And so it begins!

ENTER THE FOALING CONTEST HERE

Foal watch, that is. Rosalee is at 330 days today and although she is not showing signs of foaling being imminent I am being cautious as she is a maiden mare.

 She has started to drop and soften in the tail area which you can just see in this photo, but her bag is still quite small. She is getting a flake of alfalfa every day to help with milk production but really no change there in the last couple of weeks.

We set up a camera over the foaling pen so I can keep an eye on her during the day, and I have my holiday trailer set up close to the foaling pen so all I have to do during the night is sit up and peer out the window. Which I did several times last night! Every time she goes and stands by the fence closest to Beamer he hollers at her - he just loves her and always has.
So this should get her used to me being around at night; I had Tess with me as she has to go pee during the night, so had to pop out a couple of times, it didn't seem to bother her.

I have been trying to get more rides in on Gussie, but only got one in since my last post- been working on garden projects that need doing right away. But we did get in a good schooling ride. I found a nice flat grassy area up by the road that worked good.
I focused on keeping her straight up instead of working endless circles. When she would speed up, I would direct her into a small circle and send her straight again. I worked on very light contact, if any as she is very soft in the face. She is also very responsive to leg, and the little circles I could do with just a bit of leg and focusing my body on the circle. Going right she wanted to speed up at first, but I would small circle, and come out straight again and it would fix it for a bit. Still a work in progress.
I liked that even though the other horses could see her and were calling to her, she would only flick an ear at them, sometimes a half step hesitation and then get back to the job at hand. We also worked the two track and double turn (forehand, haunches in one circle). I really want to lope her but think I should wait until she isn't falling apart at the trot. I think we are ready for some trail riding with other people now, and I'd like to get her in some hilly country so she will have to use her hind end and build up some muscle.
At the end of the ride, as we rode back towards the herd, I put a dwell in when she wanted to speed up. We stood there and let her look at the girls...

her head was up and I could feel her anxiety to be back with them...

which didn't happen until she softened, dropped her head and gave a big sigh and stood quietly.

I have been hand grazing them over the last week and yesterday they got a half hour in the paddock we fenced off, some happy girls!
Beamer gets hand grazed too and yesterday he got a half hour to eat the grass in the round pen. I have a spot to set up an electric fence grazing paddock for him, that's this week's job.

Yes, Beamer, I'll get right on that....

Riding day 24