Lily's Filly by Valiant SOLD

I left at 7:40 am to pick up the Berean mail at TEMCO then run to Sam's club with 6 old golf cart batteries to exchange for 6 brand new ones. While there of course some shopping needed to be done. We had a VERY good day at the Berean office, mailing out 552 Bibles. To read about our morning click HERE.
When we saw the amount of work to do we were sure we were going to be there all afternoon but amazingly we finished BEFORE noon. The Bibles were dropped off on the way home. By the time I made it back to the farm, Rhoda and Emily had just finished with Rosalie. Today Rhoda walked and trotted her under saddle. This time she was taken into the round pen by herself and did fantastic. Did I ever mention how much we love our Lily fillies? Speaking of Lily's fillies, Her's sold today. Of course she won't be leaving her mom for a long time yet but the new owners are thrilled.  They have loved Lily for years and are pleased to have one of her babies.
Once Rosalie was put away, Rhoda brought Zephyr out for some training. We were SO pleased with him, he remembered everything she worked on last time and today was introduced to the 'scary bag'.

It didn't take long for him to realize the bag was no big deal. What a smart colt! He was put back in with Rosalie then Star and her filly were taken out.

Check out how exact the filly's legs are with her mom's. They were brought into the stall for the evening as a storm was building. Each foal gets handled a couple of times a day when they are newborns.

 We find this makes them very easy to train when they are old enough TO train. They learn how to stand quietly when asked, how to pick up their feet, and have their ears and face rubbed. Later they will be trained to lead and load. All before we haul them out to Middle Grove.

Above is Star's filly below is Lily's filly.

Have I ever mentioned how much we LOVE this job! What could be better than playing with the babies?

Mark worked on installing the new golf cart batteries in the old golf cart and when he was finished I had to take it for a spin. We now have 2 working golf carts, one for him and one for me. Both are working great and the old one is now almost as fast as the new one. Amazing what new batteries do.

Lily Has a Filly

Lily surprised us with a HUGE filly early this morning. She is a typical Valiant daughter, big, stocky, black and very friendly. This filly is destined to be a star. We can tell by the star on her forehead. We don't get that marking very often.

 She was born just like her brother, the beautiful silver tipped black which means she should end up non fading. Diane sent a text through with these pictures posted below. Check out that beautiful sunrise down in Gulf Shores, AL.

She took these with her phone. Diane went walking down the beach to take these and met mom down there walking Miss Molly. I think Diane was the first to wish mom happy birthday, What a nice present, to wake up in Gulf Shores and see these beautiful colors on a living canvas. We didn't have anything like that up here in Illinois. I left this morning just after 7:00 am to drive to East Peoria Tire to get the snow tires off the car and the summer tires on. They got the car right in and by 9:00 am I made it to the Berean office to start typing in the Bible request. Over 5 hours and well over 400 request later I was ready to head home. Phil was here installing the new foaling cameras over the stalls.

 The rain was holding off so Star and her filly by Valiant were taken to the outdoor arena for a few pictures. She had fun running around and Star did a lot of snorting, sure a wolf or something was going to jump out of the woods and attack her precious baby.

 The favorite picture of the day is below. just a nice shot of a nicely put together mare and her filly.

Lily's filly was handled a bit, the stalls cleaned and the other mares checked. Lola is getting closer, her udder today squirted more white than yellow. The foal predictor kit was taken out and her milk tested but she is not testing close enough to stay up in the apartment. She was left inside though as the weather is predicted to be strong storms tonight. We have already had a thunder storm that dumped a quarter of an inch of rain in about 15 minutes. Lily's filly slept through the storm, she was all tuckered out from all the handling today.

The picture below was taken of the house computer, the foaling monitors are up and working perfectly. A big thank you to Philip.

We left for church, Greg Rumbold had the service,  we stayed quite late visiting with everyone. Sure is good to have our Wednesday night break. As soon as we got home the stalls were cleaned, water buckets filled and hay given. NOW I can head to bed. Except of course I must wish my oldest brother Happy birthday too. He and mom share the same birthday 20 years apart. Poor mom, can you imagine getting a gift like SPARK for your birthday. His kids gave him a neat gift, they all surprised him by driving almost to Ohio for THIS:

OK, I'm a little jealous, he has 13 and I only have 7 on the ground with one more due in August. Come ON Sceggel kids.

Just a Little Overwhelmed

Not that I'm complaining about all our help running off to Gulf Shores for a couple weeks but today was exhausting. Star and her filly were moved into the stall across the aisle so I could clean their stall this morning then moving them back I tried to take a short cut. Star was led over and I expected her filly to follow but that didn't happen. She found her way around the wheelbarrow and ran into the feed stall behind Emma the dog, Star freaked out, crashed and knocked down the wheelbarrow that was full of manure spilling it everywhere, knocked over the wheelbarrow full of hay, ran into the stall and knocked over the 2 grain bins of which one was full the other almost empty. Emma was cowering at the back, the filly was standing looking at Emma and Star was ready to kill the dog for threatening her foal. Emily heard the commotion and came out to help. Star was grabbed, given to Emily then the filly was grabbed and pulled out of the stall. Then came the clean up. By this time it was light enough outside to check and feed the other horses. Thankfully none of them were ready to foal. I left at 7:30 am to run down to Meister's before picking up the mail at TEMCO. The Bibles came in but Ellen was not able to get any stamps. I was expecting a smaller mail day because of Easter holiday but there were 2 full tubs waiting. To read about our hectic day there click HERE.
 After dropping off the mail I made it home just after 3:00 pm. Star was anxious to get out of that stall but that meant I needed to move Lola and Zephyr into the middle paddock with Ayanna to free up the paddock next to the barn. When Star and her filly were finally let out, the filly had a ball, galloping around the paddock stretching her long legs.

Once she finally got tired she went right over to the hay and laid down and finally Star felt she could start eating. The weather was really nice today, sunshine and a high of 61 degrees. Tomorrow rain is expected to start around noon. Mark loaded the summer tires in the car, tomorrow morning I need to run to Riekers to get the snow tires off and the summer tires on then will be off to Berean to work on letters.

Playtime with the Girls

No walk, everyone is gone around here so after the horses and Mark were fed I headed over to Phil and Anna's to spend the day with the girls.
After Kensley woke up from her morning nap the weather had warmed up enough to head over to the farm. Below are a few pictures of our afternoon. We stopped in first to see the new filly. Emily was there cleaning the stalls and helped get a few pictures.

This filly is a typical Valiant daughter, stocky, thick LONG legs and very friendly. She is going to make someone very happy. She is going to look more like Valiant than Star. In fact it is going to be hard to tell her apart from a purebred Friesian foal. We really like that about Valiant, he stamps HIS looks on his offspring. From the barn we took the golf cart over to the playground.

 Later we decided to check out the goose nest. The mama goose was sitting on the eggs so we were careful not to disturb her.

 The papa goose was swimming close by keeping watch.

We had a beautiful sunshiny day, lots of pictures were taken, if you would like to see them click HERE.
Emily took Ella back today to Middle Grove then stopped and picked up her cow Goldie. Goldie will be here for a month or two to wean her calf then fatten up a bit so she can be bred back. Mark decided to mow as the weather was so nice.

Philip picked up the girls later this afternoon. This evening Lola, Lily and Ayanna's udders were all checked and a little colostrum pulled from each mare. None of the mares are showing milk, the colostrum is still yellow and clear. We didn't test any tonight, maybe we will tomorrow if we see any change. The next three due are all due in a couple weeks. Lily and Lola due April 14th and Ayanna due April 17th.

Star Has a Filly on EASTER

Such a surprise this morning at 5:45 am I discovered Star with a brand new filly. Last night her udder was checked and there was no waxing at all. The filly was already up and nursing when I got there. They were put in the barn but there was no time to stick around we needed to leave for our Easter Sunrise service early. I turned on the barn lights, made sure they were settled, snapped this picture then left. She is stocky, strong and tall, a typical Valiant baby.

We had SUCH a touching breakfast and service this morning at the fellowship hall. All of our children and grand children were there except Sarah who is in Gulf Shores with her cousins. Dusty Funk sang 2 songs, then Kindred Spirit sang 2 songs and the choir sang 2 songs before David got up to have the message. By the time it was over tears were flowing in gratefulness of this wondrous plan of salvation. Tim Funk had the service at church. We are a blessed people, undeserving but truly blessed.
After church we were getting ready for the meal and of course with all these hard boiled eggs we decided to make deviled eggs. Addyson and Jack walked in as I was peeling the eggs and were shocked that grandma was breaking all those beautiful Easter Eggs.
Rhoda sauteed the onions, Addyson helped with the mushrooms, then Jack and Addyson helped with smashing up the egg yolks for the deviled eggs. All was hauled over to Phil and Anna's house for the meal. Below are a few pictures of the evening.

To see the rest of the pictures click HERE. A cold rain started after dinner and by 4:00 pm I was getting worried about leaving the mares out. Mark and I headed home so iodine could be put on Star's filly, the stall cleaned and the other mares checked. Lily and Ayanna were both brought inside to check their udders. Lily is still squirting clear but Ayanna's seemed just a bit milky so her's was tested and showed she should not be delivering any time soon. Lola's isn't as bagged up so her's was not tested. Star's filly is doing very well, she was too strong for me to flip on my own to put the iodine on but I was able to splash some up onto her cord. She was nursing when I got to the barn and there is no better sight than seeing that on a few hour old filly.

Jill the owner of Kenzie (Lily x Raven daughter) sent an email pleased to announce that Kenzie had a filly this morning. The sire is Evan so we had 2 fillies born on Easter morning, one by Valiant and one by Evan. Jill sent the short video below of the filly just born.

Congratulations Jill and thanks so much for letting us know. That is 3 healthy foals so far for 2016, Piper, Star and Kenzie about 27 still to go.

Coloring Easter Eggs

Ben and Taunya were the first to arrive,  coming this morning before I got home with Nancy. We had a fun but also productive day. Mark and Ben fixed the golf cart. Nancy was taken shopping for her own Easter basket plus the goodies to go in the basket. She had a ball. All of the grand kids made it today except Israel who was already booked at another grandma's house. When Rhoda and Lee arrived they took Addyson, Jack and Rubie for a boat ride, then a nice long walk.

The dogs were taken into the pond pasture where Darcy saw the geese, chased the geese and fell into the pond by accident. We thought Rhoda was going to have to go swimming to save her. She went right under then doggy paddled to safety.

 This was a pair of geese that had their nest right by the shoreline. They were sitting on 3 eggs.

Everyone had a good time coloring the Easter Eggs. 

 After that was finished the kids all played outside.

Of course lots of pictures were taken and posted on Mark's facebook page. To see them click HERE.
There really is no new horse news today, none of the mares are any different from yesterday. A very nice message came in today. I"m posting the entire bit here starting with the question, my response then  Lori (a lady that bought Walker Sally's filly and exported her to Canada) response.

Hi Judy, This is Lori, Chloes owner. I had a question to ask you if you don't mind. My cousin is thinking of importing a horse from the US. When I purchased Chloe from you, you covered the cost of all the health certificates needed. Is it standard practice for breeders to do this or was I just lucky to be dealing with you?

I'm not sure, here in the US it is the sellers responsibility to provide the coggins and health papers from state to state but it cost quite a bit more to export to Canada. The travel certificate (heath paper) was about $150 instead of $35.00. So I guess if the seller was not wanting to pay the entire amount they could offer to cover the usual. We have just always paid it as I figure it is the cost of doing business.

Thanks for getting back to me. That is what I thought. Just so you know, after reading the contract with this breeder Horsemeister is definitely an outstanding business. It absolutely puts you in a class of your own.

Hor

Darcy's Birthday

Rhoda arrived early this morning to celebrate Darcy's 11th birthday. The favorite present of the day, other than Rhoda being here, was a big black garbage can. She LOVES to carry it around, loves to shake it violently and loves to let it roll it down the hill chasing after it.

She sure doesn't act her age! Today was training day for Rosalie. Rosalie has never had a rider up on her back until this very successful day.

To see the rest of the pictures and learn how Rhoda accomplished this click HERE.
Once Rosalie was put away Rhoda offered to give Zephyr a leading lesson in the round pen.

 He got to run around first but soon settled down to work.

 We decided we may as well give him a loading lesson too, below Karin is leading him over to the trailer. We were pleased with how respectful he followed. 

He walked right into the trailer and quietly walked out when Karin asked. This is a very nice colt. 

 He also inherited Evan's hair, check out the FEATHER on his front feet. This is a lot of hair for a 7 month old colt. 

Joan came to borrow the tractor this afternoon for splitting logs.

Diane brought her grand children over to help clean stalls.

Karin bought ribeye steaks for dinner, Mom's grill isn't working so we decided to eat at Joan and Tim's house. The steaks were cooked to perfection. We didn't stay long though tonight we needed to be in church for our Good Friday service. That was wonderful, sad, convicting but wonderful. Craig Stickling had the service. It seemed no one wanted to leave after so we didn't get home until late. Just about everyone around here is deserting us. Diane, mom, Joan, all her kids, and Karin are heading down to Gulf Shores, Alabama leaving at 4:30 tomorrow morning. Rachel has already been down for a week and is staying another. Spark and Rhonda are heading to Ohio to visit Tara, Jay and their 5 children then heading down to the Gulf. Fedi and Ruth are on their anniversary cruise. Emily is house sitting in Washington. Yep it's just gonna be Mark and me and the dogs and the horses for a bit.

Our entire day today was filled with bright sunshine. No clouds at all to mar the solar system from bringing in electricity. Our meter was going backward almost the entire day. Speaking of the solar system the inspectors came and Houston we have a problem. There were 2 of them, they walked into the barn and even before looking at the wiring reported, "your hay is illegal!" My feathers were getting ruffled as I'm looking at all our round bales stored inside thinking if it comes between the hay or the solar system it's not the hay that is going to go, when the inspector says, This hay is illegal because your horses can't get a square meal. Of course I had to pull the same joke on Mark, Karin, Rhoda and everyone on the walk.