An Arena

This week has seen a new riding arena being built outside the barn to practice and to work the horses before venturing out on the farm on the horses. It is not as large as some I have seen but it is a size large enough to practice. The new colt is doing really well. We have put him and his mother outside in a round pen and he has started running and running outside.

The three boys who have been helping build the arena have been riding after the work stops in the afternoon.

It has been a very busy week. The family has been up from Ms this week. They have been on spring break and they come every spring during break whether my son can come or not come. He is overseas this year so they came anyway.

Dalton and his friend Shelton have been a tremendous help in building the arena. Dalton's dad has taught him a lot about building and doing projects around the farm. Mary Beth is the one who wanted to build the arena to have for us to ride. Her granddaughter, Melissa is riding and she wanted a place where she could be safe. Now her daughter Lucy is riding and it is going to be nice to have to start someone out riding. The arena is completely enclosed with two gates. A smaller one in front of the barn for the rider to come out of the barn to enter and a larger one for tractors and trucks that will have to bring rock into the arena for footing.

It has been a big job but with all the help they have had it has gone up pretty fast. Dalton has dug post holes and he and Shelton have tamped the dirt in around the posts.

This week they have been riding my Rocky Mountain Horses. Dalton rides Rosie, Shelton rides Rocky Top Rebel and Robert rides Amigo. They like to go out on the trails and ride the trails through the woods. The horses are getting familiar with all the ground around here. They have been over almost all the farm now with the horses.

The horses are getting better and better in the woods and going up and down hills. There are plenty of logs to step over as well as branches of water to walk through.

The boys had never ridden anything besides quarter horses but they are really appreciating the Rocky Mountain horses for their smooth ride and easy gait. They horses have taken them to places on the farm they may never have visited had it not been for the horses. They are teaching them confidence especially Dalton who had never ridden very much.

The little ones have had fun grooming the horses. Kailey, Stephen and Melissa were all surrounding my yearling filly named Celine and they were busy brushing and combing her. They were completely satisfied to get to groom the little filly and she was standing very quietly for them to groom her. Those three children are 6 and 7 years old. Celine was happy for them to be there and never offered to bite or kick. She stood even quieter for them than she does when I groom her.

Earlier today Kailey sat on Satin bareback and rode her. She has a very good seat. She held onto her mane while Uncle Bobby was leading her around. Kailey was very proud of herself for being able to ride the big palomino bare back.

So with so many people around the house and farm it has been busy and noisy. But aren't children a true blessing from God. When we say our prayers at night Kailey remembers her friend Elizabeth that has been sick for a long time and especially her daddy in Afghanistan. She prays God will bring him home safe and keep him safe while he is there.

With her sweet 6 year old voice it is precious to hear her pray for her daddy. She adores him and it is really tough on the whole family when he has to leave to go out of the country.

I pray every thing is well with all of you. All is well here and the horses are all doing well right now and we are loving the noisy peace and quiet of farm life.

May God bless and keep you in his loving care.

Regards,

Mary

Bad News and Good News

Hobo and her new foal. He may be named WOF Saga of Snowy River. We are still thinking about the name. His grand sire on Hobo's side is Shepherd's Snowy River. He was only hours old in these pictures.

The sad news from here is that we had to put Cody down last Wednesday. The vet was here for shots and other herd work. When he saw Cody he called Gretchen and told her that it was his opinion that it was time to put him down. Of course we all cried. It was a tough day for all of us. We had been up and down over his condition. He was looking better some days and it gave us hope.

At Van Bert's last week, I was asked about Cody and I said I was cautiously optimistic on his condition. When I got home on Tuesday night everyone said he had worsened. He was not up as much and he was starting to injure himself when he was trying to get up. He was also getting sores from laying so much.

It was still hard to accept but Gretchen had given him a chance. She loved her old horse. He was born when she was 14 and she had been around him all his life. He was 18 years old.

Last Saturday, I had to go into town before feeding. When my brother, Bob, went to the barn he found that our mare, Hobo, had delivered her foal early that morning. But we had a problem. Hobo was so full of milk that she was hurting and she would not let the foal nurse. Well now have you ever tried to get a foal to nurse?

Here is the way to get a calf to nurse. You straddle it's neck and push it's head under the cow. A cow has bigger equipment and it is easy to get the calf to start sucking. The problem with mare and foals is that the equipment is shorter and the foal does not like to put his head down. So it is harder. I could not straddle his neck (too tall) so I put his head down under her udder but couldn't get him to get hold of the right equipment. So I started milking the mare. That's fun---not. Like I said she was sore so she kept kicking at me. Finally I started getting milk and put it up to his mouth. He started getting a taste of milk from my hand.

It took some time to get his mouth in the right region but he still was not actually nursing. I got tired and he looked tired so I let him go thinking he wanted to rest. But as soon as I let him go he immediately put his head down and nursed. It was a sweet moment. She had some relief by my milking her so now she was letting him nurse. I had to tie her up one more time after that to get her to stand still for him to nurse.

This is Hobo's first foal and she did not know where the relief from a full udder came from. She sure has a lot of milk. He starts to nurse sometimes and milk squirts out of her. He will grow good if she keeps producing milk like that.

Show season is going to be here very soon. We are nervous but looking forward to getting started showing. Bob is riding Satin and she is doing really well. She has such a nice trail walk and has settled down. Our two yearlings are looking good. It is amazing every time we look at Blaze. We can hardly believe how tall he is getting.

We are working hard everyday with Blaze. He is a lot of colt to handle.

We had a lovely day when Kelvin and Dolly visited us last week. Kelvin likes my gray yearling filly. It had already been a busy day but I was so glad to see them. It is always lovely to have visitors on the farm and especially when they are admiring our horses as Kelvin and Dolly did.

My vet loves my yearling colt. He even asked me about a price the first week after he was born. I am looking forward to getting him into the show arena. I am eager to see what the judges think of him and do they like him as much as I do. He is really a big boy and so full of himself. He knows he is a colt and he really likes the mares.

I think I need to turn him out with some of the mares with babies. I believe they will put him in his place in a hurry.

My daughter decided at Christmas that she would give me an arena for Christmas. This is the week the arena is getting built. This has turned out to be a family project. My daughter-in-law and grandchildren are here from Mississippi. They are on spring break this week and she comes every spring during spring break. Her husband, my youngest son, is in the Navy and right now they are deployed overseas. As it happens this is the week the mares are due to foal. We have two more to foal this week. (According to the calendar) The book says 11 months and 5 days. If the mares read the book and were on the right page they will foal this week.

But back to the arena. My daughter, Mary Beth wanted to build the arena the week the mares were due to foal. Mike has been drilling the post holes. My grandson, Dalton, took over that job when Mike had to leave for work. Robert, a nephew, has been here helping with the project too. Also a friend of the family has been here too. So there has been plenty of help on the arena and it is coming along with it.

It has been fun to have them here and they have worked hard.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the warmer weather. The kids have taken advantage of the better weather and have been riding the horses as well as working hard on the arena. Tomorrow there will be pictures of the arena.

God bless you and keep you in his loving care.

Regards

Mary