Kittens and - oh yeah, horses

 The kittens are now hanging out where I can see them when I do my chores. They don't seem to be bothered by the horses or by my presence, as long as there isn't any commotion. It's fun to see them and brightens up my morning!

They scurry under that pallet if they feel threatened and it's a safe place to hide from the adult cats too. 

This kitten surprised me this morning as she was chowing down on the adult cats' kibble.  I think they are 5 weeks old. Obviously, Smudge is allowed near them. 

Mama Misty is quite relaxed in my presence now, so hopefully that will translate to the kittens as I attempt to tame them. 

Question for ya....

Ok cat people, is this a male or female? 

I think female, as the males tend to have dark hair on their privates, as we can see with Smudge. This kitten has been chosen by my BIL Frank, so I will do my best to socialize her and the other two. 

Gussie is at that stage in her pregnancy where she seems tired all the time, and is doing her sleep deprivation thing again where she falls into a deep sleep standing up and her knees buckle which wakes her up. She just will not lay down! 

I am thankful that she doesn't actually fall over.  She has slowed down a lot, mostly walking where she used to trot or lope, unless the horse flies are too much for her. 

The barn does provide them with protection from the flies for the most part. We had a really windy day and the herd spent a lot of time out grazing in the pasture, free from the flies. 

Heard from Ruby's owner, she will be bringing Ruby here in a couple of weeks to breed to Beamer, as I sold her with the understanding that she was in foal and offered to breed her back if she was open. She was. It will be nice to see Ruby-Roo again!

I managed to get a measure on Theo's leg- he will be at least 14.2 hh, although ideally I should measure when he's 5 months old, as it's a more accurate measurement. But nice to know that he will be taller than Velvet's 14 hh. 

Velvet: There's nothing wrong with 14 hh!

Theo and kitten videos

 I have been checking on the kittens over the last week. They are getting cute! In the interest of being able to handle them, I figured to start taking milk up to them- they are around 5 weeks old now.

Wait for it, wait for it.

When I went up this morning with milk I could only find one kitten. Uh-oh! I had noticed that one Siamese kitten was usually separate from the other two so I checked to see if it was just in a different spot- couldn't find the others anywhere in the barn loft. I called Ted to come and help me get down from the loft with the kitten then put it in the cat carrier while I went searching for the others. There are several places along the roof line where they could have fallen down to my cat feeding/horse area so I looked there- nope no visible kittens. Checked the other barn- nope no kittens there either. Looked in a couple of hidey spots but no luck.  When I got back to the "cat barn" (don't tell the mares I call it that!) guess what- Misty and the other two kittens were there, so I let kitten #1 out of the carrier to join her littermates. And discovered that their new dwelling place is under the pallet that the straw bales are on- a good place to keep them from the tom cats and the horses. Left the milk there for them, hopefully they will thrive there. Also hope they don't go back to the loft, so much easier for me if they are in the main area. 

Anyway, enough cat drama- on to Theo! 

I had Ted come and handle him for me so I could do some more training on lifting/rasping feet. Because, well, this is what he is doing now:

Jackets, clothing, arms, whatever - he has to chomp. Very typical foal behavior that I try to discourage. 

I don't swat at him for it as it quickly becomes a game, which you will see colts play with each other- nip, run, come back and nip again. All normal for them, but they do need to know that it isn't acceptable with people. So here is what I do:

I basically pester his face, and at the same time desensitize him for such things as worming syringes and bits. He certainly doesn't mind because every day he comes up and wants his face petted and even brushed without trying to nip. However, when I was picking up his feet he must have though my ample butt wasn't off limits- my remedy for that is to elbow him under his jaw while still working on his feet. He doesn't really see it coming as I'm under his neck, and it does work without him thinking it's a game. Hence having Ted come to help. Also it's good for him to be handled by someone other than myself. 

He is leading fairly well now. 

In this next video, he was thinking about going in for the nip but he didn't. 

I had to laugh here, at the end of this video you will hear Ted's phone  and it made Ted jump more than Theo!

We are making progress, Theo even let me rasp his left front (the one he was saying no to) when he was laying down, which is a big deal because up until a few days ago he would always jump up if I approached him when he was laying down. 

Good boy, Theo!

The horse flies are nasty right now, so the horses are spending their days hanging out in and around the barn, and grazing at night. I give them 24/7 access to the 15 acre pasture. 

Just chillin'

 

Theo looks funny with his baby hair still on his nose. I scrub him every day and a lot of it is coming off. 

That's a very cute little nose! 

All about those foals

 Another visit to Shayla, another photo drop for you guys! We started with the two yearlings she has for sale, Zipper (paint horse) and Fire (Jayne son).

EDITED: Fire just sold, he has a future as a barrel horse for a young lady!

Zipper is very tall and will likely end up around that 15.3 to 16 hh mark. He is laid back and friendly!

They are both going to be tall boys, I figure Fire will end up around 15. 2 to 15. 3.

He's in that gangly yearling growth spurt, he likely won't come into himself until he's about 3 or 4 years old. 

His pedigree is a cross between run and cow, so he should be a very versatile horse. 

Moving on to Jayne's foal from this year, whose barn name is Shiner. 

Yes he does have an owwy on his hip, it's healing. 

This colt is very quick on his feet- and with his feet, as I could see when he was kicking at the horse flies that were driving them nuts. 

This next filly is the one Shayla named Gemma, who is sold and has been renamed Trudy. 

She's sweet!

Last but not least of the foals was Johnny- he sure has filled out since the last time I was there!

 

We are still not sure if he is dun or sorrel. And likely won't know until he sheds out. 

Dun stripe or counter shading?

Either way, he is a handsome dude! Another one that is bred to be versatile, with bloodlines of great cow horses, reiners and ranch horses he should be able to do it all. 

All those foals sure do have a nice place to grow up in. This is Rex and his band of mares which includes 4 outside mares as well as some of Shayla's. She is still waiting for 2 more Rex babies. 

Next post will be a Theo post! And maybe some kittens. 😁

What's happening here

 Ted and I climbed up to the barn loft and found the kittens. They were shy but too little to claw or run away. Pretty scared though; I'm sure with a couple of big monsters handling them!

I think I may start taking milk and canned food up to them so they are not afraid of people. Ideally, find homes for them. 

I do have some flowers blooming! Snapdragons, violets and pansy. I have a couple baskets I put together with verbena, mezoo, pansies and alyssum that are doing well. 

Tigers eye violet

Pansies and alyssum 

There's a change of plans with Jayne and her foal, they won't be coming here this summer. It will be too hard on Jayne and she is in a good spot with plenty of pasture and not having to move around much. So her and little Shiner (her colt) will stay with Shayla, but I will visit and get some photos.

Theo is getting blacker all the time. His neck and face are really shedding, and he lets me brush him so I am trying to speed up the process!

He's super friendly, always comes to greet me and loves to have his face and neck rubbed. 

I have a softer brush that I use on his face. I started working on his feet with the rasp, but I have to get Ted to help hold him as he is in that nippy colt stage. He's not sure about Ted! I just do a couple of swipes with the rasp and let him go. 

On Thursday June 20 he will be 2 months old. I'm sure happy with him! Now to find his person.... 

I should have updates on the Beamer sons and daughter who are rope horses sometime this week, stay tuned!

Wordless Wednesday

 

Those barn cats

 My morning routine includes feeding the barn cats, I share a little bit of my cats canned food with them, and Smudge and Misty are always there eager and ready for breakfast. Smokey has been absent a lot- out prowling and hunting like he should be. He has come around a couple of times this week. 

First video is Smudge, he's so friendly and loves to get his pets and scratches in- as long as there is food for a reward!

Next video is Misty- she is not as shy as she used to be, now that she has 3 kittens to feed I think she gets pretty hungry and figures she can put up with my presence at the breakfast table. 

Ted and I are going to try to get up into the loft and handle the kittens soon; they must be nearly a month old now. We will wear gloves! 

Next up is Smokey- what a character! He has always been a vocal cat, but since he has enjoyed the walkabout life he has also become a hissy cat. 

There are 3 other male cats here- Tom, who sired at least one of Misty's kittens, and Ollie, who is the daddy to the Siamese cats, and Harley, so named because he travels so low to the ground, slinking along that he reminded me of a Harley Low Rider bike. 

Harley and Ollie

If we manage to get up to the kittens, I will be sure to get some photos. There is one tabby and 2 Siamese. 

Visit Part 2

 Other than checking on Rex and his mares, we also took some photos of another colt Shayla has for sale. This is Oscar, he is out of the bay roan mare Sally, that Shayla bought recently, and sired by My Sleepy Valentine. (All AQHA pleasure breeding). 

He is a big boned quiet and friendly colt. 

He is also bay roan like his mama

Very nice soft eye on him.

Then we visited Jayne and her colt. He is only a week old in these photos, so he has a lot of growing and unfolding left to do. This is Jayne's last foal. 

He's a red dun like his sire, Rex

Cute little face! 

You can see his dun stripe in that photo and if you look closely at the other photos the leg barring is there, and will be more visible once he sheds his baby coat. 

As soon as it's convenient, we will be bringing this little guy and Jayne here to spend the summer. That's going to be fun!  And will definitely give me plenty to do, which I do have time for as Gussie is now officially on maternity leave. She's getting big and is about 2 months away from foaling. 

Once her foal is born- 3 babies here! Jayne's foal will leave around the end of September. Theo is getting to the stage where I don't have to work with him every day, so that works out well to have one to work with and by the time Gussie's foal is born, should be at the stage Theo is at now. 

Dynamics

 I spent yesterday visiting Shayla and taking photos for her of her stallion and his mares as well as some photos of the foals for sale. 

Her stallion "Rex" (Majors Pistol) is 3 this year and he has matured nicely. He is a good pasture breeding stallion- respectful of the mare's space but also no nonsense if they stray from the herd. I got to watch him at work with 2 new mares introduced to the herd and how he rounded them up. 

These nice mares belong to The Rowdy Ranch (Facebook page) and they are the people who now own Midnight Mesa, who they call Mindy. 

Also introduced to the herd that day was Shayla's mare Concho and her palomino filly (sired by Rex)'

Rex was trying to drive them to the herd and Concho was saying no- she had just kicked at him and although it may look bad, his kick was nowhere near her. He actually has very good respect for the power of mares!

This is Rex's current herd- a Percheron mare, a grey Azteca/Percheron cross mare, and Shayla's mare Dolly. The sorrel colt, Johnny, is Dolly's and sired by Rex. He looks tiny next to that big draft colt! 

Johnny will be a tall boy when he's all done growing!

As Rex went to the new mares, he circled them widely and didn't put any pressure on them until he got to the point where if they went forward they would be going to the group of mares. 

Sneaking past them....

Beginning the drive

Game on!

It was quite something to watch the power and athleticism of this handsome stallion at work. He had moves like a cutting horse and he was very effective- one would not want to get in the way of even the best minded stallion when it comes to his doing his job. 

There was more to the day, but that's for the next post!

Sunday Silence