Bacardi and Cowgirl in Canada, Spring 2005

Loni Clark, a local resident of Acton, and her fiance Mike read about Canyon Creek in the paper and decided that they wanted to get involved. Loni and Mike love animals and had purchased property locally with the intent to save lots of animals and several horses. Loni decided to make Sunday her Canyon Creek Farm day, so she is here in the morning to help with feeding and chores. It is a delight to have her here, she does not mind pushing the big red wheelbarrow and cleaning everything in sight. From the moment we met Loni, she has been a great resource for fundraising ideas and has taken the initiative to compose letters and create a mailing list of potential donors. Loni brings with her several years background having worked in non profit. She is currently employed with a major Law Firm in Los Angeles and has succeeded in developing a relationship for their services to be utilized for us here at Canyon Creek. We are excited and inspired by her ideas, and have decided that she should be on our board of directors. She has also introduced us to another great friend, Susan Woo who loves horses and has also offered to help. Aside from her enthusiasm for helping us meet our goals, Loni is a life long horse lover. She is learning all she can about caring for horses and we are thrilled to see her progress with the babies. Loni was hoping to someday adopt. I assured her that we would be getting more horses and that we would keep an eye out for anything special that she was thinking about.

Bacardi

One afternoon we had babies to move. We had recently weaned our little quarter horse filly, Cowgirl from her mommy, Bacardi. We wanted to move Cowgirl into the "magic" stall where we could warm up to her and also put more weight on her. She was out in a large group of babies and was having a hard time finding her place in the herd. We had no problem haltering her, but getting her to follow us was quite a chore. That particular afternoon Sharon Williams was out visiting her horses, Sugar and Newfie. Sharon had decided to devote whatever time it took to coarse Cowgirl into the barn. About an hour later, Sharon had succeeded and everyone was in the stall petting and brushing all over Cowgirl, letting her know that she had done a great job. We had put another baby, Peanut in with Cowgirl so that she would not be alone. A few days later we wanted to move them around again. No pleading or carrots or even prodding her with the carrot stick, or trying to move her side ways encouraged her to take even one step foreard. I was getting impatient and had decided it was time to stop for awhile. Loni was here and I asked her if she would help hold Cowgirl. Loni was stuck with Cowgirl in the stall for quite sometime. We were so busy moving babies that I almost forgot about her. "Are you OK in there, Loni?" I asked. "No problems," she responded. "I'm having fun." It was then that something clicked between the two of them. Cowgirl was stubborn as they come, and refused once again to move. She was firmly planted in the stall, Loni still by her side. Loni stayed with the baby for several hours, and eventually made great progress. She moved Cowgirl and had the biggest grin on her face from her accomplishment. Cowgirl is the cutest bay filly, so regardless of her stubborn streak, it was very hard to get upset. We moved Cowgirl out into a smaller baby paddock and this was Loni's new goal every visit, brushing, haltering and trying her best to make Cowgirl's feet move forward once again. About that same time we had also moved mom, Bacardi into the barn for some extra feed and gentling. I noticed that Loni was attracted to Bacardi as well. Both momma and filly are exactly alike in appearance and personality. Bacardi was equally as stubborn and it took us quite sometime to get her into a stall. Loni took over and between Cowgirl and Bacardi she had her hands full. Every time Loni visited she would spend time with both girls. Before long she had the horses following her all around the ranch. Soon she came up to me and told me that she wanted to adopt the both of them together. I had hoped that that Cowgirl and her mommy could stay together forever and Loni was going to make this dream come true. I had a long conversation with Loni about what she might expect and that Bacardi had not been started under saddle so she was basically a totally green horse. Knowing this, we had not offered her to anyone. The mares are gentle with people, but we expected to have to put a lot of training into Bacardi before we felt that she was considered a riding horse and we still did not know her complete abilities. Loni assured us that she would love them forever, no matter what. She also told me that it was her intent to adopt a few more for their ranch. Any horse that Loni and Mike decide to take will get the very best of homes forever, with this in mind we all agreed.

In the meantime Cowgirl and Loni are getting natural horsemanship training under Jennifer, and I am making sure that we at least start Bacardi under saddle. The horses will be here in training until Loni and Mike have completed their stables. Jennifer will continue their training at their new homes a few miles from here, and Loni will be learning how to train her horses in the process. We just can not say enough about Loni and Mike. They are the most gracious, down to earth folk. Mike has offered to help us install more fencing, and he shares some great ideas for helping us build and maintain the manly man things here at the farm. Loni often brings over food and treats for us and the horses. Loni helps keep me organized with projects and to do lists, and she understands how overwhelming things can get running an office and a ranch singlehandedly. She has the wonderful ability to change hats, she can go from a pitchfork to a file cabinet in a minutes notice. She is calm cool and organized, with her business skills and passion for the cause, I can talk to her about anything. We want Loni and Mike to know how much we appreciate all their help and we want them to know that we will always be here to help them with Bacardi and Cowgirl, who by the way has a new name, Mojito. That's a bacardi cocktail that I guess we all need to try! Thank you again Loni and Mike, we always look forward to seeing you!