Rain, Rain and More Rain

The rain started yesterday and just kept coming down all night and so far most of today. We are suppose to reach around 2 inches by the time it is finished. Thankfully the weather is mild, low 60s. A cold rain is harder on horses than snow.
I worked on letters, Bibles and the silver series at Berean today. Mark was going to help load the boxes of Bibles into the car but by the time I was done he was no where to be found. The cart was already loaded with items Rhonda wants Spark to take to the jail so instead of carrying 1 box at a time down the loading dock to my car I thought of the brilliant plan of putting the boxes on one of our rolling office chairs. The plan wasn't that brilliant in the end. Now the moral of this story is bottom heavy people can fly around the office floor in these chairs but top heavy boxes topple when hitting cracks in the concrete on the loading dock. It would have been faster to either unload the jail stuff, use the cart then load back the jail stuff or walk each box to the car. The entire time it was pouring down rain. By the time I reached the post office another car was in the loading area forcing me to carry the boxes pretty far anyway.
I made it home in time to meet Dan at the barn. He had another idea and supplies for our magic box.
After that it was a good time to work on the breeding records for our mares. For 2014 we have 12 mares confirmed in foal, 8 mares bred but not yet confirmed in foal and 5 we are not breeding.
Sangria, Sally, Missy, Cookie and Paris are all needed as riding horses next year.
Lily isn't confirmed but more than likely bred, she always takes. Lilypony, Prissy, Lola, Jewel, Bunni, Jenis and Anna still need ultrasounds but of that list only Anna is here, the rest at at Middle Grove.
Below is Eliza, she is one that is confirmed. I just really like the lighting on this picture. The sun was going down highlighting her mane and feather.

Mike, Rhoda and Emily took off for Middle Grove to pick up Mika, Bunni, Missy and Cookie for the trail ride on Saturday at Sandridge. They may do 2 of those rides, one at a gallop, bring the first 4 back and take the next 4 that need trail work, Eliza, Anna, Star and Ayanna. Too bad we don't have an 8 horse trailer.

Pandora Gone

The rain held off long enough for Mark to move 2 new bales in but before that could happen Emily had to be woken up so she could move a tractor while Mark went back to the house to find the skid steer key and I was suppose to move the mower except that was dead as a door knob. As long as Emily was up she helped by removing the net wrap so I could go on the walk.
The truck and trailer came for Pandora, Ribbon's filly by Raven at 10:00am.

 I was so pleased that a bunch of registration papers came yesterday and one was Pandora's. It was drizzling but didn't bother the driver or me at all. We had a nice visit while getting ready to load Pandora. She was a good girl and stepped right into the trailer. Once she was on her way the I needed to get Mytross' colt's papers mailed out to his owner and Scarlet's papers mailed out to her new owner. Thankfully the post office in Hanna City is still open.
Mom needed eggs, she has 5 people coming from Haiti for the weekend. I stopped over with 18 eggs to find my brothers John and Dan visiting with mom. As long was Dan was here I asked him to stop at the barn to give us some ideas on the magic box for the spring show. Dan stood back, looked at it and came up with a perfect solution for the sides, bungee cords! The front and back need something different, he was going to stop at Menards to see if they had anything we could use.
Before heading in Rosalie and Solomon were led around. I was very pleased, both foals came right up to me and neither fussed about being led around the paddock. By this time the rain was coming down hard and it was time to head inside to clean. For dinner we had left over chicken salad from the choir lunch. We drove to church in the rain, the rain pounded on the church roof during the service and we drove him in the rain. At least it is a warm 65 degrees outside.

Training Star

Rhoda training Star in the video below. This mare came to us very much afraid of just about everything. Karin started working with her at Middle Grove a few months ago. On Monday Karin told us she was ready to come to the Horsemeister farm for under saddle training. This is an example of an amazing transformation.

Solomon Video

Below is Solomon's video taken Oct 29th, 2013. Solomon is for sale. He is 75% Friesian by Evan out of Hadassah.

Prius HM Video

The video above was taken the day after weaning Prius from Lola. This boy is so funny, Rhoda felt he should have been named Clown!

SO Much Fun

Mom, Diane and I varied the walk today going through the fields instead of walking to Rhonda's only because I needed to check Evan's hay. He will need a new bale tomorrow morning. Our Tuesdays are so much fun, from the time we get up until heading to bed. We were efficient at work today flying through the studies and letters then had a big group of 8 for lunch. After lunch I needed to go pick up groceries for the lunch at choir. It was our turn to serve. Since we are close to Halloween I wanted to serve peanuts mixed with candy corn. Sam's club had the peanuts but no candy corn, I drove to Aldi sure they would have some but the saleslady told me that was the first candy they ran out off so over to Walmart. Now Walmart wouldn't be out right? Wrong, even Walmart was out of candy corn. I was able to find Indiancorn (not the real stuff, the candy Indian corn) which worked ok. When I arrived home I pulled out the cameras and asked Sarah if she would help me with Solomon and Prius. As we were leading them to the arena Rhoda showed up so she was put to work also. Below are a few pictures of these adorable weanlings.

 Above is Solomon and below is Prius. Solomon got a very necessary leading and tying lesson today. Prius also got one but he just needed a refresher.

 Above Prius was watching as Rhoda was goofing off with Solomon. These 2 colts are best of friends.

Emily arrived as we were video taping Prius. The video will be worked on tomorrow. Rhoda brought Star out next. We were all thrilled with this mare. She started with round pen reasoning, moved on to the scary bag, brought out the tarp then saddled and bridled her.

 Star stood well for mounting and responded well to weight in the saddle. Emily and Sarah decided to see if Star could be distracted instead of paying attention to just Rhoda.

Even a 2 headed person didn't scare her. Soon Rhoda was cantering her around the arena. Star has a wonderful smooth canter.

 Sarah had to try her out cantering her around the arena.

 Now for the record, Star had a beautiful thick long tail before she left for Middle Grove but we think she got into a weed and had a bad reaction which caused her to lose most of it. It needs to be scrubbed with an iodine shampoo and hopefully her tail will start growing back.

Rhoda finished her training today with asking her to bow.

Emily brought out her pony Misty, she has started her in jumping small cross rails, then finished up with asking Misty to bow and lay down. Ponies are just so smart and pick up tricks quickly. The girls were almost late leaving for their class. Sarah helped put the foals back with the others while I went in to organize choir lunch. Mark drove to choir with Diane, Rhonda, Ruth and I. Choir is such a blessing, wonderful songs, great fellowship and good food. After choir Diane and Ruth helped clean up and we are now home. 

Mile After Mile

Below is the video of Misty carrying Emily while pulling the rake. Emily didn't ask her to pull more than a couple of minutes while she was riding so Misty wasn't at all stressed out. She is a very nice pony!
We had a chilly 32 degree start to the day but it warmed up nicely. Emily decided to rake the arena today with her Welsh pony Misty. Misty has never pulled a rake so it took Emily all of 5 minutes to teach her.

 Above Rhoda and Emily are walking along each side of Misty as she pulls the rake, below Rhoda has dropped off and Emily is leading her.

 Misty was doing so well Emily dropped back to drive her from the side.

Last Emily popped on her for a couple of rounds.

Emily was just finishing up when her company arrived for the day. Emily's mom and 2 friends came to go riding at Middle Grove. She had to show them around before heading out.

Above she is showing off Evan's tricks below they are checking out Piper.

 Emily rode Mika, her mom rode Bunni with Timothy on the back while one of her friends rode Sangria and the other rode Sally. Both Sangria's filly and Sally's colt came along for the ride crossing the lakes with no problem.
Mom and I took off for Mangold Ford to pick up the truck. The 4 wheel drive is now working and best of all NO CHARGE! We stopped at a restaurant right across the street from Mangold Ford for lunch and both got taco salads. They were really good and reasonable, mom had enough left to take home a box for dinner. There is rain in the forecast for the next few days so the trailer was hooked up and off we drove to Middle Grove to pick up Solomon and Prius for weaning. We arrived to see Karin working a horse way up on a ridge. The camera was zoomed as far as possible in the pictures below.

Emily and I climbed to the top and on the other side was the herd all spread out grazing in the valley below

Karin talked us into taking Star home, she feels Star is ready for under saddle training. Rhoda called to ask us to bring Ayanna home for the scheduled trail ride Saturday at Sandridge, plus we wanted to take Solomon and Prius home for weaning. Good thing we had the stock trailer. I hiked down to the herd to check out the horses and get a few close up pictures.

 Above is Ayanna Below is Emma

below is Jewel's filly Rhiannon

 Above is Marika below is Phoenix, Sally's colt. 

 Above is Promise, Sangria's filly, she still has the dorsal stripe down her back and shoulder barring. Below is Holly

 Above is Prissy lounging in the sunshine, below is Sissy scratching her neck on the tree.

Above is Ayanna in front, Zalena in the middle and Jenis in the back.

 Indy above and Oksana below followed us back to the trailer. 

Before we even reached the trailer those two were getting in. I left the trailer door open thinking we would need to put the mares with foals in the front then bring the mares out the side door. Never leave a trailer door open at Middle Grove. The loose horses are quick to discover the open door and jump in. Karin was given 4 lead ropes to hold while I chased them out.

We were only taking 4 horses but Karin was surrounded by the other horses all curious as to what she was going to do with the Solomon and Prius. We loaded Lola along with her colt Prius and Solomon first, tied the 2 colts and then let Lola out the side door. Ayanna and Star were loaded into the back of the trailer. Karin kept the horses that followed us down to the trailer away while Emily opened the gate and I drove the truck out of the field. Before we pulled away the horses were galloping up the hill to find the rest of the herd. Thank goodness Karin was there, it really helped having a 3rd pair of hands. 

Once home the weanling colts were put in with the other 2 foals here Pandora and Rosalie, while Ayanna and Star were put in with Misty. 

Ella Update

Before church Mark helped move a round bale feeder out of the middle paddock so the horses in there could finish up the bale. 

After church Mike hooked up the waterer in the middle paddock only to find it still leaking. We found out where it was leaking and hope it is now fixed. Steven Marchal sent a couple pictures and an update on Ella.

He writes: Ella was fantastic for our veterans freedom reins event today.

Ella has been free leased out to Therapeutic Horsemanship until May. We miss her here but glad she is working out well for them. She really is a special pony. 

I picked up Chinese for dinner then looked at all of Sarah's pictures from her trip to England. 

Fencing the Field

Emily and her brother Timothy came over for breakfast this morning. After breakfast they took the golf cart to dump garbage. Timothy could barely reach the pedals and steer at the same time but where there was a will he found a way.

Mark, Emily and Timothy started the fencing project and worked until lunch. Below are a few pictures as they were finishing up a bracing post.

Above Timothy is helping Emily crimp while below Mark is getting ready to start pulling wire.

 Timothy found a fuzzy caterpillar, he decided to bring it back to the house, put it in a jar with lots of leaves and twigs so he can watch what will happen soon.

 They brought the cart with all the fencing tools back to the barn.

After lunch I unhooked the trailer and drove the truck to Eureka while Emily followed me in the car. The truck's 4 wheel drive is not working again. In May Mangold Ford fixed the 4 wheel drive for the 3rd time. Usually it works for just over a year then as soon as the warranty runs out it breaks. Hopefully the 4th time will be a charm and it will stay fixed. Although the service tech at Mangold Ford said it probably was a different part that broke so will not be under warranty. Figures!
On the way home we stopped at Walmart to buy the black king size sheets still needed for the magic box along with almost $200.00 of other stuff. Hey, I don't really go shopping much for stuff other than groceries and needed some warmer clothes. I got 2 warm shirts and 1 pair of warm pants along with an electric throw to help warm up my freezing feet when reading.
Mom left at 3:30 this morning with Spark and Rhonda for the Tennessee Sing. They ended up filling the bus to capacity. This will be an amazing trip with people of like mind that all love the Lord and love music.
Sarah arrives home from England tonight. Her plane was suppose to come in at 5:00pm but we got notice that she would be quite a bit later so have just left her car at the airport.

Practice Makes Perfect

We had another cold start to our day. The hoar frost was all over the fields making them  sparkle like diamonds in the sun.

Rhoda and Emily took an early morning ride before heading in to town. Below they are galloping across the field as they finished the 'death trails'.

Emily left for Bloomington to meet with her mom and grandma and bring back her youngest brother Timothy. Rhoda left for Peoria to pick up her car title and extra keys then came back and helped get a few pictures of Rosalie. I also took a video of her loading and leading and was going to take one of her loose in the arena except she jumped the arena fence and took down a section.

 Piper was let out in the field next. Piper will be for sale as soon as she is confirmed in foal.

Rhonda showed up with 3 of her grandchildren when we were putting Rosalie away.

After work Karin arrived with the materials to start on the magic box for the show in March. 

Emily, Rhoda, Karin and I worked on temporarily putting it together to make sure it would fit the Friesians. Emily went to bring Eliza down to the house.

 and led her inside. We were pleased to see it was just right.

Below we have taped up the black sheet and sprayed it with glitter. Emily is explaining how she would attach the material to Rhoda, Timothy and Karin.

Anni Davidovics arrived for practice with Eliza. Below she is leading Eliza into the barn for tacking up.

 Above Emily is leading Killian in for tacking while Jessica is warming up Anna.

 Below left to right is Jessica on Anna, Anni on Eliza and Emily on Killian.

Right about then Rhoda and I had to leave to drive to CEFCU to first sell Rhoda's Mini Cooper then buy her a Corolla. Rhoda is now the owner of a 2010 Corolla.