Tri Pod

Three offers came in for a tri pod, Rachel Sauder was the winner, hers is really nice and she brought it over. Thanks everyone that offered.
Braelyn came over today and she is learning to walk, the video was taken today.

Steven loaded his truck with 12 bales of hay, the pedestal, saddle stands, water buckets, bedding and the wheel barrow and the trailer with 4 more bales of hay. Hope that's enough we are feeding Ribbon! When Karin showed up, he and Karin loaded the cotton candy and popcorn machines along with all the supplies. Philip even helped pull the 6ft table out of the back and brought it to the trailer.
The release forms were printed and many of them filled out, we still need Monica's Steven's, Rhoda's, and Emily's.
We had a very busy day and tomorrow get to start all over again. What a life.

Preparations

Steven started preparing yesterday, he cleaned out the living quarter horse trailer and started packing. When I finally got home yesterday there is a stack of water buckets up against the barn that seemed to reach to the top of the barn. With 8 horses going we will need a plethora of buckets. The release forms have been printed, each person handling or on a horse must sign one before we can get our packets. Today Braelyn is coming over but once she is picked up Sam's will be visited for a 50 pound bag of popcorn, 2 gallons of oil, 205 gallon sized plastic bags for the cotton candy and dog food. We are getting low of that very important commodity. The sugar for the cotton candy, the popcorn salt and bags and hopefully the cotton candy sticks (if we have any) need to be loaded before we put in the machines. A table needs to be found and loaded. Why that was typed is the table we usually use is in use right now, this computer is sitting on it and Mark will not want us using it this year.
Speaking of Steven he was the person that cleaned out Raven's shelter while we were in California. He also moved in round bales for Ribbon and Raven. We need to thank him for going over and above.
According to Philip I need to take down a tripod. Now we don't have one of these, but we have been one of the few asked to video tape the evening performance. Phone calls or a mass email needs to be sent out to the family to see if anyone would have one that would work for my video camera.
Yesterday when I arrived Karin had three of the mares in the arena and was asking Zalena to side pass. Zalena had never been taught that but was getting pretty decent cross overs.

The camera I'm using doesn't have the burst option like the one left on the plane so I was pleased to at least get one usable picture of Zalena.

Stall Assignment

We were emailed the stall assignments and the demo order for the IL Horse Fair.
Saturday the breed and sport demonstrations are between 3:15pm and 5:15pm. There are 25 different demonstrations each 5 minutes apart. The vaulting is number 8 approximately 3:50pm and the Friesians are number 21 approximately 4:55pm. This is if everyone stays on schedule. On Sunday the breed and sport demonstrations start at 12:45pm and go until 2:45pm and the order is reversed. The Friesians perform approximately 1:05pm and the vaulters approximately 2:10pm.
We are in barn 14, all the way on the west wall. If you are coming and cannot find us in barn 14, follow the smell of popcorn. Hopefully we will be keeping that aromatic machine going most of the open hours of the fair. We will also offer cotton candy and fun trinkets for the kids. We love visitors and hope our stalls will be voted the most popular.

Mercy vs Grace

As I was driving in to work this morning I was using the cell phone leaving a message for Amy Koch. As soon as the message was finished, the phone was put down and I glanced at the speedometer and was shocked to see the car was going quite a bit more than the posted 55 mile an hour limit. My foot was taken off the accelerator but when I looked back at the road there is a police car coming towards me. Now I don't make a habit of speeding, in fact the only ticket I ever received was at 44 years of age and surly that meant the next one would be at 88 years of age. The water tower was a good place to wait for the police car as the policeman had to turn his car around to pull my car over. I was patiently waiting for him when he walked up, handed him my license, while stating, "I know I was going too fast." He asked for proof of insurance which was then also handed to him and off he went to his squad car equipped with the latest computer systems. When he arrived back at my car I was trying to explain, "this is not something I usually do," when he said, "this is just a warning for you to slow down."
Now some people think he showed grace and some people think it was mercy. The true meaning of what he did was mercy. Mercy is that he knew I was guilty but he didn't give me a $120.00 ticket. Grace would have been if he knew I was guilty and knew I was going to have to pay the $120.00 and not only let me off but paid the ticket himself. Isn't that what Jesus did for us, first he showed us mercy even when we didn't ask for mercy and when we do ask for mercy not only does he forgive our sin debt, He paid the price by dying for our sin debt, now that's GRACE!
After work was the all important doctor visit to find out if I would be cleared for surgery or not. I'm cleared! On March 6th my old decrepit right hip will be sawed off and a new one installed.

Hitching Post

Mike, Diane, Karin, and Jackie spent Friday night in the cottage at Middle Grove. Mike emailed this picture of what they got accomplished on Saturday. They now have an 8 horse hitching post up.

There is no electricity within a mile of Middle Grove. If one enjoys star watching, ask to stay there on a clear night. With the cottage up and usable Mike and Diane will be hosting trail rides there this summer. Karin is going to be busy. Karin is the first called when a group is coming and usually the first words are: "will you come help!" What is bad about this entire situation is we won't want to be hauling horses between the 2 farms, we may need 2 strings of riding horses, one for here and one for there. That may just be an excuse to keep more of our riding horses. Mike would be thrilled to have 2 starting line-ups. Mark just shuddered.
The executive branch of Horsemeister during our business meeting came up with a great idea for the website, as Horsemeister now has 3 fantastic trainers we need a training page exhibiting each of these wonderful trainers strengths. I'd better start saving pictures and videos.
I went out early this morning for the walk to check all the horses over and was very pleasantly surprised. Someone was able to clean out Raven's shelter and gave him a new bale. He now doesn't have to duck his head to enter. Lily is just starting to bag up a bit, not enough to worry that she is close to delivery but enough to start preparing her body for the pending delivery. She is not technically due until April 19th but has a history of delivering early. Airiah was standing off by herself this morning but came up to the gate when she saw me. She is looking big but is not due until the end of May. This will be her first. Eliza will be going to the fair with us instead of Ella. All coggins of the horses going need to be taken in today and copied.

West Texas

My good friend Alesia emailed this and it is well worth watching. This is a 4-minute video that features the work of the official Texas State Photographer. Isn’t it refreshing to find a ‘State Photographer’ that does something besides follow the Governor around for photo ops?!
Wyman graduated from Texas Tech. When he graduated, he moved back to a ranch near Benjamin so he could begin his photography.
He lived in a dugout for a few months, to be in the middle of the roadrunners, coyotes, and snakes. His work is wonderful.
If you love the outdoors and wildlife and fine photography, this will stir your heart!
Be sure to turn on your speakers.

Wyman Meinzer's West Texas from Wyman Meinzer on Vimeo.

Thanks so much Alesia for sending it on to us, we may need to take another trip to visit west Texas. Some of it looks like horse country.

California Pictures

We had a long day of travel yesterday finally pulling in at the farm around 7:00pm. So good to be home. Rhoda and Karin were waiting for us and we really enjoyed visiting with them. Once they left we were too tired to unpack, it was all we could do to climb into our very comfortable bed. At 2:00am my cell phone went off and again at 5:00am. Both were junk texts. Tonight the phone will be left in the other room.
As long as we were up a pot of coffee was started and the pictures taken off the camera for posting.
This is the indoor atrium of our hotel with it's many fish ponds, fountains and meandering streams that connect the fish ponds. The picture was taken as we walked out of our room up on the 4th floor looking down.

zooming in the camera even catches a fish in one of the ponds, again this was taken from the 4th floor looking down. Not a bad camera.

Saturday morning we met up with one of Barbara's boys, Timothy and one of Becky's boys, Jonathan at the Griffith Observatory.
We had quite a hike up to the observatory, the views of the hills were interesting and the picture below was taken as we were hiking. It was a good excuse to stop and catch our breath.

At the top of the hill was the Griffith Observatory, well worth the hike.

Jonathan and mom as we were walking around the outside of the observatory. The city is in the background but with the smog of Los Angeles it is blurry.

We headed indoors for the planetarium show. This was snapped before the show started, left to right Spark, Timothy, Jonathan and mom.

A man offered to take our picture as a group.

and we had to zoom in on the Hollywood sign, just in case it is hard to see in the picture above with all the people standing in the way.

The last picture taken on the camera was taken in the church before we all headed home. Left to right is: Daniella, Peter, Timothy, Michelle, Jonathan and mom.

Today will be busy with Berean Prison Ministry work in the morning and a doctors visit in the afternoon to see if I passed the many tests taken before the hip surgery.

LAX

We were expecting a wake-up call at 3:45am but were up and drinking coffee at 3:30am. The wake-up call didnt come until 4:00am so we were very glad we didn't depend on that. None of our group slept well and we were all ready to leave the hotel by 4:15am for our 36 mile trip to the rental car return. We were moving right along and thinking we probably didn't need to plan an hour and 15 minutes to make the trip when we came to a screeching halt. We came upon an accident, Marilyn saw something in the middle of the road and being from the Midwest we assumed it would be a deer, no, it was horrible to see but it was a man's body all mangled and missing body parts. He must have been riding a motorcycle and must have been hit over and over. It was obviously too late to pray for him but his family will need lots of prayers to get through the coming days. There is no way to identify him, his face, feet and hands were gone, there was still a head so perhaps dental records can be used although his face and head were mangled badly. How does one get that image out of the brain once the mind processes what it has seen?
We are now sitting at our gate in LAX and will need to wait an hour for our flight time, but I'd rather sit here and wait then take a chance of missing our flight.

Meeting New Cousins

Another great breakfast was served before we met down in the lobby to head to church. We met 2 of Barbara's boys there and both of their wives. These boys have been married for almost 5 years and we had not yet met their wives so this was a real treat. Becky's boy Jonathan also came for church. We were teasing him about not getting to meet his wife (he is not yet married) and he came back with, "I'll bring my 3 girlfriends!" church was awesome, there is no other word that fits, to come so far and worship with like minds and hearts is a little bit of heaven here on Earth. The choir sang after the second service and after that everyone was enjoying catching up with all the news and visiting with each other no one was in a hurry to leave the building. We didn't get back to the hotel until almost 4:00pm. Mom, Mark and I decided to relax in the hot tub and swim in the pool before dinner to work up an appetite. We walked to the restaurant which was called, Souplantation. It was a big soup and salad bar with a sundae bar for dessert. There were many different soups to try and the 2 I tried were delicious. The salad bar was filled with fresh vegetables. We are going to head to bed early, we have a wake-up call scheduled for 3:45am and need to pull out of the hotel by 4:15am to get the rental car back in time to catch our 7:30am flight. We are only 36 miles from the airport but were told with traffic it will take just over an hour to get there even at that time in the morning.

Altadena

Our breakfast this morning here at the hotel is really something. Cooked to order eggs, omlets, waffles, pancakes, plenty of bacon and sausage, yogurt, lots of fruit along with all different pastries, breads, muffins and bagels. Mark and mom went for a walk around the area, then Mark decided to walk to Office Depot and bought a new digital camera. when he made it back, Spark, Mom, Mark and I packed bagels, yogurt and bananas for our lunches and headed up the mountain for the world renown Griffeth Observatory where we met Jonathan Meister and Timothy Munther. That was quite a hike up, the observatory parking lot was full and we ended up way down the mountain and had to hoof it over a half mile up way up. Mom bought us tickets to the planetarium where we almost fell asleep in the very comfortable chairs. We would have fallen asleep except the show was interesting, what a great way to see the stars and planets. The grounds are gorgeous with fantastic views. . We needed to be back at the hotel for a 3:00pm practice and the traffic was so bad even leaving early we we were late but only by a few minutes. Practice went well and as soon as Wayne was satisfied we knew our starts and cutoffs released us to head to the church for dinner the ladies had prepared. Mom stayed back to sleep, she is not feeling well, too much traveling theses last few days flying back from Haiti Thursday night then leaving at 4:30am Friday for California. Dinner was great, a chicken breast topped with a slice of pineapple, covered in a sauce. After a delicious piece of pie and a cup of coffee we headed to the retirement center for the evening program. That went well. We have just arrived back at the hotel and all of us are tired. Most of us can't get off central time and woke up at 3:00am (5:00am) our time. We had to wait for4 hours before breakfast opened. Good thing there was coffee in each room. Mom seems to be doing a little better after sleeping most of the evening. Hope she is recovered tomorrow.

No Bust, We Made It

We arrived in LAX just a little later than expected. What an experience this morning, we pulled up at the Bloomington airport later than we planned, they were announcing 2 minutes left to check in for our flight and we still needed to get through security. They were loading as we made. It up the stairs. I don't want to go through that again, my heart can't take being late. The morning drive through falling snow made for slow driving. When' we arrived in Atlanta, the next plane was loading, they shuffled us off one plane and into the next without even a bathroom break. Good thing we packed sandwiches, the flight to LAX was almost 5 hours and they don't serve meals anymore. I took the camera out to snap some pictures as we were going over the mountains, then when we finally arrived at the very beautiful hotel the camera can't be found anywhere. It must have been left at the plane, bummer. The mountains behind the hotel are majestic, the fountains, plants, and big fish swimming around the pools inside are hotel are neat. Our room is gorgeous! It is a suite with an office area, small kitchen and living room furniture, the next room has a very comfortable king sized bed. It overlooks the fountian area, we are on the fourth floor, mom is up on the 5th, not sure where the rest of the choir members are staying. The hotel has a reception for us with free drinks and snacks but we just came back from eating at Red Lobster so are too full to enjoy that. Kathleen and Crystal Klopfenstein are here, we are waiting for Spark and Rhonda's group to pull in. The hotel was only 34 miles from the airport but it took almost 2 hours to drive that distance in this traffic. And to think, people live here on purpose!
Karin sent a text that Steven fed all the horses. Thanks Steven! Glad to know they are all taken care of. We got an email from the lady in charge of scheduling the coliseum wanting to know if we wanted to reserve practice time. Of course she was told YES!

California or Bust

We leave in a few minutes for our choir trip to California. This is a short trip to go so far, only 4 days long, but it had to be there is so much still to do before the horse fair. Mike must move a round bale in for Raven and one for Ribbon. I can't ask anyone to square bale them so they now must have round bales. I forgot to ask him last night and both paddocks are out of hay.

Pneumabort Shots

Braelyn came over to play today. She was so funny, she would grab the cane, climb up until she was standing then dance to the music that was playing on the computer. Does that make her a pole dancer?

She is also singing to the music loudly and not always on key.

The music was hymns by the Peoria choir so perhaps it is acceptable to dance to that.
Next she decided to rearrange everything in the drawers and cupboards she could open. Grandma stopped that pretty quickly. She crawled over to her chair and had a ball climbing in and out.

She was very determined to get in.

And when she had it all figured out she was so proud of herself.

Anna picked her up way to soon, she is such a fun little girl.
We needed to give the mares going to Springfield, IL their pneumabort shots. TSC was out of them and Steven offered to go to Farm n Fleet to pick them up. He got their last three shots meaning Ribbon will have to wait. Ribbon is just about due for her 5th month shot, Steven said he will check at the TSC in Washington to see if they have any. Ylse got her 5th month shot and Jenis got her 7th month shot a little early but better early than late. The last mare needing a shot was Lily. Now Lily went to UofI at 8 months of age with a bad case of EPM. She has hated needles since that time, so it isn't easy giving her shots. Her head was put into a bucket of grain while Steven did the honors and it still took 3 sticks to get the job done. If she would only stand quietly she would only get stuck once. Good thing I have an entire box of needles. Lily was moved in with the Indy, Ribbon and Eliza were not letting her in the shelter. She deserves a bit of pampering, she is one of our best mares. Ylse was given her grain, she is not gaining as fast as she should but has a good appetite, she is not dropping grain, her teeth aren't bad, and she was power packed a few months ago so I guess we just need to be patient. She needs the good rich spring grass.
There are a couple paddocks that could use hay, Mike will help with that tonight. It was raining this morning and the wind picked up this afternoon, just not a real nice day to be outside.

Poor or Not

Hospitals are no fun, actually that's not accurate, it's just if one is a patient that makes going there bad. The worst part about the entire visit was they wanted $100.00 as soon as I walk through the door. When I explained, "I just gave you $300.00 on Thursday," it didn't matter, they insisted they need the money for today's visit. The CT scan test was fine, just lay down breath in, hold it then breath out. A minute later I'm all done and I am a hundred dollars poorer. I stopped at Aldi on the way home and picked up $63.00 worth of groceries. Now we are $163.00 poorer but at least have food in the house.
It was hard to get moving once back. Ribbons paddock was just thrown a square bale in the morning and another this afternoon to hold them off. There is still enough hay to last them a couple of days, just I think they need a little better nutrition.
The picture below was snapped yesterday morning before the walk, Ayanna, Indy and Killian were all lined up hoping for someone to come along and pet them. Don't you just love Indy's tipped in ears?

Karin's vaulting team had a practice scheduled today, she came early and today pictures were taken of Jenis and Karin. They were working on side passes.



And the back view for Karin's sake:

Now I told her and told her she needs to brush out Jenis' tail if back end pictures are going to be taken. Today that didn't get done, yesterday that didn't get done, oh wait does it ever get done? Nope, only when we are getting ready for a show does anyone around here worry about manes and tails.
She was busy telling me why she is doing what as she is cantering around. That is not as easy as it looks, Jenis has a huge canter stride.


Karin finishes each horse's training up by letting them stand on the pedestal. Today as Karin was working Zalena she is taking her around the pedestal and Zalena tries to quick get on the pedestal. That mare was thinking, "if I get up now I can quit."
She finished up with the last mare as the vaulters started arriving.
Mark was late home today and we were almost late to church tonight but made it in time to sing the entire last song before the ministers went up. The day just seemed to fly by.

Coffee Please

The chest ex-ray is scheduled today for 10:45am, the rules the hospital gave was nothing by mouth 4 hours before. So even though we went to bed terribly late last night, I'm up at 5:00am waiting for the coffee maker to make that little beeping sound. Once that happens no dogs, kids or husbands better be between this computer and that coffee maker. There are some things this body will still(try)to move fast for. There is a piece of left over St. Louis soggy cake that will go nicely with that first cup. Ahhh it's done and taste great. I'm thanking God as each sip is taken in and relished. Do you think there will be coffee in heaven? Isn't it humbling how God gives us these many little gifts here on earth to enjoy. He didn't need to give us taste buds to live, He didn't need to give us this huge variety of different foods and drinks to enhance our lives. The Bible tells us we are His most precious creation and He loves to give good gifts to us. I wonder what He has planned for me today. Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Today I am thankful.
Mom called from Haiti yesterday. Today they are traveling to the orphanage where little Rose (the baby Joan and Tim hope to adopt) is staying and will spend the night there tonight. Joan wants to see if Bethany can live at the orphanage for the next couple months so she can care for Rose. If the Reinhards can get permission, they are hopeful Rose can be brought with them to the states when they come for their leave this summer. So the rest of the family can meet her. Not that our family needs to get bigger, it just seems to happen. Sunday I was sitting in the alcove after lunch before the afternoon service started. One of Beth's grand daughters looked over and smiled. I smiled back at her and asked how gymnastics were going. She looked kind of confused ran up to her dad, whispered something in his ear, then came running back and climbed on my lap. Turned out she had to ask her dad who I was and what was my name. Once she found out I was Aunt Judy she started telling me all kinds of fun things. Of course I couldn't understand half of what she was saying. And just so you all out there know, I knew who she was, what her name was (although I can't spell it) and who she belonged to (Michelle and Dave).
Ribbon's paddock needs a new round bale today and I'd like to find them one of the better bales we have left. The round bales we bought from Washington, IL just don't have the nutrition ours have. I won't be buying hay from that farmer again. We will be hauling Ribbon out to Middle Grove after the fair. She needs to have a couple months vacation after working so hard all winter.

Looooong day

The day started early before 5:00am to get laundry done before the walk. I needed to be at work early enough to get some papers printed and mailed out. Our printer is not working here at the farm. Eva Jean and I had a relatively light day with the Bible program, finishing before 11:30am. After lunch it was off to Sams, it was our turn to serve lunch at choir and we wanted to make it special as this is the last time we serve this year. We bought jumbo shrimp, crab, strawberries, pound cake, whip cream (for strawberry short cake), St. Louis soggy cake (never had heard of that before)carrots, broccli, dip and a hot chicken casserole. Once back the strawberries needed to be cleaned and prepared, they were not juicy so a glaze needed to be made and the casserole heated up.
Karin came over to ride before Meister volleyball and of course I had to watch that. The mares are doing amazing and what is even more amazing is she is still using the outdoor arena. There were very few days this winter it couldn't be used. Of the three she is training it is most fun to watch Jenis. She has Jenis sidepassing both directions fantastic crosses with both the front and back. Ylse is a bit more stiff on that and Zalena is just learning. Ribbon was brought out and checked and the medicine worked, her mastitis is cleared up. We did not re-treat her. Mike came in after dinner to see if Karin would join he and Diane at the cottage at Middle Grove on Friday night and ride Saturday morning. I'm glad they are heading out there they can check on Bow who is there for the first time.
We left for choir at 6:45pm and didn't arrive home until after 10:30pm. That was a long night of practice but the food went over great!
We didn't have a lot of left overs but what was left will be taken to the shop tomorrow.
Good night all.

Ribbon's Mastitis

There was no school today for Karin's kids which meant she had the day off work and headed here to train mares. She pulled Ribbon out first so we could check her udder for mastitis and it was not better. Karin got busy milking her out while I drove to Morton, IL to visit Farm & Fleet for a box of ToMorrow (cephapirin benzathine)for her udder. Dr. Hoerr's office was called for advice and the receptionist said he would pass the message along but the call back never came. Not wanting this to get worse, she was treated as our Jersey cow was treated when she came up with mastitis. Sure hope cow medicine will work for horses, tomorrow will tell if ToMorrow works.
Meanwhile Karin worked Jenis, Ylse and Zalena afterward stating they were all fabulous. Karin believes the Friesians of Horsemeister are very talented horses and is enjoying working with them. Once I was back with the teat medicine Ribbon was brought back out, Karin did her best to milk her udder out before squeezing the meds up into her teat. Before she left for the day we worked on the vaulting demo script and the daytime Friesian demo script for the IL Horse fair. This year we are going with a story line but we won't spill the beans ahead of time, if you want to hear the story you must go to the fair.
Mike hooked up the trailer after dinner and hauled 4 horses to Middle Grove. He left Mika, Sally and Paris at the cabin, taking Jewel, Bunni, Ayanna and Bow. They are spending weekends at the cottage and want some riding horses out there. Ella was moved into the middle paddock as that one has almost 2 full round bales.
It is after 9:00pm the wind is moaning around the barns and when no entrance is found shrieking at the windows and doors. The woodburner is filled with bright red and orange coals, the dogs are snoring in front of it as close as physically possible without burning themselves. I just finished a book on the history of the 1812 war, most of the story setting was during the battle of New Orleans.
Below is a picture of Killian's dam. Notice the thick curly FEATHER on her legs, notice her long FORELOCK. Killian definitely has the genes to be a Fantasy Friesian

Off the Hook

Rhoda is off the hook. She felt that Ella wasn't confirmed enough to perform well before the thousands of screaming fans at the IL Horse fair. We sent an email to the lady in charge to see if they had enough acts to skip hers last week. The answer came back early this morning: Hi Judy – that is fine! I think we are in good shape with acts. Tell her she’s off the hook!
I have no doubt Ella and Rhoda would have done well but understand why Rhoda would have preferred not to show her. As we have the stall reserved and paid for we will still take Ella down to the fair. It will be a great experience for Ella to be exposed a show environment without worrying if she is going to explode. Remember we acquired Ella after she was basically kicked out of PonyClub for bad behavior. This way if the grand children or grand nieces come to the fair they can have pony rides. Ella will make them forget Duke and I'll no longer be the mean aunt.
Yesterday was our day of rest. We enjoyed being back in Peoria church after missing the last 2 Sundays. Tim Funk had the morning service while Ken Hoerr had the afternoon. Both were great messages. We still live in the best country of the world, we can worship without worry, we can hear the truth without the government telling our ministers what they can or can't say. We pray this continues.
After church Steven came over to move in round bales. We moved a really good bale in for the pregnant mares and he took another bale over to the cabin field for Mike's starting line up. Ella was thrown a half of a square bale, her shelter needs cleaning out before we move in a new round bale. If the Yanmar is available I'll try to book that for the clean out soon, then that paddock can be used for the mares due in April.

Killian's Sire

There was a neat article in the December 2011 issue of Horse Illustrated of Killian's sire.
If it is too dark to see here, there is another copy on Killian's page on the website.

We are thrilled with Killian, he is already showing signs of Majesty. The way he protects his mare, the way he struts, the presence he shows as a 10 month old. Sometimes when a foal is born it just takes a few looks to see this one is special!
We were pretty thrilled to be able to purchase him, driving a thousand miles one way to see if he really was as special as his pictures showed and yes, in the flesh he was even better. His pedigree is one of the top in the world, not just the United States. Again I wonder, why are we so blessed?

Pictures of the Day

Amy Koch brought over some huge beef soup bones and that was the basics for a delicious beef soup for the many visitors that came today. The first to come was Karin. Her job was to get the mares worked before the rehearsal scheduled for 1:00pm. She started with Jenis, then moved on to Ylse and finished up with Zalena.


When Karin pulled Ribbon out she discovered Ribbon has a bad case of mastitis on her left teat. This needed to be hot packed and milked out during the day. Below is Karin working on it for the 3rd time.

The riders started arriving for the big rehearsal. Below is Karin helping Rebekah get all fancy.

Once they were all ready to head out, the outdoor needed to have the barrels removed. Rhoda just expects Jenis to be perfect carrying barrels.
By the time the arena was ready to go it was decided to let the boys run off some steam before they had to settled down and work. How could we expect them to be perfect around such pretty mares if they weren't able to run off some of that extra energy.
And it's Valiant by a nose.

Until Evan catches up and passes him.

While the boys were having fun in the outdoor arena the girls decided to race in the field. And they're off.

By the time they hit the finish line it was Jenis first by 10 lengths, Ylse 2nd, Zalena 3rd and Ribbon dead last.

Rhoda had to show off the winning mare.

The pictures below are of Emily standing on Evan and Steven standing on Valiant while the mares are being ridden around them in the arena during the rehearsal.

I had to get a close-up of that, this is amazing behavior for 2 young Friesian stallions in the presence of 3 beautiful mares and Ribbon. Why the sound of Ribbon galloping around them should have caused major anxiety.

The practice was long but by the time they were ready to quit it was all coming together. Today they practiced first for the horsecapades and then the Friesian demo. When they were satisfied they all came in to warm up with some very tasty beef and vegetable soup. Rhoda then pulled Ella out to show us what she had been working on.


Emily Ricketts brought her friend Alison with her for the rehearsal and once Rhoda was done with Ella they got out Bunni, Jewel and Paris for a fun trail ride. Emily let Jewel race as fast as she wanted to when they hit the big field, she said Jewel was flying. Steven used Ella for one of his beginner students and was very pleased with how she was. He used her on the lunge line and she was perfect walk and trot for the student.
Phil and Anna came to work on the internet, Anna brought Braelyn out for a short ride on Ribbon. She was all smiles!

The day was still relatively warm by late afternoon so Braelyn rode over on the golf cart with me to the cabin following Rhoda on Bunni, Emily on Jewel and Alison on Paris. Once those horses were put away they rode back with us. That golf cart is such a handy tool around here.
Steven and Rhoda were able to get the gates back on the paddocks and now Indy, Killian, Ayanna and Bow are sharing the breeding shed paddock. Ella is back in her own paddock by herself.
It really was a wonderful day.

Bow at 6 Months

As long as Bow was in the arena with Ayanna, some of the video we took was used to make a video of her, the last one we made of her was very short, she jumped out of the arena after less than a minute.

She had already had a good roll and was muddy on her back end but oh well, one can't expect perfection at the last minute.
Our morning was not very relaxing. As soon as it started to lighten up outside we saw loose horses. Sure enough Bow, Ella, and Ayanna were out, then as we are watching we see Killian exit his paddock and start chasing Karin's dog Studly. Once he ran him off the property he walks right back in with Indy. Indy is the only good filly. Somehow Ella, Ayanna or Bow knocked the back gate off Indy and Killian's paddock. Indy refused to leave it, those rif raf from the west farm (Middle Grove) are just ruffians and she is way to elegant to fraternize with them. Killian has taken it upon himself to guard her and each time Studly comes back in the yard out he goes for a good chase. That dog ended up in Raven's paddock, realized where he was and scooted out as fast as his legs could move. As soon as he is out of Killian's reach, Killian runs right back in with Indy. Meanwhile Ayanna is over trying to visit with Ylse and Jenis and can't understand why they keep threatening to bite her, don't they know she is special? Bow is hanging around Ribbon's paddock but luckily Ribbon will have nothing to do with her, Bow is feeling lost, her mama doesn't like her anymore. Ella is busy grazing in the house yard. A bucket of grain is brought out and one by one the 5 horses are put in an empty paddock with an attached gate and given a bale of hay. There will be work to do today to fix the gates on Ella's paddock and Indy's paddock before everyone can be put back where they belong. At least this gives Indy and Killian a chance to bond with Ayanna and Bow.

Ayanna at 2

Steven came today and was more than willing to help get a video of his pride and joy Ayanna! She is not just his pride and joy, sometimes I can't understand why we are so blessed. This filly is everything we are breeding for, not only does she have perfect conformation, she is tall, black, hairy and her movement is spectacular. This girl has presence!

Karin came early today to school the mares in the outdoor arena while Steven worked the boys in the indoor. Karin was pleased with Jenis and Ylse, feeling both were light and responsive but felt Zalena was a bit dead to the leg. Rhoda brought Ella out to the outdoor arena when she arrived and had a very good ride. She brought out the tarp, had Ella carry it around first on her back and then on her head. She was also just about perfect today.

Emma's Pup Charlie

Below is a video of one of Emma's pups getting a bath.

The poor cat trying to clean up this big big puppy, talk about a tired tongue!
How sweet Charlie is, Charlie was born June 24th. His parents were Emma and Bruno. Charlie went to his new home at almost 8 weeks of age where he is obviously getting lots of love, companionship and food, he grew and grew and grew.

Ayanna

Yesterday afternoon Steven moved Ayanna and Bow out to a paddock. I snapped a few pictures but wasn't able to help much. Ayanna will be 2 years of age in a month. She is leading well, stands quietly tied for grooming and is amazingly well behaved when we consider how little we have worked with her. She has spent most of her life at the Middle Grove farm.


Ribbon started calling, Bow heard her mother and found a way out through the fence running over to Ribbon's paddock. Back in the stall they went.

It was probably way to early to try. What should be done is have Ayanna and Bow hauled out to Middle Grove. But before that happens a video must be made of her fantastic movement, she moves amazing!
I'm still not well and had to cancel our dinner plans for tonight which was potluck at Heather and Greg Rumbolds. Then feeling bad about that, I get a lunch invitation, all my girls are meeting today at Olive Garden and asked if I would join them. Oh well, I wouldn't have enjoyed the food, nothing tastes good today and I can't stop coughing. Amy stopped by yesterday morning with some magazines and books but my brain just didn't want to work so they were left un-opened. The Doctor's office called with the results of the chest ex-ray, there is a shadow on one of the lung nodules and I must go back for more ex-rays. Probably something to do with this fever and coughing.

Email from Jill

Good afternoon Judy, I thought I’d update you with some recent photos of Kenzie and Kiera. At 10 months old, they are both getting big and doing very well! You can see how huge Lily’s Kiera is getting! I included the last photo of the two of them eating so you can see how much bigger she is than Kenzie even though Kenzie is actually a day older! Sorry they weren’t groomed for the pictures—too cold out! I was so glad to see on your blog that Lily is expecting this Spring. I hadn’t seen anything on your “For Sale” page about her upcoming baby and thought maybe she didn’t get pregnant last year. She really throws good looking babies! I am so happy with her and Raven’s baby from last year! I’ll be looking for you at the Illinois Horse Fair in March. Take care, Jill
Just for the sake of honesty, we don't ultrasound Lily and since we don't know for sure if she settled or not (although she has always settled)we don't update until we know for sure. Today her page will be updated.
Left of the picture is Kenzie, Wynne's 2011 filly and to the right is Kiera, Lily's 2011 filly.

This is my favorite, it shows best friends sharing a grain bucket:

Now for my testing experience. To start with I've had fever and chills for the last 2 days, last night I couldn't get warm even after a long hot shower and climbing under the down comforter. This morning I wasn't feeling any better. Arrival time was listed as 7:40am, no problem I left before 7:00am giving time even to fill the car up with fuel. I arrive at the hospital and try to drive into the parking deck and the entrance is blocked off. Driving around to the other entrance is a note Physicians parking only. Around the block and find a parking place in another parking deck. This one was quite a hike to the entrance of the hospital but I still arrived in time. Then comes the fun part. The hospital wants $300.00 down and was given my credit card. We have such a high deductible I must keep the receipt. Then I was taken to a small bathroom and was given a very small pill bottle and told to fill it. Now if I was a man it would have been no problem but with my hip problem, not being able to bend, I kept missing the tiny little bottle. Suffice it to say I spent a long time at the sink washing up. They drew blood, took an ekg and a couple of chest ex-rays before sending me upstairs to a class with 3 other ladies all having their right hips replaced. By the time we are in the class room I'm feeling very shaky and ask for coffee and apple juice. The hours were spent learning what we are to do before surgery, what's going to happen during surgery and how to live after surgery. By the time we were released I was in bad shape and could hardly make the long drive home. Before I could crawl into bed Bow and Ayanna needed to be fed and watered.
Mark arrived home and is so good about helping out, he filled the water buckets, vacuumed up the mud the dogs brought in and said don't worry about dinner, he will help himself. I knew there was a reason I loved this man!

Testing

Today I must be at Methodist for testing and a class of 3-4 hours and be there by 7:30am. That means no walk. Bad is I didnt study, shades of high school, but even worse is no coffee today.
Mom, Beth and Justin left for Haiti yesterday morning. They left with special greetings for Joan, Tim and the girls.
We have not had Internet at the farm yesterday or this morning.
Jill the owner of Lily's 2011 filly and the owner of Wynne and her filly sent pictures but they can't be uploaded on the iPad, hopefully Philip will get us working again.
It was Our turn to provide the dinner last night at church. I ordered the same amount of pizza as last year when we had an entire pizza left, this year we had more people and had just a couple of slices left. Last year we ran out of salad, this year more was made and we had plenty. Rachel donated her home made poppy seed salad dressing, ordered an extra dozen cookies as those pretty much ran out last year and this year there were plenty. I would love to eat one, just one with a hot cup of coffee but it is not to be today.

Wings

It seemed the snow deadened all sound this morning when Emma and I headed over to the meeting place for our walk.

Soon Heidi broke the silence. She is looking across the lake and spotted Rachel walking over to join us.

As we reached Joan and Tim's dam the dogs alerted us to what they considered a great find. There was blood and feathers down by the retain-age pond. Perhaps a coyote was able to kill a goose.
We use to sing a song in choir called, I'm Looking for Wings Ebby found a wing and of course that song got stuck in my mind the rest of the day.
She was so proud of it she dragged the wing up the steep dam and was trying to carry it down the road but the wing was so big she couldn't see in front of her and she fell off the side of the dam. Even then she didn't let go of her treasure.

I needed to leave for work early as you can see by the pictures below we were swamped with studies to be processed.


Poor Eva Jean had to work over time today. We were not able to finish and she took hundreds home to finish.
This next picture is out of order, I was telling the guys while we were at lunch how Mike had to go up on stage during the cruise. When the comedian asked him to come up, his sheepish look caused us to roll with laughter.

Steven Marchal called before I made it home from work that he was willing to pick up Lily and Ayanna. He pulled up about the same time I did. Raven is always so excited when a trailer pulls up with a mare in it, too bad she is already pregnant. He was sure we were going to bring her over.

Lily was put in the indoor while Ayanna was put in a stall and then it was time to get Bow. Today was weaning day for her. She came out of the paddock at a full gallop.

She finally settled down and was easily led into the stall with Ayanna. Steven brushed Lily up and then just couldn't help himself. He climbed on her bareback with just a halter and lead.

Lily is technically due the first part of April but knowing her history we will start watching her the middle of March. She has the most beautiful mane and tail and as heavy as she is her trot is easy to sit. She is light on her feet. She trotted both directions for Steven.

We headed in to brush out Ayanna's very thick mane and tail. The pictures are way too dark but she is so beautiful we just had to take them anyway.

She inherited her parent's beautiful thick long tails. Ayanna is not yet 2 years old, she is around 15 hands and looks almost like a full grown mare.

Ayanna and Bow will share the double stall for a few days to help with Bow's weaning process. We were so busy playing with these 2 when the watch was checked it was after 4:00pm and our special Valentines dinner still needed to be prepared before Mark came home. Everything was done as he walked in.

The lobster was delicious! Below is an after dinner plate.