Horse FAIR Schedule UP

For those wanting to know the IL Horse Fair schedule it is now up: to check out Friday's schedule CLICK HERE.
For Saturday's schedule CLICK HERE.
For Sunday's schedule CLICK HERE.
WOW this is the first time ever Horsemeister actually made the printed form of the schedule.
I had an easy day today until I went to the shop. There we had a conference call with Phil, Mark, Amanda, me and the man working on the new Meister website. Earlier I had decided not to change the Horsemeister website until I saw how well the new Meister Heating website looked. Phil convinced me it would be worth the time and effort to change. That project will need to be started at a later time.
Karin was here training horses when I got back and I took a few pictures but didn't take the time to down load them. We barely had time for supper before heading out for church. Mom didn't go tonight, she still has a bad cold. David Obergfel had the message, reading first Psalm 37 then the book of Jude. It was really good to be there. Not that I have trust issues...
Jessica sent a text through in the middle of the night..well actually around 11:00 but we were so sound asleep I was sure it was the middle of the night, that she thought there were horses out. Something big was banging around in the barn. Now I'm going to go back a few hours, when we got home from church Emma was barking at something outside but it was so dark I couldn't see anything. The only thing I heard was a horse LOUDLY expelling gas. My first thought was that sounds like Anna but it must be Valiant coming from that side of the yard. So at 11:00 pm the clothes were thrown back on a couple flashlights grabbed and off I went hunting. The fog was so thick the horses were not easy to find, I got turned around without realizing and ended up at the woods instead of back of the big field. Giving up finding them there it took a long time to get back to the barn. It was like walking in cotton, just no way to see more than a few feet in front of me. A bucket of grain was taken out and I stood in the field next to Valiant's and started calling. The thick pea soup fog could not dampen the sound of those big thundering hooves as the mares arrived. I'm thankful they come when called and thankful I could just lock them in the field for the night. They will be moved in the morning, hopefully they won't tear up the field too badly. And Rhoda before you question me about WHY they got out again after you spent all that time fixing the latches so Oksana couldn't possibly open them, Karin didn't know Oksana opens the gates and didn't latch the far one properly.

Nosy Neighbors

On our walk today we had to stop and check out the new Sauder Project. Rachel seems to keep busy with her building projects. She is now is building her second tiny house and this one on wheels.

Below mom and Diane are checking out the plumbing in the tiny bathroom. Rachel does everything on a budget. She has been able to build this using many free items.

We really are nosy neighbors around here and need to check out anything new. You never know when we might need to borrow it. When we got to the second round, Sarah, Diane and Joan stopped in at my house and loaded the car with the Berean lunch to save me steps. I have a good excuse to ask for help with my leg and all. 

Even though we didn't have any mail we still had plenty to do at the Berean office. To read about our morning there click HERE. 

This afternoon Karin came to train but I put her to work first helping move bales. We moved a bale in Eliza's paddock then moved all 7 mares out of the middle paddock so two bales could be put in there. Karin started training while I worked on those two bales. By the time I got there she had already ridden Eliza, Oksana, Zalena and was riding Indy. Eliza was put out to graze while the horses Karin finished were put away. 

 Above is Eliza enjoying the bit of green grass coming up with this warm up and below is Karin working with Indy. 

 Ayanna was the next mare ridden and the next 3 pictures are all of Ayanna. 

This mare is just so much fun to watch. She has such big movement and is so talented. Hannah arrived to help Karin with Galena. We are trying to get Galena ready for the Illinois Horse Fair which is in just 10 days. Hannah is going as Calypso and needed to find out if her hair would be in the way of the vaulting routine. 

 I think she will be just fine. 

For the fair Galena will be bathed, brushed, fluffed and lit up with fairy lights. I'm trying to talk Hannah into letting me light HER up too. 

I need to post a few pictures from yesterday which should have been posted yesterday but weren't downloaded from the camera until today. Rhonda and Molly brought over 8 of Spark and Rhonda's grand children on their walk. They found a snake nest, a bunch of snakes came squirming out of the ground and slithering away. 

They visited the horses then came down for a golf cart ride. Dafna decided to drive and shocked the adults by pushing on the accelerator. 

 Next they decided to walk down to the path in the woods to search for bear, mountain lions and coyotes. 

 It was kind of hard to get that bunch to all look one way at the same time. 

From this group Rhonda was missing Tara's baby boy, Molly's oldest son, Kari's 2 and Jacob's 2.

Warm Again

The weather is still nice, so nice instead of training horses Karin, Jessica, Sarah and Anni went hiking on the Rock Island Trail with their dogs. They posted the pictures below of their hike.

I spent the morning organizing the tubs we will be hauling down to the fair and cleaning the stall barn. The indoor arena was cleaned and watered well. The horses were grained but none of them teased. I'll do that tomorrow. All the mares were checked. They were enjoying the warm sunshine too, most of them were laying flat out sound asleep when I went in to check udders. Thankful that Anna's udder is still flat. Mike and Diane spent yesterday afternoon and evening at Middle Grove. The  horses there are actually grazing more than they are eating the hay. This amazing weather is really helping our hay bill. Hoerr vet clinic was called to make an appointment to get a few horses sonagrammed but the vet clinic was closed due to a holiday which I forgot. That meant we couldn't get any mail either, which means Berean's will have an easy day tomorrow. We have a lot of work left from last week so this is probably good. Ellen called to remind me that there won't be any mail tomorrow. The lady that bought Marika's 2015 colt posted the pictures below. He has turned out beautiful.

She writes: "He floats!" That gives me hope for Marika's 2016 colt as these two are full brothers.
Right now Marika's 2016 colt is at that ugly duckling stage.

Marika needs to be brought back from Middle Grove and bred but this year we are going to use Evan on her.

Super Duper Sunday

We awoke to another beautiful day and to make it even better today was SUNDAY, everyone's  favorite day of the week. Mom wasn't feeling well, her cold is just hanging on but she was so sick of staying home she decided to come to church anyway and just stay away from people.
Harvey Kaeb, the elder from Gridley visited Peoria today and had the morning service then helped Tim read the memorandum for the afternoon service. It was so good to be home and back in church. Rhoda and Lee were already here by the time we got home from church. Rhoda was warming up Rosalie for the Pirate practice.

Hard to believe this huge beautiful mare just turned 4 years old yesterday. Rhoda has done all the undersaddle training on her. Jessica,  David and Sarah were walking the fields with some of the dogs and stopped in to visit before the practice.

The play practice went well but Jenis is still favoring her right front leg since her hoof trimming on Saturday so she was out and Amy wasn't able to make it so Anna was also missing. Below are a few pictures of the practice.

After the practice the group all went to the playground to play volley ball. The weather was so nice they decided to move it from the gym to the playground. We heard sirens then saw billows of smoke across the corn field. We haven't heard what was burning but it must have been something big.

 Rhoda stayed around here to help get a video and a few pictures of Beautiful Bethany and her buddy Arturo. Bethany wil be a year old April 1st and is Evan's daughter. She will be registered with Friesian Heritage Horse soon. She is for sale for $3000.00 BUT if you want to start your own Friesian herd and want to purchase Arturo we will sell them as a package for only $9000.00! Arturo is a purebred Friesian stud colt and is NOT related to Bethany who is half Friesian. This is a great way to get a jump start on your OWN Friesian HERD!
Below is the video of Bethany:
Below are a few pictures of Bethany taken today.

 She is very sweet and well behaved. 

 Bethany is NOT broke to ride even though Ruby thought she was. 

 We decided to bring Arturo next. He is also well behaved and we just let him follow Bethany into the stall then left her in and took him out to the outdoor arena for pictures.

 Above Bethany is in front of Arturo and below is shaggy Arturo. He grew quite a winter coat this year. Arturo will be a year old in June but is already quite a bit taller than Bethany. The two are best friends. 

After Arturo was put away we went over to the playground to watch the volley ball players. The dogs were there too. They locked up Rizzy and Ari because those two wouldn't stay off the volley ball court. 

 Chewy and Emma know the rules and had to rub it in that they were loose to the two locked up. 

 Chewy decided to go on the court next but Rhoda ordered him off. 

 Studly came over to enforce that rule to Chewy. 

The games were entertaining. It was amazing to be playing volley ball outside on February 19th, 2017 and playing is short sleeves, barefoot and in shorts. Another great day...we are beyond blessed today. 

Two Trail Rides

Mark and I left at 7:00 am to eat breakfast at Bob Evans then shopping to pick up much needed groceries. Karin arrived here just after we got back to work on the Friesian demo script for the IL Horse Fair. That was finished and emailed then out we headed to load Easter Lilly who was leaving for Middle Grove today. We made it back after noon but in time to get a few pictures of the horses leaving for the first trail ride of the day. Emily and Mitchel brought out 3 guests. Horses used for the first trail ride were Ayanna, Eliza, Indy, Oksana, and Zalena.

The horses were put away and given about an hour to rest before the next trail ride started. The girls arrived to take the dogs for a walk. Below is Karin with Studly, Hannah with Emma, Anni with her dog and Ebby. Anni's dog is a purebred Poodle but is half miniature and half standard. He will be standing at stud soon. They hope to breed him to Rebekah's goldendoodle to have a litter of miniature goldendoodle puppies soon.

Today was so nice that Karin put laying out on mom's deck on the fun schedule before the second ride of the day. This one only used 4 horses, Oksana, Indy, Galena and Ayanna.

While watching the horses getting ready to come down the lane there were two geese standing on the retention pond dam drive. They took off flying over the retention pond so I was able to snap the pictures below.

They were going to land then took back off again when it looked like Ebby was going to go right into the pond after them. Steven Marchal stopped in on his way down to St Louis and was happy to help tease Rosalie but she was not showing.
The laundry had to be done today as pretty much all of our clothes needed to be washed from the cruise. That got done just in time to dress and head out to Tim and Debby's house for potluck. We stayed visiting WAY to long but what a wonderful ending to a great day.