Xena

Rachel sent the email below:

this was xena's first day out in the pasture and let me tell you, she can MOVE! Those long legs are good for all kinds of fun stuff! She was running all over and mom got so nervous that she wanted back in the paddock where she could keep a better eye on her:)
This girl fits her name Xena (zena) Warrior Princess....she is fearless & strong.

Xena is a carbon copy of her 2008 full sister, Bella and her 2009 full brother, Shadow!

Steven & Star

As Rhoda is staying at Cassie Kramer's and Sarah is heading up to Indiana Dunes with the rest of the family, Steven is going to be taking care of the farm and our dogs while we are gone. To make things easier for him, Star has been brought to the Hanna City farm. Steven will stay at the house for Darcy's sake as she is at the age where she wants to sleep in her own bed. Too bad if she would be happy at the farm, Steven could just stay in the cabin with both dogs there and save a lot of driving. We will be delivering Samantha and her filly then staying in Branson, Mo at Table Rock State Park until Monday.
Yesterday was such a beautiful day that Rhoda and Cassie drove to the farm, loaded up Jenis, Sunny and Duke and headed to Jubilee State Park where they met up with Lissa Calhoun and 2 of her children for a trail ride. Cassie first rode Jenis, then later Sunny and Lissa rode Duke. Lissa made the statement, "don't your horses ever do anything wrong?"
Once back at the farm, Cassie see's Star and tells Rhoda, "that horse is the exact ringer for Star, he looks EXACTLY like him." Rhoda laughed and finally told her it IS Star!
At the farm this morning Big Sally's filly and Velvet's colt were grooming each other.

They are always together, above they are flanked by both mamas. Sally and Glory are to be leaving this week, poor Rohan will be lost without his big sister. They saw me take the picture and had to come up to see what the flash was all about.

They are just so curious. Poor Izadora was eating and I had to snap her picture also. She is not due until November 4th but is already so huge she looks uncomfortable.

We had a nice group for our walk, Ruth & Rebekah joined in this morning along with Joan, mom, Rachel and I.

My Boys

Driving to the farm early this morning I was thinking of the delightful time we had with our three boys and their wives last night when a picture of Joan popped into my mind. Not on this earth will Joan have the opportunity to sit at a dinner table with her adult sons. Her treasures are truly in heaven, not on earth and she must wait for eternity to see her 2 sons again. How our eyes and hearts weeps for the Reinhard family. We know a lifetime now is but a passing vapor in eternity and can't help but cry out, Come Lord Jesus, shorten our time here!
At the farm Samantha's filly is feeling so well she was galloping around the paddock and just for fun let out a huge buck. So good to see her feeling well. We are running out of hay in the middle paddock, there is plenty of hay out back but the mares seem to like to eat in the paddock. I'll have to get gas for the John Deere as the skid steer is in Eureka getting repaired again.
On the way home 2 does came running out onto the road but turned around and ran back up the hill before the car was close enough to hit them. So thankful they turned around instead of running right in front of the car, I left my phone at home this morning.

Liberty

An email came today from the lady that bought walker Sally's filly born on the 4th of July 2008. Sounds like Liberty is doing very well and has a loving owner. It makes us so happy to hear from our past customers, hearing how much they love their Raven baby!

I thought I would let you know how wonderful Liberty is. She has started some training, mostly ground work. She knows hand commands and voice commands for whoa, back and go out. She takes everything with a very low key acceptance. She learns very very fast and is never ever mean or stubborn. I would encourage others to snatch up the other fillies you have from Sally/Raven breeding because they will not be disappointed. She is going to be an easy 16 hands. I can not wait to begin riding her next year. As a two year old she is the most willing, level-headed horse I have ever worked with.
below is a picture of her finishing work in the round pen. She is waiting for her next command.
Thank you Melody Miller

Phil came over to work on our computer. It would no longer connect to the internet. He brought Anna along with him so we decided to grill steak. We had a good group show up for dinner. David came without Stephanie as she had to work, Karin came, Ben and Taunya brought Addyson, Ruth and Fedi agreed to come and bring mom. When Ruth came into the house I asked her if mom was outside, Ruth looks at me in horror and says "oh no, I forgot mom!" We had a good laugh, after all, mom left Ruth at church once when she was a child so this was just payback.
Mom got a ride in with Tim and Joan who were heading out of town and going right by our place.

Dinner was delicious but the company was even better. We so much enjoy visiting with our all grown up children.

Colorado

Mike and Diane are having a great time in Colorado. Mike took Mika for him and Bunni for Diane. They also took Ebby their dog. They emailed these 3 pictures and one short video of them riding in the mountains.

Below is Tom Schmidgall and Earl Ringger enjoying the trails.

Stinky Car

The car has been so stinky since the hog roast, I opened up the back, check out the trunk removing stuff and couldn't see any grease sitting around rotting but I washed it out anyway just in case.

Then Mark got into the act and started taking the trunk apart and this is what HE FOUND!

Where the spare tire goes was full of rancid grease. Mark thinks I didn't look very hard. By the time I finished cleaning, scrubbing, washing and drying it looked like this.

and smelled a LOT better.
At the farm this morning as we pull in Samantha's gate is open and she and her filly are no where to be found. We drive up to the barn and Samantha sticks her head out the window asking "where's breakfast?". Steven put them in last night because of the predicted rain. We got a nice gentle rain of about a half inch. The filly got her last shot and temperature taken. She was 101 this morning but acting and feeling fine. Her neck where the infection was is healing well.
The cotton candy and snow cone machines along with all the supplies were loaded up and taken to our Skyline home. Mark helped unload while I had a good visit with Bernice Otto.
Steven called, he got Rohan, Glory and Independence all their first half dose of panacur. We used Ivermectin and found out the hard (expensive) way the parasites have developed a resistance to that. We still have the foals at Middle Grove to do but that will have to wait until we are home from Branson.
Each foal needs to get another half dose in 2 weeks then a month later a full dose.

Duke

The house needed to be cleaned this morning and laundry started. Then it was down to work. Duke had an 11:00am appointment in Morton, IL to get his blood drawn for a new coggins and Steven very graciously offered to take him. At the walk this morning I stopped in the Horsemeister office to pick up all the IV supplies to go back to the vets office for a refund so around 10:40 I left for Morton. The health papers were picked up for Samantha and Big Sally, one more Exceed shot was picked up for Samantha's filly, with the coggins plus refund the bill came to $266.10. Hopefully that will be the LAST of the bills for Samantha's filly. A foal shot was picked up for Sandy's filly and since the Exceed needed to be taken out to the farm, Rachel was called and together that filly was given her shot. It took BOTH of us, what a strong stocky filly she is. I spent about an hour working on registration papers for the horses that are sold. This is a time consuming tedious job but must be done before the horses are picked up or delivered. Still need to make copies of Velvet's registration and pull hair from the 3 that will be leaving.
Mike and Diane are now in Gunnison, CO with Mika and Bunni and the horses are doing well. They are to take lots of pictures and email them so hopefully we can get some nice mountain shots up.
Rhoda borrowed the truck and trailer to take Cassie to Gitza's barn tomorrow.
We got an email that the pet containment system has been shipped. Emma is going to be shocked, literally and figuratively.
Mark had a late estimate in Metamora, came home a little early and ate a chicken sandwich before heading out. He is burning the candle at both ends lately.
hard to believe tomorrow is Saturday!

Sauder's Filly

My dog is not the only thief, these pictures were stolen right off Rachel Sauder's blog. Rachel is a professional photographer and these pictures of her new filly by Raven were just too cute not to put on.

Notice the whiskers on this little girl.




Like Rachel wrote on her blog, gives a whole new meaning to putting your feet up to rest a while!

Steven's Star

Above is the before picture the day Star was picked up and below is only 2 weeks later. Star is picking up weight and looking amazing.

This poor horse had just plain been STARVED. There was such a gap between his 2 back legs that one could run a hand through. We are so pleased to see that area is all filled in, Every bone in his back stuck out which now is starting to be covered. Steven is feeding him 85pounds of equine senior feed a week along with free choice alfalfa hay. When Star came out of the trailer this time he was bright, looking around, and had some good rolls in the outdoor arena. When he was brought in 2 weeks ago he stood with his head down. Star deserved a better end to his life than what happened and we are so thankful he is back with Steven.

Sauder's New Filly

Introducing the newest Raven baby! Sandy, Rachel Sauder's mare delivered a beautiful all black filly this morning around 7:00am. Rachel's mare was actually due October 11th, 2010 but has a history of delivering 3 weeks early, well this one surprised everyone by coming a month early. She is well filled out and strong as can be. This is Sandy's 3rd Raven baby and every one has been pitch black. I'm sure Rachel will get some better pictures for the website, these pictures were taken with my cheap camera right after birth.
She is just a couple of hours old and already so strong and well filled out.

She was imprinted and her umbilical cord iodined well.
Steven called to borrow the trailer, Star has a farrier appointment at Bridlewood. Steven said Star is looking much better, I'll need to get some pictures of him when he gets here.

Addyson Overnights

As Ben and Taunya are still on their Alaskan Cruise, Addyson has been able to spend the night with us for the last 2 nights. Today she is going to be picked up by her other grandparents Jackie and Ronnie Rumbold. The first 3 nights she stayed with Phil and Anna. The next night Sarah wanted Addyson in her room and last night Rhoda wanted to keep her.
Rhoda and Addyson were busy playing in the living room last night when Darcy walked over and sat on Rhoda's lap.

Addyson ran over to the couch, crawled up it and started telling Darcy to "go away." She is kind of intimidated by Darcy. She finally got enough nerve to come over and pet big Darcy.
Addyson loves playing with Emma.
The picture below is the fish John Honegger caught at the lake during the Labor Day picnic on Saturday. This is off a phone so kind of small but still very impressive catch. He released it for another lucky angler.

Time to get the munchkin dressed for our walk.

What Day Is IT?

It sure feels like a Monday but doesn't quite act like a Monday, not enough problems showing up today. We were all so tired from the LONG busy weekend we actually cut our walk short today. We figured out the company was tag teaming us, some leaving others showing up to where we were always busy.
Addyson spent the night with us and came to the farm with me this morning. She watched as the horses were fed and moved, then it was into the stroller and off to the walk where in some places she needed to be turned backward and dragged through the gravel, it was just too deep for the little umbrella stroller wheels.
Diane, Rachel and mom watched her while Samantha's filly was given her medications and temperature taken. She is still running a fever but last night was feeling so well she was moved into the small paddock where she ran, jumped and played. This morning she is not feeling as well so back into the stall they went.
Diane and Mike are leaving for Colorado tomorrow so Diane gave her last 2 bananas up for Addyson's breakfast, although she only ate one today.
Addyson also came down to the warehouse to work with Eva Jean and I. We gave her some things to arrange and play with until Sarah showed up around 9:30am.
Steven arrived at the farm around 2:30pm and gave the filly the next set of meds. He has been hired to start in hand work on Velvet's colt and today started working him. He checked Ribbon and as she is still in brought Raven over to cover her. I'm so thankful for his help with everything that has been going on. Steven goes above and beyond what is asked. THANK YOU STEVEN!

Announcing Baby Sceggel

Due April 6, 2011
10 Wks old

Guess WHO!

Tara and Jay Brenner have also announced their pregnancy but they are due 2 weeks AFTER baby Sceggel. The race for number 100 is ON! Any other takers for the grand prize?

Ribbon In Again

Hooked up the trailers, loaded Lily and Ayanna into mine, helped Mike load Sophie, Autumn, Sangria, Jewel and Knight in the stock trailer and off to Middle Grove we went. Once we drove into the field the horses came running to us with Walker Sally in the lead. She ran right up to us for some petting. Her filly was spectacular, prancing all around us showing off. Big Sally & Velvet with their 2 foals were right behind walker Sally and by the time they reached us we had 3 of the horses unloaded. We finished unloading, haltered Sally and Velvet, led them into the stock trailer and both foals jumped right in after them.
Back at the Hanna City farm they were unloaded and put into the back with Ribbon and Izadora then it was time to feed Samantha lunch and give her filly her pills. I heard a horse squealing went over to the window and there is Ribbon flirting with the boys. Other than her vaulting halter we don't really have one that fits her so just looped a lead rope around and walked her over to Raven and yes she is in and was covered. Hope this works with Karin's vaulting schedule.

Sunday Picnic

We brought fried chicken and all the fixens to the picnic today. We arrived a little after 4:00pm and went straight to the barn to care for Samantha and her filly before dinner.
After dinner we were watching the kids play volley ball when a large group of horses came through at a gallop. They were fun to watch but were going so fast it was hard to see who was on what horse, except for Karin on Jenis, she stands out or is outstanding, can't quite figure out which.
Poor Karin dreamed all night she was giving trail rides to screaming little girls. After working all day on Saturday, then dreaming of work all Saturday night, when it came time to tack up I'm sure her mind and body were rebelling! She was so tired after all the rides today she had Sophie Meister help untack and put the horses away. Everyone sure seemed to be enjoying the lake, farm, horses, games, playground, fire and food.
We migrated to the campfire and started claiming seats for the evening. The cotton candy machine was brought out as a treat for the kids 78 years old and younger. For dessert it was time to break out the bacon. Such a hot great greasy treat, otherwise known as heartattackonastick. I was too lazy today to get the camera out so no pictures.

The Thief

Our neighbor came running over as soon as we drove into our driveway home from church very upset. She claimed a thief came into her garage and stole ALL of her food. All of her brats, hamburgers and hot dogs and the platters were knocked on the ground every scrap of meat was gone. She had an eye witness to the thief and in a line up of 2 pointed out the offender. EMMA the no, no bad dog is the thief, we left her outside in the side yard when we left for church to save the things in our house that we thought might be important like thermostats. She dug herself out under the chain link fence, ran over to the enticing smell, snuck into the garage when the lady of the house went in to get another platter and by the time she came out of her house it was GONE, ALL GONE. NOW WHAT are we suppose to do? The kids were mortified and think perhaps it is time to find EMMA a new home, I've never given up on a dog, that would be like giving up on a kid and just can't imagine that. God does have a sense of humor, I thought I was a great dog trainer, every dog we have ever had before EMMA was so well behaved, I was sure it must be my training, kind of like a parent with a very compliant child thinks they are a good parent.
IT must be time for Amy Koch's shock collar again. Emma will need to spend the days with me and the wearing the shock collar, if she steps one foot out of the yard she needs to be shocked or if she knocks one thing off a table she needs to be shocked.
We are also looking into the wireless fence system and after checking the perimeters it looks like we will need 2 transformers, one for each of the side yards.
Poor Emma will have to be trained one way or another.

Sunday Morning

Emma came to the farm this morning to 'help' feed. She was so excited for the chance to go and run off some energy. Yesterday she was a bad dog. Mark left her in the house when he took off for the farm and she knocked down and chewed up our $135.00 thermostat. We keep telling ourselves there are no bad dogs only bad owners but really a thermostat! We would like to catch her knocking something off the table or garbage but she would NEVER take something off the table when we are home and garbage, what garbage, she is not interested in that at all until there is no one home to see her. It is never knocked over, just things are chewed up on the hallway or living room floor that we KNOW were in the garbage when we left.
At the farm, as soon as the stall door was opened I knew the filly wasn't feeling well, sure enough she has a temp of 102.6 and her abscess at the IV site is very hot and sore. She was given her meds even before feeding, then once the horses were fed it was over to mom's for hot water. She doesn't fight the hot water packs, this must feel good on her sore. Once the hot packing was done a few drops of DMSO were applied to the site to help break up and bring the lump to a head . After 20 minutes she was already feeling better and started eating with her mom. Today the last of the ketoprofen was used, tomorrow if she is running a fever we will start on banimine which is also a fever reducer.
Jenis was out of season on Saturday so we will mark down Friday as the last day she was covered.

Picnic Bacon Funnal Cakes

We had a very large group out for the Saturday picnic. All ages but the bulk of the group seemed to be kids, LOTS of kids.
Karin took 9 horses out at a time over and over again. Mike was helping for a while and finally told her, "I'm not taking out any more screaming girls."
Bunni, Sophie, Duke, Paris, Autumn, Mika, Jewel, Sangria, Jenis, Sunny and Larry were all used and and reused.

The trampoline had a crowd on it the entire time. The playground equipment was well used.
Lissa Calhoun brought her 2 Irish Wolfhound puppies for the kids to enjoy.

The fishing was fantastic John Honegger caught a HUGE 21 inch long large mouth bass, Mike took a picture then John released it for another lucky angler.
We have a catch and release clause for the big ones at the lake which is professionally managed by Herman Pond Management. The boys were catching lots of bluegill and bass and of course had to show the girls the frogs caught.

Matt and Lisa's family of 10 moved out of the cabin to make room for the Saturday reservations of Doug and Cindy Streitmatter's family.
For dinner the group ordered pizza's from Little Ceasers in Pekin and furnished lots of good sides. After dinner the Deanna & Jay Knoblouch brought out their funnel cake machine and started cooking and cooking. Rachel and Mike got out the bacon about the same time and someone else marshmallows for somemores. We had the guitar going, some singing some just visiting. The volley ball players kept rotating on and off the court a team at a time. There was almost always an ultimate frisby game going on and of course the ever played football for the guys. The girls all headed over after dinner to Rachel's to jump in the hot tub.
It was just about a perfect Saturday, cool enough for a big crackling hot fire and just think, tomorrow we get to do it all again! Anyone wanting to come feel welcome.


Come on out, enjoy the beautiful weather, swim if it gets hot enough, the campfires are always excellent and of course the horses are GREAT.

Labor Day Weekend

In our family a holiday is not just for the day, but the entire weekend. We love company, playing, campfires, volleyball games, horseback riding and when we can fit them all into a long weekend with beautiful weather it is like having icing on the cake.
Karin took a group of horses out on the death trails and just for fun rode them at a gallop. Good thing it was all just family on that ride. Sarah Reinhard rode Sangria and fell in LOVE with her. Even Karin stated she was probably her favorite ride. Mike took the second group out and as this group was company they were a little more careful. Matt and Lisa Waibel and their 8 children spent the night at the cabin. Karin put Matt on Sangria and told him to just wait you WILL really like her. Sangria does a lot of prancing around before heading out which sometimes intimidates riders.
The filly this morning is running a slight temperature, she was given all her meds and her IV site hot packed for 20 minutes. She is looking so much better, no new diarrhea on her tail.We stopped milking out Samantha Thursday afternoon, her milk is now looking white, instead of coppery colored so believe all the panacur poison is now out of Samantha's body. Now we just need to get her filly over the infection at the IV site.

Catch UP

Taunya, Addyson and I left for Chicago yesterday a little after 2:00pm hoping to meet Ben's plane due at 5:35pm. Should be more than enough time right? Not so! We got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for over an hour. Ben landed and got the shuttle to the hotel so when we finally got moving we drove straight to the hotel.
Rhoda called to get instructions for the filly and put in an entire 5 liters to hold her off for the night but also told me the filly was doing well, she hadn't seen any diarrhea and the filly was feisty. Mike did the 10:00pm pills and also called to say the filly reared up on him and was feisty and he saw no diarrhea. Steven got to the farm early went to hook up the IV and couldn't do it so I asked him to go ahead and pull the line. He gave her the other meds, cleaned her off and spent quite a bit of time observing her and also felt she was feeling much better, nursing well and feeling feisty.
Addyson and I left for home around 8:00am, she promptly fell asleep in her car seat and slept the entire 3 hour trip home. Sarah got home from school at 2:00 and started caring for Addyson leaving me time to get to the farm. The filly needed her 2:30 meds but when haltering her I noticed a lump at the IV site with pus coming out. That was why Steven couldn't get the fluid to go through. Dr. Pallen was called and she wanted her hot packed and on Exceed which meant another trip back to Morton, IL. I did not return all the bags of IV yet just in case of a problem over the weekend. I walked into mom's house to get a bucket of hot water and rags, saw Rachel Sauder and just said, "help!" She jumped in my stinky car without even asking what I needed. She hotpacked the IV site while I drove to Morton.
Dr. Pallen told me the vet from the panacur company did call her and actually told her to tell me he wanted to apologize for the way he treated me on the phone.
Once back at the farm the filly was lying down and just stayed down while the shot was given. I'm not too concerned at that, she ran from me earlier when I wanted to put the halter on her. No new diarrhea either.
My second son's 30th birthday is today and Anna, his wife has invited us to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner and back to her house for cake and ice cream. Anna and Phil will be watching Addyson for the weekend then she gets to come back to us.
Once home there is an email from Earl Ringger with pictures of his Raven filly born this spring. He said even though her foal coat is faded she is BLACK and BEAUTIFUL! She is now weaned and ready to be sold. Earl is into quarter horses and thinks this filly is way to fancy for his farm. IF anyone wants a fancy black Raven filly that comes with a reduced breeding to Evan at age 3 email us an offer and we will pass it along to Earl.
Steven checked Jenis and as she was still in got her covered.