Leap day

 What to do on a cold blustery Leap Day? There is only so much housework a person can bear... so off to the internet it is! 

For those of you who hobble their horses and haven't had much luck with leather or biothane hobbles, especially ones that have hardware that can break, here is a simple and inexpensive way to make your own hobbles. I will be making a set for myself.

 

I have also been looking at videos of different knots and how to tie them... does that make me weird? I use knots a lot, not just for making halters but in several applications in my daily horse activities. Today I learned the double bowline knot. I use the bowline a lot especially for tying down tarps, and this version looks like it will be easier to undo than the single loop version. Especially when it gets frozen!

I have a cute story- a couple of days ago Ted went out for his evening cigarette, he sits in the chairs that are just outside the living room window. We hang the bird feeder close by there so we can watch the birds.  Well. Humphrey was apparently there scavenging for bird seed- it was dark so Ted didn't see him, and sat down in his chair- only to have a fright when Humphrey scooted out from under his chair- the poor porcupine was more frightened than Ted I think! He hasn't come back for a few days, hopefully he will get over it and come back. We do enjoy watching him.... through the window!

The lady who was to come look at Ruby cancelled due to the weather, said she would reschedule when its a bit nicer. About 2 weeks away for any kind of decent weather. 

 

And then there is Velvet....

Mid April can't come fast enough! I guess this harkens back to my key word for this year.... patience.

 

Photo day

 I had a lovely time visiting Shayla and helping her get photos of her sale horses.  Mostly it was all about the paint colt. 

He is a bay dun, hence the black in his mane and tail from the bay and the dorsal stripe from the dun. And he is gonna be a big boy! 

First he got his feet trimmed and he did really well. Shayla's husband was very patient with him but really he didn't fuss much. 

This was his first time in the round pen, and we managed to get a few action shots. 

Overall, he was fairly calm though so the action shots were, as I said, only a few.  He has show horse breeding and it sure would be nice to see him go to a show home. We also put a fancy halter on him and took some conformation photos, but with Shayla's camera. 

The colt with him in this photo is Fire, who is Jayne's son, sired by her late running bred stallion. These are two really nice colts.

I didn't do any more with Gussie in the last few days; I had one day where I was just plain crabby, then the weather turned cold and blustery again. I think Gussie is ok with that! 

I have someone coming to look at Ruby this week. She is looking for younger broodmares, so I think Ruby would do well for her. We shall see if it's a match. 

Going with the flow

 Today was supposed to be a riding day- such a beauty of a day, even though it started out with heavy fog- for miles, apparently. 

Beamer was up watching for me to come do morning chores

You know what they say about fog- wait 90 days and there will be rain (or snow depending on the season) so that of course, puts us right at the May long weekend.... go figure. 

Anyway, this afternoon I brought Gussie out and saddled her. There was something going on with her, as I tightened the cinch she sort of went down a bit, possible ulcers?  Anyway, she was a bit on edge so I opted for ground work instead. She wasn't too focused; she's easy to read and when she gets anxious like that, riding would be counter productive until we get calm and willing instead. So I free longed her to get that emotion dissipated , then worked on drifting her hind end over with a cross over of the inside hind in front of the outside hind. She had trouble with doing that with the left hind, which was related to stiffness through her body on her left side. Once we got it with a bit of softness, I decided to see if a bit of Masterson Method on her neck would help. I didn't do the whole progression, just the neck. 

She tends to hold her head up and her neck inverted, so I want to work on her stretching her topline down and lifting her back, relaxing through her body from nose to tail. This may take a while! 

Anyway, working on her neck brought many releases, and we finished the day on a good note.

 

Tomorrow I'm going to see Shayla and get some photos of her sale horses- the paint yearling  and a quarter horse mare. 

So I will leave you with some Velvet pics!

Hi pretty girl!

Only 7 weeks to go before she is due . 

This morning's foggy belly pic.

I'm getting quite excited for this foal! And yes, we will have a foaling contest. 

Out and about

 Put the third ride on Gussie today. The second ride was all about me getting the feel for how Gussie was going to work in the bosal. I actually think she didn't like it much. She felt reluctant, I think is the word, to soften in it. I attribute part of that to her lack of physical fitness and possibly needing her teeth done. I booked her in with the dentist to eliminate that as an issue. 

So today, I decided to put her back in the bridle I have always used on her. It was obvious to me that she was quite happy to have that familiar bridle. 

She carries that bit well, and everything can be done on a loose rein. 

A couple trips around and then it was time to open the gate. Gussie tended to want to rush a bit with the gate, so we went to the one step at a time routine. Open it part way, stand and wait. Roll to the opening, stop and wait. etc. One thing about Gussie, if you rush with anything she just gets ramped up and anxious, so slow and easy is the way to go with her. 

We toured around the yard for a bit, and did a bunch of Stop and Stand Still (SSS) exercises. 

Admiring the shadow; not quite the same as Carmen admiring herself in the mirror!

Facing away from all the horses who were gathered watching. But her ears are watching!

We went back in and out of the round pen and headed for the trailer  where she thought we were going to stop- so we went around and around it, both ways and then back into the round pen, where we just sat and soaked up the sunshine and enjoyed the silence. 

I am taking it easy on her as she is half way through her pregnancy, so lots of little light rides to help her get back in shape- better than no riding!  And this weather is supposed to hold for a few more days; sure hope we get some snow melting so I can go ride the big pasture. 

Cue the music....

The last 2 days have been beautiful (albeit cold overnight) So I was inspired to bring Gussie into the round pen to assess her . Yesterday I just worked her at liberty for a few minutes, then today I brought her out and saddled her. You should have seen the look on her face when she realized I was going to saddle her! I took this shot after the saddle was on....

Oh Gussie, tell me how you really feel!

Bonus is that the saddle I bought for Ruby fits her- whew! Gussie was always hard to fit.

I longed her first, and there was no funny business. I opted to ride her in the bosal, which apparently she agreed with- no cold steel in her mouth in this weather. I hope to continue to ride her in a bosal and will be looking for a lighter one as this one is actually for starting colts. Those big stirrups were perfect and my winter boots fit in them with room to spare. 

Gussie is very out of shape as you can see from her neck in that photo- she needs lots of work to get back in riding shape and get nice and rounded out in her neck and back. In her defense, she hasn't been really ridden in at least 3 years. 

I did a short ride in the round pen just to see where she is mentally with being ridden after such a long break. It was like coming back to an old friend! So light and responsive. We will build on that with longer rides as we go; I will stick to the round pen for a bit as I build her strength and muscle, but I am so looking forward to riding once the snow goes. 

You can bet I was grinning ear to ear! So happy to have my old friend back. 

No drama

 Today it was so beautiful and sunny and warm that after Church I went and turned Gussie and Belle in with Ruby and Velvet. Belle led them all out to the pawing pasture- it's a pen I reserved for this time of year that wasn't chewed down during last summer. 

They all went a high tailing it out there but quickly dropped their noses and searched out those tempting tufts of grass. 

Belle can't really paw but she found several pre pawed places to nibble on.

She can, however, go for a good roll in the snow! Note how she holds her left leg, with the bad arthritic knobby knee. 

The big difference between how Belle and Beamer lay down as compared to  sound horses is that they lay down back end first instead of front end first as shown in the photo of Gussie on my last post. I was concerned about how well she can get up after laying down (or rolling) and as you can see, it isn't a problem. 

I watched for a while to make sure Ruby wasn't inclined to take after Gussie, but she limited it to a couple of ear pinnings and glares, which Gussie kind of flipped her the bird at and just moseyed on her merry way. 

I'm being good!

Ruby had to roll too. While the peanut gallery looked on.

Three Beamer babies in those 3 bellies! Velvet mid April, Ruby late April, and Gussie mid August. That will keep me entertained! You can see how little Velvet is (14 hh) next to 15.2 hh Gussie. 

I will be listing Ruby as soon as her foal is born, with availability depending on the gender of the foal. I kinda wish there was a way to find that out like there is with people!

Gussie arrives

 It was a beautiful sunny day to welcome Gussie back to the farm. Originally, I turned her out with the other three mares, as they all know one another and she used to hang out across the fence from Velvet and Ruby when she was here with her foal, so I thought there would be no issues. 

For a while, all was well. But when I went in the pen and visited Gussie, apparently Ruby took exception to that. She started charging Gussie- and took me by surprise- my bad-  I did get a glancing blow from a Ruby hoof as she backed up to Gussie to kick her. A  thigh bruise coming soon! I quickly haltered Gussie and put her in Belle's pen (Belle was with the other two mares).  Ruby charged the fence a few times- definitely wanting to let Gussie know that she was the boss. I stuck Belle in with Gussie for the night. 

Bff's reunited

They are quite content to be reunited. When the horse trailer was coming down the driveway, Gussie called out and oh my did Belle ever get excited! She hollered and hollered!

I think Ruby is claiming Velvet, and that she was upset when Velvet wanted to hang with Gussie. 

Once separated, Gussie was happy to have a safe spot to roll. 

Hahaha looks like she has her front end in a deep hole, but she's just laying down to roll. 

It will be interesting to see how the herd dynamics work out as I intend to have them all together again tomorrow. They have lots of room to get away from each other, and if Ruby gets too aggressive I may just separate her for a few days. But I think she will chill out once the herd balance gets sorted out. 

I'm really looking forward to riding  Gussie again! We do think she is pregnant, but she isn't due until mid August so I will have several months to ride, probably until mid June as I generally don't ride in their last 3 months gestation. 

Gussie and Ruby

 Last time I visited Shayla, I took a couple photos of Gussie. 

Her filly, the lovely Huckleberry (Pie) was weaned in January and now Gussie is living in the mare herd. But not for long!

Hey, Gussie-

I have news for you!

Umm, Gussie? Hello?

Well, I guess she will find out soon enough. 

She is coming back to live with me! Hopefully this week. Big Red will be reunited with her bff, Belle.

Gussie is 21 this year, and I will be using her as my main riding horse. I have no plans to get any more foals from her- she should be carrying a Beamer baby for Shayla as she was bred last September. If so, I should be able to ride her up until July. I'm pretty happy to get her back! Yes she does have some issues, but I know her so well that it isn't really a problem. 

Of course, you are probably wondering, what about Ruby? Well, I have decided to put Ruby up for sale  after she foals. If she has a colt, I would let her go with the foal at side, but if it's a filly, not until weaning time. Much as I like Ruby, I just don't connect with her. She needs someone to give her more consistent riding than I can, whereas Gussie will be fine with the light riding that I do. I like horses that like people, and Ruby just tolerates people. Unless of course, food is involved!

 She can occasionally be helpful

I have done some research on her pedigree, and she is a nice cross between cutting blood on the sire's side, including a NCHA Derby champion, Docs Lynx, and on her bottom side several versatile show horse champions, so her foal should be pretty handy- and being a Beamer baby it will be good looking too! 

So those are the main changes happening here at Diamond Lazy H Quarter Horses this year. 

Beauty full

 Painted by the Master's Hand. 

One of my favourite things is to watch the sunrise skies. These wide open spaces allow for some spectacular and awe inspiring views as the colours slowly appear, come to their full glory in the east and glow in the west. I am blessed to live here; our last place had such a small section of sky that we rarely got the full morning glory. But we did have those amazing mountains! There is always beauty wherever we are. 

Smudge and Misty remind me that not all beauty is in the skies! They took full advantage of the straw bedding I put out for the mares. 

Yes, I get an eyeful of beauty every day!

Some horse updates

 Well that 10 days went by fast! Since I last posted we had major temperature swings in the weather-  cold nights, warm days, then cold days, then warm days- gah! But we are on the upswing now. 

Beamer and Belle got their blankets off a few days ago; I'm sure they appreciated that!

The short portion of her mane is how much it has grown since September, that was all rubbed out. I love all the colours she has in her mane. 

Yes Velvet, you also have a beautiful mane. 

One of the reasons for my delay in posting is that I planned a trip up to see Shayla and take photos of a couple horses she is selling. First up is her paint colt, Zipper. 

Speaking of manes, his is sure colourful!

Zipper is a really good minded colt who is going to be really, I mean really, big. 

He's a weanling and is already up to Shayla's shoulder! I didn't get a lot of photos of him because we wanted to concentrate on Boe photos. Yes, he was put up for sale. We took him to the round pen for the photo session. 

He's literally the spitting image of Beamer only in red. He carries himself beautifully, and even yawns like his daddy!

We took some video for his sale ad. This was only his second time of being worked in the round pen; he was very good. 

We also worked him in hand a little. Just following the feel of the lead rope, and he was beautifully soft. 

I'm pretty proud of the quality of foals Beamer sires off different mares. They are all good horses!

Anyway, our work paid off; Shayla posted him on FB and he was sold within a day and a half!  He will be going to a working cattle ranch only an hour from here. 

Beautiful boy

He might be leaving but I think we will be able to follow his progress as both his owner and the lady who will be starting him are on FB. The trainer's page is Anchor S Equine.

Is it really done?

 Well, after a week of the arctic vortex stifling us, we are back in more seasonal weather. It warmed up by 30 Celcius degrees to -12C!

 I took advantage of the cold frosting on the windows to capture a few shots of what I call, frost flowers. 

To me, those ones look like they are dancing. What else is there to do at minus stupid weather!

I await the coming of spring when I can grow real flowers!

The mares shed their snow blankets as of last night- I guess they figured the -25C was pretty balmy.

 Compared to the last photo of Velvet, this is all that is left. Ruby too has normal looking hair, not all frost covered and making her look like a roan. 

For the discerning eye- yes she does have a capped hock, I almost didn't buy her when I saw that; she had a scrape on that leg that told me she had kicked something and probably got the leg stuck somehow. However, it is a blemish and not a lameness. 

No Ruby. I don't have any treats and you are still too frosty for kisses!

I found this photo of Mesa on the FB page of the lady who owns her now (she calls her Mindy) ; looks like she also handled the cold snap well. Not hurting for feed that's for sure!

We are getting snow, the kind that is like a drizzle if it was rain. We do have more in the forecast, but at least it's warmer! I'll take it! Actually, southern Alberta has been in a terrible drought and with heavy snow predicted for them, it will be most welcome, I'm sure. The last week of the month, we will be in plus temps, so I bet a lot of it will melt.