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!

Leo is a good boy

 So far, Leo has been easy to get along with. He seems to have a quiet mind and hasn't been emotional about being weaned. It really helps that he is with Tuffy who is so easy. I gave them a few days to settle into their relationship/routine before asking anything of Leo, other than touching him all over and running my hand down his legs  

The boys are getting along pretty good, although Tuffy has let Leo know that he is #1.  

They have their own feed spots in the barn, but do also eat out of the same pile. 

Tuffy is so huge compared to little Leo!

Yesterday I introduced Leo to the start of halter breaking. A little bit of pressure and release with a big soft rope, only working for a couple minutes so that he got the idea as the basis for the next phase....

Putting a halter on him. He didn't like it going over his nose but only backed up a couple of steps then stood quietly while I slipped it on and tied it then removed the neck rope.

 A short little session was enough, we will build on this every day until he is leading. I feel that it is really helpful that Tuffy is there with his calm presence. 

Leo was dewormed the day before he arrived and he did have a wormload, so hopefully he will soon start to get a shine to him and put weight on.  He is loving his Purina Maternity ration . I still have both boys together in my foaling pen until Leo is a bit more halter broke so they are getting good hay too. The herd dynamics have settled down; now the mares can go way out in the pasture without the boys getting upset. 

It's all about good management and keeping things going smoothly!

He is here!

 Leo was delivered this morning! I had the foal pen all prepped for him, and put Tuffy in with him at first. 

They got along ok at first, but Leo was a bit much for Tuffy: he was pacing non stop and calling out. Disturbed Tuffy's peace! So I put Tuffy back with the mares until Leo eventually calmed down. 

Pacing... that square on his shoulder is where the breeders freeze branded him

Calling...

Pacing....

I put hay for the mares close to the foal pen and locked them out of the pasture so they would be close to the boys.  This afternoon, Tuffy went back in with Leo and they got along much better since Leo calmed down. 

Leo is not halter broke yet so that will be where I will start with him. One day at a time, with day one being to see if I can touch him. 

Ah that's the spot! 

Butt scratches are always a good place to start.

He let me move up his back and eventually around his head and poll.

Good boy, Leo!

They got along much better. 

There is quite a size difference! 

Tuffy is 5 weeks older than Leo. They are both growing in their winter fur. They will have access to the barn, foal ration twice a day and and all the hay they can eat. Leo hasn't quite figured out the foal ration but he will. 

Dally is quite attentive to him, she seems to love foals so I hope when she has her own she will be a good mama.

Here is hoping they have a good night!

Winter pasture

 My handy niece and her partner came out last weekend to help out us old folks get our winter pasture set up. We had to remove the bottom strand of hot tape that had gotten beat up with all the storms and replace it with new tape. All 700 ft. of it. There was a lot of swamp grass grown up over 6 ft. tall along one section that we had to stomp down and drive over to flatten; the weed whacker was not powerful enough to remove it all. We got it done! The horses were happy to get turned out on that 15 acres, as their grazing pens were getting a bit low. Velvet has been on the 15 before, so she led the way through the 4 ft. gate and the others followed. Room to run, you would think, but eating was more important! They did do a bit of zooming the first day and they still have access to their auto waterer and shelter, so when the bugs get to be too much, or if a rain storm comes along, they lope on back to the shelter. 

Tuffy did lose a bit of weight at weaning but it is coming back. 

Took the Nikon out today and tried for some decent photos. 

Normally I would edit a bit, but my old computer is having a moment and won't let me so these are straight out of the camera. 

Velvet, who was first out, went off to the far end, (can you see her?) while Tuffy and Dally stayed closer to the entrance. 

Those weeds are Canada Thistle and stinging nettle, both of which horses will eat in moderation. We have plans to spray this field next spring. 

Dally wandered off to see what Velvet was eating, and Tuffy stayed munching on his patch. 

He was keeping an eye on them, but when they went out of sight, he galloped up to the corner, whinnying and they came a-running at his call.... good mares!

This will be their winter pasture, at least until the snow starts covering the hotwire tape which is about 2 ft. off the ground for the bottom strand. 

Once the Leo colt gets here in a few days, he will be penned up with Tuffy so they can buddy up and be friends before I turn them out together to pasture with the mares. Can't wait!