Arnold is fascinating. He escaped with his family as a refugee from Holland in the 40's, after having been living in a chicken house for a year. His family arrived in Canada after a brief stay in Mexico. He is fluent in several language, but has a hard time writing in any of them. He has dairy farmed, and been a part-time horse dealer, all his grown life in Prince Edward County. He is a colourful character, rough in some ways ... then you hear the strains of Dutch choral music emanating from his cozy farmhouse (yes, the one we tried to buy :-) ...). He is a gifted storyteller, and embellishes those stories shamelessly and with ease. He's 77 this year, and although occasionally talks of retiring (mostly motivated by his "girlfriends") he knows, truly, that he would rot in town or in a senior's home. His desire is to go while out on his tractor, or working with his horses. As brusque as he is sometimes with people (although mellowing with age), he loves his horses profoundly. Check out the look in his eyes for his "pups" (his nickname for the young horses he has). More recently, he has started volunteering for the local food bank.
Here is Alison grooming the chestnut filly. She's probably a quarter horse, and "somehow" came home with Arnold from the last sale. She's quite lovely, and rock-solid calm for a young horse.
And just for the record, Arnold didn't accept Alison's offer of $150 :-).
1 comment:
Aw, shucks. That would've been a steal, I think. Beautiful horse.
Nice to finally meet Arnold. I'm hoping he'll go out as he wishes, too. DH's grandfather died next to his tractor. With his boots on, as they say.
Post a Comment