Trail Rides

 We had a good night going to bed early and sleeping in until 5:45 am. Amazing how wonderful that feels. I had plans to work on cleaning this house and actually started on it when our guests at the barn sent the message they were on their way out. I loaded up the laundry detergent, beach, all of our laundry on to the golf cart and drove that to the barn. The guests this time was a boy scout troop that had been doing service projects all week and this was their last stop. They LOVED the barn. They left such a nice thank you note signed by all of them and had everything cleaned up. I started collecting all of the sheets and towels and got the first load started then ran a load up to the foaling apartment so I could use 2 machines. One of the guests from the farm house came driving up to ask if we had found his hitch, a triple one with the 3 different sizes of balls. He lost it off of his truck. I took him around on the golf cart searching for it but it was no where in sight. He thinks it may have been stolen when he was in Peoria. I finally gave him the hitch off of my truck and got my other nicer triple hitch Joan had borrowed when one of the camper rental people forgot theirs. I think we may want to order another one, those are really handy. Mark was moving the extra black painted 16 foot boards from the outdoor arena into the indoor arena.  Rhoda and Iris showed up first today but not much later Sarah arrived with Zion, Eden and River. Rhoda had Jury and Penny tacked up ready to go to the outdoor. 

 Mark was loading the boards on the golf cart. I had him wait just in case that strange sight would scare the horses. 

I was using my golf cart to run back and forth from the apartment to the barn each time the laundry needed changing.

Sarah brought Harli out to work with and discovered a big abscess on her cheek. We were all shocked, it wasn't there yesterday.  We were able to pop it and clean it out then hydrogen peroxide was squirted in it to help clean out the infection and keep it open.

Once that was cleaned out she was feeling better and was taken out to the outdoor where Rhoda and Sarah worked with her. Meanwhile Iris and Zion were taking turns with Penny. When they were done they posed for a picture as they were dressed alike with their pink shirts and their cowboy boots.

Rhoda put a bridle on Harli and both Rhoda and Sarah were teaching her to bend and back up then Rhoda got on Jury and led Harli around. The colt just followed the entire time.

When Rhoda was done Harli and her colt were taken into a stall so the colt could take a nap. 

Next Rhoda wanted to take Basilea on a trail ride. Zion rode Penny and followed. We took a few pictures for the website. Basilea poses naturally, she has such presence! 

Basilea was great on the creek crossings. She marched right in and was happy to walk in the water.

She really is a nice mare, I can't believe we are selling her.

Berlica is at the Reinhard family camp with her family but when she gets home she will have another mare to ride. Berlica is getting all of the horses beginner ready on trails!

Sarah took the video below of the trail ride.

When we got back Harli's colt was still sleeping.

He needed to have the halter taken off, but Zion walked in right then. The colt was tied up so she could handle him.

He is 19 days old today and it is very good for him to be handled and tied. Below is a video showing how quiet and well behaved he is with both being handled and tied.

After Rhoda hosed Basilea down they decided to stick her so we could have an accurate number. 

She is just shy of 16.2 hands tall.

Once everyone left for home I was able to finish the laundry, finish cleaning all 6 bathrooms, straightening the gym and even finished our laundry and all by 4:00 pm. I came home and had a very late lunch. Mark had already helped himself but then wanted supper at 7:30 pm. We had left over chicken and potato salad and he was happy with that. I worked on rendering the videos and getting them posted on the website. Now I'm ready to head to bed.