A Day of Rain

We awoke to a cold rain that continued most of the day with just a few breaks. The horses were checked and grained on one of those breaks. Thankfully all the paddocks had enough hay to make it through today easy. Mark went in to work today and was surprised at who showed up on a Saturday, Curt, Spark, and Philip also showed up. The day wasn't fit to be doing anything outside so they may as well get some of next week's labor done. Since today was Halloween and we had absolutely no candy in the house I asked Mark to bring some home. He showed up with some snickers bars but it was all for nothing, no one showed up at the door. We usually get a few of the neighbor kids knocking for treats, either they have all grown up or the rain kept them all away. I'll take the candy bars to the playground tomorrow for the volleyball players.
I think it was last year that Mike and Diane had no candy in the house and ended up sending frozen pizza's with the trick or treaters. We don't even have any of those.
Tonight we get an extra hour of sleep so before heading to bed I will change the clocks.
Karin stopped in for a bit then later sent a text through lining out who would be riding which horse for the fair. We also discussed who should come back from Middle Grove for extra attention and decided this next week is suppose to be warm and sunny so will plan on bringing home Jenis, Eliza, and Marika. Marika is fat and not fit and will need a riding tune up before taking her to Bridlewood in December.
The de-wormers came in. I always feel rich when those boxes come. I have 40 Panacur and 40 Ivermectin. We will use the Ivermectin first as that kills bots then a month later use Panacur. The last de-worming we used Strongid on the pregnant mares and foals and used Quest Plus on the stallions and non pregnant mares.
And just to keep this from being too boring I thought I would post more pictures from the past. The picture below is a mare we bought named Xena. She is the only mare I ever gave up on as far as training. The lady we bought her from told me she had been to a couple different trainers and she would be fine then explode.

I was sure they didn't know what they were doing and of course we could train her. Turns out they were right and I was wrong. Xena had good ground manners, she was good for putting on the saddle and bridle and even was good when I laid across her back. After working with her for 3 weeks I was ready to put Rhoda on. I still remember Rhoda's reaction when she mounted, Xena stood still for about 5 seconds then went into a terrible bucking rearing fit. I was able to pull her down and hold her until Rhoda did the emergency dismount and then heard from my red headed daughter, "are you trying to kill me?" She had a beautiful filly by Raven we named Lyra then we sold her to a lady that just wanted a brood mare warning her strongly not to try to ride her.  The next mare is Wynne. We bought her in the winter of her 2nd year, bred her to Raven in her 3rd year. She had a beautiful filly we named Kenzie. We decided she didn't really fit our program and sold her in foal. She had a colt for her new owner, they brought her back up to be bred to Raven again and she had another colt.
Below is Rebekah riding Wynne at the IL Horse Fair before she had her filly by Raven. The next pictures is once the filly was born.

The next horses were Sanna and Samantha. We bought them from a lady in Florida. Mark and I drove down with the truck and trailer bought them, loaded them and drove straight home. It was such a long trip. Sanna was a delight. She was trained for anyone to ride, and had 4 beautiful fillies for us. The first one was really special. No problem selling her.

We sold Sanna in foal to a couple and she had a colt for them. Below is Sue riding Sanna in the Christmas Parade in Chillicothe. 

Samantha wasn't as well trained and lost the first foal she was expecting at 8 months of pregnancy. 

The second foal was also born premature and we spent hours giving the foal mouth to nose resuscitation until Mike brought his welding oxygen tank. The colt was still living by morning the vet was called, he gave us pretty much no hope but we just wouldn't give up. The 3rd day, he was actually standing but by then Samantha would not take him back. He then caught pneumonia and was taken to UofI where he lived for a few more days. They called to tell us we were going to have to put him down. I drove up to pick up Samantha and looked at this beautiful colt laying in the straw trembling and just started weeping, embarrassing me and all the students that were there. The next year Samantha had a filly by Raven and then we sold her in foal to a lady living near Branson, MO. She had another filly and that filly came up this year to be bred to Evan. 

A Day with the Grand Children

Right after the walk Anna dropped off Braelyn while she took the other 2 to Rachel's studio for pictures. Braelyn immediately finds the dress from Rachel and puts it on. It still fits and we start the day with a twirl.

When the pictures were finished, Anna dropped off Taegan and Kensley about the time Taunya dropped off Jack and Jace. Today was sister-in-law day, the day the girls get together and shop. We were only missing Addyson and Israel. Addyson is in school and Martha Kay was watching Israel for the day. Below are a few pictures of our fun.

 picking the volunteer grape tomatoes that grew up near the patio

 heading out on the golf cart for a ride through the woods looking for bear. We didn't see any.

 stopping at the playground

 eating cereal for a snack

 'resting' on grandma & grandpa's bed

 playing ball and the piano

 playing nicely until Kensley arrived

 Rhoda brought back beautiful dresses for Braelyn and Taegan, they tried them on before leaving grandma's house.

 A big hug between sisters

The sister-in-law day was a success. They arrived back to pick up the kids shortly after 4:00 pm. As soon as possible I was on the road to go pick up Darcy's antibiotic in Morton. Mark passed me on the road on his way to an estimate so I made it back to the house before he did. After dinner we went for a walk through the neighborhood stopping at Spark and Rhonda's to enjoy their camp fire and visited with them a bit before heading in.
Emily picked up 2 12 foot red gates this morning from TSC. Tim finished the shelters and installed 1 of the gates. He is coming back tomorrow to install the second. Lime will be ordered on Monday and as soon as that is spread we can move a bale in and start using the paddocks. This now gives us 7 mare paddocks and 2 stallion paddocks all with shelters.
Emily worked the new mares this afternoon. They are improving. They are still a little skittish in this new home of theirs where they are not treated like royalty but instead expected to be just a horse.

 Above is Rosaleigh and below is Roxanne. 

After the mares were put away Emily got the 4 wheeler out and raked the round pen. It looked great when she was finished.

Killian Update

The new owner of Killian sent the picture below by text. It took me a long time to figure out how to get it off my phone and onto the computer.

They are enjoying him. The new mares are finally settled in. They are just like the rest of the horses here, they see the golf cart and come running up to the gate for their breakfast. We are hoping they will fill out quickly. Dare I say that Darcy is improving? We havn't started her yet on antibiotics as the results from the culture haven't come back yet but we have had no accidents for the last 2 nights. Diane and I were the only walkers this damp cold morning although we were joined by 3 dogs. Molly spent the night with Ebby and of course Emma gets to come along. We quit after 1 round so Diane could leave to pick up the mail and still make it to the Berean office by 9:00 am. If you would like to read about our day there just click HERE
When I got home my dogs were let out first then we walked over to mom's to let Ebby and Molly out. The weather was spitting small drops of rain on us off and on so they only stayed out for about 10 minutes. On the way back the weanling paddock was checked, they will need a new round bale tomorrow or Saturday. Roxanne and Rosaleigh are also going through their round bale pretty quickly and will probably need a bale on Saturday too. The stalls were cleaned and readied for horses, not that I plan on using them any time soon but one never knows. Walter, Winston and Zoey's coggins test came back today. Zoey will be leaving for her home in November,

Walter and Winston are still for sale.

They are looking kind of shaggy with winter coming. Zara will be staying with us until January. Her owner is going to pay board here until they get their place ready. We don't like to keep them here once weaned but she is paying enough to make it worth our while. 

Settling Down

We woke to a blustery damp cold day, a foretaste of winter. Mom and I were the only walkers this morning.
It was spitting rain with a few harder showers most of the day. Not a day to be playing outside so most of the day was spent inside doing laundry and making meals for the future.
It makes Mark happy when I play the housewife, although not a lot of cleaning got done today. Spark got us a car today at the auction. It is a 2007 Prius, kind of banged up a bit but not a lot of miles. He said, "it looks like a Judy car." Evidently it wasn't cleaned up before being auctioned off, there were even clothes in the back. I needed something that gets good gas mileage but not fancy as we haul dogs, horse equipment, feed, bedding and sometimes even hay bales, this fits the bill. It will be picked up tomorrow. Sarah and Nolan are going to buy the Matrix.
A couple good things to report. Darcy had no accidents in the house last night or today and the new mares are finally starting to settle in. By that I mean not spooking each time someone comes out of the barn or drives up on the golf cart. They don't understand why they are not being taken in at night, they were afraid to stand in the shelter even when it was raining. They would grab a bite of hay off the round bale then run back out and chew while looking to see if something was going to attack them. Silly mares! At least they are eating and drinking.
Mom, Rachel and Jessica left for Bluffton, to visit Bethany, Bill and their new son Joshua.

Rachel always takes newborn pictures as a baby gift for her nieces and nephews. Diane is keeping Molly tonight. No new pictures, the camera wasn't even picked up today. How about some old pictures of past ponies to keep things interesting? Below is Ella and Bethany crossing a creek at Middle Grove.

 Below is Bethany and Duke. He was an amazing pony and only sold because he was just too smart. We couldn't keep him in any fence.

 Below is Rebekah and her pony Cindy. Cindy had 3 or 4 foals for Ruth then was sold to a lady far far away. She had a beautiful black filly for the new owner but we haven't heard from her for a long time. Rebekah and Cindy had a special relationship. Cindy was born on their farm and Rebekah did pretty much all of her training.

 Below is another one of our special ponies, Sunny the Haflinger who now lives with Cynthia. We say he ended up in Horse paradise living with her.

Below is naughty Lilypony. She had the typical pony attitude.

Mindy was a cute paint driving pony Rhoda taught to bow. She ended up going to a person that had a pony that looked just like her and wanted a matched team.

Bonnie pony was one of Rhoda's favorites to work with. 

 She moved like a miniature Andalusian

 Was willing to do about anything Rhoda asked but needed a better than average rider, she was smart and would take advantage of a beginner. Sadly she was hit by lightning during one of the big storms in 2014. She is buried at Middle Grove.

Below is Sarah on Ranger and Rhoda on Patsy

 Ranger was the best pony ever. He was a registered Welsh section b. Rhoda trained him, Sarah competed him and everyone loved him. He was sold to a ponyclubber up in Wisconsin. We tried to find him a few years later to buy him back but could not. 

Below is Dan the driving pony. He was just purchased as a resale project for Sarah. She did very well training him under saddle then selling him.

 Below is Macgregor, a rare Highland pony from Scotland. He came with a passport and registration papers. He was a handful until Rhoda started working him. He turned out fantastic and went to the east coast to be a driving pony.

 Below is Tinkerbell. We didn't own her very long, She was a blast to drive but just too small at less than 12 hands. 

Probably the most famous pony of all is pictured below. This is Rhoda riding Blaze. He was purchased by my parents for $125.00 when I was 13 years old. He lived with our family until he was almost 41 years old teaching many many children how to ride. There are hundreds of stories about Blaze. If you would like to read one of the more remarkable ones click HERE

 I can't quit this post until I write about our original pony. His name was Champ and he is pictured below. He taught us how to ride,how to fall, how to get knocked off by low hanging tree limbs, how to stop a pony from biting (ouch) how to tighten a girth then watch it slide right off the pony with the rider struggling to stay on, how to sit bucks and most of all how to love. A big thank you to our parents who knew horses were a good thing to get their children involved in.