Saddlebrook Appaloosas

We had a busy last couple weeks. Horse wise we had Angel head off to Germany and we had Trace head over to Missouri. Trace is going to a really nice home where he will be a stallion and be ridden often to work cattle and other interesting things. They even sometimes ride to town on their horses. Pretty cool. As for Angel she went to Oklahoma first and then after a month quarentine she was on her way to Germany. The trip took a little longer because of the Volcano in Europe. The owner got an even better deal as she bought before the Euro went down.  Other news to come will be the weaning of the two foals from this year and gelding Buddy. We havn’t told him yet of course, LOL but it will be next week.

We also got off of our barns painted and back into shape. Well not all of them. The old outhouse had a little issue when the tree fell over next to it. It pulled out of the ground and is now resting a little sideways. The birds don’t seem to mind.

Thanks for watching,

S/B

Well the Midwest Horse Fair went well all except for my Internet access.  I thought I would be able to pick up some wifi signal on the fairgrounds. If not, I thought I would be able to use my phone for a modem and get online. Well wouldn’t you know it there was no wifi and my computer didn’t have the drivers for my phone so I couldn’t connect. If I could get online the Verizon people told me I could download them and I would be all set. Well of course if I could get on the Internet I would not need my phone. Now that I am home I will get it all installed so I will be ready for the next trip. My old phone was not this hard and connected right up.

The horses were great at the show. Matilda ended up not showing because of her abscess. By Friday she was getting better, but with all the time off we weren’t sure we should push it. Marla was able to ride her a little over the weekend and she behaved great even with all the flags and people flying around. Roxy and Spanky were the biggest hit of all the appaloosas. Spanky was great at the breed demo on Friday she acted perfectly following her mother and letting me lead her well. Saturday however was a different story. Roxy having not been out since Thursday wanted to run once she got in the arena. This I could control of course, but her being excited got Spanky excited and before long, Spanky was running around Spice on the leadline while rearing up and down. This was what everyone loved. Like watching a hockey fight, as long as you are not in the middle of it  you don’t mind watching. Well Spanky never did anything bad, didn’t flip over or rear near me or Roxy, so all in all I have to say it went pretty well. The most amazing part for me was how well they were behaved in the stall with all of the people stopping and taking pictures of them through the weekend. As time went on they got more and more used to it. Great training over all for a weanling that is for sure.

When the show was over I had to take Spanky and Roxy and my booth home Sunday and I went back today to get the RV and do a BarnCam quote for a customer near there.  They have a farm they just built. Actually it is an old dairy farm and they converted the barn to a house. It is very cool as they did all the insulation and metal cladding on the outside, so the entire inside looks just like ours only clean. LOL. The people live in Madison and go out to the farm often to see the Scottish highlander cattle they are raising. Those are the cows with the big long horns.  After that I finally got home with everything safe and sound. What a little adventure.

Thanks for watching,

S/B

The warm weather should be back in a while. Once it warms up again, the kids and I are going to get a ton of work done around here. The first project is stall cleaning, and then moving some hay and grain, also pushing the manure in the hole and doing some barn office stuff. I can’t wait to have their help.

When the weather is nice the horses just love it. Almost every one of them a week or so ago was laying flat out in the sun catching some rays. It is a little scary at first as you do not expect to see three horses laying next to each other looking like they are dead. Finally when you walk up to them they get up and look at you and say,”What are you doing waking me up? Can’t you see if is 70 degrees out?”.  Anyways that it what it looks like they are saying.

There has been a great deal of posting on the appaloosa message boards about letting “Cropouts” into our appaloosa registry.  I actually voted against this rule, but the idea was that there are now some registered quarter horses that are coming up with appaloosa coat patterns. They are registered and have paperwork and even are genetically verified as full quarter horses, yet they look like appaloosas. The motion was made at our last board meeting that since we are allowed to outcross to quarter horses anyway and they have the correct markings, we should allow them into our registry. This has made alot of people mad as the only way to get an appaloosa is to have the appaloosa genes in the horse. I voted against this because I realized that somewhere no matter how far back these horses pedigrees are incorrect, and we should not want to allow incorrect information into our database, even though genetically they are probably not very different than our true appaloosas.

Thanks for watching,

S/B

We are all ready for our two foals coming in a couple of weeks.  Fanny is progressing nicely and it looks like she will foal as expected. Roxy actually seems more uncomfortable though she is due much later. Fanny really has been eating over the past few weeks and we have been feeding her up to try to get her fat and happy for foaling. This year she is supposed to have  filly. Trace will be a full brother to her from 2 years ago. He has turned out very nice and I can’t wait to see a female version. LOL We will start doing udder pictures and put straw in the stall the first of the year. Don’t forget to enter our foaling and naming contests if you haven’t already.

Thanks for watching,

S/b

We have had a lot of changes here at Saddlebrook. First of all we have a few new boarders at our farm. We have one pony, one morab and two new Warmbloods. We also have Spice and Matilda back from two of our customers. Luke was also sold to our good friend Jane. We are excited about all the changes as we head into winter. Speaking of winter we need to know make plans to move everyone around and get Annie, Checkers and Frosty under lights starting December 1st. With the boarders here at the farm it is a little trickier to have the right stalls in the right place. I do not want to walk the mares through the snow and ice if I can help it. The weanlings and yearlings are also doing great and getting very big.  Please make sure to enter our foaling contest if you haven’t already. Fanny is due in Jan. and Roxy in Feb. It won’t be long now.

Thanks for watching,

S/B

Things have really been moving around here. We have three new boarders. We also have sold some horses and added a few to our roster.  Marla is our new trainer and has been giving lessons and training our horses also. It has been a while since I have done an update so I need to fill you in on who is here.  Our horses here now are Zippy of course. Buddy, Madonna, and Angel the three weanling. Spice and Matila both riding mares. Trace a yearling colt. Sport our two year old colt. Checkers and Annie broodmares. And Roxy, Frosty and Fanny… more broodmares.  Roxy and Fanny are in foal. Roxy to Zippy and Fanny to Mr. Cool Hand Luke. Fanny is supposed to have a filly this year so it will be a full sister to Trace. I can’t wait to see it.  Boarders we have are Ruby a pony, and Dewey and Skyye the warmbloods. Scoops is still here also and out with Trace.

Around the farm we have been also doing alot of small projects. Painting, replacing windows and of course fixing fence. All of the stalls now have matts in them which has really helped us use fewer shavings. The kids are much better helpers also now that they are older. They have been moving hay, and dusting cobwebs. The hay crop was smaller than usual this year. We ended up selling our second cutting and the it turned out that the third cutting was much smaller than usual because we had so little rain. Now I will need to buy some hay so that we have enough for everyone.

Thanks for watching,

S/B

Things have been busy around here since our last public update.  We have gotten some new boarders. Checkers (not our Checkers), Itchy, and Silver. Silver was not here long and had to be put down after some dental work was performed here. He coliced we think due to the anesthesia.  After a couple days of doing everything we could it was decided that the only human thing to do was to put him down at the vet clinic. In other horse news, Jane bought Luke and we brought him out to Washington D.C. We had a nice uneventful trip out there and back. Washington DC was a blast and my new friend Kurt joined me on the trip.

 Meanwhile Spice is back and doing very well. Our new trainer Marla Zellmer is also riding Annie and Sport and they are both coming along. I even showed Trace a couple of times this summer. Wow we have done alot horse wise. I was able to take some new pictures of Trace also. You can see them here.

We also have done some major projects around here putting a new roof on one of the barns, and painting and cleaning. Even the hay came again since the last update. Time sure flies when you are having fun.

Thanks for watching,

S/B

Wow, Thursday and Friday proved to be more challenging than planned.  Isn’t that always the case?  Even though Bill was thrilled that the second crop hay was sold and was going to be big-baled so we wouldn’t have to put it away, things always go a little haywire, right?  LOL  For one thing, the weather did not fully cooperate, plus the man buying it had to go out of town for a couple days and we had to deal with it anyway or risk getting it ruined.  So Bill was putting it away using the forks on our tractor from about 7 until 1:00 a.m. Thursday night/Friday morning.  I think he enjoyed the first two hours of it or so, then it just got to be a real challenge, as you can imagine.  The week was warm but kind of humid, and we have too much alfalfa in our crop despite re-seeding it with grass this year.  So it is juicy and takes a long time to dry.  Anyway, big bales are more forgiving with moisture content, so it could finally get baled mid-Thursday afternoon.  I had work meetings from early morning until about 6:30, so Bill took Joe to golf  lessons and did not get home till 7:00.   A long day.  Bill had to get the huge hay bales, each about 800 pounds, into our arena before the storms came.  He made it in time and we are glad nothing went wrong.  The buyer will pick them up Monday.  There are about 50 big bales in our arena right now.

Friday was busy too, with Drew going to his last day of soccer camp, big squirt gun in hand.  The last day they have a water fight for the last 30 minutes, and pizza, and awards and pictures.  I had a day of vacation at home to get ready for our exchange student to arrive, but had two conference calls, one at 10:30 and one at 2:00 that I could not move around and had to attend by phone from home.  So I missed the fun but Bill got pictures.  I had to take my car in for new brakes – we are selling it and I wanted it to be safe and set to go.  Tried a new service place I pass on my way to and from work, and I was thoroughly happy with the experience – the initial call, the follow-up estimate to us, the appointment, the way they talked to us while dropping the car off, the price, the work – everything.  They even gave Bill a tiny bag of Famous Amos cookies when we picked up the car and paid later in the day.  So he is a True Believer.  Great service is something to remember these days, and especially car repairs where I always feel I am getting sold, buying more than I need.  Who ever knows??  So I will use this place again for sure.  They are new, and trying to build their business – so far, so good!

Then we hurried home from dropping my car off  and Bill had to take Zippy into the vet clinic to be collected for our buffalo-driving customer in Michigan.  He did not mind a very late foal next year as he does not show. That joo-joo got shipped off and Bill was home again, bathing and clipping Trace.  I was changing sheets and vacuuming and making looooong grocery lists.  Joe and Sarah cleaned up Bill’s Durango with ArmorAll and a vacuum, and it is looking better than it has in years.  Nokolunga arrived with the Rotary Youth Exchange coordinator in early afternoon.  She is easygoing and friendly and I think this month will be fun.  She is 18 and at home in South Africa has two younger sisters and a younger brother.  The kids played games while I was on the conference call and then we all got to know one another.  Bill pulled out of the drive with Trace at about 6, heading to West Bend which is just 20 minutes away or so.  Bill said he was amazed at how laidback Trace was with the ear and muzzle and pastern clipping – like an old pro.  Now if he only had a tail……LOL.  Maybe Fanny’s foal next year by the same stallion will take after his dam instead of his sire in that one regard.

So last night Bill arrived at the show safely, got Trace settled into his stall, and planned to sleep in the tack room of the horse trailer on the blow-up mattress.  Yuck.   Watch those spurs!  I’ve checked in with him already this morning and the show is delayed, as it is raining hard and lightening in this area.  And it is an outdoor show, sad to say.  This is where easygoing horses like Trace can do really well, because they don’t mind mud or rain or far-away thunder.   But it just may be cancelled altogether if the storms continue.  Or there might not be enough horses there to make it worthwhile.

None of the kids have gotten up yet, it’s just that kind of gray day.  However, I believe Drew may be playing GameBoy under the covers and pretending he is still sleeping!  I may take the girls school shopping later, there are big sales on at Kohls.  The kids will do the chores this morning but not turn the horses out till the storms are gone for good.   Someone was supposed to come look at the apartment yesterday but I don’t think she showed up.  It’s a friend of the owner of Scoops, the little paint gelding we have here as a boarder.   Have a great day, EveryBuddy.

We all survived our Itty Bitty Buddy Bash this year. We had a great time which featured Lois, The Strongs, Amy M, and Deb of course us.  We took it pretty easy with a bon fire on Friday night and then breakfast, horse training, karaoke and a live concert at the beach in downtown Oconomowoc. The concert was performed by a 10 year old blues guitarist that is now on Americas Got Talent.

The horses are all growing up big and strong. Trace is finally starting to fill out with the new hay we had cut and Susan put away. I was at the National Appaloosa board meeting when all 4000 bales came. We but up about 2o00 here and Kate and Chris put up about the same. Lucky for us the weather held out and we had nice dry hay. We still haven’t had any rain since then. Things are really dry. Angel has been weaned and tomorrow I am going to move her to one of the pastures with a little more grass. I was planning to do that before, but never got to it. We also have a new boarder coming the beginning of August.  I worked with both Angel and Sport during the buddy bash and they both were very cooperative. We worked them both on a line and they did very well for young horses. We need to really get Sport going under saddle and I hope our next barn helper might be able to help us out. Meanwhile I am working Trace, though not as much as I should. We will keep our fingers crossed.

Thanks for watching,

S/B

Since we last wrote a number of things have happened here around the farm. We showed Trace at his first horse show. He did fairly well though the class was small and ended up getting 1/2 of a point in Hunter in Hand.  I am still working on Longe line and that should be really good for him in August.  The kids finished up at school and we took our annual ride on Go Bob to the school to pick up Drew on the last day. All the teachers were expecting us as it has become a tradition. Joe and Sarah were a little too far away at thier new school now to go get them.  Joe had a ton of Band, and Choir concerts at the end of the school year, including two big performances at the Performing Arts Center here in Milwaukee. Both concerts went great.

We also weaned Angel about a week ago, she is doing great and was definitely ready. Frosty was ready also. We moved Fanny and Luke over to the big pasture. It has really caught up and grown as we only had the two cows on it for a month or two. The horses will love it and then we will put Frosty out on the other big pasture so everyone can get nice and fat before the winter. The other two foals buddy and Madonna  are doing well also. They are not ready to wean yet, still about another month or so for that.  We also changed a couple of the cameras around on the farm including the new nest cam. Won’t be long and they will all be hatching.  We also completed the reabuild of two of our pastures by the mare barn. We really need that as the old ones were crumbling.  Now we still have lots of painting to do. Ah Summer again.

Thanks for watching,

S/B