Nitro and mama

Here is a video of Nitro and Belle when I turned them out for the first time in the big mare pasture. Tomorrow I'll add the other mares in to the mixture.

For Texasnascarcowgirl

Sunday Stills

Take something bad and find a way to make it look good/find some beauty in it – at least photographically.

Not too hard to find something I consider bad- barbwire,

and mud puddles.  

For Leontien

I missed out on doing a post this morning on the link up for Flowers for Leontien, a blogger who is battling cancer- but I'm posting this photo just for her.

My tulips are blooming, and so is my bleeding heart bush.

Leontien, I hope this helps to cheer you up- and if you need something more- this should make you smile.....

A helping hand to scratch an itch; we get by with a little help from our friends.

Morning shenanigans

Nitro is well named; every morning when I turn him out, he performs- at a high tilt boogie! He wiped out in the wet grass this morning, and took the opportunity to grab a quick bite of grass, and off he went.....

I really like using photobucket's slide show, it saves a lot of time and makes it easy to post a lot of photos that you don't have to wait for to open when you  read my blog. Question is, do you readers like this format?

Me cute too!

Not to be outdone in the cuteness department....

Caution- cuteness overload!

Went to visit the neighbors today, they have a baby mini horse that's only a couple of days old. I'm so glad that my camera is fixed!
Meet Cinder, she stole my heart with her cuteness!

Take it to Ted

That's the name of Ted's repair business- and it works for me too! Ted can fix anything I break.... including my camera. Well, technically I didn't break it, there was a loose part that was interfering with the whole working of the camera- but my beloved husband fixed it for me; yay!

He also checked out my little camera, and the consensus was- unfixable. 

So of course I had to go take some photos to make sure everything was working.... not to hard to figure out where I headed.

Sunday Stills

This week, in honor of Ed's birthday, we are to post a photo from one of his challenges. Here is a link to my favorite challenge, the rule of thirds. This one really got me thinking about composition, and the second and third photos in that post were chosen for the local bank's calender- the third one was the cover photo. Instead of reposting, my photo this week is an ongoing example of how I continue to look for that type of composition on my photos.
My camera isn't working at the moment, so this is from my archives.

Taken on March 8th. It's much greener now! That is the town of Creston, nestled on the hillside between the escarpment of the Skimmerhorn mountains, and the Creston Flats where I live- the flats are land reclaimed from the Kootenay River by a system of canals.
I'd like to thank Ed and Linda for dreaming up the Sunday Stills blog,and weekly challenge- it has helped me tremendously in my photography.

Gussie gets told

I mentioned that I turned Rio out with Chickory and Gussie, as they were no longer in heat.... well... Rio discovered that Gussie is still in heat, so we separated her out and put her in with Belle and Nitro, leaving Rio with Chickory. There wasn't much for drama, as Belle and Gussie are BFFs.

That is, until Nitro decided to check out the possibility of a new snack bar...

Which Belle took exception to....

and redirected her erring son to the proper place for nutrition.

More Nitro

Well. I did warn you that there would be a lot of foal photos.... there is other stuff going on here, but when there is this cute little rascal around it's hard not to take photos of him.

I think he has the prettiest head of all the Beamer/Belle babies. How is it that each baby seems better than the last! They have all been good, just each one is a little different. I'd love to get a photo of all of them together- and I did get one of Rio greeting Nitro and Belle.

I made Nitro a new halter yesterday- he has already outgrown the infant halter.

I need to adjust the chin knot upwards a little. Do you like the camo rope? Ted gave me that for Christmas, and it's perfect for foal halters. Does anyone out there need a foal halter? I will make one to the first person who leaves a comment, who has a foal- it's very hard to buy a  halter that fits foals this young.

Nitro is well named, I think everywhere he goes, he runs. And he leaves mama Belle in the dust- this boy is a rocket!

She gets plenty of exercise, keeping up with him!

He is really athletic, and can stop in a dime.

Nitro is two weeks old tonight. He is easy to catch and halter, leads really well, and I'm working on picking up his feet. He's very ticklish, so I'm taking my time on that, I want him to be relaxed about his feet being handled instead of forcing it. By the end of the month, the mare pasture should have enough grass in it to turn all the herd out together. Rio went back in with Gussie and Chickory today, as they are no longer in heat. Happy Rio!

Wordless Wednesday- 'night moves

Some questions answered

I've had a few questions lately, and I'll try to get them answered. Crystal asked if Nitro will be as tall as Rio- I won't know that until I measure his legs; ideally you wait until 5 months old to do that, but I could get a minimum height if I measured now- I may do that soon. She also asked how long before I turn all the horses out with the baby- I am waiting for breeding season to be done- should be all done by the weekend, then Gussie and Chickory can hang out with Belle and Nitro. Rio I will continue to keep separate. I've kind of been waiting for the mare pen to dry up a little, and it's much better now.

Lisa asked if we are keeping Nitro- no, he's for sale. My goal is to sell him right at weaning time which means any time after mid August.

Ian asked why the oversized fence in the background of my pasture photos; that particular pen used to be for sorting cattle, so I think they put that high fence up to keep the cattle from wanting to jump over the fence when they were pressured up. I like this pen for introducing foals to pasture, because they invariably run into the fence at some point, and this one they just bounce off of.

And... I finally caught him napping! (Good border collie Reba, right at that 12 o'clock position!)

So stinkin' cute!

Who- me? napping? 

Not for long!

Sunday Stills

The challenge this week is to photograph reflections; I chose to take it literally, as I have a large puddle of water just at the edge of my yard that is perfect for reflections. In this photo, the only way you can see the sunset is in the reflection.

This next photo was taken on April 3rd, the same puddle, but sunrise. The top of the mountain is much more clear in the reflection.

Zoomin' up an appetite

Nitro does love to zoom around!

But all that play makes a little guy hungry. 

But- clods of roots aren't the best baby food.

Nor is mama's ear.

A much better diet is milk....

and hay.

Nitro- one week later

Our foal is a week old tonight, and I think he is living up to his name.He's full of energy, in fact I don't have any napping shots of him yet, as soon as I approach he's up and investigating. Turn out time is always good for some action- does this shot, with all 4 feet off the ground, remind you of anyone?

Yeah, I thought so. Also, he's living up to the "Moon" part of his name... just sayin'....
He races his mama and often is in the lead.

Mama Belle doesn't like that so much, so she takes over.

At least, she tries to....

Thirsty work, all that zoomin' around- he's learned to drink from the water tub.