Early Trip to Middle Grove

I took the big trailer out to Middle Grove this morning to pick up Jewel, her colt, Sheena and her colt. Diane met me out there with the 4 wheeler as she and Mike spent the night at the cabin. We drove first to the top of the hill but no horses. Taking the 4 wheeler along the ridge we drove we still couldn't see the herd looking down from either side. We finally found them at the big lake edge where they had gone as a group to get a drink.  It was a long trip back holding 2 lead ropes while Diane drove slowly. Sky followed us almost the entire way not happy at all that we were taking her mom and her brother away. As a 2 year old she is HUGE. She easily looks like a full grown mare. When we finally got down the big hill and out of sight of the rest of the horses she turned around and galloped back up.  Too bad I hadn't taken the camera, she is very photogenic. It was too hard to have the camera and bring 4 horses. They all loaded up perfectly, just walking right in. What a blessing it is to have foals that follow their mom's and are use to stepping into trailers.  When I got back I was followed in by a car bringing some guests of Karin's for a trail ride.  Ellie and Kayla joined this group. Horses used were Sangria, Hadassah, Tori, Missy and Cookie.  Poor Braelyn got sick yesterday and wasn't able to go on their trip with the Messner's. Phil stayed home with her but today he got called out on a service call. As Braelyn was feeling better he brought her over to stay with me while he ran the call. She got to come on the trail ride on the golf cart. We have had such dry weather the creek is way down. Below Braelyn is rescuing minnows, taking them out of the small puddle and putting them in the creek while we were waiting for the horses.

Below Karin is giving them all instructions on how to leave the reins loose as the horse makes her way down into the creek.

As soon as Philip got back I ran to Sam's to buy food for our dinner tonight and tomorrow night. The 2 horse trailer was backed into the indoor arena, cleaned out and made ready for Star and her filly's trip to their new home.  They were loaded just before Nolan arrived right at 5:00 pm. I was again pleased that Star's filly didn't even hesitate but walked right into the trailer.  The golf cart was used to go on a long adventure with the grand children.  We went for what they thought was miles on the trails and ended up on Lancaster. We saw lots of interesting things which even included a great big dead snake on the road.  Jace wanted me to bring it home and skin it so it would match the other snake skin hanging from the curtain rod. Rhoda came to give rides on Cookie to Ben and Taunya's 4 children but I was busy making supper so didn't get a single picture. All 4 did very well. Since they were just finishing up supper was brought up to the apartment and we all ate in there. The boys all got bubble baths when we were done. Rhoda decided the snake skin in the house just wasn't appropriate but it was already too late to run it back over to Joan's house. I'll have to do that later as it belongs to the kids that found it in the first place. Monica found a couple pictures of Indy's full sister from Canada and shared them with me.  She was born the same year as Valiant and we took her and her mom Ylse to the Northern IL Horse Fest where these foals were the star of the show.  Her owner writes she is close to 17 hands and we believe it as Indy is also close to that height.

Raven sure threw gorgeous foals that grew up to be amazing mares. The last item to be reported is now there are only TWO puppies left. Fred out of Rizzy's litter and Dash out of Ruby's litter. 

Feel free to visit our website if you would like more information on either of these puppies. www.horsemeister.com