very big.  She's younger...maybe not even 40.  When she was exercising the 23 year old, he got pretty frisky and she really had to hold onto him. 

It was fun to see the horses and smell them!  It reminded me of home!  We're going to try to catch one of their shows before we go home. 

Tonight I played 7s from Hell...got beat again!  Sandy and I lead 3 hands and on the 4th hand, we got clobbered!  I hope my luck is better at bowling and bingo tomorrow!!

More later...