The Long Hike

I had someone asking for a video of Hadassah's filly this morning so right after the walk Addyson and I took Hadassah and her filly to the round pen. It was already mid 80s, hot and humid.

With Addyson and Abe's help below is the video we sent the prospective buyer.

After they were put away Braelyn and I left for Middle Grove around 10:00 am to take pictures of the foals. When we arrived we took some time to put on hats and spray ourselves for bugs, especially ticks and deer flies.

There were no horses in sight so started hiking, taking the trail that leads to where the herd spends the heat of the day, deep in the woods by a couple of ponds and a stream. We call that the Swampy Area but it really isn't a swamp. When we arrived there were still no horses in sight. We started hiking straight east until we ran into the fenceline then turned and went straight north up to the top of the property. We almost stepped on this snake laying across the trail.

Not too much later we heard a big splash and a crash like something jumped out of the water, I told Braelyn it was either a deer or a mountian lion.  She stuck pretty close after that. About that time I started smelling something dead. Braelyn found the deer leg.

Looks like the coyotes got this deer, OR maybe the black bear that is traveling through Illinois OR maybe the mountian lion (although we have never seen a mountian lion here). There are beautiful wild flowers at Middle Grove including thistles.

This was picked then destroyed.

After an hour of hiking we were pretty thrilled when we finally saw some of the horses off in the distance.The camera was zoomed all the way in to get the picture below.

All of the horses look great and all were glad to see us.

 Above is Galena and below is Irish.

 The horses were a little spooked with Braelyn's hat.

 Isla was not spooked at all. She came right down to see what that could be on Braelyn's head.

Braelyn leaned down so she could smell it but Isla put it in her mouth.

 And then started shaking the hat. Zalena is behind Isla, check out her reaction in the next few pictures.

 We laughed when Isla dropped the hat, even Galena was concerned.

Below is Irish, the grass was so deep we couldn't see her filly.

 Oksana came crashing through the grass and we didn't see her foal either.

 Her colt came running up behind her.

 Irish's filly came out of the grass too.

 That is Lily in front of her colt left and right is Oksana's colt and Oksana in the picture below. 

 Oksana's colt came back to check out Braelyn's hat.

 Irish's filly is just darling.

 Soul's filly has the mega hair mohawk!

 Below is Oksana's colt.

 Lola's filly loves people and even though Braelyn was wearing a hat came over for some scratches.

 Lily's colt did too. He looks pretty funny with that faded foal coat and all that pitch black hair under it.

 Below is Isla at 2 years of age she is as tall or taller than Zalena.

 Zalena is pictured below.

 They both came up for attention. Zalena is left, Isla is right.

 Rosalie is pictured below.

 Rosalie is looking fat and happy. 

We were so very hot by the time we finished checking out all the horses that we were craving ice cream and water.  Of course when one goes to Middle Grove one MUST stop at Bs AND we ordered a medium cone for each of us. 

We have never been brave enough to try the large. We had the air conditioning on high and were quite cool by the time we made it home. The pictures were downloaded and sent to the owners of the foals. Stephanie brought out her kids to swim with Anna's and Taunya's but I was too busy to join them. Tatiana needed to be teased and covered by Valiant but to do this Easter Lilly had to be moved into a stall first so we could put Tatiana's filly in the paddock.  I also think Tori is coming back in season but tomorrow Jewel will need to be covered IF she is still in. This evening the drive was blocked both directions. Mike hired a company to move his loader to Middle Grove and the rig was just a little too long to make the turn. Mike had to help by driving the truck while the other guy drove the big excavator and together they were able to get it out to the main road.