Our family grew this year, adding a tiny black headed tri-colored corgi in late January. When we met him in North Texas, he was quiet, polite and attentive – the largest of the litter. He was named Sheldon from the Big Bang litter, but we decided to name him Loki, after the brother of Thor, who gave a show stealing performance in the motion picture. For what it’s worth, it’s not a good idea to name your puppy after a super-villain.Loki grew and grew and grew, as he chewed and chewed and chewed. Largest of the litter means he found a good way to get more food than his siblings.. When we gave him that name, there was no stopping him.
February is when we get back to showing and Winter Series has become an annual tradition for us the past few years, 4 straight weeks of horse shows at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center, about 8 minutes drive from our house. Malloy enters the Hunter Derby and does quite well at these shows. Jeff White comes to stay with us, and there is a new life in the house as he brings his guitar, plays in the living room, and gets our 3 month old puppy to crave “whisky rocks”. To this day, when Loki hears the ice-maker, he comes a-running. This year Jeff brought his crawfish boil supplies and we ate pounds of mudbugs with beer in the backyard.
Winter Series is our tune-up for the Pin Oak show in March and this year everything was clicking. We won almost every class of the Thoroughbred Hunter division and got Champion both weeks, earning a set of china and two porcelain serving trays. Oh, and bragging rights.
Cooper continued his service as a therapy dog, delivering friendly cuddles and his buoyant personality each week, with nothing in return but a “puppy latte” at Starbucks afterward. Meanwhile, Loki’s destructive power continued to grow. He found Cooper’s squeaky toys, dragged them off, and pulled them apart piece by piece. Piles of white fluff would collect and roll around the living room floor like tumbleweeds, remnants of life just barely not strong enough to survive in the inhospitable environment. Loki’s stint in Puppy Class was nearly complete but had to be abandoned at graduation due to a scheduling conflict.
At that tender age, craving structure and purpose, it was a blow. Loki jumped a pulled at my clothes, trying to goad me into a tussle. He gnawed on kitchen cabinets, patio posts, and door jambs, grinding, chewing away at the house of his father, trying to leave a mark. His 2015 was also the year we finally broke through, entering a life of privilege previously beyond our station. You drive around, living your life, thinking things will be as they have always been, and then one day, you find yourself on the other side.Jesse went to court, and when he came out, we were handi-capable of parking where we damn pleased. They give you a placard with a expiration date – the date you fall back to Earth and must again search row by row for the leftovers, nothing reserved just for you anymore.
There was only one drawback to this arrangement of course – Diane rupturing her Achilles’ tendon hopping off Malloy. That wasn’t much fun. We got the surgery, a rental wheelchair, crutches, three weeks non-weight-bearing time, followed by Physical Therapy, and shopping at Kroger in the motorized scooter baskets. Well, actually, the motorized basket was kind of fun. So that was our July. Anyway, all’s well that ends well, and the placard is ours through the end of the year.
Malloy also missed time after injuring himself on a water bucket hanging in his stall. Dev was down from a nasty spill in the arena when his horse face-planted with him aboard. Our friend Stephanie had a horse land on her in the ring. It was convalescence city there for a while. Our plans for driving to Kentucky for the Pre-Green Incentive Finals were looking more like Jesse driving a truck, pulling a trailer, pulling an ambulance – so we opted out. That was a bummer because no Thoroughbred got around this year, so we most surely would have won top Thoroughbred, but you have to be present to win. Eventually, everybody recovered for the late push in the year. We were dueling Stephanie for Thoroughbred Hunter points for year end. She stayed over with us, bringing her puppy Apollo. Loki loved it! He and Apollo would stay up all night play-fighting. Loki was on top, then Apollo. Around and around they went, until it was time to go to bed. They got up again at 3am to go at it again, goading their way out of their respective bedrooms to go at it again. It was like they could feel the presence of the other and just couldn’t stay away.
In December, we attended a Bernie Traurig clinic at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds. Bernie is an Olympic Equestrian and travels the country teaching. It was pretty cool to hear all of the good things Bernie had to say about Malloy.
This year was also the year we made it big in the media. Dev and Malloy were interviewed following their win at Pin Oak. They also appear in the Great Southwest Equestrian Center’s Visitor Guide as the definition of the sport. No kidding. On page 21 of the guide, it says “Hunter” and them has a picture of them jumping.
Barb and Leslie sold the farm and moved to the Aiken, SC area. Malloy and Cass moved into Dev’s barn. Cass completed his illustrious retirement in green paddocks, a lively barn of competitors coming and going, his buddy Malloy coming into his own.
Last week Loki finally graduated Good Manners, the star pupil and a perfect gentleman. We are all so proud of him. He is planning to continue his education with agility training next year. He is going to take private lessons.
Merry Christmas, happy New Year, and Go see Star Wars, ya’ll!
Corgi Ranch, TX 