Really, Jayne?

Well....

We had a Derby Day foal in little Derby so maybe Jayne is holding out for a Preakness foal?

She isn't too impressed this morning!

Oh look, pretty!

Figured I had better show you something pretty.....

Always the first iris to bloom here

because the hostage situation continues!

Breakfast please!

Every morning the local pheasant wakes me up; the cabin is next to Jayne's pen and he goes in there to clean up her grain spillage. His loud squawk is followed by the honking of a pair of geese who fly directly over the cabin, honking their beaks off, so sleeping in after a night of checking repeatedly on the mare is not an option!

So to keep it fun, lets have more guesses! Most of you are eligible to put in another guess, so fire away! 

Wordless Wednesday

Derby photoshoot

I'm posting a Derby photoshoot that Shayla took because... well...

Nuthin' to see here folks! So, Betsy, Carol, Whisper, Aurora, Cdncowgirl, Leslie, Frank, Lvmyhrs, Grey Horse and Linda, you are all eligible to put in another guess. It should be soon because her bag is right full and the nipples are full too although she hasn't waxed yet.

So anyway, here are some delightful photos of Mr. Handsome #2! Thank you Shayla for the photos! The cover photo was one of them.

I deliberately over exposed this one in editing as I may do a pencil drawing of it.

He has lots of room to zoom!

Maybe he wants to be a Derby Horse!

He has his daddy's eye

He's got those long legs figured out!

1 point landing

Didya get all that?

Just like daddy...

Sunday Stills- New Beginnings

Welcome back to the Sunday Stills Challenge! Long time blogger, who goes by Cdncowgirl, has resurrected the Sunday Stills Challenge. 

This week the theme is New Beginnings. Now I was, of course hoping to have a cute little 4 legged creature for my post, but Jayne is still holding her hostage, so I went with some of my up and coming flowers.  First up is a lily my sister gave me last year, she wasn't sure if it was going to live as it was just a dried up pot of not much, no sign of life, but you can't keep a good lily down! I am excited to see what kind of lily it will be.

 

Next is a new-to-me variety of petunia, I think it's called Crazy Tunia. First photo is a macro of a bud opening and then a close up of the petals fully opened.

I love the white tips. I have another one of the same variety that is called Midnight Gold, very dark purple with yellow tips.

All photos taken with my cell phone.... my big camera is residing at the barn awaiting baby photos!

End of an era

It has been a pretty tough week for me. As most of you know, Tess was diagnosed with a bone tumor at the beginning of April, and I chose to medicate her for palliative care as long as possible. 

It was obvious that she was going downhill rapidly at the beginning of the week, so I took her to the vet for x-rays. The tumor had weakened the bone and it broke completely; the x-ray also showed tumors spread throughout her gut.

So... yes it was time to make the call.

I had prepared her grave ahead of time, and lined it with a blanket and magnolia blossoms, and I spent an hour with her, heart to heart. She never took her eyes off me and pretty much told me she was ready. 

Those sweet sweet eyes told the story. No longer bright and full of the spark of love and life.

This is the end of an era for us, with both Merle and Tess gone in the span of less than 3 months,  no more dogs for us. They were our heart dogs - even more so than Reba, Tess was special to me. 

Perfection can't be replaced.

I reckon Jesus the Good Shepherd needed a little help rounding up all the strays who have left the flock these last few years.

While we wait

 Jayne is still holding her *ahem* filly hostage, so that means that Betsy in Wi, Carol, Far Side, Whisper, and Cdncowgirl can put in a new guess. 

I don't think baby has a lot more room to move in there!

Wide load!

I could see little flutters at the bottom center of her belly, and 2 nights ago Jayne was doing a lot of rolling, so I'm hoping baby is moving into the foaling position.

Meanwhile, Derby is getting his lessons figured out.

He looks good in green! That little halter should fit him for about 2 months. Yes he will grow into it in that time! I have 3 sizes of halters for the babies for the first 5 months of their lives.

You are doing great young feller!

The waiting game

Well.... no foal yet! That means Teresa A, Leslie, Grey Horse, Linda, and Betsy in Wi are eligible to put in another guess!  Meanwhile, there is this li'l rascal:

Derby is in getting his first halter lessons. 

Nuthin' to see here folks! She has not waxed yet.

I finished my hotwire pasture, we put in some permanent posts and I strung 3 strands of electric tape; this is now Beamer's turnout pen so I can have both horses in grassy turnout pens during the day.

Lookin' for Jayne

You can see the difference in the pens!. Beamer is very respective of fences, as I heat up even the wire, so if he is across the fence from another horse, he never pushes on the fence line.

But he still has to show off! Then the siren call of all that grass takes over;

Mmnomnomnom!

And so, the waiting continues!

Baby pics!

Derby you are so adorable!

Once again, mama Belle outdid herself. 

    

Love that little wrinkly nose! And that perfectly centered swirl which feathers out, a sign that he will be very friendly and easy to train.

Shayla found the perfect itchy spots 😊

Yes mama you did good!

Not a lick of white! Sometimes a solid colour is as eye catching as one with chrome. That black coat is going to live up to his name.

Sorry about the fuzzy photos, they are sent from an iPhone to an Android and then to my computer and sometimes the devices don't mesh. They look nice and clear on her phone!

Fuzzy or not, he sure is photogenic already! Shayla and Blake managed to get a hair sample today for his dna test. I hope he is homozygous black; I think he is a non fading black like Beamer. Moondance is a fading black.

Derby

Well my horse I picked to win the Derby didn't have a good trip but what a great story on the horse who won! I was going for Rock Your World, but he couldn't get out of the pack and get a clear run. The winner, Medina Spirit was bought for $1000 at the yearling sale- what an incredible race he ran! And competing against colts who sold for over a million bucks. Gotta love an underdog with Spirit- well named horse 😎

Speaking of Derby....

I would like you to meet DLH Durashine Peppy, aka Derby. 

Yup! Belle graced us with another colt on Kentucky Derby day. Interestingly enough, Belle's sire, Durable Shine, was also nicknamed Derby, so it is a fitting family name for this black colt- who has no white on him at all.

I have a bit of a dilemma as to the foaling contest as nobody got it really right. Carol was closest with day and time, and Frank had the closest guess of color and gender. So I think they both get a prize! 

At first I though smoky black, but I think he is just black like Moondance.

More pics and videos to come tomorrow as I am waiting for Shayla to email them. He is so adorable!

The race is on

Yes it's Kentucky Derby weekend, but the race I mean is between Belle and Jayne! They are both at about the same stage even though Jayne was bred 18 days later than Belle. 

Jayne's previous owner checked but thinks she threw out the paperwork on Jayne's breeding dates, but said she thinks she went early. So with Belle always going long, they could well foal very close to the same day. 

Cdncowgirl, Aurora, Frank and Grey Horse Matters, you are all eligible to put in another guess as your date picked has passed for Jayne's foal. Feel free to leave a new guess in the comments on this post.

Whatcha lookin' at, Jayne?  When I rolled out of bed at a quarter to 6 this morning, I could see the horses staring off towards the pond area. Something had their undivided attention. So I took a look- and grabbed my camera and zoomed in to the max and managed to get a photo... sorry about the focus being a bit off, but this was worth it....

Yup it's an elk! I think a young bull but I couldn't be sure. The horses watched that area for about 10 minutes. There may have been another one following this one. So now we know we have deer, elk and moose on the farm- and lets not forget the bears, who haven't quite come on the property yet but I have seen their tracks a quarter mile away.

I finally got the design for the contest prize. It is a 9 x 4 zippered case, with our logo on one side and a picture of Beamer  and our brand on the other side. These photos are just a design mock up, not the actual cases. It will be about 4 weeks before I get them. Hope whoever wins likes them!

Pink Moon

The pink Moon was not so pink, rather a more golden hue. Last night in my foal watch cabin, I woke up around 11:30 to the moon shining in my window.

Not the best photo as you can see I moved when the shutter clicked but it shows the colour the moonglow put in the clouds. I hopped out of my comfy cot to check on Jayne and get more moon shots.

The clouds were rolling across the moon, and in the next photo....

it looks like God's eye, keeping watch with me.

Later around 4 am the moon was still up and worthy of another attempt at a good clear just-past-full moon.

Or two....

Foal watch continues, both here and in Alberta. It looks like Jayne and Belle are at about the same stage in gestation so it will be interesting to see who foals first!

Getting close!

Jayne giving us her opinion of being heavy in foal. 

She is progressing rapidly- getting quite loose behind and is letting down not-quite-milk.

And Beamer is... well just being Beamer!

He does love his turnout time!

Cdncowgirl over at Home on the Range blog is planning to ressurect the Sunday Stills challenge. I'm in! Here is the post where you can let her know if you want to participate. 

Who's the boss?

Since I have the horses separated at night now, Beamer has started showing off in the mornings when I turn them out together. He is perfectly mannered as I lead him to and into the pen, but once he is loose, he heads for Jayne, just a talkin' away and posturing... silly boy! 

He threw in some fancy moves too 😎

She doesn't look very impressed, so he had to bust a move or two....

Oh hey, Jayne looka here!

Nope. Not impressed. 

Look how tall I am!

Oh look, grass!

But I can balance on one foot!

Yeah..... whatever!

And off she went in search of the longest grass 😋

Jayne is now over the 320 days, and I have begun my camp out foal watch as of this evening. My "cabin" project is at what builders call the lock down stage- Door and windows are in and the back wall is all closed up... which may give you a clue as to what it is that we are remodeling into a cabin!

I have my cot set up in there and here is a teaser as to what my view is:

Ted had just cut the opening for the last window, and it looks directly into the shelter in the foaling pen.

Jayne still has a way to go, but I want her to get used to me popping out to check on her in the middle of the night. 

Shayla sent me a nice photo of Belle, who is now at 339 days.

The mare in the background is Shayla's mare Concho, who is in foal to Drifter's sire and should foal a little bit after Belle. They seem to have buddied up, much to Gussie's dismay. But she has Shayla's mare Rose to be her buddy now. Seems the pregnant mares want to hang out together.

If you haven't entered the foaling contest yet, click here for the post with all the information.

I will have something made locally to give away and will show you what it is as soon as I get it.