The Barn. Day 15, Plus Horse Breeding Day

I did not get home until after 9pm, so I could not take pictures tonight, BUT the barn is gorgeous. The siding is close to finished. Some remaining exterior items:  the front door needs windows and cladding, the one stall door needs to be mounted (I called yesterday about the trim replacement and they swear it is "any day now"), and the loft door needs to be installed. But in general, the bottom line is that everything is amazingly beautiful to me. There will be a good bit of interior work to do after the concrete is poured in the ailseway/tackroom/washstall, but it still looks so terrific. I cannot believe it. The builders are going to do a little extra drainage work outside which I think can keep me from even needing gutters (we shall see). The plumber/electrician comes tomorrow so I can test the water lines and make a list of cleanup items for them to do before being paid. That saga is not yet over.

My extra cushion is about used up, so after this is done it'll be fall before I'll save enough for the next step. Still, I feel lucky that things are turning out so well with the construction. I'll take more pictures tomorrow.

The other big news of the day is that we had Cori bred today and it looks like we hit the window of opportunity perfectly! The vet did an examination yesterday to say she was almost ready, so I called the stallion owner in Pennsylvania and ordered semen for today. It was on a plane by 1pm and Dawn took the afternoon off just so she could drive to the airport to pick up the shipment then drive another 2 hours to the farm. Mom and Dad and the vet were waiting. The vet inseminated Cori and said that the examination for today looked terrific. We'll know in 19 days if she is pregnant, but all of us feel very positive about it. What a relief. Sara, who plans to buy the foal, is really excited. Heinse, the stallion, is one of the best stallions in American in my opinion. Yet he is very hard to breed to since he produces very little semen and the quality degrades significantly after 24 hours. So this is a bigger deal than with some other stallions. You are quite lucky to get a Heinse foal. Fingers crossed!

So, today was a very very good day in horse land.