Dr. Hoerr's 4

Chloe's papers were ready for me to pick up from Dr. Hoerr's office for tomorrow's 9:00am appointment with the state accredited vet in Springfield, IL. Dr. Hoerr was there and had separated his 4 foals by Raven from their dams for weaning. This was a good time to get pictures.
All of them are for sale. Below is my favorite, a black filly out of his tall chestnut saddlebred mare. She is so feminine and sweet and she can also move.

Notice the neck in the picture above. She has wonderful conformation and of course her black color is just icing on the cake!

He wants $3000.00 for her and she comes with a reduced breeding fee to Evan at age 3.
The colt below is out of his 53 inch registered Hackney Pony mare. He is so cute and curious! This one is for sale for only $2500.00 and will make a great driving pony, he can also really lift his legs.

Look at the picture below to see how he uses his back end.

The colt below I thought was rather plain until I saw him move and then it was WOW!

My jaw literally dropped, he had so much suspension all 4 feet were WAY off the ground at the same time. Dr. Hoerr had this one also priced at $2500.00.
The last of the 4 is Dr. Hoerr's favorite. He is calling him Moose, he is out of his tall bay SaddleBred mare and again, this one moves wonderfully, has a long upright neck and Dr. Hoerr feels he will be a fantastic show horse. This one he will not take less than $5000.00 for. He thinks he is worth EVERY penny.


Each one of these babies had such nice movement and all of them are for sale. If interested in any of them call or email us, we will be glad to send all the information along to our vet.

Overslept

We didn't get up this morning until 6:45am, the dogs came in around 5:00am or at least we think it was that early, we lost electricity so just guessed at the time again but neither of us wanted to get up. With the warmth under the down filled comforter and the cold room it was just too tempting to snatch a few more minutes of sleep.
Almost decided against driving to the farm for the walk until I remembered Chloe needed to have her whirl documented for crossing the boarder into Canada. The vet clinic asked me which way her whirl went clockwise or counter clockwise.

After moving her forlock, I think there is no pattern, the hair just radiates straight out. I'll take my camera to the vet clinic and let them look at it. If she just would have had any white markings we wouldn't have had to worry about it.
The dogs have such a good time on the walk.

Until Emma sees Mike in his big brown coat and is sure he is a stranger. We were laughing so hard at her trying to figure out how to get past him.

Walking over to Rachel's the mist coming off the lake and the ducks swimming across was such a pretty picture.

I had to take a close up of the ducks. When Donald and Daisy hatched out their ducklings the mallards were not allowed anywhere near the ducklings. Now that they are grown up they are all one flock.

Rohan On His Way

Cox transport just left with Rohan. The transport company called around 10:20 to tell me they were about a half hour out, then again when they got off the interstate. I forgot to snap a picture until they were turning down the block after he was loaded. OK, even they were impressed. We are standing, just Rohan and I out in the middle of the yard in the black of night. The truck pulls up, they put up the ramp and it is steep, in fact the man coming down the ramp slid and almost fell. Rohan very calmly follows me up the steep ramp and into the trailer. No fuss, no neighing, almost too good to be true, and YES both the drivers were impressed.
All I can say is GOOD JOB STEVEN. Rohan will be with his new owner late morning if all goes well. Sure hope she likes him.
Choir lunch went well, clean up was done by 9:15pm and best of all we brought home left overs. Hopefully the boys will come home and help eat them up.

Another Busy Day

Off to the farm, fed, watered, walked, talked, drive down to work, pay bills, open hundreds of envelopes, process hundreds of envelopes, go to lunch, home to let dogs out, off to Sams for choir foods, home to move horses, meet Steven with Rohan and Duke, fix the choir food, fix dinner, off to Avanti's for bread, stop at Kroger for ice and soda and load the car.
Mark and I are serving at choir but need to get home as soon as possible. Rohan is to be picked up between 10:00pm and midnight. He is now in the paddock, his new halter and leadrope along with all of his papers are in the kitchen. Once home from choir, he needs to be groomed up, he had a good roll. Somehow I'm still tired, tired, tired.

Janell's Shower

I'll let the pictures speak. We planned on 50 only found enough chairs for 48, ended up with 58 and somehow it all worked. The only items forgotten were the cream and sugar for the coffee, we went through the entire 30 cups of coffee and no one asked for cream or sugar.






Clean up went quickly and we were home by 9:30pm, tired, tired, tired, heading up to bed NOW.

Early Morning

The car was started then back in the house for a scraper. Unbelievable but frost needed to be scraped off the windows before leaving home. The sun was not quite up and only one jet was in the sky. The smoke from the jet was the only thing lit up by the sun. The picture doesn't really show that the sky was just starting to lighten with only the white smoke highlighted.
The horses were fed, then the walk started. This was a noisy one, with a good group.

Rachel's boys must have been late for their bus, they went by so fast the picture was all blurry. Logan is driving and Luke is in the back. Usually the 2 boys share the front but they were probably fighting again and Luke was regulated to the back seat.

There was so much to talk about I was almost late to the funeral. Really had to push it to get a much needed shower in.
Then on the way home this is what the sky looked like. None of these are clouds, just jets kriss crossing the sky. Probably because the air is so cold the jet smoke sticks around longer.

After the funeral it was off to Kroger's to order the chicken salad for tonight.
Once home there is an email from Rohan's owner that he is being picked up tomorrow instead of the 19th so a trip to Morton, IL needed to be done to pick up his health papers. Ribbon's bill was also settled up, it came to $105.00 which included Rohan's health certificate but not Chloe's Canadian certificate, that will be paid for once it is picked up in Springfield.
Beth was called to find out about setting up for the shower tonight for Janell Schaefer. But we ran into a problem, Beth had 120 chairs and there were only 20 in the barn. She doesn't know who borrowed the chairs but if anyone knows please give her a call. There were also only 6 tables out of the 14 she had. She found one of her tables along with 10 chairs at one of the neighbors. Darlene Hoerr is lending her 10 chairs, Deb Funk is lending her 8 chairs which only leaves a few short. The hostesses don't need to sit down anyway.
The kid's race results were published. David got 2nd in his division, Ben got 2nd in his division, not bad but neither stayed around to pick up their ribbons. We haven't figured out how to read the rest of the numbers.

Mastiffs are SAVED

The Peoria Animal Welfare shelter was called this morning and both dogs have been adopted, there lives were SAVED. THANK you to who ever did this just in the nick of time.

BRRR

It's COLD! We are not ready for this. Saturday neither Karin or I could seem to warm up the wind was blowing and gusting COLD air around. Sunday the winter sweats were pulled out to wear, just couldn't face another day like Saturday. Sunday was tolerable with the sunshine and warm clothes but today when the door was opened to let the dogs out it felt FREEZING. The temperature was checked and it is 37 degrees right now. Mark will HAVE to turn our gas back on, if not I told him the dogs would have to come into the bed for warmth. By his reaction, I think I'll get heat today.
Today will be busy, Our farrier's grandfather, Bob Joos' funeral is today, then the shopping must be done for Janell Schaefer's shower which is tonight. Rhoda is also insisting a visit to the pound is made to see if the 2 Mastiff's are still alive. If so we will try to get more information on them. The city pound will probably not allow us to foster them until they find homes as we already have 2 dogs. Sometimes their rules drive us crazy (short trip).

Spoon River 2nd Day

Karin and Sophia were bored, it was so slow in the morning. Sophia had fun on Duke and Paris while she was waiting for customers.
Jenis made a believer out of Karin. She didn't think we should bring her but Karin soon found out that not only does Jenis know her job, she brings in customers.

At one point Jenis was not being used and decided to join in anyway. The people around were laughing at her walking in circles with no one leading her and no one on her back. We think she was showing the little girls she WANTS to be chosen.
We spent more time on the rides today, just didn't have as many customers and many of the riders got a lesson and learned how to ride Duke or Paris ALL BY THEMSELVES!

We had many happy customers for Jenis.

All the horses were requested but none as much as Jenis. All these little girls would come up and want to ride the BIG horse.

Day 2 started out slow. We decided for next week, there is no reason to start at 9:00am on Sunday, we had one customer when we first tacked up the horses, then no one for a while. We made $203.35 today a little disappointing after yesterday. It was Karin, Sophie and I only all morning, the other helpers didn't show up until after 3:00pm.
Because we were so slow, Susan got a riding lesson from Karin and by the time she was done, Susan and Jenis were looking GOOD!


Clean up started at 4:20pm and we needed someone to help with the left over cotton candy. The girl below was glad to help with that.

Zadie, Howard's Trained Dog

Howard Herman sent pictures last night of his sweet little Zadie. Zadie is the dog that got into my purse and was taking dollar bills out one at a time, running them to her bed and hiding them under her cushions. This time at Bible study I made sure the purse was all zipped up tight so instead of getting into mine she tried to take Dee Lehman's entire purse! Just look at her sweet innocent looking face. No one would ever suspect her of being a purse snatcher.

Tigger or Princess

Who besides TIGGER has SPRINGS?! PRINCESS does!





I LOVE these pictures of Princess, thanks so much Alesia for sending them along. What a hoot your Princess is!
On another note, while I was busy with the Spoon River Drive, Mark was changing oil in cars and trucks. He got 6 vehicles done today, just amazing. Seven of our kids (8 if you count the one in the stroller) did the 5 K race today in Bloomington, IL. All finished the race. Karin is having them for dinner tonight with a trip to Maquan's very scary place.

Spoon River 1st Day

The farm was first on the trip to feed the horses and play with the 2 fillies being weaned, then it was off to the Old School Center in Farmington, IL where the Heart of IL Vaulters were to give pony rides. Last night the horses were left in a paddock with a water tank I borrowed from Bridlewood. This morning the tank is EMPTY, no water at all. I ran to fill it quickly it starts to fill up and only then do I see the tank I struggled with to get it in the trailer to haul it out for the horses has had HOLES DRILLED INTO the BOTTOM of the TANK! Dan had an extra half barrel that was put into the water tank and filled. The weather was cool and the horses were not too thirsty.
Karin and crew arrived around 9:30am and as soon as the ponies were brought out, even before tacking them up there was a line up of people.

Jenis was a real hit, in fact we took pictures and email address to send out pictures of some of her riders.

She actually was a little up when first brought out with the cool weather and wind so Bethany, Sarah and Steven all rode her around first.

Paris was a real hit again this year. She is such a favorite we had many repeat customers from last year that remembered her name.

Two little girls came running up to me, I asked them, "do you want pony rides?" and they responded with big smiles,"YES!" they were shocked when I told them they cost $2.00, I looked at their little shocked faces and realized they were my great NEICES! I must be the mean aunt. Of course when I realized it was Michelle's daughter and Amy Beth's daughter they got their rides for FREE!

Jenis was even used for doubles and was GOOD!

Duke was also recognized and requested.

Below is a mother daughter team, each on their own black horse.

I left early, Karin is staying until the closing at 5:00pm and will settle the horses down for the night and tomorrow we get to do it all over again. We collected $285.00 for our first day.

Princess and the Farrier

Below is an email from Alesia about her Raven daughter out of Ribbon now 2 years old.

Got a funny story about Princess and the farrier.
The farrier had her in the crossties to trim her and he took a break. Princess is a real busybody and got tired of waiting so she pawed to get his attention. He decided to use the corn broom to touch her foot every time she pawed. She is not bothered by much but is always curious and playful. I think she thought it was a game! So then it was time for turnout and the other 4 horses were let out. One by one they filed down the carriage house and out the gate to the corral. Then Princess was unclipped and unhaltered, (assuming her) to fall in line and bring up the rear of the herd. BUT, instead of following them out, she went straight over to that broom...picked it up by the bristles with her teeth and proceeded to carry it down the carriage house with her! LOL!!! Ty said "Hey! Come back here with that!" Princess just walked faster, hanging on to it all the way through the gate! She gave it a couple of good shakes and deposited it in the corral! What a HOOT she is! Funny girl!
Alesia :D
Thanks Alesia, I can picture it so well and was laughing out loud reading it when Mark walked by and wanted to know what was so funny.

Dog's Need Help

Rhoda emailed pictures of these dogs. They are both down at the dog pound and both only have a couple of days to LIVE. Below is the female and above is the male. She was told they are both sweet, purebred English Mastiffs. We will try to get more information about them but PLEASE if there is ANY ONE out there that would consider a dog for their family I can attest that Mastiffs make wonderful family dogs. They are loyal, sweet and very low key not needing a lot of exercise just love. We will be in Farmington, IL at the Old School Center until Sunday night and cannot save them, don't wait, run, no drive fast down to the pound and claim these puppies!

Trailering Ribbon Weaning the Fillies

Hoerr Vet Clinic finally called to tell us they did find strep bacteria in Ribbon's uterus, no wonder she wouldn't settle. Dr. Hoerr wanted her brought in for an ultra sound to see if she ovulated and as she did he infused her with an antibotic. Steven was out at the farm working on the paddocks so hooked up his truck and hauled her to Morton, IL for her appointment. I finally made it out to the farm by 3:15pm and by the time I crawled, literally crawled out of the truck Steven was about ready to power wash the skid steer.

Wow am I stiff today, it was the loading of 2 cotton candy machines down the stairs and into the trailer, then all the supplies, 4 bales of hay, a water tank, 3 saddles and a wheelbarrow.
We loaded Jenis, Duke and Paris into the stock trailer and out to the Old School Center we went. Dan Meister had the paddock ready and the horses settled right in. Steven took off for Middle Grove to pick up 3 horses while I unloaded ALL the machines, supplies, hay, and STUFF then headed to Middle Grove to help. Our plan was to bring Ayanna and Walker Sally's filly for weaning and Aragon for new pictures and video. By the time I got to the Middle Grove farm, Steven already had the 3 loaded. Lily and Walker Sally were so ready to get rid of these babies. They wandered on down, not even calling for their girls. This was the easiest weaning we have ever done. Steven headed to the Hanna City farm while I stayed to make sure the mares would be ok. Below is Steven's monster truck and the horsemeister stock trailer. Amazing how good they match!

Both fillies were wormed with a half dose of Panacur then put in the stall for the night. I'm heading to bed soon, big day tomorrow!

TOO Many Horses

We MUST have too many horses, early this morning at the farm while feeding, Ribbon is standing at the gate calling to Raven, Star is in the other paddock waiting for his grain, Paris is loafing under the pavilion, Izadora is in the shelter eating along with another horse that for the life of me I can't figure out which horse it is. My first impression is, Oh Steven must have gone to Middle Grove and brought Wynne back, then no, I know he didn't go, it must be Bunni... wait a minute Bunni is also at Middle Grove, WHO is this? I finally figured out it is Chloe. Hey, not enough coffee, too early, too many horses, but most important was I forgot Chloe doesn't look like a yearling.
She was hanging her head over the gate waiting to be brought in and I am not use to Chloe even caring about people. This shows what a little attention does for a Raven baby. Steven is bringing Chloe in each day, graining her, grooming her, cross tying her and she LOVES the attention.
Karin has a vaulting practice scheduled for today at the farm and will help figure out which tack goes with which horse. Cathy Trent is lending me a water tank, Dan has a fenced in place at the Old School Center that is great to keep the horses in for the weekend, I think we are good to go for the Spoon River Drive.
Another cup of STRONG coffee is in order before heading down to work to pay the first of the month bills.