The weanlings

 Today was the day for the weanlings to arrive. They are Shiner, Jayne's red dun colt, and Gemma, the palomino filly out of Shayla's buckskin Driftwood mare. They are both sired by Rex (Major's Pistol) her junior stallion. This was his test foal crop and her turned out to sire some very nice foals. 

Gemma is heading to the Yukon in a couple of weeks, so we need to get her leading and loading.

The mares came up for a look, but soon lost interest and wandered off. The foals wandered around their pen for a bit- Shiner called out a bit, but not a peep out of Gemma. 

They both seem pretty chill in their new environment. I plan to feed them in the barn, so it was nice that they went in on their own in short order and seem to like being in there. 

Shiner sure has Jayne's beautiful eye. He may end up being here a bit longer as the focus will be more on Gemma at first as she will be picked up by her owner in 17 days. 

Let the fun begin!

Foal spam

 Got some updated photos of Shayla's foals. Enjoy!

Bear- this is the one that we think will be a black buckskin. Color testing is planned. 

Bear and his mama Concho and yes that is smoke- more on that in a bit.

Belle's foal. The owner called him Nero but that is such an awful name because Nero was such an evil man- kinda like calling a foal Hitler. So I call him Hero! He is still unfolding those long legs- he's very tall! and only a week old whereas Bear is 5 weeks old. 

He's adorable!

Jayne's foal, as yet unnamed. I didn't get a lot of photos of him because, well... 

my attention was diverted by this little sweety! Dolly had a filly! Only a day old. 

She has figured out how to scratch her face,

and a very cute face it is!  This one is a keeper for sure. 

I got word from Sylvain that Sophie's filly by Beamer will be for sale. Will try to get photos of her on here soon. 

Anyway, back to that smoke I mentioned. 

We woke up to a very smoke filled world yesterday. The fires are mostly north and west of us, and we have had a strong south wind- well, it switched to a strong north wind overnight and filled the whole province and most of western Canada and the northern US with smoke. 

That is the actual color of the sun in the early morning. 

Morning sun viewed from our house. 

This whole thing is a nightmare. More towns and reserves have been evacuated. Good news is that Ted's family can finally go back to their town. We also have two days of rain in the forecast but not until Monday. And thunderstorms in between that usually mean lightning strike fires. I'm hoping that we get our usual rainy June and that fixes this. 

So anyway, trying for long distance photos of  Shayla's herd was hampered by the smoke, but here are a couple more just for fun. 

Zipper following Concho and Bear- he wasn't at all concerned about where his own mama was. 

Bear has a lot of speed!

So smoky you can barely see the fenceline behind the horses.  Hopefully we will be going back that way in a week or so after the rain. There are a bunch of cute draft foals to see too!

Weaning time

 Yesterday- just after the full moon- it was weaning time. I separated Dally into the foaling pen and left Jayne in the main pen for a while. 

Once Dally realized she couldn't see the mama, she carried on for a bit. 

Once I put Jayne across from her, she settled down considerably. I put their feed right across from each other so they could be as close as possible.

See that gap between the gate and the panel? I didn't like that one little bit as it could be a potential leg/hoof trap if Dally got to pawing.

So I fixed it. Looks kinda hillbilly but it works for the amount of time it will be needed. 

This morning Dally was her normal self, greeting me as she saw me coming and looking for her scratches. Her favourite thing is to interrupt my stall cleaning for this:

All is well!

Weaning time

My plan for weaning is usually the same every year: Remove Belle from the herd, put her in the adjacent foaling pen, and leave the foal in the herd. So that's what I did on Thursday.  It just seemed like the right day to wean and I always try to follow my instincts. 

First day went well, Moondance was not too worried as he could still hang out next to mama and had his bff Gussie  and Jayne to keep him company. 

The next day however, I caught him trying to nurse off Gussie. At first she would squeal and stomp her foot, but then she allowed him. And she was following him around nickering if he got out of her sight. And I'm pretty sure her teats were getting sore from him pulling on them!

Since  I was worried that Gussie would come into milk, which would not be good and would totally defeat the purpose of weaning, I had to switch it so Belle was in the herd and Moondance is isolated. 

I gave him a pile of hay near where the mares come up for water and he can see into their shelter from there, but most of his feed is in the foaling shelter behind him.

He is adjusting. He loves it when I come and hang out with him. As soon as the smoke clears I will take him out and pony him from Gussie. 

What smoke, you ask? 

All this blanket of smoke is from the fires to the south of us in the USA From California all the way up to Washington State. It is heavy upon the land and will be hanging around for a few days as all the winds are from the southwest. So no riding until it abates. 

Speaking of ponying, our last lesson went quite well.

Just a note on Moondance's colour- he is what is known as a sun faded black. I rather like it although I do like the non fading black that Beamer is. Moondance doesn't carry any colour modifiers like the cream gene which his brothers Eli, Kai and Rio have, he is a true black carrying only 2 copies of black. He is the same colour as Nitro. He also has a lot of white hairs scattered throughout his body and especially on his face, which his brothers also have, with the exception of, I believe, Kai. Stella had that too. I think it comes from Beamer's mama who was a black rabicano.

Riding  day 36

Weaning day and howtheheckdoIorganizeeverything?

Sunday was a frosty morning. The horses went on a romp when I went down to feed.



Sassy was just full of herself.... good thing she didn't know that her world was about to change.
Yup, Booncat weaning day because Sassy was headed to Alberta to her new owner.
Normally I wean during the waning of the moon, but I didn't have that choice this time as this was the only day that Sassy could be hauled. And a good thing they didn't wait another day, because Alberta got hit with another early snowstorm.

As she left, Booncat was calling and followed the fence line as the trailer pulled out, calling for his mama. But he had his buddy Eli and lovely calm Gussie to help him through the day.
He called sporadically throughout the day, but by the next day, not at all. Life goes on as normal. I do prefer the over the fence method as I did with Eli and Belle though, less mental stress on both mama and baby.

Drifter got saddled and longed , he took well to being saddled and there was no silliness to him at all. I will continue his training weather permitting, and once I get all the weaning sorted out. I still need one more pen! Not quite ready to turn Drifter in with an unbred mare (Gussie) but I would like to have a place to put Booncat separately- the li'l rascal still won't eat the foal ration so I am supplementing him with alfalfa- which the mares don't need.  Eli will be leaving in a couple of weeks.  I guess it'll all sort itself out soon! I may be able to put Booncat and Drifter together once Eli is gone, then I can put Belle and Gussie together and my 3 pens with shelters will work.

I'm trying to ride more often, yesterday I rode and was wondering how the 2 babies would do without an adult in the pen with them, but they had their hay to keep them busy and didn't seem too worried as I rode away.

Beamer has been getting turnout in the bottom hotwire pen. To do that I have to lock Drifter in the top foaling pen, even though Beamer is good I don't want to push his limit by having another stallion across the fence, even if it is a juvenile. The fenceline of this pen borders both the mare pen and the bottom paddock that adjoins the foaling pen,so you see my dilemma in turnout and weaning. I have logistics problems! But it will all sort out, especially if I can get Booncat eating the foal ration, which I can either pop him in the horse trailer or the barn for the 15 minutes it takes to eat that. Or if I can have Booncat and Drifter together and can just lock them up while Beamer is out. Either way, it will help once Eli is gone and Belle can go back in the main pen.

Riding day 60

Mama mama!

Just this....

It's time...

Weaning time that is. I have never had to wean this late in the year. But Pistol just turned 4 months old, and Belle needs to put some weight on for the winter so I got busy setting up the foaling pen for weaning. I opted to put Belle in there, as I think it will be better for Pistol if he has plenty of room to run and have both Mesa and Rosalee for company. I figured confining him with Mesa would end up with him getting a lickin' from her as she doesn't tolerate his antics any more. He already has an edema just below his right stifle, I am assuming from a kick from her.

I watched them for a while to make sure everything was ok, then found a spot that needed further baby-proofing. The place looks like a homeless shelter! 

Hopefully things will go smoothly, Pistol has become less of a mama's boy over the last month. I took him for a walk the other day and he did really well. Only needed a few minor corrections when he got in a hurry. Also took Mesa for a walk, and I have to brag on her, she was perfect! Led on a loose line, went wherever I took her with no hesitation including fairly close to working machinery. Of course, no camera that time. 

All is well

Weaning is actually going better than I expected. Mesa doesn't call out much at all, and Coulee only calls out when I take Beamer up to his grazing pen- she doesn't call out to Mesa at all. I think that it helps that Mesa can see mama even if she can't touch her, it looks like my ugly tarps are doing the trick.

Mesa gets along with all the others, even Belle, so she is quite comfortable and bonded within the little herd.

I noticed this morning that Rosalee has taken on the role of protector - she put the run on Pistol this morning when I was bringing them their hay.

In that photo you can see how I left an opening, untarped, for Mesa to see mama and that is the section of round bale feeder on mama's side of the panel to keep her from sidling up to the fence for nursing. As for Rosalee's tail- it still isn't growing out very quickly and she needed a fly swatter, so bale strings to the rescue!

Weaning day

So, it's here- weaning day.
I am still not perfectly set up the way I want, so my only option is to put Coulee in the foaling pen and leave Mesa out in the bigger pen with the other horses.
Because it is all corral panels, Mesa was able to stick her head through and try to nurse, so I ended up putting temporary tarps over the rails. I did leave a couple of openings but blocked them with my round bale feeder halves so that Coulee couldn't get close enough to let Mesa nurse.

Belle and Coulee still bitch at each other over the fence...

 so I put a tarp across that area too. Hopefully by tomorrow things will settle down a bit. When I left this evening, Mesa was quietly munching hay with her buddy Rosalee- and I did get her to eat some oats too.

We shall see how things go tomorrow!

Saturday's ride

I got to help sort the calves for weaning yesterday, this was a small bunch and with Beamer's help it only took a few minutes. The cows and calves are very easy to handle, a nice bunch of Herefords.

The bull took his chance to sneak a snack

The calves settled in and are providing us with moosic for the next week; they are doing fenceline weaning this year, so the calves can see their mamas but not nurse. Much less stress that way, it's the method I used most for weaning foals.

Since that only took a few minutes, I headed down the road on Beamer and found some local wildlife....

Well, not technically life! This sculpture adorns the driveway of my neighbour who is a sculptor. 

But we did find something- a Red Headed Woodpecker, who was busy searching for food and didn't mind us standing quietly watching him. Beamer was a good boy and stood nicely while I took photos.

So today- my plan is to ride Rio; it will be the first ride on him for me and I'm really looking forward to it! I'm going to have to find a mounting block though, he is so tall. 

There's that tongue- after he drinks he does this for a while, it's very cute.

Josie makes progress

Little Josie is making progress. She still isn't happy about getting a halter on, but I can do it without using the catch pen now, and she is leading much better.

She doesn't have Stella's sweetitude, but she's easy to handle. I think she'll be the type of horse that you just give her a job to do and leave her be. She won't be a pocket pony and I'm okay with that- one is enough! She is really athletic, which speaks to her cutting blood on both sides of her pedigree. She exhibits a lot of herd behavior, such as being protective of her space, and when I touch her legs she gets crabby as if I was another colt biting at her legs like they do in play. That is improving though as I handle her every day. She just loves being brushed!
Today I penned Belle in the stall and turned Gussie out with the little girls. She wasn't much interested in them after the initial meet'n'greet, probably because they have been across the fence from each other for the last 10 days.

She preferred to go hang out near mama Belle; I was trimming Belle's feet and Gussie just stood next to the stall panels.... until Josie came too close and Gussie ran her off. Other than that there was no drama- just the way I like it! I think tomorrow I'll try them out in the grass paddock for a little bit with Gussie.
I am waiting for the mail, because Josie's papers should be in any day now, she did get the name I requested, Joleo Peppy.

Brothers together

Chickory  was relieved of her baby sitting duties today; it's the big day for Nitro- full weaning. He's not too happy but he'll get over it. After I put all the mares out, I put Rio in with Nitro and let them get used to being together in the big mare pen; they have been hanging out together across the fence from each other so it wasn't a big issue. Once Nitro realized there were no ladies paying him any attention, he buddied up with Rio.

They did a few laps of the pen first. 

In perfect unison.....

They spent the rest of the day hanging out together, then I moved them over one more pen, right next to Beamer- this is the pen that separates Beamer from the mares:

Beamer roared a couple of times, and poor little Nitro about jumped out of his skin, but they settled down quickly.

Tonight I'll put Gussie and Chickory across the fence from the little boys and mama Belle will go in Rio's other stall at night until she dries up, that way she won't be across  the fence from Nitro. I expect Nitro will snivel a lot for the next couple of days but he'll get over it. Meanwhile, the girls are all happy to be together again without any pesky  colts.

And the heat goes on...

Well so far Chickory is doing a good job of baby sitting Nitro; this morning I turned them out as usual at 7:30 AM and kept them separate from Gussie and mama Belle until almost 3 PM. Nitro did a little calling, but kept a close eye on Chicky, and spent most of the day grazing at  her heels to take advantage of her  fly-swatter tail. When I let Belle in with them, he went full tilt boogie to meet  her and had a good slurp of milk.

Then it was stuck like glue to mama!

Check out those long toes... he on the list after his mama; I trimmed Rio this morning while it was still cool out; it got up to 95F (35 C) today with a humidex of 100.5. Needless to say I didn't get much done for the rest of the day. In the late afternoon when I was filling horse water tubs Chickory, Gussie, and Rio all wanted to be sprayed down. Belle isn't a fan of spraying, unless I have a halter on her and make her stand.
I measured Rio today, he is officially the same height as Beamer and he's only 16 months old. He's hip high right now , the boy is growing.....

into a very handsome horse! We have decided to leave him a stallion for now, as we hope to send him to the trainers next year, I'd really like him to have a show career. His wounds have all  healed, but he does have some lumps, so no halter classes for him.

Weaning program

It's that  time again.... weaning time! I always adapt according to the circumstances of the year, and this  video shows and explains this year's set up.

There is very little calling going on, and none of it is from Belle- she knows what's going on and is just happy to get out and graze with her BFF. Nitro has always been possessive of Chickory, and she loves the babies, so it's all good.

Foghorn?

Sunday morning dawned foggy- well, can't say as it dawned, because we didn't get to see sunup. The cows were missing their babies, and their bellowing reminded me of foghorns. When they saw me out doing chores, they came up to the fence where they last saw their calves.

Hey- don't blame me!

The bawling brought in more cows from the foggy reaches of the field.

No, I haven't seen your babies.

Yes, I'm sure they aren't here. 

The fog burned off and the day improved, so I caught Chickory and saddled up. I rode in the round pen, this is the first real ride I've put in on her since I got her back from the trainer. The cinch gall is nearly all gone, but the hair hasn't grown back yet, so I only rode 20 minutes. Didn't want to aggravate the bare skin. We worked on leg yielding, and I'm finding out that she has issues to the right. Circling the pen to the right, she fades to the center of the pen, but clockwise, she stays on the rail. If I ask her with my leg to move over, she just leans into my leg. So I worked on getting her to move off my right leg, one step at a time. Of course, I balanced it with work off my left leg too. Things fall apart at the trot, so I worked mostly at the walk. I quit when she gave me some nice yields both directions. 

Also found out Chickory likes apples. So she gets a little treat after riding.