Farm Visit

We are looking forward to our first farm visit for 2015.  We have a little girl that is a huge horse lover coming tomorrow with her family. I am really hoping the weather will cooperate.  But Will said we are suppose to get rain starting tonight and all day tomorrow.  Times like this we could so use an indoor arena.  Long term plans....

If you haven't followed us on Facebook, then you missed Midori of Full Spectrum, a lovely coming on 3 year old Friesian mare joined our herd in February. We are very excited to have her!  Her sire is Fridse 423 (standing at Friesian Connection). She is just magnificent. Heart stopping movement, feather to spare and a heart of gold. Very much a pocket pony!!  My kinda girl.  My dear friend Angela took some amazing pics of her and I am anxiously awaiting them.

Malory and I are gearing up for show season. Jayden and Tristan plan to show in the leadline classes as well. So, it will be a VERY very busy season.  To prepare, I spent some time cleaning tack and cleaning up the living quarters in the trailer to be more of a closet/tack room. This summer will be more of a learning experience for us.  But still looking forward to the challenge!

Wish us luck tomorrow!!

If you have kids and live in the Galesburg, IL area, you need to come to the Touch a Truck event put on by the Parks and Recreation Department.  This will be our second year attending.  We will have our two Fell Pony mare LemonDrop and Toryn there this year.  Come check it out this FREE event!!

Some kinda wonderful!

My lips are sealed for another couple days… But oh, there will be a huge announcement coming soon. Did I mention that I am really excited about this announcement? Ok…. Ok. Sorry, I feel like a kid at Christmas that can’t WAIT to tell everyone what I got them. (Yes, that would have been me as a kid. Funny, my kids do the SAME thing!!)

We do have other exciting news we can announce. Isabella’s Song (aka Bella) is expecting her second foal by Evan (Horsemeister, Inc) due late summer of 2015. If this foal is half as nice as Leonardo’s Masterpiece, as I can only imagine it will be with the same dam and sire, it will be long legged, amazing neck and all around fantastic.

Fellconnection Toryn will be coming home next Wednesday. WHOOO HOOO!! I have really missed this sweet mare. She has had a busy two months getting started under saddle and "dating" Stennerskeugh Danny Boy. We are very hopeful that she is expecting her first foal. This will be another knock out foal for us. I can hardly stand it!

Lemon Drop sadly will not be having a foal next year, but this gives us a chance to show her off next year. Our daughter Jayden is itching to show. She sits on her "new to us" English saddle pretending to ride Lemon Drop. It is the cutest thing!!

Tristan and Jayden with their Lemon Drop (photo by J Utah Photography) 

I feel so blessed that we have found 3 such sweet tempered, stunning mares. We have been blessed beyond measure. Just need to get riding lessons started up again.. In all our spare time.

Will took yesterday off to meet Dr. Keller so he could draw blood on Bella to check her progesterone levels. Keeping a close eye on her to make sure all goes well. Will also had Dish network installed (we have not had cable/dish for 3 years now… This will be a shock to the system.). We also had someone out to work on the dryer which decided to quit working last Thursday. The gentleman got the dryer running again, but called today to give Will the good news that the replacement pieces for it would be over $500. HA! Guess when it goes to appliance heaven, we will be getting a new dryer. Not particularly fond of the washer and dryer, but I really do not want to have to buy new ones. So, praying they will last at least another year if I talk really sweet to them! Cause, that helps you know…

Nice weekend

We got to spend Friday night hanging out with my parents. Nothing major, but a relaxing evening. Saturday Mom and I made a trip to Sam's Club to stock up on a few items we needed while Will was working. After Sam's we went to B&B Reinebach. Tristan and I had riding lessons. It was awesome. I had so much fun. Tristan was a probably done after the first 30 mins, but I don't think he wanted to stop riding as long as I was riding. He didn't complain, just was content to walk Shadow and not trot or lope anymore. Needless to say, we are both getting a lot more confidant in the saddle.

I was stuck down with another migraine this morning. Time to get my eyes checked again? Not sure, but I am not liking how frequent they have become.

Sam and I ventured out to the orchard paddock. I turned him loose and took a couple of shots with my camera. Sam was having some fun. And I enjoyed the show.

Sam showing off his amazing mane

not the best shot of Sam, but loved the lighting

stretching his legs

 I pulled the other three into the barn and cleaned them up and checked them over.  I could have stayed out there with them all day, but it was SOOO cold.  Will and I put Palmer, Bella and Lemon Drop back in the pasture.  All in all a very nice weekend.

Sam

So life with Sam has been pretty good.  If you haven't heard about him yet, Scafellpike Southern Comfort (aka "Sam") is our Fell Pony Stallion we added to the farm in September.  He is a handsome 4 year old.  I have been horrible about blogging, so thought I would catch you all up.

Nevar went to his new home in September.  Congrates to Tami!!  I just received a text from her today that they are both doing great.  I am so happy for them.  Nevar is a wonderful young colt and I can't wait to see all the great things these two accomplish.

We have four working stalls now in the barn.  They are not completely finished, but since Will started working on the next overpass, well, there just is not enough time.  But they are usable!!  I will have to try to find some pics of the barn before we started working on it...  Needless to say, this is wonderful news for us!  So, we are happy for now.  Will did finish up the shelter in the orchard paddock.  It is nice!  Our horses will have plenty of room to get in and out and lots of shelter from the weather.
Airiah went to B&B for training.  She is now ridable!  Can't wait for some decent weather...  This beautiful mare is for sale.  (Visit our website for more information and pictures.)

Here are a couple pics of Sam not too long after we got him.  My sister-in-law Sam was helping me brush all the horses.  We had a blast that day loving on Sam (yes, this is REALLY confusing. Sam my sister or Sam our pony?!?)  Well, here are a couple of my favs from that day!

Sam and Sam :)

Jenni and Sam.  He REALLY likes to be scratched! haha.

This is one of my favorite pics of Sam so far.

Then I just took this one today as Will was bringing Sam back up from the orchard paddock.  

 Well, time to finish up dinner and spend some time with my babies.  Have a wonderful day!!
Please be sure to visit our website if you haven't lately.  It is "newly remodeled!!" and looks amazing.  Thank you John Wethington for doing such a great job.

Visitors

Isabella's Song (Bella) went to HorseMeister last week to be bred to Evan.  Evan's sire is the world reknown Friesian stallion Mintse of Friesian Connection.  Bella is listed for sale as a two for $8,000.  She is an smart, willing to please, kind and a trained mare.  She has lots of spirit and likes to go more than whoa.  This foal is going to be amazing!!  Here are a couple pictures Ms. Judy took of Bella.

 


Isn't she amazing?!  Such a pretty girl.  I really miss her, can't wait to bring our girl back home!
Will's brother Chris' family is here visiting for the week.  It is so nice to have family here.  Our kids are all playing so well together.  Tristan is the oldest at 5, Audrey is 4, Jayden 2 and Bryce is 18 months.  I am amazed that there haven't been any major issues over toys, etc.  YEAH!!!  Plus I get to spend some time with my sister(-in-law) Samantha.  :)
Big news for tomorrow, I am taking Tristan to register for kindergarten.  How did that happen?  Seems like just yesterday we brought our baby boy home from the hospital.  I think I am going to take his first day of school off so I can drop him off and then pick him up.  Maybe do something fun just the two of us since we don't get to do that much.  He is VERY excited about going to school.  YMCA Kid Care Station has preped him really well for school.  He already knows all his letters, colors, numbers, shapes, can do some adding, recognizes some words...  I just hope he isn't too bored!!

Short weekend

So much to do and never enough time.  We spent the majority of the weekend outside.  This weather is amazing, and I have the mild sunburn to prove it.  Saturday I did do a ton of laundry and house work, but I still have a stack of dishes that are screaming to get done.  Will's Dad made a surprise visit to drop off some off the stuff he had from Grandma Moser's home.  Will and his Dad went out and worked on fencing and in the barn while I got dinner thrown together.  Somehow, we managed to sleep til 9 am today.  Not sure what happened to both our cell phone alarms and the clock alarm, but we woke up to Jayden crying.  I looked at the bedroom clock and about fell over.  I found Tristan in the living room watching a movie.  We are normally up and going by 6 am on Sundays.  Needless to say, we missed church.  Not a good way to start off our week.  After breakfast, we did chores and started in on a couple projects.  Around 1:30, Ms. Paula, one of the kids' teachers brought her daughter and grand daughter out.  They helped me brush Lemon Drop down and put some braids in her mane.  Then I saddled her up and lunged her.  She was full of get up and go.  I was thoroughly enjoying watching her really pick up her feet, she even arched her neck real pretty.  I wonder if she was enjoying all the attention she was getting??  Needless to say, she was a beautiful girl!  Sandria (not sure if I am spelling your name right dear...) went first.  We stayed at a walk as Ms. Sandria has a broken arm.  Then Breanna took a turn.  We got into a nice little trot.  I was really happy with Lemon Drop's behavior.
They all wanted to see Palmer, so we took a walk to the orchard.  Sandria fed him an apple, being the gentleman he is, he nuzzled on them both.
Tristan told me Saturday that he thought Palmer was sad and lonely.  He "listens" to the horses by putting his ear up to their flank.  It is really cute to watch.  Maybe he will be the next horse whisperer??  I figured it is probably time to put him out with the rest of the herd since he is all by himself with Bella being at Horsemeister on her first date...  Palmer did well.  In fact, Nevar was chasing him across the dam, then Palmer chased him back.  Lemon Drop and Airiah were waiting in case they were needed.  Those two mares have really bonded.  It is nice to see Airiah developing such a strong friendship.
We are going to have a house full this week.  Chris' family is coming to stay with us while Chris is at a seminar for work.  The kids are going to have a blast chasing each other around.  Samantha and I are going to have our hands full! haha!!
Sorry,  this really isn't my best post, but I am so tired.  It has been a very busy weekend.   Thanks for reading and please let me know what you would like to hear more of!!

Timing is everything

We had church Sunday, and I am so eternally grateful that Will decided to fill in for me in the nursery.  Otherwise I would have missed THE BEST service I have ever been to.  I need to start carrying a box of kleenex to CBC with me.  I was sobbing tears of joy listening 9 people give their lives to Jesus, they ranged from 6 years old to 49 years young.  It was amazing to hear all their trials and how God brought them through.  I don't think there were many dry eyes in the house Sunday.  It was an exhilarating service.  Our Church is also going to be providing the music on August 2 at the Knox County Fair, there was the Sidewalk Vacation Bible school last week, VBS this week, the church picnic at our farm this Sunday.  There are so many exciting things going on at church!!

As for that whole, Timing is everything...  Apparently, I don't have the best...  Dr. Keller came out to ultrasound Bella to see if she was in season.  Tristan was helping me with Bella.  He was very interested in what Dr. Keller was going to be doing, but I figured it would be better for him to "help" keep Bella still at her other end that be right in middle of it all at other end.  He still decided that being a vet is NOT what he wants to do when he grows up.  Darn it!!  How handy would that be?!  But, he did really well, was quiet (amazing feat for Tristan), did what I asked, and didn't whine.  I was proud of him.  Sadly, Dr. Keller told me that Bella had just been in less that 48 hours ago.  Not the best of news.  We were hoping to take her to Horsemeister tonight to have her first "date" with Evan.  Now we will have to give Bella a shot on Monday to bring her back into season then a week from this Thursday she will go to Horsemeister.  

Horsemeister has three phenomenal stallions.  We couldn't use Valiant on Bella as they are 1/2 brother and sister.  Killian is so handsome.  We went with Evan.  I have seen him several times, but I am so ready to see him up close.  He is so impressive and hairy.  Which is good with Friesians.  ;)

Our friend/webmaster is working on a total overhaul on our website.  I am very anxious to see the outcome.  I really like our website now, but I think this is really going to be much easier to navigate.

If you haven't heard, I finally got our facebook page for the farm set up.  Send Hardenberg Friesians a facebook friend request!!!  I am going  to try to be better about posting on there.  Wish me luck!!