Fun & Games

Only when I looked at the moon this morning as I was heading out to feed, that I remembered the eclipse. It was such a beautiful full moon that turned into a blood moon before my eyes.

 We have this tall ornamental grass up between the driveway and the patio and each day it looks a little worse, turns out Emma is using that for her naps.  She sure knows how to make herself comfortable.

 After snapping her picture I went into the house to see Darcy also napping. She almost always sleeps with her head off the mattress.

 Ben and Taunya arrived with Nancy, Addyson, Jack and Jace around 10:30 am and the fun started then. Mark brought out the bean bag game to start but soon we decided to play with the squirt guns.

 They were allowed to shoot the tree, the rocks, the grass but not each other and not the dogs.

A golf cart ride sounded good once the squirt guns were put away. We found 'dinosaur' bones on our long ride around the property.

 Below Addyson and Jack are checking them over and decided they must be Tyrannosaurus Rex!

 Emily took Killian to Sandridge and met up with the Cooksey's for a trail ride. She came back estatic, Killian was excellent, everyone rode him, even strangers.. He was well behaved. The only drama was when he saw some yearlings, he just loves the babies. Once Emily took him over to meet them he was fine.

Above she is telling us about her ride. Phil & Anna arrived with the girls so we headed over to the playground to dye Easter eggs.

 Jace was just a little too young to dye eggs and very quick to grab, the swing was a perfect place for him during this activity.

The 2 mom's were busy cleaning up messes almost the entire time but we got the job done, the eggs put away and the tables cleaned off.

As we were finishing up a couple riders went by on Paris and Larry. 

The horses and the girls were enjoying their ride. The grandchildren enjoyed the playground.

 Dinner was served at 5;30, we were joined by Rhoda & Lee along with Phil & Anna, Ben & Taunya, Nancy and 6 grandchildren. After dinner the bubble stuff was brought out.

Lee brought glow sticks for the evening and the kids loved playing with those. What a fun day.

Clean-UP

The morning was spent cleaning up the place getting ready for Easter weekend.
Emily used the golf cart to haul all the unusable broken warped boards to the burn pile then started the fire as there was little to no wind. Ebby is always quick to jump on the cart for a ride.

The wood in the picture below reminded me of the cross. As today is Good Friday, the day our Lord was crucified I found it interesting that I had a visual reminder of the day.

 Hard to imagine the horror of that day. I wonder sometimes if I had lived during that time, would I have been like the pharisees? Yelling cruelly crucify him crucify him, or would I have been one of His disciples, grieving to see Him so wrongfully scourged, made fun of, a crown of thorns smashed into His head, beaten, nailed to a cross, then the spear piercing His side and seeing His blood gushing down the cross. We need to remember this day, we need to be reminded of His sacrifice for our salvation. Thank you Jesus!

 The second load of wood was piled on which reminded me of the tearing down and burning of the Jerusalem.

With company coming for Easter weekend I had to hit the grocery stores. The first stop was Sams Club where all the meat for the weekend was purchased along with other goodies and of course dog food. The next stop was Aldi and the last stop was Walmart. I didn't get everything on the list, all the stores were packed and I had already been shopping for 3 hours. Mark was called for the remaining item, fresh garlic, which is needed for a recipe for tomorrow. He was willing to go to Kroger to pick that up. When I got back Emily was working Jurista in the outdoor arena. We are very pleased with this mare, she is picking everything up fast improving each day.
The automatic waterer in Lily and Sangria's paddock broke and water was pouring into their paddock. Emily was able to repair it but will need to order new parts soon.
Prissy was put inside again tonight, we are expecting 24-28 degrees tonight.
We didn't get to church, Mark ended up working late, but we were able to listen on line. Mike Rieker had the service.
This evening I worked on making Nancy's Easter basket. Ben and Taunya are picking her up on their way here tomorrow morning and she will spend the night with us.

Dogs Dogs and More Dogs

At 7:20 am Karin's dog, Rachel's dog and Diane's dog all came to the door to ask my 2 dogs to come out for the walk. But Karin, Rachel, Diane, Ruth, and mom are all in Gulf Shores and Joan is in Bluffton so I didn't want to go on the walk with just the dogs. I sent all 5 dogs out by themselves. Four of them did start on the walk, Darcy figured out real quick this was not something she wanted to do, Emma made it as far as the end of the yard until she realized I wasn't coming. The other 3 took off for the meeting place at the dumpster. Weird dogs, they can go anytime they want on a walk but look so forward to the morning get together.
Below is Emma getting a drink in Mark's pond.

There are an abundance of frogs in the pond but I'm not sure if any fish survived the winter. Time will tell.
Emily came over this morning mad! She had just woken up from a dream where Evan and Valiant were being hauled to a trail ride with a bunch of other horses, they stopped for gas and for some reason the 2 stallions were unloaded and they started fighting, then one trailer took off leaving her with the 2 fighting stallions. She was mad at the boys in her dream, yelling at them to "stop, just STOP!" and mad at the the people for taking off with the other trailer, knowing there was no way to put the 2 stallions in the trailer that was left. Funny how when one is so mad in the dream it is hard not to be mad when awake.
I decided to halter and groom up Tatiana and Violet this morning as Tatiana may be leaving soon. Below Emily is putting the halters on both girls.

 Above in the blue halter is Tatiana and below in the black halter is Violet.

Coming back to put the grain bucket away I see Lily's colt playing with her halter and since I had the camera you all get to see this too.

Is that a cute colt or not? He is a typical Valiant son, big boned, tall, sweet and very friendly.

Progression

We had a thunderstorm this morning with enough rain to cancel our walk. Prissy was left inside. She hadn't progressed but we were leaving for our usual Berean work and didn't want to take a chance of putting her outside during the storm.
Thankfully we had a light mail day today as we didn't have an abundance of volunteers. Diane R, Eva Jean, 3 of Lisa's kids, Diane and I were the workers today but we easily got everything done by 2:00 pm. This week we had 312 individual Bible requests that all got filled and a couple requests from Chaplains that did not get filled. Hopefully Tuesday I can get that done.
Below are Lisa's kids stuffing the Bibles for the mailing today.

As soon as I got home Prissy was let out for the afternoon and promptly rolled just covering her white coat with mud. She no longer looks like a paint but it must have felt good, she covered both sides of her body.
Emily wasn't able to help today as she was baby sitting for one of my nephews but as soon as she got home she helped move 3 round bales in. The middle paddock, Evan's paddock and the breeding shed paddock all needed new bales. Yesterday I was bragging on how sweet Indy is, well this afternoon I have more to brag on. Check out the pictures below:

Indy is such a sweet mare she is sharing her grain bucket with her filly and Star's filly, allowing each to take their turn putting their heads into the feed bucket. That is not how most mares would react. Why Star won't even let her own filly share in the grain. Indy is such a good baby sitter that both fillies spend most of their time with her. When Star's filly wants to nurse though she goes over to her own mom, so far we haven't seen Indy nursing both fillies.
Prissy was put back inside for the night and before leaving for the house she was given a quick groom to get most of the mud off just in case she would deliver. She is definitely making progress, her udder tonight had waxing on both teats. It is still very clear but at least she is progressing.

Time For Pictures

At 5:30 am I sent a text to Stephanie that I would be leaving at 6:00 am to pick up Israel unless she wanted to meet before 6:15 and then I looked at the calendar. It wasn't my turn to watch Israel. Stephanie was sent another text apologizing if the first text woke her up and that I now knew I wasn't down to have Israel. That gave me a free day and a beautiful day at that. Since it was the first of the month I had to drive in to Meister's to pay the first of the month bills and deposit checks to cover those bills but then I was free..except I needed to order my blood pressure pills from Walmart and find time to pick them up but then I was free indeed.
Around noon it had warmed up enough to bathe Indy's filly and give her a haltering lesson. She also got a tying lesson while she was cleaned up. Indy and her filly were left in the stall to dry off for a bit.  I snapped the picture below of Sangria who is not due until April 20th and usually goes a week to 10 days late.

Sangria was not bred for 2014, I wanted her to have a year off as each time she gets pregnant she gets so huge and by the looks of her belly this is another big baby.
By the time Indy's filly was dry Faith showed up just in time to help with pictures. We always want to get that cute factor in when getting pictures of the foals so I was thrilled to see her.

 She made sure the filly's legs were clean then was great at swinging the whip around asking the horses to run. Indy and her filly are posted below.

 Faith was willing to ride Indy for the pictures, she is riding her bareback with just a halter and lead rope in the next few pictures. Indy is such a wonderful mare.

Mark arrived home early to grade the driveways before the rain which is predicted to start tonight.

 Emily got home from school and brought Jurista over for some instruction. Below she is walking her to the barn.

 When she got to the outdoor arena she had to clean up manure first. She had worked all three boys in it last night and of course all three boys have to leave their mark.

 Jurista has amazing movement. Andalusian's are the elite of the horse world and after seeing Jurista move we understand a little better about their high price. They really are the horse of kings.

Jurista had to show us what she thought of the work out in the picture below.

Sarah's fiancee Nolan arrived to go riding out on the trails. Emily and Faith rode Killian, while Sarah rode Jenis and Nolan rode Eliza. Of course they have to pose for a picture before heading out on the 'death trails' just in case they don't make it back.

 They made it home with no problem at all. The trails were not slippery with mud and the creeks were down. We actually need the rain that is predicted to start tonight. Once back Sarah and Nolan took Jenis to the outdoor arena for some canter and trot work.

The evening was just about perfect. Mark finished the grading of the roads and started working on the house siding stopping when it became too dark to see. Prissy was stalled again tonight. Her udder hasn't changed but we have an 80 % chance of thunderstorms starting around midnight then continuing through tomorrow. 

Our NEW STALLION

Announcing our NEW stallion. Here at Horsemeister we have decided white horses are much easier to see in the dark so are going a new direction. We thought long and hard about just dying our stallions white but found out the Friesian world frowns at white hair.  
The next best thing was to buy a white stallion breed him to all our black mares and hope for paints. Isn't that how one gets those gorgeous spots? 
His introductory stud fee is only $50.00. His foals come out half black and half white and can perform high school dressage right after birth.
The stallion above is already trained, watch the video he even knows how to pose for pictures. He is probably not for sale but that shouldn't be a problem, after-all everything has it's price right? We will just throw a million or 2 bucks at the owner and if that doesn't work send Emily there to charm the owner into trading Evan for him. Diane was sure we were going to end up with a million dollar horse and an old house that needs updating but that's just not going to happen. We will be updating the houses with all of the stud fees coming in. 
Please read the fine print below for booking your mare.
( each mare must have a current coggins and the $50.00 must be paid up front then make sure you read this: April FOOLS!)
This April's fools joke had Mark sweating for a minute. He was told since we have 3 Andalusian mares we decided to take out a loan and purchase this stallion. Oh my was he not happy until my face gave the joke away. He is so fun to tease.