My plan for weaning is usually the same every year: Remove Belle from the herd, put her in the adjacent foaling pen, and leave the foal in the herd. So that's what I did on Thursday. It just seemed like the right day to wean and I always try to follow my instincts.
First day went well, Moondance was not too worried as he could still hang out next to mama and had his bff Gussie and Jayne to keep him company.
The next day however, I caught him trying to nurse off Gussie. At first she would squeal and stomp her foot, but then she allowed him. And she was following him around nickering if he got out of her sight. And I'm pretty sure her teats were getting sore from him pulling on them!
Since I was worried that Gussie would come into milk, which would not be good and would totally defeat the purpose of weaning, I had to switch it so Belle was in the herd and Moondance is isolated.
I gave him a pile of hay near where the mares come up for water and he can see into their shelter from there, but most of his feed is in the foaling shelter behind him.
He is adjusting. He loves it when I come and hang out with him. As soon as the smoke clears I will take him out and pony him from Gussie.
What smoke, you ask?
All this blanket of smoke is from the fires to the south of us in the USA From California all the way up to Washington State. It is heavy upon the land and will be hanging around for a few days as all the winds are from the southwest. So no riding until it abates.
Speaking of ponying, our last lesson went quite well.
Just a note on Moondance's colour- he is what is known as a sun faded black. I rather like it although I do like the non fading black that Beamer is. Moondance doesn't carry any colour modifiers like the cream gene which his brothers Eli, Kai and Rio have, he is a true black carrying only 2 copies of black. He is the same colour as Nitro. He also has a lot of white hairs scattered throughout his body and especially on his face, which his brothers also have, with the exception of, I believe, Kai. Stella had that too. I think it comes from Beamer's mama who was a black rabicano.
Riding day 36
4 comments:
I'm a Seattleite watching the news from Germany and I've never experienced anything like that myself.
Of course, when Mt St Helens exploded, I recall that. I was 10. And when it re-exploded and I had to use a credit card to get the ash off my windshield in my downtown Seattle apt to see, to drive. And then camping with horses in the area, where we all brought masks (really!, we did!).
But I've never seen rose-colored skies in Seattle. My man said, "Aren't you happy to not be there?"
No. I always want to be there.
Hope the smoke clears soon and all the fires go out...a huge rain would be good:)
the smoke is supposedly to start dissipating today, if you can believe that.🙄
Oh, that’s funny!! He’s a mama’s boy! Lol. Any mama will do. Interesting about the color.
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