Horse time!

It's been a while since I featured the horses, so for the first day of fall- with perfect summer weather- without further ado, here they are. Rio is growing like a weed, and with feed in front of him 24/7 and a high protein supplement, he's growing up but not out yet.

He and Beamer are getting along well over the fence, the first thing Rio does in the morning is run over to greet daddy, then over to the hay bale.

His scrape is healing well and he managed to rub a couple other spots bare too, like the spot by his ear in the next photo.

For those of you who may be concerned, Rio is not skinny, even though he looks ribby in that photo. He has been dewormed, and has hay in front of him 24/7, as well as a high protein supplement twice a day. I find that the horses from his dam's bloodline go through a phase where they grow very fast, and they all get this ribby look. It goes away in the summer/fall of their yearling year.
The mares are all fat and sassy, and as far as I can tell without an ultrasound, both Belle and Gussie are in foal. You can really see the difference in size between Gussie and Chickory in this photo- Gussie is a whole hand taller:

That's Rio's shadow in the foreground; I was taking him for a walk, and the mares had to come up and greet him. Beamer, of course, had to keep an eye on the mares:

I had him out in the round pen for a while today to eat down some of the grass in there.

He needs another bath! S'posed to be hot tomorrow, so after I clean his pen, I just might do that. I took him for a ride out to the far end of the hayfields this evening, hoping to spot the elk- didn't spot them, but I could see where they are coming up from the river, and the mess they are making of the cornfield. I got to thinking, if we keep Rio, how nice it will be for me and Ted to go out riding with Beamer and Rio- of course, thats a couple of years down the road, but they get along well, and Rio is Ted's horse (his dam is registered in Ted's name, so all her foals are technically his) and it sure would be nice to get him going well enough for Ted to ride. Gives me something to work towards!