Do IT For the Mare

Today I want to talk about Missy. We were given Missy and Cookie in 2012. The owner asked if we would buy them but was told I don't buy horses. At that point she offered to give them to us. The soonest I could come to see them was 3 days later. When we arrived the horses were nervous but seemed ok so we said we would take them and loaded them up. It was only after they were loaded that the owner said, "thank you so much for taking them, they have been out of food for the last 4 days." We found both mares such a wonderful gift and will make sure they never go without food again.

We never bred them as they are always in such high demand as riding horses but Missy is in love with the foals. She has wanted her own foal since we got her and each time a mare comes out to Middle Grove with a foal by her side Missy is quick to stick close and offers to babysit. She looks longingly at any newborn across the fields. Each year we mention, someday we really aught to let Missy become a mother.. well next year that just might happen. Karin brought her in on Friday for the Saturday and Sunday trail rides and Missy was heavily in season. This morning since I was heading to the vet anyway to have Marika and Wicktoria sonagrammed, Missy was covered by Evan then loaded into the trailer. I decided she would have this one chance to conceive. We did NOT breed her for us, we always considered Missy kind of ugly with her big head and short legs but if she does have a foal, I'm sure she will think that is the most beautiful baby ever.

We really are doing this for the mare! She is trained to bow and lay down on command. She is beginner safe and smooth. SO If she was ready to ovulate we would just haul her out to Middle Grove with the other two mares. We won't have her pregnancy checked but next year if she seems to be getting really fat we will rejoice for Missy to have her own baby. The other two mares that were heading to Dr. Hoerr's were Marika and Wicktoria.  Marika was the mare that had the emergency C section in 2016. She was given the ok to breed back in the fall but just to be safe we decided to wait until this year. We are very pleased to announce Marika IS in foal by Evan due April 3rd, 2018.

We chose Evan, first of all the foal will be a little smaller and just look at the FULL sister at age 2. She is GORGEOUS!

Tory was next and she too was in foal by Valiant but...Dr. Hoerr found she was carrying twins. She had ovulated both ovaries, there was an embryonic vesicle in the left and right horn both of them the same size. Dr. Hoerr was able to pinch off the one in the right horn.

We will need to have her rechecked in a couple months to make sure she doesn't absorb the other. Bethany got her blood drawn for her coggins. When it came time for Missy's turn we found she had ovulated probably just an hour or two after her cover. From Dr. Hoerr's office in Morton, IL I drove right to Middle Grove and by the time I was back to the Hanna City farm the truck had on another 100 miles.
This afternoon Lily was teased and she said "NO" very emphatically. There is never any question as to if she is in or out. She screams and strikes out at the stallion when she is not in season. All the paper work was finished today to registered the first 7 foals born here plus transfer Wicktoria's from FHANA to FHH and register Bethany. The DNA was ordered on all the purebreds so our bill came to $375.00. This is a necessary expense but each year I am a little shocked at how much it costs. We still have 9 more foals to register (if they are all born healthy and live) plus Roxanne and Rosaleigh's registration need to be transferred from FPZV to FHH and DNA done on them.
This evening Mark and I worked on the second driveway. We are trying to encourage the water to drain to the side and down into the ditch instead of washing out all of our gravel with each rain.