Karin & Rhoda's Trail Ride

Video made by Karin Meister of their trail ride on Saturday. Sure looks like FUN!!

Mark's Knee

Mark hurt his knee last week and by Sunday evening it was hurting pretty bad. He asked what he should take for it and Aleve was recommended so he grabs the bottle, pulls one capsule out, swallows it and goes to bed. The next morning it is not any better at all. He comes hobbling home for lunch around 11:30 complaining that the Aleve pill didn't work at all. Once I saw what bottle he had taken the pill out of I knew he really didn't have Aleve at all, he had accidentally taken an antibiotic pill for the DOG! He was given 2 REAL Aleve pills and back down to work he went. Hopefully these pills will work MUCH better than the DOG pills.
Dropped off 2 dozen eggs at mom's before the walk today and had to stop in and ask for a band-aid for a blister forming from wearing old shoes.
Checking over all the horses while feeding them, I see Ylse's filly limping. We had an appointment at 10:00am with a couple coming to see the Friesians so I figured I'd head home, eat some breakfast and wait until 8:30am to call the Vet Clinic to see about bringing in the filly. The surprise waiting for me was the couple came early and were already waiting for me to get home from the farm so back we went.
They are a very nice couple on their anniversary trip so we gave them the grand tour here at the farm, swinging by the Old School Center, visiting the horses at Middle Grove, and gawking at the huge fish swimming in the Herman Lake in Norris IL. They were dropped off at the farm and the Vet clinic was finally called where I was given the choice of coming today at 2:15pm or waiting until Wednesday. No waiting for this filly, back out to the farm with the truck this time, hook up the stock trailer, start to pull it away and realize it has a flat tire. This is the 3rd flat on this trailer out of 4 tires. The trailer was pushed back, unhooked and the living quarter trailer hooked up. Diane came from work to help load which really helped. Turns out it is an abscess, we have NEVER had a baby get an abscess so this is unusual but actually is an ok prognoses rather than something serious like a broken bone. Speaking of broken bones, we got terrible news from the Fritzenmeier's. Monica's purebred Friesian filly, Danake has a broken ulna and radius and a piece of the radius is knocked 4 inches from where it should be. The vets at Kewanee told her to take it to UofI for evaluation to see if they can do surgery to save her or put her down. Please pray for Monica.
Once FINALLY home for the day it is time to start dinner.

Monster in the House

Our house is an old farmhouse that we know is inhabited by strange creatures. One we know of is who we call John the ghost. Everytime our keys are missing or something is broken that nobody knows anything about we say, hmmm, must have been John the ghost. He lives either in our basement under the front porch in the dirt room or up in the attic depending on what is missing or broken. Today after church we discovered along with John the ghost we have a monster also AND we NOW have PROOF!
I was able to sneak up on it and take these pictures. Just look at those evil eyes, and huge mouth, shiver shiver.

This is a ferocious looking monster, with huge teeth although none of the large teeth were showing. It growls, grumbles, chews up shoes, leaves some of its horrendous hair all over the carpet and clothes, and sometimes smells terrible. It must have just eaten something, perhaps a small child, just look at the smirk on it's mouth. We will have to see if any of the Pony Clubbers are missing out at the barn.

It has a huge long body, all stretched out, wait I think I recognize this monstrous thing.

It's just Emma taking her afternoon nap. Once the flash hits she jumps up to see what's going on.

She looks a lot nicer when she is not upside down. Amy Koch's shock collar worked so well yesterday, Emma would not chase the car as Mark was leaving today. In fact she didn't even want to go NEAR the road.

Wynne

Mike and Diane took Wynne and Bunni to Lake Shelbyville for a weekend camping trip. A text came in that Wynne is a SUPER horse. Of course a phone call was needed for clarification on that.
He said she is smart, balanced, quiet, leads when asked, and very sturdy. Now Wynne is only 3 years old and she is going to be one of our BEST trail, camp horses. Rebekah Davidovics had been telling me how great she is and wonderful she is riding but when it comes from Mike it is PRAISE indeed. When I reminded Mike that Wynne is in foal to Raven and due March 23rd, 2011 Mike groans and states, "it figures." He feels we lose all of our best riding horses because they have foals by their sides.
Steven Marchal has been training Wynne to bow and Rebekah will be showing her at the Northern IL Horse Fest August 28th and 29th. Anyone interested in a REALLY FUN horse show, we like this one the best. It is being held at Kane County Fairgrounds in St. Charles, IL this year instead of Boone County Fairgrounds in Belvidere, IL. We are also bringing up Jenis, Ylse and her filly, Valiant, Evan and of course Karin is bringing up her BEST vaulting team along with the vaulting horse Ribbon. The Northern IL Horse Fest is one a true horse lover doesn't want to miss. The clinicians are always first class and the demos are entertaining.
Below is a short video of Wynne playing in the cabin field with Evan.

Duurke

Our very first Friesian was an 18 year old star mare named Duurke purchased over 10 years ago. We found her in Sulphur, LA at a Saddlebred training facility. Mark and I borrowed Amy Koch's trailer drove 14 hours down to pick her up then another 14 hours back. It was an exhausting trip but I was so thrilled to own her. Duurke was extremely well trained in dressage, all of her lateral work was fantastic and she had a wonderful attitude and beautiful gaits. We started her in vaulting and showed her with the vaulting team at the IL Horse Fair that first March. Now these were in the days I couldn't afford to buy a Friesian so all of my savings went into buying her, I borrowed from my dad and took a loan out at CEFCU for the balance with a 2 year payback. To pay back the loans I started cleaning stalls. We decided to breed Duurke, as we were pretty sure we wouldn't be able to replace her. We talked to Dr. Monfort the Bridlewood vet, about which was the best option and at her age he recommended live cover so I got on the internet and found the nearest FHANA registered stallion standing in Rockford, IA. After talking to his owner, Rhoda, Sarah and I drove up to see the stallion and her place. We sent Duurke up to him in April and June 10th we got a phone call from the stallion owner that Duurke was colicking and what did we want done. Duurke was taken to Aimes IA Vet School for surgery where she died. I called and talked to the attending Vet and asked him to describe her, he told me he spent more time looking at the inside of her than the outside, then described her as a 16 hand big bay mare. Duurke was only 15.2 and black but I thought perhaps she looked bigger and probably faded if she was left out in the sun. One doesn't think very clearly when there has been the death of a valuable horse that I still owed money on. We did ask for an autopsy and got the report but again the mare was just listed as Bay Mare. We were left with huge vet bills and a loan on a dead horse that still needed to be paid. Just to relieve our minds we should have driven the 300 miles and checked to make sure it was our mare but everything was just too overwhelming right then. Grasping at straws Rhoda and I spent some time on the internet looking for Duurke hoping against hope it had been a mistake and Duurke was really alive somewhere. Years went by and we heard that the stallion passed away from colic and I felt bad for his owner, remembering the devastation I felt when Duurke died.
Last night an email came from his owner asking if Sanna was still for sale so just for fun I googled her name and was very disturbed at what came up. The very first write-up listed was from someone that claimed she had scammed them.
Now we really do wonder if it really was Duurke that colicked and died. Could she have sent a colicking mare that she could claim was a Friesian so Duurke could be sold to someone else? I guess we will never know.
I will say God is Good, if Duurke hadn't died we would NEVER have purchased Raven and Raven is FAR, FAR better than ANYTHING that would have come from breeding Duurke to any stallion.

Emma & the Shock Collar

The collar was fully charged, calibrated and put on a more moderate charge then put on Emma's neck for the big test. Riding a bike down the driveway and onto the road was Rhoda for the first test as Emma loves to chase bikes. Emma runs out onto the road and realizes something is bothering her neck, she looks at her neck a couple of times but doesn't yelp, just comes running back. The charge was then set to number 14 up from 11 and the next time she ran out onto the road not only did she yelp but ran the wrong way. She had to be shocked again until she was back in our yard yelping all the way. We sympathized with her, cuddled her and told her about that bad road biting her and that was enough for the first lesson so back into the house we all went. Once we were back from the farm Emma was let outside and she not only wouldn't go near the road she wouldn't even go in the side yard, which was good but didn't reinforce the idea the road was the bad guy. When Rhoda came back from the trails she took Emma out to play. Rhoda started throwing a toy for Emma to grab and bring back. Rhoda deliberately threw the toy onto the road, Emma ran to get it, got shocked, ran into our neighbors yard got shock, ran back into our yard and got lots of love and sympathy. We have learned that Mastiff's have long memories and just maybe today will be enough of a lesson to save her life or at least a toenail or two. Years ago Darcy learn the lesson by crossing the road and getting hit by a truck. She tore her toenail in the accident and NEVER forgot that the road hurts dogs.
We are going to Jonah's Seafood restaurant tonight for dinner. Rhoda was given a $100.00 gift certificate from one of her house sitting jobs and is taking the family out.

Saturday Work & Fun

Mark started on the tree line with the skid steer this morning. The attachments for this machine are AMAZING. The attachment he is using today is called the turbo saw and it cuts through massive trees.

The tree below is almost 3 feet in diameter.



and finally one of the finished products, this tree was about 12 inches in diameter and the saw just zoomed through, what a way to knock down trees. The skid steer is such a versatile machine I don't know what we used to do before we had it, oh yeah worked harder.
By the time Mark was done, I had the horses fed, Raven's water tank OVER filled (yes I forgot and left the water running for 20 minutes)Velvet's stall cleaned out, and all the horses fly sprayed.
Rhoda and Karin loaded up the truck and trailer for a trail ride at Farmdale in East Peoria. They thought they were going to take Wynne and Bunni but those horses were not available. Mike and Diane went camping for the weekend to Lake Shelbyville with them. Karin ended up taking Sunny and Rhoda Jenis.



Velvet's colt is feeling much better this morning. He is still a bit swollen but more than ready to get outside.
Mom is in Tremont, IL at Rhonda's uncle Butches place for Threshing Days. She called to highly recommend coming to see everything. She said Nancy was enjoying it. Amy Koch was there with her mini. The Knoblochs were there with their Clydsdales, Tyler Joos, our farrier was there giving a shoeing demonstration, and there were many old restored tractors like Dad's Ford 8N.

New Surcingles & Leg Wraps

For the August shows Steven needed 2 surcingles for the 2 boys so this morning as we were up so early I went shopping on ebay and found 2 new ones for a reasonable amount. These claim to be professional, black, horse size nylon with neoprene and have plenty of rings. A concern is whether they will fit yearlings. They didn't offer cob size, only horse size but perhaps we can figure out a way to make them work if they are too big.
We have new black halters and to show off their movement we should consider wrapping their legs in white leg wraps. Of course I had to order 2 sets of these:
Now poor Steven will have the fun time of getting them use to all of this equipment.

Belle

The mare in the picture above and below named Belle is a Percheron x Paint mare we are shipping semen to next week. Her owner Kersenz emailed the pictures to us today. She and Raven can't help but have a beautiful baby. I really like these pictures taken in the fog. Thanks for sending them Kresenz. We met Kersenz at the Iowa Horse Fair in Des Moinse when the vaulting team performed up there.

Another of Raven and Lily's colts are now performing. I just received word that Abel is up at Friesians of Majesty in the New England area. His owner is going to email pictures next week. THAT is SO COOL! One down in Texas working for Medieval Times and one on the east coast. I often wonder if the trainers handling those stallions realize they are 75% Friesian and 20% Westfalan, not 100% Friesian. Do you think the owners tell?

Sanna

Velvet and her son had every scrap of hay cleaned up by the time I arrived at 7:00am. They should have been thrown more hay before leaving yesterday. They were moved into the opposite stall so theirs could be cleaned better and the boy checked. There is a little more swelling today than yesterday which is normal. Once Samantha and Sanna had finished their grain, the gate was opened to let them out into the field. They promptly went out, started grazing, walked around the back of the barn, then into the barn and into the stall. I forgot we use to feed them in the stalls. Each morning they would be turned loose with their grain waiting, Sanna to the right and Samantha to the left. I may have forgotten but they sure didn't. Once they were sprayed down for flies back they went into their own paddock. Sanna was taken first and Samantha's filly started calling and running around trying to find Sanna, it's like she is her second mother. When it was Samantha's turn, Sanna started calling. They will be separated once Samantha leaves for her new home and Sanna is going to grieve. They have pretty much been together for 20 years. There was a phone message today someone from Kansas wanting to buy Sanna on the payment plan but that is not desirable for us, the reason she is up for sale is we have too many horses on the place. The lady buying Samantha was emailed to see if she would be interested in taking Sanna also but if not we will probably sell her to the Kansas people. I keep telling myself I must become more hard hearted so it won't bother me if Sanna is left to grieve. As I'm about to drive into our driveway I see Emma out in the middle of the road standing in front of a man on a bike not letting him pass. She just wants to play but that poor man thought he was going to be eaten! Amy Koch was called to see if I could borrow her no no bad dog shock collar. She brought it right over but it needs to charge up before teaching Emma that the road will BITE her!

Sally

Dr. Pallen showed up today before Dr. Hoerr got to the farm so we had a nice visit and plenty of time to take her around showing her all the houses at the compound and explaining who lives where. She asked how many were actually in the family and I answered that question by showing her the picture Rachel took of all of us on Spark's fire engine. Just about the time the tour was over, Dr. Hoerr pulled up for the collection. Steven Marchal handled Raven, while I twitched Bunni, she is not in season and we didn't want her kicking Raven. He is just crazy over her so it doesn't matter or not if she is in season, that is why we consider her the jump mare.
Rhoda showed up at the farm about the time we finished up with the vets so she jumped on Big Sally so we could make a video of her and her filly for her new owner. I know I'm using the same music as before but the music I'm using is allowed to be put on a video and today I just didn't want to get all the way done with the video and have youtube mute it.
Sarah came home and started reaming me out about putting pictures up on the last post of the gelding of Velvet's colt. She said someone told her today they were shocked that I would post that. I LAUGHED OUT LOUD! That is part of running a breeding business.

Water Tank Plug

Sometime this morning both Dr. Hoerr and Dr. Pallen are coming to the farm to collect Raven for 2 mares in Morton, IL. Dr. Pallen is coming to observe, she will have to come collect Raven herself next week for the customer in Des Moines. Dr. Hoerr is vetting the shore to shore endurance ride and will be leaving on Friday.
Raven is so easy to collect that Dr. Pallen will not have any trouble even if she is a GIRL!
Velvet was glad to see me this morning, she had cleaned up all her hay from last night. She still had plenty of water. Her colt was lying down and didn't get up right away. He needed to be checked for swelling so was asked to stand up. He is sore but no swelling from the gelding. He was hand walked for 10 minutes but all is looking good with him. He was eating hay with his momma when I left. Jenis and Ylse at the cabin field are so funny. They listen for my car, mill around up front until they see me driving in then run to their buckets. All buckets and feeders needed to be dumped first this morning. We had an inch of rain in 15 minutes last night. Altogether an inch and 3/4s of rain fell from that storm.
The water tank in Raven's pen is leaking through the heater, we need to find the plug, pull out the heater and plug it up. If I can't find the plug we can always buy another one at TSC. Funny how even when we know we don't want to lose something we lose it! We have decided sometime before winter, one of our projects this year is to install an automatic waterer in the cabin field.
Before our work day new 2x6x16 boards need to be purchased and delivered. There are some fence lines that need repairing before the company comes August 22nd. It is SUCH a GOOD thing to have company once and a while.

Gelding Velvet's Colt

The lady buying Velvet's colt wanted him gelded before he leaves for his new home in September so Dr. Hoerr was glad to help us out with that. Above he is just finishing up and below is the colt on his operating table. Notice the bumper tires, they work great at keeping the colt in the correct position for this job.

Velvet and her colt were picked up from the farm right around 10:00am. There was nobody around to help with the loading but they were both so well behaved I didn't even need any help. They were dropped off at the vet clinic as Dr. Hoerr had a sheep emergency. Middle Grove was next on the list of jobs for today. Bunni was picked up to use for a jump mare for 3 breedings! yes THREE. Two for this week and one for early next week. Mike's 4 wheeler was also picked up from Middle Grove and brought in to Hanna City. He and Diane were driving it from Norris to Middle Grove loaded down with saddles for a trail ride when it died. They had to be towed the rest of the way in to Middle Grove. Once everything was unloaded it was back to the vet clinic to pick up the horses except Dr. Hoerr wasn't quite done which gave me time to snap the pictures. Then it was wait and wait for the little boy to wake up. Once back at the farm they were put in the deluxe stall for rest and recuperation. Raven was pulled out and fly sprayed while I was waiting for his new water tank to fill up. His automatic waterer is turned off until we can repair a leak.

Cruisen in Feb

Ruth and Fedi will be celebrating their 20th anniversary in February and Ruth is interested in going on a cruise so of course WE will be joining them! Diane has picked the place and boat, so far wanting to go is Mike, Diane, Mark, Judy, Greg, Beth, Amy Koch and Beth Stuber. Anyone else interested let us know, Diane always finds the BEST BUYS. We will be driving down to New Orleans and leaving from that port, makes it nice, no flying so not limited to a carry on only. I can bring BOOKS!
Duke was out during the night, not too unusual except this time he got into the barn, knocked over the empty grain bins and got the lid off the one that did have grain in it. We do not think he ate enough to founder but will watch him. Once the barn was cleaned up and the grain unloaded from my car it was time to feed the boys except the scoop wasn't to be found. A funnel was used and worked pretty well, just had to remember to hold a thumb over the small end. The vet appointment to geld Velvet's colt is 11:00am which means the truck and trailer need to be hooked up and ready to go by 10:15am.
The Davidovics are leaving for their trip to California this afternoon. Rebekah has started a blog, her link is now posted. Rebekah is a very talented writer and her blog is fun to read. Just look to the right of this blog, look under my favorite blogs and hers is at the bottom.

Shipping

After work, Steven brought Evan, Valiant and Wynne to Bridlewood just for their experience of going new places. These three will be performing at the Northern IL Horse Fest the end of August and need to be exposed to new places. Rebekah met him here to pop on Wynne for the training session. I left for TSC to pick up some iodine shampoo and grain. Valiant has some of what we call the creepy crud on his legs and needed a good scrubbing while he was here. Just as I pull in at TSC the phone rings and it is a customer who wants to ship semen for her big black mare in Des Moines Iowa and needed the vet's phone number. I'm talking to her while looking for the iodine shampoo and finally give up, go to the counter and ask for it. Of course it was in the very aisle it should be, I don't know why my eyes kept skipping over it. When it was time to pay, no wallet in my purse, luckily my check book was so a check was written except as there was no wallet there was no identification. Good thing we are so well known. Out to the car to load the grain and there is my wallet on the front seat in an unlocked car down in the south end of Peoria, smart really smart.
Steven had both boys waiting for their shampoo and once they were lathered up it was suppose to stay on for 3 or more minutes so he walked them up the street and around the block. We had to have some video of how well they are working. To my knowledge they have never been to Bridlewood!

Chloe

Chloe is Ciera's best friend, the day Steven and I went to pick up Big Sally, Ciera climbed in the trailer, Chloe followed so we just shut them in the front until we finished with the other horses, otherwise they are in our faces ALL the time trying to figure out what we are doing. Once the video of Aragon was done Steven haltered Chloe, brought her out of the trailer, just led her a bit and then let her go thinking she would do her huge trot back to Ciera, nope, she just slowly trotted back to the herd. If we are going to get a video made of her huge trot we are going to have to bring her in to Bridlewood and use the arena. We are only asking $2500.00 for her and she comes with a reduced breeding fee of $500.00 to Evan at age 3. I am tempted to just keep her, get her under saddle so she can be used for the trail rides and breed her late in the fall each year for a 75% Friesian foal.

She is so filled out at only a year old she almost looks mature, I can only imagine how gorgeous she is going to look at 3.

The lady that sent the deposit that hadn't made up her mind which colt to buy has made up her mind. Velvet's colt is now marked sold!

The Horse Show

We discussed the pig roast this morning on our walk, It is August 22nd at 4:00pm. The largest pig we can get is around 200 pounds and that is now ordered. We will do it the same as David's rehearsal feast, provide the pig, plenty of bbq sauce, buns, table service and drinks and let the guests bring the rest.
The food will be served around 4:00pm with the horse show to follow. We will start with our parade of breeds, followed by horse tricks, the jumping demo, finishing up with the vaulting. Should be a GREAT evening. All are welcome, if you want to ride in the show, please email or call us first to make sure we have stabling for all that would like to bring their horses. We have 85 acres of trails that can be enjoyed after the show. The only cost to bringing in your own horse is as follows: tied to a trailer FREE, stalled $10.00 per stall. horses must have a current coggins within 12 months.
Ribbon is now out of season. All of the horses survived the extreme heat last week, thank goodness, and we are having a nice break in both the high temps and the high humidity. Today is just plain PLEASANT!

Our Walk

After church Mark and I walked to the local McDonald's. It was pleasant when we were hiking on the edges of the Madison Park golf course but hot when we were on the pavement. The hike is almost 5 miles round trip from our house but with the stop at McDonald's to share a small smoothie it doesn't seem like torture.
The torture comes at bedtime and that's when I determine I MUST lose weight. Even with 2 Aleve, the old joints start aching and the night doesn't end. Perhaps if my small mind can remember the pain, the food won't taste as good.
Today the vet clinic must be called for an appointment to bring in a couple of mares and foals. Dr. Hoerr called on Saturday and he wants to come collect Raven, depending on when his 2 mares are cycling, if Ribbon is still in we can use her but if not we will need to pick up Bunni from Middle Grove. Bunni is our jump mare, no matter if she is in season or not, Raven just can't resist her and she will stand willingly.
My phone went off during church yesterday, good thing it was on vibrate. It was a long distance number which meant horse call so I didn't bother calling back until we were on our way home. Typical Sunday call they wanted to buy a Friesian stallion for $750.00.

Velvet & Son

Mark and I got to the farm by 7:10am and the first thing noticed was that Mike had moved in a round bale for Sanna and Samantha. Mark actually came with me to help with that but there was plenty of other things calling to him. I was VERY pleased to see that job done. We got to the top of the hill and there is Velvet's colt in with Ralph and Jamie's filly Myrrhcedes. Velvet was running back and forth at the bottom of Myrrhcedes' paddock on one side of the fence while her colt was running back and forth on the other side. Before any of the horses could be fed, Velvet needed to be caught, brought out of the field and into Myrrhcedes' paddock so her colt would follow her back out of that paddock and into their own. This all went like clockwork and it even gave me a good chance to fly spray them both down. Velvet was not engorged so it had probably just happened, in fact once they were reunited the colt didn't even want to nurse. The colt may be sold, a deposit has come but the buyer still needs to make up her mind which colt she wants. She is trying to pick between Velvet's colt or Aragon, Izadora's 2009 colt. She emailed me this: Hi Judy, I will stick the deposit in the mail tomorrow. I am going to take one or the other. That much I have definitely decided on. I'm going to watch the videos about 100 more times each. They both have a lot of suspension. And I better not look at any more babies you have because I'll have to start all over again. Ha. I didn't expect them to be that nice at such a good price.
Ribbon was brought out to see if she is still in season. Mike got her covered last night but for the ultrasound date we need to know the day she is out. It took a while for her to show but she finally did so was put back. If she is still in tomorrow she will be covered then. Finally it was time to feed and the horses let me know their displeasure of having to wait by stamping and calling.
time to start getting ready for our favorite part of Sunday, CHURCH!

Jordan Schroeder

Last night after we had gone to bed, Rhoda got home and came up stairs with the news that Jordan Schroeder died. Jordan was only 25 years old when he passed away. He was diagnosed with cancer a year ago. He left behind his wife Katelyn Thames Schroeder and 2 very young daughters Jaycee & Arawen. Jordan is the brother to Lindsey Getz and Jesse Schroeder both here from Peoria. Please pray for Katelyn and the entire Schroeder family. Jordan has now received the ultimate healing. We are so thankful for our Faith knowing there will be a reunion for this hurting family .