Cleaning Tack

Mom had to take her car in to the Honda dealership this morning to get the airbags replaced. The dealership is less than 10 minutes from the Berean office so after the mail was dropped off there we drove to the dealership to drop off her car. That Berean office is such a fun place to be on Tuesday's. To read about how much fun happens there click Here.
Mom's car was finished after lunch, just about the time we finished working. Mom was taken back to the dealership to get her car while I drove Eva Jean home.
I stopped at Meister Brothers on the way home to pay the first of the month bills one day early and get the big truck for our trip to Springfield tomorrow. Karin arrived about the time I got to the farm and helped hook both trucks up to the trailers. When looking at the picture below I just can't help but feel extremely rich. So many years in the past we would be trying to figure out how to get the horses down to Springfield and yet now we just hook our trucks up to our trailers. Why are we so very blessed?

The next job was to organize the tack trunks, clean up the bridles, saddles and girths and make sure everything is loaded. No horses got worked today, we could hear the rumble of thunder as we were packing and wanted to get it all done before the storms hit. Karin, Rhoda, Sarah and I are heading down to Springfield tomorrow afternoon to meet the man bringing us 40 bales of straw and 20 bales of hay. We will unload everything packed and spend a few hours setting up our stalls for Thursday. Now I want to share an incredible picture of a hawk fishing. This picture popped up on my facebook page. What a shot!

and as long as I'm stealing pictures check out this awesome shot:

Monday Trail Ride

This morning I had to go to Walmart and Sam's club but didn't spend very much at either store. I needed the ingredients for a dish we call YahiSobi. A double batch was made when I got back to the house. It is a nutritious meal with only 150 calories per cup but don't think because it is nutritious it doesn't taste good. We all think it is delicious. Tomorrow the Berean volunteers will get a chance to try it. It is made with shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, chopped onion, sliced peppers, sauteed mushrooms, Ramon noodles and browned drained ground beef. It isn't made very often because of the work involved in making it.
This afternoon Karin arrived after work and got three mares out for a trail ride. As Jake is now riding Oksana she wanted him to have a chance to get to know her before the horse fair. Oksana can go from a walk to a gallop in an instant when asked and Jake needed to know the cues to manage this. Hannah came to ride Galena while Karin rode Eliza. Eliza needs muscle tone and the hills are good for that.

They came upon a deer carcass that was basically just the hide and bones.

The weather was beautifully warm with bright sunshine. That always makes Mark happy to have sun shining on his solar system. 

The ride was considered successful as no one fell off. WE always say that when the horses come back with the rider still sitting in the saddle. One time we had a rider come leading the horse back and when we asked what happened she replied, "the horse started yelling at me so I got off." 

After the ride Indy, Zalena and Ayanna were worked. 

 Above Karin is working with Zalena in SHORT sleeves on this 27th day of February and below she is working with Ayanna. .

She came in for a quick supper before heading out. After supper mom, Joan, Diane, Rebekah, and I all showed up at Ruth's house for game night. Tonight MOM WON! 

A nice email came in from the lady that bought Rosalie's filly. She sent the picture below and wrote:

Hi Judy,

I hope you had a wonderful vacation. I have attached a picture of Abigail (we renamed her Arwen) from yesterday. She is so wonderful! We absolutely love her. I cannot believe how sane, quiet, and mature she is for a weanling. I've dealt with Thoroughbreds most of my life, so her demeanor is just amazing to me. 

We will be clipping her this coming weekend as she is so hot with her thick coat. I will be interested to see how she takes to that.

Thank you for everything!

Dress Rehearsal

Sunday, blessed, wonderful Sunday, my favorite day of the week. Well most week days are favorites too but Sunday is always special. Amazing to think this day of rest was set aside by the Creator of the universe just for us. A day we get to go to church to worship Him but so much more. The time spent singing praises, reading the Word, listening to a Spirit filled message, breaking bread together and then fellowshipping together is all such a gift to us. Craig Stickling had the morning service and David Obergfel had the afternoon. Both were exactly what I needed to hear. Then to top it all off we had ANOTHER engagement announcement. Brenna Waibel was announced to Ty Taufer a brother from Goodfield.

This afternoon was the dress rehearsal for the pirate play The Dead Man's Chest. Most of the riders arrived in costume. This was the first time we got to see how creative these pirates are.

Above is Nolan as Davy Jones and below is David Jacob as Jack Sparrow and Mitchel Cooksey as Will Turner. 

 Even Miss Molly is going as a pirate. 

 Lee is our Land Pirate since he does not have a horse to ride in this play but he gets lots of time sword fighting. 

Amy brought a couple of her grand children out. They were amazed at the dogs that all came running to the barn.

The play practice went well. To see the rest of the pictures of that practice click HERE. After practice Amy gave her grandchildren a ride on Anna before putting her away.

The saddles were all taken off by the horse trailer and loaded right into that for the trip down on Wednesday. We had so much fun watching this very entertaining practice and to think those pirates are going to perform this in front of the thousands of people that come to the Illinois Horse Fair. We are leaving Wednesday to take down the supplies and meet the man bringing us 40 bales of straw for bedding and 20 bales of hay in Springfield and will try to get as much decorating done on the stalls as we can.  Thursday morning the horses will be taken down to the fair and bathed. The show starts Friday morning at 9:00 am and goes on until Sunday evening around 5:00 pm. WE ARE READY!

Falling Snow

We awoke to snow flurries and a cold 24 degrees with wind making it so miserable outside after those amazing 60 and 70 degrees there was no way anyone wanted to work outside. And yet work waited. Mark hauled in wood then started seeding the fields with medium red clover. Karin brought 7 of the mares inside and turned the heater on for their training session. By the time she finished both of us were pretty frozen. At 2:00 pm Nolan came out to try Eliza. Karin took Oksana while Nolan rode Eliza but they only did about half the trails, the wind was just so fierce. Eliza did great for Nolan.

 Above Oksana is on the left and her mother Eliza is on the right. Below they are heading down toward the 'death trails' with Studly. 

As soon as the trail ride was over Mark, Karin and I drove to the Berean office to finish the intermediate studies and have them ready for Gertrude tomorrow morning. From there we met David, Stephanie, Israel, Elisabet, Sarah, Nolan, Rhoda, and Lee at Good Tequila's for an early supper. We got home in time to watch Phil and Anna's girls this evening. They had fun doing crafts. Painting is always one of the favorites.

 Below they are eating strawberries and grapes dipped in the left over cool whip. They love fruit anyway but this made it special. 

 Above Kensley is dressing Emma and when Emma got tired of that and left Taegan took her place. Kensley is going to be a dress designer. She was draping all kinds of fabric over Taegan. 

 We found some miniature magic wands which were fun to pretend with. 

They had a good time and so did grandpa and grandma.  It is almost 10:00 pm and we are more than ready for bed.

Packing the Trailer

Rosalie, Galena and Tory were taken to Hoerr Vet clinic this morning for ultrasounds. Rosalie and Galena are still in transition, meaning they are not yet cycling but Tory had a clear CL and should be ready to cover in 10-12 days. When I arrived back at the farm Rhoda was here cleaning tack. The two of us spent the rest of the morning cleaning all three trailers then packing the big trailer for the horse fair. Once we were satisfied we pulled out the Quest Plus de-wormer and de-wormed Evan and Valiant, then Jenis, Rosalie, Tory and Galena as those mares are not pregnant. The last 2 de-wormed were the weanlings, Arturo and Bethany. We never use Quest plus on the pregnant mares. Emily arrived just as Rhoda pulled out Rosalie so she brought Jenis in to desensitize her to the flag and megaphone.

 Above Jenis is coming over to give Emily kisses while Rhoda rides Rosalie around the arena carrying the pirate flag. 

 Ruby wanted to join Rhoda on Rosalie.

 I'm amazed at how this dog can balance on a moving mares rump. 

 Rhoda took Rosalie to the outside arena even though the weather had turned windy and the temperature was dropping. She wanted to get a good hand gallop before the next practice on Sunday and the indoor is just not big enough for that. 

 To see the rest of the pictures of Rhoda and Rosalie click HERE. Emily brought Valiant in the indoor, let me roll then took him to the outdoor for some gallop time. Valiant had a ball. 

To see the rest of Valiant's pictures click HERE. 

Emily did round pen reasoning with him then brought out the scary bag. Valiant is not comfortable with that scary bag so that part of the training took a too long for me to stand out in the cold taking  pictures. When he was accepting of what Emily was asking of him, she brought him inside, gave him some grain then spent some time brushing the tangles out of his mane and braiding it back up again. 

This evening we went over mom's for game night and were joined by Rhonda, Joan, Ruth, Sarah, Berlica, and Mackenson. Ruth won big tonight. 

Cold front Means Rain

After yesterday's beautiful weather we were all kind of disappointed that we didn't get out of the 50's today and not only that but by the time I got home from Berean at 2:00 pm it was raining and Karin had to work horses in the indoor arena.
We had a very busy day at the Berean office. To read about that work click HERE.
What a difference sunshine makes. Below Karin is working with Oksana in the outdoor arena yesterday during our warm sunshiny afternoon.

 Then today she had to work with her in the indoor as it was cold and raining. The two pictures below   of Oksana were taken this afternoon. 

The picture below is Karin working with Zalena in the outdoor yesterday,

 and the picture below is Zalena waiting her turn in the indoor this afternoon. 

Karin worked with 6 of the mares today. Oksana, Galena, Eliza, Ayanna, Indy and Zalena. Below Karin is working with Eliza.

 Eliza is doing so well we decided to have Nolan try her for the last practice this coming Sunday. We believe she will be a better fit with him than Oksana is right now.  Oksana had been put out as soon as Karin finished with her so we didn't have to worry about cleaning up all the messes she makes when loose in the arena and that worked well until Ayanna got bored waiting her turn and started dumping out the garbage, playing with the manure fork and pulling the swords out of the box. 

 Below Karin is working with Indy. 

Last year Indy could not canter without falling in. She is doing amazingly well now. Indy is also learning to neck rein. Zalena was the last mare worked. All the mares did well. This evening a lot of time was spent on the phone getting the confirmation numbers for our stay at the Drury Inn March 2nd, 3rd and 4th. We have 26 rooms reserved and that's a lot of numbers.