Rhoda and Sarah actually followed me into the Walmart parking lot this morning, talk about timing, they came from Bloomington and I from Peoria.
We headed South 113 miles on the interstate for the most part but the last 30 miles the roads were bad. We arrived a few minutes before 10:00am and knew exactly which pony out of 20 we were looking at. The drive was narrow and long and the ground so soft if the truck or trailer got even a tiny bit off the drive it would start to sink which made the decision to stop and wait for the owner about 1/4 of the way into the very long drive easy. Once out of the truck a mini stallion comes over to check out the trailer, just walking around loose I think he was the watch dog (pony). There were llamas and alpacas in with the herd of ponies, sheep, goats, and geese also started coming up the drive to see what we were all about. Once the owner drove down the long drive to meet us, we asked about one of her other ponies, a beautiful black pony mare with a star about 13 hands, and were told, "not for a million bucks!" The owner went to catch the pony we had actually called about while I was going to turn the truck around. That was a disaster just waiting to happen, once off the drive the trailer sunk into the mire so deep even with 4 wheel drive it barely made it out. Leah, the pony was not suitable for a grand daughter. First of all it took the owner over 15 minutes to catch her. That didn't bother me too much, Mike has his own special way of training a horse NEVER to run from people but what did bother me was the pony was a year younger than advertised, would not stand still and the worst thing, she BIT Rhoda. When I explained to the owner we could not take a chance on a pony that would bite she said, "well she's never done that before, why don't you take her for a trial period," just then the pony reached over and tried to BITE HER.
We were disappointed to take off with an empty trailer arriving home around 1:00pm. Rhoda helped unload the rest of the Fair supplies and off to the farm I drove to leave the trailer.
Lily was standing in the shelter by the gate and I could see her udder was bigger than yesterday but after checking felt she is still not swollen enough to stall. Wynne was at the far end and as long as my tennis shoes were muddy she was also checked. Her udder was about the same as yesterday but she seemed a bit depressed. She may foal out soon but I hope not until after this coming weekend. Tomorrow I'm driving Mark down to St. Louis leaving at 4:00am and won't be home until late. Saturday is the World Relief meeting and I need to be at the fellowship hall at 7:30am, should be done there around 3:30pm but will need to head straight for the church to help Diane set up for Sunday's lunch.
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