Windy Hill Friesian Sporthorses

08/26/2026

Onyx has had the last 2 years off raising babies. I decided it was time to put her back to work. When she was confirmed in foal with Calypso (her 2025 foal) she was in training to be started under saddle. She was worked a few times after training g and then things got busy and she got bigger. It was so nice out tonight I grabbed the halter and my stick. I wanted to see how much she retained the pickup que. It took her a minute but she did beautifully. Then I put majority of my weight on her back and she didn't care even with our little entourage. I am so proud of her and we will be working on getting the saddle out and taking a few rides before the end of the summer/fall.

08/18/2026

It's been awhile since I posted updates on the horses. We run a produce business as well and it's sweet corn season so that keeps us very busy.

The weather has been absolutely horrible. We've been having extreme heat, humidity, and tons of rain. With how hot it's been we decided not to stress out Onyx and Luuk with trying to breed in this horrible heat. It seems like we are finally getting a break so I had the vet out today to see where Onyx is in her cycle. This mare hides her heat cycle very well and I never know when she is in season unless she shows to Luuk. Unfortunately Luuk is at the pasture across the road so I'd have to bring him to the home pasture to find out. I don't exactly have a lot of time right now to do that.

So the vet came out today and she is not showing signs of being close to coming in. So we are working out a plan to bring her in to heat hopefully in the next few weeks. Maybe by that time the weather will be better.

Squalus was tied up for the first time as well. Usually I'm holding his lead rope and he stands next to Onyx. This time I tied him with the line kind of long. He stood there like a champ and kept himself occupied by playing with the feed bucket that was hanging there.

I didn't get any pics while we were ultrasounding but I did snap some pics of Squalus and Calypso after they were put back in the pasture. Squalus is really shedding his foal coat and that beautiful black coat is coming in nicely .

07/27/2026

07/23/2026

Squalus is growing so fast. Hard to believe he is just over 2 months old. He is such a sweet boy and loves attention. He is a little ham and found my camera luckily he didn't knock it off. Someone is going to end up with a very special boy.

07/21/2026

We have been trying to figure out who has been playing in the water tank and getting the barn all muddy. So I moved the camera to watch the tank and finally caught the culprit. Onyx was cooling herself off by splashing herself. Not sure if Calypso and Squalus have been part of the issue but by the way Calypso looked at Onyx made me feeling she was saying "Mom you're going to get in trouble". 😄

07/16/2026

Someone has been playing in the water tank and getting the inside of the barn all muddy. It could be 1 or all of them doing it. I was walking out to the garden and heard banging on the tank so snuck my phone into one of the holes in the wall to try and catch the culprit. Unfortunately that didn't work out because Onyx spotted something was different and was looking right at my phone. So I gave up and will just try to catch them another time.

07/16/2026

Boy do these babies keep you on your toes.

07/13/2026

Yesterday the hubby took the lawn mower out to the pasture to mow down the thistle filled areas of the pasture. The horses know the drill to stay out of his way so Onyx, Calypso, and Squalus put themselves into the roundpen. They aren't scared of the mower whatsoever and Calypso actually walks up to it to check it out. So happy for well desensitized horses.

Also for those who want to comment about grass trimmings not being fed to horses. As you can see the areas where the thistles are is in tall grass that the horses do not like to eat.

07/07/2026

Calypso still occasionally plays with the giant ball. I missed her trying to lay on it before she rolled.

07/01/2026

Finally getting the last of the hay baled on this very hot day. We ended up with 17 bales. Once we get a 2nd cutting we will have all the hay we need for the horses this winter. I just love the smell of hay.