Taking Down

I went out to grain to find Bulu and her colt were not in the paddock. They were in the pond pasture.

I could tell she had been grazing and was just taking a break to nurse her colt.

Mark went out early to take a look at the tree that was separating. He decided it must come down today so used his electric chain saw to take a gouge out of the base. 

Rizzy went out with him to make sure there were no rabbits in the yard to bother Mark. She loves chasing rabbits.  We made our way over to mom's for the walk. Ruth brought Fedi today. He is finally back from Romania. Mark was glad as he wanted Fedi's input on what we needed to do to make sure the limb does not fall on the fence.

Right after the walk the stock trailer was hooked up to the truck. Valerie and Tessa were loaded in the front. I was pleased as they walked right in. The only problem came when I got out the side door, walked around to the back of the trailer and tried to shut the divider. Tessa was taking up more than her fair share and Valerie didn't think she could move forward enough for me to get that divider shut. That took some muscle. Just as I was getting Curlin and Holly out of the paddock Joan arrived with Berlica. Berlica was handed one of the lead ropes and together we led these to mares to the back of the stock trailer. They were both following me in when Mike and Crew arrived. They helped tie the horses while Berlica let me out of the back of the trailer. We were on our way by 8:55 am and made it to the vet clinic right at our appointment time 9:30 am. There was one horse ahead of us but we ended up waiting an hour for that horse. 

 Benjamin (Mary and Dave's) was there with his wife and their hunting dog but that was the only customer we saw. Mike and Crew drove separate and stopped at Farm&Fleet for some grain and still made it before Dr. Hoerr was ready for us. When he was ready we took Valerie and Tessa in first.

It was the perfect timing for Valerie, she had one huge follicle.

Our instructions for her was to take her home and get her covered.  Tessa, unfortunately, had just ovulated. I will need to short cycle her but will need to wait for a week to give her the shot.

Both mares were well behaved. Berlica helped me take them out of the clinic and loaded them into the stock trailer while Mike and Crew unloaded Holly and Curlin. That is Holly getting into the stocks while Crew holds Curlin.

Both of these mares had older CLs, meaning they had ovulated probably last week.

I left the clinic with 4 short cycle shots. When we got home, Berlica held Holly and Curlin while I gave them their shots. Holly jerked when the needle was going in, the needle bent. It was a short needle and when I pushed the plunger of the syringe it popped off the needle and the drug sprayed all over my face. I had to give her a second shot and this time was more careful. Tessa's shot was taken to the house and put in the cupboard. She will need that in a week. When Mike got back from the clinic he took Valerie to the breeding stand and I brought Evan up. She is a really nice looking mare and evidently Evan thought so too. 

It was a successful cover. Mark had just come back from buying a new house battery for the motorhome. He and Joan got that installed. We both came in the house to cool down. Our next job was to take down that tree limb. He was going to have me use the skid steer while he used the chain saw but by the time I got out of the house and into the yard, he had just used the skid steer to push it over.

He said it was loose so he just decided to give it a push. It didn't hit anything but it did block the road. He used his chain saw to start cutting off the branches.

I used the golf cart to drag the branches to the burn pile while he kept cutting the limb.

We didn't finish the job it was just too hot outside and we quit at 5:00 pm. We will finish it in the morning.