Eli update

 I had a call from the lady who bought Boe, if you remember he is the sorrel colt from the Beamer / Jayne cross ( and he is a full brother to Dally) and she asked if I knew of any other Beamer geldings for sale. I didn't, but I made a few calls- Midnight Moondance is not for sale, and the only other one I could think of was Elijah Peppy.  I tracked him down, he is on his 3rd owner. I have a couple of photos from his second owner, a young fellow who loved him him and so did all his family; he was only sold because the young guy needed money and they rather regret selling him. 

The boy who bought him from the person I sold Eli to as a colt

Eli earned his keep, here he is packing out an elk.

The lady they sold him to absolutely loves him and is doing all kinds of things with him; team penning, working bison, taking horsemanship clinics and even trying him in English gear on a cross country course. All of which he handled most excellently! 

And he is definitely not for sale! She loves him and I think the feeling is mutual! She calls him Coyote.

This photo gave me all the feels!

I am so happy for these kind of updates. It definitely validates my breeding program and my choice of Beamer as my sire. I still think I shoulda kept Moondance, but hey, the timing wasn't right and he too is in a home where his personality and willingness shine through.  

Critters

 We have new pests err critters hanging out here. 

They have decided that they will clean up the bits of suet that the birds drop from the feeder and are using Ted's Jeep as a vantage point. They are quite entertaining but Thumper doesn't think so. 

We will have to make sure they can't get into the bird feeder that we will be putting back up soon. 

We had a spectacular sunset last night...

 

And a Chinook arch this morning. 

Dally is looking pregnant finally, and still is not getting winter hair.

 The other three have good thick coats coming in. 

Tuffy has curls!

I am making progress with Leo's feet; I have his fronts rasped and can clean his hinds. I will likely be able to rasp them tomorrow. 

One of the kittens is getting brave enough to show itself  but not for long before it scurries back under the bales.  I have decided to keep them as they are both male and I am getting too many mice in the barn. They can earn their keep. 

First a little paw ...

Then he peeks out

This one I have named Mr. Smith, the other one is Mr. Jones. They are 6 weeks old now. 

Sunday Silence

 

Leo Leads

 When I call the horses up for their morning feed, lately it has been Leo who is first to respond. This photo reminds me of the Biblical verse, " and a little child shall lead them."

Then this afternoon, I called them in from the pasture and they came in with the exact same order. Leo, Dally, Velvet and Tuffy bringing up the rear.

This is a change from previous when it was Velvet who initiated the exodus. It is interesting to watch the herd dynamics change as the colts take on new roles. 

So far, I am really liking Leo. He does look small and scruffy next to Tuffy, but I am reminded of how small and scruffy Beamer looked at the same age. People thought he wouldn't amount to much... boy were they wrong. 

He is quiet and calm, but can have a bit of red-headitude if he doesn't understand what I am asking, mostly when I want him to move away from me or come to me. Apparently his personal space is more important to him at this point- but we are working on that! He is quiet in the herd and stays out of trouble. Good boy, Leo!

Progress

 Autumn is in full swing, with frosty nights, clear skies and migrating geese. All my garden is pulled now, freezer has carrots, peas, potatoes and raspberries for winter dinners and we filled the suet feeder for the birds. The gladiola bulbs are pulled and drying, ready for storing until next spring. 

The mornings are crisp and cold, which means less flies- yay-  and the colts are eager to come up off the pasture for their morning feed .

The baby boys get haltered and brought in to the foaling pen for breakfast so they can eat in peace.

This is how I put their lead ropes up, keeps them from dragging on the ground and it also prepares them for the eventual feel of the cinch. 

I now have them all together on the 15 acre pasture 24/7 and it is working well. 

Tuffy is officially listed for sale now. He really needs to go to a working home that needs a good minded solid built colt. He will be 16 hh, way too big for me!

Leo is getting worked with a little more, he does trailer load from before but needed a reminder that he doesn't need his mama to go in the trailer, and the bucket of feed is a good incentive. Once he is in I can walk away and he just stays in there to eat. 

Tuffy is doing great with standing tied. There isn't really a lot more for me to do with him other than keeping up with his feet, until next spring. If he isn't sold by then he will get more exposure to different objects and learn some ground work to prepare him for eventual saddling and ground driving later on. 

It was a good idea...

 Until it wasn't. More on that in a moment, first a few moonshots. I had just gone to bed around moonrise, and mostly it was obscured by clouds. I lay watching it out the window, when there was a parting in the clouds and I jumped out of bed and grabbed my phone to shoot through the window- the cloud cover was changing rapidly so no chance of going outside for a really clear photo. 

The next morning, we had the full moon in the west (my cell camera changed the background from deep blue to this dark hue)

 

At the same time, the sun was rising in the east. It has moved southwards  where it came up behind the spruce trees, in the mist.

Rather a lovely morning!

Back to the horses....

 I had the colts turned out with the mares, which went really well. 

They followed Velvet out to pasture and spent the day grazing. I decided to bring the colts in at night for safety, and to fill their bellies with hay: it will be another week until I can get a round bale for them all to eat to supplement the fall pasture. Good idea, huh?

Imagine my surprise when I step outside and see this next morning:

Umm, Tuffy, why are you not in your pen, actually not in a pen at all but out in the yard?  I looked, all the gates were closed as they should be. I got his halter from the barn and saw this:

Hmmm. Very not good!

I caught Tuffy( my halter training paid off!) and brought him in. He was scuffed up and swollen below the hocks on both back legs, but no major damage to him. 

He was feeling quite sorry for himself! 

I figured the best thing for him would be to get out and move so both colts got sent back with the mares on pasture. ( Meanwhile Leo was all calm and sweet)

I did bute Tuffy in the evening as I thought he wouldn't be moving around much at night and he is much better this morning.

I am not sure what spooked him enough to go over through the fence when the other horses seemed fine. My guess is the cow moose that has been seen locally may have made a trip through the barnyard. A big black critter in the poor light of dawn would probably do it .Also I guess I won't be marketing Tuffy to the hunter/jumper crowd! 

The colts are with the mares full time now, if nothing else they will protect them and/or lead them to safety. 

Fall has arrived

 And right on cue with the equinox. Seems that one day the leaves were just starting to turn, then- boom- full out fall colours.

And gorgeous sunrises!

 I have been pulling my gardens; the peas are done, potatoes and carrots are half pulled, and the flower beds don't have much left. 

That  really tall sunflower produced a large head that is still hanging in there. The poppies are done and now I wait for the seed heads to dry out so that I can harvest the seeds, some for eating and some for next year planting. 

Still on the to do list is pull the gladiolas and prepare them for the winter; dig up the rest of the potatoes and the carrots. I decided to cut up and freeze the carrots.

My niece gave me some green tomatoes so I was able to make my green tomato mincemeat, as my one tomato plant didn't work out. Yay! Mincemeat tarts for the winter! 

The baby boys are doing really well. We didn't do the photo shoot but I did get some cute cell phone photos. 

Dogs spotted!

I started them on turnout, now that Leo is doing well with haltering and leading. First just the two little barn pens which got them all excited to have room to run.

Leo only ran because Tuffy did. He seems to have a very calm disposition. 

Cant wait until he fills out and grows up! 

I opened up the larger grazing pasture for them today; it has rope hotwire  on two sides and I want Leo to get used to that before I combine the herd on the big 15 acre pasture that has the flat hotwire tape on the long side.

There was no zooming, just nose to the ground and chowing down. 

This is bow hunting season and my niece bow hunts so I had to send her this photo of an early morning visitor.

Mule deer bucks are on a draw here, not open season, so hopefully she will be able to get drawn next year and he will still be around. 

I had some troubles with blogger, it wasn't updating my feed so I missed a bunch of your posts for a few days but it seems to be sorted out now. It also is telling me it will be deleting some of my older videos. I am opting not to put videos on my blog for now because it is such a pain to have to upload them to you tube first, and I really dislike the you tube advertising they stick on there. 

One week

 Today is one week since Leo arrived . We have made good progress and I am quite happy with him. 

I can catch him easily in the barn; I make it a good experience by haltering him then leaving him alone to eat his feed. I can pick up all 4 feet,although we have a way to go before I can hold them long enough to clean them and trim them. 

I can lead him fairly well too, last two days I have led him out of the barn.

That was the first day: today he was much better and willing. Tuffy was still in the barn eating so it is nice that he isnt emotionally dependant on Tuffy. Speaking of Tuffy, he has gotten used to not being with the mares and is ok with them being far away and out of sight. He is behaving himself with Leo now and it is so cute to see them hanging out together and being buddies. 

Including synchronized nap time!

I am planning a photo shoot this weekend so I will share the cuteness in a couple days!