A visit and some fancy moves

 Yesterday, I hauled Gussie to Shayla's, where she will be bred to her stallion Absolute Playboy aka Simon

Simon is a very good minded and quiet stallion who has sired several successful show horses both quarter horses and paints. He should be an excellent cross on Gussie. 

While I was there I got to visit the twins, who are both thriving. They are so cute! Their mama was ok with me checking them out. 

The filly has a star and it looks like she will be grey and the colt will stay black.

Hope is the filly, you can see that she is smaller than her brother Cruiser. 

Those eyelashes! 

I also got to visit Louie, her QH colt who is sired by Simon- he is just adorable and super friendly. He will make someone a good show horse. 

Tomorrow I haul Dally for her vet appointment  so I should be able to determine when to haul her in for the rebreed on the stallion Gussie was bred to last year. I haven't had a lot of time to spend with Dally in the last week or so today she will get a good grooming, gotta have her looking good for the vet!

Tuffy and Happy got some turnout in pasture yesterday, I know Happy was pining for some fresh grass so I gave them the afternoon in the middle pasture for a few hours. 

Surprisingly enough, he didn't get too zoomy out there. But he made up for it this morning! We have a weather front coming in so it is a bit colder today. That could be why he was showing off! 

He literally floats across the ground like he is dancing- and then he lights up the after burners and zooms full speed!

The halter training is going slower than normal- every time I try, Happy quietly moves in between me and her boy, as if to say, no, not yet. I will give her a bit more time to be less possessive of him before I get serious about his halter training.

Scooter update

 You may remember Scooter, the colt I had in for halter breaking for Shayla, he is a son of Coyote Belle and sired by Root Beers Boots who is well known for siring top notch barrel horses and was a champion in the Working Cow Horse class. Shayla and I went to visit him as she is probably going to breed Dallas to him. He is 3 years old now and when we laid eyes on him, my jaw about dropped. He sure got the look Belle threw on her colts; big bone, big feet and that big Belle butt. And looking at his head was like looking at Rio. 

All wrapped up in buckskin, just like Belle's sire, Durable Shine, who was a direct son of the late great Shining Spark. This is a royally bred junior stallion. 

His owners have done a nice job on him, he is started, and ridden by his owner who is a lady my age (old!!!!) which speaks to his good mind and trainability. 

Shayla took a lot of nice photos with her Canon camera, I may get to share them once she finishes editing - these were just my cell photos. 

If I wasn't retiring Gussie from breeding next year, I would sure consider him. 

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:

Plans for Gussie

 Well I made the decision on a stallion to breed Gussie to next spring, pending, of course her passing a vet check for breeding soundness, which I expect she will have no issues. But it's best to be sure when one has to pay a stud fee and other related costs. 

So, here he is:

I have had my eye on him since we lived in Creston, but at the time he was about 6 hours away over 2 mountain passes. Not feasible  for me at the time. He has since been sold to a lady an hour from here, so I am so excited to get a chance to get a foal from him!

He's gorgeous and built a lot like Beamer was. Good solid bone, short back and a big hip. I have read reviews on his foals and they all say what good minded horses they are, easy to get along with and train. 

Here is some info on his sire, who I think is a great example of what a Quarter Horse should look like. 

There are not many of those old bloodline horses left, so getting this chance to perpetuate the lines of the great Leo is dear to my heart. Leo was also one off Beamer's papers, through his son Leo San, the sire of Mr. San Peppy, Beamer's grandsire. 

I think this stallion will cross well on Gussie, hopefully balance out her weak points and with any luck, I may even get a palomino like him or a palomino roan, but I will be happy with whatever hits the ground healthy!

And it will probably have some of her sass too....

Here  is hoping all goes well!

Dynamics

 I spent yesterday visiting Shayla and taking photos for her of her stallion and his mares as well as some photos of the foals for sale. 

Her stallion "Rex" (Majors Pistol) is 3 this year and he has matured nicely. He is a good pasture breeding stallion- respectful of the mare's space but also no nonsense if they stray from the herd. I got to watch him at work with 2 new mares introduced to the herd and how he rounded them up. 

These nice mares belong to The Rowdy Ranch (Facebook page) and they are the people who now own Midnight Mesa, who they call Mindy. 

Also introduced to the herd that day was Shayla's mare Concho and her palomino filly (sired by Rex)'

Rex was trying to drive them to the herd and Concho was saying no- she had just kicked at him and although it may look bad, his kick was nowhere near her. He actually has very good respect for the power of mares!

This is Rex's current herd- a Percheron mare, a grey Azteca/Percheron cross mare, and Shayla's mare Dolly. The sorrel colt, Johnny, is Dolly's and sired by Rex. He looks tiny next to that big draft colt! 

Johnny will be a tall boy when he's all done growing!

As Rex went to the new mares, he circled them widely and didn't put any pressure on them until he got to the point where if they went forward they would be going to the group of mares. 

Sneaking past them....

Beginning the drive

Game on!

It was quite something to watch the power and athleticism of this handsome stallion at work. He had moves like a cutting horse and he was very effective- one would not want to get in the way of even the best minded stallion when it comes to his doing his job. 

There was more to the day, but that's for the next post!

Spring Fling and other things

 I changed up my feeding routine a bit, since my trail has no more ice or snow (yay) I had to stop using my sled for hauling hay to the mares. I opened up the upper pens which are closer to my hay pile and now I can use the wheelbarrow. 

One last time with the sled though, and I stuck Velvet in the barn for her grain....

Ruby was not impressed when Velvet went out of sight. 

Fortunately, she got over it and on successive days she didn't do that. She sure has a pattern with those sideways kicks though! No kicks were straight back, all were off to the side. Interesting. 

Kbryan was asking if we have a photo of the sire of the paint foal- by the way, his barn name is Zipper- and yes we do; here is his stallion poster. 

I did a photo shoot for Shayla and got some sweet photos of little Zipper. 

First haltering

Enjoying skritches

First time picking up his feet

Mama Daphne warning the other mares to mind their own bizness, 

The sooty buckskin mare behind them in that photo is the one that is over a year gestation as of April 5th!

Concho, release the hostage!

Ho ho ho....hum

 Well....

 I figured a lovely warm sunny day would be perfect for taking Christmas photos of the horses. 

You know, 

Deck the ponies with poinsettias,

Fa la la la la la la la la.....

Beamer....Hey Beamer, wake up!

Whaaaaat?

Ok my eyes are open, happy now? Can I go back to sleep?

Oh Ruby, thanks for cooperating!

Can I go back to sleep now please?

Then there was Velvet....

She was on alert! 

Not putting that stuff on me!

Does it make me look cute? If so it can stay....

Hmmmm. How about the hat, Velvet?

Whassat? 

I guess it can stay as long as I can snooze....

But it tickles!

Went up to visit Shayla the other day and got in a few photos there too.

A nice Christmas one of Boe with a bow 😄

And who doesn't love a Christmas cow!

Shayla sent me this one of Gussie's filly, Evy, decked out in silver poinsettias that look like snowflakes in her mane. She's the sweetest filly!

In other news - Shayla bought a new stallion prospect. A coming 2 yr old red dun with some nice old school breeding. 

https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/majors+pistol

Love those ears! They are like Beamer's ears

He's a big bodied colt, reining bred; his sire was a successful show horse and his dam comes from a strong line of cutting horses. He should cross well on all the mares.

Barn name Shooter