The last month of the year....sad to see such a great year as 2009 coming to a close, but excited to see what 2010 will bring! It's been a great month!  Our daughter graduated from the University of Illinois!!  We are so very proud of her.  The U of I is an exceptional school that is highly accredited.  Erin has worked very hard to get her degree!  She has a the rest of December off, then she is starting her master's program!  You go Erin!!!

We have all the mares under lights and also the stallions.  I'm going to play with our new ultrasound and keep a journal on where the mares are.  I love the smell of the barn in the winter...the fresh alfalfa is there, fresh pine shavings and in the early morning...the munching of the a.m. feeding!

I am so excited about all our stallions.  Sparked By Precision has such a presence about him.  I don't know how to explain it, but it is breath-taking!  Exceptional Look is living up to his name...my, oh my...what a stallion he is turning into!!!  and of course....Jamaican Hottie (what can I say...yes, he is a Hottie!)  The boys are getting to be horses this winter before they start their trip to the world show in Ft. Worth.  It is so good for them to play and run.  I wish you could show them and let them be horses...but I understand the World Championship has to come first. 

I've done more websites and met more wonderful "horse loving" people!!  I enjoy being creative and it is a relaxing thing for me.  The people I do work for are so wonderful!! I want to thank them for letting me be a part of their business in a small way!  ...and Sandy...you are a gem!!!

Getting ready for Christmas!  Misha, our new female has settled in great.  What a hoot she is!  So full of life and like Tila, loves to run!!!   I love this time of year...not the weather of course, but being with your family.  All of our children will be home for Christmas and I couldn't ask for anything more than that.  They don't understand that when they ask me what I want for Christmas, having them here, with us...is enough!!!

I wish I could tell you of the fabulous places we have traveled this year...but having all these critters keeps us close!  Have a wonderful Christmas....may all your wishes come true and my best for you and your families for a joyous New Years!  Thank you so much for letting us into your lives!

November has flown by...my goodness, where does the time go? 

I want to take the time and express my sincere gratitude for the wonderful people I call my friends!  In this day and age, good friends are the most precious gift.  May all of you, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Give thanks to all the wonderful blessings you have...I know I will~!

We are heading over to the airport to pick up our new husky girl~!  We named her Livasys Misha.  She is a very well bred female with a lineage that goes back to some well named sibes.  I'm excited to see her.  If you go to our husky page, you can see pictures of her!!  She comes all the way from South Dakota!
Sparky is glad to be home...he is eating well and playing outside!  I've had so many wonderful people come to see him and are just floored by how big he is.  Clint told me he would be better than his daddy...and I can see it in him!  Exceptional Look continues to grow and fill out.  It just amazes me how this boy grows.  Wow...he is just "Exceptional!"  Looking forward to his first breeding year.  Thank you to those of you who have already booked to him!!!  I'm excited to see his foals arrive!

I'm writing this part of my news while we are in Ft. Worth, TX at the APHA World Show.  Lots of fun, some disappointments....Sparked By Precision pulled his tendon in his back left leg on the trailer ride down here from Clints.  He was sore and wouldn't eat for 4 days!  We decided not to push him and to pull him from the show.  I felt like I could cry, so much planning, training and just anticipation.  He dropped a lot of weight, but by the 10th of November, he was eating well again.  So many people asked me where he was, as they were so excited to see him.  There is no doubt in my mind he would have come home with a championship buckle.  Just to see him, makes me gasp in pride.  He is huge, correct and so darn pretty!!!  Next year....hopefully, we will have 3 horses to take and Sparky will bring home his well deserved championship buckle along with Exceptional Look and DC Legacy!!!!!

Have seen so many friends down here!!!  Lots of wonderful food and friendship.  Was to tickled to see our friends, George and Susan Coleman win a world title with their mare.  Nick, Joyce and Drew Kooiker win a world title with their weanling stallion!!!  Larry Morse and his wife Robin, winning 2 world reserve titles.  Marco Cortez brought home a world Show top five with Absolute Precision in Amateur aged stallions.  The DC babies did such a good job and I am so proud of them!!!  When I get home, I will download all my pictures and post them!  We still have more of the show to watch.  All slot and amateur classes have shown and tomorrow (Wednesday) starts the open classes.  Our good friend, Ray Ramirez, has a yearling stallion we are going to be cheering for.  He is a very nice boy out of Classic Link and a full sister to our stallion, DC Precision!!!  I guess that makes me the colt's aunt? 

On a good note...Count down to the APHA World Show!  Clint said that Sparky is doing great.  DC won the world as a yearling...Sparky whispered in my ear..."Hey mom, I will do it for you and for dad..." 

I will only have one horse at the world show, we sold DL Beyond Precision to Marco Valle of Mexico!  "Hurley" will be showing in the biggest paint horse show in Mexico in two weeks!  

I am so very excited to be going down there!  It's so wonderful to see everyone again and the food in Ft. Worth is exceptional.  I love sushi and they have such good sushi down there.  If you are going to the APHA World show, please look us up!!  We will be stalled with Clint Fullerton.  I would love to meet new horse friends!!

I'm getting everything ready for breeding season.  Jamaican Hottie and Exceptional Look have had great responses for breeding in 2010.  Both are such awesome stallions...I'm so excited to see the babies that will come in 2011!!!  My goodness, my "Chicago Cub" side of me is shining through...wait till next year!  LOL!!!

I was so excited to get the Quarter Horse Journal.   I've never designed an ad in the quarter journal.  The ad was for Childress Quarter Horses and their fabulous stallion, Im Playin Ya.  He is such a gorgeous boy and is back end is huge!  The Childress' are wonderful people!

We just had a litter of Siberian Husky puppies! They aren't even a week old and all are sold!  I try very hard to have good dogs, with good qualities and great temperaments.  Take a look on our Siberian Husky page!  I need to get new pictures of Tila!  Everyone that sees her now, says, "Oh, she's grown!"  Every time I try to new picture of her, she is running and her tongue is flying in the wind!  She is such a great dog and such a good girl.  I'm excited about the puppies she will have!!

I will have lots to write in November!  Please, if you are going to the Paint World Show, please look me up!  I will be the short lady with the cute little Maltese dog in my arms!  HaaaHaaaa!!

Deb Haarmann's DC weanling filly won the prestigious Iowa Breeders Futurity.  Brian Lusk and his DC weanling filly won the Zone One Paint-O-Rama, and Dusty and Stephanie Feller continue to win with their DC and Hottie weanlings.  Please visit our Accomplishments page to see all the winners!  I am so proud of these horses and their owners.  Thank you for preserving the memory of DC Precision by showing your gorgeous babies!  Jamaican Hottie and I would also like to thank the owners who are showing their offspring and winning!  It is truly an honor to be a part of all this!

Here are a couple of pictures of Bella taken at the IL AQHA Futurity!  She was 5th over all in the Open and the SSA classes. We were right up there with the big guys!  Not bad for her first time out!  A big thank you to Allen Quarter Horses for all your hard work.  She made me proud!

I made a whirl wind trip to West Virginia to pick up a new mare!  What beautiful country it is.  Big mountains, rolling hills...God's Country.  So much different that our flat Illinois land!  We want to welcome SSF This Girls Cool!  "Cherry" is a 3 year old mare, NN, out of Kid Coolsified who is a 2X World Champion and a 4X Congress Champion.  Her dam, Totally Golden Girl, is a producer of multiple winners and a 7 X World Champion!  I am planning on breeding her Exceptional Look!  Thank you Joe for meeting me in West Virginia...what a whirlwind trip!  We now have North Carolina horse friends!!!!

We had our last futurity, the IL Paint Horse Association Futurity last weekend. (September 26) Our new colt, DC Legacy got a 4 firsts to win the Late Weanling Colt Class!!  I was so proud of him!  I also got to bring him home...go to his page to see new pictures I took of him outside playing. DC Legacy.  I was very proud to be his new owner.  When I get futurity pictures, I will post them.  DC and Hottie babies did a great job this year at the futurities.  Next is our APHA World Show!
 

A new quarter filly has joined our Double L Acre's family...Wincredible Charm is a gorgeous AQHA chestnut filly.  Her grandsire is Wincredible and her other grandsire is Kid Clusified!  She is a very elegant filly and I will enjoy watching her grow!!  Thank you to Alan and Ruth for raising such a great girl.  Now we have new friends in Iowa~!!!

September is almost over and we finally have some cooler weather.  I think I would like fall better if winter didn't follow!  LOL!!!  I want to thank all the owners that have shown their DC and Hottie babies!  Without you, we would not be where we are!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart....Vicki
 

I finally got to see our new boy in person, DC Legacy.  All I can say is "WOW!"  He is everything I wanted and more.  I still can't believe he is NN with all his muscle~!  I also go to see Dusty and Stephanie's Jamaican Hottie bay overo filly, Hot N How.  What a very pretty filly...elegant...and absolutely gorgeous!  Both these babies are double registered.

I've talked to Clint Fullerton and he thinks Sparked By Precision will be hard to beat at the APHA Fall Championship show!  How exciting!!!  Olan Parker is fitting on and showing DL Beyond Precision.  I can't wait to see them!!!  We decided to wait and show Exceptional Look and DC Legacy at the 2011 APHA World Show.  I couldn't show 2 horses in Amateur 2yo stallions at the same time. 

Kent and Dawn Allen of Allen Quarter Horses are fitting on my weanling, Jamaican Me a Hottie.  I don't have any new pictures of her, but they say she is going to be a good one.  The quarter horse futurity is in September 10-12 in DuQuoin, IL.

I've decided to put a couple of my broodmares up for sale.  You can see them on our for sale page.  They are such sweet mares.  It's hard to part with animals that you love.  I've been fortunate to find loving homes for the horses I have sold.  Good people!

Jamaican Hot Toddy leaves the first of September for her new home in Maryland.  I have enjoyed watching her grow!  What a gorgeous filly!  I think Elizabeth will do really well in the AQHA circuit with her!  I will miss her, as she nickers to me when I go into the barn!  Hottie has thrown some gorgeous babies and I am proud to own him.

I'm so excited...I finally purchased my own ultrasound machine.  Now I have to figure out how to use it!  LOL!!!  My friend, Sandy, said if I come up to visit her, she will show me how. I think I will take her up on that!  I've never been up to Ellis Quarter Horses and am looking forward to seeing Sandy, Molly and her beautiful horses!

I am so excited!!!  Dusty and Stephanie Feller sold us their awesome, world caliber DC colt!  I even got to pick out his name...DC Legacy!  "DC" will join our line up of breeding stallions.  When I saw this colt, I saw my big guy!  He is out of a great Sierra Te mare that is as wide as she is tall~!

Click on pictures to enlarge!

Dusty and Stephanie will continue to show him this fall.  Next year, he will go down to Clint Fullerton's to be fit for the world show, next November.  Thank you Dusty and Stephanie...you've made my life whole again!!! 

We just got the DNA tests back on our new colt, DC Legacy (above).  He is HYPP/NN.  I just can't believe it.  This boy has 3 layers of muscle.  I would have bet my truck that he was HYPP/NH.  I've never seen a horse with this much muscle and be NN.  I'm hoping he will pass this on to his foals some day.  Can you imagine....all that true muscle without the HYPP gene?

I wanted to congratulate Krissy Sorentino on all her wins with her yearling stallion, Jamaican Eclipse!  Go to our accomplishments page and see all this young man has won.  Krissy has done an outstanding job with him.  There hasn't been too many shows he has not swept the board with first places!  Thank you Krissy for all your effort!!!!

I take my three young stallions down to Clint Fullerton's on July !st!  I am so excited~!  I can't wait for November and the fall show!  My wealing filly, Jamaican Me A Hottie, is going to Allen Quarter horses next week to get her fit for the futurities and the AQHA Congress Show.  I wish I were able to fit my horses, but there is so much to do here, that it isn't possible this year!

I feel like a true "Cub Fan."  I can't wait for next year!  I only bred 3 mares this year, as I wanted to leave the bunch open to breed to my coming three year olds for 2011~!  After DC died, it put a large hole in my heart and I wasn't up for breeding this year.  I'm starting to feel "alive" again hoping for next year!

My friend, Marion Blakefield has wonderful news!!!  She purchased a gorgeous colt from Sandy Ellis out of her late stallion, JMK Malibu Ken!  Sandy was so excited to see Marion smile again...so was I!  Her new boy, The Malibu Kid, will start his show season as a yearling!  I wish her much luck and I know her "Kid" will make her proud!  Marion's heart and my heart were both broken when our beloved stallions passed away.  I hope, for each of us, our new boys will help fill the gap left by our guys!

Looking forward to July...have lots planned.  Will fill you in with the details later!!!  Again...thank you to all the wonderful people who believe in Jamaican Hottie as a sire!  He won't let you down!
 

On a sad note, my friend, Marion lost her beloved stallion, JMK Malibu Ken on April 3.  "Kenny" was such a beautiful boy...reminded me so much of DC.  He was only 7 years old, the same age DC was when he passed away.  It is so hard to lose a great stallion and my thoughts and prayers are with she and Bill.  DC has a buddy now and I can picture both of them running in green pastures!  Your heart will heal Marion, as you see his foals.  The look in their eyes will tell you Kenny is still watching over you!

Justa Seductress, "Fanny," blessed us with a coal black filly this morning!  "Piper" was born on 4.5.09 at 6:00 a.m.  She is so beautiful!  I've never had a black horse before, so this was exciting for me!  She reminds me of the horse, Black Beauty!  Long elegant legs, huge hip like mom and dad, and big doe eyes like dad!

On the 14th, "Coolie," blessed us with a bay filly!  She is breathtaking!!!  How lucky I have been.  Hottie is throwing quality every step of the way!!

To the left is "Justa Jamaican Hottie - Piper" out of Hottie and Justa Seductress filly.  To the right is "Jamaican Hot Toddy- BeBe",  Im A School Skip and Hottie's filly!  Both fillies have been sold!  "Piper" will find her new home in the state of Washington!

" BeBe" will find her new home in Maryland!  Thank you everyone for believing in the quality we have here.  The wonderful woman who purchased BeBe told me that she should have bought a colt from me last year and this year she had to have a foal from us this year!  That is the highest form of a compliment I could ever ask for!!!

I had my birthday this month and so did my daughter, but I can say she is a lot younger!  The warm weather is finally here and it is fabulous!  We are waiting on one more baby...my last DC baby.  Needless to say, I'm very excited!!! 

Our good friend, Johnny Roberts, died yesterday, 02.05.09 at 3:00 p.m.  He bravely put up a fight with colon cancer.  Anyone who showed in Illinois, knew him.  Johnny, his wife Annie, and daughter Janay were always showing and winning!!

Johnny always had a kind word to say about everyone. He will be sadly missed and was much loved by all his friends. "Johnny, we know you are in a better place and finally free of pain.  Take care of DC up there for me, okay...I know you will handle him well, until we all meet again."

Casinos Ms Elite gave birth to a gorgeous bay AQHA filly.  I was so sure she was having a colt, that I called her a he at first!  This baby is so tall, that I probably should have names her Ms Stilts! LOL...but I named her after the young girl in the books Twilight, Bella.  When I saw her, I knew she would be NH like her dam, but was surprised and delighted to see she was NN.  Now I can keep her to breed to my upcoming stallions! I'm looking forward to showing at some quarter shows with her.  Jamaican Hottie did good on this one!

On a sad note, we lost MIss Antebellum's colt.  He came a month early, a beautiful gray stud colt.  We think her progesterone levels drop the end of her pregnancy, causing her to give birth early.  Next year, we will put her on Regumate for the entire time.  She was my only baby coming from DC.  I didn't get to care for him, but I feel better knowing he up with Dad, running through the green fields!

Hottie also is the proud daddy of his first double registered, APHA, AQHA bay overo filly.  Dusty and Stephanie Feller bred their DR mare to him and wow...what a baby!!  There aren't a lot of bay overos out there and she is a

exceptional one!  I'm proud of you Hottie!  This filly is NN to boot!

I've been busy collecting the stallions and they have been such good boys.  Hottie and Cooper are such gentlemen in the breeding room!  I love the way Cooper is maturing.  He has so much muscle on him, but he is a just a baby doll.  Hottie has always been a sweetheart, so I can brag on him anytime!

Waiting on Toot N For The Bucks to foal out.  She is due tomorrow, the 27th, but I think she will be later.  Her bag is only 3/4 full.  But the poor girl is so big and so cranky.  I remember what it felt like the last few days, and I can't say I blame her!!  Hoping for March to bring in some spring weather!

Happy New Year everyone!  A new year, new dreams, new plans...I'm looking forward to 2009.  Every time I go to the barn, I am so thrilled to see how the yearling colts are turning into 2 year olds and the weanling into a yearling!  To watch them grow and mature is truly amazing!  I feel so blessed that I am in charge of all these wonderful creatures.  They put so much love into my life!

The husky puppies are now gone.  How quiet it is without them.  They are so much fun to have around.  It is so nice to meet all the wonderful husky families.  Each family takes home a small part of Double L Acres!

This December and January hasn't been to bad, weather wise.  I can handle the temperatures in the 30's!  We have about 3 weeks before "Casinos Ms Elite" aka Ellie foals.  Ellie is bred to Jamaican Hottie.  This will be our first foal of 2009!

Take a look at the great stallions we are standing this year.  Carrying on the tradition with DC's son and my wonderful AQHA stallion, Jamaican Hottie.  I think I will breed a couple of my mares to Exceptional Look, "Kid," and DL Beyond Precision, "Hurley."  I will start fitting on them for the 2009 show season beginning of February.  They look pretty darn good now, so I'm not sure how much more I can do!  Hurly is 16hands in the rear and Kid is 15-3 hands in the rear!  Sparky, "Sparked By Precision," is a whooping 15-1 hands in the rear end!  They have grown so much!

My three guys, Exceptional Look, DL Beyond Precision and Sparked By Precision will be going to the APHA Fall Championship show.  Clint Fullerton has agreed to show all of them!  They will probably leave here for Clint's in July.  Erin and I want to show them at some of our Regional shows before that.

Well, Ellie is due today...but nothing yet!  She hasn't made me totally crazy by lack of sleep.  I can't wait to see this baby!

Two of my babies went to their new homes this month and I made 4 new friends!  Tammi and Jack Evans purchased Justa Impressive and he will be shown in Colorado!  Tammi sent Jack to pick the big guy up, so we got to meet him.  The poor guy drove all night and was exhausted, but he still played Wii with us!  What a guy!!!  I talk to Tammi on the phone to keep up with her baby and she is a gem!

Jamaican Eclipse left today (1.31.09) for his new show home in Wisconsin. Krissy Sorrentino and her trainer, Tina Bothum came to pick him up!  Those two girls are really fun to be around!  They promised to come back this summer and we are going shopping at Pards!  WeeeeeWhooooo!