Being patient

 Happy is still hanging in there so if your guess date has passed, feel free to comment an update on this post.

Her belly is finally v'ing up, should be soon!

Happy looks a bit thin, I reckon because she is putting everything into her foal. She is on feed 24/7 and gets a supplement every morning. 

This is Jess Too Blue,  the sire of the foal

I think the baby will be gorgeous! It should have both speed and trainability.

This stallion's pedigree has top names in the running bred quarter horses as well as going back to a couple of very famous Triple Crown winners : Seattle Slew and the mighty Secretariat. 

I have a couple of cute names picked out which I will tell after the foal is born. 

Dally has settled in well, she is now out with the old girls on pasture. She is the kind that follows me around just like Velvet does, and she is easy to be around, loves brushing and oh my she has a long thick tail that goes to the ground. 

However, she has Beamer's thin mane, darn. 

I have a spy cam on my foaling pen so this year I don't have to sleep in the barn. I have solar lights set up that have a motion sensor on them, they get bright when she walks past them and dimmer when all is still. It helps me be able to see her at night without even getting out of bed! If I see no movement and she is not visible I can shine my flashlight from the mud room in the house and see what she is up to. No more sleeping in the barn- yay!

This is the view from my camera, it does have night vision, and I can zoom right in from my phone. Very handy! But I still wake up every hour or so to check. It is hard to be patient!

Guess again

 Aurora and Leslie, you can put in another guess on the foaling contest, Ms. Happy is still packing her wide load. 

Those of you who haven't entered but would like to, go to this post for details: Foaling Contest

No little extra feet this morning...

Her udder is filling up and baby is shifting a bit so hopefully it wont be too much longer! 

She sure is an easy mare to be around, so I am hoping the baby gets her good mind, size and bone. 

Those of you who follow our page on Facebook will see that Shayla has a Percheron mare who had twins, a colt and a filly. The filly was a bit smaller but not by much. However she has an interesting problem that I have never heard of before but apparently can be common in twins; she couldn't figure out how to get her hind end under her to stand up. So she was assisted by Shayla or her husband and  after 5 days of that she has finally got it all sorted and is getting to her feet without issues! 

She is the one with the star

It is always a worry when there are twins so we are all happy that this set is on the way to being healthy  and happy! Mama is a good mama too. 

Foaling contest time!

 Now that Happy is in the safe zone it is time to start the guessing game.

 

Here are the facts:

1st day bred was May 26 last year. Mares typically go 11 months and a week before or after  that , unless like Belle they go closer to a year. Since I have no history on Happy's previous gestation I cant advise on that. 

As far as color goes we know that there is a 50% chance of grey, however since grey horses are not born grey, we are going to take that out of the equation  and just take guesses on what the base color of the foal will be.  

Happy was born bay roan, so she carries a copy of black, a copy of roan and most likely a copy of red as she has had red based foals, and she carries a copy of agouti, which is the modifier that makes the color black turn to bay.  

The sire of this foal is sorrel, and he may also carry a copy of agouti which is not expressed on a red horse. 

So here is a chart with percentages of color possibilities:

So put your guess in -

~Colt or filly

~Date and time

~ color 

If the mare doesn't foal on your guess, you may put a second guess in. I will pin the guesses on a list on my sidebar so you can choose a combination that nobody else has. Family members can each put in their own guess. 

Then here is what I have for the winner....

A note pad and a list pad with my original drawing of my beloved Beamer peering out at you. 

Shuffle

 Today I did some shuffling. This morning Gussie got snarky with Happy and as she jumped out of the way she skidded on some ice so today became moving day for her. She now has access to the foaling pen which includes barn access, as well as the adjacent pen which has access to the automatic waterer. 

She was quite willing to go in the barn and check it out. 

Awful photo, sorry!

Gussie and Velvet have full access to the shelter and the winter pasture and the other side of the waterer. They also have a brand new  round bale to eat. However, they are Not Happy that Happy has their favorite pen!

Happy is quite unconcerned with their drama.

 

Wide load! 

She is starting to bag up and baby is still quite active so she is on track to be 4 to 5 weeks away from foaling. 

She seems to be quite content to not have to deal with getting chased out of the hay. 

Velvet is the most emotional about being separated from Happy. I reckon she will just have to get over it. 

Spring is springing

 The robins came back on eclipse day, and there are many birds gracing us with their tweets and twitters and song and honks and quacks. The snow only remains in the deeply shaded areas, and the grass is greening on the lawn. The farmers have uncovered the beehives and we are getting buzzed by hungry and thirsty honey bees. We could use some dandelions for them, but they haven't shown their little yellow faces yet. It is still below freezing by a degree or 3 at night. 

The only thing missing, Velvet, is a foal!

Release the hostage, please. 

I have been on foal watch the last few days. She had some wax, and then it went away yesterday. Maybe not true wax then? Her fluid is very sticky, but her udder could be fuller- however, given her age etc. she may not get right full until baby is on it's way. 

The coyotes serenade anywhere from 1 am to 3 am as they make their rounds. So far, they are not coming close enough to be worrisome. 

As far as foaling guesses go, Linda, Frank and M are eligible to try again!

Sunday Silence

 

Progress

 The snow finally melted enough for me to get to work putting the straw down in the foaling pen. We had a lovely 6 ft. high bale of clean oat straw delivered ,

The ground is still a bit wet, but at least it isn't frozen, that moisture will soon sink into the sandy soil here. 

All set up!  Velvet got a little worried at one point, she had a nap in that lovely straw bed and when she woke up she couldn't see the other horses, so I brought Gussie up so that she is right across the fence from her, then all was well in her world. 

And none too soon.... look at that belly and how it is now V shaped; the foal has dropped bum low, which they have to do to get in foaling position. 

Compare this photo below:

to this one from  3 weeks ago:

Her bag isn't quite full yet, so we do have a bit of a wait yet! 333 days today and counting. 

At last! (Foaling contest time)

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting (Oops, remember my key word for the year- Patience!!!) for Velvet to show signs of  impending foaling. 

Other than needing a wide load sign, that is!

She finally started bagging up on the day of the full moon, Monday. I was a bit worried if she would come into milk, considering her age. But all is well! 

That's not much but at least the process has started. She is also getting the usual jiggly butt. So you know what that means, it's foaling contest time! Here are the stats:

Velvet was bred May 8th last year. So that means as of today she is at 325 days. The standard is 343 days, but as you know, mares have their own timetable. Belle would go nearly a year, her average was 352 days. And I have had foals as early as 320 days.  I have no history on Velvet's previous 9 foals, so any guess will do!

So- guess the date, time, the gender, and the colour. 

The colour possibilities are:

Sorrel

Black

Blue Roan

Red Roan

I will start a list at the top of the sidebar once the guesses start rolling in, so people don't pick exactly the same. 

And as promised, I have a really nice item to give to the winner!

A lovely steel mug (not a Yeti but similar) with our logo!

It doesn't matter where you live, this can be mailed anywhere, and those of you who are previous winners can definitely enter and try to win again.

Those people who send their comments via email can also enter, and I will put their guesses on the sidebar too.

I am hoping the weather smartens up because, yes, I will be camping out and keeping a close eye on Velvet. I hope she is the kind of mama that lets me handle the foal . 

I am, of course, hoping for a blue roan filly!

 

Time

 Look what my creative and talented husband made for me!

Those were rusty old hames that you couldn't tell had brass tops. He wire brushed everything to clean it up- that took days! The horseshoes are unused, a front shoe and a hind shoe, and we had the decal of Beamer made at a local shop. The clock mechanism is battery operated.  The leather straps are original to the hames, cleaned up and reconditioned. I love it!

I managed to get the foaling pen cleaned up, still a bit of ice here and there but it's melting fast. The bonus to living on a sandy based farm is that the water soaks in quickly and we don't get a lot of mud. The puddles go away within a day as the ground thaws. With today being the vernal equinox, I hope this next blast of cold and snow flurries that are predicted won't amount to much. The mares are out pawing every day and ignoring their hay - they snack on the hay in the morning and evening but spend the day out in the field. 

Velvet is huge, but not bagging up yet. As soon as she does I will start bring her in at night to the foaling pen, but foal watch will be when she shows other signs of being close to foaling. Sure hope we get decent weather in April!

Misty the Siamese female barn cat didn't catch when she was bred in November as was evidenced by her being in full raging heat last week and having all the tomcats vying for her favors. They pursued her for a week, then poof they were gone. So we expect a litter mid May. 

Hahaha looks like her head is on backwards, but she's just cleaning off the tomcat spit.

A ride on Big Red

 I had to take advantage of the sunshine yesterday to saddle up Gussie and go for a little putt. The day before I took her for a stroll in hand up the driveway to gauge her emotional state - she had been calling out for Ruby when she left so a stroll was how I wanted to see if she was calmed down enough to ride. Need not have worried, it was a lovely stroll.

She was a bit head up as she looked around, but never put a foot wrong. 

Turned her loose in the round pen to see if the energy was the same and yes she was pretty relaxed. 

So the next day we saddled up and off we went. No prep in the round pen, but it is where I mount up as my step stool is frozen into the ground there. So that gave me the opportunity to work her on opening the gate and ride through it- she tends to get in a bit of a hurry so she got the one step at a time treatment and relaxed into it. 

My route was a short one, up the long driveway and into the hayfield for a little tour. 

Here are a couple videos that speak better than words. 

Yes that is a long driveway!

Out onto the hayfield. We still have 2 ft. of snow out there that is a bit crusty, but where the tractor plowed to get at the feed bales it was bare and getting really soft. I may have to wait a bit to ride out there once the snow goes as she could sink in too far. Don't want cranky farmers  complaining about pock marks in their field! 

I have started prepping the foaling pen, raking up the old feed and the manure so that the ice underneath will melt. We have 5 days of snow in the forecast starting on the Vernal Equinox- go figure, spring comes in with a remnant of winter- but by Tuesday the 26th it starts to warm up again. Hopefully NO MORE SNOW after that!!!! Because , you know, Velvet is due mid April, so just a month from now. 

I will be keeping a close eye on her as she starts to bag up- I have been checking, but no sign of it yet. I have never foaled out a 24 year old mare so I am hoping all will go well. I think this is her 10th foal so she knows her job. 

Stay tuned for the foaling contest by the way, I have a really nice prize for it. 😏

Oh Gussie

 I swear there is no more room in that belly!

Gussie is a big mare, and the sire was 16 hh, so I expect this to be a big foal. Color options are sorrel, red roan, black or blue roan. The sire carried one copy of red so the chances of a red based foal are probably 75% although, the same chances as what she had with Beamer and she had 2 blue roans, a black, and a red roan from him. So you never know!

I had just bathed her to cool down from the heat (she loves baths) and of course she had to roll. What a belly! I put the white tape up to keep her from rolling in a nearby patch of dirt.  At night she hangs out in the barn; I keep the door open so she can go out for foaling as the stalls in there are rather small. I have my cot set up in there- I must say I sleep well there with all that fresh air! Of course, I also have Thumper and Foose for company!

I have a feeling that she will foal shortly after Wednesday's new moon. 

Look who's here

 Remember I mentioned to stay tuned for more horse news? 

Here ya go!

Yes that's Gussie! Shayla is going on a mountain trip in August, right about the time Gussie is due to foal, so she brought Gussie here for me to foal out and breed her to Beamer on her foal heat. 

She's close to foaling, could be any day now or in a couple of weeks, so I'm on foal watch. 

She's pretty big! 

Yes Gussie, tell me all about how you are going to release that hostage asap!

It's nice to have Big Red back for a while! Such a sweet mare. 

Shayla spent some time with Ruby while she was here and gave me a few things to work on with her. It was nice to see someone else ride her and especially nice that Shayla liked her. 

Meanwhile, we are back into cool rainy weather and even have our furnace on today. I have most of my hay in, just need a few more bales and we will be set. It's so nice to have a lot of pasture that the mares can graze until there's too much snow. 

Lots of misty mornings lately, along with heavy dew. No drought here! I saw the news about all the flooding in Nova Scotia and hope our blogger friend TeresaA wasn't affected by it. 

The garden and flowers are thriving. The tomatoes are not too happy, too much rain for them . 

The Zinnias have started blooming and the Cosmos will be popping soon too. 

It seems that July just flew by....

Pink Moon

The pink Moon was not so pink, rather a more golden hue. Last night in my foal watch cabin, I woke up around 11:30 to the moon shining in my window.

Not the best photo as you can see I moved when the shutter clicked but it shows the colour the moonglow put in the clouds. I hopped out of my comfy cot to check on Jayne and get more moon shots.

The clouds were rolling across the moon, and in the next photo....

it looks like God's eye, keeping watch with me.

Later around 4 am the moon was still up and worthy of another attempt at a good clear just-past-full moon.

Or two....

Foal watch continues, both here and in Alberta. It looks like Jayne and Belle are at about the same stage in gestation so it will be interesting to see who foals first!