Tyler Joos

I took a quick trip to Sams for dog food and groceries right after the funeral and still made it home before Tyler Joos arrived. Rhoda and Steven had already brought in 4 of the mares. Together we brought in Onyx, Oksana and Olympia then let Rosalie and her mom out for the first time since she was born.

She was so funny bouncing around her mom. Rhoda started scratching her and she loved it.

Tyler arrived took one look at Ribbon and almost turned around and left. He decided he would save her for last just in case she might disappear or he would run out of time. He trimmed up Eliza first.

followed by Jenis, Zalena, Indy, Ayanna and then Ribbon before heading in the stall area to trim up Oksana, Onyx and Olympia. Steven brought Evan and Valiant into the arena next for their trims so back into the other barn for Tyler. Below he is trimming up Evan.

Once he was done and the horses all put back Amy arrived with her grand daughter Olivia to see little Rosalie. Amy made the mistake of bringing treats for Lily and Lily wouldn't leave her alone. Rosalie had to show off a bit, then when Amy started scratching her we all burst out laughing. That little filly had herself so twisted around in ecstasy we though she was going to fall down. Steven had Evan cover Star before he left for the day. Karin arrived after the other 2 left and started training the mares. We still need to move in 3 round bales before the snow starts.

Martha's Funeral

Today is Martha Schaefer's funeral. Martha was 99 years 10 months old. She was the last of the 10 brothers and sisters in the Schaefer's family. Can you imagine the family reunion going on in heaven right now, all 10 siblings, their parents sitting at the banquet table with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Tyler Joos, our farrier is scheduled today at 12:30pm. Steven has agreed to meet him here at the barn just in case I don't get home in time. He needs to trim up all the horses going to the IL Horse Fair plus the weanlings. Hopefully that goes quickly, there is a snow storm coming and no groceries in the house and even more important we are running out of dog food. Who knows what the dogs will start eating if their food is gone. Dr. Hoerr arrived late afternoon yesterday to check over Rosalie, give her a foal shot, and draw blood for a coggins test on Lily and Helen. Amazing how well Helen does, she left the herd of weanlings, walked quietly beside me out of the sunlight into the barn and into a stall, then stood like a rock for Dr. Hoerr as he drew blood. Lily on the other hand had to be twitched. I think she is the only horse out of our whole herd that needs to be twitched for shots and blood drawing. Her problem is that she has such a good memory. When she was 8 months old she spent almost 2 weeks at the University of Illinois getting poked and prodded then finally diagnosed with EPM then 4 years ago she had to go back to UofI for colic surgery. That did it, she would prefer to never see a vet again in her lifetime. Last night my niece Kristin hosted family outreach at church. She supplied around 150 people with a delicious full course spaghetti meal. Diane, mom, Mark and I helped with the serving and clean up. Ken Hoerr had the service.

Raven's Rosalie

Her registered name will be Raven's Rosalie but we will call her Rosie. Last night after choir Mark came with me to the barn to help with the feeding, watering and cleaning of stalls. It was great to have someone to visit with while the work was being done.

 The cold cold temperatures were a concern knowing it was to drop until the low single digits, how would this 24 hour old filly do? This morning after bundling up and hiking to the barn to check I find not only did she survive, she was ready to play. She was running around Lily bucking while the stall was being cleaned. She finally did settle down for a nap.
Diane came over for a short visit bringing her grand daughter and mom.   

They each had a cup of tea then couldn't stand it and got busy, Diane painting and mom cleaning.

Mom is going to have  her knee replaced in just one short month and one would think she would enjoy just sitting around drinking tea. Nope she sees the work and must clean. Maybe that is where I get all my compulsions.

A GIRL!

Last night at 11:05 Lily gave birth to a big beautiful black baby girl.

She was up and rooting around for the milk bar within the hour. At 12:30am I headed to the farm house for sleep. Steven stayed up to make sure she was nursing. Trying to walk back to the farm house was an adventure. The wind was blowing so hard the umbrella was immediately blown inside out then torn from my hands. The rain had turned to snow, the standing water had already turned to ice making for a treacherous trip. At 2:00am Steven sent a text through the filly was nursing. We will both be glad to get a good nights sleep tonight! Warning the video is a bit graphic, feel free to watch in high definition...or not.

Nope Not Yet

Still no baby. At 2:30 am I gave up and headed back to the farm house for sleep leaving Steven on foal watch by himself. Today Taegan and Braelyn are coming over and this old grandma needs sleep in order to play nicely with them.

Singing

The day started with singing in the church basement and ended with singing at the Goodfield Fellowship hall. In between was a very busy blessed day. This was my last week to sit under the tutelage of David. His class will be taking a 2 week break. After church Lily was put out her stall stripped and new bedding put down then a layer of straw for the night. Evan was pulled out to cover Star. Steven arrived and helped Mark and I put a new round bale in for the boys and one for Lily's paddock. The hog panels are working out great. They were $23.00 each and so far the middle paddock one has been used for 3 round bales, Lily's paddock 2 and they are still just about in perfect condition. We went through 10 round bales in January, have already gone through 9 so far this month and will need at least 3 more to finish out the month. We will need at least 12 bales a month until June to make it through. Guess I'd better count the bales soon. Steven stayed the rest of the afternoon and night as we were invited to Goodfield with the choir.
All the supplies for the birth are at the apartment ready and waiting. Now it's time for me to go wait, then wait some more. Hopefully by morning we will have good news of a safe birth and a healthy foal.

No Baby Yet

The second night up waiting for Lily to go into labor was hard and now unless she delivers today we will have a 3rd disturbed night. She tested right at 250 last night giving us an (according to the foal predictor test kit) 84% chance of delivery within the next 24 hours. Mares are able to hold off delivery for a while, she probably felt last night was just too cold to go into labor. I am thankful for the foaling monitor, at least we didn't have to sleep in the barn. The monitor's sound was so good that every time she urinated we were sure her water was breaking. Just guess how many times a night a heavily pregnant mare has to go.  At 4:35am I gave up and came home to crawl into my nice warm soft bed. The very worst part of the entire night and morning was I forgot to make and set the coffee maker. Thankfully there was about a cup left over from yesterday.
Lily will be left inside today, we won't take a chance of her delivering outside while we are gone.

Group Ride

Lily was  brought into a stall last night just in case she delivered. She was testing at 200 which is just a 50/50 chance but Steven decided to bring her in and stay all night on foal watch but no baby today. She will be tested again this evening.  Emily Ricketts, her friend Annette and Karin spent the night here as play practice for the 2013 IL Horse Fair was scheduled for 9:00am.  Steven and Emily took Valiant and Evan on a trail ride at 8:00am to give Emily a chance to get to know Evan as that is the stallion she will be working with at the fair. After breakfast, Mikayla, Mitchel, Dee and Rhoda arrived to start getting the horses ready. Dee was asked to read the script while I video taped the practice. They ran through the play 3 times and each time found something to improve on. By the end of the third time everyone was frozen and ready to come inside to warm up with hot chocolate.

As Emily is the Lady of the Lake she needed to look beautiful, Mikayla worked on her hairdo setting it in curlers. Below they are deciding how she should wear her crowning glory.

Karin scheduled a trail ride since we had so many willing riders. This was a great time to get some riding on the horses in training. She had Rhoda ride Ayanna, Emily ride Indy and Mikayla ride Marika. She used Ella for Annette, Jenis for Mitchel, Zalena for Dee and Ribbon for her.

Above is Annette on Ella and below in the lead is Mitchel on Jenis, Rhoda on Ayanna, Emily on Indy followed by  Dee on Zalena, Annette on Ella, then Mikayla on Marika and bringing up the rear is Karin on Ribbon.

Below is Mikayla on Marika,. Marika did extremely well today, her second time on the trails.

Below is Dee on Zalena ready to head out.

And off they go.

They had a great ride, everyone survived the 'death trails' Below they are heading for home, Marika is back there just not too visible. on

 They were willing to pose for a quick group shot.

It never warmed up the temperatures staying in the 20s with a brisk wind but at least the sun was shining. 

Busy Fun Day

The first thing used this morning was my special valentines gift from Mark.

This was the best gift ever to melt my heart. The temperatures were hovering around 34 degrees all day but the wind wasn't blowing. Rhoda and Steven arrived around the same time. Eliza was the first horse brought into the arena. She popped up on the pedestal and stood there for almost her entire grooming session.
Rhoda tacked her up and took her to the outdoor arena for practice. She got a bit more than she was looking for. She was asking Eliza to come in at a gallop, Eliza saw the shadow of the light fixture, thought it was a jump and hurled herself into the air.

   After a very successful practice Eliza was put away and the boys brought out. They were given some free time in the arena to wear off some of their energy.

  Steven asked Valiant to come in to him, then asked him to bow and lay down.

 

Notice this is done free, no halter, no bridle. While Steven was asking Valiant, Rhoda asked Evan to perform.

 The boys were then tacked up and taken on the death trails. There is a pretty good sized rushing creek to cross on this trail and these boys have never been asked to cross the creek. Steven Marchal had to get off to lead Valiant through first, notice his wet pants in the pictures below. After the first time the boys crossed it numerous times successfully. A big thanks to Steven who was willing to sacrifice his clothes. Valiant was put away, then Evan brought over to cover Star

Karin, Dee and Rebekah showed up as the first crew was leaving. Karin rode Jenis, Dee rode Zalena while Rebekah took Marika on the death trails. This was a first for Dee and Marika.

.  Karin and Rebekah did some training with Ribbon while Dee and I moved Olympia and Helen back with into the weanling paddock. Lily was tested, she is now testing blue at 200. That is only about a 50/50 chance of her delivering but we will put her inside tonight. Steven has offered to spend the night in the apartment and wake us if she goes.