We had someone ask about the Liberty class after seeing Evan perform and wanted to know more about how it is judged. Our very first time we ever did that was in 2015 at the IL Horse Fair. This was the first time the fair ever offered this class. We had no idea what this was about but read the rules then Emily practiced with Killian. He was only 3 years old and not yet mature but was going to the fair anyway so we spent the money and entered him. The rules were you had to bring the horse into the arena and take off the halter leaving the horse loose. You were not allowed to touch the horse either with a whip or hand. You had 2 minutes and the horse was judged on how much of the arena he used, did the horse show off all 3 gaits both ways and how long did it take to catch him. You were allowed 2 minutes to catch the horse but if you took that much time points were deducted. If it took longer than 2 minutes the horse was disqualified. Below is our first try.
Emily and Killian ended up winning the class. He was such a clown here and at the fair and loved to show off. We were so hoping Killian would be our next Horsemeister stallion but when we tested his semen at 3 years of age it just wasn't good enough quality to keep him a stud. He had the very best pedigree, out of a star mare and an approved stallion who just happened to have the best pedigree of ALL Friesian stallions even the FHANA approved stallions and yet he just didn't produce the quality and quantity of sperm needed. Well a stud farm cannot use a gelding so even though Killian was much loved we decided to place him for sale. There are no guarantees in this business. We decided at that point to not look for another stallion and just be content with the 2 proven stallions we already had. At the 2019 fair we took Valiant since Evan had gone in 2018. He was in both the liberty and the riding but the liberty ended up being cancelled on Sunday the day we took the video so we just have him in the riding class with Rebekah Martin.
Both Evan and Valiant have the semen quality and quantity to remain stallions and their hundreds of foals on the ground prove this out. We really didn't know how blessed we were to have them until we had Killian tested.
This morning after the walk I moved another bale in for Hadassah then went to Diane's office to help her balance the Horsemeister check book. From there I met Kensley's bus today and after going to the house to change we loaded back up to go in to Peoria to do some grocery shopping and had lunch at Culvers. She had the chicken tenders and I had the fish. Both were excellent! This evening Mark and I went to mom's for games. Rhonda and Spark played too. Diane and Mike showed up too late to play. We had been having snow but by the time they got there they told us it was raining. It was and turning on ice as soon as it landed. By the time we got out of mom's our car was covered with thick ice. Mark went to work scraping then when we tried to put the car in the garage it kept sliding backwards. Mark ended up driving it down the hill and going around again for a better angle and got it in. Thankful for that success. The rain is supposed to keep up all night and the temperature rise so hopefully this ice will be melted by morning.
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