Happies

 Some things that make me smile:

Siamese Stack (from bottom to top- Smudge, Misty, Badger and Bandit)

Giant Sunflowers in the autumn wind

Finding red leaves instead of the ubiquitous yellow

and finally having one of the kittens trust me enough to pet her every day. 

Ah Autumn

 Autumn is my favourite season! The leaves were falling like raindrops from some of the trees, and fall colours are popping. The last week of killing frosts have really helped get rid of the flies- yay!  The horses are much happier. 

Yes Ruby, I see those 2 flies on you., I said most of them, not all! 

Mama Belle is doing well. I had a fellow come out to do her teeth and trim Ruby and Beamer- but he won't be coming back here. Ever. He did minimal work on her teeth, and the crappiest trim job Beamer has ever had. On top of that, he was liberal with the f bomb and there were several other things I didn't like but won't mention. 

Ruby and Velvet are looking .... fluffy... the baby bellies are starting to show and the unlimited pasture is definitely getting them bulked up for winter... that's my story and I'm sticking to it! I do have my track system set up so that they have to come all the way in for shelter and water; they often gallop in and /or out. Beamer is finally putting weight on  after the last few months of pacing his fenceline calling for his mares. Now that Belle is in an adjacent pen to him, he can see at least one mare all the time. He spent a lot of time galloping from the top of his pen to the barn, which kept him in shape and kept those arthritic knees limbered up, but now it's time to slow down and chill out. 

I'm having trouble getting motivated to ride. Maybe now that things have settled into a routine- no more breeding and I have Belle's routine sorted out- I can focus on Ruby. Belle and Velvet can keep each other company when I take Ruby out, that should help Velvet to keep from calling out. So- no more excuses. Up and ride!

Hobbles

 Edited to add another informative post

We got the hard frost I was waiting for- the last 3 nights in a row now. It has slowed the flies down but hasn't completely sent them packing. 

I worked with Ruby the other day.  She and Velvet came in one day all covered in either bites or hives, I suspect ground wasp or biting flies because there were bald patches under the swellings, and those triangle shaped biting flies were horrible for a while. 

Looks worse because I had covered the bites with an ointment I got from my sister:

It definitely helped. Plantain is considered a weed but it is so very beneficial. 

Since these bites are in the cinch and saddle area, riding isn't an option until they go away, should be soon though. So it was hobble training time. 

I start with getting them to lead by the front feet. With a green colt I would take longer doing this to make sure they are solid, but with Ruby it was plain that she had done this before. 

A couple of times with each foot, then I moved on to the rope around her legs. I use a soft cotton rope at first, and tie with a fair amount of width between their feet  to begin with, to see how they handle it. 

Note that I tied the quick release knot with the wrong end.... but I fixed it. 

Next, make the distance between the legs shorter. 

 Once again, Ruby was fine with this.

Nuthin' to see here folks, just a hobble broke horse!

Since Ruby originally came from a cowboy home, I am thinking they did hobble train her. However, since she's a double swirl horse, I will do this a few times just to make sure she's solid . 

I was asked about the steps to hobble training. Here is a list I borrowed from Mills Consilient Horsemanship facebook page: 

* Ground tying.
* Confident responses to halter pressure forward, back, and to the side.
* Tying with the tie ring with 1 wrap, then 2.
* Tying solid.
* Leading by the feet.
* Hobbling with a loose wrap and making sure the horse can steer from the hindquarters and small step without feeling unbalanced.
* Hobbling with a tighter wrap
* Hobbling with a quick release.
* Hobbling solid.

The 1st 4, I usually do by the time the horse is a long yearling. I usually do the lead by a foot in the fall of their long yearling year, as well as any other rope work. I haven't hobble trained for many years, but the rest of the list is the method I use, but I put the quick release there right from the first loose wrap.

EDITED to add a link to a more in depth post on hobble training for those of you who are interested. 

From Good Horsemanship-Ross Jacobs

Bye Pie

 Today we said adieu to Gussie and Pie; Shayla picked them up and took them to the farm of the lady who is buying Pie. Gussie will stay there too until weaning time sometime in February. 

This lovely filly is sweet as.. well... Pie  but she is also a little firecracker. Lots of speed and fancy maneuvers which I never could quite capture on the camera. She's very quick footed! 

She will be living at the same place that Sassy was sold to. Remember Sassy? She was the roan mare bred to Beamer who had the colt Booncat.

Coyote Belle and Gussie really bonded again, it was sad to separate them once more. They truly are BFF's. 

Belle is doing well. She is gaining weight back slowly, and seems to be quite content. She was very good for the farrier, and he was very patient and understanding of her needs. 

She was so relaxed with him! He's from Scotland and raises Charollais sheep, shows them too and won some championships at the sheep shows this summer. 

 Belle's colt made it to his new home too. 

He's another big colt, and you can see that Belle put everything into him at her own expense. This is likely to be her last foal. I don't think she is breeding sound anymore unless she gets a Caslicks, and she really has given us enough foals, time for her to retire too. 

That big ole knee will eventually fuse like Beamer's did. She's getting around well enough on it for now. I think she's happy here. She loves getting extra attention and of course, she loves Beamer! His pen is across the alley form her and he keeps an eye on her. 

Now that breeding season is over, it's time to devote my attention back on Ruby and Velvet, who are both getting... ahem... large. 

We are still getting lovely sunny days, not too hot. Perfect for getting Ruby worked again, but we sure could use a good hard frost to get rid of the flies. 

Sunrise on a smoky day, before the rain drove the smoke away. 

Wordless Wednesday

 

A couple of whatsits

 Hey all you birders, can you identify this bird for me? I have looked through my books and I think it's some kind of juvenile warbler but no idea which one. 

It was perched on the bird house and watching for bugs on the lawn, then flying down to grab a bug and return to its perch. 

My garden is nearly done, no frost yet but we have been close. The gladiolus are blooming finally though!

Gussie finally came in heat and Beamer covered her, it will be a mid August foal next year. Gussie and Pie head home on the weekend. 

I have really enjoyed having them here! 

We fenced off a major portion of the rest of the farm that is part of our rental. It was already fenced on the north and east with barb wire which has a strand of electrified wire , so I am not concerned about them leaning on it, and the west side is bordered by the new hot wire pen that we built last month. So it was just posts and 2 strands of white electric tape to cross fence- made for a fairly easy job. I figured the measurements out at 15 acres.

There are 2 drawbacks to offset the benefit of having all that pasture- no access to the automatic waterer, so it's tubs and hoses to water them, and their only shelter is trees at the far end. At some point we will figure out a track system to get them into the shelter pen which has the waterer. Before winter!

 Ideally, this will be a winter grazing pen once we get the track system built. 

Here's another "identify this" I need help with. We have all these mushrooms popping up, and I want to know if they are edible. 

The stem