Visiting the Beamer\Belle horses

 I had a bit of a getaway this past weekend. And of course, it  included  was mostly about horses. I spent a wonderful couple hours with the good folks who have , over the years, bought 6 of my horses. 

Here they are in all their beauty. 

First off- all the Beamer babies.

For all the Rio fans out there:

He is massive! I think right around 16 hh and probably 13 - 1400 lbs. He has carried his owner  through a lot of events, from 4 H  to barrels and roping and ranch work. He was a flag bearer horse in the Calgary Stampede last year. The young lady who owns him has had plenty of offers on him, but he is not going anywhere. The brand on his shoulder is their brand, some of them also carry the DLH brand. 

Then there is Kai- he is the steady Eddie of the group, the favourite uncle to the young horses who keeps them calm. He is Alana's horse and it is pretty obvious that he loves her. 

Kai is built more stocky than Rio, but he too is a big strong horse. he has won high point in gaming for Alana, and her daughter has used him as a heading horse. He's a big gentle soul. 

They sold Nitro, and I found out that he is now the mount for a 16 year old high school student who team ropes in the High School Rodeos with him, and they are a perfect match. I am trying to find out who his current owner is as I would love to watch them at work. 

Then there is Josie... what a beauty she is!

The one I should have kept... but she has been a really good horse for Kevin, this year she won 2 buckles for him at rodeos, she is a heeling horse in the team roping. Josie is 11 this year. she is not a Belle daughter, her dam was Chickory who is now raising foals for her current owner.

I would love to do a breed lease on Josie if he ever decides to retire her from roping. 

The next horse is a Beamer/Belle son. This was Belle's last Beamer baby, and he is another one I probably should have kept, he and Josie are the two Beamers that literally took my breath away. 

This is Derby. 

Derby is 3 this year and he is already a big boy like his brothers. 

He is another member of the Big Butt club! I think it's safe to say that the Beamer/Belle cross produced outstanding individuals. 

Next up is Minx.

Kevin likes the cross so much that he bought Minx, who is a daughter of the full sister to all those boys. You would know her as Sparkle from my posts on this blog, she was Belle's first foal. Minx was sired by a 16 hh grey Playgun bred stallion. She has the same quiet and trainable mind as her uncles and they really like her. She will be grey. 

This is Kai and Minx:

I think she will have a good size to her as well; Kai is 15.3 hh. Minx is only 2 and has a lot of growing to do yet. 

Then there is Pistol; he was the buckskin foal from Belle and sired by Rollin In My Dually, she was in foal with him when I bought her back from Fleetwood Farms. 

Pistol is another big soggy gelding rope horse for Kevin, and he's doing very well with him. Pistol has a bit of a different look to him than the Beamer sons.  Kevin loves him and says he will never part with him either. 

Knowing that the horses I raised are so valued by their owners, and that they have become excellent performance horses is all a person could ask for when it comes to raising horses. I have been blessed in this venture over the years. Finding a family who kept buying them and promoting them and loving them is all I could ever ask for. 

Oh, and one more thing- knowing that they are all happy, healthy horses. 

Derby💖 He got Beamer's head but Belle's ears

It was great to visit and catch up with them. I am going to try to get to one of their ropings so I can get some photos of them in action. If not this year then maybe next year!

New routine and a Theo update

 Change is in the air with fall on it's way- today is the last of the 30 C (86F) temps in the forecast. The poplar trees are starting to get yellow leaves, but everything else is still in summer mode. I m hoping that the frosty nights will stay away for a while so my garden can mature- that June 1st frost was a big setback. I really would like some vine ripened tomatoes! But if not, I will be making a batch of green tomato mincemeat. Yum!

I never was after roan horses, I always liked the blacks and the bays best, but now, I have two red roans to look at, and I sure can't complain! I have put Gussie back to work, short rides so far and she isn't excited about having to earn her living now. She  probably thought that at age 21 she should retire!  I won't work her hard, just enough to keep her and me in riding shape. So far I will only be riding on the 20 acres of pasture we have, and maybe up onto the hayfields and the sand pit area, depending on how Velvet reacts. I think she will be fine, but she really doesn't like being alone and may get a little frantic if Gussie gets out of sight. 

We don't do frantic.

They do hang out together a lot, but I notice that they do wander away from each other either for grazing or to go back to the shade of the barn. 

The first day I invited Velvet to come along, which she did until she became bored and stopped to graze  and then head back to the barn. Gussie was certain that she too should be done with being ridden, but mean ole me had other plans. I headed close to the barn and put her to work so that the barn would not be the place to quit. 

As you can see, Gussie is quite disgusted that she has to work for her living these days!

Yesterday, I decided to pony Velvet  and take a bit of a longer ride. Velvet of course, was Not Impressed! Once I got her lined out (she thought she should lead) she was fine. I let her go after a while and continued to ride while she went back to the barn. She is still moping a bit about Theo leaving. 

Since Gussie thought she should follow Velvet, I rode partway to the barn and used it as a place to put her through several exercises, so that she doesn't think that going back to the barn is such a good idea- I think that will continue to be part of our rides as Gussie has a history of being barn/buddy sour. 

Today I will ride out alone and see how that goes. Riding Gussie is all about getting to her mind; she's an emotional girl and being a red head isn't afraid to let her opinion be known. I think I will be doing a lot of away and back, away and back, to help her mentally. 

Now for a Theo update: the hauler reported that he travelled well,  ate and drank well and was easy to load and unload, and Jared (his owner) said that he didn't seem to lose any weight.  He settled in well, slept good and is just being that chill good boy that he was here. He is across the fence from 4 minis, and will be getting turnout with them and will be taken on walks with a warmblood weanling who will be his pasture mate soon. 

Aren't they cute little toe rags!

Today was the day

 Theo's person came to see him and pay for him last week. 

He was quite smitten

He has a gentle hand and seems to get along with Theo. He had to book a hauler for him as his own truck is in for repairs. He also brought a leather halter (as per the hauler's request) and a tube of Gastroguard for Theo.

The hauler for Theo was scheduled for around 9 am today. Around 8:30 I looked out the window and got a surprise.....

Stray cows!  Theo and the girls were quite surprised too but didn't  get overly excited.

But I  thought it might make loading Theo difficult if they were hanging about; fortunately they moved off to the hay field so issue averted. 

I brought Theo out for a few farewell  photos. 

When the trailer pulled in they had a couple of horses in there so of course all the horses got to calling. This is a 4 horse head- to - head set up with a box stall in the middle so that was where Theo would travel. He wasn't  impressed with having to go up a ramp so we brought Velvet out and loaded her. He loaded with her but as soon as she came out he did too, so I  just held Velvet beside the ramp and we used his grain  to get him to go in by himself. A couple of tries at that and I  was able to get the ramp and windows closed while the hauler held Theo in there. 

Of course  once he was closed in the hollering began. 

Velvet paced and hollered for about 15 minutes before she gave up and she's  been quiet ever since.

Gussie was calm and quiet so I  think that helped Velvet to calm down. 

Theo will have a 2 day trip to his new home, overnighting in Kelowna before heading to Vancouver Island. 

Sure is different here with no stallion and no foal!

Theo

 Theo turned 3 months on the 20th, I wanted to do a really good photo shoot but it has been so darn hot I can't take much time outdoors. I did get a few photos though. 

Those orange ear tufts!

Not much baby hair left on him. The weeds he's loping through are wild mustard, all the old corrals here are infested with it. We will, at some point, be spraying with Grazon. 

Plenty of muscle in that hind end!

Straight legs

Velvet outdid herself with Theo. He is better than she is. The mark of a good broodmare. 

Lovely trot

We have news. 

News? What news? 

I put an ad on the Facebook page Horses in Alberta, and got a response from a man in B.C. 

Here is the text from my ad, which included most of these photos: 

This black colt sure is a looker. He is available when weaned in a month. Registered AQHA. Preference will be given to a ranch, rope or performance home. May as well ride a pretty one!
PM for more info. Located just south of Benalto.

After many messages, we made a deal and Theo will go to Vancouver Island at the end of August. Funny thing is, his only complaint was that his head was too pretty! The plan is for Theo to replace his 22 year old heel horse.  While this guy is a team roper, he also has an equestrian center for hunter jumpers and western riding and has clients that show. Check out his page if you wish. Arrowsmith Equestrian

I'm going to miss his spunky li'l self, but it I am glad he will go where he will get used and he will also have a little girl to love up on him ,and eventually become a mount for her. (The warmbloods are too big!)

Some horse updates

 Well that 10 days went by fast! Since I last posted we had major temperature swings in the weather-  cold nights, warm days, then cold days, then warm days- gah! But we are on the upswing now. 

Beamer and Belle got their blankets off a few days ago; I'm sure they appreciated that!

The short portion of her mane is how much it has grown since September, that was all rubbed out. I love all the colours she has in her mane. 

Yes Velvet, you also have a beautiful mane. 

One of the reasons for my delay in posting is that I planned a trip up to see Shayla and take photos of a couple horses she is selling. First up is her paint colt, Zipper. 

Speaking of manes, his is sure colourful!

Zipper is a really good minded colt who is going to be really, I mean really, big. 

He's a weanling and is already up to Shayla's shoulder! I didn't get a lot of photos of him because we wanted to concentrate on Boe photos. Yes, he was put up for sale. We took him to the round pen for the photo session. 

He's literally the spitting image of Beamer only in red. He carries himself beautifully, and even yawns like his daddy!

We took some video for his sale ad. This was only his second time of being worked in the round pen; he was very good. 

We also worked him in hand a little. Just following the feel of the lead rope, and he was beautifully soft. 

I'm pretty proud of the quality of foals Beamer sires off different mares. They are all good horses!

Anyway, our work paid off; Shayla posted him on FB and he was sold within a day and a half!  He will be going to a working cattle ranch only an hour from here. 

Beautiful boy

He might be leaving but I think we will be able to follow his progress as both his owner and the lady who will be starting him are on FB. The trainer's page is Anchor S Equine.

Adios and hello kitty

 Sophie is en route to Ontario now. I took a couple photos (of course) before she left. 

What a solid built horse she is!  I sure hope she doesn't slip her foal on the long journey. 

Beamer had to say his goodbyes too. 

Velvet was not happy that her friend was leaving again so soon!

Loaded up and leaving. Sure hope they have a safe journey, there are 2 other horses travelling with them. 

Sophie just wasn't the right horse for me, too reactive and with such a powerful horse I decided that I need to find something more broke and one that I felt safe on the ground and on her back. The search continues. I was hoping that she would go to a breeder, in a pasture breeding situation and that is where she went. 

I got some more photos of mama cat and the grey kitten the other day. I moved their food box closer to where I think they are living, which is closer to the house. 

She isn't afraid of us, but is not tame at all. 

The kitten is funny, when it gets a notion, the tail goes up and the adventures begin!

Still don't know if its a male or female. 

It has its mama's eyes.  Hopefully it will survive the winter! The barns will be open enough for cats to get in, and we will keep feeding them.