Super Saturday

We had super weather today, sunshine, lower humidity than yesterday and warm but not too hot. Just perfect. In fact one could say it was a super Saturday.
Our day started early, Emily worked Hadassah a bit before loading her into the trailer with Bunni for the big camping trip at Panther Creek campground.

 Mark ordered 2 stop signs and 1 speed limit sign for the Meister compound and was busy installing them at the intersections. The one below is posted on the barn drive as it joins the main drive.

The speed limit sign was posted at the main entrance.

 The stop sign below was posted at the dumpster junction where 3 drives collide. By the way the picture of the sign below was taken at night with the glare and leaves covering up a bit. It is really new and shiny.

 Now all these signs were ordered and installed because of a couple near misses. In fact the kids sing the song "Andrew Got Ran Over by His Grandma" That happened a few years ago. Mom disputes this, she says Andrew slid right under her stopped car! Mike's sign was installed years ago and does that ever show wear and tear. We don't just keep up with the Joneses around here, we try to outdo them. If Mike has one, Mark puts up two!

The man that came on Friday night to pick up 3 bales showed up as I was cleaning stalls and this time he loaded 5 bales on his trailer. I thought this was a better idea except he got a couple miles down the road and lost the 2 top bales. He wanted to come back later, borrow the tractor and load up the two that landed in a ditch but never showed back up. Mark really didn't want the tractor driven on the highway that far any way.

 When I got back to the house Hannah was over ready to work. She and Mark went out to clear the trails of fallen sticks so Mark could mow. He got most of the trails mowed on the right side of the drive. Hopefully he will get the left side trails mowed before the scheduled trail ride on Friday. Karin came over to work horses. She worked Soul while I was at the grocery store. Below she is working with 2 year old Rosalie. Rosalie is learning that fly spray is good. This filly grew up at Middle Grove. She was taken out there as a 2 week old filly and left there pretty much untouched until now. We hope to put her under saddle soon. Where is Rhoda when I need her?  Oh yes she took a full time job at a vet clinic in Bloomington. Karin and I think she should go down to part time there so I could hire her here. She is SO needed and Darcy misses her...well we probably miss her more than Darcy.

 Eliza was brought out next. It is time for Eliza to be put back into work. It is not good for a mare that has lost a foal to stand around grieving. She will be put back on the trail ride schedule.

 She is the most beautiful mare we own.

Jurista was worked last. This mare has come a long way but has a long way to go to be considered safe. Her movement is huge but she is so light on her feet the movement is easy to sit. She is so smooth and fun to ride with her Andalusian movement.

Flower's owners arrived before we finished with Jury. I wanted to tease Jury before putting her back so Karin was willing to keep working with her in the arena while I met with Flower's owner. Flower is a few spot Appaloosa that was confirmed in foal by Evan, and when she is bred to a Friesian she throws beautiful leopard spotted foals.

Once they left we were able to tease Jury and were thankful when she said no. She has an appointment on Friday for a sonagram with Sangria and we hope to order the semen from Glorioso that next week. Luna, Kathy's Friesian mare showed today. She is a maiden mare and those always take 2 handlers so before Karin left I asked if she would mind helping with her. Evan got the job done but it could not have happened with out an extra handler. Luna was sure he was going to kill her and wanted to pull back. It was a successful cover and she was marked down and her owner sent a text. Anna stopped in with the girls. She, Phil and her brother Austin were working at their new house down the road. She put Kensly and Taegan down for a nap here. Karin took Braelyn over to Joan's to play with all those little girls. When Taegan and Kensley woke up we took the golf cart over to Joan's to give them all golf cart rides. We rode all the newly mowed trails then stopped at a mulberry tree so the girls could pick mulberries for Sarah's gosling. Below they were all busy picking.

 Braelyn put her mulberries in grandpa's hat then brought it over to show grandma.

Kensley was content to sit with Karin watching everything.

Ruth and a guest of Fedi's sister rode Larry and Paris over to visit with mom. The horses were left tied up at the playground where they were perfectly behaved. 

Hannah cleaned our car out so well today that Mark and I decided to drive in to Peoria for date night. We ended up at Red Lobster where we both got the special which was soup, salad, entree and dessert for $16.99. We used the gift certificate Stephanie gave me. We were going to go to Bach Fest to hear some beautiful music to finish out the date but both of us made the mutual decision to head home. We were just too tired from our long day outside.

There was a nice email from the people that bought Zalena's colt by Valiant last year. They sent along a few pictures:

What a beautiful yearling he is, this boy is going to be magnificent when he is full grown. Not to brag or anything but these stallions really do throw beautiful babies.