88 $450

Well Jemima the duck got 88 stitches and her owner a vet bill of $450.00. Was it worth it? It just depends on who is asked this question. Hopefully the owner of the dog will willingly pay the vet bill. Kind of hard to imagine an old duck being worth that kind of money. Perhaps she could claim pain and suffering for the loss of her husband and daughter. Maybe Cathie should consult an attorney. Eva Jean and I had a very good productive day at work. I arrived before 8:00am and Philip had the new printer all set up and ready to go. He went over all the information quickly and when the print button was pushed it was amazing to see how quickly the labels printed. The first batch was well over 100 and it spit them out in just a few minutes. We were able to finish processing the studies by noon and not just a few, we are talking around 600 pieces of mail. We didn't count but we know this by the amount of envelopes we went through today. Eva Jean had to take hundreds home with her as we didn't have time to finish but at least we got all the labels on the envelopes and the envelopes on the studies. Danny joined us for a late lunch. By the time I arrived home, Rhoda was in the arena working Ayanna. She used the round pen reasoning first, then asked her to bow.

I was thrilled to see how Ayanna responded. After working on the bow with great results, Rhoda popped on her bare back and rode her around the arena.

She is going to be a spectacular mare when full grown. Ayanna was put away and Zalena brought inside. After working on her bow, Rhoda had her work with the tarp. Zalena was willing to carry the tarp around the arena quietly.

The next exercise Rhoda asked of Zalena was interesting. Mark has the round bales set up as a obstacle course. Rhoda asked Zalena to walk inside, then back out which can't be done in a straight line.

But even more impressive was when she asked Zalena to back into that spot even turning the corner.

What a sweet mare, trying to do what ever Rhoda asked of her without a fuss. Next Sissy and Star needed to be teased. It is 19 days since Sissy's last cover. Neither of them showed, Star was put back, Sissy taken into the indoor by me while the boys were both brought in by Rhoda. They were wonderful, ignoring the mare standing in the arena while they worked. Rhoda had the boys side by side, asked Valiant to bow and they both went down at the same time. No pictures of that, I was holding Sissy. Once they were put away it was Sissy's turn to work. Sissy is very shy and not very trusting of people. We felt we had a break through today. She followed Rhoda without a lead rope, followed her as she was dragging a tarp around the arena, stood quietly on the tarp, walked on the bridge then allowed us to stick her while up there (she is 16.1 hands) and finally started the first of the bow training.

Karin arrived as we were putting her away. Karin brought out Jenis and Indy, then Killian. No pictures the camera had been taken inside to download the many pictures taken of the others.