It isn’t cold, but it is raining. For those of you in our area, we had some pretty dandy storms last night. If it wasn’t a work night, it would have been wonderful to lay in bed and listen to the thunder and rain. But alas, for those of us that have to get up bright and early…another story. But I still enjoyed it.

Everything is growing like crazy. Now is not the time for my lawnmower to break down, but it did. I guess I’ll have to invite a lot of horses over for a snack.

I should look into the winter photos and see what made it higher to the swing, the snow or the grass.

Well, believe it or not, I’m finally caught up. I wasn’t sure how that was going to happen. It was one of those things where the further I got behind, the more overwhelming it became. But hey…hopefully I won’t get too distracted by the show this weekend and will finally take some photos of the new baby. If anyone has some early pictures they would like to share, please let me know.

Thanks and have a good weekend.

Even though it is barely over 40 degrees, it just looks and feels like a pretty morning.

Ginger was up to greet me in the morning.

Everything looked so peaceful as I walked out into the pasture to open up another pasture gate.

The horses realize I’m opening a new door and they come over to check it out.

And they all run up into a new field, giving me something beautiful to watch.

I know this isn’t true, but so far this is the only picture I have of the 28th. Hmm…perhaps some could be mismarked.

I guess there really wasn’t much to choose from. Here’s Ben in his usual position at the fence in the early morning.

Duke checking out the grounds. Once again, I forgot the temperature, but I’m guessing it is around 40.

The morning tire swing.

Tabu heading out to pasture.

Ginger follows.

Yes, it is almost 8:30, but this is a really good sign for a nice warm day.

Athena is very depressed. She was separated from her mother last night and doesn’t understand why this happened. Her mother, on the other hand, is out frolicking with the other horses.

We put Monty in this paddock to babysit.

And Spice and Cooper so she would have some new friends.

But none of this seemed to matter. She just wants her mom.

One thing I failed to mention was the birth of Sweet Marie’s baby. On Friday, May 24th, our neighbor called us at the horse show to let us know we had a mare foaling in the pasture. Suddenly it was tough to be hundreds of miles away.

Fortunately we got in touch with another neighbor who has delivered many babies and she came to the rescue and pulled this oversized colt out of Sweet Marie. He’s a beautiful big baby boy.

At first he wouldn’t nurse and Sweet Marie became engorged. The vet had to come out and Chuck spent his Friday night nursing a horse and trying to get the baby to drink. Jamie and Taylor assisted. Many people were out that day helping in many different ways. In fact, there are so many I know I would miss some of them if I tried to name them all. Perhaps someone can comment on this and let us know who all showed up to lend a hand and make sure this new horse would have a chance.

And the new baby does look an awful like like his half-brother storm, except he has brown eyes instead of blue.

It’s day two of the show and Barb’s Birthday. She gets to celebrate by braiding Amber’s mane.

Mandy is putting on the glitz.

A few stalls down, these two were constantly getting in touch with each other.

Every now and then Hemi had to spend some time in an empty stall.

She may not have liked it, but it did make for some cute photos.

So here we are the next morning at the show. We’re all unpacked, all checked in, fell asleep around midnight, up at 5 a.m., good to go. Haley, Maddy and Tori leaning on each other.

Still quiet in the aisles. The show begins at 8 a.m.

Maddy is getting Monty ready for his first class — halter.

Maddy getting set up to show Monty.

Showing Monty to the judge.

Tori getting ready for her first riding class.

Tori and Spring showing their stuff to the judge.

Maddy riding Monty in a class.

Strutting their stuff.

Haley taking a snack break.

In the 10 and under class, Mandy had to meet Heidi at the finish.

The girls in blue having a good time.

Another 40ish morn.

This morning I spent a lot of time chasing Ginger through tall wet grass. She really wanted to join her horse friends out in the pasture. Athena called and called to her, but Ginger just ignored the calls and ran the fence line by her friends. The only thing that worked was a bucket of grain. I got her back in the paddock. After the horse show, we will separate the two.

This is a familiar site to all the parents and kids going to a show — packing the trailer.

We’re going for a couple of nights so the packing is more intense. The reason you don’t see anyone packing is because I’m taking pictures. Just kidding…thought that was funny.

Here’s the packed car. Yes, we’re taking everything including the kitchen sink.

Duke is trying to see where he’ll fit in.

Monty is snacking on some grass, waiting for his mane to dry.

Here’s Spring, ready to roll.

Along with Amber. Soon we’ll be in Milwaukee for an Arab/Half-Arab circuit show.

We just love those 40 degree mornings.

The moon sure is nice this a.m.

But once the sun came out, boy did it light up the Oak Barn.