We're on a roll!

Got news from Chickory's owner that she foaled last night- a red filly!

Hopefully there will be more photos later today. Of course, this answers the question- Beamer is not homozygous for black, he can throw red based babies.
Speaking of babies, stay tuned.....

Gussie is waxing.

What's up around here

Over the last 2 days, I tackled trimming Beamer's front feet. I won't post the photos of his feet unless you really want to see them, but it was a much better trim than I have given him in the past, and I'm really seeing some improvement. It's still a work in progress, getting all the embedded bar off his sole, because I am a little leary of taking too much. So a little at a time, about once a week. Next job- all the back feet! And then all 4 on Rio.
The weather here is staying mild, at least down here in the valley. Had to go over the high mountain pass on Monday, and here is what it looked like:

We just went slow and had no problems. On the way home we did a little tour of the area where Ted works.
This pit is called the Coppertan pit because of the colour of the rock, they load it out and crush it for landscaping.

This creek was just beautiful, and apparently there is a hotsprings upstream from this spot.

Back down here in the valley bottom, we had about an inch of snow since last Thursday, and today got some rain. Good enough footing for all the horses when I asked them for some photo op moments!

Those big bare spots are where Beamer, on his side of the fence, and Rio, on his side, have been digging up roots to nibble on. Apparently they are an equine taste treat.
Rio was pretty muddy,  but I like this photo because it shows him keeping an eye on the camera just like his daddy does, and for the hawk in the background.

Handsome boy!

 I locked the mares out in their turnout pen too, they have been just hanging around their shelter and being lazy, so it was time for them to get out and have a little fun.They do have 24/7 access to this pen, but they are only about 3 months away from foaling and not inclined to be energetic.
Unless I insist.

Only one foot on the ground in this photo!

They had fun...

and more fun...

That Chickory is one athletic mare, even heavy in foal!
Speaking of Chickory....

I have a new home for her, she will be leaving for Alberta sometime in January. More details on that later.

Snow!

We got snow this morning! Of course, it's the day they are moving the last of the heifers and the bull out, so the mares and Rio got turned out into different pastures so we could use their pens for gathering. With the snow, and new places to play, it was a photo op morning (imagine that!)

This is how you make a Quarter Horse look like a snowflake Appaloosa!

Gussie is flipping me some lip....

That's the fastest Chickory has moved for a while.She is more content to mosey around looking for minuscule blades of grass, or bury her nose in the hay- this being a mama-in-waiting requires food ya know!

He might not look big in this photo but Rio at 20 months is the second biggest horse here. Ted stood next to him today and really got an idea of how much he has grown. His training is on hold for now, I'm satisfied with what we accomplished this far, and will resume when the weather breaks in the spring.

Fall colours

No, I'm not talking about leaves; my horses are sporting their fall colours. That's something I like about having smokey blacks, they change colour every season. Remember Belle's buckskin look?

Here is how she looks today, frolicking in the frost:

Back to black! Rio is the same way- here he is back in August, all golden brown:

Today, he's a horse of a different colour!

Looks like a liver chestnut, doesn't he? I plan on getting a DNA test on his colour soon.
The other horses don't change colour much- Gussie gets a little darker red,

especially around her shoulder and flank. Chickory doesn't change- just gets fuzzier!

Beamer in the summer will fade out a little, not much, and he gets a rich black all over in winter. He gave me the I-need-my-blankie- look this morning, we had a really heavy frost as you can see in the last 3 photos.

The mark on his nose is from trying to nibble the grass tidbits under his panel fence. His wound is healing really well, if I wasn't having so much trouble with my camera I'd get a photo- can't do close-ups.

Fridays: for Sale

Haven't participated in this for a while, but it's time I got serious about selling some horses.
Y'all know Nitro is for sale, just got to my sidebar to labels and click on "Nitro" to view all the posts with him in them.

Here's how I price my foals: If one of my blog followers buys him off the mare at weaning time, the price is $500. To a non-follower, it's $600. If I keep the foal until spring, it goes up to $1000; by June of the yearling year, it's $1500. The price increases with training as he ages. It's my version of an incentive program to buy at weaning time. These prices are at the farm and includes the registration papers and a signed transfer; any additional paperwork is extra. Nitro is registered, here is his pedigree: Shining Midnite Moon
I'm also selling his dam, Coyote Belle; she is bred to Beamer; click on the links in their names for pedigree info. She sells as broodmare sound due to her injury as a weanling.

We know she puts very nice babies on the ground!

Also for sale is Chickory; she is also bred to Beamer for a foal due in March next year. Her lameness comes and goes, so I  really think it's an abscess. She is started under saddle, but sells as broodmare sound. She should eventually be sound, but I give no guarantees.

The price of these mares is open to negotiation, and I am prepared to be quite reasonable. There is plenty of hay available here too.

Raising young horses

It seems a lot of people don't know what's involved in acquiring a foal and raising it to the age where it's usable for riding. As with keeping any age of horse, the first consideration is a safe environment. A pen with solid fencing- not barbwire!- is a good place to start. This can be board, pipe, or mesh fence, or some other material that a horse won't injure itself on. As with adult horses, a good source of water and a safe place to put feed, and some sort of shelter; a run-in 3 sided shelter is usually  enough- like this one I had for Chickory and Andee (now owned by Fern Valley Appaloosas):

That's Andee on the left, Chickory on the right

Once housing is taken care of, that leaves your interaction with them. As a side note, it's always good to have a companion for them, either another youngster or an older horse. Until they are in the summer of their yearling year, most of what you do with them will be just getting them to lead nicely, pick up their feet, behave for your hoof care provider, stand tied, and tolerate grooming all over. If you plan on showing, you can add in training specific for the class you show in, eg. halter, showmanship, in-hand trail, etc. Since I don't show, I can't advise on what you  can do for that. 

As a yearling, you start introducing other things, such as trailer loading, ponying, sacking out. 

Rio trailer loading at age 11 months

You also increase your expectations of good behaviour. If you plan to introduce them to riding in their 2 year old year, then in the fall of their yearling year you can introduce them to longeing for short periods (not too long because it's hard on their joints), sacking out with saddle blankets, and progressing to setting a light saddle on them.

Longeing Sassy as a long yearling

 I like to have them checked by an equine dentist and get their wolf teeth pulled before they are 2.  There is lots of ground work you can do with them as a yearling, like getting them to move away from the pressure of your hand on their side (imitating leg pressure). There are many books written on the subject of training, and I'm no expert, I just do what works for me.

None of this is rocket science, and there is no horse-whispering- mystery involved in getting a youngster prepared for their life as a good using horse. It's all common sense, and treating them like a horse, not tolerating bad behaviour just because they are cute, and laying out a training plan for them. If you aren't confident in being the first one on their back, plan ahead and save enough money to send them to a reputable trainer for at  least a month. Remember, the ground work you do with  them helps to build a bond and establishes your "place in the herd". Start as you mean to continue: if you don't want to be pushed around by a  1100 pound horse, don't let a 500 pound baby push you around. Establish boundaries from the get-go. 

The end result will be a horse that you know the complete history on, one that you helped form, that you know inside out. 

Me and Sundee,  Coyote Belle's mama; my first heart horse that I bought as a weanling.

At last!

We have a week of straight sunshine in the forecast! I know you folks in the States who are suffering from drought and fires and high temperatures are thinking "so what?" but here, we have had over a month of rain, the water levels are at a 50 year high; in the last week the level rose quite a bit. Remember my Sunday Stills photo of the road closure? When I took it, I couldn't see any water on the road behind it, then when I went over on Monday it looked like this:

The water level behind the dyke up the road from  has come way up too. But with the sunshine, I hope it starts receding, without any rain to feed it- but there is still snow to melt in the mountains, and there could be a big melt this week, which means more water.....
On the bright side, now the fields and pastures can dry out, which means that haying can finally begin, and that I can get the tractor in the pens to clean them. Yay! I hate dirty muddy pens.
Chickory is doing really well, I just need to get her muscles back in shape, she's not using her hind end well, not tracking up. Mrs. Mom recommended an exercise to strengthen her stifles, and it's time to put her back in light work in hand. I got proper medicine boots for her- a gift from my loving sister- so now she can soak in style- no more diapers and duct tape! Aren't they purty?

 I let her and Gussie out on pasture for 2-3 hours in the early afternoon, but they sure get pissy when the other horses go out in the morning.

Check out the watchers- Reba and the Raven. The Jenny Craig pen is paying off though, their weight looks much better. In this photo Chickory looks a little funny but that's because she was trying to get away from Gussie, who just bit her.
The anniversary roses are blooming now, this is the Abraham Darby, which is an English rose from the David Austin series. It smells heavenly!

I love it's apricot color, it looks like it should be in a Victorian setting. The Graham Thomas is only in bud, the rain really set them back.
To all my U.S. readers- have a great Independence Day, and stay safe!

Sunday Stills

With today's challenge being the color brown, I didn't have to look any farther than my tack room.

But.... of course, I did.....

From blues to blue sky

I must admit the last few days have been really depressing, I won't bore you with details but the wet and stormy weather didn't help. It's hard to see the pens so muddy and know that you can't put the horses anywhere else. Yesterday was so cold, wet and windy that the only horses that got turned out were the two colts, and even then not for the whole day. Their pen is so muddy that I couldn't leave them in it. In the afternoon, I turned Kai in with the mares and put a really deep layer of straw down in Rio's shelter to absorb some of the moisture, and I set up a panel in the windward direction and tied plywood and a tarp to it to give him a windbreak- the wind is from the south and his shelter only has a north and east wall. It took the boys a while to stop shivering, poor guys. Beamer got his raincoat on, and he was happy, even tried to help me get it in place.
Another thing that's going on is that Chickory is still pretty sore, I think it's going to be a long battle to get her sound again. Sigh. Fortunately I have some good advice and support from some knowledgeable people, and I'm determined to get her right again.
Soooooo, today- well when I got up and looked out the window at 5:30 this morning, I couldn't wait to grab my camera and get outside. There was a lovely fog, and above that the bluest sky! Yippee! That's the kind of blue that makes the blues go away!

Beamer gets his coat off....

Check out his muddy legs! I hosed the mud off and turned him out.....

Happy horse!

Chickory and Gussie are pouting that they don't get turned out. 

Not happy horses!

Hopefully the sun will stick around long enough today to start drying out their pen. At least its dry in their shelter- they spent most of the day in there yesterday.

I think it was Dreaming who left a comment on my WW about turning the photo upside down, so just for fun, I turned the camera upside down and took some reflection photos.

No, she isn't starving, just pissy. They have hay in their feeder! They tried to get through the gates when I was putting the other horses out, and succeeded when I put the colts out- Chickory put her shoulder into the gate before I could close it all the way, and she and Gussie got out and buried their noses in the ling grass- fortunately that made them easy to catch and put back in their pen. Hopefully Chickory didn't get enough grass to make things worse.Brat! 

Of course, after being cooped up yesterday, Nitro had the zoomies this morning.

The rain has helped my garden, most stuff is up, and the flowers are still thriving.

On a somewhat more somber note, our friend Carol over at All These Pretty Horses lost her dad a couple of days ago. Even though it was expected, it's still hard to lose a parent. It got me to thinking, how many of us have lost our moms first, and then our dads. Father's day is coming up, and although my dad is still with us, this may be the last one, and he is so far along with Lewy Body dementia that he can't communicate well and most likely doesn't recognize his children any more. Treasure your parents, especially as they age and spend time with them.

Between the rains

Early this morning, it rained so hard that it sounded like a train was coming through the house- even the dogs barked in alarm. Wish I had a rain gauge, I bet we got two inches. In between showers today, I saddled up Gussie, and ponied Chickory to give her some exercise. She is slowly coming along. I found that the secret to getting her to eat beet pulp is to put some crushed garlic in it, just enough to make it smell good. If you recall, my horses love garlic and will eat it by the spoonful. Anyway, Chickory ponies well, and it's a good way to exercise both horses.

The perspective in this photo is a little off, Gussie looks huge.

 We rode/ponied a good 20 minutes, and I hosed Chicky's feet before I put her back in her pen. I should be able to do this routine every day. They are getting soaked hay and the beet pulp, and I can already notice that they have lost some weight.
So here is the rose today:

This is my Morden Blush rose. I found a place uptown that has two roses that I really want: Graham Thomas (yellow) and Abraham Darby , a coppery apricot English Rose. I may just have to extend my flower garden a little more to accommodate those two beauties!

A quick update

What a difference a day makes. This afternoon when I went to take Chickory out to hose her feet, she let me know her displeasure at having to live in the dry pen- and showed how much better she is moving. Heat is about all gone, but I'll keep hosing her twice a day for a while.

She even had a little attitude- must be feeling better!

She is still a little ouchy on the hard rocky ground of the driveway; this mare used to be able to walk across any kind of ground barefoot with no problems. We'll get her back that way, soon I hope.

Chickory

You know how you have those feelings that something will go wrong just because it can? The day I had Chickory's international health papers in hand, I found myself fervently wishing that she could leave that day. That little voice was talking to me. Yesterday when I brought the mares in, Chickory was pretty sore. Yep, heat in her feet. A few phone calls and some good advice later, I cold hosed her, gave her some bute, and worried all night. This morning, at 6 am, more hosing- she was still pretty sore- and a little later more bute, hosing and handwalking. After that she came around really well, even to the point of trotting when I turned her loose; last night she didn't want to move much at all. Midday, more hosing and walking- moving out well, just a little footy on hard surfaces- and I'll give it another go in a little bit. Although she improved dramatically, I won't take the risk of a two day trailer trip- yes, today she was supposed to start her journey to Texas. This is the only window of opportunity to get her there, at least in the near future. Needless to say we are all disappointed, but the welfare of the mare has to come first.

This video was taken after her second treatment today.
*****
I have a nice low spot for her to stand in when I hose her down, it's as good as standing in a bucket of cold water, and she stands nice and still.

Just in after treating her again- the heat is about 75% gone and she is moving easier, you don't notice much walking on the grass but as soon as we hit the packed dirt you can really see it.

Chillin'

When it gets hot out, Chickory loves to be sprayed when I'm filling the water tubs. Take note, Amy! You may have to set up a sprinkler for her until she gets accustomed to the Texas heat!

Yesterday I noticed that the mares were galloping around the pasture, and when I stepped out to investigate, Rio was the cause. He was pestering Chickory, trying  to mount her, and she was running away from him- and double-barreling him but he kept persisting. It took me a while to catch him, but I did, and he has earned solitary confinement. All the mares are bred, but just to be sure I will tease Chickory with Beamer. She was bred April 6-14, and has shown no sign of coming in to heat again. If she didn't catch she should have been in heat again over a week ago. But we'll check her back to make sure. 

Woe is meeeee.....

Did it work? Can I go back with the gurlz now?