Spring Training Starts in January

I had to leave the house today at 6:45 am for the annual CT scan of my aortic aneurysm. Friday I should have the results and learn if I can keep doing this horse job. That went quicker than expected, by 8:30 am I was already at the Berean office ready for work. We had a good morning there but no pictures as I forgot the camera in my haste to get out the door in time.
After Berean I didn't go straight home, instead heading down to Meisters to pay the first of the month bills then to CEFCU to deposit checks, over to Diane's office to drop off checks and pick up the last payment for Titan to deposit into the bank in Hanna City. Karin called as I was almost home to say she would be here to train in 20 minutes. What a blessing to have all that work done yesterday on the indoor arena. It was raining when she arrived and continued raining as she trained Galena, Oksana, Indy and Anna but all of it could be done inside out of the rain. I can't get good pictures inside but still took a few. She starts by round penning the 4 mares together.

 Each mare must pay attention as she snaps the whip, when she calls them in they must stand and face her. Below Anna is in the bright red halter and Indy is behind her in the wider red and white halter.

 Karin chose to work Galena first today. While that was happening the other 3 were checking out all the buckets hanging on the wall. To the far right is muddy Oksana, in the middle is Indy and left is Anna. 

 Galena needs the most work to prepare her for the fair. She has never gone so we are not sure how she will react to the crowds. Karin spent more time with her than the other mares but was well pleased by the time she finished with her. 

 Next up was Anna. Anna is our first mare due in 2017. She will be worked in January then lightly in February. She won't be asked to do much at the fair as she will be pretty heavy in foal. 

 She had a lot of energy today. 

 Below Karin is working Indy.  She is asking her to sidepass across the arena first in one direction and then the other. Indy is light in the bridle and responds quickly moving when asked by just a light touch of the leg. 

 Last to be worked was Oksana. She was well behaved and is learning how to move sideways when asked. 

 We are so pleased with Oksana, she is already beginner safe at just 4 years old. 

We tried to get different colored halters on each mare for identification purposes when the kids come to practice. Karin wants to be able to tell them that 'their' horse is wearing a red halter and expect them to figure out which mare to bring in. Last year was kind of funny. The mares really don't look that much alike but sometimes I have to take a second look to tell them apart. I had Karin convinced she was riding Indy when she was really riding Ayanna. Karin kept exclaiming, "she is moving really well, she has really improved."  The only scary time happened a few years back when Karin was tacking up untrained 2 year old thinking she was tacking up an older mare. She was wondering why the mare didn't want to stand still, finally stepped back and exclaimed, "who IS this?" Today's training session went very well and it only took an hour for Karin to work all 4 horses. Mark was home by the time she finished and once the horses were out of the arena Mark was quick to claim it for his car. With the rain coming down and the falling temperatures we sure don't want our cars iced over and frozen shut. Rhonda and Spark are still down in Gulf Shores and sent the pictures below of the damage to mom's condo.

 Below they are removing the flattened top deck and trying to get that huge heavy generator off so they can start rebuilding. 

 In the picture below is a chair embedded on the roof of one of the Gulfside townhomes where Diane & Mike and Spark & Rhonda each own one. 

The wind has been howling all evening from the North, the temperature is falling fast but we are warm in our little house with 2 wood burners.
Today is Rhoda's birthday. Lee took her to a fancy hotel in Clinton, IL called the SunSet Inn to celebrate it. She sent the pictures below.

What a beautiful room.