A reminder that the annual board meeting will take place on Saturday, February 1, 2020 at the ASAP farm beginning at 3 pm.
This is rescheduled from the board meeting regularly held on January 31 annually due to board member scheduling conflicts.
PM us for details or directions
This gallery contains 9 photos.
This past weekend Ray and I participated in the Big River Competition in Keithsburg, IL, which is about an hour south of the Quad Cities. The weather wasn’t too bad, except for Saturday afternoon and evening when it rained during the costume contest. Ray, Loki, Kay, and I dressed as part of The Justice League. Ray was The Green Lantern, Loki was The Flash, Kay was Wonderwoman, and I was Batgirl.
On Saturday there were three drivers, including Melissa Coolich, who has never done a distance driving competition. This course was very sandy, with lots of twists and turns through the woods. Ray and Loki tied for first with Melissa and her horse Aurora. Kay and I finished third. For the season, Kay finished first and Ray finished second for the Midwest Distance Driving Association.
Is there a better time to support American Standardbred Adoption Program?
You’re Helping: Furbo Dog Camera Athleta 1.6% Donation* Amrita Aromatherapy 4.0% Donation* Shop at these or 2,000+ stores at iGive.com and do more good for American Standardbred Adoption Program Distinctive Donations Littman Jewelers 4.0% Donation* Swanson Health Hylete
* See “Exceptions” for donation rules and/or breakdown of donations on different products at this store. “Exceptions” are displayed on our website, and in the iGive Button corner triangle. If you use a pop-up blocker, please make sure your settings recognize iGive.com as an “allowed” site. Special offers featured in this newsletter are subject to terms, conditions, and expiration dates as decided by the merchants. See site for details. This e-newsletter is sent to people who have registered at iGive.com to support member-listed causes through shopping. Causes listed at iGive.com have been listed by members for their own and other members’ use. A listing at iGive.com is not an endors ement of iGive.com by the cause, nor an endorsement of the cause by iGive.com. Please see our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. If you no longer wish to receive Weekly Newsletters, unsubscribe here. iGive.com © 2019 iGive.com Holdings, LLC
|
Today we did some chores in the morning, then took Loki and Kay out for a drive. We are down to one camera, as mine won’t turn on.
I kept Kay on the local sand road while Ray took Loki out onto the longer trail. I want to limit how much time Kay spends on pavement to help ease her joints. Kay did pretty well. We had a moment at a trail intersection where I wanted to go one direction and Kay wanted to go another. She got a little obstinate, but I made her stand still, and eventually she agreed to go the direction I wanted. She and I did about 7 miles. The GPS said our top speed was 12.5 mph, which is pretty good for her. However, the GPS also said our moving average speed was 77.8 mph, so I question those results.
Ray said that Loki did quite well. He behaved well, and slowed down enough to negotiate over some branches down across the trail or were hanging low so they had to duck under them. There is an open area we call the “prairie.” Ray said there were lots of holes where some critter dug down into the ground.
Once we were done, we let Kay and Loki graze on the lawn with Gridlock and Gambler while we pulled weeds in teh garden and picked up piles of manure from the lawn. Loki must have been a bit tired, as he didn’t try chasing Gambler once. We put them all back in the pasture and things went quite peaceably. We pulled Gridlock and Gambler back out of the pasture for the night.
Tonight we got home early enough from work that we could let the horses out onto the yard to do a bit of grazing. We started with Sunny and Loki. Soon the others realized that those two were out, and they got a bit excited. So we opened some gates and let the rest of them out. In the background of the “Scarlet and Jimmy” picture you can see the “pond” which our neighbor is digging since about 2014. Lately he has been selling the sand to dairy farmers who use the sand for bedding. Since he is selling the sand for profit, he had to get the land re-zoned to “Industrial Mining.” This has subsequently lowered our property value by about 20%. But, since we aren’t planning on selling anytime soon, it isn’t a problem.
The “Running past the barn” picture was taken through two layers of windows in the barn so it is a bit dark. But you can see the motion in Scarlet and Jimmy as they run to catch up with Loki and Sunny. Kay was looking through the barn to watch them run.
News from the HUBERT farm
Thursday at work was the first FDA audit at the Deming Way location, so the past two weeks were pretty hectic getting ready. We passed the audit with no findings! We are quite relieved. I drank a Diet Coke Thursday at lunch, so I was wide awake until midnight, but went to bed anyway, knowing that Friday would be busy. Friday was an official holiday at work, so we were home. The farrier came at 9:00 to put shoes on Kay and Jimmy. Ray has decided to use boots on Loki, so the farrier just had to trim Loki. We will measure Loki’s hooves so we can get the best fitting boots.
At noon, a person came to look at Sporty. She is interested in adopting him. Ray rode him first, so she could see that he wasn’t going to buck. She was able to get him moving where she wanted. She even got him to canter. She wants a quiet horse, so she was happy to see how he would just stand and chill out while we were talking.
I took a nap in the afternoon, then we took Kay and Jimmy out for a nice five mile jaunt. Our average speed was about 5.3 mph, which is a bit faster than earlier in this spring, but still a bit slow for our competitions. Both horses were cooperative. We have been practicing standing still while on the trail, since we have to do that while competing. We can get them to stand for about 60-80 seconds, which is progress.
We let Kay and Jimmy graze on the lawn while we fed the rest of the herd.
Today we started with Jimmy and Kay again. While Ray worked Jimmy in the round pen and then ground drove him, I took Kay out on our local trail. For the most part, the snow is gone. Kay was ready to go, so we spent some time practicing standing still. This is not her favorite thing to do, especially as we get closer to home. Ray says Jimmy was much calmer than he was yesterday, so apparently Jimmy needs to be worked more.
Then Ray took Scarlet out for a drive while I worked Sporty in the round pen. From the beginning, Scarlet was a bit of a stinker. She tried to refuse going past the garage. She refused to turn to the right. So Ray spent quite a bit of time making her go where he wanted to go. She was tired and sweaty by the time they got done. I am sure she wouldn’t have been so tired if she had been more cooperative.
News from Mini Happi Times Farm
Today we worked with all of the horses except Sunny. By working with a couple of horses at a time, it gave Sunny a chance to hang out at the hay bale. We started with Kay and Loki. We harnessed them up and did about three miles with them. It was the first time we were able to get down our driveway. The trails in the woods are still snow covered, so we stayed on the roads. We forgot the camera until we got home, but they both did pretty well. I think they were happy to get out and stretch their legs.
We then got Sporty and put a saddle on him. There is a possibility that he will be re-homed with someone who has more riding skill than us, and can give Sporty something to do. He is only 14, so he is too young to be just hanging out in our pasture looking pretty. 🙂 He was a bit spooked at first by the step stool we use to get on, but he seemed to have no issues when Ray was riding him.
We took a break for lunch, and then got Scarlet and Jimmy out. I brushed Jimmy and put him back in the pasture while Ray drove Scarlet. She behave almost perfectly until the very end when she got a little obstinate about walking away from the hitching post. Ray just made her stop and stand still, then he made her walk a few steps in the direction which he wanted to go, and then he turned her back to the hitching post.
At one point, George the cat climbed up onto a window ledge in the barn and sat between the plastic on the outside, and the mesh on the inside.
Pongo supervised.
There are also a couple of pictures of blowing sand making interesting tracks in the snow.
ASAP Updates | ASAP, Inc. | 4thehorses.com 