Bonnie Pony

Rhoda stopped in today and was willing to go to TSC with me for 300 pounds of grain for our nursing mares and Raven. Once back she pulled Bonnie pony out for some training. She asked Bonnie to step up on the mounting block and without hesitating up she went.

Next we put her in the outdoor arena and asked her to move for some action shots. Below is my favorite. This is Bonnie acting like Sangria, showing off like an Andalusian.

Rhoda hopped on, the next few pictures were of her asking for the canter, again uphill and gorgeous!

Most of the pictures will be placed on her webpage but we did post them all on our facebook page. Trick training was next. Bonnie's bow is pretty much 100%.

She is learning the lay down.

But the sit up is still done too quickly.

Once finished, Rhoda throws a rope around her and leads her to the paddock while riding in the golf cart.

Bonnie is for sale right now for only $1500.00 but so far we have turned everyone down who has asked about her. Not one of the people asking have been a good fit for her. She is great for leadline, needs a more experienced child when riding out by herself, could work for a beginner on a trail ride where Bonnie just has to follow (she is great at that) and Bonnie drives. Once Bonnie was put away Sangria was brought in and wormed. Rhoda took some time to work with her colt. This boy is only 10 days old, look at the size on this boy!

He is for sale for $5000.00 and can be reserved now with a $500.00 deposit, then regular payments until weaning. This boy is going to easily top 17 hands when full grown and he not only has beauty his movement is amazing! We are still waiting for rain from Isaac, he has been invited and is showing up late.

Rain is A-Coming

We are expecting the rain to start late this afternoon. How disappointed will we be if it doesn't? We keep getting conflicting accounts on when and how much is to come from Isaac. After the walk, Jewel and her filly were let outside for a few pictures.

This 24 hour old filly looks so sweet but looks are deceiving! Here she is sticking her tongue out at the camera.

All joking aside, she was a little spitfire this morning. She didn't want to be handled, didn't want me touching her cord, was banging into her mom's udder so hard Jewel had to correct her a bit, and hated, absolutely hated me touching her legs. This one is going to be more work than our usual compliant sweet foals. Could be that 25% Thoroughbred blood running through her veins. This one will have stallion like presence and should go to a show home for sure. We were hoping Prissy and Clair would be out but both are still in. We wanted to trailer them to Middle Grove before the rain hits as once it comes we won't be hauling the trailer out through the mud. The only 2 that can be taken out is Bonnie and Paris. What a shame to go with a half empty trailer. The stove, dishwasher and washer were delivered today for the farm house. Still to be ordered is the fridge and dryer. We are going to set up one of the bedrooms this weekend for Sarah. The house is so close to being done I'm starting to get anxious to move. Not that I don't love this little apartment but it will sure be great to have more room when the grand kids come over.

Update on Blind Helen

Helen is thriving out on the new land with her herd. She not only has her mother, Lily looking out for her but both of her full sisters, Ciera and Ayanna, also keep a close eye on her. It is very hard to remember she is blind, she comes running up with the herd when a trailer pulls up. The pictures below were just taken 9 days ago.

She still enjoys a good scratching, when she hears our voice she is one of the first to ask for attention. She knows how to find water and is not afraid to get all the way in the lake to cool off. If she doesn't sell we won't be upset at all. Our plans for Helen are: at 2 she will be introduced to driving and at 3 we will start her under saddle and breed her to either Evan or Killian. I'll see if we can hire Steven Marchal to come out to Middle Grove before Hurricane Isaac gets here on Saturday to ride Lily for a video. Helen has amazing movement and will pass that along to any offspring she produces. Helen is old enough to wean but she doesn't spend much time nursing any more and Lily is not losing weight so there is no reason to be in a hurry for that. Sangria, Clair and Prissy were covered today.

Where's the Placenta

Jewel delivered out in the paddock so it should be easy to find the placenta but after searching and only finding the birth sack then another thorough search of the paddock without finding it, the vet clinic was called. Dr. Pallen arrived to feel inside Jewel's uterus, if the placenta has been retained it can cause major problems, with infertility being the least serious and death of the mare worst. Thankfully it had been expelled, just that it has vanished. Out in the wild the mares will eat the placenta to keep the smell away from predictors so it is probably in someone's belly. Jewel's uterus was flushed anyway and the filly given her foal shot. Steven Marchal arrived to play with the little one.

She is such a darling, coal black, beautiful face, long legs and friendly.

Jewel is a being such a good mom.

Avalon's owner came to pick her up now that she is out of season. That opens up a paddock with a shelter, Clair and Prissy will be moved in as we are expecting 2 inches of (hoping for) rain over the weekend from Hurricane Issac. The transmission in Mark's van gave out as he was coming up the drive yesterday. It was left there and he took my truck today in to work. Joszef showed up to finish the metal roof on the house today and had to figure out how to get around it.

Evan's a DAD!

Jewel delivered a beautiful all black baby girl early this morning. She is a little over 3 weeks early. This is Evan's first foal and she's BLACK out of a bay mare, very unusual! Good job Evan

Below is Mike introducing Ebby to the new little one as she is busy nursing.

This foal has an unusual amount of hair for a newborn, her tail reaches almost to her hocks and is so thick and curly.

Below Mike is working on imprinting her.

Ylse Pregnant

Poor Ylse, she had no idea when she so willingly hopped in the trailer what was ahead for her. While waiting for Dr. Hoerr the camera was pulled out for some trial shots. This camera must have a scratch on the lens, there is always a blurry spot in the middle. Trying different angles to get some of the picture wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, below is her profile as she is in the stocks looking over at Dr. Hoerr's horses.

Looking up at her eye and seeing such a great reflection of Dr. Hoerr coming that shot had to be taken.

Dr. Hoerr pulled out his ultrasound machine and took all of 1 minute to find the embryo.

That measures out to be a 19 day old Friesian embryo. Hopefully late July 2013 another Raven baby will be born. Because she is safely in foal the next step was a caslick operation, one of the most barbaric things I've ever seen done to a mare. Below he is applying a local anesthetic.

The next step is to take a surgeon's knife and actually cut open the skin on either side.

And finally the 2 sides are sewn together.

The stitches used will absorb but she will need to be opened back up before delivery.

Clair In Paris & Avalon Out

Clair was covered by Valiant after the walk, Avalon is now out and so is Paris. Raven will be given the day off today. Mark needed to borrow the board out of the barn central air for one of his customers. Today should be fine for Sangria's colt, they can come inside and have a fan but tomorrow is suppose to be back in the 90s. I'll have to figure out a way to keep him from overheating. We will need to buy grain soon, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel literally. With Jenis & Eliza nursing they must have extra calories or will lose weight. Raven also needs grain to mix in his bute of which he is now on a daily dose for his poor knees. The truck was unloaded and cleaned out yesterday with most of the stuff brought into this tiny apartment. All that will need to be gone through cleaned and stored in the proper place TODAY. It has been 18 days since Ylse's last cover, she needs to be hauled in this afternoon to Hoerr Vet clinic, ultrasounded and if in foal a caslick put in.

A Quick Trip

After a delicious dinner of home made turkey soup compliments of Diane, Mark and I hooked up the trailer and hauled Cor out to Middle Grove. She will be brought back for her sonagram in 16 days. It is worth the gas to haul her out, she is a big mare and eats about a square bale a day plus grain. We have seen square bales advertised for $9.00 & $10.00 a bale and that's right here in central Illinois! We only had enough daylight to run there, drop her off and head back. The trailer running lights aren't working with my truck. We have brake lights and blinkers just no running lights so it was a must to be back before dark. These few pictures were snapped. The first is as we were driving up, we could see the horses in under the trees.

After Cor was unloaded they came at a run to meet her. Mytross was actually glad to see her, she is missing Clair and felt Cor would take her place nicely.

The other horses weren't too sure about her and stayed just far enough away that Cor was very curious.

Sangria's Shadow

Yesterday Braelyn was playing with an old icecream bucket. It was pretty funny watching her try to move while standing in the bucket. Just for all you parents who think that is dangerous... Braelyn is a thinker and figured out pretty quickly she wasn't going anywhere until at least one foot was out. After a very busy day down in the Berean warehouse it was time to continue the work at the farm that didn't get done in the morning. Not that we were slacking or anything but 4 new bales needed to be put in for the horses early, some of the paddocks were almost completely out of hay. The boys got one, the middle paddock 2 and Cor's paddock the last. Thankfully Mark drove the skid steer while I removed the net wrap. Clair was teased today and she is starting to show. She will be covered tomorrow as all three stallions were used today. Probably will use Valiant on her, he seems to have the most drive now that Raven is older. Avalon was covered by Evan, Prissy was covered by Valiant and Sangria was covered by Raven. Sangria wasn't going to be covered, I had her out grazing along with her colt. He was just like a shadow sticking right by her side matching stride for stride. she took off and ran over to flirt with Raven and basically refused to walk away until she was covered.

Yes I know she still looks pregnant but Sangria had colic surgery after giving birth to Orchata just ruining her girlish figure. She probably figures "why even try to lose weight, I'll always have a big belly anyway and besides Raven likes big girls." Her colt wasn't sure about meeting dad but dad was very curious about him.

He is such an elegant colt.

I just found my niece Anni Davidovic's blog and added it to my favorites. Check her blog out by clicking on the link to the right, such insight for a teenager.

3 Mares 3 Stallions

Hopefully all three of the mares covered today plus the 2 covered on Saturday will be like the picture above, conception! What a busy day the stallions had today. All work was done after Braelyn left. Jenis was teased and out, Cor was teased and out. Avalon is in and covered by Evan, Prissy is in and covered by Valiant, Paris is in and covered by Raven. Clair is also starting to show signs she is in and will be checked tomorrow. It is hot and sunny and with the a little over an inch of rain yesterday we can almost see the grass growing.

RAIN!!! YEAH

Dragged out of bed this morning around 5:00am not wanting to get up but knowing there was much to do before church. First on the list to do was to get the roast started for tonight's dinner. Carrots were peeled and 2 large onions added to the crock pot along with the roast and then it was full! Still needing to be added is potatoes and more carrots but that will be done after church. By 5:30am the dark before dawn was starting to give way to enough light to begin the outside chores. Of course Sangria needed to be fed first. She is so demanding! Once the horses were fed and checked over the show fancies were gathered up from the arena and apartment and put away. It is great that we have enough equipment and fancies on hand for plenty of horses. Rain was predicted to start falling by 7:00am and by 8:00am just a few sprinkles had fallen. We have been praying for rain and by the time we left for church we were getting a nice soft shower. By the time we got home from church we had probably received less than a quarter inch but still we were thankful. The rain started in earnest as we were hauling the dinner over to mom's house.

It rained through dinner but even rain doesn't stop the volley ball players from showing up. They played game after game in the rain.

Below is Rodney and Kristin's daughter Ava, just as she found out Braelyn & Addyson are her cousins. We thought her reaction was pretty funny.

Below is the cheering section:

In the picture above the ball is outlined, it was moving so fast it was a blur. It was hard to get pictures peeking out from under the umbrellas. The cheering section got rained out before the volley ball players quit. The picture below is one of the players trying to wring out the shirt.

And still they played. After the games were done Karin came over and helped test Jewel. She is not due for 3 more weeks but she had to be tested and if close brought in, there is just too much mud for the first time in MONTHS!!! Thank you GOD for the rain. Jewel had no calcium show up on the test. She will be left in any way only because I don't want to slop through the mud to put her out.

Heritage Days Parade & Pony Rides

The pictures will tell the story.

The emergency repair. Actually Karin rode Ribbon down to the start with baling twine holding her surcingle on, her girth broke at the practice last night.

Thankfully Crystal Baker ran it to Fred's shoe repair and got it fixed in time for the start of the parade.

Ribbon was a big hit in all ways. She was so impressive as she would side pass from one side of the road to the other. All eyes were on her instead of the beautiful Friesians!

The vaulting show after the parade was great, an audience that had not ever heard of vaulting and of course they were wow'd.

The rest of the vaulting pictures have been placed on facebook, feel free to share them. Then came the cotton candy and pony rides.

The ponies were taken home around 4:30pm, we felt they had worked hard enough in the heat. By 7:30pm the cotton candy machine started shorting out the electrical box. We thought that was probably a sign to quit. Karin, Mark and Rhoda helped load everything in the truck and the truck was parked in the arena, too tired to unload it tonight.