In Search of a Stud

Carrie wants a baby.

A baby horse.

To get said baby, she needs a stallion to breed with Mira. She found a prospect that we went to visit Saturday afternoon.

We went the scenic route.

The first leg of our journey took up through Appomattox. We didn't stay at the courthouse, but we did go into a book and coffee shop.

Carrie wanted to read some Babe to Shane, but he had other ideas.

He acquiesced when I told him I'd read Samurai Santa if he listened to Mommy first.

We had a lot of fun exploring the store, the shelves, and the town.

I love book stores. Before broadband internet access, bookstores were the place to hang out and read all sorts of things. There's still something special about being able to walk around and hold the books instead of reading off a screen. Libraries have a similar effect, but this book store had coffee, scones, and a lot of records, too. It was a neat place.

The stable was the next leg of our journey. Carrie was ecstatic. There were two stallions she was interested in. The first was a "bay tobiano APHA sporthorse" named Draco.

The other was a Friesian.

Carrie talked shop and horses for hours. I kept Shane busy.

The stable was located in Charlotte County, one of only three counties in Virginia without a single stoplight. Beautiful scenery, though.

There were plenty of other animals and activities to keep us occupied while Mommy horse-geeked.

I'm not sure what everything we found was.

Most of it was familiar.

We had no problem getting our outside time in.

The wife half of the couple that owned the stable was also a gourd artist. She let Shane break a few open to look in and take some home as a souvenir.

I thought they were eggs, at first.

I talked to the husband half some while the women talked shop. He was a veteran. I got to hear about some far ranging horse trips out to South Dakota and Ohio. We met a rescued horse, too.

Shane was wiped out by the end of it. He eventually laid down in the dirt to play.

That's what happens when you refuse to nap on the road down after a long soccer practice. We didn't stay much longer. Shane slept a good portion of the ride home. I'd hoped to stop in Farmville on the way back for dinner, but it's best to let sleeping boys sleep.