b'January 2024 from the Publisher5Ask the Vet: Nothing to Sneeze At HAPPY NEW YEAR 2024!7COVER FEATURE: Scottsdale Arabian Whats your plan, your journey for the new Horse Show & Shopping Expo year? For a fleeting moment, I thought about writing about politics. Nah, were 9Lee Anderson: Did You Know, going to get our fill in 2024. There is a 9 In the Old West. 11 projected media spending of 15.4 billion 11John Samsill: From the Back of the Box dollars on the 2024 election. Can you come up with ways for that money to be better spent than on the care and grooming 12Cowboy Wisdom: Blown Stirrup of political weasels?14 Cowgirl With A Pen: Reset Button Wait, I have a better idea. How about an article about 18Alan Rockman: Jews in the Old West, Part 7 attending college, education, and life on campus and how 23NEW! Future Farmers of America: Agriculture many under-educated, spoiled, rebellious, think they know everything people graduate or drop out? Hold on a minute, Education and FFA Thriving in Arizona there are young people who are achievers, do good for 24AZ Road Trip: Lake Havasu City humanity, and that will make the world a better place. Yes, 23 26Crossword / Sudoku / Cowboy Comic but the big problem is that the media builds up and gives a spotlight to the ones protesting, the woke kids trying to 31 28Arizona Real Country Equine Supply Source 24 get attention, the underachievers, the disrupting behavior, Running the Race: Get After 2024 Like You Want To and the agenda-driven nut job professors. The real student and professor achievers, the creative, hard-working ones Win Something! are just background and not in the media spotlight. Prime 32Jim & Bobbi Jeen Olsons Collectors Corner: Collecting Spurs example, watch a college sporting event on TV and see the 34Bob Boze Bell: True West Moments NCAA commercial that does spotlight some student athletes. Notice 1/4 of the commercial is used to promote protesting 36 Frank & Dotties Real Country Recipes which they say is the college way of life these days. Those 38Bridgette Crosby: Happy 2024! A New Year of commercials are a disgrace to any athlete who puts in so much of their life and work to be the best at what they do.Gardening Awaits Us!42Lee Anderson: Do You Communicate With I havent landed on a topic yet. How about the Arizona wayof life? Didnt we all move to Arizona because of the weather, Your Horse or To Your Horse? the proximity to just about anything, the dry air, and the 45DIY: Custom Steel DIY Barndominiums 42 beauty that the state offers? Everything changes, right? Did 46Randy Miller: Your Constitutions you know that Phoenix has had a century of growth with no decline at all? In 1980 Phoenix had a population of 1.4 49Real Estate: The Evolution of Mortgage Interest million, in 1990 Phoenixs population was 2 million, in 2000 Rates in the US and Their Impact on Housing Prices the Phoenix population was 2.9 million and as of last year, 2023, the Phoenix population was 4.7 million people. No 51Opt Outside Photo Contestmatter where you drive in Arizona, you see single-family 52May Pascoe: When A Crazed Gunman homes, apartments, industrial, and commercial buildings Shot Up A Cattlemans Meet In Douglas being constructed. Maybe you moved from a bigger city and where getting on a freeway moving 10 mph is a daily 54A Cowboy Rests in Heaven: Laron experience. Dont even get me started about where the water Jarvis LJ Dewitt will come from to sustain the growth or the conservative cowboy way of life that Arizona is so famous for. However, 5796.3 Real Country Upcoming Concerts 52 we still have magnificent weather. If only those hundreds of 58Justin Legler: Happy New Year, Thats jets would stop flying over our state spraying whatever they One Whipped Chicken, Where Did America Go are spraying on us.60 AHSRA Results: Taylor I still really dont have one clear item to write about that is really pressing. Everyone has their own list of what is 36 634-H: Trick or Treat So Others Can Eat important and that list can change every day as life plays out.67Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari I guess we can get up each morning with a positive attitude, ParkNew Year, New Baby! hop in the shower to clean off the dirt from the previous day, get dressed for what the new day will bring, look at the plan, 69 News from Copper State Peruvian put one foot in front of the other, and press on. That reminds Horse Clubme of this poem my mom gave me years ago:71Glendale Equestrian Ride ReportLife is a journey, a never-ending road. We all start off young 75Arena Directory and naive, not knowing whats in store. As we grow older and 76 Taking Care of Business: wiser, we learn to take life as it comes. Some days are good, and some are bad, but its all a part of the journey. Theres no Special Advertiser Section telling what lies ahead, so we have to enjoy the ride. For life 77Classified Ads is a precious gift and we only get one chance.78 Advertiser Index 6781 80January 2024 Equine Event Calendar Mike Barna, Publisher 81 January Events Around the State ArizonaRealCountryMagazine@gmail.com4 January 2024'