Filly updates

On my way home yesterday, I stopped and visited Gussie and her filly (and their people!) The little darlin' is battling foal scours for the last two weeks, but she seems quite vigorous and healthy otherwise. I've never seen a case of scours last so long so I'm not sure what's going on. There is absolutely no problem with the care she is receiving, so I guess it's just one of those things that time will take care of. Now that the weather is better, I'm sure that will help too.

She is just the sweetest little filly, and the spittin' image of Peppy her brother, even to the heart shaped star, although hers is all roaned out. She is definitely blue under that dun coat.

This filly is two weeks younger than Sparkle, but she is taller.

I think Sparkle looks pretty good though, don't you?

My road trip

Things are picking up pace now; I may be moving by the end of the month. I just got back from Creston, and there are a couple of possible places for us, I'll know more by tomorrow night. I checked out the dairy farm job, but didn't take it- there is too much heavy lifting for me. I won't have any problem finding work there though; jobs are always available for those who are willing to work.
I visited my mom in hospital, she is improving and is on the waiting list for placement in an extended care facility. I got to see my little nieces, and made them dandelion crowns (or necklaces, as the case may be!);

On Sunday we went to the local arena to watch some team roping. Check out these pictures; they start 'em young around there!

This kid was heading and heeling with his Shetland pony;

This youngster worked at getting the steer caught and didn't give up til he got the job done;

Yep; there were little ropin' cowkids an little ropin' ponies all over the place, and danged if they weren't doing a pretty good job, too!

This li'l gal was just lopin' around on that ole pony, having a grand time. She stayed out of the way of the ropers like these big boys:

Heeler missed his loop!

With two arenas there, I reckon I'm going to get lots of riding in! I found out there are some cutting horse folks there too, so I might be able to take some lessons on Beamer.

Today is Ted's birthday, and as I drove away this morning, he looked quite forlorn, waving goodbye in the driveway. I'll be back soon, honey, and next time it'll be because I'm moving, not visiting!

Sunday Stills - Yellow

Today's challenge was a lot of fun; there's lots of use of yellow around farm animals and in nature!


One of the horses that works at the Auction market, waiting his turn to follow the cattle down the alleys.

My stock cane, which I decorated with my brand, hanging on a gate- yes, we had snow at the sale on Tuesday!

An Evening Grosbeak at 6 A.M. looking for breakfast.

Yellow always looks fabulous with red, as in this Strawflower;

and any colour looks great with black and white, according to Reba!

Adjustment and attitude!

This evening the Chiropractor came back to check Sparkle. Her neck is much improved, and her hips were perfect. She did an adjustment on the neck, and found some spots that need massage. I think the little rascal really loves getting massaged, so that should be an easy program to follow with her.

Earlier today, when I gave Coyote Belle her grain, Sparkle got right in there and hogged the bucket, even pinning her ears at Chickory and chasing her out of there. What a brat! The next thing you know, they're out in the pasture, best buds, grooming each other and playing.
She just had to roll in the mud, too! This filly has so much character, she is delightful to watch.

Tomorrow I'm traveling to Creston, bright and early. Ted has place or two for me to look at and I have a job interview on Friday. I have pre-scheduled my post for Sunday Stills, I enjoyed this one, yellow. I'll be visiting Gussie and her filly on my way back, so look for pics on Monday! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Feeding the feathered ones

The snow brought the birds to my feeders, mostly red-wing blackbirds both male and female, but also this lovely little fellow; I believe he's a purple finch.

They were glad to get the sunflower seeds I put out, and even cleaned up the seeds that have fallen on the ground.
My mayday tree is just about to flower, hope this isn't too much of a setback for it!

Mowing Snow

Yup that's right; mowing snow! We woke up to about 4 inches of the white stuff. It seems that winter is not about to let us out of her tenacious grip just yet. On a good note, this should put an end to the fire ban- it's been so dry here that there have been raging grass fires and we weren't allowed to even have a fire in our backyard fire pit. Ted had pulled the lawn mower out of storage because the lawn was (just barely) in need of cutting, but then this! I checked the weather forecast in Creston; Ted is driving home today to a wonderful 27 degrees (that's 81 for you Fahrenheit folks!).

We still haven't found a place there so next weekend I'm heading down there to help look. Sure hope we find something soon!

Sunday Stills- The Eye

When Ed gave us this challenge, he said the eyes are the window to the soul. These two photos of Beamer's eye sure do show his gentle nature.

He is the sweetest horse ever, and absolutely sure that he is the handsomest stallion in existence!(Of course, that could be because I keep telling him so!)

Then there is my Reba with her gorgeous blue eyes; she didn't want to pose for me; too busy keeping track of the horses!
This scary creature is a bull that is related to the cow that caused my black eye; his eye really does show his cantankerous nature.

This is Sparkle showing off her inquisitive nature.

But this one is my most favourite of all; from my archives- the soft eye of Beamer.

This colourful one is for all those who have been asking about my black eye- it sure spread out, and it looks worse than it feels- the cut is the only part that hurts.

Girls Rule!

Did you watch the Preakness?!!!! I loved watching Rachel Alexandra outrun Mine That Bird, and I loved watching Mine That Bird outrun the rest of the field! What a great race!

Sparkle agrees that the girls rule; she is doing her best to be a princess. She loves her new paddock, and having Chickory to (rule) play with. I have discovered something about Chickory; last fall, when I bought her, I saw these marks on her butt, and thought they were because of a fungal infection. You gotta remember, it took me a couple of months to get her so that I could handle her.

If you look closely, you will see that they are actually scars, which I can finally see now that she is shedding out.

I have a finger on each scar in this photo, they are circular, puncture type; and there are a few lineal scars farther back as well as a couple of scratch-type scars on her other side. I'm guessing she survived a cougar attack, which goes a long way towards explaining her strong flight instinct.

Beamer is all done with breeding season now (unless someone books a mare in the next two weeks). He got a bath today, and I put his summer sheet on him to keep him clean- and then he goes and rolls and gets his mane all dirty as soon as he got back in his pen! Bad boy!

My sweetheart is home for the weekend; look what he brought me:

Isn't that the cutest teddy bear for my collection- yes, it's a bear, not a dog!

Sparkle gets turnout

Today was the first day of turnout for Belle and Sparkle. They have room to get out and run and play, and they are now in with Chickory. And having a blast!

So now they have a little grass to eat as well as their hay. As you can see, the grass here is still a little slow in coming. But I was looking back in my photo archive from this time last year, and it was the same. I think it only feels slower this year because we had such a long cold winter that we are really pining for the freshness and beauty of spring in full swing. (Unlike Mikey, and Lisa, and my other blog buddies who are having a 100 degree heat wave!)

My husband will be here this weekend, won't he be pleased with me and my black eye! Sorry, honey. I won't be very pretty for you this weekend! It's dark purple; maybe tomorrow I'll get another photo: it should be more colourful by then! ;}

Careful what you wish for....

I've been working on the Sunday Stills assignment, eyes. Well, I had an interesting day at work yesterday.We had some bad cattle come through; these were range cattle that did not like people... or horses... they were very hard to move. One old cow was really bad- first they had trouble getting her in the sale ring, then getting her out of the sale ring, and then we penners had trouble getting her in a pen.

I have a theory about why she was particularly bad (other than never being handled and living like a wild critter on the range). Look at her, then look at this cow:

You can see that the white cow has no forward vision while the red cow has her eyes set so that she can see ahead;

this old girl , even when she turns her head, must have poor vision, as her eyes are quite sunken in her head. So you can imagine how she handles the world around her: if she can't see it, it must be dangerous, so she charges it. (You can see how she skinned herself up charging everything!) Getting back to my story, she wouldn't go into the pen; just stopped in the alley and took a run at anyone that came within twenty feet of her. So we tried crowding her with a system of gates, which eventually worked, but I, being the brave (foolhardy?) sort, opted to be the first one to try that, and she charged the gate. I wasn't quick enough to turn away and the gate caught me a glancing blow on my eyebrow bone, resulting in a cut and a wonderful black eye. Fortunately, I'm kinda hard-headed, I just mopped up and kept on working. So this morning, it looks much worse, and rather spectacular!

Cute, huh?

Busy Beamer and chiro for Sparkle

Sunday was a busy day for Beamer. After Coyote Belle was bred (she was better behaved for him), he had a little rest, then I brought in the mare we have in for breeding, Honey, for him to tease. Last year she was really easy, but this year she is rather crabby with him. I'm pretty sure that it's because she is fixated on Coyote Belle and her baby;she spends a lot of time gazing at them over the fence, and gets upset when she can't see them, even though she is pastured with Chickory. She came in heat on Saturday night, but it took her about 10 minutes of teasing for her to display to him. Poor Beamer! He is really having to work with these mares this year. In the evening, he got to breed Honey, but again, had to tease her for a while before she showed that she was ready. I'm so proud of my boy, he is doing a great job. Not every stud can be used for breeding and teasing both, and he is being really well behaved. Good boy!

In the evening the horse chiropractor visited the farm to do another mare that's boarded there, so I had her look at Sparkle. If you recall, Sparkle was dropped on her head during foaling when the mare stood up after passing the shoulders, and poor little Sparkle landed in a heap on the stall floor. So we found that her neck needed adjustment, and that her hips did too.

I usually massage her neck a little every day, which she loves, and that helped this feisty filly to stand still for her treatment.

Sparkle seemed to enjoy the treatment for the most part, but she did stamp her front foot a few times. Did I mention she's feisty? We'll do a follow up next Sunday, and meantime I'll continue to massage her. We'll have to change things a little when we breed Belle this morning; instead of tying Sparkle to the post, we'll build a small pen in front of mama to put her in, so that we don't undo the good we did on her neck.

Sunday Stills-Black and White

This week we were to take our subject from previous Challenges and shoot or edit in black and white. the subjects I chose were Religion (It's Sunday, after all!).....

This is in the graveyard where many of my family are. And lines........

This is the receiving alley at the Auction Market here I work. And animals of husbandry......

Some of the feeder cattle on sale day. And water; this is the ferry coming in to dock on the Kootenay Lake.

To honour Mother's Day, I dug into my archives from 1975, and found this photo of my mom and little sister Michele, taken at a backyard softball game. I love it because my mom was having such a good time, in contrast to my sister, who wasn't. This shot actually was taken in black and white back in the day. Happy Mother's Day to all moms reading this!

Beamer's earning his keep

Breeding season is off to a good start today. Coyote Belle was sure worried about where her baby was, so we tied Sparkle to the other side of the post from Belle, nose to nose. When I brought Beamer in he was ready, but Belle was raising such a ruckus that he quickly lost interest; he wasn't getting anywhere near those flying feet! (you should have seen him pout!) We had to use the twitch on Belle, and while it was taking effect, I took Beamer over to tease another mare and restore his libido, and then everything went quite smoothly. My B boy is getting to be quite easy to handle for breeding; last year he had to be corrected a couple of times, but this year he is really listening to me.

The mare that we have in for breeding, Honey, is just coming in to heat, so the boy gets to cover twice tomorrow; Belle in the morning and Honey in the evening.

No problem!

Beamer gets some run time

While I was doing chores today, I decided to turn Beamer out into a pasture for some green grass; but he had other ideas- he was more interested in going mach one with his hair on fire!

He was havin' a blast, but tomorrow he has to go to work; Coyote Belle is in heat today, so tomorrow our breeding season starts.

"Breeding season! Now you got my attention!"

Gussie's filly

I had a really fun day today, I went to Sundre and visited Gussie and her filly- oh, and their humans too; who had a nice lunch ready for me and Wendy. They laughed at us as we spent most of lunch gawking out the window at the filly, and were like a couple of kids who couldn't wait to leave to table to go play.

Gussie and Beamer did a wonderful job on this little girl, don't you think? She is 8 days old now.

Gussie's owner told me that she was watching the filly play the other day and she was doing flying lead changes every stride. Not only cute, but athletic too!

Whaddya think? This is Peppy, her full brother, at three weeks old. A little more white, but they sure are stamped out of the same mold! And yes, that is what a blue roan looks like before they shed out their baby hair.

Just another day at work

Here are some of the faces I see at work. I think I prefer them to some of the faces I've seen at other jobs I've had!

This big boy had just come from being semen tested at the vets and he wasn't very happy..... (probably because the vet said that he wouldn't be visiting the cows anymore!)

I kinda laughed when I saw his ear tag; it says 60D but looks like it says God, which I'm sure he thought he was!

and I was real glad of the stout bars of the fence between us! Cattle prices are staying up a bit, but I think a lot of the older ranchers are getting out of the business- too much paper work and computer work these days for some of the old boys.
I was taking some photos for Sunday Stills Challenge; I've decided to do lines and animal husbandry. How about you?