Time is just flying by.. almost the first day of school and also time to start weaning foals. An old-timer's advice.. wean on the full moon and the foals and Moms will whinney less for each other. I have also read that weaning should take place at the dark of the moon..I like to do it at the full moon-so we try to plan our separations for then. We also plan so more than one foal is weaned, that way each foal has a buddy. Makes it a little less traumatic.

In a previous blog entry, I mentioned Teasel Obi-- our grand very extreme Curly gelding-- was at my daughter's houes- going out on very rough trail every day. He was there about a month.. and we made a switch. Our beautiful buckskin pinto mare with 2 gorgeous blue eyes-- Teena's Avis Jane-- has gone to live with Zoe and is now being ridden on the trails every evening-- getting lots of miles. Teasel is an outstanding trail gelding, but now he's back at the farm so he can work on his abilities in the ring. He built up a lot of muscle on the trail...and the ring work will finish him off.

Avis has been a farm favorite since birth. She has been in the show ring and ridden lots of fun trails. Here she is headed out for her "new" home, ready for new experiences.

Avis's maternal sister, Sudie Bee, is one of our best therapy horses, we use her in the wheelchair grooming program. Another daughter, Tippateena, is an outstanding driving horse and bred for a 2008 foal. When we drive Tippy, she wears her mother's harness!! Teena's last foal, a filly who resembles her Mom-- OYY Fiona -- is a 2 year old and doing great in harness. She's the daughter that looks most like Mom. Avis has had a few foals.. one which sold at the Equine Affaire in West Springfield, MA to a great farm in MA. That woman moved and sold most of her horses and I received an e-mail recently from his new owner. She's very pleased with him.. we named him The Sojourner. She sent a photo of him dressed for Halloween.

It's always so great to hear news of the farm offspring. This is a very special "family" of horses, headed up by the matriarch- Teena -- who was a grade mare of unknown heritage. She did it all.. ride, drive, pulling logs in the woods. She had many foals-- all of them super-- most of them drive as well as ride. We have many daughters of Teena's still on the farm, and have sold children and grand-children of hers. Teena was euthanized last fall.. as far as we could figure she was at somewhere in the vicinity of 32- and unfortunately had no more teeth. She was healthy but it was increasingly difficult to feed her in the winter. We made up a "soup" for her- but it froze before she could eat it and she detested being separated from the other mares. A very sad day-- there is now a beautiful garden where she was buried. We'll certainly never forget this special mare. She was definitely one of those one in a million horses.