Moving Around

I quit the walk a bit early to head to the office to enter letters. I remembered to bring the camera home and posted a short video along with a couple pictures on the Berean Blog. Just click here if you would like to see these.
As soon as I got home Emma was brought in and groomed.

She left today for her new home. Emma was looking good and her new owner was pleased. As soon as she was loaded and down the drive I backed the trailer up between the 2 barns and loaded Whitney and her filly then pulled the trailer up to the barn yard hydrant. The water tank had been emptied and scrubbed out and needed to be loaded into the back of the trailer to take to Farmington. We will use it to water the ponies during this weekend for the Spoon River Drive. Karin met me at Middle Grove. We were able to drive back but before heading up the hill unloaded Whitney and her filly. They took off at a run glad to be back.
As soon as we crested the hill we saw the herd. This year for the Spoon River drive we decided to bring Bunni and Cookie. We are going with bright white and blue black.

Karin decided to bring Bunni in place of Missy. Missy is getting tired of giving pony rides and sometimes for the Spoon River drive adults want to ride too.
Mark drove to church. Tim Funk had the message.

Long Nose

Typical morning rushing around trying to get the horses fed and the car loaded before the walk. Memo to self, SLOW DOWN! I threw my purse in the car went to slam the car door but didn't pull my face away in time and caught my nose with the side of the car door causing a nose bleed both inside and out. I'd always heard a human's nose keeps growing as they get older..I just didn't realize my age.
We had another productive day at Bereans, Mark called to report 3 pallets of Bibles were delivered to Meisters. The pictures and videos from today will be posted tomorrow. I flew out of that office as I was late meeting Rhoda to transport Oksana to Carlock and forgot the camera again.
Rhoda had Oksana loaded by the time I arrived home. Oksana will be staying in Carlock at a private barn for the next three months for intensive training by Rhoda. We hope to have her ready for the March show. The place is very nice with a huge indoor arena. The owner just has one other horse there, her 3 year old paint gelding that was born at her place. Below Oksana is checking out the indoor.

As soon as she was settled I took off for home arriving at 5:00 pm. The horses were fed, the dogs let out then Whitney brought out and teased. 

She said "no" so will mark her down as out. She was covered Saturday morning and again Sunday night by Valiant. He was very well behaved this evening waiting until given permission to approach and when she kicked, backed off like a gentleman. Sure hope she settles this time. She can go back out to Middle Grove tomorrow if I end up with extra time. 

 Mark had a late estimate tonight so I just heated up left overs for supper. 

Emma is leaving for her new home tomorrow. Her paper work was filled out this evening and is all ready for her new owner.

Her son William leaves for his new home Saturday morning early. They should be thrilled with this colt. He has such presence.

Jurista is going to her new home on Friday, her owner is taking Serenity too for a trial.

Zenia, Indy's filly by Evan is suppose to ship out Thursday afternoon for her home in California. 

By the end of this week I should have 6 to 7 less horses here depending on if I get Whitney moved to Middle Grove or not.

Horsing Around

Today's blog is all about horses. The owner of Whitney's filly sent through an email that he had read the blog and was concerned that Valerie (Whitney's filly) was hurt from running through the electric fence. He didn't realize but the electric fence is just tape and tears easily but this gave me the perfect opportunity to ask Karin to help with a short video of her for him.
It just shows her nice movement and her boldness at checking out the tarp. What really made this funny is Rosalie won't get near the tarp if it is hanging on the side of the round pen. Valerie has to check it out. Of course I had to snap a few pictures of her too. She is just 2 months old and HUGE!

Whitney was put in the outdoor arena while we were working with her daughter. She surprised us with how she was more than willing to let us babysit.

Usually the dam is frantic to get back to the foal but Whitney trusts us to take care of her and seemed glad for the break. Next horse out was Rosalie.

Rosalie is funny, she is accepting the tarp on the ground, will walk on it, will let Karin rub it on her but lay it up on the side of the round pen and she is sure it is going to jump out at her. Jesse Stickling arrived for jousting practice as Karin was finishing up with Rosalie. They decided to warm up Jenis and Ribbon by going on a trail ride while they were waiting for the other jouster to arrive (Sarah Reinhard).

 When Sarah arrived they got right to work.

 Jesse and Sarah finished the practice and took the mares on a trail ride to cool them down. Karin brought out Evan for some round penning. Is there anything more photogenic than a Friesian stallion? Just check out that uphill movement, the reach of his hind legs as he pushes off for the canter.

 When the trail riders got back the horses were given a good cooling hose down. It's another hot day and may be our last hot day for the year.

My truck was finished at Frenches. I cringed when the bill was presented. Over $1500.00 to get it running and stopping. The truck didn't just need a new coil, it needed all new brake pads, roters, and calipers both front and back what ever those may be. Oh well I guess it is cheaper than buying a new truck. Mark has a late meeting tonight so no cooking.

Nashville

We pulled out of the church parking lot even before 6:00 am as everyone going arrived on time. With these trips if you make the bus late you pay big time for it. The penalty isn't always the same but no one ever makes the bus wait more than once. Ruth had her I-pad along and games of Scrabble were played during the bus ride.

Our trusty drivers were Fedi Davidovics and Mark Kieser. They did a great job getting us safely to our destination and home again.

We stopped for lunch and came upon a beggar man with his cup outstretched.

Our group is so generous and each person walking by pulled out there money to help this poor man. That is until Shelby arrived.  She offered to help this old man by giving him crumbs from her lunch. 

 Wayne and Lukie brought surprises for everyone on the bus. They bought brightly colored red and white stripped popcorn bags and filled them with goodies. The bags were stapled shut and were not all filled with the same goodies so there was a lot of treat swapping during the ride.

 We had a good time laughing at each other and ourselves. We made it down to the hotel with about 15 minutes to get checked into our rooms, changed and back on the bus. Some of us didn't read Cheryl's memos about going to dinner and a singing and some of us didn't bring 2 sets of church clothes so one of us had to show up at the singing in her Horsemeister t-shirt. Next time I'll read the fine print. The Nashville church fed us a delicious dinner starting with a fabulous home made cream of broccoli soup or tasty chili. I chose the broccoli and it really was the best soup I've tasted in a long time. The rest of the meal was good too. After the dinner came the singing and after the singing was the trip back to the hotel for sleep. At least some of us slept. The hotel had an indoor pool...need I say more? The next morning the hotel served us a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage patties, biscuits and gravy, danishes, yogurts, fresh fruit, coffee and juice. We were back on the bus at 9:00 am for the trip to the Nashville church.

Sunday was amazing, 2 Spirit filled services, lunch, singing, fellowshipping  then back on the bus. What an awesome time to be with fellow believers worshiping our Lord. Our bus ride back was filled with fun, laughter, singing, games and in the late evening watching the eclipse of the blood moon. Since I didn't have any way to get the camera which was packed in the suitcase and placed down in the luggage space of the bus (that picture would have not been very good anyway) I borrowed Mike Mezeul II picture off Facebook.

Mike wrote: After spending 5 hours on a rooftop with an incredible view of Dallas, I was able to create this composite image showing the moon transition from full moon, to full lunar eclipse, and back. Each moon image was shot approximately 10 minutes apart to capture the entire transition. I hope you all enjoy! Feel free to share

Out of Town

I'm heading to Nashville with a bunch of our church people. There will be no blog posts until Monday morning. Phone calls, texts and emails may or may not be answered until then.

A Job Well Done

I had an easy morning, no one came on the walk except me so I took the golf cart...ha that will show Rachel, I finished the 2 rounds in less than 3 minutes..top that! It's all about the exercise, Rachel was accusing us yesterday of walking like an 82 year old.  Truthfully the golf cart was taken over to the meeting place just in case anyone showed up but since no one did I went right back to the barn to finish the morning chores. The weanlings were turned out and their stall stripped. When Anna arrived with the girls I had almost finished everything on my list. After lunch Taegan and Kensley were taken out to the big sand piles to play. Taegan had fun climbing up the mountain of sand and running back down but soon they were both ready for naps. Emily was out weed whacking when I needed to go pick up Braelyn so I asked her to come in to listen for the two nappers.

Once Braelyn got here the real fun started. 

 Karin arrived and together we set up the outdoor arena for jousting practice. While she was tacking up Ribbon and Jenis, Emily came in the barn with a snake.

 The snake had just swallowed something pretty big and it was still jumping around inside making it sluggish enough to capture. Braelyn was fascinated. 

 Karin and Jessica took Jenis and Ribbon out to the arena to start the jousting practice. This was just to get the mares use to running at each other.

 practice went great.

 When they finished they went on a long trail ride letting Braelyn go too.

 Below Jessica is practicing Jenis' rear.

 Joan, Faith, Mackenson and Berlica were working on the cabin lane cutting up a downed tree for firewood this coming winter.

 Joan had good help

 Mark and I drove in to Pekin for groceries and stopped at the Fast Dragon for a quick dinner. When we got home the sun was just about set but we could hear a tractor running. We jumped on the golf cart and drove back behind the barn to find Emily and Matthew hard at work digging a post hole for the gate. They had already spread all of the sand the for the round pen. No more mountains of sand.

 Once the hole was dug Matthew jumped on Karin's 4 wheeler to finish raking it.

 Emily and Mathew started this job late this afternoon and by evening they finished completely! A JOB WELL DONE.

Mike dropped off the drone video of the herd being moved from the summer pasture to the winter pasture. This afternoon it was rendered and uploaded.  I thought it was pretty impressive. Emily was riding Sally leading the herd, Mike was on Mika at the back of the herd and Mathew was on the 4 wheeler just in case some of the herd went the wrong direction.

Another Job well done. The video shows the vastness of the Middle Grove property. If you buy a foal from Horsemeister this is where the foal will live for 4 to 6 months. They learn to splash in the creeks, swim in the cool refreshing lakes, drowse away a hot afternoon under the trees, race each other across the meadows and best of all the herd teaches them manners.  It truly is a 'horse paradise'!