Around the farm

Some non horse things in this post! We are dog sitting...

This is Remi, she goes home on Friday.  A quiet and sweet girl who has claimed my couch. 

The kittens are growing and getting cuter by the minute. They are very well socialized now. 

They leave for their new home with one of my sisters in a week. 

The baby barn swallows who shared the barn with the mares finally fledged. About a day or so of hanging out in the barn and off they went. 

My flower garden is going well, so nice to have a bit of colour there now. 

This dianthus survived our -40 winter

Volunteer Cosmos from the seeds that dropped from last years flowers

Also volunteer calendula

And gotta have at least one horse thing-

Velvet has decided that stinging nettles make a great snack. This is the mare that also knows how to strip thistles from the stalk. 

The temps have dropped, maybe due in part to all the smoke that once again lays heavy on the land. Such a scorching hot two weeks I'm sure have contributed to the number of fires- it's tinder dry and crunchy here. But we do have thunderstorms in the forecast (along with a tornado warning) so hopefully a little rain. We are fortunate to be living on a river, all our pastures are still lush and green; it's only the lawn that is crunchy. 

For all those who are getting rain, please send some to western Canada! Trade ya for some sunshine!

Theo

 Theo turned 3 months on the 20th, I wanted to do a really good photo shoot but it has been so darn hot I can't take much time outdoors. I did get a few photos though. 

Those orange ear tufts!

Not much baby hair left on him. The weeds he's loping through are wild mustard, all the old corrals here are infested with it. We will, at some point, be spraying with Grazon. 

Plenty of muscle in that hind end!

Straight legs

Velvet outdid herself with Theo. He is better than she is. The mark of a good broodmare. 

Lovely trot

We have news. 

News? What news? 

I put an ad on the Facebook page Horses in Alberta, and got a response from a man in B.C. 

Here is the text from my ad, which included most of these photos: 

This black colt sure is a looker. He is available when weaned in a month. Registered AQHA. Preference will be given to a ranch, rope or performance home. May as well ride a pretty one!
PM for more info. Located just south of Benalto.

After many messages, we made a deal and Theo will go to Vancouver Island at the end of August. Funny thing is, his only complaint was that his head was too pretty! The plan is for Theo to replace his 22 year old heel horse.  While this guy is a team roper, he also has an equestrian center for hunter jumpers and western riding and has clients that show. Check out his page if you wish. Arrowsmith Equestrian

I'm going to miss his spunky li'l self, but it I am glad he will go where he will get used and he will also have a little girl to love up on him ,and eventually become a mount for her. (The warmbloods are too big!)

Hay there

 We are back in the heat again, and not much rain other than what comes along with thunderstorms. 

Farmers are haying full bore and the lawn is getting all crinkly and brown in spots. But my gardens are loving the sunshine and we have started eating some produce. Yay! Around the farm, we still have some summer projects to do, like replacing a gatepost that rotted and rehanging the heavy 16 ft. gate on it as well as replacing a section of fence attached to it. But that can wait for cooler weather. 

I got my first bit of hay in, I bought some alfalfa/brome mix bales for next year's foaling season. 42 small squares- and the only reason I bought these was because they came in a bundle of 14 bales each (I bought 3 of them) and were loaded like a big square bale, with a tractor. I hired a strong young fellow to load them in the little barn for me. No heavy lifting for me anymore!

I cut the strings on one and started loading them with the wheelbarrow while I waited for help- and then there was no need for the wheelbarrow, he carried them two at a time and stacked them in the barn! We figure they weight between 50 and 60 lbs.

Feels good to get a start on my winter hay. I have 3 options for hay, just waiting to hear back once the baling is done. 

Ruby came back for a rebreed yesterday, and since she was in full standing heat, Beamer got the deed done while the owner was still here.

Beamer will cover her until she says no, which I am hoping will be by tomorrow. 

She was easy to breed, but gave a quick kick when Beamer dismounted this morning, so I think we caught her just in time. 

Her owner has been riding her and using her for ponying colts. We both agreed that she didn't get any fine tuning in her original training, and I gave her a few tips that I found worked with Ruby. I hope she gets a really nice foal from her. 

Once Ruby goes home it will be time to get back to working with Theo. I haven't done much with him for the last two weeks so it will be interesting to see where he's at. Still nobody committed to come look at him. He's shedding out a lot now, so he should look great for his 3 month photo shoot on Saturday. 

Claimed

 A few days ago, all the kittens decided to go walkabout. I knew they were going to leave the barn soon- I keep the barn door open because of the barn swallow nest in there- so I was watchful for this next adventure in their lives. We have a lot of long grass behind the garage, which is within a short distance from the barn. They decided to head over there as there were a couple of big hay bales on pallets that made a good hidey spot. I waited until later in the day so I could watch their mama to give me a clue where the kittens were. Sure enough, she came out of the long grass behind the garage- which was good, because if they were under the bales it would have been hard to get them out. After much kitten wrangling, some encounters with stinging nettle and some kitten scratches, they were all captured!

As they were very close to 8 weeks old, I had my sister and brother in law come to pick theirs up the next day. I enclosed them in the little bathroom with all their feed and a litter box, and made sure to bring each one out often and hold, pet and cuddle them. Their kitten, CeCe was not impressed! 

If looks could kill, I would be in shreds!

I am happy to report that she has settled in nicely with them and seems to think that my BIL is her human. 

The other two kittens now have names. The tabby is Tiger.

Although he was the most scared to catch, he is proving to be quite mellow and even purred today! 

The other female I named Lily.

She is a sweet kitten, quiet and so cute. The good news is that Tiger and Lily will be staying together, as my sister who lives on the BC coast wants them. She will be coming to visit in the first half of August, and will take them home with her. All three kittens got the best possible homes! And we get to play with them and love up on them for another month. And no, they will not be going outside! 

Too hot to trot

 With this heat wave in place, I am wondering if it will change any of the equine events that are currently ongoing- example, the Calgary Stampede. I do have a bit of an issue with them for blocking the live feed of the Cowboy Channel (for Canadians only)for the duration of the Stampede- it blocks 24-7 not just during their broadcast. Which means that I can't watch any of the live coverage of rodeos or races even in the US until the Stampede is over- and they say right in their profile that they are a non profit organization and support the western lifestyle- but they granted Sportsnet the rights to broadcast. Why not also let the Cowboy Channel carry it? To me, it means they are hypocrites. Last time I looked, Sportsnet was not a supporter of the western lifestyle and are cashing in on carrying the Stampede- I would have to pay 20 bucks to get it as an app. Yeah... not happening. 

Anyway, rant over- I hope the Stampede reschedules their events to a cooler part of the day for the sake of the livestock and competitors. 

Meanwhile, back in Smaltownsville aka Benalto, which is 3 miles from us, I got to watch a pro rodeo the day before it got stupid hot. It was still plenty warm though. Here are three of my cell phone photos. 

The pickup man in that photo is Gary Remple, who has worked all the top rodeos including the NFR. He's one of the best. Nice to have him here! The bullfighters were outstanding too.

What's growing here

 I will start with the flowers- yay I have flowers! 

I love this color of snapdragons

The Bill Reid rose survived the -40 winter weather. Highly recommend Morden roses for places that get cold winters. The frothy stuff in the photos is volunteer Cosmos. They self seeded and so did the Calendula, both should flower soon.

This little red bloom is the flower from the Mezoo in my baskets

The verbena and white Alyssum in my baskets

Also growing- the kittens! They are at that delightful stage where they play hard and crash hard. I am feeding them everything the big cats get, plus some milk. It has helped make them easier to pick up and cuddle. 

This one is my sister's kitten, which they decided to name Cece. They will be picking her up on the 20th. Now to find homes for the other 2!

Also growing is Gussie's baby belly. 😊

She's very deceiving, the kind of mare that doesn't get as big as a house like Belle did.

She's in fine form! Getting to that stage in her pregnancy where bursts of speed like this are few and far between. 

Something that isn't growing but is diminishing is Theo's star. That cute little white spot is now just a few white hairs. 

But he is growing in cuteness! He is very friendly and easy to be around. He let me clean his feet this morning as he was laying down snoozing in the sun. They are ready for a proper trimming. I will have to see if my farrier is willing to try, or if I have to do it myself. 

The Cowhorse Competition- Part Two: Fence work

 For those who are not familiar with Reined Cowhorse competitions, here is how the fence work goes. Once the reining pattern is done, the rider calls for the cow, and one cow is released for him to work. The rider must box the cow at one end of the arena, and once that has been done, allow the cow to escape down the side of the arena, where the rider has to turn the cow once in each direction, then circle the cow in the middle of the arena once each way. All in a 2 and a half minute time limit. This is very much part of what a real cowboy has to do, or in my case - cowgirl. I worked on a ranch where part of my job was to separate the calves that needed to be doctored and take them down to the treatment pen- all on horseback. It can get a little western! Getting them to leave the herd and keep them separate while you drive them in the desired direction will test a good cowhorse. 

FYI: Yes, cows can out run a horse- hence why we circle them to get them slowed down.