Roxy has been having a lot of contractions the last two nights. It is sure hard to get the udder picture of her when she doesn’t want to get up. She is very wide right now. Not loose under her tail and if you compare the 2003 photos she has a way to go udder-wise until she was as full as last year. She is very uncomfortable and is doing some stretching, trying to find that position where she can relax. She is also starting to "hold up the wall" as some mares do, with her hindquarters. Won't be too long now!

We have a new person working at the farm for about a month or so. His name is Chris and he’s is the driver who took Junior to LeeAZ and learned en route that his company had severe business troubles. He is looking for a full time, career-oriented position working with horses. Although we do not have that available, we do have handyman-type work (LOTS of it!) for him to do while he gets on his feet and finds his next opportunity. So for the next few weeks Chris will be working at Saddlebrook, helping us get things all spiffed up in time for the BuddyBash. 

 We bought all of our summer flowers and plan on putting them in various planters around the outside of the house. The kids are going to keep an eye on the vegetables. Some tomatoes, chives, zucchini squash and cucumbers. Of course if we get any of them that aren’t good for us to eat, Maggie will just love the “rejects” from our little garden!

The vet came out recently to do a second round of spring shots (a few of the horses didn’t get theirs last time) and float teeth on several of the horses. It doesn’t hurt the horse because they really have no feeling in their teeth. It’s just a crazy sensation to have someone filing on your teeth! The vet also looked at Spice’s back right leg, which has a big scrape on it – for the second time in two weeks! She puts weight on it and moves normally, but it has been a little swollen. We’ll put her on antibiotics again just in case there’s an infection brewing.

We met with the paving company to get a quote for paving from the road to the new barn. We will also be paving around the round pen to the old barn. We should have the final quote next week and the paving should be done before the Buddy Bash! If at all possible we need to try to get the two concrete porches poured before they do the asphalt - lots to do!

Bill gave Fanny and Spice baths last week. They were both very good and he couldn’t help but think that the best way to teach a horse to like getting a bath is to use nice warm water. It really seems to be that easy. They just love it! Both girls now look great. Susan spent some time with Squeakers and Penny and she predicts Squeakers will be a white horse in two years! Lots of roaning coming out on her all over and once she sheds we should see a major difference.

We will be fixing up Maggie’s old house in the big barn very soon, so she can move over there for the summer. It will be good for her to get fresh air and exercise whenever she wants, and we will have another stall in the new barn to use for daily hay storage.