Finn's Bday

Finn turned 7 on Sunday. We had a very nice party on Saturday with Grandma EE, Dad and the Daveys. We celebrated at Mom's the weekend before because she is on a Mediterranean cruise. We had linguine, salad and cake. Tali ate three bowls of salad and that's it. LOL Had a nice time with everyone on Saturday. It helped to take our minds off of things. Finn had a blast. They all played football with Chris. Hannah rode Amy and did great. Amy took good care of her even though Hannah kept steering her into the trees. We tried to go to the Carlisle haunted thingy, but I didn't realize that it was going to be such a huge shindig. It was advertised as what I thought was going to be this quaint little thing. Instead we waited in a half hour line in the car only to get out and find out that the line into the spooky trail was an hour long! We went home.

Sheep

We are thinking about selling the sheep. :( I put the whole flock up for sale on craigslist on Monday morning and by Monday evening I already had an offer for all of them. We are trying to work out a deal that is satisfactory to both of us. They may be coming to look at them on Sat. I am broken-hearted about it, but something has got to give if we are going to really go all out with the horses, and I don't spend as much time with them anymore like I used to. The woman, Tammy, who is thinking of buying them wants to show them at the Wooster fair. That would be great. I would love for the public to be more exposed to the breed. At least they would be serving a purpose. I will really, really miss the lambs though. I would love to go through one more lambing season, but if they are meant to go now they are meant to go. Maybe it will work out so that I can keep at least one ewe to lamb. We'll see. It makes sense to sell at this time, but it is going to be so hard to see them go.

Amy

Well, Tali's Christmas present arrived on Tuesday. I went to Mansfield on Monday to look at Amy and then Tonya drove her up Tuesday night. On Monday night we told Tali that her Christmas would be the next day and that she would be getting her big present. That way she had a bit of anticipation and excitement. When Tonya pulled into the driveway we acted like we didn't know who was here so we all went out to check it out. She was super excited and couldn't believe she had her own horse.

Amy was pretty sick from standing in the rain all night and then the cold drive in an open stock trailer, so I had Dr. Matt come over and we started her on antibiotics. She is on day 5 now and still coughing, but the snots are almost gone. I hope her cough doesn't stick around. Then it might be something other than a cold.

All in all Amy is the perfect pony. She is very sweet and loves to be around people. I don't have to chase her around. She comes right up to me in the pasture. The very first time we saddled her up she let me put four children on her and ride them around no questions asked. She was very calm and gentle. My only concern is the way Ruby treats her. Ruby acts like she is the enemy and she herds the donkeys around all day trying to stay between them and Amy. Yesterday she tried to do the same thing to me until I gave her a whack and told her to quit it. They DO graze together though, so maybe it will just take time.

I got a lot done today in the barn. I cleaned out all of the water buckets, opened up the sheep shed and put down sawdust and cleaned out the cupboards so that I can hang our bridles and headstalls in a closed closet. I want to tackle the other half of the barn tomorrow.

The last two days I've ridden Ruby and both days she has tried over and over again to break into a canter. I don't know what's up with her. Its fun, but we aren't there yet. I'm going to ride again tomorrow if I have time and really work her.

The kids and I had a good day today while Mark went to see his Mom. When he came home he finished up Amy's stall door. Tomorrow while the kids are in school we need to get to Tractor Supply and close up the pool. That should be the ordeal it is every year. :(

Neo

Tomorrow Neo goes to his new home. One more down. I'm glad he is going to a good place. It will just be Uno and Romeo left to do the job. Both of them have been super randy so I think they will do fine. Hopefully Mr. Tumnus will get out of the way and let them to it. Last year I had to pen him up away from the girls because he wouldn't let Charlie near them. I think I will put Uno, Amelia and Juliette in the pen in the barn and let Romeo run with Raisin, Dolley and Lucy. Then I will put Tank and Ellie in one pen and Ben and Clementine in the other.

The black and white gelding from Chesterland didn't work out, but I have a lead on two ponies. One is a POA and I don't really know what the other is. I am going to see the POA, Amy, on Thursday and the fat pony on Saturday. I really like Amy. She is a liver chestnut with a blanket and a flaxen mane and tail. She is very pretty. Her only problem is that her ears were frostbitten and they are partially gone. I guess I will see how bad it is when I meet her. I really like the fat chunky monkey because he has had a lot of kids on his back. He has trail ridden for the last 5 years and last month he was in Beaver Creek with a child on his back who didn't know how to ride. I think that either one would be nice, but I think that Tali would really like Amy.