Horse goals

After a quick trip to the States to buy groceries I had time to ride Beamer today- my go to horse when the weather is a little iffy; it was a little blustery but overall a pretty nice day. The mud is drying up, and I hope that the storms rolling along the mountains stay there and don't come down into the valley- I'm saving the pictures for next week's Sunday Stills challenge, which is weather.
A couple of weeks ago I did his tail up in mud knots (a post by Stacy Westfall with a video that shows how) and I'm happy that they have stayed in this long.

It probably helps that his tail wasn't very clean, so it wasn't slippery. It sure keeps it out of the mud, and keeps the ends from breaking off.
Coyote Belle is getting larger every day, and she has huge milk veins. I'm going to start camping out next to her stall on Friday, which will be 11 months from her breeding. She is shedding like crazy, way more than the other horses.
Rio is loading like a pro now, I can just send him in and he steps right up. I plan to take him on some short hauls, maybe with Chickory for company. I think he's going to be a lot of fun to work with this year, he learns so fast. I see plenty of  in hand trail exercises and sacking out in the near future for him. Once I get Gussie going and settled down in to work mode, I'll start ponying him too. It helps me to have goals, as I tend to procrastinate. Ground work for Rio, and plenty of miles on Gussie are my two main horse goals this year, along with riding Beamer as much as possible. Sounds simple, but when you have 3 horses to work with, as well as a foal to halter and teach to lead, and a day job too, it all comes down to time management. And that's a big reason that Chickory is for sale.
Anyone else set their horse goals yet this year?

Sunday Stills

Spring is a great time to have the challenge of photographing transitions. But what to do when it's either raining, snowing or windy out? Well, bake cookies of course! These ingredients were transitioning-

into these:

(Sorry about the dirty oven! Guess I'd better clean it!)

 We did get a break in the weather, and I went exploring in my garden. Lots of plants are awakening from their winter sleep, and are in transition to their summer beauty, like my Bleeding Heart:

and some tulips:

My Christmas Cactus has decided it's an Easter Cactus, and is blooming for the first time in years.

The transition I am most excited about though is when the little one inside this belly:

draws it's first breath and looks around at the world.

A lesson for Rio

Well today was a bit of a kerfuffle; the horse dentist didn't make it here because of a rock slide on the highway between here and Cranbrook that had the highway shut down, so we are rescheduled for next Friday. Since I had the horse trailer hooked up expecting to haul Gussie, I figured Rio might as well have his first trailer loading lesson. I led him up to it, stepped in and he followed me in.

 I let him have a bite of oats from a bucket I had in there, then led him out.

Okay. that was easy, let's do it again: same thing. So I upped the ante- I asked him to go in without me going in too. Well, different story! He tried all the usual evasive tactics, and I did the usual tap on the butt and walk circles with the trailer opening as the rest and reward, and within ten minutes he went in, calmly. I let him eat a bit more, and asked him to come out, which he did very daintily.

 Good Rio!

He was very wide eyed throughout the lesson, and this really reminds me of Beamer, when I first got him his eyes were just like this. In fact, Rio is just like Beamer in so many ways- except size- he's going to be so much bigger than his daddy. 

Sun! Temporarily, of course.

The sun actually does shine here in March....... I have proof......

Of course, we won't mention what's going on outside my window at the moment......

You know it's spring when you go outside in your flannel nightgown and gumboots to get a photo of the big ole coyote that is way too close for comfort in the morning, and decide that since you are already out, you may as well do the chores... 

all the while keeping an eye on your two cats because the coyote was taking it's own sweet time leaving. 

Happy St. Patrick's day everyone, I'll honor my Irish heritage and wear green today. 

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Good news is the snow is all gone.

What a difference a day makes.....
Bad news is, my corrals are soup.... barnyard soup.....

I'll remember this photo this summer when this will all turn to silty dust that the horses love to roll in.
And here is the ugly:

For those of you who don't understand Celsius temperatures, 0 is the same as 32F, 11 degrees C is about 52F. So temperature isn't a problem- its the wet!  Oh well, this too shall pass......

The ides of March

Not much to beware, just to be weary of. It snowed overnight, and it's been raining most of the day, so the yard and pastures are slush soup.  Beamer wasn't too impressed this morning.

Belle and Rio weren't about to leave the snug shelter, but Chickory and Gussie didn't care about the wet- they were out checking for tasty morsels under the snow.

Once I had their hay out though, they were content to line up and bury their noses in its fresh scent and happily munched away in the dryness of the horse shelter.

Yes, that third horse from the left is Rio- at 11 months he is almost as tall as 4 yr. old Chickory, but a long way to go yet. One thing about  this weather- they shouldn't have any issues going through mud out on the trail. Gussie came galloping in the other day, mud flying- she thought she might get a handful  of oats, and that overrides mud any day!
The dogs are always willing to get out no matter what the weather, and Tess was sure I might need a little help.

The horse dentist is coming Saturday- unless the roads are closed between here and Alberta- and I'm going to get Gussie done. I'll get her branded at the same time. At least it isn't really cold out, and even though it's white and wet, we are only days away from the Spring Solstice, and this weather can't last forever. But it's in the forecast for the next week. Sighhhhhhhhhh......

Wordless Wednesday

The in between time

We are at that point of spring where I can't do much. Can't clean the horse pens, the ground is too soft to get the tractor in there. So I have to look at the mess. Can't plant my flowers or clean the flower beds because there is still the risk of frost. So every once in a while I peel back the old vegetation and peer at the new shoots coming up. (Tulips soon!) Can't turn the horses out on their pasture yet because they will tear up the soggy ground, so I make do with a couple of smaller "sacrifice" areas. Can't haul to the arena yet because I still don't have insurance on my trailer- hopefully that will be rectified in a week. Can't start work on any art projects yet because Ted has decided that we are going to move my future studio to a better location in the yard, and we have to wait for the ground to harden up a bit before we can skid it to the new location. So as  I'm twiddling my thumbs, I'm dreaming up all sorts of projects, like painting the kitchen cupboards- have to wait for dry weather so I can take the cupboard doors outside to sand them down! And looking through my plant books and deciding what I'm going to put in the expanded flower bed once I can start working the ground. Meanwhile, I can still count my blessings, especially when we have beautiful mornings even if they do turn to rainy days.

Virtual Bridal Shower for Mikey

One of my favorite bloggers is getting married on St. Patrick's day-Mikey . I sure wish I could be there in person to wish a lifetime of love and happiness to Mikey and Wade, but virtual wishes will have to do. I'm sure the wedding will be one to remember, and I'm really looking forward to the wedding photos.
Mikey and Wade- I'd like to give you a gift: pick a photo- of anything, maybe your wedding or a special place or moment, and send it to me, and I'll do a drawing for you. 
Love and best wishes, from Shirley and Ted!

Sunday Stills

The challenge for today- take a photo of something, and then photograph a detail from that scene. 

Ted, bucking up a tamarack log,

and a close up of Ted.

Chickory, loping in the round pen,

and her cute nose.

Mr. Handsome- Beamer,

and I never get tired of  photos like this.

Holey! and other stuff

 To enter the foaling contest, got to This Post and leave a comment!

With the nice weather we are having I've been out riding, got another ride on Gussie- just a short one around the yard after round penning, and worked Chickory in the round pen. Had to go back to some basic ground work with her instead of riding, she wouldn't cooperate when I asked her to stand next to the fence so I could climb on bareback, so we worked on moving the haunches and standing quietly next to the fence as a nice place to be after working.
The next day I rode Beamer, a lovely ride on a sunny day, birds everywhere, strolling down the country lanes with scenery like this:

Beamer was nice and relaxed, and I had my trusty dogs with me- it was a good day!
After riding, I hand grazed Beamer for a while. Our lawn is growing and he deserved a little treat. He was standing about 3 feet away from the hitching rail, when suddenly his left front leg sunk into the ground- past his knee. He stood up and moved over, looking puzzled, and continued to graze- no injuries. I put him back in his paddock and called Ted over to investigate this mysterious sink hole. Turns out, someone had sunk a 45 gallon steel barrel in to the ground with only a few inches of dirt over it, and the lid gave way. Huh? Why would anyone do that, this is only 20 feet away from our home, and it's not part of the septic system. Someone hiding toxic waste or something illegal? We are going to dig it out and take a sample of the contents to be checked out. The scariest part is that I had ridden Beamer over that same spot at the beginning of our ride. That would have been a wreck if he had gone through with me on him; so I'm thanking my Guardian Angel that there was no wreck and no injuries. Here is the hole:

It is at least 2 ft. deep, with the lid pushed down at an angle. I'm so glad Beamer didn't get hurt. And I'd like to stuff the person who did that into the barrel and shovel dirt on top of him!

And in other news.....

After working with my three horses, and taking stock of my situation, I've had to make a decision. With Ted wanting to keep Rio for himself, one of the horses has to go, and it's going to be Chickory. She is back for sale, I don't have a set price on her, so I'm open to offers. Here is her pedigree. She has a whole bunch of cowhorse breeding, and some speed on the bottom. She is still pretty green, and I'm hoping that whoever buys her will be able to work her on cattle, it's what she is bred to do. She's very stout, but not tall, 14.2. At 4 years old, she is likely not going to get any taller, maybe a half inch.
This photo was taken last summer, and in tomorrow's Sunday Stills post will be another photo of her I took earlier this week.

 She is a dun, with rabicano markings; roan in the flanks and white hairs at the top of her tail.
I hate to see her go, we've had such a long journey together, but I can't keep them all. It would be different if I had a younger person around who wanted to ride a lot- all Chickory really needs is someone to go on with her as the basics are in place, now she just needs experience.

The annual foaling contest- it's time!

Time again for your guesses on the date, time, sex and color of Coyote Belle's 2012 foal! I'll give you all the info I can, but first I have to tell you about the prize. Around Christmas time, I made a commitment to support my fellow bloggers in their efforts to earn income  by their handiwork and put links on my sidebar under Blogger Shopping Links. I'm welcoming a new member to that group, although she doesn't have an official name yet, (I'll put the link up as soon as I can) you all know her- it's Mrs. Mom, from the blog Oh Horsefeathers and Related Twisted Tails. She has started a line of products made of knotted parachute cord, - here is a link to her post on some of the products that she makes. So the prize for this contest, is a $25 gift certificate for the items of your choice. I think I just might order something for myself too- an Oh Crap Strap in my favorite colors.
Anyway- back to foaling info: Belle was bred to Beamer on April 22, 23, and 24th last year. The average tine for foaling is 11 months and 5 days, which puts her guesstimated due date at March 29th. Those of you who have been following this for the last 3 years know that Belle is never on time. Her first foal went 11 months and 3 weeks, (Janice's mare, Jazz) her second foal, Kai, was  11 months, and 11 days and Rio was 11 months and one week. This year, here are the things I am noticing that are different: Belle usually starts bagging up 5-6 weeks before her due date- she didn't start until the first week of March. She is smaller than last year- but last year, she had an exceptionally large foal.
So fire away- I'll start a column on my sidebar with all the guesses.
Edited to add: Belle is homozygous for black based colors and carries the dilute gene and the bay gene, so her foals can be black, brown, bay, smokey black, or buckskin. She can't throw the red based colors, sorrel, chestnut, or palomino.

Workin' the mares

Must have had enough coffee this morning, because when I got home from work, I felt like working with the mares. Or maybe it was that we have sunshine, and the round pen is ice free finally, although it's still muddy. I want to get Gussie and Chickory legged up- I plan on lots of riding this year. Gussie volunteered to be first, so after a good grooming and brushing the snarls out of her tail, off we went to the round pen.

Yes Janice, the snow is all gone....

 She was feeling pretty good, and I think it's pretty obvious now that she isn't in foal.

She was attentive and once she had burned off her excess energy, was content to walk around, nice and quietly.

Love this gorgeous mare!

Then it was time to ride, so bareback and just a halter, I asked her to stand by the fence so I could gracefully slide  haul my butt on to her broad back.

 We had a nice little ride, a little neck reining, sidepassing, backing, and soft whoas, and all was good- time to go get Chickory.

She did well too, happy to be out doing something different for the first time in months.
I worked her the same way, and rode her too- bareback and halter- and holy moley that girl is sensitive to legs. It won't take much to get the fine tuning on her this year. I didn't get riding video of her as I was out of battery. I took some photos, but I'm saving them for next weeks Sunday Stills.
Stay tuned- tomorrow, I'm posting the foaling contest.

Waiting

What a difference a day brings. Well, 3 days actually; from this:

to this:

March is in it's usual form, throwing all sorts of different weather at us. You could see the snow disappearing today, and I couldn't be happier. They are forecasting another snowstorm, but I don't think it's going to hit here. Now if the mud would just dry up.....

I checked the flower beds today and the bleeding heart bush is starting to send up new shoots. Don't think I'll clear away the old vegetation just yet though. I really have spring fever today, can't wait to start planting, and I have so many plans for the horses; ground work for Rio, haul Gussie and Chickory to the arena and get them legged up and maybe start ponying Rio.  It's hurry up and wait season. Still. 

Sunday Stills

"For this next Sunday Stills challenge find an opening (a window, knothole, fence…) and use it to frame something on the other side." 

 Okay, I can do that.

Looking through the gate at Beamer at morning feeding time.

Looking through the pole shed at the mist obscured Skimmerhorns.

Tess's nose poking through one of the openings in the porch gate.

This one I pulled from my archives, it's one of my favorite Beamer photos.

Saturday stuff

Thought a little splash of color would be nice after all the white/grey of my last few posts. This cactus has just started blooming so I guess it's an Easter cactus, not a Christmas Cactus.

But not all winter pictures are dismal, you can find beauty at any season. The morning after the big snowfall we had morning mist and hoar frost, and Beamer looks good in any weather.

Even the spider webs had their own charm.

Haven't had any inclination to ride lately, mostly because I was crossing a freshly plowed street in town and my feet went out from under me and I landed splat in my butt before I even knew I was falling. Good thing I have plenty of padding because the only damage is a seriously sore backside, but maybe tomorrow a little bareback ride on Beamer will be just the thing to make me feel better. Today was my Saturday morning skirt-work, and a trip to the dump and then on to get some firewood will take care of the rest of the day. We've been out of wood for a few days and propane heat just isn't the same!
Also, I hope all our blogger friends in Tornado alley in the States are staying safe. Prayers going up for you all.

The white lion of March

March came roaring in like a lion today, a white lion that is; big fat fluffy snowflakes but at least it was fairly warm. This was heading out to do chores this morning:

Can you see Beamer in there?

The trees were laden with snow again, and I had to go buy more sunflower seeds for the finches.

This view usually shows the Skimmerhorn mountains:

Not this morning - but, stay tuned, this system didn't last long- but long enough so that my drive to work looked like this:

By the time I got home from work, the sun was shining, and I could see the mountains just fine:

Beamer got his turnout in the big pasture, and I got to take photos (imagine that!)

I'm so annoyed with myself for not getting all of his face in this shot, but he's just so darn good looking I had to include it:

I sure hope tradition is right, and March goes out like a lamb- because that will be really close to foaling time! I'll post the annual foaling contest early next week- Belle is starting to bag up now.