Every year, I put together some wacky Christmas card that involves my animals. But the picture I took of my pony Jackie, wrapped in Christmas lights, is by far my favorite! She was a very patient and quite bombproof pony, who would stand anywhere for some food. Some Equine Senior in the snow was all it took to get this one done. My husband also came up with the greatest byline for this photo, "Redneck Electric Fence!" Although Jackie is sadly no longer with us, she lives on in our Christmas memories and in the hearts of the many kids she gave pony rides to. On another note, as we wrap up 2011 and look forward to 2012, we continue to be very busy at the research farm. We are writing protocols for our new projects and we already have 40 weeks of research on the calendar and booked for the new year. That does not include our 5 months of foaling and the rebreeding of our broodmare herd. Yes, we are ambitious, but we really love what we do.
Mike and I are also trying to get caught up with writing all of our final research reports. Its an important step and we struggle to keep up! Afterall, in 2011, our team completed 15 research projects at Longview, have 3 ongoing projects at Universities, completed 7 field trials, successfully helped to launch our Equine Senior Active (http://www.stillactive.com/) product, and published 4 extended abstracts with two more full-length papers in the works.
So now is a good time to reflect on our successful 2011 and look forward to 2012. And in between, we wish you the happiest of holidays, and hope you have some time to spend with your families- human, animal and otherwise!
