Build an Ark

It was raining again this morning and not a nice warm rain it was just down right cold. We wore winter coats on the walk.
The paddocks are in terrible condition but the fields are too soggy to put horses out. I'm thankful for the indoor arena. Anna and her filly spent the day inside there while Hadassah and Zalena are spending the nights. We are to have a small break and maybe even see some sunshine tomorrow but rain is predicted the for everyday next week. Lola, Star and Soul need to be picked up from Middle Grove soon. We are going to pick up the trailer tomorrow in Iowa but maybe after church on Sunday would work. Hadassah is due April 5th.

Star is due April 17th

Lola is due April 19th

 Soul is due April 21st

While Zalena is due April 23rd.

More Rain

We had quite a storm last night, lots of wind, bright flashes of lightning, booming crashes of thunder and hail. I was so glad all the horses here were under shelter. The storm took out our electricity numerous times. The right stall foaling camera is also out but I'm not sure the storm took it out or one of the cats took it out by crawling up on the rafters. I have 2 mares due soon so will have to get that repaired.
The rain stopped just long enough for us to have our walk but then continued off and on pretty much all day saturating everything.
This afternoon Anna and her filly were put in the indoor arena. This was the first time the filly has been out of the stall and at first she wasn't sure exactly how far she could go but soon she was galloping around worrying Anna. Anna wanted to roll but each time she started down the filly would take off and Anna would jump up and follow.

 Finally success. 

 Now the reason I'm sure this filly is going to be a super star is her amazing conformation. Check out how long that neck is. She also has a short back and long long thick legs. As she is for sale someone is going to get something really special, a fancy Friesian filly. She can be reserved with a $500.00 deposit then regular payments until weaning in August.

 To see the rest of the pictures taken today of this two day old filly click HERE. Today is Spark's 65th birthday and mom's 85th birthday. We held a surprise party for her and she really was surprised. Rachel told mom she would be bringing dinner over tonight but the rest of us hid in the garage until 6:00 pm then crashed the dinner.

 Above we are still waiting for a few more to crowd in and below mom is opening her gifts. 

She really was surprised. We finished the evening with games finishing after 9:00 pm. What a fun evening. After the party Hadassah and Zalena were brought inside the indoor for the night. It is still raining and even though they aren't due I'm not taking any chances.

2:09 AM Visitor?

What is going on around here? At 2:09 am Mark heard someone knocking on our front door. He got up, put his pants on and went out to open the door except there was no one there. Emma had been up barking 3 times during the night each time she would be laying on her bed in the living room, bound up at a run barking at the door but when I would open the door for her to go outside she either wouldn't step outside or would stand right outside the door barking. So in my exhaustion from the night before I refused to get up at 2:09 am.  Mark decided to take Emma outside with him to check around but she cringed by the couch and he actually had to pull her out with him, she is so brave. (NOT) Mark was so spooked he slept the rest of the night with his phone in his pocket just in case he needed to dial 911. Of course we both overslept. Emma is so exhausted she may be too tired to even go on the walk this morning which she loves.

One Down 15 to Go

So very thankful today. Anna and her HUGE filly by Valiant are doing well. Anna passed the placenta and the filly has been using the big thick legs of hers to gallop around her mama in the stall. I'm not one to brag on the foals and really it isn't usually that easy to tell when a foal is going to be special but THIS one IS. Hopefully we will get some dry weather and I can get them outside for a few pictures soon. She is going to be a superstar in the Friesian world.
During our walk today of course we all had to stop in the barn and check her out. I had to leave after the first round for our usual Tuesday work at the Berean office. That was such a fun place to be today. To read about our day there click HERE.
On the way home from there I stopped at Meisters to pay a few bills and load the car with paper and envelopes for the Berean office tomorrow. When I arrived home I drove straight up to the barn to check on Anna and the filly. Both were fine giving me time to head down to the house to take a much needed nap. This evening Whitney was brought out and teased. She was still showing so covered by Valiant. Zalena and Hadassah were moved to the indoor arena for the night. I'm hoping these two mares will start to bond with each other so they can raise their two foals together. Anna and her filly will join them once their foals are born and old enough. Hadassah is bagging up but not waxing.

She isn't due for another 8 days but the weather this week is so unsettled and the paddocks are now very muddy. This will be Hadassah's third foal. Her other two both were born black, stayed black, had thick curly feather and really did look 100 % Friesian even though they are only 75% Friesian. Below is her first which was a colt. This was taken just before we brought him in to be weaned.

The second was a filly. Below is her filly at just a few days old.

This evening The stalls were cleaned and Anna and her filly moved into the other stall. Iodine was applied to the filly's umbilicus but it already seemed very dry.
One down 15 to go!
Something creepy happened around 3:00 am as I was rushing to barn for the birth of Anna's foal. I was wearing Mark's ultra bright headlamp. The light kept picking up the eye shine of the horses, all where they were suppose to be but then came a glimpse of  eye shine of something strange. The glow was about the height of a man. But people don't have eye shine just animals. Then I thought perhaps it was a goose flying that high except there was no noise. Maybe an owl as they fly silently but do birds eyes glow in the dark when hit by lights like animals?  When the dawn broke I had to check out the area and there were no obvious footprints. There had been a coyote attack on a 2 day old foal posted on Facebook yesterday and I even thought maybe there was a coyote and it had jumped high into the air when it caught view of me coming down the lane on the golf cart but that theory is just a little too improbable. I'll probably never know what it was but what ever it was it was BIG. A few nights ago Emma was having a fit barking at something. I put her outside, her back hair stiffened up straight and she ran back to the house the big baby. At that time I thought maybe it was a big raccoon that scared her but now I'm wondering.

It's a GIRL

Anna delivered a big black beautiful filly around 3:40 am.

The baby is strong and struggled to her feet soon after birth. Anna is such a great mom, she knew exactly what to do. I was watching on the monitor but by the time I realized I'd better head up to the barn if I wanted to catch this birth I was too late. At least I could dry her off and do some imprinting.

Thankful for a safe delivery and a strong filly. When I left the barn at 4:30 am she was rooting around in the right spot. Watching on the monitor I'm pretty sure she is finding the milk. The stalls were cleaned and it is time to get some much needed sleep.

Whitney & Ayanna

Today was not a great day, in fact it was frustrating and even a little depressing. At least it wasn't raining during our walk but started up not long after that. Anna was let out in the field for a few hours as it wasn't a hard cold rain. She enjoyed the grass and even laid down to roll with that big belly of hers. Laundry was started then out I went to clean the stall and bring Anna in before loading the mares that needed to go to the vet clinic. I've been suspicious that both Ayanna and Whitney lost their foals and wanted them checked out and Tory needed to be sonagrammed to find out if she actually ovuated. Rhoda covered Tory on Thursday evening not realizing we did not want her to get pregnant this month. If she settled she would be due the beginning of March and we are all pretty much gone showing at that time of year. My appointment was at 1:45 pm but I went out at noon to as Tory does not load well yet.

She will fine with 2 people but today I was here alone. Whitney and Ayanna were loaded first then Tory brought up and the first thing she did was to throw herself backwards and break a lead rope. She was just left loose while the other mares were fed and when she realized she wasn't getting any by running away from me she came right up. This time I walked her into the barn and picked up a whip. Tory freaked out at the whip. I wasn't going to beat her, it was just to encourage her not to go backward. It took a few minutes for her to realize she was expected to walk nicely and stay behind me, not run past. Of course all of this is being done in the rain. I was thankful for Mark's rain coat. She was loaded and I was on the road by 1:00 pm. It is a good half hour to Hoerr Vet clinic. Just as I was ready to cross the river Emma, the receptionist at Hoerr Vet clinic called to report that Dr. Hoerr was running late but I was too far to consider turning around. Hind sight I should have. I had to wait until 5:00 pm for Dr. Hoerr and then it was pretty much what I suspected. Both mares were not pregnant. Whitney is in right now and had a huge getting soft follicle of 62 mm which meant she needed to be covered tonight.

Ayanna wasn't sonagrammed, Dr. Hoerr just stuck his arm all the way in and he could not feel a foal.

She will be taken to Middle Grove until the end of April then brought back and bred. Tory was last and she had ovulated probably yesterday. She was covered on Thursday and semen is only suppose to live 48 hours so hopefully she won't have settled. I was back on the road around 5:30 pm making it home about 6:05 pm. Whitney was taken right to the breeding stand to be covered but Valiant's lead rope, the one with the chain, was no where to be found. I searched both barns and around all the breeding stands before giving up and digging through the show stuff stored in the trailer. By the time Whitney was covered and Anna was moved into a clean stall I was late picking up mom for game night at Ruth's house.
That was the best part of the day, besides Ruth, mom, Hannah, Faith, Rebekah, Diane and I played and mom WON AGAIN! We had lots of laughs.
Anna is waxing but I do not believe she will deliver tonight. She is not at all restless and is content to just stand quietly or eat her hay.

Rhoda picked out some music for the video of Evan we were uploading to youtube. Below is the finished project.

Pride Goes Before the Fall

The morning sermon was on king  Uzziah. This king had everything going for him and reigned in Judah for 52 years but became proud and insisted on doing something that was not lawful for him to do. It sounded good, what he wanted to do, he wanted to burn incense to God but he was not from the tribe of Levite nor a priest and when he insisted that He WAS the king and could do what he wanted God smote him with leprosy. We were discussing the sermon this afternoon then the subject changed to Evan and of course I had to mention how many people had watched his video when Karin asks, "exactly what WAS that sermon about?" Ooh she got me!
I know without a shadow of a doubt that ALL things are His and He has just lent them to me to care for. Even my very breath has been given by Him, and yet how easy it is to become proud. This afternoon was the Easter program. Mackenson had us cracking up, when it came to his turn instead of saying his piece he said something like, "God is risen" Joan and Sarah were thinking maybe his teachers gave him something easier than his two line piece that they had been practicing with him, but the teachers didn't change it, he did. He told Joan later, it was easier to say.
Joan, Sarah, Karin, Ruth, Diane, mom and I played games at mom's house until mom and Joan went to skylines for the Kenya talk and Karin went to volley ball. Phil and Anna brought the girls over to play while she and Phil played volley ball. The girls had such a good time playing with all the wonderful well organized toys at mom's house. By the time we needed to leave this is what the room looked like.

Ruth and Diane came down to help pick up but we have them so organized it just took us literally a few minutes. Thankful the girls played so well together.
After the girls were picked up Anna the mare not the daughter-in-law was brought back into the stall. She had not just rolled in the mud but had mud plastered so thick on one complete side of her body that if she does deliver tonight the foal would for sure probably get mud in his or her mouth while looking for the teats. I started grooming her but it was just so much that I ended up taking her into the indoor and washing the legs and some of the belly off. This morning for the first time there was a few drops of colostrum on her teats. It was clear and not enough to test but we know she is making progress.

It shouldn't be too much longer before she delivers, after-all she is 8 days over due. Karin came over this afternoon to help move round bales in. Zalena's paddock got one and Whitney's paddock got the other. She worked with Evan, Valiant and Tory today. The boys are doing extremely well, Tory still doesn't like anything over her head.

New Trailer

Mark and I were up at 4:30 am planning a trip to Iowa to purchase a camping trailer. It had started raining during the night and was raining in the morning when we left so Anna was left inside the stall barn. Her udder is still not showing signs of delivery but we are not taking any chances of a foal born in the rain. We made it by a little after 9:00 am where the trailer was but it took quite a while before we actually decided to buy it. We ended up with a Wolf Pup 16BH.

It is a small light weight trailer weighing in just over 3000 pounds and including the hitch and back bumper a total length of 21 feet with living space of 16. The lay out is what we were looking for.

This is a stripped down model with no slide outs but does have a power awning and is solar ready. We forgot to stop for gas on the way home and about 40 miles from home the car started giving us warnings but Mark was sure it would make it to Casey's in Hanna City and it did. It rained the entire time we were up there and all the way home.
We will pick up the trailer hopefully next week. Karin worked horses while we were gone. The rain had stopped here. She agreed with Rhoda and Emily that Tory is going to take a while to be ready for a rider. But Evan was great.

Valiant was also very good.

This afternoon was Braelyn's 6th birthday party.

 Ben and Taunya's family joined us all the way from Texas by the computer.

Her big surprise was a brand new beautiful girly girl bike. 

To see the rest of the pictures of the party click HERE. As soon as we got home I had to run up to the barn to move Anna into a clean stall and prepare the other stall for morning, scrubbing out two water buckets, cleaning all the manure and urine out, putting in her morning hay. When I got back to the house there was a message of games at mom's but I was too tired to go. Mark is already in bed and as soon as I hit publish I will be too. 

80 DEGREES WHAT a Change

Yesterday we just could not warm up, both Mark and I had spent most of the evening working outside and got chilled to the bone. We had a fire going but couldn't seem to stand close enough. Well that sure changed today. We hit 80 degrees and it felt like summer.
Joan gave me a card from Berlica this morning during our walk informing me Berlica told her, "give this to Judy because I love her."  When Joan asked "what about Ruth, Diane and Grandma who will also be on the walk?" Berlica responded, "Well I love them too but don't have time to make more." Yes I felt honored.  Rhoda arrived right at 10:00 am and our visitor Chris had already arrived when and was up at the barn waiting for us. Chris came to learn about Friesians as one day he is going to own one. He wants to buy a foal and trick train it. Evan was pulled out first. He was so low key this morning only bucking a couple times.


I also snapped a few pictures of Chris working with Evan.

To see the rest of those pictures click HERE. Next out was Valiant. No video of that but I took a few pictures. 

To see the rest of Valiant's pictures from today click HERE. As soon as Valiant was put away Rhoda brought out Jenis and Eliza. Chris worked with Eliza then Rhoda took him on a short ride.

To see the rest of those pictures click HERE. By this time we needed to head in for lunch as it was almost 1:00 pm. Chris left for his 3 hour trip home while Rhoda and I headed to the Warehouse for food except the warehouse was closed. Thankfully Casey's had some pizza. After lunch Rhoda brought Tory out.

 Above and Below she is putting weight on Tory's back and expecting her to stand. Tory did very well today but Rhoda is taking the training slow. 

Just as we finished up we saw mom's car coming back from the estate sale she and Ruth went to. We stopped them and they looked very suspicious.

 They were laughing when they told us mom only bought one item. It was a horse statue and only when she walked outside did she realize it was PINK! We decided she should leave it outside and spray paint it black.

Rhoda needed to head for home and I needed to get a little work done IN the house like laundry and dishes. Most of that was done by the time Mark got home. After supper we took a walk first stopping to move Anna into a stall for the night then walked around the neighborhood. Mom was at the pancake supper at Skyline so we headed over toward Joan's and met Faith and Ava first. We saw a light in the woods and followed the smell of a campfire to find Rachel and David enjoying their tiny house.

It was getting too dark for pictures so Rachel went inside and turned the lights on for us.

While we were visiting with them Spark and Rhonda arrived. They too smelled the campfire and came out to visit. We stayed a little long and had to walk home in the dark but what a great day. 

Arturo Sold

This morning was our usual Berean day. We had a very good crew and were finished before 11:00. To read about that click HERE. Once the Bibles were dropped off at the post office I drove down to TSC to pick up saddle racks. Those were on sale and I bought all they had (just 3). These saddle racks hold 3 saddles each and are regularly priced around $70.00 but on sale today for $50.00. What a great buy and something we really needed. I also picked up Arturo's shots. He was sold yesterday and I wanted him to have the first set of shots before he is transported to his new place. Arturo was the colt born by emergency C section last June.

 We had a lady from Florida ask if we had any video's of Whitney's movement. I had to look as I couldn't remember ever making one and sure enough we hadn't. Rhoda came today and was glad to tack up Whitney and ride her for the video. It wasn't nice outside, the weather hadn't even hit 40 degrees yet, the wind was blowing and every once in a while the sky would spit at us. The horses were all up and galloping around and we half way expected Whitney to put on a show but she was well behaved.


We  had to go inside for a bit to warm up. While I was downloading the video Rhoda took Tory out and covered her with Valiant. Emily arrived so the two girls decided to give Tory her first under saddle lesson. Below Rhoda is leading Tory up to the barn.

 Below Emily  was watching Rhoda round pen Tory when Ruby jumped on her lap for a kiss. 

 The picture below was snapped while Rhoda was putting on her helmet. Notice the pirate eyepatch? That was left on from the fair. 

 Tory was calm and quiet as Rhoda worked on asking her to turn or back with the reins. 

 Emily stepped in to help as Rhoda mounted the first time. Right away Tory reacted.

 She was afraid of the weight and threw herself sideways.

 Rhoda bailed.

 We had been told that Tory had been ridden but with her reaction to weight on her back the girls decided to take training much more slow. Ruby was introduced then placed on her back. 

 Tory handled that with no problem at all. 

 Next the girls would hang off Tory until she would stop moving then get off. As long as Tory's hooves were moving the weight stayed on. 

 When she would finally stand quietly for mounting Emily sat astride but just for a few minutes then dismounted. Tory was praised.

 By the end of today's lesson all they asked of her was to stand quietly while someone was mounted. 

Hopefully she will remember this lesson and build on it. This evening a trailer load of square bales were going to be delivered so I needed to move things out of the way and put down pallets. This was accomplished right after supper. Mark came out to help move the heavier items. The hay arrived around 7:30 pm but the hay guy brought lots of help and the unloading went quickly. Now we have a pallet full of bedding and plenty of square bales to get through this foaling season.
The mares were put in the indoor so I can have another good nights sleep. They really haven't changed much in their udders but are learning the routine and wait at the gate for me to bring them inside.