Lipica

I fully admit to being a self-proclaimed “horse nut”.  I love horses.  I love everything about them.  Riding them, feeding them, grooming them, cleaning their stalls.  I really do love it all, and I miss it.  (For those that don’t know/ remember, I sold my horse in 2007 due to the constant moves with the military.)  Spending the day in a barn working with and around horses is my idea of Heaven.

So when we went to Lipica, Slovenia, I was pretty much in Heaven. 

I’m not sure I’ve seen a more beautiful place.  Lipica in the fall is ALL sorts of GORGEOUS!

You enter via a tree and white fence lined road, with a golf course on one side and a beautiful pasture full of Lipizzaner’s on the other side.

Lipica is one of the oldest Lipizzaner breeding farms in the world, and where the Lipizzaner’s got their name.  Lipica has been breeding Lipizzaner’s since 1580.  This breed has avoided extinction numerous times, after they were evacuated from their farms in various countries when those countries were invaded.  They’ve been used as war horses for many, many years, and there are only 3000 registered Lipizzaner’s world wide.  They are also Slovenia’s national animal.

  We were able to watch a training session while we were at the farm.  They put on shows on Friday’s and Sunday’s, but we were there on Saturday so we didn’t see it.  However, I’ve seen them perform in the States 3-4 times and their show is amazing.  What they can get these animals to do is nothing short of a miracle.

Lipizzan’s are trained in classical dressage, and at Lipica, they start their training at the age of 4.  It takes about 6 years for them to complete their training.  Although they ride the mares (females) here, in their shows they only use the stallions.  The horse below is doing a “piaffe” which is basically trotting in place – one of the most advanced dressage moves out there. I would love to be able to ride here, and they do actually have week long courses that you can take, where you ride the Lipizzan’s every morning and then stay in the hotels at the farms in the evening.  (Rachel, you need to get your butt out here so we can do this!!!)  That would be a dream come true for me.

Everything about this place was beautiful.  I could have spent 3 weeks there. We took a carriage ride around the grounds.  It was 20E for 30 mins for all four (and a half including Abbie) of us.  Pretty cheap considering how absolutely gorgeous it was.  I’m not sure we could have picked a pretty time to be there.  Enjoy the pictures!  (It’s pretty hard to get a clear picture when you’re bouncing along in a horse-drawn carriage, but we managed to get a few.)

This is the oldest building on the grounds and is the barn for the oldest stallions on the farm and the ones they use in their shows.

This guy was 26 years old and still beautiful as ever.

Lipizzan’s have gray skin.  They are born black and gradually turn white around 6-8 years of age.

You weren’t supposed to touch the horses, but I couldn’t help myself.  I can’t be around that many soft horse muzzles and not touch at least one of them!  Abbie was afraid to touch them.  She’d reach out to touch them, but as soon as the horse would look at her she’d pull her hand away.

There is a Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria, that trains the Lipizzaner’s.  So that’s next on my list of places to visit!  It was great having Mark’s mom and brother along to join in the fun too!

And just like that….

…our Ireland trip is not happening.  Bummer.

As I’ve said before, we were planning on going to Ireland for 10 days in November.  I’d already bought the tickets and reserved the car, since Mark’s TDY had been cancelled and they were going to be home.

Key word there is “were”.  Mark got selected to go to a FECOC course (I don’t know what that stands for, but it’s some sort of advanced course for fighter pilots), which is pretty much the exact same time frame we were going to go to Ireland.  Thank you Air Force.

But it’s okay.  We’re REALLY excited that Mark was chose to go to this course.  They are only sending 3 guys from the squadron and the course is only offered 5 times per year, so it’s pretty cool that they selected Mark to go to it, since everyone was interested in it.

Mark, being the AMAZING husband that he is, was even considering turning it down since we’d already had our trip planned and he didn’t want me to be disappointed, but we both realize that would make him look pretty bad in the squadron and they wouldn’t offer him any more opportunities like this.  Plus he’s pretty darn excited about it.  So he’s going and Abs and I are holding down the fort while he’s gone and we’ll just do our Ireland trip some other time.

I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of this military spouse thing.  I’m disappointed about not getting to spend 10 days in Ireland, because that’s kind of a big deal and I was really excited about it.  Ireland is definitely at the top of places I’d like to go.  But I’m not completely bummed out about it.  I’m learning to go with the flow a little more, which makes my life a lot easier, since the Air Force never sets ANYTHING in stone and you have to be ready for plans to change at the last minute.  It’s almost like God is telling us now isn’t the right time to go to Ireland – at least that’s the way I’m looking at it.  I was nervous about how Abbie would do since she’s at the age where she’s starting to through fits and she gets bored easily in the car.  Plus it would have been pretty cold in Ireland at this time.  Plus we should be saving our money right now since we might go somewhere for Thanksgiving, and we’re going to Austria on a ski trip in December and to Rome for New Year’s.  And then there’s Christmas and our $737 electric bill that we need to pay…  Ouch.  Hopefully we’ll get a chance to go to Ireland next year or the year after.

Oh, and now I’m going to be home for the crud tournament!!!  YAY!  Now I just need to find a babysitter….

My favorite time of year

Fall is, by far, my favorite time of year.  I absolutely love it.  The cool weather, the crisp air, the colorful leaves, the blue skies.  I just can’t get enough of it. I took these pictures at Gorgazzo and Polcenigo.  You can tell we got a lot of rain last week because the river is WAY up.  It was neat seeing a different side to these places that we’ve been to quite a few times.  They looked completely different with the rushing water, and the water was a totally different color.

We walked back beside the spring and there was a neat little road with houses on either side.  There’s a trail that goes all the way up the mountain, but we didn’t hike up it.

 

We walked this trail in June and I posted pictures of it then, but it looks completely different now.  The water is much higher and it was pretty muddy, but it was a perfect day for a little hike and there weren’t any mosquitoes!  Abbie loved going for a walk (and this time she actually could walk – last time she wasn’t walking yet) and grandma Donna had a good time holding Abbie’s hand.

  

Happy Fall!

 

PS:  Again, all of these pictures are SOOC (straight out of camera).  I haven’t edited them in any way.

Quick update

I just wanted to apologize for my lack of posts lately.  It’s been busy around here and we’ve been out enjoying the fall weather in Italy, so I haven’t been online as much.  Plus my internet isn’t working at all, which is SUPER frustrating, so even when I want to get online I really can’t.  I take that back, I can –meaning I can open a page or two and then it’ll cut out and I have to wait 5 mins for it to reset and then try to open a few more pages.  It’s aggravating and super frustrating and I just want to throw the laptop against the wall sometimes.  I should probably start using the desktop more…  My biggest complaint about Italy as that they’re not up to date on modern technology at ALL.  And when the internet is your main source of communication with those at home, it really wears my patience thin.

But I have lots of pictures to post and blogs to write and I’ll do it soon, I promise.  If it gets posted soon is a completely different story, but I’ll have them saved on my computer, waiting for the internet to work long enough for me to get them online.

Hope you’re all enjoying the awesome fall weather!

Friday Fill-in

• What is the longest road trip you’ve ever taken?

From Ramstein, Germany, to Paris, France, down through Nice and Cannes, France, through Monaco, over to Pisa and Florence,Italy down through Rome, up to Innsbruck,Austria to Munich, Germany and back to Ramstein.  With a side trip to Madrid from Paris, but we flew to Madrid.  Mark and I rented a car and toured Europe for 3 weeks.  It was amazing.

• Do you collect anything? Tell us a bit about it.

Hm…  Pens and stationery.  I love to write letters and pens are kind of my weakness.  And anything crafty – card making stuff, knitting, quilting – I love it all.  I could spend HOURS and thousands of dollars in Hobby Lobby.  I have lots of rubber stamps and ink pads too but I would love more.  And piano sheet music, particularly by Lorie Line or anything Christmas.

• What is your favorite part about being an adult?

Being able to make my own decisions about everything and anything.  Being a wife and a mother.

• What song brings a tear to your eye?

“Proud to be an American” by Lee Greenwood or “America the Beautiful”.  Or any song having to do with kids growing up and moving out.  Or “You Are My Sunshine”.  I’ve tried to sing it to Abbie numerous times and I can’t get through it…

• Describe your first plane ride (how old you were, where you were heading, etc).

I don’t remember my first plane ride.  I was pretty young – as in under 3 I think.  I remember flying for Chicago to Denver when I was 16 years old.  That was my first time flying by myself.  And I flew from Chicago to Germany by myself when I was 21.  And I remember the first time my husband took me up in a little Cessna right after he’d gotten his private pilot’s license.  I remember all of that vividly, but I don’t remember the first time I was in a plane.