Well, yesterday I drove a couple hours north east of here to visit Ruby and her Beamer baby. Ruby foaled on the 22nd, and it is a gorgeous bay filly. I know, right? The filly of my dreams!
She has Beamer's hind socks and her mama's colour
Love that red bay!
She had the zoomies
Power take off
Gorgeous and athletic
That hip!
Lots of muscle at only 4 days old
She is perfect! And in true Beamer baby fashion, she is friendly and inquisitive, not shy at all. I had a good visit with her owner, who is, of course, quite smitten with her. I offered to put a deposit on her then and there, but she hemmed and hawed a bit and said she would decide when she gets back from holidays on July 21. Meanwhile, Ruby and filly will be hauled to a breeder who will take good care of them while they wait for Ruby to come back in heat to be bred to their stallion, Sweet Mr. Katz.
Ruby is a good mama, but it was a bit of a difficult birth, the filly had to be assisted until her shoulders came out. That is quite common with maiden mares, I had to pull Belle's first foal, Sparkle, and a few others as well. By the 2nd foal they usually have it figured out; I think on the 1st one they don't quite know how much they have to push and are a bit puzzled. But she mothered up good.
Rally is a big stout mare, about 1200 lbs and 15.1 hh. When she says no, her trick is to turn her head and try to jerk the lead rope away from me. I tried trailer loading again, and she did get away from me, ran back through the gate I had left open and into the foaling pen. So she got worked extensively for about 20 minutes in there. Once she softened and started to pay attention instead of flipping me the bird, we stopped. So I had to go to plan B. One should always have a plan B... or C...
I found a good strong pallet and had Ted screw a plywood top to it, to use as a training tool to teach her to step on things she would rather not. And I brought up all my blue half barrels to create a bit of a row.
The 1st day, she would step over the barrels but not on the plywood. So whenever she said no, she got longed with lots of change of direction so that it was work; she wasn't best pleased about that. Then she got to rest, only when she was lined up with the pallet. Refusal to step up got her work, backing up and longing small circles.
Eventually, she gave me this:
That is where we ended the lesson, with lots of praise. She is a sucker for praise!
Today, the session didn't take as long. Her usual refusals, over the barrels, jump the pallet, etc. etc. So back to work on the longe line, with rest when she was lined up right at the pallet. Two more refusals, two more works, and she finally got it.
Yay Rally!
I took this video, it is 3 and a half minutes.
I was quite pleased with her, as this session was less than half the time of the first one. Side note: I use the verbal cue " come here" when I am a safe distance in front of her; there may come a time when I need her to come to me instead of going past me. Self loading in a trailer is going past, so she needs to learn that too, but for now she needs to just stay with me when I am leading her and not try to blow past me.
I led her over to the trailer when we were done; she was very suspicious and hesitant about it, and that come here cue came in handy. All we did at the trailer was give her some oats as I want her to be happy about going there.
It is very different working with a basically free spirit 9 yr old horse instead of a weanling. She has never had to do anything in her life other than be caught and tied up. I am grateful that she at least had that!
I also think she is worried about trailering, as the only time she was trailered it took her away from her comfortable ranch existence where she was pretty much left to her own devices; it possible that she may associate trailers with a total upheaval of her new found happy place with friends. Incidentally, she worked her way into the #2 position in the herd. Velvet isn't too happy about that and has decided she would rather have her own pasture away from the herd.
She is starting to look and act like an old horse, but she is still much loved ! I am pretty sure she isn't in foal, unfortunately, as her size hasn't changed in the last 2 months and she has no bag; she is 11 months and 2 weeks from her breeding date.
There is always something going on around here. Fun stuff like a new batch of kittens to try to socialize; Misty had another 3 kitten batch, same as the last- 2 females and 1 male. My neice decided to take all 3 which is nice; they will be all together and be endlessly entertaining!
Simon
Sassy
Shumai
They will leave on July 6. I almost kept Sassy....
Ted built me an enclosed garden for my perennials.
The start of the project
It isn't really big, but it is plenty big enough for my 2 roses, and several other perennials, like the 2 scabiosa ( pincushion flower) that I decided to buy after seeing them on the 4R ranch blog.
A work in progress- we dug out the sod with the tractor and brought up a big bucket of composted horse manure, perfectly composted into topsoil. He built me a gate on that right side.
Time to add the wire mesh...
And done! I planted 2 Jackmani clematis to grow up the old garden gate that I found lying around and attached to the wall.
Done just in time, as we had a half dozen muley bucks stroll through the yard.
Hope that last one is still here in hunting season!
Last Friday I had cataract surgery on my right eye, what a difference! Who knew colors are so vibrant! Looking through my other eye now is like looking through a dirty window, so I am looking forward to getting it done soon too. Meanwhile I am not supposed to do much bending, lifting or working in a dusty environment so doing horse feet will have to wait another week. Rally and Patsy were really coming along well with trimming so I need to get back to that asap.
I finally allowed Patsy into the full herd; she has been with Velvet long enough that they were comfortable with each other, so I let Gussie and Rally in with them. Of course that meant shenanigans!
Showing off speed and athletic ability!
Velvet got in on it, but not for long.
They had their moment, then decided to hang out in the shelter for a while. I love that they all fit in there and get along.
Later on they went out to the pasture. I opened up the middle pasture again, I had them in there twice this year and it came back beautifully.
They have their fave spots so not all that tall grass will get eaten
Something had them all on alert.... so they ran back to the barn. Safe zone!
The horse flies have been horrible lately so the mares are doing a lot of rolling.
Velvet is slowing down. She tends to want to be more by herself now that the other mares are there to keep Patsy busy.
In Rally news, she has let me do a little nipping and rasping on her front feet, but she is a ways away from being ready for a farrier. One day at a time. I am not in a hurry with her; if I don't get her handled to my satisfaction this summer, I will wait until next year to breed her. But I will still try to get her to the stud this month. Trouble is, she has silent heats, so I will just have to guess.
Today was ultrasound day for Gussie. And she is confirmed in foal to the palomino stallion! Due date is around the 1st week of May next year.
I sure am happy that she is in foal, and no twins either. Also, she has come sound on that right hind, so she is rideable again.
I have been making good progress with Rally; the last couple of days she has stood quietly while I run my hand down her front legs; yesterday I could pick her feet up for a few seconds and today I was able to use the hoof pick on them. Yay! I reckon tomorrow I will be able to start with the nippers to work on getting rid of all that excess hoof wall.
I finally managed to figure out how to capture the Northern Lights with my cell phone, next time I should be able to do a better job.
3:30 am, I almost missed them as dawn starts around 4 am. I had checked at midnight, but there was nothing.
As I work with Rally, I am finding out more about her personality.
She is very tactile. She has to touch everything with her nose.
My shoe.
My knee.
Thumper (he was a bit wary!)
When I go to halter her, apparently I have to present the halter to her and let her touch it first (eyeroll). If I don't, she will turn her neck away and walk off a few feet.
However, she is now letting me pick up her front feet.... sort of. I run my hand down the back of her leg, she lifts once I get to the knee, then I can slide down to the hoof and hold the toe, so far only for a few seconds before she paws it away. Every day, a little better.
She will not, however, load in my 2 horse trailer yet. I have several methods to try but it requires her to get more solid on basic ground work, which is coming along..
Progress doesn't have to be rapid! I am happy to work with her at the rate she can deal with.
I think she likes me
Working with a mature horse from scratch is much different than working with a foal. I have to deal with her preconceived ideas of humans and her preferred lifestyle!
