Ayanna & Holly

Diane helped load up the 4 horses this morning after the walk. Dr. Hoerr sonagrammed Holly first and found a nice big embryo. Holly was bred to Valiant and is due April 17th, 2014.

 Above is Aaron holding on to Jenis and Holly while Ayanna is sonagrammed.

 Her coggins was pulled and she was done. Jenis was next, she had a 41mm follicle, not quite ready to ovulate. She will need to go back to him tomorrow. Ayanna was last and pregnant. Now that is something to rejoice about but the very best was that she is pregnant by Killian according to the measurement of the embryo. Killian is going to be a DAD!
When Rhoda and Emily got home from college, they tacked up Ayanna and Indy for a trail ride.

Rhoda asked Ayanna to stand on the pedestal while Emily finished tacking Indy.

 When Emily climbed on she realized her girth wasn't tight. This is an unusual way to tighten a girth but Indy is so good she accepts how ever Emily does it just fine. Below they are heading to the death trails.

 We had a family meal tonight, everyone made it here, the girls made chicken ka-bobs. All was delicious.
Addyson really wanted to ride Ella so Rhoda tacked her up while Jack and I drove around on the golf cart.
Jack rode double with Addyson for a while then decided he wanted to lead.

By this time it was very dark and we needed the barn lights on.

Eliza's Colt Sold

It's a good thing we are flexible, we may think we have our schedule down, we may even start working on the first thing on the schedule and then comes along something to mess the entire process up. While we were grooming Ayanna, Indy and Killian the phone rang. We have a buyer for Holly but Holly has not been confirmed in foal. This means we must drive to Middle Grove, pick her up, bring her back here and give her a bath, putting us hours behind. Luckily Holly was right near the gate when we arrived. Emily walked right up to her, put her lead rope on and loaded her up. She will be taken to Dr. Hoerr's tomorrow morning along with Jenis, Killian, and Ayanna. Holly also needs a coggins test.
We had plans of video taping Lola's colt and Scarlet but it was way to hot by the time we were finished with Holly.
The deposit check came today for Eliza's colt, he was marked sold on the website.
Dave Obergfel had the service tonight on the Third Epistle of John. The ICC/Bradley young group was here and filled the front, the singing was beautiful.

Paper Work

On the walk today mom told us all about her trip to Alaska. She stated Carolee saw enough to know she hasn't seen near enough of Alaska. What a beautiful state to visit (in the summer).
Emily took my car to the North Campus of ICC. She needed a GPS and her plug to that didn't fit in her cigarette lighter. She needed to take placement tests before being admitted to ICC as she is a home schooled girl. Emily took the test and got the highest score possible. Looks like she will be attending college this fall. Not only that she got a 29 on her ACT test.
Eva Jean, Diane and I were working at full speed this morning in order to finish by lunch. We almost made it, I'll still have to go in to type up the requests but at least all the studies were finished.
After lunch I worked on paper work for Horsemeister. Trying to register the foals is time consuming. Each foal packet must have a copy of the dam's registration, The dates of stallion service, the foaling date, 30-40 strands of hair with the root attached, pictures of each foal from the sides and front and 4 pages of paper work filled out. The worst part is trying to come up with names. The lady buying Ribbon's filly named her Pandora but we are waiting on the owner of Mytross' colt to come up with a name.  Eliza's colt also needs a name in order to send in the paper work. Speaking of Eliza's colt,

I believe he is sold. A couple from Indianapolis told me they put the check in the mail yesterday. They want to pick him up in November at 6 months of age. The check should be here tomorrow, sure hope so I have 2 other people chomping on the bit to buy him if it doesn't make it by Thursday. Once we move the horses over to the new land at Middle Grove we want to move the mares and foals there. There is abundant grass growing there. The pastures here are ready for a rest.
It was really hot today, a high of 88 degrees so Jewel and her filly were again stalled. Now that the sun is down they were let out and the stall cleaned. Mark is working on the patio using lights. It was just to uncomfortable out there after supper with the sun beating down on the hot bricks.
Mike sent the pictures below of their work at Middle Grove tonight. They had to build a road over a creek. Check out how huge this culvert is they need to put in place and cover.

 Mike got it in place then Emily is busy covering it up with the yanmar. 

 All finished!

Now Mike can move the round bales across the creek up where the automatic waterer has been installed and Spark's safari jeep can make it across without hitting bottom. Nice work!

Off the Ground

The first job on the list today after the walk was to drive in to Hanna City for gas, 10 gallons of gas. The mower was hooked up to the tractor but the tractor was nearly out of gas. This tractor doesn't have good brakes so if it ran out of gas in the cabin field while Emily was driving she would have to stay with the tractor until someone rescued her. No wonder she didn't want to mow without knowing it had gas. Dan took a trip to the Goodfield World Relief building to pick up the pallet of Spanish Bibles we had shipped there. Today he was bringing them to the Berean warehouse. He came wearing a splint on his hand and was heading to the doctor. This is what the x-ray showed.

Yep I'd say he doesn't need a second opinion on that, it's broken.

Once the Bibles were stacked in the warehouse I got to work on the letters. They were processed and labels printed then mailed to Toledo, OH for Willie Hofstetter to apply to the labels to the wrapped Bibles and mail them out.

I was home by 11:00am just in time for our vet appointment with Dr. Hoerr. We had good and bad news. Ribbon is pregnant, below Dr. Hoerr was just getting ready to ultrasound her.

Marika was also pregnant. Ribbon was bred to Valiant and is due June 28th, 2014, while Marika was bred to Evan and due July 8th, 2014. Our bad news was Jenis, she did not settle again. After discussing our options we decided to take Jenis and Killian to Dr. Hoerr's and leave them. Killian will be tested then if he is good to go, Dr. Hoerr will ultrasound Jenis each day, then collect Killian and artificially inseminate her. Hope this works. As soon as the cabin field was finished Emily and I hooked up the living quarter trailer and drove to Middle Grove to pick up Killian. We stuffed Indy and Ayanna in the trailer with him. Rhoda and Emily are planning on going to the Peking Riding Club show Friday. When I say stuffed I really mean stuffed. That trailer is only a 2 horse trailer. I left her at Middle Grove to work with Mike on fencing. They are also putting in a culvert so they can cross the creek in the winter. Below Emily is digging with the yanmar.

That girl can drive anything! After dinner Jewel and her filly were let out of the stall into the paddock. We had to stall them today it was 86 degrees and that filly is only 4 days old. She was so funny, after being locked up in the stall for a few hours she was so full of energy. The 25% Thoroughbred part in her needed to bounce around.

below she went straight up into the air!

She finally settled down and was admiring the sunset tonight.

I didn't blame her it was another beautiful evening.

Mark was preparing the ground for more pavers with the mechanical compactor. Wow was he stirring up the dust.

I was glad when it finally got too dark for him to work. Mom is home from Alaska. She and Carolee had a wonderful trip. She will tell us more on the walk tomorrow.

A New TV Show

channel 25 WEEK came out to Norris, IL for the big unveiling of the project the Herman boy's were working on these last 2 weeks. If you haven't seen it yet check out the new's release. This was built on site of the Herman's lake in the sky located in the little town of Norris, IL. If this is your dream, you too can have this for a mere $100,000.00. Nate, Justin and Jarred would be glad to help you out.

Hurting

Ken Hoerr had the morning service today speaking on hurting people and our hurting church. The plea went out to fast and pray for Peoria. It was a very touching service and I'm glad I was there. I tried to get a cd of it for Mark, he was down teaching Sunday School and missed it but all the cd's were already gone. If I can remember I'll sign up for it on Wednesday.
After church we ended up at the playground visiting with Joan and Tim's new renter. He is an interesting fellow, he is a converted Jew. Now that doesn't mean what we thought it meant, it means he converted from Christianity to Judaism.
We needed to get the old bale out of the Friesian paddock and give them a new bale. These girls are so spoiled. They weren't eating their bale very well. Mark put the claw attachment on the skid steer and took one good grab then hauled it to the cow pasture.

The cows were glad for this hay. The mares were given a bale from the Middle Grove farm. They love that hay and as soon as they were let back into the paddock all three dove right in.

Polo On the Green

Karin and I bathed horses all morning to prepare for the parade of breeds for the CIRTS benefit then all afternoon was spent at Weaver Farms. Below are a few pictures, A video of the vaulting performance is posted below.

 Getting all fancy with spray glitter

 waiting

Emily warming up Jenis

 Mikayla warming up Zalena

 Cherie Thompson's Andalusian

 A mini

 Crystal's Gypsy Cob

 Dee's Yearling Friesian filly Olympia

The rest of the pictures are posted on the Horsemeister Inc Facebook page. I'm going to bed!

Before and After

I wasn't going to post the pictures below but mom actually gave me permission after seeing how Paris' prolapse healed. Below is Paris' bottom when she had a prolapsed rectum.

The picture below was taken yesterday at Norris, IL. The girls had to hold up her tail to see as they saw it when it first happened. She is completely healed other than a few tiny scars from the treatment.

And to think we were ready to put her down. The first vet that looked at her told us we need to prepare ourselves for losing her, then Dr. Hoerr came to the office, took one look and said, "this isn't fatal just really ugly!" Actually the treatment was pretty ugly and the smell worse but we sure can't fault the results!

Mark is out working on the wall.

I've spent the morning preparing the truck and trailer for our trip to Weaver Farm. The hay bags are filled and in the back of the truck along with the water buckets and grooming tools. The fancies for the horses have been checked and loaded. Jewel's stall cleaned out and all the horses fed a wheel barrow load of the loose hay from the broken bale. 

Update from Cortney

Cortney bought Helen the blind filly. She renamed her Fathom but this is what she writes:
 I love that Fathom would rather stand with me and get scratched then be with the other horses eating grass. Seriously the best horse I have ever known! 
This is a typical response to just about all of the owners of a Raven offspring. AND we are starting to believe his son Valiant is throwing that same sweet loving disposition.
We will have another busy day, the Friesians and Ribbon need to be at Weaver Farm for the CIRTS benefit by 2:30pm all bathed and decked out fancy for the parade of breeds, then at half time Ribbon and Karin's vaulting team are performing as the half time entertainment at the Polo match. The television crew from DIY (Do It Yourself Network) that is filming at Norris, IL are planning to come to video the performance. Who knows, not to put any pressure on the vaulters, but if it is good enough Karin's team and Ribbon could be on a real TV show.

Volcano In Norris

Herman Pond Management along with Noah Herman's Sons builders are creating a very unique man cave out at the Herman Lake in the Sky in Norris, IL. This is something that has to be seen to be believed. In 2 short weeks they designed and built a floating volcano. Now that sounds amazing enough but what happened next is down right amazing. They made it a man cave. Spark and Dan worked on the lighting, and with Dean Wright's help used a motor from an old car to design air conditioning. They have solar panels for electricity, a large screen television a shower with hot and cold water, a glass bottom viewing area to watch the huge fish swim by while floating on the lake. A fooseball table, sleeping for 4, a kitchen and up at the top a fire pit and much much more. If you can imagine it they can build it. Andrew Honegger (Mike and Diane's son) is putting in the neon lights to make the volcano erupt. There are men everywhere at this lake building this 360 sq foot gorgeous apartment all inside a floating volcano. All the women have been out providing meals for the many workers. Emily and I took Jenis, Zalena and Paris to help entertain the many kids. The great unveiling will be on Sunday but Nate said I could take pictures and post them today.

There is a telivision crew out there filming the entire building process below is one of the sound men

 Check out the film crew on the top of the volcano.

 This floating man cave will have everything Beth needs to get away from the hustle and bustle of a normal day at the lake as long as it isn't docked too close to land. The inside pictures will be revealed later.

The horses were busy, I'm just posting a few pictures here the rest of the pictures are posted on Facebook

 Below are the kids coming to ride the horses with the film crew close behind.

We loaded up and headed home by 4:00pm. Mark was busy moving bales off the field. We only got 11 bales total off 23 acres and 1 bale broke up as Mark was trying to move it. We unhooked the living quarter trailer, hooked up the stock trailer, drove that out to the field and by hand loaded the broken bale into the trailer then into the barn to unload. It took 3 trips.

These bales are big. After that was loosely stacked in the barn, Jewel and Emma (the horse not the dog) were each given a wheel barrow load. This is really good quality hay. I snapped a few pictures of Jewel's new filly by Evan.

So Karin's dog gives the filly a kiss and this is how she reacts

Yucky