Salt

 Never underestimate the need for salt. 

 

 I was doing a routine check on the mares yesterday and Patsy came up to greet me. 

I was rather alarmed to see her like that. She had been standing in the shade of the mares shelter with the other horses so I sure wasn't expecting anything amiss. 

It wasn't overly hot and humid, pretty much the same as it has been for several days. 

I consulted with Shayla and with the vet. There were no signs of distress other than the rapid breathing; she was eating and drinking normally, so we ruled out colic  but gave her a dose of banamine anyway. 

Vet said I could bring her in in the morning if needed,  but by the cool of the evening she was pretty much  back to normal.  I figure she was like that for at least 5 hours. I was pretty worried about her. 

What I think happened is that the mares were not letting her at the salt tub, which was in the middle back of the shelter, and without enough salt she couldn't sweat enough to cool off. This morning she spent 5 minutes licking salt, and later I brought out a bucket of loose salt and added it it to the tub. 

She had several mouthfuls!

The other mares all helped themselves to it too  

And I moved it to a better spot  where nobody will get trapped and picked on. 

Patsy was normal today, so I think the salt was the issue, leading to anhidrosis. 

Some pretties

 I finally have flowers! My new flower garden has these:

Lavatera

The first bloom on the Jackmani clematis

Yellow marigolds

As well as the pincushion flowers and pink snapdragons and pink  zinnias that are a bit faded and need to be pruned to promote new blooms. The two roses are taking their time to bud, guess they aren't fond of the cooler rainy weather. 

My older flower garden I let the calendula and cosmos that reseeded take over, only new stuff in there are snapdragons and my garden peas which are going to be harvestable soon. 

Calendula and cosmos

I enjoy having pretties to gaze upon on my walks to the barnyard!

Rally now leads into the trailer perfectly, so I started working on her feet again. She is getting pretty good with her left front, I have nipped it and rasped it, a little at a time. It needs more but its a lot better. Her right front she is more reluctant with, I did get to clean it today. Every day, a little progress. Good thing I'm not in a hurry! 

The most important thing in their world is grazing! Humans are definitely second place. 

The farrier was here yesterday and did the other 3; she loved Patsy, who was actually pretty good for her first trim. I noticed with Velvet that she cant handle having the farrier put her front feet between the knees for trimming, it cranks her leg out too much angle from her shoulder and her old bones cant take that any more. Velvet is short and wide so there isn't much room under her. I asked the farrier to not do that but to trim her low; it meant she had to do everything one handed as she held the foot but Velvet was much happier. I don't think the farrier was though. 

All together

 I finally allowed Patsy into the full herd; she has been with Velvet long enough that they were comfortable with each other, so I let Gussie and Rally in with them. Of course that meant shenanigans!

Showing off speed and athletic ability!

Velvet got in on it, but not for long. 

They had their moment, then decided to hang out in the shelter for a while. I love that they all fit in there and get along. 

Later on they went out to the pasture. I opened up the middle pasture again, I had them in there twice this year and it came back beautifully. 

They have their fave spots so not all that tall grass will get eaten

Something had them all on alert.... so they ran back to the barn. Safe zone!

The horse flies have been horrible lately so the mares are doing a lot of rolling. 

Velvet is slowing down. She tends to want to be more by herself now that the other mares are there to keep Patsy busy. 

In Rally news, she has let me do a little nipping and rasping on her front feet, but she is a ways away from being ready for a farrier. One day at a time. I am not in a hurry with her; if I don't get her handled to my satisfaction this summer, I will wait until next year to breed her. But I will still try to get her to the stud this month. Trouble is, she has silent heats, so I will just have to guess. 

Sunday Silence

Offically mine

 The red mare who has no barn name yet was paid for today so, welcome to the herd, pretty girl! 

 

Once her feet are trimmed (they are in awful shape) he will haul her to me and that gives me time to get her handled a bunch and teach her to load in my two horse trailer. Should be here early next week. My plan is to haul her to the stallion on the 27th so that gives me nearly 3 weeks to work with her. 

I spent some time just hanging out with her today. She is pretty quiet, she stood at that hitching rail for around 3 hours without fidgeting, pulling or pawing while I visited with the rancher. Bonus points to her!

I am so looking forward to getting to know this lovely mare! 

Hit me up with your name ideas.....

Looking for easy to say, one or two syllables. 

Dallas and Rex

 Thursday I hauled Dallas up to Shayla's. She loaded and hauled well. She was turned out into a very large pasture, and then Shayla sent Rex in.

This is his first mare of the season, so he was quite pleased!

Dallas knows all about stallions, so she made him keep a respectful distance. 

Rex: "Are you sure?"

We noticed that she didn't put the boots (hoofs?) to him so figured she is close to coming in heat. 

Rex doing Rex things

That stride though!

Dallas is shedding out to her black buckskin summer colour.

After a bit of sorting out and exploring the boundaries of the pasture, they settled down and the show was over. And then today we heard that Rex covered her already! So we were right that she was close to being in heat. 

As far as the red mare goes, I got her panel test results and she is clean on all counts, so tomorrow I will be talking to her owner and see what we come up with. If I go ahead with her, she may well be going to this stallion:

What's up

 When I brought the mares in a few days ago, i coukd see that Gussie was favouring her left hind a bit. There was some puffiness right in the ankle joint but no heat. I checked her hoof for any signs of puncture or abscess, no visible issues there. So I put the Streamz bands on her to see if that could help. Next day the puffiness was gone and she didn't seem sore, but this was happening :

It looks like what the stifle joint does when a horse has string halt.  Her vet appointment is in 9 days so I am hoping that he can help me understand what is going on. Either way, it looks like her riding days are over, so she will retire to being a mom for a couple of years. 

In other news, Shayla is taking over Dallas for her mare herd, so I found another mare to check out locally. I like her bloodlines and so I went to see her. 

She is a big mare, around Gussie size or a bit shorter

Her owner is an elderly rancher who raised her, but at 10 years old, she has slipped through the cracks. I like her build, and the fact that she was standing tied- although he said she is hard to catch, that doesn't really bother me. 

She reminds me of Jayne, but totally different pedigree

Her feet are in horrible shape, I think they have never been done and have just been allowed to wear off in pasture. The rancher said he will get his daughter to work on her getting better to handle her feet.

I handled her a bit, she was very light on the halter, never tried to pull against it either tied up or in hand, although I could see she was a bit worried about what all this attention was about after 10 years of being on her own. Overall, I think she will be a nice mare, and I may go into a breeding lease on her- pending the results of her DNA disease panel test. I pulled hair on her and sent it to Animal Genetics, so once I have that info it will determine whether or not I go ahead with taking her on. The rancher is thinking he may have made a mistake in not starting her under saddle when she was a younger horse! Her pedigree is a mixture of run and cow, so if I do go ahead with her, she should cross well on Shayla's stallion. 

Sunday Silence

 

The buckskin

 The new horse is a buckskin mare, who is a half sister to Drifter- same sire. I will be partners with Shayla on her, sharing the foals. Her name is Dallas and she is 10 years old as of April 1st. I picked her up today- she loaded well and hauled well.

She is quiet, so far, a bit shy with people, but not spooky, just reserved. 

She is well balanced, all black feet even with the white on her back feet as she has ermine spots all along the coronet band. 

She squealed once with Velvet, and that was it, no drama. 

I love that black nose! 

For those interested in pedigrees here is her link on Allbreed. 

https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/hunters+yellow+rose

We look forward to seeing what she produces for us! 

Who can it be?

 Stay tuned.... 

Almost done

 The cold weather is almost over- one more day to warm up, yay! We can kick La Nina to the curb!

You know your windows are not airtight when they do this....

Odd formation! Almost looks like jet trails on my window pane!

Deer tracks and pawing craters in the back yard

Darn coyotes are traipsing through the yard in the early morning hours. The coyote choir has been in full voice close by ever since the full moon. I reckon this cold weather is making them rather hungry. Not much for them to eat unless they can take down a deer. Good thing they leave my horses alone, their tracks go right in front of the horse shelter and within feet of the barn. The barn cats don't venture out much, they are all snugged up in the loft of the barn, so I think they are safe. 

Velvet keeps me guessing. Is she in foal or not? 

These photos say no..

And these say, well maybe!  She is definitely carrying differently than when she was carrying Theo if so. 

Love this photo of the old girl!

I have been in touch with Ruby's owner, I am definitely first in line if she decides to sell Ruby's Beamer baby. I would be absolutely thrilled to have two Beamer babies here!

4 more weeks to spring!