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FOREIGN EXCHANGE TURTLES YOU WON’T FIND TYPICAL GUESTS AT THIS EXHIBITOR’S HOME. BY CHRISTINE HAMILTON, FIELD EDITOR Foreign exchange turtles? Ooops, that should be foreign exchange students and rescue turtles. And they make Glen and Fon Laughlin’s home in Oak Point, Texas, unique. Fon shows in western riding and trail, and the Laughlins have a small barn on their place with a few horses. About eight or 10 years ago, Glen started adding a different sort of resident to the barn – turtles. “He would see turtles on the side of the road and pick them up if they had been run over or injured in some way,” Fon explained. “Then people started calling him and asking for help, saying things like, 'I bought this turtle for my daughter and now it’s the size of the dining room table.' ” Injured turtles stay in their barn with Fon’s show horse, Zip Along Home, aka “Homer,” because the barn is heated and cooled; they just turn the fly spray system off when turtles are there. Homer doesn’t mind them at all. “They get large, and they require special care and maintenance just like horses,” Fon continued. “Sometimes we get rescues in that have been mis-fed. People often feed them too much protein – they are not supposed to have dog food. The correct feeding is more fruits and vegetables, otherwise their shells start to dip in and they can die from malnutrition. “We get them when people don’t know what to do, and there aren’t a lot of turtle vets. Glen has just ended up finding ways to rescue them.” Married for 15 years, Fon is a real estate lawyer and Glen works in the same office. Fon shows in western riding and trail, and picked her occupation so she could work around a show schedule. They don’t have children of their own, but for 14 years now they have kept foreign exchange students. “If anyone is thinking about doing that, it’s a remarkable experience,” Fon said. “You learn a lot about the world. “They usually pick us because we say we have horses, and they think that it’s going to be a ranch,” Fon said with a laugh. “We get two every year, sometimes three because we can’t say no.” Fon has been to the World Show three times now, and hasn’t yet made her goal of making it to the finals. “It’s a little bit like Christmas, the anticipation is almost more fun than the actual day, but I like it,” she said. “You work so hard the whole year to get here. This event makes me eat better during the year; makes me work out five or six times a week; it gives me passion in my life, especially without kids. It gives me something to really strive for the whole year.” As for the turtles? “We’d love to place some if anyone’s interested,” Fon said with a smile.
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