Around the farm

 Just a few things from around the farm - always something to see here!

We have a lot of birds here, and there was one I couldn't figure out as I couldn't get good photos and it was always in the glaring sun so it was hard to see the markings. I finally spotted it when I had my good camera handy, so here it is-

Marianne, you were right, it is an Eastern Kingbird

I set up the trail cam in the barn one night to see if I could catch the new kittens coming down for groceries. Looks like all 3 of them are doing well! I do see them out and about now but it's hard to get photos, they are quite shy so far. 

On the subject of cats, there is no doubt at all now that Bandit is indeed a boy cat- he is full grown now and his boy bits are very visible! He and Smokey continue to be buddies and come running every morning to get their breakfast in the barn where I keep Thumper and Foose at night; feeding them canned cat food has made them happy to see me! I even got to pet Bandit as he was checking Foose's bowl. 

These mushrooms have been popping up all over, I'm pretty sure they are the edible pasture mushrooms but I'm not about to experiment. 

And then there's Connie. 

Connie the 'Coon that is! She came visiting to check for cat food, and it was pretty obvious that she is a nursing mama. 

It's cute how her nose wrinkles when she's chewing. We try not to encourage her to hang around, but she must have been hungry to come around in daylight. 

Next, and not from our farm, but I thought you might like to see how awesomely Drifter turned out. His people love him, and Drifter loves the little children. He is a working ranch horse now and is siring some really nice foals. You can keep up with him on Facebook  on their page, Diamond H Ranch. 

Then there is a new equine here for a month or so- Andee was delivered yesterday for breeding to Beamer. Sherry from Fern Valley Appaloosas brought her in, and it was nice to get in a visit with her and her husband. 

And yes you absolutely should tell Sherry to start posting on her blog again!  By the way, Andee is a quarter horse despite that Appaloosa looking mane!

Updates

 Thought you might enjoy a couple of photos of Mama Belle (courtesy of Shayla)

She is a happy mare! She looks great for being on her 12th foal.

Got a couple photos of Drifter too- they love him. Moving cows and pulling bulls out of the herd, he loves working cows. They say he is smart and kind.

My trip to Alberta to pick up Sophie is postponed due to weather and mechanical troubles. 

Big storm in Saskatchewan has shut down the highway, delaying their trip to Alberta with her and a couple of their yearlings that they are also delivering to another lady, and our truck is having unexpected issues. I'm sure it will all be resolved soon, but I am going to have to hire a hauler after all, and that depends on availability so I am not sure when Sophie will arrive here.  So I will leave you with a photo of the stallion she is bred to- they don't have many photos of him!

He definitely has that Playgun look.

A couple of updates

 

Foose sez: Is the election over yet?  We have a federal election on Monday- the good thing is that it was a short campaigning time. 

Thought you all might like to see something neat- This is an ultrasound photo from Sparkle (aka Jazz), the daughter of Beamer and Belle that I had here for a short time. 

Yup that's a Beamer/Belle grandbaby! Thanks Janice for the photo!

This is the sire. 

He is a red dun who went grey, so it could be a colorful baby! Due date is late July. If I am not mistaken this is the first grandbaby for Beamer other than an Appaloosa cross on his daughter Velvet last year. So this will be his first registered quarter horse grandget.

Since we are doing updates- how about Drifter? They are riding him regularly now and are just delighted with him. Plus- there will be Drifter babies next spring! Can't wait for those photos to share!

Drifter

 Got a Drifter update for us!

He is 3 now, and well loved in his new home. He was recently turned out in a herd of mares to do "clean up" which is a herd of mares bred by their old stallion; if any of them didn't catch it will be his duty to get them covered. 

Such a handsome boy! So happy that he is living his best life. I would not have been able to do this for him. 

Camera woes

Lately I can't get the battery on my big camera (Nikon 3100) to hold a charge for more than 6 photos, plus I can only use the zoom lens on it which restricts what I can use it for. I started looking online for a replacement camera that has a good zoom and the only affordable ones for me are the fixed lens cameras. The Nikon B500 looks like it might work for me. I tried to buy it online from London Drugs but all my info disappeared which totally freaked me out! So I may try a camera shop in a nearby city and get them to bring it in for me.

Yesterday, I only managed 3 photos before the battery cratered. Yes I know I can buy another battery but this camera is so limited it's time for a new one. 

Yesterday's photo was the lovely Jayne!

She is the sweetest mare I have ever owned. Very quiet, not a pocket pony at all. She fit into the herd so smoothly just by being respectful of the other horses. I think a large part of that is from her being in a large broodmare band for 6 years but I'm betting it is mostly just her innate personality. I am so looking forward to her foal; I hope it has that same attitude.

I got a Drifter update too! 

This was his first saddling since the fall, and she said he was like an ole broke horse. They are ready to put him in training. Another happy customer!

 

And now... the news

Brought to you by Diamond Lazy H Quarter Horses.

As most of you know we have had Drifter up for sale for about 3 months now.

You talkin' 'bout me?

Yes Drifter, I am

For the longest time, we only had tire kickers or people who were from the US and couldn't get the funds for commercial transport to get him across the border. I was about to give up. I had an ad on Northern Horse .com and I got a notification that the ad was about to expire on Sept. 4th and did I want to renew it for 15 bucks. Well yes, I did. 

Within 24 hours I had 3 people who wanted to buy him and 2 of them wanted to put a non refundable deposit on him right away. The one that did the quickest (by about 5 minutes) decided to buy him sight unseen. 

This is the photo I used as the focal photo for the ad. You better believe that photos are important! 

There is a really neat story to the sale. We are Diamond Lazy H Quarter Horses- he is going to Diamond H Quarter Horses. We bought him from Weir Quarter Horses, he is sold to people by the last name of Weir (no relation). There are a few other connections too, so it's just special that he is going to these folks. 

If you want to check out his new home, here is their Facebook link.  

https://www.facebook.com/HHAQHA/ 

He is en route as I write and I look forward to getting an update from them once he arrives. 

I will miss seeing that pretty yellow boy! But I sure am excited for his new adventures. He will have cattle to work, lots of miles to cover on their ranch, and little kids to love up on him. He's going to be a replacement stallion for them. He will be doing what he was bred to do.

One last look....

The boys

This colt.... he is entertaining!

He has a "thing" about the wheelbarrow. Apparently it needs to be destroyed, chased, bitten and dragged!

Even with a mouthful of hay!

He is doing well on the standing tied lesson; Thumper put it to the test 

He's pretty good about not pulling back so far. 

He eats a bit, then looks around at everything. After he was done eating today , I took him to the barn to see if he would come in.

Yes I know the barn isle is cluttered; cleaning and organizing project coming up!

His orange halter is getting too small for him so I grabbed the blue one and put it on him. Then took him out for a visit with his daddy.

Blue is Beamer's colour and it looks good on Moondance too.

Someone asked for Drifter feet photos, but since he was ready for a trim I figured I'd wait until the trimmer did him before taking photos. His feet are rock hard in this dry weather, so I took him to the pond- what's left of it- to soften them up a bit.

She was really pleased with him; he was well behaved for the most part, only pulled a foot away once  and stood quietly. I love it when my farrier says good things about my horses! I guess I can't call her a farrier though, she only does barefoot trims so she is my hoof care lady. She just moved here from Quebec and her husband is an equine dentist. So happy that we now have those services here in the valley! 

New boots and Drifter photos

Who doesn't love a new set of boots!

The used boots I ordered for Gussie look like they were barely used at all, and they fit her perfectly. Same basic construction as the Cavallo Treks but a different closure system. We are all set now, just need it to cool off some more as it's supposed to be stupid hot (in other words, typical August weather) for the next week.
We are getting lots of interest in Drifter, so I did a photo shoot of him in turnout the other day.  The best ones I put on Facebook, but here are a few of the outtakes.

Airborne

Oh look! Mares!  (also airborne)

Boyz just gotta have fun

Rodeo time! (This was at full gallop)

How do they not bang their feet at this point in the stride? And when you are riding, can you pinpoint the feel and what the next part of the stride feels like? 

He had to stop and check out all the smells that the girls left behind

Mostly though he was just his beautiful self.

He had just got a bath

He really carries himself well

I hope he becomes somebody's dream horse soon

These boots are made for walkin'

Or trotting or loping....
I ordered a set of Cavallo Trek boots for Gussie. They are quite different from the Easyboot Gloves that I used on her before; very easy to put on and they do have more bulk to them.



I will have to get her used to walking in them . Her feet are freshly trimmed and there will be enough room in them as her feet grow. I rode her in them yesterday and  it was nice to hit some of the rocky areas and not worry about where she placed her feet. She did stub her feet twice, I guess she will pick her feet up more carefully as she adjusts to the feel of them. Cavallo recommends a break in period before long rides in them. So a few half hour rides and then I should be good to start hauling to some trails.
I got swag too! That was a nice surprise.



Spare Velcro, a visor, a cell phone pouch, a hoof pick, a flashlight and some other gadget that I haven't figured out.

We took Drifter out for a stroll yesterday…. with Ted riding and me leading



Drifter was happy to get out in the real world! He does need a lot of exposure though.  Before Ted rode, I led Drifter all over the farm including under the big willow tree you can see next to our house in the photo above. The branches are really low and they rubbed the saddle and his sides and startled him. I led him through a few more times until he relaxed- and then he realized this was the branches I throw in his pen to eat and he took a big chomp! Then he was ok with it.

People walking on the road were cause for high alert

My plan for the next little while is to take him for walks again- Lord knows I need the exercise- to get him out of his comfort zone and desensitized . We do have a lot of interest in him, but it's tough because of the border restrictions.

Riding day 29

Drifter update

It was so nice having Shayla here for the weekend. She rodeDrifter, who did very well- such a good boy. Here are some photos from the first day:

Sunday a lady came out to try him out. She rode him after Shayla put Drifter through his paces.

While she really wants him, she has to sell her current horse first, so that could take a while. Meanwhile I put a post on the Driftwood Horses page on Facebook and got 3 ropers inquiring about him, so I'm hoping something will come of that. One in particular where he would be kept as a stallion.

Since Shayla had to head back to Alberta, it's up to me to keep up with Drifter's riding, so today I got my first real ride on him. A short warm up on the lunge line and then I used the corral panels to step on him. He felt really good, calm and willing. He is pretty narrow at the moment, being so young so the saddle feels a bit roly poly. I quite enjoyed the ride though!

Hot horses

This weather is hard on horses and humans. 101F degrees yesterday and 50 percent humidity made it a score of 151 , 31 degrees above what horses can handle.
I checked on Drifter in the late afternoon as I had noticed he was starting to show flecks of sweat around 4 pm; that's when it's the hottest here. At 7 I went down and he looked like this:

Poor guy was drenched and couldn't cool off.  So I gave him a nice refreshing bath. 

He quite enjoyed it. I noticed that Gussie was hanging out at the water trough but not drinking; it is a favourite hang out so I wasn't too concerned. But this morning, she wasn't eating. That's very unusual as she is always waiting at the gate to try to grab a bite of hay from the wheelbarrow. 

She didn't appear to be colicy, just dull, and her hind gut issue has flared up again. I put my trusty DiGize oil on her belly and gave her the probio supplement, as well I hosed her down; a couple hours later I gave her some electrolytes and more DiGize. I have a fast acting electrolyte tube on it's way so she will get that too. I will be keeping an eye on her today, she may need hosing down again. The other horses seem to be fine, just Gussie and Drifter having trouble with it.

Drifter got ridden today; Shayla is in town for the long weekend and came over to ride him. He hasn't had a proper ride for 4 months and he was so good! Some ground work first and then she stepped on and rode (in the round pen.)

All this was done starting at 7 am to beat the heat. We did hose him down again after riding and he promptly rolled and viola! a chocolate palomino!

A little loping video:

That's a pretty nice 2 yr old! We have someone coming to see him tomorrow..... stay tuned...