News

2007 found us planning a May wedding for our daughter Melissa.

This included planning and hosting the shower, ordering dresses and food, and general
wedding chaos!

On top of this, Dana had ankle surgery, which kept her off her feet for 6 weeks in
February, thank heaven the cast came off before the wedding shower.

Add to that Dana started a new job, with all the related training and overtime, in April.

With the wedding over, the babies came! We had 3 gorgeous colts, and a fantastic
filly out of a new mare, Grosshills Dandy's Inspiration - yep,

a RHOTEN'S LITTLE DANDY daughter! Plus the filly's sire is none other than the
multi AMHA National Champion CANDYLANDS BEST KEPT SECREAT! We
are thrilled with her!

With all this time on our hands, we decided to look for some mares for our herd. We
found 2 outstanding individuals - Grosshill's Dandy's Inspiration, a direct daughter of
Rhoten's Little Dandy, heavy in foal to Candyland's Best Kept Secreat. She produced
an outstanding filly. In the words of Darin Southwick, Secreat's owner - the best filly
ever sired by him.

Our next purchase has been 2 years in the making - Ranger's Pink Champagne -
Paige. We found Paige 2 years ago, but missed her - she was already sold. It was
purely fate that we found her again for sale, and quickly made the deal. She's
beautiful in body and mind, and we are thrilled to have her here.

June found us in full show mode. We had a very successful summer, but decided
against Nationals - we were just too tired! One highlight was the Darke County Fair in
Ohio. Interesting hotel - the faucet fell off the bathtub. Made it a bit difficult to
shower!

Since Nationals were out, what to do?? Heck - let's remodel the house! So we spent 2
months completely redoing the outside of our home. It looks spectacular! It's so
different, my mother has driven by twice without recognizing it.

About this time, Lew starts thinking about retirement. How does 1/1/09 sound?
Unfortunately Dana won't be able to retire until 2010, but that will work.

September - let's take a breath. Guess what? Our son came and said HE'S getting
married in 2008! OK - let's start again!

The year's not over yet - fast forward to December 4th. That's the day Dana found
out her job was eliminated, but the good news is she will be able to retire! About 2
years sooner than anticipated, but we'll deal with it! So 6/30/08 will be her last day at
Dow Chemical after 33 years.

Just a couple of weeks later, Lew gets a promotion - now HE'S working until 2010
LOL.

CHRISTMAS - a wonderful family holiday!

12/28 - Lew decides to surprise Dana with a car - a 2005 Equinox. 12/29 On the way
to the doctor with a severe cold, Dana puts it in the ditch. NO DAMAGE!!

We decide the Equinox isn't for us - so we trade it in for a Trailerblazer. Love it!

Thank goodness THIS year is over!!

With retirement just around the corner, we're focusing on showing this year!

Our first AMHR show was the West Michigan Miniature Horse Club -

Grand Champion Stallion - ERL Zeus Lightning Bolt - a feat he repeated

at the Mid-Michigan Hackney show 2 weeks later.

This earned his ticket to AMHR Nationals in September.

LDS Buckeroo Kid showed well, winning his stallion class, and

solid color under both judges. We are going to let him mature this year,

and bring him out in halter and driving in 2009

Astartes Mohawks Raging Storm did well in driving, but needs a little work.

We are hoping for Nationals, but the next 6 weeks will tell if he

gets the golden ticket also!