Tuff stuff

 Tuffy is growing so much that he outgrew his baby halter. The newborns get a 5 inch halter (that is the measure of the cheek, noseband and throatlatch distances from knot to knot) ; once they outgrow that at about 6 weeks they get a 6 inch. Tuffy was getting tight in that one so I made him a big boy 7 inch halter that I hope will fit him for at least another year. .

I only had the 3/8 rope to work with but it is a soft rope so it will be ok. 

The full moon was spectacular last night, and so was the eclipse the night before. 

The full Sturgeon moon last night

I called the lady who has the Leo colt I am buying; they will deliver him in about 2  weeks. I think Tuffy will be really happy to have a friend his own age instead of those boring old mares!

Nature's jewels

 Who needs to spend on diamonds and pearls when dew on spiderwebs is free? 

That was one busy spider!

Missed

 I miss my boy. My life changed on that day. 2 years ago today.

Weaned and another update

 I made the decision to wean Tuffy at 3 months, a full month earlier than I normally do. He was so independent and more bonded to Velvet than his mama, and was rarely nursing so I figured it would work. Also, Happy was pretty much not concerned about him. I think she was glad to hand him over to Velvet. Happy is now at Shayla's, with the herd that Gussie is in. Not having a foal at side over there will help her to gain weight for the winter while there is still lots of lush grass. 

Tuffy and his step moms

I have him on Purina Maternity feed, twice a day. He loves it!

He is holding his weight well. I took the opportunity of feeding time to start working on his feet .  He wasn't sure about it so I had Ted come and hold him while I nipped and rasped.

After the first foot, he was much better with the second one; in true Tuffy fashion he had to figure out what I wanted, then he was ok with it. I started the back feet today, got one done, no halter, while he ate, and will do the second one tomorrow. 

His shedding pattern is interesting. 

Black areas and pale areas but cute all over!

I plan to get his hernia dealt with in early October. This is my first foal with a hernia that needs intervention; it means hauling him to the vet for sedation and stitching  I hope at 5 months old he will be able to handle that; I want to get it done before it tries to close on its own and pinches off his intestines. 

Easily visible in this photo

Found a post the other day on Dally's full brother, we called him Boe but they changed it to Willy. They had him helping to sort bulls out of the  cow herd recently and put this photo on Fb. 

Always nice to get good reports on horses we bred!

That in between stage

 Tuffy is really shedding his foal coat now. He is very growthy too being 12. 3 hh at the hip and just under 12.2 at the wither.

He is still a good boy and is learning to come when he is called. His feet are a work in progress, I need Ted to hold him while I work with them as he tends to walk away, or if it is his fronts he will kneel when I pick up the foot. That could be a good thing when he gets to be 16hh!

That red tail though! 

It will eventually shed all the red out but it's pretty cute for now. 

We are near the tail end of summer here; the geese are starting to flock up, waiting for harvest time so they can glean the grain fields. 

My heart goes out to all the folks who are affected by the fires west of us in B. C. where fire is still raging in the Okanagan as well as down in Washington State in and around Spokane. So far our area is good, we get a lot of thunderstorms that are keeping things wetter than usual here. 

Good boy Tuffy! 

A new to me variety of poppy, I love it! Growing amid the cosmos and snapdragons. 

My raspberries are producing great this year, and Ted built a cage for them to keep the deer out- they had already snacked on the new canes.

We will line the bottom half with chicken wire to keep nosy deer noses out!

I made some raspberry jam; sugar free, sweetened with honey. We have a honey farm not far from us and I stocked up on honey for the winter. My veggie garden is doing great too- I am getting enough peas to last the winter, and the carrots and potatoes will soon be ready. I think I will freeze the carrots, I don't have any luck storing them. 

One more....

 

Wild things and flowers

 I enjoy sitting in the gazebo in the afternoon and watching all the birds that fly along the river; the osprey diving for fish and the cedar waxwings catching bugs as they swoop down from the surrounding trees. There is a stump near the gazebo and every time I sit there the little house wren comes for a visit. 

It is the cutest tiny bird!  

     

Robin (I assume juvenile) with a white tipped tail. Sorry about the crappy photo; taken at a distance in a hurry from my cell phone. 

Then there is this fellow, pretty sure he is the same one I have seen for the last couple years. 

Other than wildlife, there are flowers happening here, finally. 

Cosmos and calendula that self seeded for the last 2  years

This is a tiny flower with foliage that is similar to maiden hair fern

Snapdragons

Portulaca

We had some dramatic clouds last weekend. 

Love it when there are fingers of light poking through holes in the floor of heaven. 

And of course, one must include horses! Dally has literally no forelock left. 

Who needs a forelock, anyway?

Theo update

 

I knew he would be handsome....

Apparently he had a nice long mane until his pasture mate snacked on it. 

His training is going well, he has the usual Beamer easy to work with mind but it is also a very busy mind! Here is a screen shot of a text from his owner:

He was always curious as a baby, I take that as a sign of intelligence. 

He is 14.2 and still growing, so he will be a bit bigger than Beamer and a bunch bigger than his dam Velvet who is only 14hh.  

Love getting such good updates! 

Sunday Silence

 

Wild weather

 The start of summer has been a bit tumultuous around here. Starting with a Monsoon season then turning into multiple warnings for severe thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes.  None of which hit here! 

A tornado did touch down at Rocky Mountain House, which is a 45 minute drive west of us. The clouds that day were quite ominous from our vantage point. 

All is well that ends well though!  The system moved off to the north east of us. What we did get was very strong north wind about an hour later, I thought for sure we would lose some trees, in fact I could hear a tall old spruce tree cracking as I was watching out of our only north facing window in the bathroom. Thought for sure that old giant was going to come down, but it stood strong. 

Now we have rain and smoke.... always something!  But at least it has cooled off. 

We have a lot of cliff swallows that have congregated here- they are very welcome because ever since they arrived, the mosquito population has been decimated- yay! 

This is just a very few of them, the rest were reeling around the sky snacking on bugs. 

My flower gardens are thriving, this is my Jacmani clematis which last year had only a handful of flowers. 

The veggie garden is yielding carrots and peas now  and the potato plants are flowering. That is actually all I planted this year, I still have enough green beans in the freezer from last year. I did plant a tomato that I picked up for 3 bucks, it may or may not have fruit before frost time. 

Tuffy is growing and thriving too! 

Thumper intrigues him. 

Today was vet day, Happy came up open, no foal, so come mid August she will go live with Shayla and I will wean Tuffy early. Vet said wait and see until after weaning on how his hernia is, we hope it will close on its own. 

Meanwhile, the little herd gets to enjoy summer. I will wait until end of August to start working with Dally. 

A horse of a different color

 Speaking of color changes, Tuffy is quite rapidly going grey now. 

His sorrel coal has faded from the intense shade he was born with to a washed out red as the grey pokes through. 

This was then....

And this is now....

He has also grown in the last two weeks; he is now 12.2 hh at the hip and sure has filled out. In fact, one of the ladies at the breeding farm thought he was a draft cross!

Since he has haltering, leading and trailer  loading figured out, it is time for me to get serious about working with his feet, which will soon need a trim.