Sunday Stills

The subject of today's challenge is yellow.... Since I have plenty of yellow flowers this year, it was a fairly easy challenge. I did hunt around to try to find unusual subjects, but other than the old yellow John Deere backhoe and the yellow seat on the riding lawn mower, there wasn't a lot. So flowers it is!

Columbine

Pansies

Marigolds

Balloon flower

That's all folks!

Rio at 2 months and riding Chickory

Rio turned 2 months today, and I must say I sure am happy with him. Here are a few photos of his handsome little self, showing off his new black undercoat.

His eyes are still grey

Look at that nice level topline!

I got up the gumption to ride Chickory today; since she is so green, I'm a little nervous about riding her when there is nobody else here. I needn't have worried; my fears were totally unfounded. She was very good, I did a couple of minutes of ground work to make sure she wasn't being silly, and stepped on..... and she just stood there. She seems a little reluctant to move out, as if she is unsure of being able to balance that big ole human and walk at the same time, but with a little encouragement she did move slowly out, literally plodding slowly around. We got some nice turns, stops and back up, then when I got off I longed her a little at the trot to leave her with the idea of forward movement. Who knew that this quick, catty, reactive mare would be so cautious under saddle. I'm loving it.

Who, me? I's a good girl!

Roses and riding

There is no smell as beautiful as a rose, and there were plenty of these lovely wild roses along the road when I took Gussie out for a ride yesterday. I'd ride along and breath deeply of their heady fragrance, and it would stay with me for a few minutes, then I'd pass another one... heavenly!
We had a nice ride, worked on rating her speed at the trot; she kept wanting to break into a soft lope, or speeding up in the trot, but she did eventually stay at the pace I asked for. We rode down past the neighbors broodmare band, they have some nice quarter horses and a bunch of curious two year olds followed us along the fence line as we rode past. There were about 6 mama and babies, but they were off on the other side of the big pasture so I didn't get a good look; I love watching the foals play and was hoping I'd get to see them a little closer. Maybe next time.

I had my little Sony pocket camera with me. We saw a whitetail doe close to home on our way back, I sure hope it stays out of our yard, I don't want deer eating my garden!
Rio continues to improve standing tied, he did a couple of little test pulls this morning but quickly stopped. I actually like it when they test things out, because then you know they have it figured out and know the limits and boundaries. I'm really excited that he's shedding out, and I take my Grooma rubber brush to him every day to help it along. It's almost like unwrapping a gift! I think he's going to be blacker than Kai.

Rio graduates from preschool

I'm a big boy now!

Rio has realized that it's better to not fight at the hitching rail; he had a day off and after that the light bulb came on in his head and now he is well behaved. His baby coat is shedding now and his true color is showing; check out his chest in this photo:

Looks like he will be the same color as his mama. I kept all the horses in their pens yesterday because we were getting pounded by heavy rain, and this morning when I turned them out they were so happy, running and frolicking. 

Hmmm, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it, Beamer?

Wordless Wednesday

Meet the neighbors

As promised, here is a photo of the Hereford bull and some of his girls.

Handsome fellow...... yes I was using my zoom, even though they say he is quiet.

He makes cute calves too.

Beamer is happy to have company across the fence, and they seem like a nice quiet herd. 

Rio got a day off today, we'll see how he does tomorrow. They were all ripping around their pen at sundown, so I just had to try for a couple of photos for their sale ads.

The light wasn't great, but I think Chickory looks nice in this one.

Macro Monday

Thanks to some advice from Ed and a little experimenting, my Macro shots are getting better.

The wheel of life rolls on

Another lesson for Rio today, and it was one step back; I really thought he'd be better today, but the little rascal had other ideas. Not very cooperative, he tested pretty hard- but no squealing! So he got the next step in teaching; how to go forward with a tap on the butt. I took him away from the hitching rail, and asked him to go forward in a circle around me. When he didn't, he got a tap on the butt with my stick, and once I knew that he had that figured out, he got tied up again. This time when he set back, he got the tap, which sent him forward, and he tested a couple of times (gotta make sure that I really meant it, I guess!) Then he stood like a good boy. By the way, when he's pulling all his silly stunts, mama just stands there and ignores him. So then I took him for a little walk, over to visit his daddy. Beamer was quite interested, but when Rio did the little baby mouthing thing, he lost interest.
I got to ride Gussie today, and teach Chickory her first lesson in ponying. I took them in the round pen for this, as Gussie has never ponied another horse before, and I wasn't sure what to expect. They both did quite well, I didn't manage a trot, but there were no real issues. Rode out after that and over to the cows. I'll see if I can get a photo of the bull tomorrow, he's quite a good looking fellow. Then on down the road, lots of trotting and some loping. Gussie picks up both leads easily.
I've done some soul searching lately about my horses. I'm getting to the age where I don't really need to be doing all the things I used to do, and I don't ride as much as I used to, although a lot of that is circumstantial; I don't have anyone to ride with, and don't really want to trail ride by myself. The things I really want to do, like work cattle, I can't do here because there isn't a supply of cattle in the area. And people don't work their cows from horseback here. There is a roping club, but I don't really want to do that either. So the upshot of all this is that I have decided to put Chickory up for sale, and keep Gussie to ride. If any of you are interested in Chickory, let me know. I have her advertised on Kijiji right now, and we'll see how that goes.

Sunday Stills

We were given free rein on today's challenge, just no archives. So here's a little bit of everything from around the farm.

Beamer, suspended

Chickory, in full flight

A dragonfly that I just happened to notice and

a super macro of it.
I had a little fun playing with shadows too.

Rio and his shadow twin.

I love this one of my flowers taken in the late afternoon light.

Rio does better and we have mooosic

Rio's lesson went much better today. He thought of refusing to walk up to the hitching rail, but not for long. He gave one half hearted set back- no squealing!- and then stood there like a good boy, with a much better expression than yesterday.

I brushed him and fussed with him, and you could see a couple of times he was thinking of leaving, but he didn't test the lead rope, until when I went to untie him, and he set back a little bit- which, of course, meant that he had to stand tied a little longer. I bet tomorrow he doesn't even try. I was wondering if he would still come up to me in the pasture, but I guess I'm forgiven, because he still comes right up for his scratchings.
The pasture here was rented out to a fellow with horned Herefords, and he brought them in today- just when I was about to ride, so I had to put that on hold. I was planning to ride Gussie and teach Chickory to pony in the round pen, but there was too much commotion for that. It's nice to see cows back, and Beamer thought so too; he was racing around and kicking up his heels when he saw them, and when they went up by his fence he hung out with them.

They look like a nice bunch of cows. They said the bull is quiet and easy to handle, so that's a good thing.

So hopefully tomorrow I'll get my riding in. See you all for Sunday Stills!

Canadian EHV update

This is from the Canadian Quarter Horse Association newsletter:

 

June 3, 2011

                     

Neurotropic Equine Herpes Virus-1 Status Update - Friday, June 3

Ottawa, ON - Equine Canada's Health and Welfare Committee is sharing the following status update on Neurotropic Equine Herpes Virus-1 (nEHV-1) received today from Alberta and Western Canada. This information comes as a result of consultations among the Chief Provincial Veterinarian for Alberta, members of the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association, faculty members, University of Calgary Veterinary Medicine, local Albertan equine practitioners, in addition to veterinarians from British Columbia and Saskatchewan. 

 To date the reported positive cases of nEHV-1 in Alberta are as follows:

·         One neurological case (now recovered) first found positive at the start of May

·         Three cases positive with mild respiratory signs/fever are all now recovered

·         Four PCR positive horses, showing no clinical signs

·         One new neurological case ,responding well to treatment, that attended cutting events in Alberta

·         One of the previously 'suspect' neurological cases in Northern Alberta that was at the cutting competition in Lloydminster (reported in last update).

To date suspect cases of nEHV-1 in Alberta are as follows:

·         One previously reported neurologic case. The mild neurological signs are almost resolved and the horse remains under quarantine. To date testing has been negative.

·         The second suspect with mild neurological signs in Northern Alberta that was at the cutting competition in Lloydminster (reported in last update) still remains in the suspect list.

·         New neurological suspect case from Central Alberta was euthanized due in part to complications with previous significant medical conditions. Testing is pending.

·         New neurological suspect case with mild fever from Central Alberta. Testing is pending.

The update in Saskatchewan, from the Prairie Diagnostic Services laboratory, indicated a single confirmed case that was present at the Lloydminster competition. Previously reported cases in February 2011, from this laboratory, are not considered part of the current EHV-1 outbreak.

The update in British Columbia, from the Animal Health Centre laboratory (Ministry of Agriculture), indicated two positive nEHV-1 cases confirmed through the laboratory. These cases had either direct or indirect contact with horses that were at the Ogden, Utah competition.

It appears all of the cases and suspected cases remain in horses associated with the cutting horse industry.

All other disciplines outside of the cutting industry continue at this time to be considered low risk. The decision to cancel competitions and shows in other disciplines should be made in partnership with their associated veterinarian to develop a risk assessment of each situation.  Excellent resources on biosecurity protocols for the equine community can be found on the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association website, and the equestrian federation websites of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The pout is on!

Rio got his third morning in a row today of spending 10 minutes at the hitching rail. When he saw it, he stopped and started backing up (nuh-uh! I don' wanna and you can't make me!) But he did come along, and I took a couple of wraps around the rail, and stepped around to the far side. He had a little tantrum right away, pulling back so hard that he was sitting on his li'l butt and squealing! Yes, my little darlin' was squealing like a pig! I couldn't help laughing! I just held on to the rope- didn't want to tie off hard until he gave up fighting; which he did after a few minutes, and then he stood there with the most disgusted look on his face:

Oh poor boy! Gots a li'l mad on!

I spent some time petting him and fussing over him once he was standing like a good boy, a couple of times he thought about leaving, but you could see the light come on in that little baby brain and he only gave a little head check then just stood still. But still pouting.

You can see that he's shedding his baby coat and coming in a nice dark color. Underneath the pout.

#$$%^%$$#$^*^$#Blogger!

Rotten Blogger isn't letting me upload a photo for my header; it makes it really small and puts it off on the left side. Bear with me as I figure out how to fix it.
UPDATE! Ha! I figured it out- I went to this photo in Flickr, grabbed the HTML code for large size, and pasted the code into the blog description spot. Where there's a will, there's a way!

The boys

Since the horses will be getting trimmed in a couple of weeks, I figured it was time to put little Rio in baby school. He lets me pick up his feet when I have him in hand, but he has never had that first lesson in standing tied, the true test of allowing restraint and giving to pressure. Yesterday he got a mini lesson; I took him, and mama, to the hitching rail, tied them, and brushed them.

He set back a couple of times, but didn't seem too worried about it. Well, today, he got the same program, as he is going to get every morning for a while. Only this morning, the pout was on! He was really sulking, not at all happy with me! Oh well, the sooner he gets it figured out the better. I usually like to do this when they are a little younger as they seem to give in a little quicker, but I didn't get around to it until now, when he is almost 2 months old. I let him soak for a while, until I could tug on the rope and he wouldn't blow. We'll see how much he figured out today, and whether tomorrow is a little easier. It should be, he is a quick learner.
Had to get some Beamer photos today, and I'm saving one for Sunday Stills which is a potluck this week. But here's a sample.

He had a lot of fun this morning performing for the camera, he had the whole pasture to rip around in but worked a circle around me to make sure I got some good shots. That's my boy!

In this photo, he had dropped down on the front end just before sweeping back on his haunches and ripping off in the other direction. (Look ma, no front legs!)
So I'm liking this camera, it has an action setting and I can finally get action shots without blurred legs. Yay!

Wordless Wednesday

Canadian EHV update

<< Neurological EHV announcement from WCVM |

EHV Alberta update

May 25, 2011

Update on EHV-1 Conference Call

A group of 15 Alberta Veterinarians had a follow up conference call this morning to discuss the EHV-1 situation in Alberta. They included the Chief Provincial Veterinarian, the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association, the University of Calgary Veterinary Program and Equine practitioners.

The overall consensus is there has not been any significant second wave of the disease over the past week. There has been one new suspect horse which has tested negative at this time with more results pending. This horse has been quarantined with proper biosecurity procedures.  Since last report, one of the suspect respiratory cases from Ogden has come back positive on nasal PCR testing.

Therefore, at this time the summary of horses affected in Alberta is as follows:

§  One positive neurologic case from May 1st that is clinically normal at this time. (This particular horse was reported in our previous updates)

§  Three positive respiratory cases that were either in Ogden or directly associated with Ogden horses. These horses have been isolated and all except one are normal at this time.  The horse that is still exhibiting symptoms is presently responding well to antibiotic treatment. (These horses were reported in our previous updates)

§  One horse which tested positive and was from Ogden but showed no clinical signs. (This particular horse was reported in our previous updates)

§  One new suspect patient mentioned in the second paragraph above, showing mild neurologic signs and had initially tested negative is now awaiting results with further tests pending. This horse does have a direct link to the initial group of horses.

Therefore; we feel a second wave of infections has not materialized within Alberta. The 21 day incubation from the May 8th date of return from Ogden will be reached in 4 days.  We feel confident that a significant number of clinical cases would have started to surface now if, there was to be a second wave of affected horses in the general horse population.

The above group of Veterinarians involved, continue to believe horse activities, outside of the cutting horse population, should go forward with normal biosecurity procedures being taken. We are directing horse owners to the AB.VMA website for a well-defined list of biosecurity protocols recognized North American wide.

Another conference call is scheduled on Monday May 30, 2011 and we will update our sites at that time.

Greg Andrews, DVM

Moore Equine Veterinary Centre Ltd

Latest update on EHV 1

This update comes from the Canadian Quarter Horse Association, an affiliate of the AQHA. I haven't found a Canadian update yet.

 Neurotropic Equine Herpes Virus -1

Status Update #2

Date: 27 May 2011

ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases http://www.isid.org 

Source: DVM Veterinary News Magazine [edited]  

http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/Veterinary+Equine/Outbreak-New-equine-herpes-virus-cases-emerge/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/724806?contextCategoryId=378 

Secondary exposures make up about half of all confirmed equine herpesvirus cases, veterinary officials report. Suspected or confirmed cases remain under voluntary or sanctioned quarantine.

Of the 47 cases of equine herpesvirus (EHV-1) now confirmed across 9 western states, 14 were contracted through secondary or tertiary exposure, veterinary officials report. Another 28 cases of equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy (EHM), the neurologic form of the disease, have been reported, 25 from direct exposure during the recent National Cutting Horse Association competition in Ogden, Utah.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) now places the total number of EHV-1/EHM cases at 75. Eleven of those horses died or were euthanized.

In the last week, 15 new cases have surfaced, APHIS reports.

More than 400 horses in 19 states were exposed to the virus at the Utah event, and another 1635 are at risk of secondary or tertiary exposure, APHIS says in its 26 May 2011 update on the outbreak.

Although the incubation period for EHV-1 is 2 to 14 days, Dr. Leonard Eldridge, Washington's state veterinarian, says the virus can be shed for up to 28 days. The Nevada Department of Agriculture says it observed horses that attended the Utah event through 22 May 2011 for signs of infection. Horses at risk of secondary infection will be observed until 5 Jun 2011.

APHIS says horses known to have been exposed to the virus have been notified by state animal health officials, and suspected or confirmed cases are under voluntary or state quarantine.

As of 25 May 2011, here are USDA's totals on the outbreak:

Arizona - 2 EHV-1 and 1 EHM from direct exposure, 8 EHV-1 from secondary/tertiary exposure;

California - 9 EHV-1 and 6 EHM from direct exposure, 1 EHV-1 from secondary/tertiary exposure;

Colorado - 9 EHV-1 and 6 EHM from direct exposure, 1 EHV-1 from secondary/tertiary exposure;

Idaho - 1 EHV-1 and 3 EHM from direct exposure, 2 EHV-1 from secondary/tertiary exposure;

Nevada - 1 EHV-1 from direct exposure, 2 EHM from secondary/tertiary exposure;

New Mexico - 2 EHV-1 and 1 EHM from direct exposure, 1 EHM from secondary/tertiary exposure;

Oregon - 4 EHV-1 and 1 EHM from direct exposure;

Utah - 1 EHV-1 and 4 EHM from direct exposure, 2 EHV-1 from secondary/tertiary exposure;

Washington - 4 EHV-1 and 3 EHM from direct exposure.

Nine horses with confirmed cases of EHV-1/EHM through direct exposure died or were euthanized, plus another 2 horses with confirmed cases contracted through secondary exposure.

Horse owners are being advised to notify veterinarians if they participated in the NCHA event or if their horse suddenly comes down with a temperature above 102 F, which typically precedes clinical signs, veterinarians say.

Related Links: Equine herpesvirus outbreak: 44 horses test positive in 9 western states, veterinarians report [Further coverage is available on the DVM News Magazine web-site.].

[Byline: Rachael Whitcomb]

   

Communicated by: HealthMap Alerts via ProMED-mail promed@promedmail.org 

     

Flowers

My flowers that Janice gave me are now flourishing, and someone commented that they'd like to see them once they were all planted.

Gazania and white lobelia

Close up of the Gazanias

My barn board planter with pansies surrounding  ?? Janice will have to tell us the name of that one.

Yellow Osteospermum

My favorite petunia, Royal Velvet Supertunia. I have Raspberry Blast Supertunias 

in with them, and some dianthus.

I have lots more, but these are the ones that are furthest along. Our apple trees are still in blossom, and all throughout the town there are flowering shrubs in full glory. I love this time of year!

Sunday Stills

Grass and weeds abound here, and this is what Ed chose for today's challenge. He said to get down in the dirt- well, here that would be down in a mud puddle, but the rain did make for some interesting subjects.

Soggy dandelion gone to seed.

Not sure what this is called, but there is way too much of it in Beamer's pasture.

This hairy li'l monster is also pestiferous in the pasture.

It rained so hard that day, all the long grass was just laying over.

The weeds at the edge of the hayfield, and the view of the clouds obscuring the mountains.