Sorting Out

No immediate progress on the money front today, but I finally started making headway at some of my various projects that have been piling up.

I got my horse sales list recreated and sent out. I worked on two of the websites I'd promised people. I spent a bunch of time on the phone with my sister Donna sorting out which horses I will send up to her house if I can't sell them here soon.

It's very hard to decide which horses to keep without being able to see what kind of foals they'll produce with Senter.

For instance, I'm not particularly bonded with my mare Bonnie, but the foal she produced this year (to Art Deco, a famous Dutch Warmblood stallion) is spectacular. If she will produce that kind of foal with Senter as well, she would be a valuable one to keep, even if she's not my favorite. She's registered AND homozygous for tobiano, so those are marks in her favor.

Then there's Callisto. I picked her when she was a little weanling, and have raised her for two years now. She's turning out SO beautifully, awesome gaits and personality, and is going to be very tall. But she's gray, which is not a plus in a pinto broodmare, since she'll pass that gray on to half her foals.

Of course, the palomino and buckskin fillies, Torchsong and Callista, are high on my list to keep, simply because of their desirable color, their height, and the fact that they too are homozygous tobiano. But they are still young---I have no proof of what kind of foals they'll produce with Senter.

The only ones that I KNOW I'm not parting with are the two Art Deco fillies, Glory and Grace, and my stallion Senter. Other than that, it's all up in the air. How many can I sell? How many can Donna find homes for? How many can I afford to keep? What's the best business decision? What's the best emotional decision? When emotion and business decisions hang in balance, how do you decide between them?

With so much indecision and waiting going on, it was a relief to make some solid progress on some of my concrete, hands-on projects today. At least I can feel like I accomplished something today!