Terry Writes From Luxembourg ...

Well, here I am in Luxembourg (Europe) waiting to go to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (again). I seem to be spending a lot of time here lately, which in a way is a good thing. It gets me out of Dianne's way for a while! :) Problem is, it's lightly snowing/raining AGAIN. I saw enough of this white stuff in December. Don't need it anymore!

It was nice meeting Sylvain and family for breakfast this morning. Thank you, Sylvain, for sharing your pony mares with us. Thanks also to Davy for sharing your QH stallion. He was a perfect gentleman throughout the whole trip and we enjoyed taking care of him for you.

Henry was supposed to travel with this group, as I had just returned from Dammam, Saudi Arabia 3 days before. Only problem is that his visa wasn't approved by the Saudia government in time for him to make the flight. That puts me "on" again, as my visa is for 5 years. That's what we do here...take care of all of our clients and their horses to the best of our ability. Even when it becomes somewhat difficult, customer service is number 1!

The horses that are going to Riyadh (there are 3 of 'em) are two babies (less than a year old) and one older mare who is blind in one eye and has diminished vision in the other one. She really is a sweet mare. She just gets afraid at strange sounds and quick movements. Can't say as I blame her though. I just get in the container with her and talk to her softly and after a few minutes she calms down and puts her head near mine as if to say "Boy, that was scary. I'm glad you're here for me"!

Tomorrow we load back onto the plane (we have been resting in europe for 1 1/2 days) for the remaining six hour flight so Saudia. Then 25 hours back home to do it again. Sometimes I think I should sprout wings!

Terry

On the way to Dammam

Terry and his beautiful equine companions are on the way to Dammam, Saudi Arabia at the moment. They left Houston on Wednesday night, stopped for a rest in Luxembourg and will continue their journey tonight, arriving in Dammam early on Saturday morning. The horses are traveling well. Thank you, Ali, Dhafer and Mohammad for sharing your lovely mares with us. It has been a pleasure caring for them and working with you.

Next week we are off to Amsterdam, Luxembourg and Riyadh. We will start our next EU quarantine group next week and we still have one space available for Luxembourg. There are several potential takers for that space, so if you want it, let us know right away. It will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

A special note to all of our friends and clients in Bahrain ... our thoughts and prayers are with you and your families as we wish you safety and peace during these turbulent times.

Visitors from the Netherlands

What a great time we had last weekend when Leonie Prins and her assistant, Anna, came to visit! Leonie and Anna live in Holland. They provide a great service to people throughout Europe who are interested in buying and importing Rocky Mountain Horses and Kentucky Mountain Horses from the United States.

We have had the pleasure of working with Leonie on quite a few shipments. She has a lovely mare, Docks Pretty Woman, in quarantine with us right now. It was really fun for us, helping Leonie and Pretty Woman get to know each other again - and getting to know each other better, as well.

We spent one day here at the ranch, visiting with horses and enjoying one of Terry's famous barbecue dinners. The next day was spent in my home town, San Antonio, where we introduced Leonie and Anna to Texas history at the Alamo, took a walk along the famous San Antonio River Walk and enjoyed great Tex-Mex food at Mi Tierra Restaurant. What fun we had! We were sad to see them go and hope that they come back to visit again soon.

If you are interested in learning more about Rocky Mountain or Kentucky Mountain Saddle horses, get in touch with Leonie. She will be glad to talk with you and answer any questions that you may have. Her email address is ljprins@solcon.nl.

We have a small guest house here at the ranch and we are always happy to welcome visitors from all over the world to come and stay with us for a while.