bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- We had received packages yesterday; I had to return an item to Amazon. We dropped the package off at a UPS store and I immediately received an Amazon credit! Wow!

We continued north to the Hermann Lipizzan Stallion training center. We arrived just as the training was getting started. It was a $5 each, donation, to enter.

The show started with the presentation of the colors and us all standing for the National Anthem.

The horse in the front is younger. You can tell because his mane has not turned white yet. The Lipizzan’s are born brown or black. They change colors over the first 5 to 7 years of life.

This guy above and below was being difficult. The horses travel from April to September. In September they return here, and are allowed to be just horses, running and playing in the fields. This is the second week of their training, so they are still getting back into the work rhythm.

Above, he is doing the side walking.

The next couple of pictures are of the jumping.

Above was the famous back kick, but it was so fast that this was the best of those pictures..

If you think he looks like he is posing, you are right. The horses are used to the applause, and they work to get the crowd clapping. This is part of their training.

If you have noticed that all the trainers are women, you are correct. These are the daughters and granddaughters of  founder. The Lipizzans were rescued by General Patton and Mr. Herrmman and shipped to the US during WWII. There are only a couple of men in the family, and the husbands of these women. They are not involved in the training, per their preference. The little girl about is the newest member of the females trainers. She is 7, and she is riding a rescued palomino. There are three rescues at the stable. All are below. The palomino, another horse and the pony.

Below  is the newest colt, he is only 9 months old.

As you can see, he is brown, and will change colors over time. Because he is young, he follows the palomino and the pony around. He also does a chewing motion when near the other Lipizzans, in deference to his youth. He is large in size and they estimate that he will be their biggest horse, at 18 hands, when he is fully grown. At that point he may become the head of the herd.

Above, they are practicing the group maneuvers.

When the show ended, we were allowed to walk into the stables and meet the horses.

Above is Duke. He is the oldest horse at 38 years old, and he is head of the herd. Lipizzan’s live longer than most horses. He retired last year. The horses let the trainers know when they are ready to retire. They baulk at entering the horse trailer, letting everyone know they are done! They are cared for until the end.

Duke was a character! As I was snapping this selfie, he pushed on my shoulder, wanting a sugar cube!

Bob arrived and he took the next picture.

Here is Bob petting him.

We left and returned to the MH. We both took a short nap. At 5:30 there was a Christmas Golf Cart Parade.

And this next guy is also ready for St. Patrick’s Day.

Sunday- Merry Christmas. We had a quiet morning. I cooked the green bean casserole and we went to the Christmas Pot Luck at 1. There were about 200 people there!

We were at a table of 16.

 

We returned to the MH and  took a short nap. At a little after 5, we left and went to Venice Municipal Beach to look at the sunset.

We returned to the MH. We had bought ourselves a WIFi booster for Christmas, so Bob had hooked that up and we were able to binge watch Goliath on Amazon Prime.

Monday- Bob is starting to come down with my cold. We went shopping at Bealls, Bealls Outlet and Kohl’s. We also stopped at Bed Bath and Beyond. We need new silverware, as we have lost forks and spoons in the trash. We also looked at Walmart and Target, but their flatware was really cheaply made.

We returned and took a nap with both us us not feeling well. We stayed in for dinner.

Tuesday-  We drove to Sarasota to The Ringling.

This is the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, their home, Ca’D’Zan., the Bayfront Gardens and the Circus Museum.

We parked and went to the Visitor Center to purchase our tickets.  The home is a separate ticket, and only had a 1 PM tour, so we skipped that.

We started at the Tibbles Learning Center.

Harold Dunn and Howard Tibbals took pictures of the circus and made the miniatures that make up most of this building. It was pretty interesting!

Being with the Circus was really hard work. The advance people put up the entire ‘town’ and the cooks cooked and fed people all day. The people who took care of the animals and the performers did sometimes two shows in one day.  This must have been really expensive to produce these shows.  Below is part of the miniatures.

Above is the dressing area, one side for women and the other for men. The middle is where they picked up the clothing.

We walked around the minitures, and then went upstairs to look down on the exhibit.

This whole place was pretty amazing!

We stopped at the Banyan Café for lunch, sitting outside on the patio to enjoy our sandwiches.

Our next stop was in the Original Circus Museum, where we visited the Wisconsin railway car, used by John and Mable to travel the country. It was very luxurious for its time.

We were able to see several of the original cages and posters for the Midway.

Sarasota became the winter home for the Ringling Circus.

It was also where the movie premiered.

We left the museum  and walked out to the bay to the home.

We took pictures and wandered out to the bay side.

We wandered through Mable’s Rose Garden.

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Behind the rose garden was an award winning children’s park. Look closely at the swings.

They are designed as cups…

We drove home and Bob took a nice nap. I had a short one in the recliner.

We ate dinner at home and watched TV.

Wednesday- Our reading lights had arrived, so Bob installed them over our recliners. Since we had re-arranged the MH last year, the lighting has been an issue. We have had problems trying to find lights we like. We finally found some and Bob ordered them on Amazon.

We went to Costco and Yoder’s Amish Market for some fruits and picked up a take out lunch. We returned to the MH and ate lunch.

We left at around 5 to go to Dog Beach, in Venice, to watch the sunset. Roxie took the opportunity to do some digging!

Thursday-  We were out the door early to drop the dogs off at 8 AM for their grooming. We sent to the Sunlight Café for breakfast. It was located at the airport and had good ratings. Both of our meals were good, but a little pricey.

We ran north to Petco and Petsmart to try to find dog food. We finally found it at Petsmart, and used our Petco coupon for the food.

We returned and picked up the dogs, who were of course, excited to see us!

We returned home, ate left overs for lunch, and took more naps. I cooked our casserole for dinner, and we went to the Pot Luck. We played Pay Me again. Neither of us won or loss too badly.

Friday- We went shopping again, trying everywhere to find some silverware. We finally bought the Oneida Jackson at Macy’s using various discounts. 

We stopped at a car wash and washed the very dirty car.  We returned home and Bob was not feeling well and he wanted some comfort food,  so I ran to China King and picked up Chinese for dinner. I also stopped at the Red Box and picked up Sully to watch. It was very good!

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