Three news “bigs” around here. The first big news is that Java won the Heading and Healing Championship at the National Show this past week. Andy & Elizabeth Chwala have been training him. Java got a nice trophy and of course the recognition is great. He was in excellent form, all fired up and ready to work. Here are the video clips of him at the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj-0jAE5RIc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8AI6UNzdVc

In other big news, Susan got a great report from the doctor on her foot. She now has a “boot” instead of a cast which only stays on for another month. The best part is she got the all-clear to walk and drive. Oh, wait….well, at least that part is OFFICIALLY sanctioned now, lol!

The third big news is that the internet finally got fixed. We have been having terrible trouble lately and it got fixed just in time. I had to leave for a board of directors meeting in Mississippi last week, and Time Warner got here and fixed everything the night before I left. I gave Joe a crash course in internet recovery just in case we had any problems while I was gone.

The horses are managing very well. We are starting Checkers and Annie on the little grass pasture next to them. We figured we might as well use it since we have it there. The moms and “babies” (they are getting so big!) are still in the big west pasture and little Finnegan is beside them in the backyard paddock. We moved the big boys, Sport and Scoops, out to the back paddock next to Haley. Haley is the boarder with a cyst on her navicular bone, and last week the farrier put special shoes on her to relieve the pressure caused by this. The hope is that, with time, conditioning and the right shoes, she can be ridden again. We are crossing our fingers for Haley and her owner.

Thanks for watching J

We are still trying to find a replacement for Erika. We have had some good candidates that we have interviewed, but their availability is not what we need. We did have one interesting horse call. I got a call today from a lady in Germany. She had purchased some breedings to Zippy, but her vet put the semen in a container that leaked so all the semen thawed and died. She needed some more and was wanted to find out what we would charge. Lucky for her, there is another woman in Germany that had bought some semen she could no longer use so she just sold them to the other lady and we were all set.

The horses are all doing great. I have to keep making the halters bigger as the foals continue to grow. We had a visitor come try out Cash and Luke. She does fox hunting (using a scent drag, not real) and is looking for a real steady, sane horse, and we just happen to have lots of them. I think that is mostly because we have sane mares and a sane stallion. We also had Sport and boarder Scoops, the two colts, gelded - all went well. They seem no worse for it (but don’t ask them!)

Frosty is having a filly, per Dr. Andy, who is batting 1000 as to the sex of future Saddlebrook foals.  Frosty also got her 4 month vaccinations, and Roxy was preg checked.  Dr. Andy *thinks* she is in foal, showing us a tell-tale shadow but unfortunately that shadow is coupled up with what looks to be a small cyst, so he will check again in a few weeks to be sure. 

The big red barn got a new coat of paint just in time for the Buddy Bash. The painters power washed it one day then came back another day to spray paint the walls and hand paint the trim. It sure looks nice.

Speaking of the Bash, a good time was had by all. We escaped the rain for most of Saturday – in fact, until late afternoon it was a beautiful day. With all the rain we’d had until then, it seemed a miracle to have dry weather. Many buddies had a hard time getting here as all of the east west roads were closed due to flooding. Finally they all made it. Thanks to buddy Gail, we had a bonfire. The saddle fitting was great. Comedy Sports was very funny. The hail held off until the end of the day, and Luke Warm was rockin’ with the Karaoke. Fun Fun Fun.

Thanks for watching J

And the winners are….

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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