Beauty and the beast(s)

The  filly is spoken for by Shayla's best friend! So nice that she will be where we can watch her as she matures. And she has a barn name- they wanted Huckleberry which was inspired by the pie they had when thinking up names, so I am calling her Pie- because she's just as sweet as pie! Today when picking up her feet, she let me hold them and make a little circle with the foot and then set it on the ground. Good girl, Pie!

I finally got a video of her galloping in from pasture too. 

Let me lead, mama, you're too slow!

That filly has wheels! But she doesn't get all amped up, just walks over and socializes right away. 

The next step is to introduce her to a halter. 

Gussie hasn't come in her foal heat yet, but I think by Wednesday that big ole blue moon will fix that. 

 I haven't seen her drinking water yet, but she was on the salt today. It's been hot the last few days so she probably needed it. And she has toofers coming through to help with all that grass and hay she eats. 

Then there's the beasts... first, the cute ones!

Kitty toes!

Turns out only Smudge is a male of that litter, Badger and Misty are definitely females. 

Then there are the coyotes, the reason I lock up my mares in pens during the night, 

Take a listen and turn up the volume. This was about 100 yards from Beamer's barn. They were across the river.

I imagine they will be howling at the blue full moon on Wednedsday!

4 days old

 The as yet unnamed filly is 4 days old now and what a sweetheart she is! 

She comes up and greets me, loves her butt scratches and has progressed to having chest and neck scratches and I can pet her all over. 

She volunteers to come up and initiate touch. So friendly!

I have had them turned out on pasture since day 2, and she has started eating grass- yes she has a tooth erupting- and she's also eating hay now. 

This morning she let me run my hands over all 4 legs, so I asked her to pick up her feet- and she had no hesitation in letting me do that. So I asked her again this evening. 

I haven't tried haltering, that can wait for when Shayla comes to see her. I think it will go fairly easy though!

She does little high speed spurts, but I haven't caught a good video or photo of that yet. 

I do bring them into the barn pen at night, we have a rather large band of coyotes here and I'm not willing to leave the horses out at night. 

The cats occupy the same barn as Gussie, so the filly is getting used to having them dart in and out. 

Badger

Smudge and big brother Bandit

Breakfast time

Beautiful things

 There's always beauty to be found, so here's what I found around the farm. 

Wordless Wednesday

 

The wait is over!

 My nights of camping out in the barn are done! Just before midnight, Gussie went into labour and the foal was born at 12:07. 

And- it's a filly! Also- it's just what Shayla ordered- a blue roan. 

All went well, Gussie had a fairly easy birthing, the foal lay there for a while as the nutrients were passed through the umbilical cord, and Gussie cleaned shortly thereafter. 

Two feet and a nose- just the way it should be

Calmly laying there taking in her new surroundings

Mama's first touch

Up and steady on her feet before too long

I shuffled them into the barn as baby was wandering all over  which is not conducive to getting that first colostrum milk in her! That helped settle her and she drank, passed her meconium plug, loped circles around her mama, then had a good long nap. Gussie got hay and water and some rest- although she still is not getting much sleep. She hasn't laid down to sleep since she got here. 

Come daylight, I turned them out. 

Such a lovely filly!

Pretty little head and a perfect swirl.

That's a lot of leg to grow into!

Velvet and Ruby spotted them and came a running up to the fenceline to check out the new arrival. Gussie herded her baby away from them, and when the filly laid down for another nap, she stood guard over her. Eventually I put them back in the barn for a while so Gussie could eat and rest some more. They will get a lot more turnout though and have free access to the barn from now on. 

Food for thought

 

I found a facebook page that really opened my eyes about foal handling and how it affects the rest of their life. 

It made me see all the mistakes I have made over the decades- and although I was halfway there to doing things in a better way, I still have a long way to go to do things in the best possible way for the little darlings. 

Here is an excerpt from his page. (With permission) The writer is Mark Deesing and he works with Temple Grandin. 

Horse Behaviorist UT

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7

Horse Welfare, Laterality, Hair Whorls, Cognitive Bias & Early Experience: Factors that Affecting Bonding with Humans

Before discussing my "new school" approach to factors affecting bonding with humans during the pre-weaning stage of development, I want to explain the behaviors shown by colts and fillies raised in the "old school" traditions that contribute to welfare concerns. The experiences horses have before being "broke to ride" indicate underlying issues from intensive handling and anxiety from forced handling in the pre-and post-weaning stages of development, leading to impaired psychological functioning.

The foal in the picture is Bill. I bought and gave Bill to Temple Grandin as a symbolic gift. She asked, " What will I do with a horse?" I said, "Whatever you want, he's yours to decide." I told her she could give him away, sell him, or you can leave him here, and I'll raise him. She said, "Okay. You raise him." I said alright, but you gotta name him; he's your horse. So she named him after her High School science teacher and mentor, William Carlock. If you ever saw the movie about Temple, with Claire Danes, the Academy Award-winning actor David Strathairn played William Carlock (Bill).

I bought Bill from an Arabian breeder who was "old school." When I bought him, Bill was wearing a halter, dragging a lead rope about six feet long, and tripping on it as he ran from us. The woman and I trapped him in the barn and dragged him to my trailer, where I physically had to pick him up and lift him in.

When I got home, I put Bill in a big stall on my ranch with my friendliest horse Jim for company. I went into the stall daily and sat on a stool with a bucket of grain, carrots, and apple slices. Jim tried to hog it all, but Bill watched Jim and soon wanted some for himself. I waited for Bill to approach me and made myself small by sitting on the stool and not making eye contact with him. I was trying to figure out what treat he found irresistible. As it turned out, the apple slices did the trick and got him to approach me. To make a long story short, it took three weeks before I could touch him and get the halter off his head, which he had outgrown and was causing a deep furrow in his nose. After three more weeks, I had shifted his cognitive bias back from the pessimist he had become to the natural left-cowlick optimist he was by nature. Afterward, I turned him out with the other horses and began to handle him about once a week. Jim and Bill were inseparable after that, but Bill followed me everywhere when I was out in the corrals picking up poop. He grew up to be a well-adjusted horse with splendid behavior.

What I say next may upset people and cause some denial, but if you don't know the complete history of your horse from the day it was born, then you can't be sure your horse's early experiences haven't had some detrimental effects on its behavior. How I learned to raise horses has shown me that the "old school" way I used in the past caused the same problems I saw in Bill.

The early stages of emotional development are full of potential conflict. A young horse's experiences polarize into "pleasure and fear extremes." When these opposite feelings are combined, anyone with a horse about Bill's age can see the early stages of impaired psychological functioning when they approach the foal. It comes up to you, but when you reach to touch it, the foal backs up (approach, retreat, approach, retreat). I believe this happens after people traumatize them with early forced handling and follow-up by giving them affection and food rewards. It develops into a conflict of emotions horses have with people that sometimes lasts a lifetime.

In their minds, on the one hand, they learn to love us for the good things we provide but still fear us for the bad and scary things we did to them. Horses lack the cognitive capacity to think, "Well, Mark gives me all these good treats and butt scratches, so I should forgive him for the scary things he did to me when I was little. They hold these memories SEPARATELY in both the optimistic and pessimistic sides of the brain. Scientists smarter than me found the left side controls approach behaviors, and the right side controls avoidance behaviors (remember, it's the opposite in right cowlick horses). It's a conflict of emotions and the beginning of psychopathology (abnormal behavior). As these conflicting memories build up through early life experiences, they create the antecedent excentricities (antecedent means a thing or event that happened before, and excentricities mean strange or unexplainable behavior) that develop patterns of abnormal behaviors that differ in low, middle, and high cowlick horses. Linda Telling-Jones and others possibly identified these patterns of abnormal behaviors and called them PERSONALITY. It may also explain why the horse world is divided fifty/fifty on the predictive value of hair whorls on personality and behavior. Not all horses have these negative previous experiences and don't fit the patterns identified in the "personality profiles" some people claim. In other cases, the negative experiences early on may be overridden by extremely positive experiences following early negative experiences.

In the "old school" approach, horses with low whorls develop predictable patterns of abnormal behaviors. Horses with middle hair whorls develop predictable patterns of abnormal behaviors, and horses with high whorls develop predictable patterns. Horses with double whorls develop unique and often unpredictable behaviors, all of which people refer to as PERSONALITY----but in reality, they may be abnormal behavior patterns caused by dysfunctional environmental influences beginning in infancy.

If your horse has lateral behavior when ridden, or rides well but won't go in a trailer, or won't stand for a farrier, or won't tie at the hitching post, or won't enter a starting gate at the track, or is a dirty stopper on a show jumping course, or foams at the mouth during dressage competition, or swishes it's tail, or is hard to catch, or hates the vet, or throws its head and needs a tie down, or has a cold back, or any of the many other behavior problems horses have may not be personality differences, but maladaptive behavior. When I explained this to Temple Grandin a couple of days ago, she told me she attended a dressage competition in Canada recently, and the horse that won was the only one that wasn't foaming at the mouth.

As defined in human and animal psychology, maladaptive behavior prevents us from making adjustments in our best interest. Avoidance, withdrawal, and passive aggression are examples of maladaptive behaviors. Wouldn't it be in a horse's best interest to stand still for a farrier and get it over with so it can return to its supper? Why put up such a fight when it's much easier to go along? Wouldn't that be in their best interest?

One of the first questions I asked myself 45 years ago at horseshoeing school was, "If horses are as smart as people say, why is it so hard to teach them something as simple as standing still for shoeing?" The answer I came up with years later was FEAR, plain and simple. Fear from previous experiences inhibits learning and explains why correcting common problems with horses is sometimes tricky, if not impossible. I finally got through to Bill and gained his trust by doing JUST THE OPPOSITE of what everyone else had done with him. And for all the other problems listed above, I found solutions for those too and intend to feature them individually in future posts.

Oh Gussie

 I swear there is no more room in that belly!

Gussie is a big mare, and the sire was 16 hh, so I expect this to be a big foal. Color options are sorrel, red roan, black or blue roan. The sire carried one copy of red so the chances of a red based foal are probably 75% although, the same chances as what she had with Beamer and she had 2 blue roans, a black, and a red roan from him. So you never know!

I had just bathed her to cool down from the heat (she loves baths) and of course she had to roll. What a belly! I put the white tape up to keep her from rolling in a nearby patch of dirt.  At night she hangs out in the barn; I keep the door open so she can go out for foaling as the stalls in there are rather small. I have my cot set up in there- I must say I sleep well there with all that fresh air! Of course, I also have Thumper and Foose for company!

I have a feeling that she will foal shortly after Wednesday's new moon. 

No foal yet....

 I don't have any foal photos to share yet. Gussie is still holding the little fellow hostage! 

Poor girl, I'm sure she's tired of packing all that weight around!

I do have some neat photos to share though! My bathroom window overlooks the river and as I looked out I could see something- 3 somethings- moving across the river. So I grabbed my big camera and went for a look see. 

To my surprise, it was 3 fledgling Great Horned Owls! what a blessing to get to see them! I only had a short time to take photos as they spotted me so forgive the lack of sharp focus. I had my camera set on action and snapped hurriedly. 

3...

2...

1...

and they were gone into the forest. I was surprised at how large they are. 

Introducing the kittens

 Barn cats are a necessity when - well, when you have barns! 

The mice population is definitely dwindling as evidenced by the "gifts" Thumper and Foose bring us so I can imagine how many the feral cats are consuming- they haven't been eating much of the cat food we put out for them. Except of course, the kittens, who live in Beamer's barn. 

I had my good zoom camera the other day and caught them playing , the 3 littermates and their big brother Bandit. I have named them all too. 

Smudge

Badger

Misty

Smudge and Badger are the males, Misty is a female. 

Badger, Misty and Bandit

Misty, Smudge, Bandit and Badger

Bandit is often with them and since he isn't afraid of me, these kittens have accepted me too, especially at feeding time. I don't see their mama with them any more. It's pretty neat seeing them all together, I love their coloring. 

Supermoon

 The Sturgeon Moon was all orange last night. I really need to use my tripod next time I try for a moon shot! 

It lay low on the horizon as I took this shot around 10:30 pm, and by 2 am on my foal check it was gone below the horizon. I may try again tonight - with tripod all set up in advance!

I think Gussie is about a week away from foaling. She is pretty quiet, and not at all concerned about the other mares when I turn her out next to them. 

Did a session on Ruby today and she was nicely improved. Like Shayla said, she's trainable 😊

I think most of my time with her will be in the fall when it's cooler out. This has been a summer of heat waves, humidity and thunderstorms. And as I get older I get choosey about where and when I ride! Age has its privileges.  I do want to go to the indoor arena, but we have had a lot of extra expenses this year that we won't be clear of until September. Including hay which is getting pricey! We are fortunate to have found a supplier close enough. The hay I bought last year isn't available this year; he said the field didn't produce enough to cut so he's grazing his cattle on it. The hay I did buy isn't as nice but it will do just fine. It's a bit coarser that they are used to. 

The doe with the twin fawns is appearing more often. 

Airborne! Love seeing them sproinging. Other wildlife spottings lately are a whitetail buck and a badger. Fortunately it isn't a resident badger. It must have been on its way through for some reason as there are no badger holes here. Have also seen Humphrey crossing the lawn half way up the driveway and one of the racoons crossing in the same spot. Must be a game trail. 

The waxwings are back too, catching bugs over the river.