Update

Ok blog followers, it's quiz time. 

Can you name these horses?

It's okay.

I'll wait.....

while you burn some brain cells.....

Got it yet?

Did you get both of them?

Spoiler alert.....



It's two Belle babies......



Pistol, on his 3rd time being saddled, being ponied by Nitro! Nice ride up into the mountains for the boys!

Drifter

Time for a Drifter post!
He got turnout in the big hotwire pen yesterday, at first he was just busy eating and then when he realised he had room to play, off he went!

It isn't only Arabians that flag their tail! I love the big scopey trot he has.

Once again, I was watching to make sure he respected the fence when he was ripping around. After a while he did touch it and had a big reaction and then left it alone. 

He is still pretty growthy and butt high and slender, but I don't expect much from yearlings; they are kind of like gangly awkward teenagers. 

His lips look funny because he is chewing that yummy grass

I love that he has a curly mane and tail. Right now his mane is so thick that it splits onto both sides of his neck.

I haven't done a whole lot with him, I mess with him a bit at feeding time, but he is getting a break in his training right now while I deal with foals, trimming all those feet, rotating pasture, etc. But he is still well behaved enough. I am hoping that I can put the foals in with him at weaning time in the fall if they don't go to new homes right at weaning. He will like having a buddy or two!

Pasture turnout and 320

I am finally able to get the mares on turnout. We have limited pasture here so I am doing rotational turnout. Gussie and Sparkle get one shift, then Sassy and Mama Belle and Elijah.
Yesterday was baby's first time out and he took full advantage of it to show that he's got wheels!

He is such a smooth moving colt.

Those cute li'l grunts!  This was his first time out in the white electric tape, and I was a little worried that he would run into it, so I kept waiting to see him touch it first so that he would respect it.

All went well until it was time to bring them in. I took Sassy first and then came back for Belle and Eli.....
Belle was having none of it.

Round and around they went! Eventually she stopped and let me catch her. I really don't want her teaching Eli this behaviour so I may have to approach things differently when it's time to bring them in.

We will figure it out!

Meanwhile..... Sassy is at day 320, which is acknowledged to be the amount of gestation needed for a viable foal, so we are at countdown time!

She is quite large now.

I'm so excited for this foal! If you haven't got a guess in on the foaling contest, enter up! The current guesses can be seen on my sidebar. Colour choices can be seen on this post. Leave me a comment with your guess!

Antics

Time for a bunch of Lijah cuteness!

Stylish!

He was busy zoomin' this morning. I did the best I could with my cell phone camera, not enough to stop the action but at least you get an idea of his speed!

Liftoff!

Attitude!

Power takeoff!

Gorgeous movement!

Spunky little dude!

Drifter was having a moment too- I had turned Sparkle and Gussie out on the grass pen which borders his pen and he hit the hot wire at one point when he was checking them out. Got him a bit miffed! Then he did this: 

Those moves! He is going to be a force to be reckoned with when he gets to barrel racing!

Had a couple of rides over the last few days- Ponied Sparkle from Gussie which went very well, and had a quick bareback ride on Gussie.

Riding day 40 & 41

Just stuff

Spring runoff is in full force here. Our pond is full....

and the route down to the dyke is under water too as the pond is overflowing.

It looks like just a leaf covered trail but it has about 8 inches of water. When runoff is in full force this can get knee deep on the horses. Fun! I love riding through water.

Time for an Eli update! Actually, I have taken to calling him Lijah. He is quite a little character, sometimes as sweet as can be and sometimes opinionated!  But mostly just curious and cute.

and good looking! He's a mama's boy for sure, doesn't go full tilt around the pen like Nitro did, has some of Stella's dance moves and is just a nice mixture of all the endearing attributes of all his siblings. He will be 4 weeks old tomorrow (Friday) and we have begun the teasing process with Belle as she should be coming into heat soon.

That hip! He sure is built! He finally decided he likes butt scratches, which makes it easier to catch him.

As far as Sparkle goes, I haven't ridden her yet. She has been here for a week now and the herd has accepted her. This morning in the rain, she was eating hay in the shelter and Gussie came in too- and didn't chase her out, which is what I was waiting for as I want to pony Sparkle from Gussie and I need them to get along to do that. 

So that's what's next.

ENTER THE CONTEST FOR SASSY'S FOAL!

Riding day 39

Contest #2

Sparkle is settling in well with the herd. Hasn't been any drama for a few days now (Gussie is sporting some missing hair on her hip from a scuffle a few days ago) and being the low girl on the totem pole, she got a job the other day.

Drifter turned a year old the other day. He is growing up... and up... and he is finally looking like a palomino. I put hotwire up at both ends of the alley between him and Beamer so he could get out and graze for a while every day.

I did end up having to halter him every time to get him through the gate, and he is really enjoying the grazing. Beamer greets him and then ignores him.

Sassy is getting large and is really slowing down, just kind of waddles around.

She is at 311 days today, and since I have a gut feeling she is going to foal early it's time to start the second foaling contest! Since this is her first foal, I have no history to go by. Foals are considered viable after 320 days, so she could foal any time after May 23rd. Technically her due date is June 15 which would be 343 days, but mares never go by the book! 

So get your best guess in: colt or filly, day, time and colour and I will start a chart on the sidebar. 

I have done a coat colour probability chart on her and I am going to assume that she is aa for Agouti (meaning she won't throw a foal with black points, as Beamer also doesn't carry Agouti).

Offspring Color Probability 

25.00% -	Blue Roan
25.00% -	Black
25.00% -	Red Roan
25.00% -	Red (Chestnut/Sorrel)

Nature ride

Sometimes it is nice to get on your trusty steed and just take a little ride to enjoy nature.

Like checking the level of the spring run off in the river and just enjoying the sound of the water.

Finding lots of Oregon Grapes in full bloom....

and mock orange....

and just the sound of the little swamp dwelling creatures. (turn up the volume!)

Then back to the reality of the daily grind, which isn't really too bad right now as I am still procrastinating with spring cleaning but am having lots of fun getting my flower gardens and containers planted as well as some of the vegetable garden.

Riding day 38

Bringing you up to date

Got a little catching up to do!
Rode Beamer the other day, just a short ride as he was really ouchy on hard ground, I had trimmed him a few days before.

Look at that unruly mane! I wanted to ride him through the pond, but it is rocky bottomed and with him being ouchy , not a good idea.

Then since we had a nice hot day (several of them in fact!) I figured it would be a good time to introduce Drifter to something he is going to have done to him a lot during his life- bath time! Although I only hosed him not shampooed. For the first 5 minutes he circled me trying to evade that darn water that kept following him but he eventually figured it out.

You  can really see his palomino colour when he is wet, he still has white baby fuzz that needs to shed off. You can really see it on his belly in the next photo.

Then on to the big news....

My friend Janice who originally bought Belle and Beamer's first foal, Sparkle N Peppy, (you can read about her by clicking on my sidebar under the label, Sparkle) asked if I was interested in owning her again, and since I didn't get my Beamer daughter this year from Belle, I agreed and she arrived yesterday. Sparkle was born in 2008 so she is 11 this year. She is just under 15 hands, unlike all her brothers who are 15.2 and 15.3. Perfect size for me!
When she got here I put her in the foaling pen so that she can socialize over the fence with the rest of the crew before being turned out with them.

So pretty! Doesn't she remind you of Mesa?

She got her mama's big booty!

She has Beamer's signature silver upper lip

Pretty happy to have this lovely mare back! And it sure seems that I have a habit of buying back horses that I have sold!!!! This is the third one!

Riding day 37

Wordless Wednesday

All together now

Once Mesa and Ice moved out, it was time to put the herd .... the much diminished herd! all together. Yesterday I put Sassy in the foaling pen, and put Mama Belle and Eli in with Gussie. First I showed Eli the fenceline before turning him loose.

Gussie was quite happy to be in with her bff again, and was politely interested in Eli.

She will make an excellent babysitter, but I did notice at feeding time this morning that she chased him away from the gate in no uncertain terms!

There was some synchronized rolling going on.

This morning I added Sassy into the mix, and there was zero drama. I figured it would be a smooth transition when I saw Belle and Sassy hanging together at their mutual fenceline.

All is well in their world! But- stay tuned, there will be a change coming soon!

Mesa moves on

Today is the day....

I got her all spiffed up....

for her new owner, who picked her up today.

You can follow Mesa's adventures on Shannon's blog if you wish.  And no, I didn't put the halter on her.....

Race day

It's Kentucky Derby Day! I am cheering for Roadster!

Anyway, Eli looks like he is practicing for a race himself!

Or maybe it's dance moves?

I think I'll go with dance moves!

Because he sure doesn't need any practice in being cute!

I did get his colour and 5 panel tests back. He is EE aa nCr which means he is a smoky black, as I suspected. He also carries one copy of the herda gene as Beamer does. It seems the cutest ones get that gene mutation- Eli, Tumbleweed, Mesa and Josie all carry it. For those who don't know. it is a recessive disease found in certain lines of Quarter Horses, which means that it needs to have 2 copies of the gene for the disease to actually be present and affect the horse; a horse with one copy is not affected at all. I started testing Beamer's foals once I found out in 2013 that he is a carrier.

Starting Monday, he and Belle will be getting daily turnout, if all goes well they will stay out with Gussie and Sassy. Speaking of Sassy....

she is 301 days today and is starting to bag up. Her 320 day mark for a viable foal is May 23. I have a feeling she won't go until mid June, which is the standard 343 day mark. So I will be closely monitoring her and will start foal watch as soon as she is bagged up a bit more. Stay tuned for foaling contest #2! I am really hoping for a blue roan or a black from her.

Eli's coming

Coming along nicely in his halter training, that is! ( His name reminds me of the song by Three Dog Night)
He is getting fairly easy to catch, it's a bonus that he isn't shy like Pistol was, I think it took me a month before I could walk up to Pistol and catch him.

I am working on touching his legs and lifting all 4 feet; every day a little more progress. He's a very feely colt as you can see in the next video:

The lightest touch is enough for him. I took him and mama Belle out on grass and he had to step over a rubber mat that I have covering electrical cords, as soon as he put one foot on it he stopped with a "what the heck!" look on his face and inspected the mat carefully then leaped over it. Not a big leap, just enough to get over it, and on the way back stopped, glanced at it and leaped it again. He is going to be fun to train!