A mid-winter note from Carol and Idyll

February 14, 2004
Hello!! So sorry I have not written sooner. So busy and so cold!! How about you? I keep hearing about your weather and I must admit our weather seems a bit milder. Not by much, however. I want to update you on Idyll, my wonderful little boy. So, here are a few of my favorite things:

He has a ball in his paddock which has become his favorite toy. He tosses it outside the fence and then I toss it back. We have a great time and he is SO proud of himself!!

He stands in his stall when I bring him in with his halter and lead until I tell him to move. I can walk around him..pick up his feet..I can take off the halter and lead..until I say OK, he stands..even with food in his dish.

He loves Sam. He plays with him all day. Of course Sam does not respond in the manner I am sure Idyll would like. I look out and Sam's tail is straight out behind him with a little chestnut gelding on the other end. Another game is the bite and run. Sam REALLY loves that one..NOT!! But Sam has been a patient and perhaps too tolerant companion. We are fortunate and so is Idyll.

We bought him a new blanket and he wears it bravely and proudly outside. I watch carefully and it has been a good experience for the harness..all the straps and noises. He now lets me do all of this while standing without ties..a bright boy.

He comes complete with little boy inquisitiveness and all the bumps and bruises that associated with.."ummm..what is this new thing and how can I get into trouble"? He bumped his eye and had a small swelling. Being the worrier that I am, I had the vet look just to make certain all was well..It was. The vet looked in his mouth and had to grab his tongue to do so. Idyll did well. After, the vet told me I had a very intelligent animal. But we already knew that, didn't we?

He wants more than anything to taste the cat, Winston and spends much time following him around along the fence line to do so. Perhaps one day..

He is filling out and growing up. His head is drop dead gorgeous with a bright eye and most important..he is kind.

He thinks he is wonderful and we do too!! Thank you so much Royal and Arista..and his grandparents..I am excited about driving..I just think he can and will do well..

Hope all is well with you and the "gang"..Fondly..Carol

 Update as of June 5, 2003

We are devastated to report that FF Gai Arista passed away on the evening of Wednesday, May 28, 2003, at approximately 8:15 PM. We were all with her in the barn when she had to depart this world for the Rainbow Bridge. Her presence will be with us forever, and we were with her during her last moments. She died nearly instantly from an apparent embolism and hopefully, she suffered no pain.

Idyll had a rough couple of days as we struggled to find the best way to help him survive. It has been a one-day-at a time challenge, but so far so good as Idyll  thrives on milk replacer  and gets his daily exercise running along with us as we put the other horses out each day. He bravely leads the front end loader as we bring sawdust and straw into the barn from our arena. He has been sacked out, he crosses water, and he has no fear as long as one of us is with him. We let him visit outside with a selected few of his own equine peers, but we are careful to supervise. We are pretty protective grandparents, you must understand.

More than ever, the name of Idyll seems appropriate in so many ways for this survivor. In the beginning, when we first thought of the name, it was because there are so many references to royalty and to King Arthur in his pedigree. We are reminded of his grandsire, HRH Arthur, who stood as a sire in the 1970s in Burton, Ohio, and then, along with the Squire Family, seemed to fade into the mists.

Even before the loss of dear Arista, we were reminded of "The Idylls of the King," written by then Poet Laureate of England, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, after the death of Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, at an early age. Some of those lines by Tennyson recall a more tender age when honor, decency, and truth may have prevailed. For instance, Tennyson wrote in lines 1345-1351 the following characterization of  Lancelot in the words of King Arthur:


Lancelot, my Lancelot, thou in whom I have
Most joy and most affiance, for I know
What thou hast been in battle by my side,
And many a time have watched thee at the tilt
Strike down the lusty and long practiced  knight
And let the younger unskilled go by
To win his honor and to make his name.

We were also beguiled by Tennyson's descriptions of the knight from Part 2 of "The Lady of Shalott":

The gemmy bridle glittered free
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridle bells rang merrily
As he rode down to Camelot;
And from his blazoned baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung.
And as he rode his armor rung,
Beside remote Shalott.
. . .
His broad clear brow in sunlight glowed:
On burnished hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flowed
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
As he rode down to Camelot.

And after all that has happened, all that we really can think about as Idyll copes with his new destiny is that

"for one brief, shining moment here in Camelot", Idyll and Arista were together  and that she loved him. We will love him for her.

The snow may never slush upon the hillside
By nine PM the moonlight must appear
In short, there's simply not a more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering, Than here in Camelot.

--Lerner and Lowe's "Camelot"

A Tribute to Fadjur and Ferzon
The Arabian Horse in Literature

For more information on this baby please email us at wiwfarm@hotmail.com. If all else fails call 440-996-0110

At Windt im Wald Farm we are preservationist Arabian horse breeders. specializing in Crabbet/CMK bloodlines. We also provide Arabian horse training and riding lessons.