Pulling Hair

Emily and I loaded Anna and Zephyr into the new trailer this morning around 7:25 am even though I didn't need to leave for the vet clinic until 8:00 am. Emily needed to leave early to watch Israel and I wanted to walk with my long lost sisters who finally made it home from Gulf Shores. It sounds like they had a wonderful time. Mom had to be at the Peoria airport at 5:30 am for her trip to Washington DC. She and Carolee are meeting Aunt Jinnie, taking the ferry to Ellis Island then seeing the Statue of Liberty today, and tomorrow will be leaving for Washington DC.
I arrived at Hoerr vet clinic at 8:40 am and by 9:10 am was on my way home. Anna IS cycling and has a 43 mm on her right ovary. She will probably ovulate in a couple days. Zephyr was good for Dr. Hoerr drawing his blood for the coggins test, we didn't even take him out of the trailer.
When I arrived home I made a quick breakfast then jumped in the car for the trip to Big R in Pekin where I loaded 650 pounds of grain and 150 pounds of salt blocks into the car. Just so Mark knows the salt blocks were all put on the floor. One in the front and the other 2 in the back, one by each door. Five bags of grain were put in the trunk, 6 bags were put in the back seat (3 on each side) and 2 bags were put in the front seat. This in no way over loaded the car but when I told the lady at Big R I was going to put it all in the Prius she wasn't sure it would fit. These cars are actually more roomy than they look. Four of the bags of grain and the salt blocks were dropped off on the cabin porch. Mike needs the grain as he is feeding Sheena and Soul there. The salt blocks will be dropped off at Middle Grove when he takes his next trip out. The rest of the grain was put away in the stall barn.
Then it was time to start the 'real' chores. The stalls were stripped and re-bedded and the indoor arena cleaned. We had the 3 mares with their 3 foals inside from Sunday afternoon until this morning and they made quite a mess. That was the best option to keep these foals warm and dry, it was cold and raining Sunday and Lily won't share the shelter with the other mares and foals.
As soon as Emily arrived back we moved 2 bales, one in the short shelter and one in the middle paddock. Anna was then covered by Valiant then moved into the short shelter paddock with Zephyr while Indy was moved in with Eliza. Then it was time to do a job we usually forget until the foals are at Middle Grove, PULL HAIR for the registrations. Zalena's filly was done first, then Lola's filly.  Lily, Ayanna and Star along with their 3 foals were first taken into the stall barn and hair pulled from each of the foal's tails then these 6 moved into the middle paddock. This paddock has 2 shelters with hay and a big pavilion so if it rains they can all stay dry. Below Ayanna and her colt now named Caspian are sharing a shelter with Lily and Joanna.

 Star and her filly Austara were happy eating hay in the other feeder. 

Once everyone was situated and happy Emily pulled Valiant out for a training lesson. He did so well she cut it short but below are a few pictures.

 His canter today was very balanced and rounded even with a loose rein. These stallions just do a magnificent job of carrying themselves. Emily is training Valiant to bow and lay down under saddle by using her toe to tap his leg. He knew today exactly what she wanted and went down pretty quickly.

 She then asks him to sit and stay while she dismounts. He will stay until she tells him to get up. 

When Mark got home we put up the final two sections of the brace for the solar system before eating dinner. After dinner he went back out to work on that while I cleaned Zalena's stall, filled water buckets, played with the filly then brought hay in for tonight and tomorrow morning. This was such a productive day.
Pat posted some adorable pictures of her colt out of her mare Whisper by Evan. She writes: The energizer bunny just launched.. Lol This boy can't keep his feet on the ground...

Doesn't Evan throw BEAUTIFUL BABIES!