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!

Spring Fling and other things

 I changed up my feeding routine a bit, since my trail has no more ice or snow (yay) I had to stop using my sled for hauling hay to the mares. I opened up the upper pens which are closer to my hay pile and now I can use the wheelbarrow. 

One last time with the sled though, and I stuck Velvet in the barn for her grain....

Ruby was not impressed when Velvet went out of sight. 

Fortunately, she got over it and on successive days she didn't do that. She sure has a pattern with those sideways kicks though! No kicks were straight back, all were off to the side. Interesting. 

Kbryan was asking if we have a photo of the sire of the paint foal- by the way, his barn name is Zipper- and yes we do; here is his stallion poster. 

I did a photo shoot for Shayla and got some sweet photos of little Zipper. 

First haltering

Enjoying skritches

First time picking up his feet

Mama Daphne warning the other mares to mind their own bizness, 

The sooty buckskin mare behind them in that photo is the one that is over a year gestation as of April 5th!

Concho, release the hostage!

Oh look, sun!

 Yesterday was a taste of the warmer weather coming; almost to the above freezing mark! Beautiful and sunny was good enough for a visit to Shayla while Ted visited his dad. 

It was mostly a visit about photography, as she has a new camera to figure out- Canon TR7. So off we went to see the horses!

Lots of straw bedding for the mares whose date is the closest to foaling. Jayne is in with Concho and Daphne, who are both beyond safe foaling date and will probably go another couple of weeks. 

Concho (MY Buckskin Concho)

Mama Belle is having trouble with an arthritic knee so she is in a different pen as she is now having a bit of trouble getting around while we wait for the knee to fuse. 

She is, as usual, hugely in foal, and we got to see her baby bouncing around! She is at least a month away from foaling; knowing her history, probably another 6 weeks. 

Then we headed to the big pasture where the Percheron mares are, along with Gussie and Shayla's palomino mare who are both in foal to her black stallion, although Gussie isn't due until later in July. 

 Enjoying the sunshine!

Gussie recognized my voice and came over to visit me and get her scratches. 

Dolly looks more like a sorrel than palomino at this time of year! She is due end of April.

Dolly (DF Sunfrosted Te)

I'm getting to know the draft mares by name now. This one is Kate:

She has the longest mane of them all! There is one mare I like the most, a 3 yr. old that looks like a blue roan but may go grey. Eva! She is so friendly and huge!

We have matching hair!😆

Afterwards we spent some time exploring photo editing; Lightroom. It was interesting! Can sure do a lot to clean up a photo. 

What programs do you, my photographer friends, use and what would you recommend? Ease of use, efficacy and budget are the needs. 

I love my telephoto lens, as I shoot mostly outdoors, but what lens do you think is best for, say, outdoor wedding portraits, horse photos both action and still, for Shayla's Canon TR7? She already has the 50 mm portrait lens and is exploring how to use it; the above photo was taken with it. 

Bellies!

As usual mama Belle is sporting a huge belly- she has around 2 months to go.

She has adjusted well to her new home, and doesn't mind that Gussie is not in the same field as her. 

Gussie finally got over it, apparently! She is looking good too.

This group of mares is living in a large field where they have to paw for their food, and they are all thriving. It gives them exercise too as well as keeping their feet in trim. 

Getting back to the bellies- Jayne has a much tighter belly.

She is doing really well too- Beamer does boss her a bit at feeding time but this wise old mare just quietly moves away . I just love her!

Shayla has a Driftwood bred mare that has joined the DLH herd- she is in foal to the sire of Drifter, so we are pretty excited to see what she throws from him. Her name is My Buckskin Concho, aka Concho. 

She is a young mare and this will be her second foal.

So we have 3 foals to look forward to this year!

Got an email that my new camera has been shipped- yay!