The Showing of Sophie

We were a little late getting home from church, even before walking in the door to check my phone, Sanna was put in the stall for her grain. Then once in the house there are 5 missed calls and one message. The message is from Steven in a panic, he cannot find the horses. He called in Karin and the 2 of them spent almost 2 hours hiking up and down hills, through creeks, over dams and into the woods without finding the herd! There is also a message from the lady coming that she will be here at 3:00pm. Karin was called back to tell her to call Johnny and have him bring the 4 wheeler but just then she found them all napping in a gully. It is now almost 2:00pm and Sophie is full of burrs. She has such a thick mane and tail that she seems to collect them out there. Since we have an hour I decide to move in a round bale for Sanna and Autumn, hear voices and oh no, it is the prospective customers. Indiana time is an hour later. Steven was called to tell him they are already here, he was driving through Trivoli at the time, how in the world would he get her cleaned up in time. He called Rebekah and I called Diane and the three of them started pulling and pushing poor Sophie around trying to clean off the burrs. I take the couple, which is a very nice husband and wife in their 60s to the farm, show them Raven, check to see if Izadora is in season (not) show them Jenis, Ylse and Indy then head over to the cabin. They had all the burrs out but Sophie was a bit nervous, hmmm wonder why? pulled off a vacation home, thrown in a trailer that is pushing 80 miles an hour to get back in time, then her mane and tail hair pulled over and over oh yeah what a perfect way to show a horse. (that was sarcasm by the way)Sophie was tacked up and I had Rebekah ride her first as she hadn't been ridden for a while. She seemed ok so Berta the lady climbed on and they went for a short trail ride. When they arrived back at the barn she wanted to see Sophie canter so Rebekah jumped off Bunni and mounted Sophie while Steven jumped on Bunni. The 2 went cantering off the fields, then Berta wanted to see Sophie run by herself. Sophie decided she was coming back to the barn and did a lot of sideways then as Rebekah rides her into the barn, Sophie ends up down on her knees. I wasn't looking so don't know exactly what happened but sure glad it happened with Rebekah instead of Berta.
We believe she is a little too green for Berta so Berta is going to look at training options where she lives. I'm telling mom about how frazzled things were and mom states that's what you get when you try to sell a horse on Sunday.
All summer Sophie was used for camps and trail rides and even if we'd had only one day with her here to work her by herself, we are sure she would have been fine. Oh well, we do really like Sophie and don't mind keeping her if it doesn't work out with Berta.

In Trouble

Well the kids found out that Duke is sold. Last night at the party we heard, IS it TRUE? How COULD you sell Duke? All the little girls in Beth's family are grieving along with Diane who use to tell us, "don't get attached to the inventory!" I don't think anyone has told Willow but last year when Duke wasn't around she asked her grandpa, "did you sell Duke?" in a very accusing tone. We had to do some fast talking at the party about how Paris is very good, you girls are such good riders you need a bigger horse and his new owner loves him!
We had to hire Steven for today, There is a lady coming down to see Sophie and she is at Middle Grove. We asked Steven if he would drive to Middle Grove, pick up Sophie, bring her to the Hanna City farm and clean her up. Sophie has such thick long mane and tail and seems to catch the burrs. I'm sending out my last bottle of cowboy magic. Can't live without that so must place another order.

Sauder's Costume Party

The annual Sauder costume party was a blast. Everyone came up with great ideas. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Below is Karin, who actually tied for one of the worst costumes.

Speaking of the winner of the worst costume, Nate Herman took the prize showing up as a beach bum. I think we were all jealous of his Gulf Shores Vacation last week. He is holding his son Noah the policeman.

His lovely wife Brook is below as the baker, her daughter Mae the beautiful princess and Drake.

Molly and Gabe Stickling brought their family as Alice in wonderland with Eden Rose as Alice, Molly as the queen of hearts, Gabe as the mad hatter, Josiah as the white rabbit and little Ashur as the caterpillar.

Spark's kids WON the family prize, they all, except Molly & Gabe, showed up as characters in the Wizard of Oz.

Amy Beth's family came as the Publisher Clearing house WINNERS. What great imaginations they have.

Johnny and Serena dressed up as the Bee Family, Johnny's stinger looked dangerous.

Ben and Taunya also have great imaginations, their family dressed up as Mario, the princess and turtle.

Nancy really enjoyed the party. She loved looking at all the kids and the food was good too.

Mark and I came riding ostriches named after Fedi's REAL ostriches he called Mark and Judy.

Rhoda was a famous bull rider.

Sophia Meister won the under 13 girls division, she came up with the idea on her own. She is wearing stilts under the suit. Next to her is the winner of the over 13 boys, David Sauder III as a werewolf.

I'm not exactly sure who Sarah was suppose to be portraying. Some guitar player.

Jenny was a pirate and Willow a cheerleader. She ran around all evening doing cheers.

There were scores of pretty princesses there tonight but these three were the most beautiful, left to right is Anni, Jessica and Rebekah.

Mike and Diane ALMOST won the couples contest, coming in second. They arrived on their motorcycle dressed like this:

The winner was Phil and Anna. They showed up as Facebook.
a closeup was needed of what they had down, which could only be read if they were standing together. Pretty inventive and INTERTAINING of them.

The 4 winners of the worst costume, Nate, Dan, Susan and Karin had to put on a skit. It was great and Nate was a good sport about being the big Jerk!

Thanks so much to Rachel and David for another fantastic fun party. When we walked up I did not recognize them.

We all had a GREAT time!

Saturday Workday

It started early, Steven arrived at the farm by 8:30 and started cleaning paddocks. A trip to Sams for dogfood and treats for the big Sauder party tonight had to be done first before I could start work. By the time I arrived with the truck and trailer Steven had all the paddocks clean. The first job was to take the mower off the Kubota and get the bent post hole digger attached. Not an easy job but better than digging all the holes by hand.

While we were working on that Karin moved the fire engine out of the arena.


She always says that in all the other barns she teaches at this is the only barn she has to move a fire engine out first. The things she will do for a 20 meter circle.
Rebekah and Anni were there for a quick vaulting practice, I snapped this picture of them mounting in the canter while I was suppose to be helping get the post hole digger attached.

David showed up to help Mark with the ditch and I'm proud to say it is DONE. Thanks to the great help.

Karin finished the vaulting then came to help with the hole digging.

With Steven and Karin's help Mike was able to get the 4 post in the ground and level for the new shelter.

Once the poles were set, Steven loaded up the 4 kids and Sangria and hauled them out to Middle Grove.

Karin left to pick up Nancy for the Sauder's annual costume party so I took a break and walked over to mom's, this is what I saw when I walked in.

Any guesses as to who she is going as at the party?
Mark finished moving the pea gravel then we started cleaning the skid steer. It was a full day but not finished yet. As soon as we arrived home, it was out to clean my paddock here at Bridlewood. Only 2 wheelbarrow loads today. Now it is time to get our costumes on.

Rachel's Blog

This is a MUST see. Rachel posted some fantastic frost pictures on her blog just look to the right and click on Rachel's Blog to see them. They are AMAZING!

The Ditch

Mark got home just a little after 4:00pm and it was off to the farm to dig... and dig... and dig.

Mark took a break and started moving the dirt pile to the crater with the skid steer but I kept using the pic axe and shovel for another hour.

This is like chopping through concrete. We quit on that by dark.
On my first break I brought Raven over to Izadora to check if she is in season. She was not. Raven sure is funny, as soon as we head over to a mares paddock it's like he becomes a HUGE gorilla. He gets taller and seems to make himself massive in order to impress the mares.
Izadora came over with her colt but only to scream at him and tell him to get lost!

The colt is really beautiful, pitch black and such presence the way he dances around bucking and kicking.

Raven was taken over to graze to counteract the disappointment of her rejection. The sun was getting low in the sky and he was framed by the slanting rays.

By 6:30 it was too dark to see, we were hungry and tired so on our way home stopped at KFC, picked up chicken for dinner. Mark built a fire in the living room and a sleeping bag in front of the fireplace was perfect for reading until the dogs decided it was more comfortable and crowded me off.

Duke Sold

Grace's parent bought Duke for her, in the pictures she has just been given Duke as her own pony. Duke was hiding in Cathie's trailer and Grace had to look for him. She and Duke are another perfect pair. Congratulations GRACE on your own new pony!

Pat and Solo

Pat and Solo have such a good partnership. Pat takes excellent care of Solo and he takes very good care of Pat.

Pat spends hours here at the barn when not traveling with her husband. She has been taking lessons from Cathie since before she bought Solo from Donna Griggs when he was 18 years old. Solo is in his mid 20s but looks way younger. We think it is because of the excellent care he receives here at Bridlewood Stables. Solo is a purebred Arabian but don't think he is one of the flighty overbred Arabians out there now, he is a Gentleman 100% of the time!

Honey has a small cut above her eye which probably should have a couple of stitches. Dr. Hoerr came out around 2:30pm, washed it up and put three stitches in. What is it with horses and eyes lately?
Steven brought Star over for a trial period. He was feeling so well he rolled, ran, bucked, and had a great time in the outdoor arena. He was put in the paddock with Autumn and Sanna. We will hope this works as there are no open paddocks right now at Bridlewood.
On August 19th, Star looked like THIS:

Two and a half weeks later Star looked like this:

October 29th, Star looks like this:

WELL DONE STEVEN, Star looks wonderful and it is due to YOU! Great rescue.
This is Star in the arena having a great time, when he was brought over August 19th, 2010 he stood with his head down.



Karin came over to work with Autumn, but it seemed everytime I looked at her she was texting. Isn't there something illegal about texting and riding? Oh wait that's only for DRIVING!

The Fall

After everything was done at the farm, we were getting ready for our walk when Rachel's boy came by heading to the bus looking like this: I ran back to get the camera and as I was running to get in front of him to take his picture Emma banged into me knocking my legs out from under and the ground was hit with such force, I'm sure it set off a minor earthquake. It took a minute to get up off the driveway and I'll have bruises where no camera should ever be pointed but all is well.
After the walk mom served a delicious breakfast. She even lights the candles for breakfast, very elegant.

After breakfast it was time for work. The paddock here at Bridlewood needed cleaning.
Tania Thousand came to get Sanna ready for her lesson so a break was in order to take some pictures. It was a good excuse to sit (well maybe not sit)and rest.

Tania has Sanna looking good.