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.