Horse Paradise

Emily and Mike repaired fence this morning. The storm a few days ago took a big tree down and of course it landed across the fence in Valiant's pasture. They hung the new back gate to his paddock so now Valiant can be locked back up off the field for a bit. We needed to tease and cover 2 mares today. Eliza was still in and covered by Valiant but we believe she is on her way out. Isabella was covered by Evan. According to the ultrasound Isabella will probably ovulate tomorrow but since Jury progressed quicker than expected I didn't want to take a chance and miss Isabella so decided to cover her today and then again tomorrow if she is still showing. We want to get as many mares as possible out on pasture now that the grass is growing so well. Rosalie and Oksana were turned out into Valiant's pasture. They were so glad to get out of the mud of the middle paddock. The other 2 mares in the middle paddock, Jury and Soul were loaded up for a trip to Middle Grove along with Piper and Eliza. Those 4 were thrilled to be back at that horse paradise and took off at a gallop to go find the herd. Perhaps now the paddocks can start drying up a bit so they can be scraped. Unfortunately this trip that usually takes an hour took 2 hours. They have started construction on 116 and the traffic was backed up both coming and going. Fortunately BEES opens at 11:00 am and of course we must stop there on the way back. Emily called in her order of a chicken strip basket which was ready by the time we arrived. The line at BEES was backed up all the way out the door.
Emily spent the afternoon mowing and weed whacking while I spent the afternoon playing with foals, cleaning stalls, feeding and doing laundry. I love my job, at least that first part. Marika's colt was handled quite a bit today. We put iodine on his umbilical cord 3 times and are keeping that stall clean and dry. Praying for no more umbilical cord infections ever. He is strong and nursing well. Sarah, Nolan, Emily and Emily's brother Philip joined us for dinner. Mark grilled the hamburgers to perfection and the rest of the meal was also good. We had ripe sweet Bing cherries for dessert.