A new arrival

Sometimes something is going on and you just don't understand it and then you discover the Universe had something else in mind for you.

Last year at this time we were planning to go to Milwaukee to perform at a kite festival. At the last minute we had to cancel because of Elaine's shoulder injury. Instead of flying kites in Milwaukee, we were here, opening Ola Lola's. On Friday night, our son (whom we hadn't seen in more than two years) showed up with a friend and our granddaughter completely unannounced. It was a tough decision to not make our trip to Milwaukee but when we saw Steven walking across the parking lot, we understood why we were supposed to stay here.

Something similar has happened this year. For three weeks we have struggled to find travel arrangements back to Milwaukee to perform at this year's festival that fit both the event's budget and ours. We had just figured out we couldn't do it when we got the message that a horse we were planning to adopt in July was coming TODAY.

Holy Horse! We spent yesterday racing around making arrangements for her and this morning about 10 am she arrived. She - her name is KTJ - is a three-year-old filly rescued from the race track here on the island by Save the Horses, Inc. and Hacienda Siesta Allegre. She's a big girl, 16 hands plus. She needs to put on some weight but otherwise is in good health. She has been trained, ridden and shown by a young girl on the east side of the island for several months which is why we didn't expect to see her until July, after the show season. But the young rider is no longer showing her and now KTJ is here.

For now, she is staying up on top of the mountain at the Ramey Riding Club. She has a stall, which she is used to. There is also a round pen where Elaine can work with here, helping to her to get comfortable in her new home. Eventually, she will move down here with Chocolate and - for now - Sahara.

As you can see from the picture, KTJ is a big, beautiful dark bay. We toyed with the idea of calling her Dark Chocolate to play off Chocolate but KTJ she is. She's a little nervous still but quite well behaved for all that.

So now we start on another new adventure. And now we know why we had such a difficult time with travel plans: the Universe was keeping us here to take care of the new arrival.