Saturday Horse Stuff

We have had an exciting day today. We have been looking forward to visiting a friends big horse farm all week with our kids and grand kids. Hubby's sister and niece are in town and they are horse lovers as well so we were delighted that they could go along too.

These people raise Standardbred horses that they race. They have about 150 of them at several different locations in different states. They take a lot of them south for the winter so that they can race down there. They love their horses. Their facility was immaculate and each and every horse looked wonderfully well cared for. They also had a collection of other animals that they adopted such as sheep, a llama, peacocks, hens, roosters, geese, ducks, dogs and cats.

They rescued the rooster who lost his feet due to frostbite and nursed him back to health and he is doing great even though he walks on stumps. He has a lady friend and they have their own digs as poultry is notorious for picking on any of the flock that has injuries. He is fat and sassy and crows each morning at 3:30 a.m.

Their welsh corgi dogs, Annie and Andrew greeted us with kisses and wags and just loved the grand kids. We were quite smitten with Andrew who has a disability but thrives with his little cart to help him get about.

The foals were just gorgeous with their long wobbly legs that will someday turn them into powerful trotters. Some of them were born in February and some were only a couple weeks old and one is due any moment. Here are pictures of a few of them.

To say that we were enchanted with them would be an understatement. There's just something about those soft little muzzles and short fluffy tails that are just adorable. They also have a couple of champion Morgans that the wife rides. She has a whole room just loaded with ribbons, trophies, coolers, and other winnings from her showing days.

This lady is remarkable, she didn't even start riding until she was 56 years old and has gone on to win everything on the east coast with these two horses! She is a wee bit of a thing at only 5 feet tall but handles these big horses with ease. She is also the one that nursed the footless rooster back to good health where most people would have just put him in the stew pot! :o(

The farm consists of about 300 acres so we got around in these Polarises. The kids loved it and sat in the back on a blanket. We use ours to haul poo so they don't ride in ours........ahem.....

It was just a great day, we all had such a good time and the owners were so gracious taking their Saturday afternoon to show us around. The grand kids won't forget it, especially little Andrew who stole their hearts. :o)