The girls ask a question

'Scuse, us, we got a question;

Could we maybe have a little bit of oats? Pleeeeeaaaaase?

Sorry, I couldn't hear you, did you say yes?

Sunday Stills

This week's theme is company logos or signs, so I thought I'd share with you my company logo. Horses are a business for me, and have been for 12 years. I'm winding down the business a little now, but it still exists. So here is our logo, which I designed- on our jacket backs:

And on the front above the pocket:

And on our ball caps, ably modeled by Tess.

Rainy days

We have had a lot of rainy days lately, so I haven't been riding; the pups are also taking up a lot of my time right now. Sometimes when I go to catch the horses to bring them in for the night they rip around a little, strutting their stuff; the above photo was taken while I was standing in the rain, halters in hand. Couldn't help but smile at the lovely action.

Velvet was in fine form(sorry about the grainy photo, blame it on the rain!) She is starting to fill out now. I did measure her the other day, she stands 14 hands and half an inch, at one year old. She will probably be around 15.1 when she is all done growing, which goes to show that even though Beamer is only 14.2 and a quarter inch, he can throw size on his babies. He tends to throw the size of the mare on the babies.

Also, Velvet is usually the first one to stop and offer to be caught. Love those curly ears! The wet weather has also brought us a pair of visitors; this pair can be found waddling around the farmyard.

The bigger dogs leave them alone, but I think I'll have to keep Sammi in hand when the ducks are around; she goes after anything that moves!

All the veggies in my garden are up now, but I have to get more tomato plants to replace the ones the frost got. The local greenhouse has beefsteak tomatoes, which are hard to find. My dad always grew them when I was a kid.

Sammi

Now that I've gotten to know my pup, I'm discovering her personality. She is very intense, and has the border collie stare down pat:

She is very smart, and a little opinionated- I made the mistake of closing the door on the crate she was sleeping in and now she refuses to go in it! No way she is being locked in again!

She really wants to play with Tess (Reba avoids her) and sometimes Tess allows it, and sometimes she doesn't.

Sammi is very intrigued with the other pups but plays a little too rough for them. She is learning her name, and comes right to me when I call, although sometimes I have to work at it to distract her from whatever she is focusing on. She is also learning that chasing cats is NOT allowed here!

This next week I'm going to work on walking on the leash, and sit. Also need to get her some chew toys- everything goes into the mouth; typical kid! She is adept at pruning my plants!

Two more pups spoken for

Today, Janice and Dave visited. Janice had to pick out her pup, which is her birthday gift- tomorrow is her birthday, everyone! She originally picked out Emma, but I was hoping she would go for Jasmine; I thought she would suit her better- and she did pick her! Good choice Janice! Now I get to watch my favorite of the female pups grow up. Yay!

Of course, the problem here is the name, since Jazz is the name she picked for the filly she bought from me. But I'm sure she'll get a good name for her.

Also, I sold Chad today , although he won't go to his new home until July 3- and he was my pick of the litter for the male pups. He will be going to Kimberly, which is close to where Janice lives so we'll get to see him too. The new owner wants him for skijoring, and maybe dog sledding. Tess's dad, who is a sheep trials winning dog, was used for sledding this last winter and did amazingly well; maybe Chad will follow in his Grandpa's paw prints.

That's Chad on the left, along with Billie. (Isn't Billie a cutey!) So that's 5 pups with homes, and 5 to go. I still have 3 people who will be coming for a pup, so really there are only 2 left to sell.

And my name is...

Sammi!

It took me a while, but finally a name popped out for the puppy. We had a good time playing today, I put her in with Tess's pups and they had fun chewing on each other.

Wordless Wednesday

Squeaky puppies

Janice asked for more puppy videos, so here we go. Mostly these videos are featuring the girl pups.

They are starting to grow and play. I started them on goat's milk today along with their puppy chow, as Tess isn't feeling well and has lost a lot of weight. Pups are all fat though!

And Tess gets in the last word.....

She's home!

Well at last my pup is here! I picked her up today from a friend who transported her for me. She is the sweetest little dog! Reba and Tess greeted her without much fuss, no jealousy so that's good. Tara did a really good job raising this pup; she follows along well, comes when you call her, and isn't inclined to whine or bark.

She is a really interesting color; here is a link Tara sent that explains it well. Looks like she is a blue, with grey eyes.

We both took to her, here is Ted looking after her in the shop he built while I fed the other pups.

Looks like Tess will get along just fine with her, which was my only concern.

Sunday Stills

I didn't get a chance to go anywhere this week so for today's challenge of Landscapes, here is the local scenery.

Part of a rainbow, 7 P.M. on my way home from work.

The view to the southwest, from Beamer's turn out pen.

The view to the northwest, including the weeds at the edge of the alfalfa field.

I got more mail!

I'm such a lucky girl- I also won the foaling contest over at All These Pretty Horses, (thanks, Carol!) and check out this book- I now have all 8 volumes of Legends, the series of books put out by Western Horseman about all the legendary Quarter Horses who built a breed over the last century. And on the cover- none other then Doc's Hickory, Chickory's grandpa! Also in this book is Double Bid, a horse that features prominently in the breeding program over at All These Pretty Horses. Check out the new filly there by her mare Jill, who is a granddaughter of Double Bid.

We had a hard frost here last night, so I'm off to see if anything survived in my garden and flower beds. And tomorrow- My new pup arrives!

I got mail!

Thanks Crystal, I got your prize in the mail today! I love it- it's going in my bathroom to hang hand towels.

More little critters

The pups are gobbling up their mash now, twice a day. Which means that their bedding is messier now, so it gets changed twice too; my washing machine is busy!

They are much more active and are playing and pestering each other.

Meanwhile, Kai is being a pest to Chickory, but she tolerates him rather well.

It's a good thing that we got a rainy day today, it gave me a chance to catch up on my housework. Now I have to go to work. Bah!

Wordless Wednesday

The pups and Kai

Today was the first day the pups got to eat; I made them a mash out of Acana puppy food soaked in warm water. It looks horrible to us humans, but must have seemed delightful to the little scalawags, 'cause the dove in and chowed down!

After, I took them out and let them play on the grass, and mama Tess had to come over and check out her little darlin's.

All those little white tipped tails! With their bellies full they cuddled up to nap.

So it was a big day for the pups! My farrier was here today, he says Beamer is developing a really good toe callous. Time to start putting miles on him now. Velvet was a brat, I guess now that Sparkle (Jazz) isn't here, she is taking over the diva role. Kindergarten is about to begin for her; no being bratty for the farrier! She needs lessons in patience, and paying attention. Reminds me of a teenager. "But I don' wanna do this!"

Kai was quite intrigued with Matthew, but didn't get in the way or do a taste test on him.

Kai is leading really well now, and is easy to catch. He's doing good with picking up his feet too. His personality is very much like Beamer, not like his sister who was much more stand offish; Kai likes his kisses, rubs, and grooming.

He also helps himself to mama's oats. He's a fine boy!

Filly fun

Sometimes my fillies are just full of youthful energy; the other day when I brought them in they both flipped their butts at me as they went by.

Velvet is as tall as Chickory now and growing like crazy; I'll have to measure her tomorrow, which is farrier day.

Velvet found a heap of nice soft dirt to roll in, she looked like a dun when she got up!

Sunday Stills

Ah, the beauty of flowers! The best part of taking this lilac shot was drinking in their lovely scent.

Nemesia, from my flower basket.

Apple blossoms in my yard.

I'm not sure what fruit tree these blossoms were on, but they were so beautiful that as I was driving by I slammed on the brakes and jumped out to capture them for you.

Have a lovely Sunday!

Pupdate video

We moved the pups today to the dog kennel, into the box Ted built for them. In a few days they will be able to climb over the sides of it, but they will be contained within the "house" part for another week before they get to romp around. They are growing like bad weeds, as you can see in the video. They are 17 days old today. By the way, if anyone from Montana, Idaho or Washington State is interested in one, I can deliver as far as Kalispell, St. Maries, or Spokane.

.

Babies and a prayer request and a couple of giveaways

A couple of things to post about today; first, Sydney over at Bitless Horse is having a giveaway- check it out here. It's for a neat little level that attaches to your saddle to help you in correcting your riding posture. And we all need help with that, right?

Also, The Rocking Seven Mile blog has a book giveaway- Susan is autographing her book, A Story of the West, to give a copy away on Saturday. Enter up!

Next, Velvet, who turned one year old on April 29, received a birthday card from the folks who own her mama, including photos of Gussie- she is the red roan, Bar Dawn Sabre, on my sidebar under Sale Barn. As you can see by these photos, she is doing really well. One of her owners has a health issue, and I ask you all to send up some prayers for his recovery, he has an ulcer in his esophagus which prevents him from eating solid food, and I'm sure he is pretty tired of Ensure and Boost. Pray hard, folks, because if he doesn't get better they may have to move to town, which would mean selling the farm and horses. Not good.

The pups all have their eyes open now,(and I have names for them all now!) the jury is still out on a couple of them that might have one blue eye. They are getting quite active, and will be transferred to the puppy pen this weekend.

Da Boyz- in front is Ace, we are waiting to see if the eye on his right side is blue. In behind him, from left to right, are Chad, John, Luke, and Corb.

Da Gurlz-from left to right, Ruby (I transferred the name to her), Emma, Jazmin, Abby (who used to be Ruby) and Billie. Abby might have one blue eye; they all look blue for the first week or so before they start to turn brown.

I've been trying to get some photos of Kai for his registration papers. He's so much fun to watch I usually miss the perfect shot, but I did get couple today.

Ummm, Kai, can't you pose with your mouth closed?

Yeah, I know, you'd rather run and play. Off with you then!