Where did I go?

 Well, yesterday I drove a couple hours north east of here to visit Ruby and her Beamer baby. Ruby foaled on the 22nd, and it is a gorgeous bay filly. I know, right? The filly of my dreams! 

She has Beamer's hind socks and her mama's colour

Love that red bay!

She had the zoomies

Power take off

Gorgeous and athletic

That hip!

Lots of muscle at only 4 days old

She is perfect! And in true Beamer baby fashion, she is friendly and inquisitive, not shy at all. I had a good visit with her owner, who is, of course, quite smitten with her. I offered to put a deposit on her then and there, but she hemmed and hawed a bit and said she would decide when she gets back from holidays on July 21. Meanwhile, Ruby and filly will be hauled to a breeder who will take good care of them while they wait for Ruby to come back in heat to be bred to their stallion, Sweet Mr. Katz. 

Ruby is a good mama, but it was a bit of a difficult birth, the filly had to be assisted until her shoulders came out. That is quite common with maiden mares, I had to pull Belle's first foal, Sparkle, and a few others as well. By the 2nd foal they usually have it figured out; I think on the 1st one they don't quite know how much they have to push and are a bit puzzled. But she mothered up good. 

I sure hope her owner decides to sell her to me!

Hay there

 We are back in the heat again, and not much rain other than what comes along with thunderstorms. 

Farmers are haying full bore and the lawn is getting all crinkly and brown in spots. But my gardens are loving the sunshine and we have started eating some produce. Yay! Around the farm, we still have some summer projects to do, like replacing a gatepost that rotted and rehanging the heavy 16 ft. gate on it as well as replacing a section of fence attached to it. But that can wait for cooler weather. 

I got my first bit of hay in, I bought some alfalfa/brome mix bales for next year's foaling season. 42 small squares- and the only reason I bought these was because they came in a bundle of 14 bales each (I bought 3 of them) and were loaded like a big square bale, with a tractor. I hired a strong young fellow to load them in the little barn for me. No heavy lifting for me anymore!

I cut the strings on one and started loading them with the wheelbarrow while I waited for help- and then there was no need for the wheelbarrow, he carried them two at a time and stacked them in the barn! We figure they weight between 50 and 60 lbs.

Feels good to get a start on my winter hay. I have 3 options for hay, just waiting to hear back once the baling is done. 

Ruby came back for a rebreed yesterday, and since she was in full standing heat, Beamer got the deed done while the owner was still here.

Beamer will cover her until she says no, which I am hoping will be by tomorrow. 

She was easy to breed, but gave a quick kick when Beamer dismounted this morning, so I think we caught her just in time. 

Her owner has been riding her and using her for ponying colts. We both agreed that she didn't get any fine tuning in her original training, and I gave her a few tips that I found worked with Ruby. I hope she gets a really nice foal from her. 

Once Ruby goes home it will be time to get back to working with Theo. I haven't done much with him for the last two weeks so it will be interesting to see where he's at. Still nobody committed to come look at him. He's shedding out a lot now, so he should look great for his 3 month photo shoot on Saturday. 

Ruby, colts and varmints

 

Ruby and her new owner

The sale of Ruby went well today. Even though Ruby played hard to catch (insert eyeroll) it didn't seem to bother this lady. Once caught, of course, Ruby was her normal good self. We had a nice long chat, discovered people and interests that we have in common, and generally had a good visit. She asked all the right questions, didn't miss anything, and best of all, Ruby likes her. 

All chilled out while the humans chatted

She plans to breed her to Sweet Mr Katz, a cutting horse stallion who happens to be owned by someone I know - I took lessons from him and my dog Reba was out of his dog Alice. The horse world is a small community!

I had a good visit with Shayla yesterday, took a few photos and got to mess a bit with her two yearling colts, Zipper (the paint) and Fire. Mostly we concentrated on getting photos of Fire. Here are just a couple of him, mostly quick snapshots so forgive the lighting and focus please! 

3 feet up!

He is a nice minded colt- and he is going to be big! We measured him to top out at 16 hh. 

The last couple of days I could tell that the raccoons had come back- the cat food in the barn was completely cleaned up and the bowls were scattered. Well, I started putting the cat food in the locked feed room at night to discourage the coons from freeloading, and this morning I could tell just what they thought of that. 

This was the water bowl that I left out. It had never had food in it, only water. It's one of those collapsible silicone dog water bowls.  They totally destroyed it! I am using a stainless steel water bowl for them now. Sink your teeth into that ya li'l varmints!

Now that Ruby is gone I can change out my herd arrangements. Belle can live with the other 2 mares, as Ruby used to push her around, and I can take down the partition in the mare shelter . Now to wait for warmer weather and the snow to melt so I can get Ted in there with the skid steer to clean up the corrals! C'mon spring!

Hellooooo sunshine!

 After a week of cold and snow, we finally have weather forecasted above freezing for at least the next 2 weeks- although dipping below for nights. Hopefully this will melt the 8 inches of snow we got from that last blast of winter!

Ruby sez the snow makes a cushy bed. 

Showing off her baby belly and giving her legs a rest from all that extra weight.

The other mares were happy to doze in the sunshine too. 

The lady who wanted to see Ruby is coming on Tuesday now that we have better weather. She said she's bringing her horse trailer....  I hope she buys her; she is looking for mares with some substance to breed to some of the smaller bodied cutting horse stallions. Ruby definitely fills the bill for that. 

Lionized

 Well. 

March marched in like a roaring lion! The last 2 days of February and continuing on for the next 3 days, here is a little photo essay. 

Haha he makes me laugh, coming in for his feed all tough looking! Whatsa matter Beamer, tired of the snow after only 3 days?  Hang in there buddy, it ain't over yet!

We have had a bit of a north wind that brought this system in, so it was kind of nasty for doing chores, but I bundled up in my insulated coveralls, down coat and fuzzy hat.

Said fuzzy hat post chores today

Needless to say, the next few days will be pretty low key. How is March coming in where you are?  I am slightly jealous of the daffodils posted by 4 R Ranch blog!

Photo day

 I had a lovely time visiting Shayla and helping her get photos of her sale horses.  Mostly it was all about the paint colt. 

He is a bay dun, hence the black in his mane and tail from the bay and the dorsal stripe from the dun. And he is gonna be a big boy! 

First he got his feet trimmed and he did really well. Shayla's husband was very patient with him but really he didn't fuss much. 

This was his first time in the round pen, and we managed to get a few action shots. 

Overall, he was fairly calm though so the action shots were, as I said, only a few.  He has show horse breeding and it sure would be nice to see him go to a show home. We also put a fancy halter on him and took some conformation photos, but with Shayla's camera. 

The colt with him in this photo is Fire, who is Jayne's son, sired by her late running bred stallion. These are two really nice colts.

I didn't do any more with Gussie in the last few days; I had one day where I was just plain crabby, then the weather turned cold and blustery again. I think Gussie is ok with that! 

I have someone coming to look at Ruby this week. She is looking for younger broodmares, so I think Ruby would do well for her. We shall see if it's a match. 

No drama

 Today it was so beautiful and sunny and warm that after Church I went and turned Gussie and Belle in with Ruby and Velvet. Belle led them all out to the pawing pasture- it's a pen I reserved for this time of year that wasn't chewed down during last summer. 

They all went a high tailing it out there but quickly dropped their noses and searched out those tempting tufts of grass. 

Belle can't really paw but she found several pre pawed places to nibble on.

She can, however, go for a good roll in the snow! Note how she holds her left leg, with the bad arthritic knobby knee. 

The big difference between how Belle and Beamer lay down as compared to  sound horses is that they lay down back end first instead of front end first as shown in the photo of Gussie on my last post. I was concerned about how well she can get up after laying down (or rolling) and as you can see, it isn't a problem. 

I watched for a while to make sure Ruby wasn't inclined to take after Gussie, but she limited it to a couple of ear pinnings and glares, which Gussie kind of flipped her the bird at and just moseyed on her merry way. 

I'm being good!

Ruby had to roll too. While the peanut gallery looked on.

Three Beamer babies in those 3 bellies! Velvet mid April, Ruby late April, and Gussie mid August. That will keep me entertained! You can see how little Velvet is (14 hh) next to 15.2 hh Gussie. 

I will be listing Ruby as soon as her foal is born, with availability depending on the gender of the foal. I kinda wish there was a way to find that out like there is with people!

Gussie arrives

 It was a beautiful sunny day to welcome Gussie back to the farm. Originally, I turned her out with the other three mares, as they all know one another and she used to hang out across the fence from Velvet and Ruby when she was here with her foal, so I thought there would be no issues. 

For a while, all was well. But when I went in the pen and visited Gussie, apparently Ruby took exception to that. She started charging Gussie- and took me by surprise- my bad-  I did get a glancing blow from a Ruby hoof as she backed up to Gussie to kick her. A  thigh bruise coming soon! I quickly haltered Gussie and put her in Belle's pen (Belle was with the other two mares).  Ruby charged the fence a few times- definitely wanting to let Gussie know that she was the boss. I stuck Belle in with Gussie for the night. 

Bff's reunited

They are quite content to be reunited. When the horse trailer was coming down the driveway, Gussie called out and oh my did Belle ever get excited! She hollered and hollered!

I think Ruby is claiming Velvet, and that she was upset when Velvet wanted to hang with Gussie. 

Once separated, Gussie was happy to have a safe spot to roll. 

Hahaha looks like she has her front end in a deep hole, but she's just laying down to roll. 

It will be interesting to see how the herd dynamics work out as I intend to have them all together again tomorrow. They have lots of room to get away from each other, and if Ruby gets too aggressive I may just separate her for a few days. But I think she will chill out once the herd balance gets sorted out. 

I'm really looking forward to riding  Gussie again! We do think she is pregnant, but she isn't due until mid August so I will have several months to ride, probably until mid June as I generally don't ride in their last 3 months gestation. 

Gussie and Ruby

 Last time I visited Shayla, I took a couple photos of Gussie. 

Her filly, the lovely Huckleberry (Pie) was weaned in January and now Gussie is living in the mare herd. But not for long!

Hey, Gussie-

I have news for you!

Umm, Gussie? Hello?

Well, I guess she will find out soon enough. 

She is coming back to live with me! Hopefully this week. Big Red will be reunited with her bff, Belle.

Gussie is 21 this year, and I will be using her as my main riding horse. I have no plans to get any more foals from her- she should be carrying a Beamer baby for Shayla as she was bred last September. If so, I should be able to ride her up until July. I'm pretty happy to get her back! Yes she does have some issues, but I know her so well that it isn't really a problem. 

Of course, you are probably wondering, what about Ruby? Well, I have decided to put Ruby up for sale  after she foals. If she has a colt, I would let her go with the foal at side, but if it's a filly, not until weaning time. Much as I like Ruby, I just don't connect with her. She needs someone to give her more consistent riding than I can, whereas Gussie will be fine with the light riding that I do. I like horses that like people, and Ruby just tolerates people. Unless of course, food is involved!

 She can occasionally be helpful

I have done some research on her pedigree, and she is a nice cross between cutting blood on the sire's side, including a NCHA Derby champion, Docs Lynx, and on her bottom side several versatile show horse champions, so her foal should be pretty handy- and being a Beamer baby it will be good looking too! 

So those are the main changes happening here at Diamond Lazy H Quarter Horses this year. 

Is it really done?

 Well, after a week of the arctic vortex stifling us, we are back in more seasonal weather. It warmed up by 30 Celcius degrees to -12C!

 I took advantage of the cold frosting on the windows to capture a few shots of what I call, frost flowers. 

To me, those ones look like they are dancing. What else is there to do at minus stupid weather!

I await the coming of spring when I can grow real flowers!

The mares shed their snow blankets as of last night- I guess they figured the -25C was pretty balmy.

 Compared to the last photo of Velvet, this is all that is left. Ruby too has normal looking hair, not all frost covered and making her look like a roan. 

For the discerning eye- yes she does have a capped hock, I almost didn't buy her when I saw that; she had a scrape on that leg that told me she had kicked something and probably got the leg stuck somehow. However, it is a blemish and not a lameness. 

No Ruby. I don't have any treats and you are still too frosty for kisses!

I found this photo of Mesa on the FB page of the lady who owns her now (she calls her Mindy) ; looks like she also handled the cold snap well. Not hurting for feed that's for sure!

We are getting snow, the kind that is like a drizzle if it was rain. We do have more in the forecast, but at least it's warmer! I'll take it! Actually, southern Alberta has been in a terrible drought and with heavy snow predicted for them, it will be most welcome, I'm sure. The last week of the month, we will be in plus temps, so I bet a lot of it will melt. 

Officially stupid cold!

 

'Nuff said. We are about 10 miles from there and were a couple degrees "warmer". 

By the time I went out to do chores it was -38 here, at least no wind. I had fed everyone extra last night, so the horses (and barn cats) were just fine. The 2 pregnant mares don't hang out in their shelter so I feed them on the leeward side of the top barn, and I put a bale of straw down for them to lay on if they felt inclined (they weren't) . They had white mascara on this morning though, and heavy snow blankets. 

Where does the ground stop and  the horse begin? 

During the day I saw Ruby keeping an eye on something going on south of us. There is a big hayfield, bordered by the now frozen river, and on the other side of that is a feed yard for cattle so I thought maybe she was listening to cows. (There were no coyotes to be seen. )

That is, until I did my evening chores and both mares really were on high alert. 

What's out there, Ruby Roo?

Turns out, there were 3 moose making their way along the river banks to the hayfield . The mares gave them the hairy eyeball until they were well out of sight before they relaxed enough to eat their evening hay. 

Tonight we are supposed to go down to -45Celcius, and 2 more days of this weather before it starts moving off and warming up, which of course will bring on the snow. One thing I have to watch our for is if today's sun melts the snow on the mares backs enough to make ice- if it does, I will have to scrape them off and blanket them.