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.

Horse for Tali?

Since Tali and I have been taking lessons Mark has become increasingly interested in the idea of the family going camping and taking our horses with us to go trail riding. There are a lot of great places to do that in Ohio and surrounding states. It would probably mean that we would have to get rid of some of our animals eventually, but that would be okay by me if we truly started to ride and enjoyed ourselves. With that in mind we have started looking for a horse for Tali for Christmas. Finn got a bunny last year, and now it is Tali's turn to indulge in her love of horses which hasn't dimmed by any means. At first I was thinking of a pony that she could brush, care for, and jump on at any time, but as I put more thought into it, and after talking to Jill I decided that a horse would be a better investment. Something big enough for her to grow into and that I could also get on and school if need be. And since we can't start buying horses left and right, getting a horse that Mark can also try out would be a good idea.

This week I found a black and white overo paint gelding in Chesterland. He is 17 years old, 15.1 hands and sounds perfect. He has been a trail and lesson horse, and he is beginner/kid and husband safe. Jill and I have been going back and forth with questions for his owner. I am hoping to go see him over the weekend. Oddly enough I have always wanted to add a black and white paint to my herd, so maybe its fate?

Ruby

Two nights in a row Ruby and I have made music. Great ride tonight. I'm sure Jill would be yelling at me to pull my legs back, put my heels down and change my diagonal, but when its just me and Rubes it is lovely. I just ride instead of worrying about all that other stuff. Why can't it be like that all of the time???

I forgot to mention that she stepped on my toe again yesterday. I screamed bloody murder and tried to push her off. 1200lbs of dead weight is mighty heavy.

Hit Neo with 4ccs of Durapen and Blue Kote. I'm not taking any chances with infection. I want him healthy for Lee. He looked like such a sorry little bugger this morning. Broke my heart. Still coming up for hugs and kisses despite a sore head though.

Weekend

Great weekend! Friday night we went to a tailgating party at FES. They had healthy snacks at the cars and physical games for the kids to play. A lot of fun and very relaxing. After dinner we headed to our first Firelands football game. It was very exciting, but there weren't any seats on the Firelands side so we sat on the enemies side. Next time we will get there early and grab a seat. I really want to hear and see the band in full force because they were awesome.

Saturday Tali and I had a lesson. I rode Quentin while Tali rode Cassie. This was my first time on Quentin and I really liked him. He is a thoroughbred so he was very lopey and long. I finally felt like I was making some progress. With Cassie I usually spend all of my time and energy fighting her and I am never able to just focus on what I am doing. With Quentin he did what I asked with no problems so I could get my bearings.

After our lesson we all went for a hike at Carlisle. There was a fun show so we watched that for awhile first. The kids found lots of buckeyes.

I spent the evening watching 911 footage and documentaries. Depressing, but I feel a necessary part of my year. Its the least I can do for those who lost their lives.

Today I got almost everything on my list done: Tali's letter snack, walked the dogs, rode Ruby, cleaned, laundry... Mark worked on the kid's projects with them and they turned out great. The only thing I didn't accomplish was making cheese. Soon.

Ruby and I had a great ride today. I was really starting to feel the groove. I'm hoping to get some more riding in this week while the weather holds.

Neo was dehorned on Friday. It was awful as usual. I made Mark stay with Dr. Matt while I fed the chickens and plugged my ears. His sinuses are still full of blood, but he is eating and drinking fine. Still coming up to me for petting. Uno is looking fantastic. He has gained all of his weight back and you can tell he is feeling good. Since Charlie is gone he is now head man on campus, which is funny since he was low man on the totem pole while Charlie was here. Now Neo is at the bottom. Goats are funny. Lee is picking Neo up on October 4th. I am hoping he will be well on his way back to normal. I still want to use him with Raisin, but only if he is well-healed.

Benchmark testing tomorrow. :(