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Star "I have us a free horse for  camp." It was Chris talking and I knew she had been hard at work. Camp was approaching fast, and due to a late onslaught of campers, we were nervous that the horse string that we were camp starting with would not cover our enrollment. This situation had presented itself before, and I knew from past experiences that there were no good solutions for it. With no time to search the ads and go to private households, our only option would be the horse auction that I had used so many times before. This close to camp however, what with quarantining anything that came in, and time for new horses to adjust to camp, and us to adjust to them, auction horses had proved a poor choice. So, when Chris said that she had found a "free" horse, it sounded like an interesting proposition. "Linda said we could use Star." Chris went on, "only hitch is, she wants him back at the end of the summer." Could my life get any better? Not only did Chris have an offer of a free horse, but one that would only be here during the summer camp season, and then disappear for the other 9 months. It was a dream come true. Linda was an old time customer to Cedar Lodge who kept her horses at home. Like many of our customers with horses at home, she had found herself in the deleima of just what to do with older horses that are still good and healthy, but maybe just not young, sound and strong enough for the work you want them to do. We all have found ourselves in that same deliema, and so could sympathize with Linda's search for something for Star to do. Star is up on age and his main job at camp is the walk, trot beginners and beginning canter riders. That's ok however, because we have enough riders at the level to keep in very busy. Star worked at Cedar Lodge for two summers in the "just for the summer" category. He was such a hit that we asked to use him again and again. It was, we thought a win, win situation. We took Star June 1st, fed and took care of him for free, then we gave him back September 1st, when Star went home for a 8 month vacation. Only problem was that Linda enjoyed her time without Star so much, that she started to imagine just how nice her farm would be, one horse smaller. So in 2007, when Chris made her traditional September 1st phone call to Linda to tell him we were ready for Star to go home for the winter, Linda said, “No”.  She had decided it was time for Star to find a new home. Of course, we were Linda’s first choice for that home, but if we weren’t interested, Star would be finding a different new home. Chris and I talked. We weren’t planning on a new horse and we REALLY liked last year’s arrangement, but Star is a favorite and works hard all summer. We called Linda back and told her we would be happy (just a bit of grumbling here)  to give Star a new home, and so…….Star is now a CL horse! That of course means more work for me you know, as I now had to give Star is own personal biography. I will have to ask Linda what Star did for his first 20 years and add that in as well, but I didn't want a season to go by without you getting a chance to get to know him. I think he's well worth the time.