Coke-a-Cola

Right after the walk, Karin and I took the truck and trailer to the Giant Goose Ranch in Canton, IL to pick up Coke-a-Cola, a 12 year old registered Appaloosa mare that is coming here to be bred to Valiant. That isn't the only reason why she is coming though. This mare was born on a farm and never trained. The Goose Ranch was given the mare so the Herman grandkids have been taming her and were able to halter her. Karin went yesterday and worked with her and felt that she would be able to get the mare in the trailer today. So we arrived at 9:30 am, Karin walked the mare up to the trailer, Coke, smelled the trailer then stepped in. We were all impressed. She was taken out of the trailer and put right into the round pen for training. Below are a few pictures of her.

 She is a beautiful example of a blanket Appy and actually has very good bloodlines. 

 As she is black based, hopefully a foal out of her by Valiant will end up black with a blanket. 

Karin worked with her almost an hour. The mare didn't give in as much as Karin had hoped but they ended the session on a good note. She was taken right over to Evan and teased but she is not in.
Noah, Shaeya and Natalie came to the farm with us to learn how to round pen but because Coke wasn't ready for a trainee to train her, Karin had them work with the stallions. Valiant was taken out first. Noah was the first in the round pen.

 Below is Shaeya's turn to work with Valiant. She asked him to move and he did. 

next she asked him to bow and lay down. 

Natalie was last to work with Valiant. 

As soon as all three of them felt comfortable that Valiant would do what they wanted him to, Karin took Valiant back and brought out Evan. Not to brag or anything but what great horses. Noah asked him to move, then lay down, let him roll then asked him to sit.

 Shaeya also asked him to canter both directions but this time after she asked him to lay down she told him to stay and was able to scratch and pet him while he waited for the next command. 

 She asked  him to hold the sit and he did. 

 Natalie also asked him to canter both directions, lay down, stay and then sit. 

Evan was put away and then the mares were taken out for teasing. Coke was first, she was not in, Zalena was next and she is now out. I got her covered yesterday so the timing should have been perfect. Dakota is still not showing, she has been here for 11 days so hopefully will come into season soon. Karin tacked up Zalena, Bunni, Missy and Lola for the trail ride the kids were hoping for. Shaeya rode Zalena, Natalie rode Bunni, Noah rode Missy and Karin rode Lola. This was the first time Lola has been ridden on the trails since she had Easter Bonnet. We were well pleased with her behavior and how well Easter Bonnet followed on these trails easily crossing the creeks and climbing the hills.

This filly kept up and caused no problem at all. The kids had a wonderful ride. After the horses were hosed down, fly sprayed and put back in the paddocks they came in for lunch. After lunch Karin took them over to mom's to go swimming.
Mark got home and we were discussing about scraping the 3rd and 4th paddock when Diane sent a text asking if we would give her a ride to church. Both Mark and I were shocked, with the holiday yesterday we completely forgot it was Wednesday. We had to rush to get ready for church but actually got over to mom's a minute early. David Obergfel had the message. So good to be there. Mark and I went to Wendy's for supper afterwards and both got a half taco salad. It was delicious, either that or we were really hungry.