Driving the Distance

Mark and I pulled away from the house at 6 a.m. driving first up to the barn to make sure everything was okay before heading to the interstate. We drove over 900 miles today in 13 hours then lost an hour going east. Going through Illinois Indiana and Ohio we spent more on tolls than we did on gas driving our Prius  pretty sad. Some nice pictures came in from  Pat who brought her  whisper mare to Evan. Whisper had a gorgeous Colt born on Memorial Day she is calling  Patriot. Will post the pictures later as I didn't bring a computer on this trip. We stopped at a Baymont Inn located in Bartonsville for the night. The last 10 miles were pretty stressful. The fog here in the Pocono mountains was as thick as pea soup. We were crawling along going 35 miles an hour with our flashers on following a long line of other drivers doing the same thing.
 Thankfully tomorrow  will be an easy 3 hour drive.

50 Years!

Mark and I will be leaving for Connecticut early tomorrow morning. It is his 50th High School reunion. That meant there was much to arrange today for the next 4 days.  Of course the first problem was what to do with Zalena's colt. He was nursing well today but still has diarrhea. The best option was to take him to Hoerr vet clinic and that's what we ended up doing.
Dr. Hoerr was scheduled to arrive this morning but ended up with an emergency and didn't make it until after 1:00 pm.  Karin arrived around 10:00 am. We teased and covered Sheena then took her over to the cabin field as this was her 3rd cover. She has now been in for 6 days and will probably be out tomorrow. Rosaleigh was also teased but she said no. We only got 1 cover on her and that was on her foal heat. There isn't a good chance she settled but we will see.  We had Lily, her colt, Ayanna, her colt, Jewel, her filly and of course Zalena and her colt in the air conditioned stall barn while waiting for Dr. Hoerr. The colt was the first on the list and wouldn't you know he was up and even threw in a buck.

 He loves people, they give good scratches! He will follow us around like a puppy dog.  Dr. Hoerr checked him over and was pleased with his progress but just then he let out a big long squirt of very runny diarrhea.  Dr. Hoerr agreed since I wasn't going to be here it would be best to take him to his place.  

Next on the list was to ultrasound Jewel. She had her foal heat but we wanted to see where she was with this second. She had a 40 mm follicle and will need to be covered on Friday and if she still shows again Saturday night or Sunday morning.  Next he drew blood from Lily's colt for his coggins test and then Jewel's filly for her coggins test. Both foals were excellent barely flinching from the needle stick.  Lily was next, I knew it was probably too soon to ultrasound her but Dr. Hoerr found a 10 day embryonic vesicle so we will mark her pregnant.  Ayanna was the 3rd mare to be sonagrammed and she was also pregnant. Lacy, Mercedes mare, was sonagrammed last. She had an old CL, Dr. Hoerr was sure she had ovulated at least 2 weeks ago. She had no big follicles so Dr. Hoerr gave her a shot of prostoglandin  she should start maturing a follicle with that and she should be ready to breed in 5-6 days.  
As soon as Dr. Hoerr finished with the mares he helped us load up Zalena and her colt for the trip to Morton. As we were driving a text came in from a lady bringing a mare in to breed to Valiant that the mare was cycling and could she bring her today. She could have her here in an hour. We dropped off Zalena and her colt then beat her to the farm and she arrived a few minutes later. The mare did not show, but Mike will tease her in the morning. Karin and I loaded up Lily, Ayanna and the 2 colts and dropped them off at Middle Grove. They were glad to be back and took off running up the hill. No pictures it was too wet to drive in, we had 3 inches of rain during the night and this morning.  When I got home the stalls were cleaned and prepared for tomorrow morning. Mike is going to bring Rosaleigh and her filly inside in the air conditioned stalls in the morning as tomorrow it is predicted to be in the 90s and sunshine.  Rhoda is coming to check on them and Emma. Karin will be here Friday and Saturday. Emily sent a text that they may be bringing Jury over Friday to breed to Valiant. That meant a bale needed to be moved into the breeding shed which Mark did while I moved Foxy and Star with their foals back there opening up Lily's paddock. That will be 3 outside mares here.  Both stallions are going to be busy.  

Zalena's Colt Update

Zalena's colt was feeling better during the night and this morning. Both Mark and I checked on him on the monitor during the night and each time he was up and nursing.  However around 10:30 am he had was not as active and was laying down and just seemed crampy. He was given 1 cc of banimine then Ruth came over and helped me give him 1500ccs of IV. That helped and he was pretty much normal most of the day. I was hoping to remove the IV tonight except he is still having some diarrhea and as long as he is I can't take it out.  This evening Mark helped me give him another 1500 ccs. He is much stronger and it wasn't as easy to keep him calm while giving them. That is really good news for us even though it made it hard for Mark to hold him. Dr. Hoerr is scheduled to come tomorrow so we will have him check him out and hopefully pull the IV.
Marilyn the lady we bought the farm from came for a visit today all the way from Arizona. She admired the trees she and her husband planted so many years ago that are now huge. We took the golf cart over to mom's for a visit there too.  It was good to see her again. Marilyn and her daughter raised Arabians on this farm and she is glad to see there are still horses here today.
Rosaleigh and her filly were able to spend the entire day outside. The temperature was not near as bad as yesterday and we had clouds.

Very HOT

The high today was predicted to hit 98 degrees. I'm not sure if it did or not but if felt like WELL over a hundred. Karin came early to start the trail rides and still we needed to hose the horses of before the trail ride and after. Below Braelyn and Kensley are hosing off Cookie.

Karin sent Sarah Reinhard our with the first group taking the 4 walkers, Sally, Bunni, Cookie and Star. The riders were Sarah and Taegan riding Sally, Anna and Addyson riding Bunni, Braelyn riding Cookie and Shaeya riding Star.

While they were out the next group of mares were brought in to tack up which was Lily, Ayanna, Jewel and Soul. All the mares and their foals did great.  Left to right front row is Lily's colt, Jewel's filly, Ayanna's colt and Soul's colt. In the second row are Austin riding Lily, Tyler riding Ayanna, Samantha riding Jewel and Karin riding Soul.

The foals are getting wonderful training with this method. They are learning to stay with the group, cross creeks, and climb hills. Once the this ride was over Karin and Shaeya  took Bunni and Sally swimming across the lake.

It was just too hot for the kids to play on the playground so Sarah, Nolan, Anna and Tauyna took Zion, Braelyn, Taegan, Kensley, Addyson and Abe to State Farm Park and spent the day in the water there until a storm rolled through and shut the park down. They made it back here in time for dinner. Mark grilled hamburgers and hotdogs at mom's we were joined by Anna's parents and brother, Taunya's dad, Joan, Sarah and Hannah. After supper the kids played in mom's basement where it was nice and cool while the adults visited. Who would have thought we would not have a campfire on Memorial Day!  Believe it or not it was EVEN TOO HOT for VOLLEYBALL! All the mares with foals were turned out into the pond pasture. That way when they wanted to cool down they could jump in the pond. Below Ayanna and Jewel are taking a turn cooling off.

I saw other mares taking turns but didn't have the camera with me. The Appaloosa mare here for breeding was hosed down along with the stallions. Sheena was covered by Valiant today and Rosaleigh was covered by Evan.  The heat didn't seem to bother the stallions.  I'm very thankful for that airconditioned barn. Mark had it set at 78 degrees, We have the 2 mares with new foals inside out of the heat and sunshine. Heat kills those new black babies.  

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

Rosaleigh's Filly SOLD

Last night I noticed Zalena's colt had diarrhea so went right out to check on him this morning. Young foals just can crash very quickly.  He was no better so Dr. Hoerr was sent a text that I would either bring him to his clinic or would he come here. He came here and put in an IV then gave me 4 more liters of fluid to give if needed. Tauyna was here at the house for a cup of coffee when I got back inside. Abe was playing with Emma.

 I left for church and when we got out it was 94 degrees outside. Mark had the air conditioner going in the barn but didn't get it going soon enough. The 2 mares and foals inside were hot but it was hotter outside. I used cold wet rags to cool them down.  It didn't take too long for the air conditioner to catch up and by this evening it is a cool 77 degrees inside.  Rhoda and Lee's baby shower was scheduled for 4:30 pm at the playground but at 3:30 a storm came through with lightning, thunder and rain. It blew over by 4:00 pm and actually helped cool the air down just in time for the shower. Below are a few pictures of the baby shower. Sarah, Taunya, Stephanie and Anna put this on for them.

 Anna made that cute fruit bowl. 

 The food was all delicious. 

 The shower was well attended.  Of course with our family if food is going to be served of course we will attend. 

 The kids were having fun playing on the volley ball court. 

The food was taken into the house and Abe showed us how he can now walk. 

 I tried to get a video but he got all shy and wouldn't walk for that.  It was so hot that most if not all of the kids migrated down to the lake. 

Some of us sat up on mom's balcony watching them swim. Below is Abe with his other grandpa, grandpa Rumbold.

The volley ball games started at 6:00 pm. We couldn't believe they could play in this hot weather but play they did, game after game.

After swimming the kids came back up to play under the trees. 

 Kensley loves her puppy Hux and was busy carrying him around to keep him off the volley ball court. 

Marked helped give the fluids to Zalena's colt right after church then Karin helped with the evening ones. He will not have any more tonight but we have some for tomorrow if needed. Sure hope he starts feeling better soon.  This evening the deposit came for Rosaleigh's filly by Evan.

She is now marked sold on the website. She is such a beautiful filly and going to someone who has purchased 2 others from us. They have been so happy with how their horses and want another. This is the problem with owning a Friesian. They are addictive and one just isn't enough.
A very nice review came in with a 5 star rating. Andres writes: Since I started searching for my Friesian horse, i met a few breeders but no one showed their great service as compared to Horsemeister...they have been very informative and is clear how much they love their horses and what they do. My family and I can't wait to welcome our Galàn Azabache in September!

Saturday Water Fun

Karin came early as I was cleaning a paddock. She and Kayla were going to take Lily, her colt, Jewel and her filly out on the trails before it became too hot.

Anna brought the girls over swimming.

They all wanted to go out on the next ride, but before they went Karin took Ayanna and her colt into the lake to cool off. 

The second trail ride Sarah Reinhard rode Sally double with Taegan, Braelyn rode Cookie all by herself, Anna rode Bunni double with Kensley, Karin rode Ayanna and her colt followed. 

 Kensley decided to stop riding Bunni and ride the golf cart, that was much smoother. She found a dandylion all ready to blow while we were waiting for the horses. 

After the ride we all went swimming again. All of this fit in with a mare coming in for breeding, trying to cover her, cleaning stalls, taking the IV out of Rosaleigh's filly, teasing Sheena and when she showed covering her, moving Dakota into the breeding shed and when she would not go inside to get out of the sun, hosing her down, moving Madeira and her filly in with the group in the middle paddock, hosing the stallions down to cool them off and losing a check.  Mercede's the owner of the mare that came in today gave me the stud fee check which I placed in my pocket but then I went on two trail rides and changed and swam and lost the check. Oh well if it doesn't show up by the time Lacy is ready to go home we will ask for another.  It was so hot the mares were taking turns cooling off in the pond. Below it was Sheena's turn. 

She knows how to be comfortable when the thermometer is reading over 90 degrees. She flopped down and stayed there for a bit. 

We met at the playground for potluck then had a campfire so we could make somemores for dessert. Phil took the girls fishing.

Braelyn pulled in a big bass.

 It wasn't too long before Taegan caught one too.

 Gertie and I ran to Dollar General for icecream as it was just so hot this evening and we all enjoyed a bowl of icecream sitting around the fire. To see the rest of the pictures taken from today click HERE.  Taunya's plane came in a little early from Dallas. They are now situated in the apartment for the night and I'm heading to bed too. A LONG day but really packed full of fun.