We got the news that Checkers is now in foal. Roxy and Annie however are not so it looks like we have time to try one more time on them. Zippy was collected today, which makes him very happy, and we will give it another go with the two mares.

We had a little problem last week at the softball game. Susan’s company put a team together for our local recreational league. The good news is that we won the game 15 to 10. The bad news is that after a huge hit Susan made, on her way to first, pop went her Achilles tendon. She fell and never made it to first. Now we were already short 2 players and playing with 8 rather than the standard 10. Also since Susan is a woman, if she went out a guy would also have to go out, which would leave us with 6 and we would have to quit and forfeit. We were winning, so Susan decided she would still play. She could barely move which was not much of a problem for her normal pitching, but batting was impossible, so Susan just stood there and hoped for a walk. On the mound, she even fielded a sharp grounder and made the play to first. The other team was going crazy. They were so mad. They couldn’t believe they were losing to a team with 7 and 1/2 players! Well they lost. It was great fun. Except for the heel. Then off to the Emergency room. Susan got a thermocast on her leg and went to see the orthopedic surgeon the next morning. She had surgery on Monday and has to be off her foot for 6 weeks. She assures us it doesn’t really hurt that bad, but the worst part is having to be driven around by other people and that crutches do not come with three legs…or wheels and a seat J

In a sympathetic gesture, Moses has a torn ACL. Yes the same injury that knocks football players out for the season. He needs surgery too. Just like Susan he was just running around and bam and there it went. I will know more over the next couple of days about the surgery. Our regular vet does not do this procedure enough to be good at it so he referred us to another vet. I will also check with the University to see what to do next.

I brought Spice over to Roger and Karla’s. They really liked the looks of her, which is great. We will now have to see how she does under saddle with them. Stay tuned. I also heard from Andy that Java is doing well in the roping. He for sure wants to show him in Judged Heeling at the national show. He might do a couple other classes too, but he is not sure as of yet.

The foals are going out with their moms now in the bee pasture. It was pretty uneventful after the first couple of minutes. Initially, the mares both kicked a little at each other and then that was it. It looks like Roxy is in charge there now believe it or not, even though Fanny is much bigger. Remember it is usually the oldest mare that calls the shots. The mares kept the foals pretty much apart, but try as they might, the foals didn’t always stay by their mothers J

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“It’s going to be tonight” has turned onto “It’s gonna be this month!” Fanny is waxed up and has been dripping milk but is still holding on to that baby. Do you think she has seen the other mares foal and is thinking, “no way that’s happening to me!”??? We had given her some medicine a week or so ago to increase the size of her udder. It does not give her hormones or induce labor in any way, just helps her produce more milk so she’s ready whenever she decides to let us see that baby!    It was a busy and interesting day at Saddlebrook. It started early with Bill giving Moxy and Matilda baths so they would look nice when their new owners came to pick them up. They were doing a great job standing tied (Moxy only tried to roll once) when the vet came to check Roxy, Checkers and Annie to see if they could be bred. Roxy was ready, so Bill had to take Zippy to be collected. But not before Sharron and Dave came to pick up Moxy and Mattie. They loaded up in the trailer like champs and we waved good-bye. They are going to a wonderful home.   We also got a visit from Buddy Anna M and her hubby Ben, who were in the area visiting friends and family all the way from Washington State. They were joined by Amy M and Deb, who had been at the Midwest Horse Fair over the weekend with Buddy Teri. EveryBuddy got to see Roxy get bred. Later in the day Nancy, Gail, Lisa and Ashley showed up. It was like a mini-Bash!   Speaking of the Horse Fair, the BarnCam booth did a booming business. On Saturday it was so packed that the humungous Alliant Center parking lot was turning away cars because it was full. There were also some really cool things like a Mustang makeover, where each trainer got a wild mustang for 100 days to train. They then compete to show off how well they have trained the horses. The winner got $15,000 and all the horses get auctioned off to benefit the wild mustangs. One of the trainers was standing on his mustang like Erika did on Zippy, when it suddenly moved forward. He ended up falling off and hurting himself. They called the ambulance just to be on the safe side, but he got back up off the ground. Lucky guy.   Hopefully, by the time some of you read this we will have a new baby….Go Fanny!! J

Whew! Lots happening here since our last update. Sorry for the wait, but we sure have been kept on our toes J

You probably have heard already, but we have two new babies here and are waiting for Fanny’s. We kept our eyes on Roxy, sure that she would go first with the enormous udder she had. Then, just like that, Spice cam on strong and foaled a beautiful loud-colored colt around 2am on March 18. For her first foal, all went pretty well. We stayed up all night watching the two of them to see if he would nurse but you could tell that Spice was not crazy about that idea. She wasn’t ever trying to hurt him, just pinned her ears a lot, but we wanted to make sure nothing bad happened. At 6am he still hadn’t nursed so we called the vet to get some help. He arrived about 6:30 and together we tried and tried to have the colt nurse without any success. Finally about 7:45am we decided to take them both into the vet clinic where they had more people and tools to get them together. Once we got there they milked all the colostrum from Spice and gave him a good drink. In addition they had some colostrum in storage that they gave him. His Igg test after that was 1400, a very good score. Finally at about 3pm we got a call that he had started nursing on his own. though Spice was not taking an interest in him. We decided to keep her there until the morning so that they could continue to bond, hopefully.

Over the last week things have not progressed very well in that department. We have tried numerous things to get Spice to let “Finnegan” nurse, including building a chute for Spice with an opening near her teats for the foal to stick his head in and nurse without getting kicked. We also looked into getting a nurse mare but, for several reasons, we don’t think it’s the best option. So Bill will be hand feeding the little guy several times each day for the next four months with a replacement formula and we will socialize him as much as possible with the other horses. There’s nothing more we can do to convince Spice to do what’s needed. Many have told us that this is sometimes a one-time, maiden mare deal and she could be her normal sweet, loving self next time.  We may decide to breed her once more, to find that out.  Then if she does not take good care of her baby a second time we’d not breed her after that.  We still have to talk more about that though.

In the meantime, Roxy had a beautiful, colored colt as well! And on the same day as Spice, so she became a mom AND a grandma on the same day!! Roxy is an old hand at this baby thing, and has done a remarkable job with her little one. All is above normal and the little guy is thriving. He is very spunky and reminds us a lot of Bips. We can tell Roxy will have her hands full for sure!

The other exciting thing that happened was that Cookie and Chief went on their trip down to Texas. They will be living at Destiny Ranch outside of Tyler, Texas, about an hour from Dallas/Fort Worth. We will miss them terribly! They loaded up like champs, Chief into a box stall and Cookie into her space. It was a big 18 wheeler. The driver had a little hard time getting turned around near the barn, but luckily the ground was nice and frozen so he was able to turn around the big old tree.

Thanks for watching.

We have done a couple of exciting things since our last update. The biggest thing we did was to get a new dog and a new horse.

The dog's name is Moses. He is a great dane mix. He is about 5 years old and is pretty much all trained. We got him from a shelter in Illinois as a former stray. He is doing great other than he is a little too excited about cats in general. Bobcat is now 13 years old, slowing down a bit and is in the house 24/7 so we have had to keep them separate. We are working through this and I think we will get past it and arrive at a reliable, calm place with a little more work and supervision.  Moses is very eager to please and is a great listener, so he is easy to teach and correct. 

Checkers is our new broodmare. She is a quarter horse that Andy Chvala knew about. She is very stocky and should be a nice broodmare for us. She has a cataract in one of her eyes, but it doesn't seem to bother her.  She has settled in fast and made herself right at home.

The other thing we have been doing is trying to deal with the weather. We have had a ton of snow. Then it melted and rained and then froze again. There is ice everywhere and it makes it hard to move the horses in and out and get work done safely. So far I haven't fallen, but sorry to say, Susan has.  She is just sore, and I am sure I will sooner or later. It is supposed to rain this weekend so maybe finally it will melt again and we can do some heavy-duty tractoring clean-up.

Thanks fot watching,

S/B

I talked to the nicest lady. She had called interested in Chief. She said she had finally come to the point where she could get another horse. Her last horse she adopted when it was born. She was only 16 years old, and a nearby farm had had this colt, but the mother died shortly after foaling. The farmer was going t pt the foal down as he had no way to feed it. She offered to take it and after convincing her parents the horse was hers. She would bike around to other nearby farms, milking their goats and then feeding the little guy. She had that horse for 34 years and it had just died last November. He had a great life thanks to her and now she is ready for another. She is a fascinating woman. She had been a carpenter for the last 25 years and is now retired. She also shoots professionally and has been asked to try out for the Olympic team. I really hope she decides to buy him. She wanted some new pictures, and though he is dirty, I took a couple. She really liked the pictures I posted. She says she is going to work on her husband and then get back to us.
We had another woman contact us about a mare she wants to trade plus some money for a well broke gelding. It is worth a look. You can see her here. She seems pretty nice. She doesn't ride the greatest yet, but she is still young and as a broodmare that wouldn't matter. She came out today to "test drive" all the geldings, and everything went pretty well. She really likes Luke. Her mare Annie will be coming here on Monday to spend a week with us so we can decide if we want to keep her as part of the deal. It would be nice to have another good broodmare.

Holy COW, has it been cold here! Below zero for many a night. Now it has warmed up a little, but we have lots of snow again. Last time we had a cold snap we had a little incident here at the house. I opened Mabel's door to the garage and before I knew it Bobble darted inside to get away from me!. She has been going into the garage and then into Mabel's heated room. I startled her and in she came. She has only once before gotten into the house by accident and is still wild. We got her into the sunroom and then back out the sunroom door. I was worried that she would never go out and hide under the couch or something, but it turned out to be no problem at all.

The big news this week is that it looks like we are going to be getting another dog. He is located in Illinois and we will go there Friday after we are done riding. The dogs name is Moses and I am so excited about this. I thought we had talked about him in an earlier update but I can't seem to find it. He is soo cute. Greyhound and Great Dane Mix. He is huge. We of course will need to make sure he is totally gentle with the dogs, cats, and other critters we have around here.

Thanks for watching.