Chapter 1:
How do you say goodbye to Arizona? After over three decades, we wanted a change. What we ended up doing defies logic to people who live in our new, destination state of Missouri.
I guess I was just tired of the long summers. I was tired of the brown, hot, dry ground my horses stood in when they weren’t rescued and put under shade, barn misters, and fans. Our horses stayed outside in their turnouts for most of their days, until summer hit with a vengeance. That burning sun and dry, dusty air made me long for a cool breeze that smelled of fresh cut grass.
We sold our house of 14 years, a nice ranch we’d built from scratch, complete with a ten stall barn and a giant arena, facing a huge open field we thought we’d trail ride on all the time. For the first few years in Wittmann, we were constantly assaulted by the sounds of quads behind our house, up close to our back fence line, and we knew there was no way we’d take a horse out there for a nice, calm trail ride.
I began an online search of horse properties in the Midwest for the sole purpose of being driveable to both of my sisters who lived in Chicago and NW Indiana. It was a dream in many ways, to be able to see them again constantly just by hopping in the car for a measly six hour drive.
Thanks to fantastic, super positive realtors Melanie and Eric Duffin, our house was sold out from under us before we could say “oh my gosh, we are really moving!”
Next came the horse move. Having seven head presented a bit of a challenge. Who do we trust? Luckily I made contact with an Arabian horse trainer, John McCarty, who planned to be in Scottsdale for the February Arabian show. We were invited to meet him and view his “barn on wheels” which would be our horses’ transportation to our new residence.
We settled on a 12 acre property in Southeast Missouri, one hour from Paducah, Kentucky. We had never been to this town of Sikeston before, but the property had what we wanted. Still, we made the trip to St Louis and then drove the rest of the way to Sikeston, viewed the barn, did the cursory glance at the house, and made an offer. As they say among horse people, “we don’t care what the house looks like as long as there is a good barn and fencing”.
Our experience since then is full of stories, which are punctuated by Missourians asking “why did you leave Arizona to move HERE?????”
Southern Hospitality at its warmest!
End of Chapter 1. To be continued…..
