AKA EL

While feeding this morning the sun was breaking through the clouds lighting up the Eastern sky with sunbeams. Kind of how I imagine Jesus will come, light bursting through the darkness.

Mark was out early trimming trees with the skid steer. What a great machine.

Before the day heated up Rhoda pulled out EasterLilly to see how much she knew and what she was like undersaddle. She did some round penning first.

 EasterLilly is now known as EL as we already have 2 other Lilys. She did well, even at her drafty size she could carry a canter both directions. Next was the scary bag and that didn't scare her at all. EL followed Rhoda around just like she was suppose to.

Rhoda mounted up and asked for a canter and that was the only time EL thought of misbehaving, she let out one hop then settled down for work, walking and trotting over the poles and tarp.  At the end of the session Rhoda rode her into the barn and asked her to step up on the pedestal and up she went.

We don't know if someone trained her for that but this mare is just so willing and wants to please when Rhoda asked her to go up she thought about how to do it then did, no fussing or spooking.

After she was hosed off and put away Rhoda and I drove to Middle Grove to pick up the three pregnant mares Sangria, Sally and Bunni. Mike met us with the 4 wheeler so we didn't have to hike for hours in the heat to find the herd. They loaded without a fuss and once home were hosed down then put in the cabin field. Mark spent the afternoon working on the patio. We are getting close. Dinner was left over chicken. 

Record High of 99

It was and still is like an oven outside. We had a high of 99 degrees today which broke the record. All physical labor today was miserable. Mike helped move 3 bales in today, one for Valiant, one for Evan and one in the middle paddock. Emma was teased and still in so was covered. EasterLilly was teased and not in.
I had to take a trip to Skyline today with 10 boxes of Bibles and a box of the wrapping paper. Loading them into the car was hard, unloading them was hard and by the time they were carried up the steps to the side door I was dripping wet with sweat. Back at the office all the first of the month bills were paid a couple days early. Once home the horses were hosed off to cool them down.
After work Mike and Diane hauled Jewel, her filly and Ella out to Middle Grove. They will stay this weekend and check on the pregnant mares.
When it is this hot outside staying inside reading is a great option.

Easter Lilly

One doesn't just make a 500 mile trip to drop off something, as long as I was driving so far I may as well bring something back too right?
Meet Easter Lilly. The pictures were taken late last night with the phone camera, better pictures will be taken later for when we add her to our website.

She is a very sweet 7 year old registered spotted draft with no spots born on Easter Sunday. I think she is as wide as Ribbon but she is not as tall at only 16.1 hands. She will be a great therapy horse, she doesn't mind kids crawling all over her and just seems to accept life with a sweet attitude. We hope to breed her to Valiant still this fall so she can be used most of the summer next year. Who knows, we may end up with 2 vaulting horses. With Karin's vaulting team growing by leaps and bounds we may NEED 2 vaulting horses.

Long Drive

Almost 500 hundred miles and close to 9 hours on the road made for a long day but Scarlet is now at her new home and I'm home safe. More on the trip tomorrow, I'm going to bed.

Replacing Posts

Emma was covered early to give me time to help Mark dig a couple holes to replace the 2 broken posts in the back of the middle paddock. Eliza and her colt along with Jewel and her filly were in there and we for sure didn't want anyone breaking a leg by stepping into one of the holes so right after the walk Emily and Shaun set the post. Later when the heat breaks we will install a gate and replace the boards. We don't want to do that now, the horses need the pond to cool off. We had another high of 96 degrees today. Jewel took advantage of cooling off in the pond as did Eliza's colt.
Scarlet leaves for her new home tomorrow afternoon. The new owners have a 2 horse straight load trailer so today Scarlet got a leading and loading lesson. What a smart filly, she followed me right in the trailer 3 times then the 4th time I asked her to just jump in and she did, even Rhoda was impressed with how quickly this filly learns. She still needs to learn how to back out but I'll let the new owners teach her that.

Rhoda, Emily, Sarah and Shaun drove to Middle Grove to check on the horses. They used the 4 wheelers to find them which took longer than they thought. The horses were all keeping cool under the trees. Udders were check on the 3 mares still due. Sally is bagging up and will need to be brought home soon, Sangria looked farther along than Bunni. We will probably bring all three home this weekend.
Craig Stickling had the service tonight. He was reading where Paul was telling his story, stopped the reading and said, "Why would God want a man like that?" Truly, Why would God want us? How thankful I am that He does!

Tired Today

Work went well down at the Berean warehouse. Diane kept the copy machine running and read letters, Eva Jean opened all the mail while I entered the new names on the computer and printed out labels for the studies. We finished around noon. After a good lunch at Dennys Diane went to pick up Irelyn while I headed to Sams to pick up Mark's glasses and groceries. As soon as the groceries were put away Ella was loaded into the stock trailer and taken to Hoerr Vet clinic where her coggins was drawn. Ella is going to live down in Missouri  at Therapeutic Horsemanship as a therapy horse for the winter.  Ella's filly Scarlet will be traveling to her new home in Ohio on Thursday.
Shaun and Sarah cooked a curry dinner for us tonight. It was very flavorful. David, Stephanie, Israel, Karin, Rhoda, Emily, Mark, mom and I really enjoyed it. Well actually Israel didn't get to even taste it. Sarah served hot brownies with cold ice cream for dessert. Israel was so funny, he was cooing and making faces. Mom picked him up and he gave a good stretch.

 After dinner Karin brought out the carbol game while Emily and I went to load Jenis, Lola and her colt up for Mike. He and Diane were heading to Middle Grove with the trailer and didn't mind taking them out. They will be bringing back the Kabota. We are down to 10 horses here. This makes it so easy and so manageable we will hardly know what to do with all our time. Both Jewel and Emma are still in but only Jewel was covered today. We will have to cover Emma tomorrow morning if she is still in.
It was so hot today Jewel and her filly were put in the stalls, the stall barn closed up and the air conditioner turned on. Even though it was 95 degrees outside it was a nice cool 80 inside the barn. I so appreciate Mark getting the barn hooked up for air. The cows got a new bale then Mark helped move one of our really good bales in for Emma. Emma is still a bit thin and needs the best hay we have.
I'm really tired today and am heading to bed.

Road Trip to Iowa

I had to leave before the walk today, or at least I tried to leave before the walk. Emily and I were to have Pete the Shire colt, loaded and on the road by 8:00am only Pete refused to follow his dam and get in the trailer. When the walkers arrived, they were put to work. It took mom, Ruth, Rachel, Diane, Emily and I to coax this big colt into the trailer. After I left, Emily had Mike help get Jewel covered by Evan then spent the morning mowing, moving gravel and power washing the skid steer. The trip went well no issues at all finally arriving home late afternoon, just in time to pick up pizza to feed the hungry family members coming back from Norris.
Below are a few pictures of the evening playing with the grand kids.

Rhoda gave Darcy a bath which really entertained the kids

All good things must come to an end. Below they are saying good-by

As soon as they left I headed back out to work. Emma needed to be taken out of the stall and covered by Evan, Jewel and her filly needed to be put out and fed and the 2 stalls used today cleaned. 

Crew Honegger

Diane sent through this picture of her brand new grandson born last night to Andrew and Rachel Honegger

a few other pictures came through today also. Valiant became a daddy again only this time to a lovely filly out of Cor. Clair's colt by Valiant is also in the picture.

Congratulations Joann from New Mexico on those gorgeous siblings. 

Mike and Diane went to Middle Grove today to relax out on the lake now that all of our company is gone. Mike found the herd, with all that grass out there they were eating on the hay bales. I think they like the tender grass that is coming in since that field was mowed.

Those hay bales must be saved for winter so Mike moved and stacked them then fenced them in.

So funny the horses are left out and the hay is fenced in.

Men's Sing

Today after the afternoon service we had men from all over the United States sing for us, actually they were praising God through song and blessed us hearers also. We kept some from Morris, Morris North, Minneapolis, Forrest and Latty, OH. All but 2 of our guest left for the jail at 7:35am, unfortunately the one staying in the apartment where all of Emily's church clothes were decided to sleep in and skip the jail. He did come down for breakfast giving her a few minutes to run up to the apartment and change.
After church Jenis was checked, she had just gone out but Emily went ahead and inseminated her anyway since we knew she was in earlier in the day. Lola was brought over to tease and also out. Emma and Jewel were both still in. Emma was covered by Evan, Jewel will have to wait until tomorrow morning. It was so hot outside Karin cancelled volley ball. We were glad to use this day of rest to rest.
I'm leaving early tomorrow to take Pete (the Shire colt) back to his owner in Iowa.

Yesterday's Fun

Diane hosted breakfast yesterday at 8:00am for us and our guests. As soon as that was over we migrated over to the farm for a grand tour. Jenis was brought out and teased. As she was still in season, Emily got to AI her with everyone watching. Then it was time to load and leave for the parade. Nancy, mom and Taegan got to ride inside the fire truck.

 The vaulters all lined up on top of the fire truck

 Anni on Jenis waiting for the parade to start.

 Gail and Rhonda stuffing tracts with the goodies to be thrown

 The vaulters having a very emotional good-by to Ribbon's filly. She has been sold so this was the last time they would see her.

 Grandma Gail with Jasper on top of the fire engine. Jasper wasn't too thrilled to be there at first.

 She obviously bribed her with something Kristin, just look at the smile now! 

 This next shot was during the parade, the vaulters performed their entire routine 4 times as they walked behind Spark's fire truck and in front of a Hanna City fire truck.

 Watchers waiting for the goodies to be thrown. The rest of the pictures were placed on Mark's Facebook page.

After the parade Ribbon, her filly, Indy and Killian were hauled to Middle Grove. I was going to bring Sangria, Sally and Bunni back since they are all due mid September but ran out of time searching for the herd. Mytross' buyer was scheduled to come at 2:00pm and showed up early. Emily was bringing them over from the cabin field as I pulled  up to see the buyer already there waiting. They loaded fine and left so the next load of 4 horses were loaded and taken to Middle Grove. Mark went along to help with this load carrying Ayanna, Holly, Marika and Zalena. They were just dumped and left to find the others on their own, we had to rush back to get to the Hanna City park where Rachel's kids were performing at 4:45pm. We didn't quite make it in time but it didn't matter the schedule was running a bit behind so we got to hear their entire performance. These kids were PAID to perform!

There was a nice crowd to hear them and they sounded great. Great talent just seems to run in this family.
The rest of these pictures were also placed on Mark's Facebook page. Right after they were done P.O.T.C. brought out their dog agility equipment and gave us all a fun demonstration.

The rest of these pictures were placed on the Horsemeister, Inc Facebook page. Mom decided my car was just too filthy for church tomorrow and insisted on washing my car before we drove Nancy home to Morton.

With such a nice clean car we needed to show it off and stopped at Burger King for dinner. We were the only customers so mom decided to play a nasty trick on someone filling a chair with ice water.

OK the real story is a glass of water was spilled the workers were told and they cleaned up the floor but didn't see the chair. We didn't tell them about it so hopefully it has time to dry before anyone else sits there.

The day didn't end there we still needed to cover Lola with Valiant and Jewel with Evan then fix breakfast sandwiches for our guests who are leaving for the jail early this morning. As I was taking the sandwiches over to Mike and Diane's for the people staying in the cabin and her house Diane got a picture text. Andrew and Rachel had a beautiful baby born. They named him Crew Honegger. 

The Parade

We had a great time, the day was filled to capacity! More will be posted tomorrow morning.

The Show with Grandkids

 Breakfast was about the only thing that stayed on schedule yesterday. Instead it was rush here and wait, rush there and wait, rush, rush, rush. After breakfast I needed to make a quick trip to Sams for more groceries. As soon as they were unloaded it was off to the bank to pick up the cash for the Monday morning trip to Iowa. Barely made it home in time to load Jenis and Killian for the trip to Morton, IL where Dr. Hoerr was going to collect Killian then AI Jenis. We arrive only to find Dr. Hoerr still out on a call. Emily makes herself comfortable.

When Dr. Hoerr arrives Jenis is put in the stocks and sonagrammed, she is at a 48 and it is starting to be distinct. Dr. Hoerr feels we can proceed with collecting Killian and AI Jenis. Killian was good and tried hard but just didn't produce as much sperm as we needed. We left Jenis loaded up Killian and drove home to pick up Evan. Dr. Hoerr felt Killian just needs to grow up a bit more and recommended waiting to use him next year. We really needed to flood Jenis with billions and billions of those little swimmers. We arrived back at the vet clinic within an hour but mean while an emergency had come in for him. The horse below had a torn up back leg. Dr. Hoerr had to sedate him before he could be treated. 

This took a while so Jenis was just tied up to wait.

After 3 more hours we were finally ready to collect Evan, he produced 120ccs, more than enough to inseminate today and for the next 3 days. While Dr. Hoerr was testing the semen Evan was tied up to wait.

Then it was Emily's turn, she prepared Jenis, put on the sterile sleeve, inserted her entire arm, found the cervix and inseminated the mare. No pictures I was too busy holding her tail out of the way. Dr. Hoerr gave Emily enough supplies to AI Jenis today and tomorrow if needed. We packed up the extra semen, the horses and rushed home just in time to load Indy and Ayanna up for the horse show. Addyson was entered in her very first leadline class. Below the judge is talking to her.

 She won a ribbon and was she ever excited. 

Showing us the ribbon

Jack came running and wanted up, he really wanted to show also.

He had to be bribed with sugar. Once he had his sucker bracelet all was good.

 Addyson was pretty excited about the entire show.

 Shawn kept both Jack and Addyson entertained for hours.

The sunset was another stunner but too far behind the trees and trailers.

 Sarah and Shawn took Jack and Addyson to Phil and Anna's for the night. I believe they are coming back today for the parade and will ride on the fire truck with us.