Oliver

Last night before heading home from the barn all the chairs were put away and the tables removed from the living area and the floor given a good sweeping in preparation of Mark scrubbing the floors today. I hooked up the 2 horse trailer to the truck then cleaned out the trailer and hung a hay bag. Diane and I only did one round as we were going up to a VERY fancy dressage barn to purchase and bring home a yearling Friesian stallion they call Oliver.  We had a good trip but only started with a half of a tank of gas so needed to stop for gas before hitting Indiana.  Guess who was manning the pump by looking at the picture below: 

If you guessed Diane you guessed right. An even 100 bucks.

We arrived right at noon. Oliver was smaller than what I anticipated for a year old colt. Our yearlings are usually much bigger. The picture below was taken at the facility. He has a very thick mane and tail and the feather on his legs is already thick and long. 

After checking him over we still decided to buy him. His sire is Tsjalle 454 and over 16.2 hands tall. Check out the movement on his sire in the video below:

His dam's sire is 16.3 hand tall Doaitsen 420.  Check out his video in the video below:

Based on his pedigree he is free of Dwarfism and Hydrocephalus. He is FHANA registered.

This colt has the genetics to GROW so even though he is a small yearling we will hope he grows at least a full hand this next year. He is a very sweet colt and has excellent movement and wonderful manners. He walked right into the trailer and traveled quietly. There was an accident on Interstate 55 so the gps took us on a detour. We stopped and filled up with gas, took the detour and when we got back on 55 the accident had been cleared and we were ahead of the pack that were finally let out to go.  That was a good detour. He was a little hesitant to step out of the trailer at this strange farm but when Diane held the trailer door open and I encouraged him he stepped down. He was put in the far paddock. Madiera and her colt were brought over from the cabin field to join him.  They were very curious about him.

Mike came to check him out and took the halter off of him.

WE are not sure what we will end up doing with him at this point, it kind of depends on how he does over the winter.

Madiera's colt wanted to be with Jury and Jewel so he kept looking over and calling.

He finally gave up and before long all 3 were up in the shelter grazing on the hay.

I drove back down to the house then for some supper. After supper we went to check out the new chain hoist Mark got installed today in the back garage.

The sun was setting right then so I had to turn around a take a few pictures of that big pink ball in the sky.

From there we went to check out what Mark got done in the barn this morning while we were driving.

He used his amazing floor scrubber and gave both the gym floor and the living area floor a good scrubbing. After the big crowd on Friday and Saturday both floors needed a good cleaning. I am really impressed with his scrubber.

Both of these areas look good enough for the next big wedding coming up the end of this month.

I'm thankful for a safe and productive trip.