Beautiful Day to Work Outside

Mark walked outside early this morning to find fresh horse manure on the driveway. He is puzzling over that, looks over and there are 2 mares standing in the yard waiting for me to wake up and put them away. Roxanne and Eliza's gate was wide open. We surmise Roxanne was playing with the chain and flipped it out of the latch. They were put away and the horses grained all before breakfast. The morning started out cold, I should have warn gloves when graining, my hands were stiff when I came in to cook breakfast. Philip arrived with the girls shortly after. I love how well they play with the dogs. Below they are playing with Darcy. Darcy is the perfect place to line up the stuffed animals.

 They found some horse magazines Diane dropped off and had a good time looking at all the pictures.

 Sarah around before 11:00 am to take over with the babysitting job so I could head out to help Karin with the training. When I walked out to the arena, she had all the mares inside watching her as she worked with the flag.

 She first rode Indy but the flag was not stable enough so worked on it then put the saddle with the flag on Jenis. That went a bit better but still was catching the wind too much and bending.

 The flag was taken into the indoor arena to work on while Karin worked the others. Below she is working with Ayanna.

 Next was Zalena

Last worked there was Eliza

 The trail riders arrived so Karin just decided to take Eliza as she was already tacked up. The others were Ribbon, carrying Ava and Faith, Zalena carrying Jesse and Aubrey, Jenis carrying Hannah and Berlica and Elize took Ribbon and Mackenson.

 They had a fun ride on the trails and even got in some good canter time. Above they are heading back to into the barn to untack. The farrier, Chuck Milburn, was due at 2:45 pm so before the riders left they helped with hosing off all the hooves of 10 horses. That is a lot of mud to remove when you times those 10 horses by 4. Each hoof needed to not just be hosed but scraped clean. The mares were left in the arena to dry while Evan and Oksana were stalled to dry off inside. Chuck arrived right on time and got all 10 mares done by 5:20 pm.  Karin got tired of standing while holding horses and went to get a chair just as Chuck was trimming Eliza. As she was going through the gate she dropped the chair and it landed on Eliza who scooted forward. Thankfully she missed stepping on Chuck when she slammed her hoof down to get out of the way of the chair. Karin offered to 'help' again if Chuck felt he needed more excitement in his job.

Chuck just lives right down the road from us but after today will probably move far far away. And we wonder why it is hard to keep a farrier.
Sarah sent the picture below of their house getting it's new roof. That is Rhoda up on the little shed. Today Philip, Anna, David, Rhoda and Lee met at Nolan and Sarah's house to all work on this roof. What an amazing amount of work they got done!

Oksana

Oksana is another Raven daughter making her Indy's half sister. Oksana's dam is Eliza. We actually sold Oksana as a weanling with a payment contract. The lady buying her paid $500 to $1000.00 a month. After 10 months she had only $1000.00 more to make and Oksana would be hers when she contacted me to ask if she could transfer the payments from Oksana to 2 other mares we had listed for sale. Both of these mares were in foal so she ended up with 4 horses and we got to keep Oksana and were we ever glad about that. She is just 1 day old in the picture below.

Below Oksana is just a bit over 3 weeks old. 

Below she is 6 months old.

Below she shows a promise of coming beauty in her year old picture.

She was lightly started under saddle at 2 years of age then put back out at Middle Grove to grow up a bit more. Below is her 2 year picture.

At 3 years of age she was taken to Rhoda in Bloomington, IL and put into a more intensive training for a month then brought back here for trail riding and more arena work with other mares. Below Emily is cantering her in the outdoor arena,

Oksana was bred to Evan and is due Oct 22nd. She will have our last foal for the year. Oksana is now leading the trail rides. She crosses the creeks, swims, jumps the logs and ditches and both Rhoda and Emily believe Oksana is going to be our next Jenis! (that's saying something) 

Oksana was shown during the CIRTS fund raiser at Weaver Farms when she was just a few months old with her best friend and sister Olympia.

This year will be the first year she will be at the Illinois Horse Fair and coincidentally Olympia will be there too. Do you think they will remember each other? She is a typical Raven daughter, loves people, loves attention.

Training Fun

Rhoda came today. That means lots of pictures and lots of time spent on the computer posting the pictures on Facebook and the website. Below are is my favorite of the day.

Check out the back lighting from the sun on Evan's feather. Rhoda worked with Evan first in the indoor then out in the field.

Ruby, Rhoda's dog was just like the battery bunny, she kept going and going and going.

When Rhoda put Evan away we had to get just 1 more picture of Ruby, this time riding Evan.

 Rhoda put Evan away and brought out Marika. Karin mentioned that Marika needed work with her canter. The first time Rhoda asked for the canter this is what she did.

Rhoda thought that was pretty funny, is that as high as she can buck? Rhoda got after her and made her gallop after that and guess what, no more bucking.

She then took her to the outdoor arena as the weather had warmed up enough that the footing was just about perfect. Marika did very well staying on the rail and giving a big open trot and a nice balanced canter. Emily arrived as Rhoda was putting away Marika. Emily pulled out Oksana and Rhoda pulled out Ayanna and off they went on the trails with Ruby following.

Ruby is going to be one tired dog tonight. When Karin arrived they all decided they were all done riding and went to soak in Rachel's hot tub. Mark helped move a couple round bales in this evening. Valiant's paddock got one and Ribbon's paddock. I'm just about ready to get off the computer and start doing the dishes, that is as long as I can't find anything else to do first.

Indy

Indy was born right here on the 4th of July 2010 out of the full papered FHANA registered mare Ylse and by Raven. She was born sweet, loved people from the time she was born but what we didn't expect was her size. She is now taller than Raven was and much taller than her mom. Indy is an orphan, both of her parents are no longer living. We are so thrilled that we kept her. In the video below she is just 5 weeks old.

Indy was introduced to the water and loved it. She would jump in before her mother would and swim across the big lake. Indy grew up at Middle Grove with the herd and learned herd manners very well. In the picture below she is just 1 day old.

She is a couple months old in the picture below

She is almost 2 years old in the picture below taken at Middle Grove, that is Ella behind her.

Emily took Indy home with her the summer she turned 2 and trained her. She was put in our starting line-up at 3 years of age.

 She has the cutest tipped ears.

Indy was bred to Evan at 4 years of age and last year gave birth to a gorgeous filly on March 1st. This filly now lives with her new owner in California. Below is a short video of Indy's filly by Evan. Check out the extreme movement Evan produces.

Indy was bred back to Evan and is due May 10th, 2016. This foal will be for sale and we expect another superstar. Indy has been in parades since she was just a few months old. This will be the first time Indy will be taken down to the IL Horse Fair. She loves people so feel free to stop in at the fair to visit. This year we will be in Barn 18 which is next to the livestock arena.

The Fall

Winter is back, the ice is again hard and very slippery. Mark went out early this morning before it was light to unload his van, slipped on the ice, fell and hurt his shoulder. Today was not a good day to hurt. He had the cement truck coming to drop 5 cubic yards of concrete. He was not able to do the job himself so called Joan who came right over and helped. Mark commented that she is even better than me at helping. I'll never forget years ago when we first opened Bridlewood Stable, the instructor Cathie Trent must have been impressed with my strength until she met Joan. Joan came over to help put up a load of hay and later that night Cathie told her husband, "I met someone stronger than Judy today!" Now for the record Joan IS 11 years younger than me.
Diane picked up the mail for the Berean office then left with Mike for a nice long vacation down in sunny warm Gulf Shores, at least they hope it is sunny and warm but even if it isn't they will just enjoy being there in their own condo right on the beach.
We had a very busy day at Berean. To read about our day click HERE.
I made it home around 3:30 pm to find Karin, Emily and Anni putting the mares away after a good training session.

 Above is Anni leading Marika and below is Karin leading Jenis and Zalena back to the paddock.

 Above is Emily taking Indy back while below Anni takes Eliza.

 Karin took Ayanna back.

 Next on the list was to introduce Oksana to the pirate flag. She was curious about it but not afraid. Karin said all the mares did very well with the flag except Zalena. The mare we were pleased with was Marika, she accepted the flag without a problem.

 The last job was to take the muddy mares out on trail ride with Oksana leading. Emily rode Oksana, Anni rode Anna and Karin rode Ribbon.

Anna

The temperature dropped all day but the wind rose. It is blowing so hard the windmill is singing. I spent the day processing labels at the Berean office. Marvin stopped in to install a new computer for the program.
As soon as I got home a big pot of creamy chicken and wild rice soup was put on to simmer. Soup sounded good on this cold windy day.
This evening we would like to introduce Anna v/d Mokkenburg. Anna was born April 17th, 2000 in the Netherlands and imported to the United States as a 3 year old. We purchased Anna in 2014 from a lady that had only used her as a brood mare. In our business all the mares we have must also be used for trail rides, camps and performances so Emily and Rhoda were asked to train her. She had just come to our farm in the 2 pictures below.

Emily used round pen reasoning with her, then Rhoda tacked her up and off they went. By the second time riding her, Rhoda was able to steer with her legs, ride with a tarp flying behind her and even asked Anna to go over a few small jumps.

We were so pleased with how quickly she picked up her new job that we took Anna to the 2014 IL Horse Fair with Our Anni riding her. They performed the play Cinderella in the Friesian demo that year.

Anna was bred to Valiant and produced a big hairy colt Jan 8th, 2015. He sold right after birth.

 Anna and her colt were taken to the 2015 IL Horse Fair where he was the only foal on the grounds. He drew a crowd where ever he went and people flocked to our stalls to see him.

Anna was also in the play Maleficent for the Friesian demo at the 2015 IL Horse Fair as the kings mount.

Anna will be at the 2016 IL Horse Fair with Our Anni as her rider. This demo is going to be action packed and very exciting. We hope to have a good crowd come down to watch. There will be sword fights, gold coins, jewels, and fun costumes. The IL Horse fair is held in Springfield, IL on March 4th, 5th, and 6th, at the state fairgrounds. 

Ayanna

Last night the lady in charge of the breed and sport demo's at the IL Horse Fair called to introduce herself and go over a few things. She asked about the horses we are bringing and explained because we have such a big group of horses the Friesians would be performing in the coliseum each day. There are pros and cons to that, it is a huge arena and plenty of seating but last year the crowds were not aware that some of the groups would be there instead of the livestock arena and missed the show. She is going to be posting schedules up in barn 18 and other places and hopes to have the entire schedule posted in the fair books.
We decided to profile each of the horses coming down to the fair and today we start with Ayanna.
Ayanna was born March 21st, 2010 out of Lily by Raven. Pictured below right after birth.

She has the extreme upward movement so desired for dressage.
Check out the video of Ayanna at 6 months of age:
She is a tall big mare standing 16.2 hands plus. She was bred to Evan in 2013 and delivered Violet June 8th, 2014. She was bred again to Evan in 2015 and is expecting her second foal. Most of the mares we are bringing are in-foal but far enough away from a due date it isn't a problem. Of all the mares we are bringing Ayanna is due the soonest. She is due April 17th and the fair is the first weekend in March so is at least 6 weeks away. The good thing about her is pregnancy does not slow her down. She is very fit. The picture below was taken last week of Karin working with Ayanna.

Ayanna will still be impressive even if she is big. Ayanna's first foal by Evan was a filly born in 2014 we named Violet. As Evan always throws the mega hair and big movement this new foal is going to be another superstar. Below is a video of Violet.

So looking forward to meeting this next foal. If the foal is a filly she is already reserved, if a colt he will be for sale.

A Brisk Wet Wind

We walked today but only got about half of one round in before giving up. The wind picked up the rain coming down and blew it hard into our faces.
I had to leave a bit early anyway for Berean. To read about our day there click HERE.
Once home all I wanted to do was hunker down with an electric blanket and breathe. I picked up a cold early this morning and by afternoon no air was escaping from the nostrils and sneezing made my ears feel like they were going to explode.
Karin arrived but because all the horses had their shots did not work any of the mares. Only Ribbon was used today for the vaulting team. The practice went great, no pictures though I just wasn't feeling well enough to stay up at the barn.

Leaky Meltdown

Early this morning Mark was messing with the electric  breakers and accidentally turned off the one to the family room which happens to be the room the computers are in. When the breaker was turned back on the computer would not turn back on. Time to call Taegan, my 3 year old grand daughter! On the walk this morning we discovered Rosaleigh and Roxanne had broken the float off their automatic waterer again! This time Emily wasn't able to fix it so to stop the water from flowing we jammed a brick under the broken float area knowing once the water in the reservoir was gone the 4 horses sharing this would be thirsty. Rosaleigh

was put in with Ribbon

and Ayanna

while Indy

was put in the middle paddock and Eliza

put in with Roxanne

. This was to give these girls an education on how to behave with dominant mares. The first thing Rosaleigh did was to threaten to kick Ayanna. Well Ayanna was having none of that and went after her big time. Rosaleigh was shocked and ran to Ribbon who also went after her. Now for the record both of these mares are too big and slow to hurt agile fast Rosaleigh but they are sure scary enough to knock this highfalutin prima donna with an attitude right off her throne. The plan on the the waterer was for me to fill it as soon as I got home from work but by the time I got home the horses had knocked the waterer off the base allowing the water to pour out. Emily set it back up and stopped the leak again, then was in doing homework, looked out the window and there was Rosaleigh outside her window. The mares had run her into the gate knocking it off the hinge and allowing all three mares to break out and wander the neighborhood. Once the mares were put back and the gate up it was back to studying for Emily. When I got home from work Tom, the electrician was here to work on our disconnect at the house. He needed to shut off the electricity again and this time to the barn too leaving the barn and the apartment dark. Emily found it kind of hard to do homework in the dark. She left for school about the same time I needed to leave for Mary See's visitation. Walking to the garage to get into the car I see the waterer is again knocked sideways with water pouring out. Mark was asked to shut the water off to everything until I could get home. Mom and I arrived at the funeral home right at 4:00 pm and were on our way back by 4:30 pm. I quickly changed back into my muddy barn clothes, turned the water back on and went out to fix the waterer. Mike arrived right after with everything needed to fix it properly. We needed to move in a couple bales today in the middle paddock.  Mark was up at the barn working on the solar system and offered to help with that.  Emily had stopped after school at Big R's to pick up vaccines for the horses spring shots which we are giving early this year as I want the horses vaccinated before taking them to the fair. She bought all they had but they were short one shot. She gave all the horses the shots except for Oksana while Mark and I were putting in the bales. We will need to pick up a shot for Oksana next week. When the mares were grained tonight Rosaleigh was nice and submissive. It didn't take her long to learn a few herd manners.  I was able to get the computer running this evening but I really don't know how this happened so we are not sure what causes the problem and really not sure how to fix it.
The day started out with problems which seemed to continue most of the day but by this evening every problem was fixed and I am thankful.