Celebrating the Life of Ward Wolff

 If it were not for Ward Wolff

 I would not have gotten horses

 nor would we have this farm.

 In 1980 I found out that he boarded for a very reasonable price and

it got my attention in a big way.  Jenny and Steph had some horsey friends and

had the opportunity to ride with them.  All my life (I rode my friends horses when I was a kid) I dreamt of having a horse and when the Nichols were ready to sell 

Masterpiece of '79, who was not even a 2 year old yet, I took the 

plunge and bought him and immediately found Shadow.  We boarded them

at Ward's.  A year later we were driving down Lake Road, saw a farm that was for sale and drove in the driveway....the owners told us all about it and we ended up owning it, moving in in 1981.  I could finally have my horses with me.  It took a lot of work to turn this place into a horse farm.  After cleaning out the barns, we built the stalls and Gary put up the fencing....one post at a time (of course we had absolutely no experience and he did it all with a simple post hole digger). I ended up owning 6 horses of my own for over 25 years and also got into boarding to cover some of my expenses.  In 1992 I had a mid life crisis and built the indoor riding arena and started charging more board to help pay for it.  The boarding came to an end many years ago, and here we are.

 Gary planted several Moon Flower seeds and this one decided to take off.

Can't wait until it starts blooming.

 It was pretty cool this morning, so I talked Gary into going

on a trike ride with me (we have two trikes).  It felt good.

 Another new hibiscus blossom today.

 Gary had duty at the Welcome Center and I met him out at the Wolff farm

at 2pm to join Ward's family and friends.  We were greeted by one of Penny's beautiful horses.

 There must have been a hundred people there.

 Many had great stories to tell and spoke about the impact Ward had on their lives.

 This is Penny, his daughter.

When we boarded here, Ward was trailering her all over the place to play polo.

 This is Scott, Penny's brother.

  Ann, Ward's wife, is here with one of Scott's children.

 He is terribly missed by his family and friends, as he was always there when needed.

 On the way out, another one of the horses was at the gate.

 Meanwhile back at the ranch, I had evening chore duty.

 Got the girls tucked in...

 the sun was going down....

 and we had a very simple supper.

Zucchini parm, a tomato salad and some of Carina's incredible Challah bread!

Night all.

PS!
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