Sunday Silence

A great, fast mare!

A while ago I posted a story on this mare; she was beating the boys then and she still is now! I really hope she wins this race and makes history. From the AQHA racing newsletter:

Champion Heartswideopen will attempt to become American Quarter Horse racing's all-time leading earner in Sunday's 440-yard, $1,065,648 All American Derby (G1). A Feature Mr Jess filly who races for brothers Javier and Manny Rodriguez's La Feliz Montana Ranch at Las Vegas, Heartswideopen brings a lifetime bankroll of $1,714,779 into the All American Derby and stands ninth on the money list, just $411,530 behind all-time leading earner Refrigerator.This year's All American Derby purse is the third-richest in the 35-year history of the stakes. All horses have been assigned to carry 122 pounds. The complete lineup, in post position order:

White Or Wrong (Ricky Ramirez),

First Timber (Abdel Torres),

Wild Six (Alex Baldillez Jr.),

MBN Finest Hour (Cody Jensen),

Captain Courage (G.R. Carter Jr.),

Noconi (Ramon Sanchez),

Possum Fust (Larry Payne),

Decati (Esgar Ramirez),

First Moonflash (Alejandro Medellin),

Heartswideopen (Bonifacio Perez).

R and R

Yesterday, I took Gussie on a two hour trail ride, through the ditches, across the highway and up a gravel road. We encountered traffic whizzing by on the highway, including big trucks and motorcycles, and on the gravel road a driver of a gravel truck kindly waited till we rode by before spreading his load. We crossed muddy, boggy ditches, and painted highway lines. I rode back through town, past barking dogs, and by the school yard, where we had to stop so three small children could pet her; she even put her head down real low for them. The whole ride was wonderful and relaxing, for both of us. Gussie was happy to get out and see new places, and wasn't bothered by anything. We even got to check out a field of black cows - I think Gussie wold have liked to go in there and play! When we got back, I moved her out of the pen I had her in to a field farther away from Peppy. He seems to be taking to weaning alright, although he did manage to get under the electric wire once, and test it again yesterday. He has buddied up to Coyote Belle, or is it the other way around? I think Belle is more upset about being separated from Gussie than Peppy is!

Thanks, KDW

This is from KDW at Blackjack Land and Cattle Company. I really enjoy her blog, and wish I had as many things to do a-horseback as she does!

So I am to pass it on, with these rules:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog. 2. Link the person you received your award from. 3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs. 4. Put links of those blogs on yours. 5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you have nominated.

So here goes:

Mikey at The Horseshoeing Housewife - she has a great sense of humour and lots of adventure.

Callie at Midwest Horse -Callie, I know that you have received this award before, and you deserve it!

Nuzzling Muzzles- again, I know you already have this award, but I really enjoy your honesty and adventures with your Arabians.

W.O. W. at A Cowboys Wife -I love your writing style!

Aussie Oklahoma -This lady has a new blog, with some great photography; give her a visit!

OK, I know that's only 5, but it'll have to do; it's bed time!

Peppy - weaning day

Yesterday was weaning day for Peppy; check out that "Woe is me" look!

I put Gussie in Beamer's winter pen, which has electric fence around the top rail to discourage visiting over the fence, and corral panels set up around the automatic waterer so that she can't visit at the fence there either- she has a tub for water.

Tess, who is dressed in her Sunday bandana, had to have a drink.....

and so did Peppy. Drink lots, little fella, that's all you get from now on! I will keep them separate for at least a month, to make sure that Gussie's milk completely dries up. Poor girl was looking like a milk cow by last night!

I'm really happy with Peppy's disposition, he is so willing and quiet to handle; check out this picture where Iwas scraping bot eggs off his legs.
Can't you just see him when he's all grown up with kids swarming all over him?

I was working on him for about ten minutes, all over underneath him. Of course, I didn't start like this, but he sure didn't mind me working on him. I think this is the quietest colt I've ever raised.

Sunday Silence-bovines

My Beamer

The men were busy working on an addition to the barn today; a shelter for the mares, so I went for a little ride on Beamer. Afterwards, I let him chow down on the grass in the alleyway which totally occupied his attention; that is, until he spotted the mares!

He is actually fairly well behaved around them; to test this, I rode him over to the fence where the mares were hanging out in the shade; every time he hollered at them, he had to work; I made him spin, then rest with his back to them. His reward was to relax facing them and only a few feet away from them. I only had to spin him twice; he was quite happy to chill out and just hang with the mares! I wish all stallions were as easy to handle as him, and I credit my trainer, Kim Smith, who did all the work on him as a youngster, with making sure he had good manners.

For Janice

Janice over at Own a Morgan was telling me that their pasture has been burned off for a while now; so I thought I'd put up these pictures for her amusement. We moved the herd today to the last paddock, an untouched 5 acres that should last them until the snow flies. Once again, they are belly deep in grass, and not about to lift their heads for a while!

Yup, I think that will last them for a while!

Sassy has turned out to be quite independant, and decided to explore a little; of course, Peppy had to follow his best buddy.

Peppy's prizes

On Sunday we travelled to the Darwell Fair open horse show for Peppy's second outing; and once again there were only two in the class. He did place first again, but it would have been much better if there were more babies in the class. I think I will work on some of my friends and see if next year, we can all enter some of our colts and get a friendly rivalry going.

We had to go in the Grand and Reserve Champion class because of our first placing in the weanling class. I never did get him to stand square- he does it perfectly at home; go figure! All in all, it was a good exerience for him, what with trailering for an hour and a half each way both shows; he travelled really well. And he did fairly well with all the commotion of other horses, sights and sounds that were new, even being in the arena with a wagon team warming up. He wasn't too concerned about anything except keeping an eye on Gussie's whereabouts.

The nice thing about the Darwell fair was that they gave out prizes as well as ribbons; Peppy won himself a feed tub, stall salt block with holder, and a corner feeder for the horse trailer to go along with his ribbons. I won't be able to take him to the AQHA show in Red Deer that I was planning on, and that these shows were a warm up for, because I start a new job the day that would have been his class. Oh well, at least we got out, showed, and had fun! And Peppy learned new things and had lots of admirers.

Sunday Silence

Bar Diamond Y Palominos for sale

These fine looking geldings are all sons of PC Peppy Pale Rider (aka Sparky),a son of Got Pep who is by Peppy San Badger. Sparky's dam is by Topline Eldorado, a son of Topsail Cody and out of Bob Loomis's mare Lady Eldorado. The dams of these boys have bloodlines of Major Leaguer, Doc Bar, Peppy San etc.

On the right is Poco, the two year old who stands 15 hands and a half inch, and growing. He is just started under saddle. Next to him is the sorrel yearling who is his full brother.

The two colts on the left are 3/4 brothers: On the far left is Eldorado, whose dam is a daughter of Major Leaguer, by Major Bonanza. Next to him is Cody, who is out of a daughter of Eldorado's dam.

These boys are all good stout horses with good bone and minds; if you are looking for a good looking horse to add to your ranch horse string, or to go to the show pen on, you'd do well to go see these ones. They are at Wildwood, Alberta. Please email me and I will put you in touch with John.

I also have them on my Sale Barn on my sidebar.

First Ribbon!

Peppy got his first ribbon, and it was first place! ( for my American friends, red ribbons are first pace in Canada). Unfortunately, there were only two horses in the class, so it doesn't mean much; but the whole idea is to get him out into the show world, and get some experience, so in that aspect, it was a success.

Of course, he stood still until the judge came to inspect him and then he fidgeted and hollered for his mama, but overall, he was a good boy. I'm sure the judges don't expect babies to stand still like a seasoned horse, and he did lead and travel well at the trot. He looks ribby right now even though he is on good pasture and getting grain every day; he is in a growth spurt and I think that is why he isn't a little fatter; all the other horses in pasture with him are quite plump.

This is my friend John from Bar Diamond Y Quarter Horses on Peppy's lead shank. I will be featuring his palomino horses in my next post. Those stripes on Peppy just behind his elbow are called poverty stripes; they mimic the ribs but are actually a coloration; his dam has them too. I had a comment asking what Peppy's colour is called; he is a blue roan even though his head is not pure black. A blue roan must have an even mixture of black and white hairs for his body colour, and that is exactly what he has. Remember, at 4 months, he hasn't shed all of his baby hair yet.

Tomorrow he gets a bath again and on Sunday we go to his second show where he is entered in two classes; weanling halter and stallions all ages. I hope there will be more entries so that it is a little more competitive!

Ready for the show!

Well, here he is, all bathed, slicked out, clipped, trimmed, and ready to show! We leave at 6:30 in the morning and travel for about an hour and a half. We'll have about 2 hours to get him used to the fairgrounds, do last minute touch ups, band his mane, and just enjoy the day. It's supposed to be hot so I'm glad we have an early class. My husband is taking a day off to help, and I will make sure he takes lots of pictures.

Speaking of pictures, do you remember what Peppy looked like a a week old?

After the show, we are going over to our friend John's place; he is the one who I bought Sassy from, and I will be taking pictures of all the horses he has for sale so that I can put them on my Sale Barn. Those of you who are looking for palominos, take note! There will be a tall 2 year old gelding as well as some yearlings and weanlings.And since I won't be around tomorrow, I'm leaving Beamer to keep an eye on things! (Photo credit: Wendy)

More Peppy prep!

Today we spent some more time on getting Peppy ready for showing. He was really good for me when I trimmed his ears.I had to be real careful not to poke him when he moved around. These scissors have a fairly blunt tip.

Peppy is really good with his feet, too; he lets me hold his foot between my legs for cleaning just like the big horses do;

and he was quite patient while I filed his hooves. He had to think twice before he stepped onto the concrete pad, though!

He is just as good with his back feet. (Thanks for holding him, Wendy!)
And, of course, no job is complete until you have a border collie supervising!

Preparing Peppy

Peppy is now officially entered in two shows- open shows hosted by local fairs. Today I trimmed his ear hairs- with scissors; he didn't mind that too much, I don't want to battle with him trying to clip them, though he is allowing me to clip his nose and bridle path. I am really looking forward to these shows; I'm so proud of this colt because he's so smart and does whatever I ask of him with minimal or no fuss. I can't wait to see how he handles the crowds and commotion of showing. I will try to make sure it is a positive experience for him. He loves attention (just like his daddy!) and is sure to get his share of it- he is quite eye catching. Hopefully he won't take the opportunity to practice airs above the ground!

Sunday Silence

Parade day!

Today is parade and rodeo day in our little town. I'm one of those people who goes to see a parade just to see the horses in it, and here are some of the characters who graced our parade today:

They were pulling this coach filled with the senior citizens:

Then there were the Percherons:

What a couple of characters! Love that expression!

And of course, we must have children on ponies! This little foal

was quite independent and not at all worried about mama getting way ahead of her. Cute as a bug's ear!

This was my favourite entry of all- the walking haystacks!

More Horse Photos

This nasty little pest is a bot fly; you can see the eggs already laid on Coyote Belle's leg. I take a scrubbing block (like a grill stone) and scrape them all off. They drive the horses crazy and they try to hide in the bushes:

like Peppy is doing here. He wasn't very happy; and they tried to outrun the flies-

Gussie is shaking her mane, all upset. Sassy is the only one who wasn't bothered too much- maybe bots don't like blonds! Peppy is getting really big now, it's two weeks to weaning time.He's all blue now; remember that little brown fuzzball a few months ago?

Speaking of colour, this is Coyote Belle's 4th colour change this year. You can see how light she is compared to Beamer in the background. ( Can't wait to see what her foal is going to look like!)

Peppy has long legs; he's going to be tall like his mama. Such a pretty colour too!

Looking For Advice

For the last week or so I have been busy working with Peppy to get him ready to show in a halter class. Now, I know he isn't your standard halter horse; he's bred to be a cow horse and reiner, but he is nicely built, and the main reason I am doing this is to get him out in the public so that we can find the right buyer for him. We'll do a trial run at a local fair open horse show, and if all goes well, we will take him to the AQHA show in Red Deer this month.

He is doing really well; he leads beautifully, even at the trot, and is doing quite well at standing square. He lets me place his feet if they aren't perfectly where I want them, and stands still for a good while, even when he can hear the other horses calling him. I am getting him used to being away from mama so that weaning time won't be too stressful for him.

If any of my readers have shown weanlings at halter, I'd appreciate some advice. I plan on clipping his face and legs; how much bridle path will I need to clip? What do I use on his hooves?

Will a nice new, well fitting leather halter do or will I need one with silver on it? What do I do with the chain on the lead shank- attach it full length or double it back on itself? Do I have to wear a jacket?

Any comments will be appreciated!

Sunday Silence

Tess in motion

I enjoy kicking the ball for my dogs; but Tess rarely lets Reba catch it.

She catches it in mid air, sometimes turning right around in the air.

Reba figures this kind of leaping and cavorting is for the youngsters; she is 7 years old now.

And that's just fine with Tess!