All about Ruby

 This is a special post, since it is number 3000 for me. My 300th post was all about Sundee, my mare that was the start of the Diamond Lazy H horses and a wonderful mare. So this post deserves to be about another mare that makes me happy!

Yes. I'm happy with my pretty bay mare. 

What's with this standing tied? Lets go!

I had her stand tied for an hour or so a couple of times- by the second time she didn't waste her energy pawing.

I'm really happy that she doesn't pull back like Sophie did. 

She needs a lot of work on getting soft in the face/neck

I rode her a couple of times in the round pen while I worked on figuring out the best fit for my new-to-me saddle. 

The saddle:

It is made by Vic Bennett out of Edmonton. It isn't fancy which suits me fine, fit is so much more important than bling. It's built to be a cutting saddle, hence the flatter seat and hand-hold horn. 

I have owned 2 other Vic saddles over the years and still have a set of saddle bags that I had custom made for them that fit this saddle too. Bonus point is this saddle weighs in at 32 lbs. so it is light enough for my old lady arms!

An interesting thing I found with Ruby is that her shoulders weren't symmetrical.

This photo was taken before her teeth were done. I thought I would forever have to shim that right side. And yes she was standing square. I took this photo after riding in the Vic saddle and wondering why it felt tippy to the right. 

This photo is from today:

Never underestimate the importance of getting their teeth done to improve the overall balance of a horse. 

I found the right saddle pad to use- it's a 1 inch 5 Star and the saddle felt really good and stable for my ride today. 

Yes, I had a really good ride around the farm today. We rode over to the south side to check the river and the fenceline that is everywhere except along the river bank. 

Ruby strides right out- I do love a long strided, free moving horse!

Look at all that pasture! We are going to do some cross fencing to utilize it. 

Another thing I found out about her that made me happy- she is easy to apply fly spray! I have an aerosol spray that I use; we have those deer flies that bite right now. I  had no trouble at all spraying her down liberally before our ride. 

The other Ruby news- we decided to breed her to Beamer. So both Velvet and Ruby were bred, Velvet is being checked back this week as it has been 3 weeks since she was bred and Ruby will be checked back in mid June. I wasn't planning on breeding her this year, but with our decision to retire Beamer due to his age and also due to my and Ted's age and physical problems in handling breeding horses, it was a good decision. 

The very first horse I ever connected with was a little bay mare- I may have mentioned her somewhere on this blog- who worked her heart out for the 10 year old horse crazy girl that I was. I use to beg a buck from my mom so I could go to the trail riding stable and ride her for the day on the weekends. She is the reason I love bay horses.  So now I have another bay mare that I hope will be the last horse I ever buy. 

I've got your back, Ruby, if you've got mine too. 

Where did that week go?

 It has been a week of family stuff, not much going on with the horses. They are all on pasture, and about all I have had time for is teasing Ruby. 

Not ready

I did manage to finish setting up my garden and even got pole beans and wax beans transplanted. 

 

I have some cantaloupe and broccoli sprouted but not ready for transplanting, and will be putting lettuce seeds in later today. A trip to the greenhouse on Thursday for tomato plants and maybe even a rose (you know I gotta have at least one rose!) and then dig a spot for a few carrots and it will be done. 

We finally got a great soaking rain last evening, complete with some thunder that had Beamer heading full tilt for his barn. It was amazing to see how fast he can go with those stiff front legs. I really think that having him on straight grazing has helped him to move around and limber up those knees. 

Thankfully the smoke cleared with the rain. Ted's family have come back to their evacuated homes- and I was sad to hear that some of the businesses in that town were looted. What a bunch of greedy jerks. Probably druggies. 

On our way home from the family gathering we went through an area where there are wild horses. These two stallions were grazing together beside the road. 

A couple of very impressive dudes!

They wintered well

I will do my next post on Ruby and the new saddle. 

Foal spam

 Got some updated photos of Shayla's foals. Enjoy!

Bear- this is the one that we think will be a black buckskin. Color testing is planned. 

Bear and his mama Concho and yes that is smoke- more on that in a bit.

Belle's foal. The owner called him Nero but that is such an awful name because Nero was such an evil man- kinda like calling a foal Hitler. So I call him Hero! He is still unfolding those long legs- he's very tall! and only a week old whereas Bear is 5 weeks old. 

He's adorable!

Jayne's foal, as yet unnamed. I didn't get a lot of photos of him because, well... 

my attention was diverted by this little sweety! Dolly had a filly! Only a day old. 

She has figured out how to scratch her face,

and a very cute face it is!  This one is a keeper for sure. 

I got word from Sylvain that Sophie's filly by Beamer will be for sale. Will try to get photos of her on here soon. 

Anyway, back to that smoke I mentioned. 

We woke up to a very smoke filled world yesterday. The fires are mostly north and west of us, and we have had a strong south wind- well, it switched to a strong north wind overnight and filled the whole province and most of western Canada and the northern US with smoke. 

That is the actual color of the sun in the early morning. 

Morning sun viewed from our house. 

This whole thing is a nightmare. More towns and reserves have been evacuated. Good news is that Ted's family can finally go back to their town. We also have two days of rain in the forecast but not until Monday. And thunderstorms in between that usually mean lightning strike fires. I'm hoping that we get our usual rainy June and that fixes this. 

So anyway, trying for long distance photos of  Shayla's herd was hampered by the smoke, but here are a couple more just for fun. 

Zipper following Concho and Bear- he wasn't at all concerned about where his own mama was. 

Bear has a lot of speed!

So smoky you can barely see the fenceline behind the horses.  Hopefully we will be going back that way in a week or so after the rain. There are a bunch of cute draft foals to see too!

Ruby stuff

 Catching up with the Ruby stuff!

I worked her in the round pen the other day, pretty basic stuff just to see where she was at mentally. 

First with the flag. Then with the saddle pad. Pretty much the same- no issues. 

She does move away from me when I try to get the saddle up on her, not sure why just that she takes exception to it. Not in a big way, just lets me know she isn't best pleased about the process. 

The good news is that I get a new-to-me saddle today that is 5 lbs. lighter and should be a good fit for her. We shall see!

Working her on line and at liberty in the pen. We discovered a few holes to be fixed too. She is pretty good going left but switching sides and going right (clockwise) she has some resistance, wanting to scoot back the other direction. We worked on that until she went around a few times without bailing on me. 

See? I like going left!

I took the halter off as the lead rope was catching in the spaces between the top of the panels as she did her sudden stop and reverse directions. We did get a nice lope both ways. I love how this mare really strides up underneath herself- I'm sure that having a long back enables that!

That long back makes her legs look short, but they aren't. 

It will be interesting to see how her physique changes now that she is being put back to work after a couple of years off. She's rump high, not much we can do about that but with conditioning and some nice work under saddle hopefully we can improve her topline. 

I love that she doesn't pull back like Sophie did! She is overall a much calmer mare, but she is a bit stand offish. One of her favorite expressions of that is turning her head and neck away from me. I work on that in the pasture; when I catch Velvet for her grain and take her out of the pen, I spend time with Ruby and give her scratches while she has her head turned away, which encourages her to acknowledge me and turn back her attention to me. She is a very emotionally reserved horse. 

The dentist appointment was interesting.

Checking the balance- left side was higher than the right

 Initially she was good as he did her incisors, without sedation, but when he got to her molars she objected so was given an oral sedative.  While we waited for that to kick in, we checked Beamer's mouth. It only needed a couple of swipes on the incisors, for the rest there is pretty much nothing to be done for him as the teeth erupt so slowly at his age and he was done a year ago. 

So between having her teeth done and having a saddle that should fit better, we are geared up and ready to go! 

#4

 Foal #4 for Shayla is Belle's foal- another colt, surprise surprise! A huuuuuge black colt who should mature at least 16 hh. There was a bit of drama at his birth: the draft mare and Belle foaled at the same time, about 10 ft. apart  and the draft mare tried to steal Belle's foal. After a lot of bravery on Shayla's fiancé's part, things were sorted out and Belle and foal put in another pen. 

I'm cute, of course they both wanted me!

This foal was sold in utero last year, which basically means an non refundable deposit put down on him and the balance payable at weaning/pick up.

His person named him Nero. Probably in reference to all the fires burning in Shayla's area. 

It's hard to tell if he will stay black. And the reason I say that.... is Bear, the other black colt off the same sire is exhibiting some color change at just a month old. 

Both Nero and Bear have buckskin mamas. It looks to me like Bear will be buckskin once he sheds out. He definitely has those eyes that speak to a dilute color, which is why we at first thought smoky black. It will be cool to see his color emerge. 

Velvet had a strong heat, and Beamer covered her 4 times over the course of the week, which, if she caught means a foal due date of around April 20th. 

Those of you who follow our Diamond Lazy H Quarter Horses page will know that I will be retiring Beamer from breeding after this year. He's still strong and willing but his knees are getting pretty bad. He's losing muscle mass in his shoulders because of his limited front end movement. However, since he now has his own pasture and can move around a lot, I think we may see some improvement there. Time will tell on whether he still has viable semen too, as age can play a part in its viability. So to that end, I will have him cover Ruby this year too, and we will see if both mares catch. I also have another mare coming from a friend for him. You may remember from 2008, you long time followers, when I bought two dun fillies from a breeder's auctions and sold one (Andee) and kept the other, Chickory (Josie's mom).  Andee will be coming to Beamer's court in June, pending her disease panel results. 

I'm waiting for the last quarter horse mare. Dolly, to foal, then I will head up to visit all the foals . Camera in hand!

Just chillin'

 Some days it's all about just remembering to breathe and enjoy the blessings God has given me. We have had some good rainfall for the last couple of days, so that will help the fire situation, locally at least. 

No better way to relax than to head out to the gazebo and stop, look and listen. Oh, and take photos 😁

The squirrel was scolding me. So I shot him (with my camera!!!)

I wasn't about to leave, so he did. 

Next up was the Mallards. They came a cruisin' upriver, ducking for food. Is that why they are called ducks?

They look just like the rock!

It was awesome to just sit there and listen to the birdcalls, and watch the thunderheads building in the sky. 

About then the thunderheads started rumbling so it was time to head in. Right, Thumper? 

Umm, Thumper, you coming? 

I ground worked Ruby in the round pen, now that we have finished the set up on it. I will do a separate post on that. The horse dentist is coming today to work on her, so after that I will be riding her. 

Thumper sez: Yeah get to work Ruby and keep your nose out of my barn!

What a week....

 Grab a coffee, this is a long one.....

So many things have been going on in the last week. First of all, there was the fire danger. Not so much for us in particular, but for our family and friends. Shayla had 2 or 3 fires close to her , and her fiancé was kept busy hauling and operating dozers to help with fire fighting. One was very close to his dad's place. Fortunately all those fires were controlled quickly. 

But then there was the town where Ted's dad is in long term care in the hospital, and where his brother and sister-in-law live. They were put on evacuation alert and within an hour were given the evacuation order. It was a logistical nightmare getting 7,000 people out of Drayton Valley all at once, and the 20 minute drive to the mustering area turned into an over 2 hour drive. The hospital residents were not evacuated that night; the fire department kept a watchful eye on them but all the residents spent the night in their wheel chairs awaiting imminent departure. The next day, they were driven to a town quite far away, about 4  to 5 hours drive. We hope he will soon be able to return. But so far, the fire is not contained. 

There are several small towns and reservations in northern Alberta that have been evacuated. However, cooler weather has arrived, but unfortunately still very windy and not enough rain to be very helpful. Speaking of rain, B.C. has flooding and mudslides and their own evacuation alerts and orders.  Crazy how the weather is completely different from one side of the Rocky Mountains to the other!

Despite the heat and wind, we managed to get a few things done here. The round pen is up (mostly), just needs a repair on one of the fasteners for a panel so it will be a couple of days before I can use it. I got Beamer's pen enlarged now that we moved the debris pile to the burn pit. (And no we won't be burning it until next winter!) All the horses are on pasture now, and since it was a slow introduction to the spring grass, there are no health issues for them. 

Speaking of Beamer....

Yes? what is it?

You got work to do, buddy. 

Yes that is Velvet. I kinda figured she wasn't in foal as she didn't get any larger in the last couple of months. Then in April she had a mini 2 day heat, and on Friday she came into full blown heat. She was willing and ready yesterday so Beamer got to cover her. Today she is pacing the fence and calling to him so this is a good strong heat, and she will get covered once a day until she goes out. I sure hope she catches and settles well this time! She turns 23 on May 16th. Putting in my order, once again, for a blue roan filly. 

Speaking of fillies...

I got word from Sophie's owner, she foaled out- guess what- a Beamer filly. Imagine that! I knew if I sold her it would be a filly! It's a sorrel with a star, no other white. I hope to get some nice photos of her sent to me. For now, here she is at just a few hours old. 

He said Sophie is being a good mama. I think she went to the perfect home. If you want to check it out, he is on Facebook, Sylvain Lachance in Quebec. He mostly raises paint show horses. 

I went to the top of Beamer's barn to look for some tubs for my raised/container garden, which we are also working on, and to my surprise, look what I found!

Mama cat was under one of the half barrels and she growled at me and then zoomed down the stairs. When I lifted the barrel these lovely little Siamese cross kittens were there! So I hastily retreated without touching them as I don't want her to think she has to move them. Mama cat is the black short haired feral cat who is Smoky and Bandit's mama. 

I thought the full Flower Moon would bring on foals for Shayla, and it did!  One of the draft mares that I had photos of, the lovely Katey, had a colt last night. 

And Jayne foaled! Yay! 

Check out the chrome! Shayla said "He's missing a boot!" Yes, it's a colt.

The sire is the same as the sire of Bear, and there are 3 more siblings due- Dolly, Belle and Gussie's foals. 

Musta been hard work , lots of yawning going on! 

Can't wait to go play with this one! Probably in a few days.