Spring cleaning and silly mares.

There is still time to enter the foaling contest!
CLICK HERE TO ENTER
If your guess has passed the date and no foal, you can guess again, just please review the guesses on the list on the side bar to make sure you aren't the same as someone else.

Haven't had any riding time in the last week, been cold, windy and rainy and I wussed out. But we did get the horse pens cleaned and harrowed, and I picked up a lot of loose rocks.
I have been taking the horses out one by one to hand graze, they are loving that! It's funny, the mares will all go to the very end of the lead rope to graze, but Beamer grazes as close to me as possible.

Ole Loretta is in heat, and she did NOT want to be caught to go out and graze (silly mare!) so she started ripping around and got all the mares going.

Of course, I had to keep the camera on Rosalee, she is so fast and athletic! Just after I stopped filming she galloped right up to me and came to a sliding stop 2 ft from me, and stood there as if to say, "Did you get that? I did good!"
She is such a character. Case in point- you gotta keep an eye on your tools around her!

Tonight Coulee is 11 months pregnant, so I start my foal watch. I am on a Facebook group called Mare Match Up and a lot of people are posting about mares going way late, some up to 12 months or more, and some maiden mares going really early- it's a crap shoot! Also of concern to me is the number of foals dying and mares dying- seems to be more than usual, or maybe it's just that due to social media we hear more about it. At any rate, I will be sticking close to Coulee from now on. I always start praying for safe delivery once they start foaling!

Handy man

When you have a husband who will do this....

and make it nice and cosy for your horses......

and will also do this.....

and this.....

you are blessed. He doesn't ride much anymore, but he does support me in what I do.

Kitty Blue Eyes

The stray cat has really made him/her self at home in and around the barn. There is a velour armchair in the barn that it has claimed, evident by all the tufts of cream coloured hair clumps on it.

I sat down about 2 ft. away and reached out ......

Kitty Blue Eyes didn't move so I reached a little further.....

We have contact!
It didn't move away.

I held my hand a couple of inches away, but it wouldn't let me touch again as Thea was hanging around the door and apparently that was a cause for concern. Next time I'll tie Thea up outside. I really think this kitty would love some human companionship. It looks kind of sad.

Pretty good progress for today!

Chillin' with my B Boy

Day 11 of the 100 day challenge

Gorgeous day for a trail ride today. While hubby went off to an auction, I saddled up Beamer and headed to what I call the back 40, the neighbour's cattle lease area. He doesn't have cows there yet.

I was sure hoping to see some wildlife and wasn't disappointed. We saw a couple of grouse, and a Ring necked pheasant that flew out of a bush right beside us (good Beamer, didn't even flinch!).

 Near the end of the ride we flushed a couple of white tailed deer out of their afternoon napping place.

Checking out the deer

Thea is getting to be a much better trail riding companion. I've got a good recall on her now but still need to work on "down".

I treasure every ride I get on Beamer, I trust him and he trusts me- I even got him to step over a trickle creek today- he usually hates them!

I'll probably end up riding him again tomorrow after church, as the guys are hauling out the manure pile in his pen.

Ted found something pretty cool at the auction:

Must be from Calgary, home of the Calgary Stampede. Looks great in our rustic bathroom!

A conversation with Rosalee

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE FOALING CONTEST
PRIZE IS $25 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO EITHER FROSTED BUTTERFLY OR COWGIRL TACK
If you are unable to leave a comment please email your guess to me at diamondlazyh641@hotmail.com. You can review all the current guesses on the sidebar to the right.

Today was day 10 of the 100 day challenge (just a way of motivating me to get off my butt and ride! 😃
I haven't ridden Rosalee for a while, so I saddled her up and longed her for a bit before stepping aboard. She was a bit fresh but not too bad. I headed down to the dyke, through the trees and past the pond. Once again she was reluctant to go forward. This time, I spun her around and asked her to back up- fast- and then turn and face the direction of travel according to my wishes.
It went like this:

Rosalee:
 Whaaaat's that! Scary! 
Me:
It's just an old tarp, buried in a gravel pile. It won't eat you.
Rosalee: 
Might! I don't trust it!
Me:
 Well then, I'll just turn you around to face away from it and back you past it.
That worked. I asked her to walk up to it and check it out.

Rosalee:
Ok, you might be right, not a horse eating tarp.

She walked forward a couple of steps and stopped abruptly.

Rosalee:
Whassat! Scary stuff!
Me:
Rosalee, it is just some metal stuff. If it was in your pasture you wouldn't even give it a second glance. 
Rosalee:
Whass in behind it? Can't tell! Scary!
Me:
It's just a reflection on the pond. You can walk past it. Trust me. 
Once again I resorted to turning her away and backing her up so that she was right beside it when she turned around.

Rosalee:
Ok what else is there out there in these scary woods? 

Rosalee:
Scary!
Me:
Oh for heaven's sake, I'll lead you past all the water. But you'd better get over this by the next time we head out!
So I walked her past the pond until we got to the dyke. She did better up there, more open and not so closed in for this prairie horse. However, she still wasn't moving freely forward, so instead of heading in the direction that allowed her to see and hear her pasture mates, I headed the other direction.  In the interest of preserving my  old bones, I did get off and walk her one more time, as she clearly wasn't connected to going down the trail with me. She got pushy with her head, so I bopped her on the nose when she bopped me with her nose, and then I asked for some pretty intense work on the ground, moving her feet and giving her head laterally. Got back on again, and it was all good. Mostly.

When something troubles her, she stops abruptly. Like she did at the end of the video.

When we crossed the log, she stopped again. Sigh. I really need to build her confidence in me.

I got her as far as our turnaround point- and when I headed her back, I wanted to stop for another photo and she wasn't inclined to just stand still for me- spinning and wiggling around. Sheesh! First she didn't want to go forward, then she didn't want to stand still. With patience and perseverance, eventually she lined out quietly on the way back. And apparently things that are scary on the way out are old hat on the way back.

I think if I had a riding buddy things would be easier- but then I wouldn't get to work through her issues and make her a better partner to me. So we'll continue to muddle our way through this. It's just about time to haul to the local outdoor arena for some schooling and get her legged up- I'd really like to start patterning her on barrels. I still want to do Cowboy Dressage with her, but not much opportunity for that here unless I want to travel to Alberta or the US. And since she does have speed, barrels is something I can do locally and have a lot of fun with.

Done! (enough for now )

We had a good work party here yesterday and got the shelter buttoned up to the using stage. Roof went on and gravel spread on the floor (oh my aching back...)

That is one stout building. 12x16, so if I could close off the front if I needed to stall rest a horse, or keep a  momma and baby contained for any reason. The guys did put the extra rub rail in 😊

It isn't quite finished- we need to close in the top at the front and clad the sides with tin, but it is quite usable as is- and a good thing because we have heavy rain today!
We built this by repurposing a shed, and using the barter system  and with the help of some good hard working friends. Saved ourselves about $2000.

I looked inside this rainy morning and it's nice and dry, and Coulee was quite happy to hang out in there. Her feed, salt and minerals are in there too.
We are getting close to foaling time- as soon as her bag fills up a bit more I am going to start camping out down there. Our 5th wheel trailer is set so that I have a perfect view of her pen- I'll be camping in style this time!
Here is a photo one of the guys took of the work crew. I am very grateful for all the help we got!

Gimme shelter

Be sure to ENTER THE FOALING CONTEST- CLICK HERE
The prize is a $25 gift certificate to either The Frosted Butterfly or Cowgirl Tack,

The mare shelter is shaping up!

Here  the guys are trimming the last board for the inside reinforcement. Today we are getting some gravel to fill in the floor- you can see the uneven ground at the back corner, that will all be filled in both on the inside and outside.

Here Ted is taking a break before rounding up the last of the tools for the day.Inside is sheeted and a rub rail is in place at the top, I think we will add another one halfway up the plywood. Maybe. Ted is picking up the roofing screws today, so maybe we will get the tin on the roof too!

Meanwhile, mama Belle sure is looking good. She hung around all day, I think she wants to claim the shelter 😏

I only have 8 entries in the foaling contest- c'mon I know how many of you read these posts! If you don't comment because of my settings, shoot me an email and I'll put your entry in. diamondlazyh641@hotmail.com

Easter Ride and the Prize for the Foaling Contest

Click here to enter the foaling contest!

What a beautiful day we had for Easter Sunday! I hope you all had a wonderful day too. Beamer got the call for Day 9 of the 100 Day Challenge. He has been giving me the eye lately, poor guy is being teased by the mares across from him. First Loretta was in heat, and now Rosalee is. Also Coulee is very possessive of him and calls to him a lot especially if one of the mares comes to the fence to flirt with Beamer.

If it was a younger stallion I would certainly electrify his fence, and I will keep an eye on him just in case he gets to pushing too much on the fence.

Anyway, we headed out- straight down towards the river from the alleyway in the photo above then along the dyke heading east until we hit the cross fence, and looped back. Perfect ride!

Thea is getting better to ride with- she quit diving at the horse's tail and nose. 

One of the beautiful cedar trees along the ride.

The turn around point.

The river is still running clear, which means the high country hasn't started to melt fast yet- when it does, it will get high and muddy.

Today is all about getting back to work on the shelter, Ted has a crew coming out and we hope to get the roof sheeted in and the new plywood on the sides. A couple of days ago, we got the framing done for raising the angle of the roof on the front of the building. 

It's Rosalee approved.

Now....

On to the prize announcement......

There be choices.......

A $25 gift certificate to either of two businesses from a friend of mine, fellow blogger/long haul truck driver/ all around lovely lady, Sarah. You can go on either of her Facebook pages to view her hand made scented candles, or her Plunder Jewellery  for some lovely jewellery adornments.

The Frosted Butterfly for the candles

Cowgirl Tack   to tack yourself up!

You will have to contact Sarah through Facebook messaging to order your selection. If you are not on Facebook, send me an email and I will give you Sarah's phone number, or you can email her at clearcreekpaints@gmail.com 

Of course, you are welcome to peruse either site and order stuff anyway! I firmly believe in supporting home based businesses.

Coulee's Foaling Contest!

It's finally time for the foaling contest! Last one was in 2013.....

Coulee is a first time foaler so there is no history to go by. Generally speaking it's 11 months plus a week or two. Mama Belle always went long- 11 months plus anywhere from 10 to 20 days, but I have had mares go less than 11 months. The average is 11 months and 5 to 10 days. Her last day bred was May 31st last year- so my guesstimate is anywhere from May 2 to May 14.
The first sign of bagging up was on March 24, at 296 days. The second sign of foaling is when the muscles around the back end start getting jiggly and that happened yesterday:

So here goes: Your best guess as to date, time, colour and whether it will be a colt or filly.
Here are the colour options:
Black
Brown
Sorrel
Bay
Since Beamer has thrown red foals (Josie) and bay (his first filly, off a chestnut mare in Alberta) I have included those colours. It is unknown if Coulee is homozygous for black, but she is off a buckskin stallion and a bay mare so I would say probably not.

Once I start getting guesses, I will create a place on my sidebar for people to look at to help with their guesses, so that your entry is different than anyone else's.

And yes there will be a prize, as yet to be decided!

Rain delay and the stray cat

Pouring rain has put the construction project on hold today.
When I went into the barn at chore time this morning, Kitty Blue Eyes was there. I'm really starting the think he is a she. I got close, and took video.



The poor thing is packing a paw and looks like it got in a fight- but not with my cats as they have no marks on them. Maybe a dog? Our neighbours have a pretty aggressive heeler, perhaps it got in trouble over there.
I am sure this is not a feral born cat but one that is used to people. I'm hoping that I will be able to befriend it enough to get it wormed and even brush it a bit.

New project

We are finally getting started on the mare shelter that will replace the temporary tarp and panel mess that Coulee is spending her nights in now.

It served its purpose, even as a view vantage point for Foose. It was also good for desensitizing, as it bellowed and flapped in the wind. Coulee didn't care, and it didn't bother the other mares either.

What we are doing is repurposing  a shed that was given to us. It was 8 x 12, so we have reconfigured it. The 2 walls that are 8 ft. are now one 16 ft. wall, and the 2 walls that are 12 ft long are the sides, and it is a 3 sided shelter. If I need to close it in I can put panels across the front, but it will have it's own panel enclosure.

Discussing the dimensions and layout. Too many opinions meant that a mistake was made . Ted was not happy but the mistake wasn't found until the last wall went up.

Rosalee just had to inspect. She walked right in the middle of everything several times. All the plywood on this wall will be replaced with new, and the old doorway will be sheeted in too. 

Today's project will be building the header for the roof which will have a slope and overhang to shed rain and snow, and strip the old plywood off and replace it with new. Actually it will probably take a couple of days as Ted has jobs for other people that he has committed to.

But it's a start!

That's my happy face! You can see that we have the walls braced and the front blocked off temporarily to keep the horses out of the construction zone. Amazingly everything was still intact this morning!

Once the construction is done, we will clad it with metal siding on the walls and a metal roof. Coyote Belle has been eyeing it, I think she wants to claim it for her own. She is the one who spends most time in the other shelter.  

Taking charge

This morning was absolutely beautiful. Clear skies, sunshine- what a way to lift my spirits.

(No those posts aren't crooked, it's just the way my pocket camera works)

I have been doing some soul searching lately. Being newly retired, it has taken me a while to adjust to not having a schedule to order my days. I spent a lot of time just doing nothing- it didn't help that I was sick for nearly a month, and that we had all that awful weather that made it difficult to do anything but stay in the house. But no more excuses! 

One of the things that needed dealing with is my weight. I tended to eat a lot of comfort food over the winter and the result is not pretty! So yesterday I started a regime of eating more fruits, veggies and protein and leaving the carbs and sugar alone. Gotta have my coffee though!

The other thing that needed to be dealt with is Miss Rosalee. She's a lot of horse for a senior citizen! But under her youthful exuberance there is a very well trained horse. So today I put on my big girl panties (no pun intended!!!) and went to work on her. We did our ground work first, to get her thinking and paying attention. I made sure she loped on the longe line- and yes she did a bit of leaping around, so I put in a little extra time there until she levelled out for me. 

After that, I lead her away from her herdmates before I climbed on. It was kind of an interesting ride. At first, she did not want to go forward, so I kept urging her with my legs and asking for a step to the side to untrack her- she eventually went when I tapped my rein on her hip. 

We had a moment at the beginning of the dyke where we had to ride past the neighbours large piles of scrap lumber and other stuff. She backed and spun, and I worked at getting forward for a bit but didn't want to get in a fight with her- I wanted to build her confidence, not make her mad, so I got off and led her past that area and then got on again. There was one other time I got off when we had to squeeze through some narrow cement blocks and she didn't want to stand still for me to get back on, but we worked through it. I'm really grateful for that Buck Brannaman clinic I took that taught me the importance of moving the feet with correct timing. 

The rest of the ride was uneventful.I was happy that she didn't speed up once she knew we were almost back to the barn. 

So I got to thinking about this mare's history- show trained and shown as a 3 and 4 yr old, not much done with her for a couple of years and then a year or so at a ranch where I'm pretty sure she never had to ride out alone. So my conclusion is that riding out by herself is new to her. She did pretty good last summer on trail rides but I only had her by herself a couple of times. 

My goal is to build her confidence in me and make a willing partner out of her. She's pretty steady on the trail- she only flinched and stopped when a pair of ducks flew up close to us, and she goes through mud and water without hesitating. I think a few more rides and she will get comfortable with the new routine. 

Day 8 of the 100 day challenge

A little ride

Yesterday was kind of a nonproductive day as far as getting things done in the house.... the rain held off enough for me to get on Beamer for a bareback ride, which of course is a much better plan than doing things indoors!

I love how he walks out so freely and looks at everything. He really enjoys getting out.
He is barefoot, and he was careful about where he walked, but he wasn't sore at all after the ride.

Thea enjoyed the outing as much as we did.

Head down and tail up! Happy pup. (Day 7 of the 100 day challenge)
It started raining just after chore time, and in the evening the sun poked out enough to give us a nice rainbow.

I guess Rosalee is the gold at the end of the rainbow!

Perhaps- but this guy is worth more than a pot of gold to me.

Spring progress

Finally, the powers that be decided they had the manpower to clean up the mudslide across from our driveway.

 

They are battling mudslides on the major highways still; as the snow recedes in the mountains, the rocks and mud are tumbling down- I heard there was a rock as big as a house on the road in Kootenay  Pass. I'm grateful to have the slide gone, although we are now battling dust from all the silt on the road. There are plans to get the road swept but I'm sure that won't be soon, especially as we are back in rainy weather now.

Windows closed! I guess I shouldn't complain, at least it isn't a gravel road and it will eventually get cleaned up- but it sure has affected my breathing. Fortunately the horses are a little farther from the road, although Loretta is coughing over the last couple of days.


Meanwhile, the pregnant mares are getting bigger, the babes are bouncing around in there. Mama Belle is in her chocolate colour phase as she sheds, and Loretta looks like she had a fancy ombre treatment!

As the mares shed out, the lighter colour hairs come out first; Coulee is showing a lot of white in her flanks and Rosalee has turned quite pale.
I spent most of my horse time this week trimming feet- Coulee's hinds and I spent 2 days on Loretta- she was not very cooperative and it wore me out just doing 2 a day. Silly old mare, I bet she feels better now , but she made me work for it! I have a bruised thigh from trying to hang on to a hind foot.

Rosalee is such a character- she is the helpful kind that you can't turn your back on if you value your tools! Shovels, hoses, boards- she has to investigate everything!
She does like to light up the after burners too. 😊

My husband is finally getting to work on the mare shelter/foaling shelter. We are repurposing a building, it will be 3 sided , 16 by 12 and on 4 inch pipe for skids.

For those of you who love cats I leave you with a puzzle of our resident blue eyed beauty stray cat.