A thank you, and moving on.

 My heartfelt thanks to everyone who left comments on the passing of Beamer. It means a lot to me that you all loved and admired him too. He was an exceptional horse in looks and temperament as well as in personality. 

Moving on to this new phase in my life is not easy; as is to be expected. I have been filling my time in working with Theo. He is such a delight to work with, and he gives me as much joy as Beamer did- probably because he is so much like his sire. We had a really special moment this morning; I went to the barn to feed the cats, the mares and Theo were out in the pasture. Theo spotted me and came strolling into the barn to see what I was up to, and the mares paid no attention to him leaving them. We had a nice quiet moment together, I brushed him and bent over to scrape the bot eggs off his legs. He laid his neck over me and gave me what  seemed like a horse hug. Not trying to nibble or investigate, just a quiet moment of peace that filled my heart. 

After a bit I went to the house to get my phone for photos on this beautiful sunny day (we had an inch of rain over the last 24 hours) and he hung out at the barn until I came back. I haltered him and led him to the trailer for his daily loading lesson, and he spotted a couple of deer on the front lawn and paused to look at them. He wasn't alarmed or spooking, just stood quietly looking at them for a while before getting into the trailer for his morning bit of feed. 

Trailer training went really well over the last week. The first day, it went like this:

Theo: You want me to WHAT?

Me: Come and get your ration. Yumm!

Theo: Well... maybe. 

He had a few bites of ration, then I called it and tried again in the afternoon. 

Theo: You been holding out on me! Haven't had this for a while!

That evening went much quicker. Right to the door and started munching. 

Doesn't he just look like Beamer here.....

3rd session: Next day we got one foot loaded. And then two. 

 

Theo: I think I got this now

4th session: Me: Good boy, Theo! 

Theo: I am a good boy!

And that's all folks! After that Theo loaded every time without hesitation. Not only that, he willingly backed out right from the first time I asked him. I have yet to close him in the trailer, but that will have to wait for his person to teach. He will be here tomorrow to meet Theo, not sure if he is hauling Theo himself this weekend or if he has a professional hauler coming in a few days. 

I have a little update on a dog I had, remember Thea? She was so intensely wanting to work that I sold her back to her original breeders and now she has a job at the sheep trials that they attend; she sets and holds the flock along with her owner on horseback as they await each contestant. Best thing I ever did for that dog was letting her go. 

Sunday Silence

 

End of an Era

Era: A period of time characterized by particular circumstances, events, or personages.

The passing of Beamer is definitely the end of an era for me.  

(He would like being called a personage 😊)

Here is a little of his back story, for those of you who have only known him for a short while. 

When I lived in southern BC, there was a ranch across the border, in Eureka Montana, who had a line of horses that I greatly admired. Their sire (Peppy A Poco) was a direct son of Mr. San Peppy and they bought him from the King Ranch yearly production sale in Texas. He was shown in cutting and a snaffle bit futurity before retiring to be a herd sire for the Shea Ranch. When I lost my first stallion, Pocos Last Chip, to West Nile, I decided to see what the Shea's had for a stallion prospect. Once I saw 3 month old Beamer, I was smitten and contracted to buy him. It wasn't until he was 18 months old that I picked him up, and hauled him to trainer Kim Smith in the Ft. McLeod, Alberta, area as I didn't have a place to keep a stallion at that point. 

Kim kept him on board until he was old enough to start under saddle. He showed Beamer as a 3 year old in a big reining class in Cardston, where he earned some money for a 7th place finish out of 29 horses. After that, he was shown the next year twice as a 4 year old; a spring show and a summer show. Both times, just before the show, Beamer's sliding stops were so powerful that he clipped his front feet, dislodging a front shoe. Beamer was quite short coupled so that had a lot to do with it. Since that seemed to be an issue, I took him out of show training and brought him home to enjoy riding him and to start raising foals from him. 

4 year old Beamer

Most of you know the wonderful foals I raised from my own mares. He also sired 2 paint foals and a filly for Kim Smith, as well as a colt for a friend which unfortunately died young. 

Beamer was a ham. He loved to show off, doing one foot pirouettes, rearing on command, giving the best ever horse kisses, and always yawning!

Breeding was always in hand, and he was easy to handle. He had a very loud roar that got the mare's attention and he was never mean to them. 

Visiting Moondance

Owning Beamer dictated a lot of my life choices over the last twenty years. It meant travelling for more than a day or two was out of the question, as spring and summer were busy times with breeding and foaling as well as training the foals. Now that he's gone, I find myself at a bit of a loss for direction, especially since Theo will be gone in a week. Gussie will have to take up the slack- I am getting her back in riding shape. 

Here are a few photos from my archives, some special moments. 

I sure miss him. 

Wordless Wednesday- Beamer

 

Visiting the WV horses

 It is getting close to weaning time for the foals; Theo and Shayla's palomino filly will be 4 months old in a few days. Because Theo's person is picking him up on the 31st, I was going to wean him on schedule, but changed my mind ( I can do that, right?) and will leave him in the herd until that time. 

I had a great day visiting Shayla and giving her a hand with a few projects, including getting photos for their AQHA registration papers. But I kinda got side tracked by a bunch of cuteness... imagine that....

First we visited the two pleasure bred colts, Chex (sired by Rex) and Oscar, who is sired by a show horse and was in utero when Shayla bought his mama, Sally. 

Although Oscar looks black, we think he will end up being a dark bay roan. Chex is red dun. 

The cutest little face!

We turned out Rex with a yearling Percheron stallion prospect... he does make Rex look small! 

He is appropriately named Biggy

Next up was a visit to the pasture with all the mares and foals-  Rex is no longer with them, having done his studly duties. 

This palomino filly was the first to sell. She will be heading to the north country. The Yukon!

This is Johnny,  who is out of the same dam as the next horse, but Johnny is sired by Rex. Whatcha chewing on, Johnny?

This is Jolene, she is a long yearling and has the same dam as Johnny (out of the palomino mare) and sired by the late Givemathrashin, the black stud Shayla had. She is the last horse available from that sire. 

I love the unison in this photo of Jolene and her bff, a draft cross mare. 

And last but not least, this is Shiner, Jayne's last foal. He too is red dun like his sire. 

All these foals except the palomino filly are available.

It's a bit of a tough market right now, there are a ton of foals for sale on all the media pages, a lot for buyers to choose from. People tend to be really specific in what they want- as well they should be. It is much easier to sell a foal with a unique color than a so-called plain sorrel or bay and often quality gets overlooked for a flashy color. A good horse is never a bad color. as Mark Rashid said in the title of one of his books. The one horse that I raised that literally took my breath away when I looked at her was Josie, a solid sorrel. She is probably the one Beamer daughter that I should have kept. 

Theo 'n' other stuff

 A few things to catch up on in this post. Theo continues to be a delight, and I got a few of his antics to show you. 

When Gussie was in heat, he got a bit excited when Beamer started roaring and the mares were a bit ramped up. 

They weren't too impressed with him

Velvet was rolling and he got all excited- good thing he didn't pounce on her! 

I managed to get an airborne photo- cell phone pic so not very good stop action.  He is all shed out now and looking fantastic. 

Mr. Handsome Jr. 

I'm sure gonna miss him. His person will be here on August 31 to pick him up for the long ride to Vancouver Island. 

Derpy little dude!

I guess it's time to start teaching him to trailer load. He already is easy to catch, leads well, and is pretty good with his feet. I need to start slowly separating him from his mama, so far he doesn't seem too worried when she is a long way away, like when he stays at the barn and she goes out to graze. It's more about Velvet not getting upset than him when I start the process. 

There have been a few photo worthy things too like this little bee sleeping in a cosmo early one cool morning. 

The rain left pearl drops on this spider web.

 

I never notice how very many spider webs there are until they get all covered in dew!

The fire situation seems to be under control. Not nearly as much smoke now that we have had a few days of rain. The rain also softened up horse feet enough so that I could trim Gussie, today is Velvet's turn. I hope she cooperates with me, as she doesn't like my farrier, so I get to do her myself. Silly old mare. 

Fooled

 Here I was, saying that August is surely the hottest month.... not so far. Rain, thunderstorms, and having to turn the furnace on for a bit to get rid of the damp chill in the morning, that's what we are getting. I'm sure it won't last, and it is welcome after the stifling heat- and the farmers who got their first crop off and were worried about being able to grow the second crop are getting the moisture they need- at least in this area. 

No shortage of grass here; those little specks are the horses. 

This field has a lot of reed grass in it, which is elbow high on me. Mostly the horses don't eat it. I guess it can be considered lowland, as the river borders this pasture. Those trees are on the far bank of the river. 

I walked the fenceline to check on any issues- the electric fence is all intact but in places completely hidden by grasses. I'm not too worried about it at this point as I know our horses won't go near it. Not even Theo, after that first little zap he got .

The tape goes up to the top of the hill and joins up with a barb wire fence that is also has one strand of electric, which the deer have managed to stretch out and it will need repair. But again, the horses stay off the fence. Once the rain stops, I will fix it. 

Finally found some wildflowers! This little bluebell and some yarrow. 

Also fooled I was, in presuming that Gussie was in foal because she hasn't come in heat in the last 11 months, and she was gaining weight. Hah. She came in a full heat on August 1st. And I am betting the weight gain was due in part to me feeding her like I would a pregnant mare, and her lack of exercise, even though she has to get out to graze on the 15 acres and walk all the way back in for water- not enough for that big girl. 

I'm not pregnant, I'm fat!

Gussie has never been this fat before, even when she was just on pasture and not being ridden before. I can only assume that at age 21, her body is undergoing age related changes. Time to put her back into work and see if we can get her in better shape. 

Sunday Silence

 

Tiger and Lily leave

 This last week has been all about family and kittens.  

My sister and her husband flew in on Monday and we had an excellent visit with them.

Downtown Sylvan Lake

 Of course, they loved the kittens and the kittens didn't take long to take to them. 

There's not a lot to do here on the farm to entertain visitors (other than the kittens and horses) so we went to the lake one afternoon and had lunch in town, but other than that it was a nice relaxing visit with lots of catching up and Ted getting to know the brother in law- and showing him how to run the big tractor. 

I think he quite enjoyed that. He's no stranger to machines though, his business is custom log homes and he has done projects all over the world- amazing beautiful work. Check out his portfolio here.

The kittens each had a little carrier for the flight but they chose to cuddle up in the same one.

 We were too busy visiting for me to take a lot of photos of them! We totally enjoyed their visit and hope to make it an annual event- maybe we can go to the coast to see them at some point. (Driving, not flying!) It's only an hour flight which worked well for the kittens travelling. They are now enjoying their new home and new toys after being cooped up in my mud room for a couple weeks. 

A few hours after they left, I could see a rather ominous looking cloud- the color was off as all the other clouds were white. 

Sure enough, there is a new fire in the mountains to the west at a place called Pepper Lake. Human caused. The cloud dissipated  into a low layer of smoke. It is quite a ways away from us but the smoke smell is strong. A water bomber just flew over us, likely headed for Sylvan Lake for a load. 

So as we head into August, traditionally the hottest month, I expect it to be smoky and what I call stupid hot. The bush is closed down, thank goodness. It's so tinder dry here and with hot winds blowing I am always concerned about the possibility of even grass fires.