Eli Sold

What a fun day. It started with breakfast at the playground for the campers including Phil, Anna, Braelyn, Taegan, Israel, David, Sarah, Nolan, Karin, mom, Mark and I.
After breakfast Karin came over to work horses. First mare out was Wicktoria. Today we wanted to introduce her to the new mare.

Tori (Wicktoria) was given a good round pen reasoning lesson then put in the outdoor arena. Taegan and Kensley came out to watch.

Next out was Tatiana. This is such a beautiful mare. 

Love love love that mega hair Evan throws on his offspring. This 3 year old is out of our mare Marika. Evan does exactly what we want, throw hair and improve on the mare. She is a beautiful mare. She was introduced to Tori and there was absolutely no drama. Both mares were so glad for a companion. They were moved into the paddock next to Evan and Tori promptly showed. We got her covered by Valiant. Hope she goes out soon, because it looked like Tatiana also started to show and she too must be bred to Valiant. Jazz the outside mare was moved into the breeding shed paddock. We are hoping she will also start to show and her owners want her covered by Valiant too.  Poor Evan has no work until after Oksana delivers. The next job was to  work with each of the weanlings. Today after working them in the round pen each was given a leading lesson. Apollo was first. He is really improving with each day but consistency does wonders for foals.

He was led around the round pen using the golf cart then taken around the circle drive. The golf cart is strong enough to keep going if the foal thinks he or she doesn't have to move. They learn very quickly if they move forward the pressure stops.  The next foal out was Esther. She too drastically improved.

 Below Anna and Karin are taking her for a walk using the golf cart. Notice the nice loose lead rope. 

Whitney and Oksana were fascinated with the teaching process.

Star's filly, Elsa was the last foal worked with today. She is such a beautiful filly.

She did the best of all.  Next was the kids ride. Anna took Taegan and Kensley on Whitney while Nolan took Braelyn on Zalena. 

After that Nolan and Karin took the horses on the death trails. Funny how Whitney makes Zalena look small. Whitney will be leaving us Saturday so we are glad to have the use of her these last few days. 

 Rebekah brought her exchange student Ava over to ride. Below Rebekah is giving Ava a quick lesson on how to stop, turn, move forward and backward.  Check out that smile. Ava is from Tibet.

Right after they left a man and his wife arrived to look at a couple of the Friesian colts. They ended up buying Eli the orphaned colt. I didn't think he would last long. They promised to leave him here until early December. We want him nursing for at least 6 months off Sally.

He was very happy with him, gave us the deposit and signed a contract. The weanlings were all moved out of the stalls and into their own paddock. That meant a bale needed to be moved into that paddock and as long as Mark and I were moving bales the middle paddock also got another one. Both of the stallions will need bales later this week. This afternoon we went to the playground to watch more of the volley ball games. I didn't bring the camera. The pictures below are actually of Sunday's picnic and games.

We had a wonderful labor day weekend. Lots of family, lots of company and actually lots of work also got done. Late afternoon we had a haze move in and cover the sun eerily, it was hanging in the sky, a big orange ball. 

 It was like this for quite a while until thicker clouds rolled in and obscured it altogether. We were wondering why then found out this was caused from by all the smoke from the wildfires out west. 

 One very bad thing that happened is yesterday when we got home from church we noticed water coming out from under mom's driveway. Then I was walking over to the barn and noticed a big puddle up at the main hydrant at the farm. I thought someone had left the hose on and didn't think too much about it until this morning. We have a big water leak. Mike worked on it this evening and found one of the leaks but even with that shut off the meter is still running. There must be a pretty big leak underground. It is just too much of a coincidence that both leaks occurred on the same day and we wonder if the water company sent out water at much to great of pressure. Tomorrow we will be without water. Hope we find the leak quickly, all of these nursing mares are going to need a lot of water. 

Sunday Before Labor Day

Emily and Rhoda left around 5:30 am to pick up our new mare Tataina. She is actually Marika's very first filly she had for us after we bought Marika. Her sire is Evan. When we were given the chance to acquire her we jumped at it.

They made it back here with her this afternoon. Isn't she beautiful! She is quite a bit taller than Marika and has Evan's mega hair. Her tail has to be trimmed or it drags the ground. She was put in a paddock by herself but tomorrow we will try to introduce her to Wicktoria who also needs a friend. 

We had to be on the road this morning at 8:00 am which usually wouldn't be a big deal except I over slept. Didn't wake up until almost 6:00 am. Oksana needed taking out, the stalls needed cleaned, the weanlings fed, watered and the rest of the horses grained and I got it all done by 7:30 am. That gave me time to cook breakfast, jump in the shower and still be ready to pick up mom for church at 8:00 am. Joan was giving lunch and we were to be there early to help. She had plenty of food and all went well. Tim Funk had the morning service and Mike Rieker had the afternoon. As soon as we got home we started cooking food for the big Sunday picnic. That was well attended I believe there were almost 100 people there but there was plenty of food. Rachel served pulled pork and lots of others brought food. Joan provided most of the deserts which were left overs from lunch. We played and played and just now came in for bed. I'm gambling that Oksana will not deliver tonight and did not bring her in. Pictures of the day will be downloaded and looked at later.

Pug Puppies Born

Another beautiful day as Aunt Clara would say. We had sunshine and moderate temperatures. Jessica and Rachel were up most of the night helping The Princess deliver her pug puppies. She had 4 all a dark fawn color all females.

The Princess is taking very good care of them. If interested in a pug puppy contact Jessica, but better do it pretty quickly these Sauders are crazy for pugs. They now have 7 of them. Of course that includes the newborns.
Phil and Anna  arrived with the girls to pick up the camper. They were heading to Middle Grove to enjoy the big lake there. The fishing is great, the water is clear and cool for swimming, there are boats and docks and slides all great fun for the girls. They love to camp and were so excited to be going.
We were busy here. with 4 foals and 1 heavily pregnant mare stalled each night stalls take a while. As soon as they were done and Oksana taken back out I took the golf cart over to mom's for a few vine ripened tomatoes for our breakfast. There is nothing better for breakfast than ride ripe home grown tomatoes on eggs.
Karin arrived after breakfast to work with Wicktoria. She is still in season and was covered today by Valiant. Jazz, the outside mare was also teased but she is still saying NO very emphatically. Wictoria was taken to the round pen. Just check out the muscle on this mare.

The picture above was taken today and the picture below taken shortly after Wicktoria arrive at our farm. Her neck and chest are much more developed and she now has muscles in her loin area. That comes from the hills from Middle Grove. Too bad she lost her mane and tail out there. Oh well those are already growing back. 

Sarah and Nolan arrived with both of their pregnant puppies. Nolan went with Karin on the trails taking a hand saw to try to get the branch down that is hanging to low across the trail. Below they are just heading out. The hand saw in in Nolan's saddle pack.

 They were not able to get it down though, it was just to big and too green. Someone is going to have to hike in carrying a chain saw. The lady buying Apollo arrived to make sure she will be able to handle such a big strong colt. After working with him both Karin and I felt they would be fine together. He was led out to the round pen and worked a bit. He was actually well behaved. 

 She also looked at EasterBonnett and when she got home wrote: That Easter bonnet is an absolute doll. She's one of those animals I will always remember. I wish I could afford both of them! We tied her in the outdoor arena while Apollo was being worked with.

After everyone left Karin and I drove into Hanna City to eat a late lunch. By this time it was after 2:00 pm. The Hog Trough was closed but the Warehouse is open until 3:00 pm on Saturdays and they serve some very good sandwiches. When we got home I had to head to Sam's Club. There really was nothing to eat in the house plus Emma was out of dog food. Emily and Mitchel arrived to pick up the truck and trailer for the trip to Michigan tomorrow morning. Rhoda and Emily are picking up our new 3 year old Friesian mare Tatiana. She is Marika's daughter by Evan.

She will be bred to Valiant and put in training with Rhoda. 

 We are pretty thrilled to get the chance to own her. She is just beautiful. Later Caleb came in to tell us they were going to be skeet shooting in the field. There was a big group and that was fun to watch.

This evening was spent over at mom's. Dan and Susan are camping there and the evening was nice. Karin joined us and we played games out on the deck. Of course Dan and Susan won. (who invited them anyway) It was dark by the time I got back to get the stalls done for the night and bring in Oksana. She knows the routine. I call her and she comes right to the gate. The other mares in that paddock know when I call Oksana, they don't get to come. Everything is done for the night. 

Rhoda's First Day

Joan couldn't come on the walk today, her youngest three were sick. Ruth, Diane, mom and I along with the dogs missed her. Right after the walk I ran the golf cart up to the barn to let out Sally and Eli from the stall where they were eating their grain and was surprised to find Mike in with the weanling stall. As long as he was there he was given a halter and asked to halter Esther first and then Apollo. I was thankful as each of these are big and strong and not sure they wanted a halter on. After he left I started cleaning the stalls when Rhoda walked in. I was shocked to see her that early as I didn't expect her until 10:00 am. This was the perfect opportunity to start the weanlings in the round pen. EasterBonnett and Esther were taken out first. She is gorgeous with big movement.

 

Below is a short video of her fantastic movement. 

Esther is for sale and we are only asking $5000.00 for her. She looks like a purebred Friesian, moves like a purebred Friesian and has the hair of a purebred Friesian. What a bargain!
Next Rhoda worked with EasterBonnett.

This is the sweetest filly produced at the Horsemeister farm this year. She just loves people and tries to please. Below is her short video:


Apollo was taken out next. We were expecting him to be a handful and he was in the beginning but his training session ended well. He is the tallest, most impressive colt this year but has the worst attitude.

Star's filly was haltered and tied but not taken out to work with, we were running out of time and still needed to get a short video of Indy's filly Envy.

Below is her short video.

The foals were all put back, the stalls cleaned, fresh water given along with hay and grain for the weanlings then we jumped in the truck and took the trailer out to Middle Grove. When we arrived we couldn't find the horses. We drove up the hill and started heading toward the second hill looking to the left, right and in front when finally we noticed the entire herd chasing us from behind.

 Soul was looked at first. Karin was worried she was sick and mentioned she didn't want her ear touched. We checked it out and there was a tick inside her ear. She wasn't happy to stand but we got it out and took care of the wound in her ear. Poor Soul! She will feel much better. 

 Next we checked out Jewel. Karin reported she was acting weird. Well she is obviously still pregnant. Those pregnancy hormones are working on her but she seemed fine. One good thing that happened today with her is she let us know that Wicktoria was in season. Wicktoria had been bred to Valiant in April and confirmed in foal by ultrasound. She must have lost the foal. Thankfully we brought the trailer with us so she could be taken back and bred back to Valiant. 

 Rosalie came up for a hug from Rhoda

 Rhoda asked her to bow. 

 Ayanna was next to come and wanted to do a trick for a treat. 

 Below is Sheena's filly by Valiant. She is the only foal at Middle Grove but will be brought in soon for weaning. This one is not for sale, she is so well built that we would like to keep her and breed her to Evan at age 3. 

 Madeira was not happy that Wicktoria was in the trailer and showed her displeasure by running around. 

 As we were driving out Bunni was galloping toward the tree line, slid to a stop, dropped and rolled. Then was so comfortable she stayed like that for a while. 

As soon as we got home Wicktoria was covered by Valiant. We finally stopped work and took a lunch break. After lunch we moved bales, fixed fence, opened Ribbon's paddock up to the back field and moved Roxanne, Rosaleigh and both of their foals over into that paddock. Below Rhoda is bringing a bale over for that paddock.

Rhoda took Wicktoria out to the round pen and was very pleased with her. She remarked Karin must have been working with her at Middle Grove.
Rhoda left for the prayer room. Mark and I drove in to Bartonville to do a little grocery shopping at Kroger and ate dinner at Good Tequila's. We split a meal, it was delicious. This evening the stalls were cleaned one more time and Oksana brought in. She is bagged up but I wasn't able to squirt any colostrum out to test so she must not be that close.
I am SO thankful to have Rhoda working here now, what a great first day.