A NEW Rider for the Fair?

Well another of the Horsemeister riders announced they are expecting, meaning we may be short a rider. Instead of asking someone else, I grabbed that spot, hey it's my only chance to show. I decided to fight Karin for Rosalie. After all, she is so big she makes my rear end look small and I am not a small woman. We had a ball today practicing.

Rosalie will be 5 years old in 20 days and Rhoda did such a wonderful job of training her I felt safe and secure. Now I just have to find a big flowing ball gown with lots of sparkles on it in my size. There is more to this story for just a story it is. The truth is in this post so if still interested keep reading.
Mom, Joan, Diane, Ruth and I had a good walk this morning, discussing the feedback from the state of the union speech which President Trump gave last night. He surprised us all how presidential he looked and acted. The feedback though made it sound like he did terrible.
After the walk I drove to the Berean office where Robin, Cindy and I worked on Bibles. We actually had a frustrating morning. We couldn't get into the program to start and had to find a way into it through the back door.  Cindy's keyboard wouldn't work at all, we ended up taking the keyboard off the 3rd computer and installing it on hers. Then when we got one sheet of labels ready to print the computer wouldn't communicate with the printer. They were acting like Republicans and Democrats, just wouldn't even talk to each other! All three of us were trying everything we could think of to get this job done, everything that is except prayer. When I finally did what I should have done first, start praying... Robin got the idea to turn the printer off and back on. This time it worked! We had a big order to get out today and had to work overtime but got the job done.

On the way home I stopped at Dollar Tree to pick up my big order of presents and prizes for the Illinois Horse Fair. We need fun presents and awful presents and believe it or not finding the awful presents is presenting us problems. Karin found some gooey frogs and salamanders at the Dollar Tree in Galesburg but not enough. 

This afternoon I started cooking a whole chicken to make a big pot of creamy chicken and wild rice soup tomorrow. It is a 2 day process. The chicken has to boil all afternoon, then put outside to cool down. Once it is cool enough to touch the broth is poured into a colander over another pan to catch the meat and bones.  The skin and fat are fed to Emma while the broth and meat is put in the fridge for tomorrow. The bones are thrown away. Tomorrow the vegetables and wild rice are added and simmered a few hours. I use onion, celery, mushrooms, and carrots.  The last ingredient is cream cheese.
When Karin arrived after work I put her to work helping move round bales. We put a new bale in the short shelter for Zalena, Oksana and Darla and the middle paddock got a new round bale. Karin pulled out Evan first and gave him a few tests of which one was to walk by Valiant without reacting. Well Evan did react but not terribly, Valiant was furious but that was to be expected. Evan is listening to Karin so we were pleased. Next out was Ayanna and Rosalie. Karin worked with Rosalie first.

I was watching and almost envious and finally asked pleadingly, "Please let me ride Rosalie" Karin grudgingly got off and gave me a turn.
NOW for the REST of the STORY:  It was a joke.  Yes Rebekah Davidovics is expecting but she really is still going to ride. For the record:  I am not showing and never planned on showing and NO I don't need a ball gown so stop panicking I'm not going to ruin the play.  I have no desire to show but it sure was fun riding Rosalie.
Ayanna was in rare form today. She really didn't want to work and kept swishing her tail in annoyance when Karin would ask her to move sideways. She finally relaxed and finished well.

We picked mom up for church at Spark and Rhonda's tonight. They were hosting cousin Mike Meister and his brand new fiancee Joyce Kaiser. We are thrilled for Mike and Joyce and wish them God's blessings on their marriage.
David Obergfel had the message tonight and it just happened to be his birthday.

It's COLD Pull Out the Gloves

Our furnace set back last night and by morning it was cold in the house but it was even colder outside with the thermostat reading 12 degrees. For some reason when I left for the walk I didn't think gloves were needed, but they were. We had such mild weather over the weekend that the gloves had all been put away.
Checking the horses this morning just one paddock will need hay but that can be put off until tomorrow afternoon.  I didn't need to leave the walk early this morning, one reason is that Bill Schick picked up the Berean mail yesterday and dropped it off at that office yesterday, and the other reason is Kathy Obergfel was bringing the Berean lunch today. That meant I could leave 15 minutes later. We had over 600 pieces of mail at that office waiting for us and thankfully had a lot of great volunteers come to help process all of that mail. If you would like to read about our day there click HERE.
We had to work into the afternoon to get everything done. On the way home I had to stop at Aldi for groceries and when I got home it took a while to carry everything in and put it away before heading out to the barn to finish cleaning the stalls. I had left them a mess since Friday and Saturday when the stalls were needed for the vet and farrier. Karin arrived after she got off work and rode Galena, Indy, Oksana and Zalena. She was just thrilled with Galena. Galena was relaxed and stretching down into the bit.

 She is finally rounding down correctly with the rear end doing the driving. 

 The next mare worked with was Indy. Karin was pretty thrilled with her too. Indy is now easily able to have a balanced canter and hold it for as long as Karin asks her to hold it. Last year she was just learning to canter and would fall in terribly. 

She is such a joy to ride. 

 Once Indy and Galena were taken out to the paddock Oksana and Zalena were brought inside. Oksana was a little rough in the beginning cantering to the right but once she relaxed both canter leads were smooth and balanced.  

Amazing to think how far this mare has come. She is just 5 years old. 

The last mare worked was Zalena.

Karin's work with Zalena is to teach her to be relaxed. She is 18 years old and thinks as soon as someone is riding her they want to canter so that's what she tries to do. Karin did a lot of bending using her soothing voice while she gave her lots of praises. It really is wonderful to see each mare's progress.  I got the arena watered and froze while doing that. More wood was brought in and the wood burner packed as full as I could get it. By the time Mark got home it was burning brightly heating up the place. Phil brought over the girls for the evening as he had a service call and Anna was at volley ball. He got back way to soon, we weren't done playing with them. No pictures because we were having way to much fun. Grandchildren are the best!

A Good Name

Winter is back, it actually wasn't too cold this morning but instead of the temperature rising during the day it dropped. By afternoon the house was down to 62 degrees which meant the wood brought in and the wood burner started. I drove to Bridlewood to pick up two more of the release forms this morning then spent the afternoon on book work.
Karin arrived after work to start training. She was back in the indoor arena, the outdoor is frozen again. The first horse worked was Evan. He is getting the routine down well.

Once he was put away we brought in Jenis, Ayanna and Rosalie. Below she is working with Jenis. 

 Notice the loose rein in the picture below. Karin has been working with Jenis to rear on demand using only leg and voice cues. 

 The next mare worked was Ayanna. She was kind of crabby today but has such huge movement she is a blast to ride. 

 Rhoda trained Ayanna to bow with just the tap of her leg. 

 The last mare worked today was Rosalie. She is such a big mare and is going to turn 5 years old in 3 weeks. Amazing to think she has more growing to do, she is already 17 hands. 

Mark came home from work with a battery for the tractor. How he got the battery was amazing. He carried in the old tractor battery to O'Reilly Auto when a man saw him pull up in his Meister Heating car. He jumped out of his truck to help Mark get the old battery on to the test stand since we weren't sure if  the old battery was actually bad.  Turns out this man works with someone who Mark had helped out with a heating problem 2 or 3 years ago. He evidently talked enough about Meister's helping that the man from O'Reilly recognized the Meister name.   Because no replacement battery was available at that store, this knowledgeable man arranged to have Mark pickup a reconditioned 900 CCA battery at a small fraction of the cost of the cost of a new one at another store in Washington, IL.  It worked great....what a blessing to have that tractor working. 

Emma vs Elisabet

Beth sent us a text this morning that her mother-in-law, Nancy died peacefully at 3:00 am. We are happy for Nancy, to think she is healed, no more confusion. It is still hard to say good-by to a dearly loved wife, mother and grandmother. Our prayers and sympathy reach out to Howard and the rest of the Herman family.
That text shocked a few of our family members. Rachel didn't know that Nancy Herman was so sick and when she saw the text thought it was our Nancy and her heart dropped.
Dan was asked last week to pick up our Nancy for me on Sunday and bring her to church. He had such a busy weekend that he wrote it on his calendar Saturday to call to arrange pickup for Nancy on Sunday, then again on his calendar on Sunday to pick up Nancy. With Nancy on his mind when he got the text around 7:30 am it shocked him to the core. He exclaimed loudly, "WHAT!" Susan asked, "what's wrong?" After reading the text again realized Beth must be talking about Nancy Herman. What a way to start Sunday!
Mark, mom and I left for church just before 9:00 am. Ruth and Fedi were serving lunch this week. Joan and all of her children AND grandchildren (at least those that live in the area) were also there to help. Lunch went great, they had plenty of help and plenty of food. Willis had the morning service and Tim Roecker had the afternoon.
Ruth took mom and Nancy home so Mark and I could stop at Kroger on Sterling to pick up some dessert for our supper tonight. We met Dan and Susan there. They were there to help someone put in an application for work. This lady works at the Madison Park Kroger and now that they are shutting down that store she was hopeful to find work at this Kroger.
When we got home mom and Nancy still weren't back, they had stopped to see Jessica's new house on their way home.
Karin arrived to start tacking up mares for the trail ride today. We had another beautiful day, sunny and 45 degrees. I was able to snap just a few pictures before mom arrived with Nancy. Below Tyler is tacking up Indy, his mount while Anna waits for Samantha to bring her tack over. I had all the mares groomed up on Friday for Dr. Hoerr and again on Saturday for the farrier and yet when we pull them out it was obvious they had all rolled in the mud again.

 Karin is leading in Galena, her mount for this ride. 

 Tyler and Samantha are warming up Indy and Anna while Studley waits.

 As soon as Karin had Galena tacked up they went first to the outdoor arena to work with their horses before the trail ride.

 Mom arrived right about then so I snapped one more picture.

 I took the golf cart over to mom's house to pick up Nancy's pills. It wasn't warm enough for Nancy to go out to the barn as she only had on church clothes. She helped me set the table for our company tonight. David, Stephanie, Israel and Elisabet joined us for dinner.

After dinner we let Emma clean up the left overs. Israel loves Emma and Elisabet was fascinated with this big dog.

Elisabet wanted to play with that big dog pillow but Emma was laying on it and wouldn't move. It was funny to watch Elisabet try to talk Emma into giving her the pillow.

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures from this evening click HERE. 

I took Nancy home to Morton about 7:00 pm. She was tired but had such a good time 'helping'. Nancy loves to help and cheerfully does what ever we ask her to do. It was a good day. 

Fifty's IN January

Mark and I started hearing traffic around 6:00 am all heading up to the apartment. When Karin called around 7:30 am I asked her what was going on at Jessica's apartment? It was the young group snow boarding trip. The cousins must have been meeting at Jessica's to drive together.  Shaeya arrived at 8:30 am, tried on the dress and now it is finished. When Karin arrived we went right out to Evan's paddock to start working on Shaeya and Evan's routine for the IL Horse Fair.

 Below are a few of the more dramatic shots.

To see the rest of the pictures of Evan and Shaeya today click HERE. 

Shaeya reached a good stopping point just about the time the farrier arrived so Evan was taken into the barn to be first to get his hooves trimmed.

 Below our farrier Chuck Milburn is trimming his back hoof. 

  Karin has a trail ride scheduled for tomorrow afternoon so when Kayla arrived these three, Shaeya, Kayla and Karin went to work cleaning tack. They had 3 saddle racks and 8 saddles to clean. 

 As soon as Evan was finished with his trimming, Chuck went in to trim Envy's hooves. 

 We were thrilled with how well she stood for her first hoof trimming. It really pays that we spend time picking up the hooves of these foals. 

 We had a lady ask for some conformation shots of Envy, before we took her back out to the paddock Shaeya held her for a few pictures which were emailed off this afternoon. 

 Envy also got her 5 way shot today. 

 The other horses that got their shots were Evan, Anna, Ayanna, Galena, Indy, Jenis, Oksana, Rosalie and Zalena.  Below Chuck is just about ready to work on Ayanna's hooves. We had the horses all lined up for him. He trimmed Evan's, Envy's, Galena's, Anna's, Ayanna's and Jenis' hooves this morning. 

 Once the horses had their shots and their hooves were trimmed, Shaeya, Karin and Kayla took the mares on a walk trail ride around the fields. The creeks still have too much ice on them and the melting water on top just makes them too dangerous to cross. Below Shaeya is on Indy getting ready to start the ride. 

 Below Kayla is riding Zalena getting ready to head out.

 Karin rode big Rosalie. I was holding Ayanna for Chuck when they left so didn't get any pictures of the ride. Below Ayanna is not happy as the other mares leave the arena. 

After all that work, we were glad to go in for some lunch and a small break before heading out to help Joan, her children and grandchildren split and stack wood. Below Berlica is running the splitter, Joan is putting the logs in place for splitting and Mackenson is waiting for the split logs to hand them off to the next child in line. 

When the wood shed had a good amount stacked, the chain switched over to the trailer. 

 Below Faith is showing me the skeletons they found on the wood shed roof. This is a cat AND a bird skeleton. Maybe the cat swallowed the bird live and the bird pecked it's way through the cat's stomach until the cat and the bird died. 

 Below Mark is taking the trailer load of wood over to Joan's house.

Joan came back to split more wood but the tractor wouldn't start. Mark put the charger on the tractor, hopefully it will start in the morning. Mark needed my help with fixing a board that got broken in the weanling paddock. He didn't really need much help, most of what he wanted help with was to make sure the weanlings would leave him alone. They had him completely surrounded at one point and were nibbling on his hair and his sweatshirt. The 3 fillies are EasterBonnet, EllaSkye and Envy. Jenis is the mare behind them.