The 4th of July Celebration

Our celebration started quite early, 1:40 am to be exact with the birth of Jewel's filly by Evan. Vaulting practice started at 10:00 am. Around 11:00 am I headed up to the barn to iodine the umbilical cord on the new filly and saw Karin had Missy and Cookie in the round pen. There were a lot of kids around and Karin's rule goes, "if you can catch Missy and Cookie, bridle her, mount her all by yourself you can take them out for a trail ride. Well Noah and Shaeya were determined today to accomplish that and did.

 Above is Noah riding Missy and below is Shaeya riding Cookie. 

 They were more than willing to let Tekoa and Wren take a ride on the horses before they took them out on the trails.

 Above they are heading out to the trails and below they are on their way home after a successful ride. A successful ride is one where no one falls off and has to walk home. You see Karin makes them learn bareback and if a child falls off there is no one to help get them back on. It WORKS, that's the way we learned! These kids stick like glue. It also gives them the best instruction about not going faster than ones balance. 

Once the horses were put away the kids came in to see the new foals.

 The 2 pictures above are of Marika's colt by Valiant and the 2 pictures below are of Jewel's filly by Evan. These foals are so very friendly, they would walk right out of the stall into the crowd of kids if we let them.

From the stalls we headed over to the lake where the crowd was gathering for volleyball. The golf cart was  parked next to the trampoline so the kids could jump from the roof and get a big bounce. 

 Joan was weeding the edge of the volley ball court so Braelyn, Taegan and Israel joined in to help. Not sure how much they actually did but have proof they pulled some of the weeds.

 Israel joined his parent when he got tired of pulling weeds. 

 Braelyn got distracted by a beautiful orange grasshopper. 

  It didn't take long for Israel to find the volley ball. 

 Jessica brought her pug puppy out to play with mom's remaining puppy. They played so cute together. 

 Taegan, Braelyn and Kensley put Studly on a leash and tried to take him for a walk. Studly ended up taking them for the walk. 

 Ava loves all dogs and Emma loves attention.

 There were 3 teams of volley ball players, the games were fast furious and very entertaining. The volleys were amazing. 

To see the rest of the pictures click HERE. We joined our food for dinner and ended up with a pretty nice meal. Joan picked lettuce, broccoli, peppers and tomatoes from her garden and added sunflower seeds and shredded cheese to provide a huge colorful filling salad which really hit the spot. Mom provided her home made poppy seed dressing,  meat balls with noodles in an Italian red sauce served with hard rolls, and I had some roast beef, honey ham, turkey, cheese and rolls. After dinner the horse shoe game was played and only after the game did we discover mom had pounded in the stakes 4 feet too long. Instead of 40 feet it was 44 feet. Those stakes were moved but we decided we would need Mark to build a sand pit for each of them, the hard ground made the horse shoes bounce and roll so hard they were hitting and bouncing off mom's propane tank and for some reason she didn't think that was wise. The kids all took off to watch the fireworks in Elmwood, IL but because I was up most of the night Mark and I decided to skip the fireworks and have an early night. 

A GIRL!

Jewel delivered a filly at 1:40 am this Independence Day. This is the 3rd foal we have had born on the 4th of July so she will need a special name. We already have an Indy and named Walker Sally's filly Liberty so I am open to suggestions.

Her little ear was smashed flat against her head when in the womb, this will straighten out pretty quickly. She is already flipping it up and back listening when I talk. 

She is very friendly and sweet. Jewel is such a good mom.

I left the barn at 2:45 am, by the time I left she was up but had not yet nursed. She was rooting around in the right place though. The light was left on and the golf cart driven back to the house. That bed never felt so good. The placenta was delivered this morning around 7:15 and the baby passed a lot of meconium. She is nursing well and strong for being early. She has a HUGE long thick tail. This filly is going to be another superstar like her siblings.

The Goose Carnival

The pictures from the carnival at the Giant Goose Ranch have finally been uploaded. There were lots of pictures to go through and not all were posted. Sorry if I missed your child. To see them click HERE.

 Jewel is testing around 250 but quiet. She isn't due until July 20th. Jewel has gone 21 days early in 2014 and 19 days early in 2015 so she will be stalled tonight. She is not pacing and is standing quietly. When a mare is in the first stages she will pace and break into a sweat. We have her on the monitor and if that starts we will all be on alert. We may be gun shy ever since that Marika's emergency C section but Jewel has always foaled without incident and this is her 5th foal all by Evan. Jewel's first four foals have been amazing and we expect no less from this one. Her first foal was a gorgeous black filly born August 30th, 2012 we named Olivia.

The next filly born on August 15th, 2013 was a bay filly we named Rhiannon but her owner renamed her SkyFire. Skyfire is now 16.2 hands and competing and winning championships for her owner.

Treasure was born on July 16th, 2014. Treasure had huge movement but had the attitude to go with it.

Check out the video below, she kicks at her mom at least 4 times, maybe 5. What a stinker!

Jewel's last year colt was the first colt she had ever thrown. We think they were all nice but this colt was amazing. He had a trot that floated, his regular trot looked like everyone else's extended trot. He was born June 20th, 2015. But even better than his amazing movement was his sweet loving, want to please disposition.

check out his movement in the video below:

As Jewel delivers around 3 weeks early we did not breed her back on her foal heat last time. Did you notice the trend from August 30th, 2012, August 15th, 2013, July 16th, 2014, June 20th, 2015? Jewel settled each time on her foal heat but last year we decided not to breed her back on her foal heat and she settled on the next. This mare is so very fertile and produces amazing foals.
Volley ball is getting ready to start over at the playground. A big group showed up and all had a great time.

 Of course we had somemores over the camp fire.

 The volley ball court lights needed to be turned on as the games went late into the evening.

 Sarah Reinhard brought out lots of fun fireworks for the kids.

They had a lot of fun with the sparklers.  To see the rest of the evening pictures click HERE.

Giant Goose Ranch

Karin and I were asked to bring ponies for the big 4th of July picnic at the Giant Goose Ranch this afternoon. When rain moved in earlier than expected we thought the ponies might be called off but the weather report was pretty good for later. All of the grand children came today but Ben and Taunya's came in the afternoon. This morning we had fun playing on the playground, we picked up a couple extra kids there, Mackenson and Berlica were over. We drove over to the cabin field on the golf cart to feed the horses there.

 Once the horses were fed the kids climbed back in and we took the cart over to see the alligator swamp that is now drained.

 I told the kids, the alligators must have all left and now it would be safe to swim in but no one wanted to, check it out in the picture below.

 The kids were fascinated looking at the empty retention pond 'alligator swamp'.

 Anni Davidovics designed a great scavenger hunt with an obstacle course in the barn. Below Lee is getting ready to use the rope swing.

 Rhoda was next

 Sarah went flying last. We were surprised at how high the swing went. 

 We needed to leave before the scavenger hunt finished for the goose ranch. We loaded up Missy and Cookie and they were quite the hit. 

The line went on and on. We never had a break.

We were suppose to stay until 8:00 pm but at 7:33 pm someone let off a huge fire cracker, scared Missy and Cookie and they took off at a run. Thankfully no one fell off and we were able to stop them before they knocked down the wire and ran into the crowd. At that point we ran the horses into the trailer, took down the round pen and were on our way out by 7:40 pm. We felt bad about all the people still in line but just couldn't take a chance on someone getting hurt because horses and fireworks just don't go together. I have hundreds of pictures to post of the riders at the goose ranch but they will have to be posted tomorrow. It is just too late tonight.

Marika and Her Colt Home

Karin and I pulled out right at 6:30 am to head to U of I. The Veterinarian attending Marika wanted us to be there at 9:00 am and we arrived with 10 minutes to spare. The bill for this emergency C section and the 6 day stay for the both of them was just over $6500.00. Much better than I'd anticipated. Thankfully the big wigs of U of I ended up reversing the charges for the bad colostrum and plasma needed because of the bad colostrum. The instructions were gone through the horses weighed then loaded up. The colt has gained quite a lot, he was up to 122 pounds. They traveled well, we stopped for gas in Carlock, IL which ended up being a good place to stop. Gas was $2.19 a gallon. Once home they were unloaded and stalled. Both were pretty tired from the trip.

While they were resting Karin pulled Rosaleigh out for some round pen reasoning. We were both pleased at her attitude and responsiveness.

She is ready for a rider as soon as Rhoda or Emily come back. Next out was Galena. She too was responsive and submissive.

Once Galena was put away we brought Marika out to hand graze a bit. This was the very first time her colt has been outside and on grass.

 Also his first time to try those long legs out and it was funny watching him learn to run.

Marika enjoyed the grass but also was glad to get back to the stall to rest. This evening her bandage was removed, the stall picked and both water buckets filled before leaving them for the weekend. Mark finished the mowing around here then went swimming to clean off. The lake water was pretty cool. Mom is now down to just one puppy and Molly. The mares were teased and only Sangria is showing. Sangria will need to be sonagrammed early next week as she is booked for Chery Thompson's Andalusian stallion Neo who is pictured below. We know we will get a gray with this pairing and are hoping for a filly.