Halloween 2008

After the clean up from Ike was completed, and the weather started to take a turn to fall, the time for Hickman Ranch's third annual Halloween costume party was upon us. The weather cooperated and it was a beautiful fall evening and the costumes were nothing short of both fantastic as well as ingenious to say the least. To see all the creativity for this year pleas view the web album . Or if you prefer just click on the slide show below to see in a larger format.

Hurricane Ike

As all who live in this area know, on the evening of September 12th - 13, we were hit by hurricane Ike. For the week prior, Ike's landfall was predicted to be as far ranging as the Louisiana - Texas border to Brownsville, TX. so there was no way to predict where a safe area to evacuate the horses would be. We decided then to batten down the hatches, double the mooring lines (sorry, retired Coast Guard Officer coming through) and weather in place. After lashing everything down and putting the horses to pasture, the family and I went to my brother-in-laws office building in Houston to weather the storm. After the storm passed and the water in town receded enough for us to leave, we returned to asses the damage and were extremely pleased to see first off that no animals suffered any harm and for the intensity of the storm, the damage was mercifully light. Mostly downed trees, some roof damage and some fence work. We want to thank all of our dear friends and boarders that came by after the storm to help remove the trees, clean up the debris and drop off the food that kept us going. Below is a slide show taken the day after the storm. Once again for all those that came by and helped get the ranch back in operational order, a deep felt and from the heart 'Thanks partner!"

Hickman Ranch has a World Champion

Through the past year, we have been competing with Junior (left in the photo) and Sandy in Palomino Association horse shows. Both horses qualified to attend the Palomino World competition held in Tulsa, OK this past July. Renee showed both horses for the Ranch with Junior facing extremely stiff competition in his events and while never placing "In the money", gained valuable experience and was a finalist in Western Riding. Sandy, who was really taken along to be a companion to Junior while on the road has a talent for being always the fastest to get to the gate when we are bringing the horses in from the pasture for feeding-time. This inherent athleticism held in him in good stead for the speed events where he won the Flag Race and is now the 2008 Palomino World champion for that event. And yes...back at the Ranch, he still is first to come in for the feed bag.

Kay's little Fishing Trip

OK, I know I am way behind in updating this Blog, but with World Palomino shows, State 4-H, my work and a little windstorm called "Ike" - things have been busy. Anyway, back in May, Kay made a trip with several of her girlfriends to Costa Rica for a much needed vacation, during the trip, they went deep-sea fishing and Kay came back with this 'Fish-story" of the Sailfish she had caught, but no pictures on the camera to prove it. Well at long last we have photographic proof that the story is indeed not a fish-tale and from the size of the fish, Kay did not follow the usual fisherman's habit of enhancing the tale with each telling...