Zalena

Now that Zalena is 20 years old she needs extra calories. She was brought in from Middle Grove for the winter and is thriving here. The picture below was taken right after we bought her in 2011.

She is getting 2 and sometimes 3 feedings a day of equine senior.  Zalena has been an amazing mare for us. We bought her in 2011 as her previous owner was not able to get her pregnant. We tried to breed her in 2012 but could not get her to settle. Dr. Hoerr came out to collect Valiant for a customer so we had him check Zalena at that time as she was in season too. It turned out she was ready to ovulate but her cervix was just too tight. As the collection for Valiant was way more than needed for the other mare we just went ahead and used some of that semen and had Dr. Hoerr AI her too and it worked. She not only got pregnant but we had a beautiful colt from her April 15th, 2014.

He was quite the character and loved chasing the girls.

We decided to breed her AI again in 2014 but this time we had someone wanting semen from Evan. It turned out both Zalena and Eliza were in season and both ready to be bred so Evan was collected and both mares AI'd and both conceived.  Zalena had a gorgeous filly by Evan May 7th, 2015

This filly had Evan's huge movement, we took the video below before she left for her new home.

We decided to try natural cover with her so used Valiant for the next foal and sure enough she got pregnant on the first cover and delivered another beautiful filly on April 10th, 2016

 We named that filly Adara. 

We thought we would be keeping Adara to someday replace Zalena but someone made me an offer we couldn't refuse so decided to breed Zalena back to Valiant in hopes of getting another filly. Except we had two outside mares here at that time and both of those customers wanted us to use Valiant the day she came in season. We used Evan instead but then both of those mares went out of season 2 days later so we thought, "it is the beginning of her season, it is usually right before the mare ovulates that she gets pregnant" so used Valiant, then 2 days later used Valiant again. Zalena delivered a colt April 20th, 2017 and we just assumed this colt was by Valiant.

We sold the colt sent in hair for the dna and registration and it came back that EVAN was the sire!  The owner was fine with the change of sire so all was good. This colt was amazing!

We still wanted to keep a filly out of Zalena by Valiant so bred her to Valiant and wouldn't you know she had another colt May 25th, 2018.

We decided at that point we may as well give up on our hopes of a filly to keep. I am getting older and wanting to slow down so don't need to be raising a foal. We bred her to Evan in 2018 and she had a gorgeous filly May 11th, 2019.

Zalena was retired from our riding program last year but she still likes to be a mom. She was bred back to Evan and is due May 15th, 2020. We don't mind giving her the extra attention she deserves. She has been a wonderful mare for us and throws quality foals by either stallion. She is a sweet mare and even at 20 years old looks and feels good.
It was warm this morning for our walk and still warm doing the outside chores. This afternoon a big pot of creamy chicken and wild rice soup was made for our supper and some to freeze, the laundry was done and the kitchen cleaned back up. I went out to feed Zalena her 2nd feeding in just a sweat shirt and came right back in for my winter coat. The thermometer dropped 20 degrees while I was in cooking. The wind is blowing hard. Mark made a fire in the wood burner  and the house feels warm.  Mom and I are leaving in the morning for Branson. Spark and Rhonda will be there and have guest tickets to see the lights at Silver Dollar City. Mom and I are also planning on seeing the Nativity at the Sight and Sound Theater while we are there. We are planning on coming home on Friday so this is just a short trip. Mark is staying home to take care of the animals.
NOTE:  THERE IS NO BEREAN TOMORROW!