Welcome home ... "SMALL ONE"

Our new adventure has started the year out FUN! Eric, my amazing husband that he is, has the most sensitive heart when it comes to children and animals. He was looking on our new addiction of crag's list at a bookshelf...when he wondered off to Farm and Garden category. It only took one look and he ran in to get me. I just smiled and told him it was a nice dream, but we have to think REAL ... you know, fence, food, care, and of course...we don't have a clue what to do! Eric then had the great idea of just emailing the family to talk about the horse. That was a mistake in the makings....this amazing family (about our age) has a field of RESCUE animals. You see, the dad is a FARRIER and when he cares for people's horses he will run into many sad situations where animals are starting to be neglected because of the economy. Many people will ask if he will just take them with him to find a good home. Now that our heart strings were being pulled, we let it go for a couple of days while we quietly researched Miniature HORSES. We then kept our contact with the family... and they were keeping the mini horse on hold for us, while we were figuring things out. She said there was quite a list of waiting families to take him, but she wanted to give us a try.

As time ticked away, we thought we had things figured out....with the little research we put into it and the encouragement from our Farrier family, we took a drive JUST to meet the mini horse and see the children around him. At that point, our hearts thought for us. We took about 3 hours to play with him, brush him, ride him, get more advice....and he was ours! It was sad to see the all of the goats and horses that were in 'foster care', but the amazing part was the family really only charged what they have had to spend for the upkeep while they were there. To put that into perspective, we payed almost 1/2 for a horse as what we payed for our Labrador DOG! (which we got a very good deal on as well!) We may turn into a 'rescue refuge' once everything is said and done with how adventurous this has been!

It is all in the NAME....SMALL ONE! On the way home, the kids were brain storming the perfect name....and this is what they came up with. Our neighbor's (the Sidwell's) have a very special book about the Donkey that Mary rode on (with baby Jesus in her tummy) while Joseph let them to Bethlehem. It is a sweet story of this strong donkey that took care of them through their many adventures. Hence....we may be going through many adventures our selves, and that is a fitting name for our MINIATURE HORSE ............. SMALL ONE!!!