Day to day operation of a Friesian breeding farm standing 2 Friesian stallions. We have 6-10 foals each year out of Purebred Friesian mares, Andalusian mares, Thoroughbred mares and Friesian sport mares
by Judy Sceggel
309-208-3840
www.horsemeister.com
-5 this morning and mom cancelled the walk. Yesterday the ice was too hard and too slippery so she knew today would be miserable. We had 3 frozen waterers this today. Mike put heat lamps in them and was able to get one working, the other 2 I got with the hair dryer. Mike went to Middle Grove to move in bales and the tractor wouldn't start. Winter sure makes things hard. Rhoda came and brought Iris out but didn't stay for supper as we were getting snow again on top of the foot of snow then the ice and now more snow on top.
It is a beautiful light fluffy snow but so very dangerous. Hannah went off the road again, called her mom but just then a guy in a pickup truck pulled up with a rope and pulled her out. Mark picked up his new trailer today but when he got back wasn't able to take it off the truck. We think water got in and it is frozen. We will need to work on that tomorrow. Everyone out this way met at mom's house for dinner tonight. We had a good group come. Even Brian and Rebekah all the way from Carlock. (they were probably over visiting with Ruth and Fedi) made it. Spark and Rhonda cancelled as Kari and Brett came to visit them.
See that white in the window behind peering in at Jordan and Riley. That is mom's snow man who is longing to join us. With the wind, it sounds like he is knocking on the windows and doors asking to come in and each time the door is opened we feel his chilling presence.
Diane and Mike are taking care of Cocoa this week while Andrew and Rachel are in Florida. Cocoa loves to come to mom's as she gets treats but below, even though Diane had her groomed today, she is looking like a thug with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth.
Rachel had dinner then slipped out with the dessert leaving us only apple pie and brownies. (Really these cupcakes were for the night of Worship which is tomorrow night at the Hanna City Gym.
The Night of Worship starts at 6:30 pm and the first group up is Carly Hoerr's group. We had to eat in shifts tonight feeding everyone as they came in. Below the first group has finished and the second is getting ready to eat. The last couple to arrive was Anni and Matt.
Braelyn, Kensley and Taegan had fun playing with Joan's children and Rebekah's children. Those two groups left earlier and these 3 were left to entertain themselves. They are good at that.
When we came out of mom's house at 9:00 pm there was such a beautiful light fluffy 3 inches of snow glistening and sparkling from the light above mom's garage. This snow covered the ice on the drives making it even more slippery. Slip sliding along I made it home.
Well we tried to walk this morning. Everyone showed up but when we got to the hill going towards Spark's house we just couldn't do it. The drives are covered with a thick layer of very hard ice. The ice is so hard our ice tracks couldn't dig in and we were sliding. We turned around and just walked to Diane's and then back to mom's. At least the dogs had fun. This morning Diane had me come in to her office to finish up the year end books for Horsemeister. It is when I am faced with book work that I wonder if I should really be in this business. I love the horse business but without Diane we wouldn't have a business.
As soon as I got home it was time to keep working on the preparations for this coming cold. Actually the temperature was dropping like a stone and by tonight will be below zero. A bale was moved into Valiant's paddock but placed at the back of the shelter. That way Galena and Valiant can stand between the two bales inside the shelter and stay out of the wind with plenty to eat. That went so well I did the same with Evan's paddock only the bale that was in the shelter was pushed forward far enough to leave enough room for Evan to lay down between the bales with no problem. The last bale moved was for the 3 weanlings in the paddock next to Evan's. I used the same technique for their shelter but left more room as there are 3 of them. By the time I finished the wind had kicked up and the cold was getting dangerous. Karin cancelled again today. With the arrival of this polar vortex we may not be working horses for a couple weeks. I just heard that Peoria schools district 150 has already cancelled for tomorrow.
Mike went to Middle Grove to put out a bunch more bales and check on the automatic waterer. He and Diane are leaving for Springfield tomorrow after work for the Honegger birthdays and leaving Springfield on Sunday for Gulf Shores, AL so they can escape this bitter cold. Mike sent the picture below of the snow coming off the cabin roof.
I moved in 5 armloads of wood for the wood burners and have both of them burning brightly. Emily and Mitchel sent the message they were coming tonight to work with Valiant. Emily sent the picture below of Sunday's session with Mitchel and Valiant.
So far no pictures have come in from tonight but probably the phones aren't working as it is only 8 degrees outside right now and is suppose to drop to below zero tonight. That isn't so bad but the wind is blowing so hard it is making the wind chills dangerous to be outside. Thankful for wood burners and plenty of wood and really thankful for the warmth these wood burners put out. It is comfortable in here.
We had to tell mom it was just too dangerous for her to go on the walk this morning. There was just too much ice. Joan had quite an experience last night. She was out plowing and was wet and cold quitting around midnight. Rebekah was coming home from work and slid into a snowbank on Smithville road and was stuck. Joan and Sarah took Sarah's car and a rope from the barn to try to pull her out but couldn't do it. Rebekah has a towing service so she called and they told her they would have someone there in an hour but no one showed up. The second time she called they told her they were working on getting someone to help but the 3rd time Rebekah called they told her they were not able to get anyone to come and they would have someone come pull her out during the daytime. They left the car and just came on home arriving around 3:00 am. About 5:30 am Rebekah's mom called Joan in a panic. The state police had called her that they found Rebekah's car abandoned on the side of the road and no sign of Rebekah and Rebekah wasn't answering her phone. Joan was able to relieve her mind that Rebekah was home safe and sound and just sleeping. The towing company finally did pull her out around noon. Mark got out this morning just as it was getting light outside to start spreading sand on the drives. He was using the new little Kubota and sand from the indoor arena but it worked. No one got stuck today. We are expecting the temperature to drop drastically tomorrow afternoon to below zero with wind chills of -20 degrees so today was the day to start moving bales. The far paddock got a new bale, the middle paddock got a new bale and the fatty paddock got a new bale. That sounds so easy but it isn't. The far paddock is the easiest. The weanlings are just called to the front and given grain and while they are busy eating the bale can be moved inside. The middle paddock wasn't terrible. They were given treats in one shelter then while they were busy I was able to quick open the other and move a bale in. The fatty paddock started out the hardest. The gate could not be opened far enough so the bale was just dumped over the fence. Valiant and Evan's weren't low enough on hay to move any in for them yet. Karin couldn't make it in today. The schools were all cancelled again but the ice out there was just to dangerous for her to make it in. I spent some time this afternoon bringing in lots of wood for the coming deep freeze. I will have both wood burners burning tomorrow evening.
Mark drove mom and me to church tonight. Tim Roecker had the service. I think we were about the last to leave getting home just a bit ago. The sand on the drives works great!
One more age test. Below is the video of Lily giving birth to Rosalie's on Feb 18th, 2013
We were so thrilled that she was a filly as Raven had died in 2012 and if this one was a filly there would be no way we would sell her. The picture below was taken right after birth.
When she was 2 days old it was bitter cold so the first time we let this filly out of the stall we put a blanket on her.
We had snow a couple days later and below she is 4 days old. This was my favorite picture of her that day. She was a big stocky filly and already dancing.
The picture below was taken Oct 18th, 2017 and we thought she was a giant then. Hard to believe that little filly in the picture above became this huge beautiful mare in the picture below.
We haven't sticked her recently but in the picture below taken Jan 16th, 2019 Indy who sticks at 16.3 is at her left and Ayanna who sticks at 16.2 is at her right.
Now to be fair she is a little ahead of those two mares in the picture above but she really does tower over them when she is standing right next to them. Each time Karin climbs on she comments, "she is SO tall!" Raven gave us such a wonderful parting gift.
We had a cold start but it was predicted for the temperature to start rising and the rain to start falling later this morning. Our walk was uneventful but the ice cleats were really needed. After the walk I left for the Berean office. There were cars in the ditch, Hanna City Glasford road had almost drifted shut with just one lane open in some areas. Almost all the schools in the area where we live and west of us were closed because of drifting snow. We had a good productive day at the Berean office. If you would like to read about our morning there click HERE.
A light rain had started by the time we left that office which was freezing as soon as it fell. Trying to get up our drive was interesting. The snow tires work on snow but there was just too much ice on top of the snow and the car couldn't get much traction. I made it up to the garage but then started sliding sideways. The car was put in park but slid all the way around until it was facing the garage and backed into a snowbank. The car was just turned off and left there. Karin's work had been called off and she offered to meet me at the barn this afternoon to try to get the barn doors open. Karin got her car stuck at mom's house, was able to back all the way to the dam and get a run at it to get up to the barn. The barn doors were shut on Sunday and accidentally left shut. With the below zero temperatures on Monday morning they were frozen shut. We tried to open them on Monday but gave up knowing today it was suppose to be above freezing. A bale will be needed in the far paddock by tomorrow and to move bales the barn doors must be open. Karin and I worked together chopping ice from under and around and after a good hour were able to open the doors. At that point Karin brought in Ayanna, Rosalie and Indy while I kept working on digging a track out under the doors so we could open and close them easier. A pickax was used, slamming it into the frozen ground over and over then digging out the debris with frozen fingers and shovels.
Dan came over this evening to help open the barn doors and was glad that had already been accomplished.
Karin's rides were quite entertaining. She would ride one of the mares while the other 2 were just loose in the arena. 3 or 4 times the snow would start sliding off the roof with a crash which would send the mares galloping toward the other end of the arena and each time Karin would need to try to stop the mare she was riding before slamming into a tractor, hay bale or another mare.
This evening at one point there was a truck stuck on the main drive, a van stuck in our drive and a third vehicle behind those 2 waiting in line to get stuck. Mike was able to bring his truck to the top of our hill, spread sand then help the van get to the top.
The freezing rain is suppose to turn to snow tomorrow morning and again they are predicting below zero temperatures. We have moved the truck and Mark's car into the indoor arena to keep the ice from freezing those vehicles shut. Mark is going to try to spread sand on the hill tomorrow morning. Winter sure makes things hard. So let's do another age challenge. This time of Jewel. Jewel was born April 30th, 2008 out of our 23 year old Thoroughbred mare Grace by Raven. We didn't even know Grace was expecting until she was 9 months pregnant. I had been grooming Grace, turned to answer someone and was leaning up against her when I felt a foal kicking. We knew Raven had covered her once but thought she was too old to conceive much less on just one cover.
We were pretty thrilled for a safe delivery and a beautiful bay filly and determined this filly would never be for sale. We named her Grace's Crown Jewel. Below she is almost 4 months old August 14th, 2008
We bred her to Evan and she had her first foal, a beautiful all black filly August 30th, 2012.
Jewel's foals by Evan are all amazing movers but more than that they have presence, grace, train-ability and sweet dispositions. The picture below of Jewel was taken about a week before she delivered her 2018 filly by Evan.
and the next picture was taken after her filly was born.
Jewel is a very fun mare for the trails and the girls have always had fun showing Jewel when she isn't busy raising a foal. Below is at the PRC show in 2014
Jewel was bred back to Evan and is due May 10th, 2019. The foal will either be black or bay but what ever color we know it will be another special one!
Last night Phil and Anna's family came for dinner and Braelyn, Taegan and Kensley helped make the dessert. They helped make the icing and then when the cinnamon rolls cooled down helped ice them. They are good cooks.
As they were thirsty from eating the fruits of their labor they were all allowed to pick out an icicle to help quench their thirst. They had the best time playing with icicles discovering if they put them up against their teeth and looked in the mirror the icicle became a magnifying glass.
This morning the thermometer was reading 2 degrees and it felt like -11. Diane wanted to call off the walk but no one could get hold of mom. When I walked over to tell her she was all dressed to head out to the walk so mom came with me to check on all the horse waterers and get the feeding done. Joan and her girls all went snowboarding. Karin spent the night at mom's as today is a school holiday. Even though it was very cold we brought the 7 mares inside, turned the little heater on and Karin went to work. Below is right after they were brought inside. I couldn't stay as my company were going to be arriving any minute but snapped the 3 pictures below before heading in.
Above are Indy, Ayanna, Rosalie, Anna and Oksana and below is Karin talking to Jenis and Oksana.
Galena went right over to enjoy the hay. They were all glad to have the chance to run around on non frozen footing and I think all of them enjoyed a good roll in the soft sand.
David and Stephanie picked up the Berean mail from TEMCO and dropped the mail off here then let Israel and Elisabet stay with me so they could go on a brunch date in Peoria. Israel picked out a long icicle and below he is showing that to Elisabet.
Elisabet wanted to have her own icicle. Grandma has the best toys in the winter.
It was so cold outside that both wood burners were kept burning. Emma enjoys laying by the heat.
Below Israel is tasting his icicle.
They had a good time playing here and this grandma was glad to have them. Karin came in for lunch and reported all of the horses did well but 7 is almost too many to work in one day. I made a big pot of chicken and wild rice soup for our dinner and for dessert 2 pies, a strawberry and an apple pie. We took a small slice of each and the rest will be used for the Berean meal tomorrow.
FINALLY! Last Thursday when Ruth invited us all over supposedly to welcome Fedi home from the hospital she served LASAGNA! We all had a pretty good idea there was going to be an announcement and when Anni walked in with Matt Ricketts it took just a few seconds to realize THIS was the happy couple.
Mom burst out crying exclaiming, "oh I hoped it would be Matt!" Below she is giving the couple her blessing.
We couldn't wait for Sunday to come and the announcement to be made in Peoria church and then came the snow storm and the heat failing at church. When church was canceled we all groaned. They would just have to wait another week. Well Friday evening Rachel walked in the garage door at mom's announcing, "we have some left over lasagna for you." Mom didn't think anything of that as Rachel often brings food over but when Jessica walked in the front door with a MAN... mom finally figured it out. Thankfully this time there was no delay and today in church Tim Funk announced BOTH sets of engagements. As Rachel didn't have time to put on a family surprise lasagna dinner she sent out a family email with the subject line stating "No time for Lasagna" and then posted this:
WE ARE SO VERY HAPPY for both of these couples! CONGRATULATIONS!!!
The snow wasn't too bad this morning, probably only around 3 inches but what did come down blew around and pretty much everything needed plowing. Mark took first the small Kubota to open up ours and mom's driveway then finished the other lanes with the skid steer. Joan borrowed the big Kubota to split some big logs in Diane's drive. This was from a huge tree near Mike and Diane's office that had to come down. Below they are rolling one of the logs to the log splitter for splitting.
Once the logs were split Faith would stack the wood in mom's Kubota and drive it over to their house.
They kept busy most of the morning.
When Mark was done with the drives he wanted to take the mower he had purchased yesterday out of the truck bed by using the skid steer and a chain. Joan was returning the tractor right then so the three of us worked on that and were able to get it out of the truck without damaging anything.
The temps have been dropping all day so we brought more wood inside to keep the wood burner going strong. This evening we all met at mom's house and celebrated Joan's birthday. We picked up pizza from Casey's for supper. As Ruth's was yesterday they had to blow out their candles at the same time. Below are a few pictures of the evening.
We had a lot of fun. The kids had a ball playing downstairs together. They had the downstairs all cleaned up when it was time to go.
We had a good productive day and a fun evening. With this big of a family there is usually someone having a birthday which always gives us an excuse to get together.
With comparing Evan and Valiant's pictures as a foal and then as a 9 year old we needed to do the same with a mare or two. Below is Indy at just a few hours old July 4th, 2010
and below is Indy January 11th, 2019. She is a big mare standing 16.3 hands.
Her dam Ylse was our full papered FHANA registered mare that stood only 16 hands tall and her sire was Raven who was 16.2 hands so we were surprised when she grew taller than both her dam and her sire. We actually sold Indy as a weanling but when the person who put down the deposit let us know he was not going to be able to purchase her we were glad to keep her. She is the sweetest mare we own, she is so emphatic that if she sees another horse in distress she will go right next to that mare to comfort her by nuzzling her and staying with the scared mare until that mare calms down. Indy is truly a gift from God and we are thankful!
It is getting cold outside and is suppose to drop below zero and yet our wood burner is keeping us very comfortable. Thankful for free heat!
Mark took the new truck to work this morning to pick up the mower for the little Kubota. He left his car in the indoor arena and that wasn't a problem until late this afternoon. More on that later. We had to admire the snowmen on the walk today, stopping first to see mom's special snowman. Now mom had help from Joan's kids and Sarah made the ears and helped with the face.
We think it is better than her last year's snow woman. When the sun came out last year and started melting that poor snow woman her chest fell and landed in the exact wrong place and that snow woman became a transgender snow person. We headed over to Joan's to admire Faith, Mackenson and Berlica's snowman. There just seems to be something off about this one too.
Ah that's better, now only Mackeson is the wrong direction.
I spent the morning hauling wood. We are expecting another snow storm tonight and we needed a lot of wood brought inside for the wood burners. The ice daggers were actually hitting the sliding door and had to be broken off to get the wood inside.
Karin arrived late afternoon to work horses so I jumped in Mark's car to move it out of the arena except the keys weren't in the car. After searching the house for keys Mark was called and the only set of keys for his car was in his pocket. That meant the car was just left inside while Karin worked with Jenis, Galena, Anna and Oksana. That went well until Galena decided to start kicking at Oksana. She came very close to kicking Mark's car so Galena was put in time out, tied in the corner of the arena while the rest were worked. Jenis had to roll first while Oksana looked on.
Karin rode Jenis first so she could be taken back outside when she was done.
Oksana and Anna were checking out Mark's car and when they started licking it we realized their paddock does not have a salt block. I brought one inside and dropped it by Mark's car and that kept them busy. I was actually glad Mark had taken the keys with him as I didn't know they were out of salt. Karin is going to pick up 6 more blocks on Tuesday.
Karin finished Jenis up with a rear then I took her outside.
Galena was the next horse worked.
Check out that baby bump on Anna in the picture below. Anna isn't due until April 2nd, this year. We did not breed her back on her foal heat last year as I didn't want any foals born in March. Last year it was kind of hard as we had a cold snowy wet March. Karin is riding Oksana.
Anna was the last mare worked and Karin is always so careful with her. We had to laugh though, that mare is so very gassy.
This evening after supper Mark and I moved in 6 more loads of wood. With the storm moving in tonight and then blizzard like conditions we want plenty of good dry wood inside for the wood burners. Sunday we may need both of them going at the same time as we are suppose to get below zero temperatures. I'm very thankful for a full woodshed.
