Update on Loretta

For all you folks who were wondering whatever happened to Loretta, my silver buckskin aged mare: I have her out on  breeding lease to a friend who has silver bay stallions. He bred Loretta to his homozygous silver stud, Silver Assured, in hopes of getting a homozygous silver filly that will not be homozygous for bay. Here is a photo of the stallion she is bred to, he is the one on the left:

 She is due to foal June 16, and once the foal stands and nurses, Loretta will be considered sold as per our agreement. She will be 24 years old by then. I am really looking forward to seeing her foal. I originally found Loretta on Facebook, a ranch in northern BC had put her up for sale before running her through a sale where she probably would have gone to a meat buyer since she was 23 yrs old and open. They had no idea that she was the rare silver colour. I could see from her photos that she had  high probability of being a silver buckskin, so I took a chance and bought her, paying twice the purchase price to get her shipped down here. Genetic testing confirmed the silver gene and that she was not homozygous for agouti, - double win, as it means she has a chance to eventually produce or be the grandma to a silver black, which is very rare in  quarter horses.
So why did I not just keep her and breed her to Beamer? A couple of reasons- I didn't like her dominant behaviour in my small herd ; I only keep the sweet ones (hence Coulee being sold) and the other reason was that I need to keep my expenses down. 2 breedable mares is plenty, and all I have room for.
 This is Loretta in her new home- lots of room to roam much better than the confined quarters I have here.

A not so good ride and other things

Ride 14- Rosalee
I had a disappointing ride yesterday. It has been a couple of weeks since I hauled Rosalee to the arena, and Mesa has occupied most of my attention (Imagine that....)  I rode a few minutes in the grazing paddock, then headed out and attempted to ride down to the river.
Attempted... because we didn't get very far. As soon as I point her away from the barnyard she balks. So I worked on side pass, serpentines, circles, etc. and pointed her down the trail again. She spins away, I turn her back. Rinse and repeat..... turn her and back her down the trail, work circles, etc again.

I would have her just stand and relax and look at the pond, as a reward for not evading, but as soon as I asked for forward I got reverse. I wasn't asking her to go in it, just wanted her to go by the edge of it.
Nothing worked.
Dang prairie horse never got her feet wet before or what? When she evaded by backing up she stepped into a little bit of the water.

It was getting to the point where she was losing her mind, so I changed it up and rode up to the road and over to our house. Well, that felt like sitting on a coiled spring... I figured she would relax because she was in familiar territory but nooooo....
I put her away, and need to rethink my plans for her. It's obvious that me riding her out alone is counter productive, so I put out a call on Facebook for trail riding buddies and got a good response, hopefully I'll be able to ride out a few times a week with friends and get her mind back on having to work for a living. Also, Shayla is back for a couple of weeks so I hope to get some help there. It always helps having someone watch what you are doing.
Meanwhile. Mesa is thriving! I have them on daily turnout in the larger pen and in the foaling pen with the shelter at night, it's working great.

The grazing paddock in the background with Belle and Rosalee

Coulee is doing better as a momma, not quite so worried about her precious baby. Mesa's hind legs have straightened up and she is getting easy to catch and loves her butt scratches. I halter them and take them out for hand grazing most days before they get closed into the foaling pen for the evening.

She is eating grass- well, trying to! She doesn't have teeth yet but she is getting some.
I really think I will be keeping this filly for my future riding horse; so far all the horses I have bought to ride don't measure up to my expectations, and I want to ride what I raise. I would have been riding Stella as a 4 year old this year. Such a loss. It could be years before I get another filly from Beamer as he is prone to throwing colts. And really, I don't have years to wait! Not getting any younger!

Also I just remembered that I didn't share with you that Loretta has gone to a new home. A friend of mine (who owns a breeding farm in Alberta) is putting her into his program for raising silver dilutes. He has a stallion who is homozygous for silver bay, and Loretta is a silver buckskin who is not homozygous for bay, so he hopes to get a foal or 2 from her who will be guaranteed to be silver, perhaps homozygous and some different colours other than silver bay. The ultimate goal of course is raising good horses regardless of colour, but colour does help them sell, and he kind of has the corner on the market for silvers in Alberta.

Spring cleaning and silly mares.

There is still time to enter the foaling contest!
CLICK HERE TO ENTER
If your guess has passed the date and no foal, you can guess again, just please review the guesses on the list on the side bar to make sure you aren't the same as someone else.

Haven't had any riding time in the last week, been cold, windy and rainy and I wussed out. But we did get the horse pens cleaned and harrowed, and I picked up a lot of loose rocks.
I have been taking the horses out one by one to hand graze, they are loving that! It's funny, the mares will all go to the very end of the lead rope to graze, but Beamer grazes as close to me as possible.

Ole Loretta is in heat, and she did NOT want to be caught to go out and graze (silly mare!) so she started ripping around and got all the mares going.

Of course, I had to keep the camera on Rosalee, she is so fast and athletic! Just after I stopped filming she galloped right up to me and came to a sliding stop 2 ft from me, and stood there as if to say, "Did you get that? I did good!"
She is such a character. Case in point- you gotta keep an eye on your tools around her!

Tonight Coulee is 11 months pregnant, so I start my foal watch. I am on a Facebook group called Mare Match Up and a lot of people are posting about mares going way late, some up to 12 months or more, and some maiden mares going really early- it's a crap shoot! Also of concern to me is the number of foals dying and mares dying- seems to be more than usual, or maybe it's just that due to social media we hear more about it. At any rate, I will be sticking close to Coulee from now on. I always start praying for safe delivery once they start foaling!

Spring progress

Finally, the powers that be decided they had the manpower to clean up the mudslide across from our driveway.

 

They are battling mudslides on the major highways still; as the snow recedes in the mountains, the rocks and mud are tumbling down- I heard there was a rock as big as a house on the road in Kootenay  Pass. I'm grateful to have the slide gone, although we are now battling dust from all the silt on the road. There are plans to get the road swept but I'm sure that won't be soon, especially as we are back in rainy weather now.

Windows closed! I guess I shouldn't complain, at least it isn't a gravel road and it will eventually get cleaned up- but it sure has affected my breathing. Fortunately the horses are a little farther from the road, although Loretta is coughing over the last couple of days.


Meanwhile, the pregnant mares are getting bigger, the babes are bouncing around in there. Mama Belle is in her chocolate colour phase as she sheds, and Loretta looks like she had a fancy ombre treatment!

As the mares shed out, the lighter colour hairs come out first; Coulee is showing a lot of white in her flanks and Rosalee has turned quite pale.
I spent most of my horse time this week trimming feet- Coulee's hinds and I spent 2 days on Loretta- she was not very cooperative and it wore me out just doing 2 a day. Silly old mare, I bet she feels better now , but she made me work for it! I have a bruised thigh from trying to hang on to a hind foot.

Rosalee is such a character- she is the helpful kind that you can't turn your back on if you value your tools! Shovels, hoses, boards- she has to investigate everything!
She does like to light up the after burners too. 😊

My husband is finally getting to work on the mare shelter/foaling shelter. We are repurposing a building, it will be 3 sided , 16 by 12 and on 4 inch pipe for skids.

For those of you who love cats I leave you with a puzzle of our resident blue eyed beauty stray cat.

Snow Day

Heavy equipment has been called in to try to get the river flowing where it belongs. I sure hope it works because we now have a heavy snowfall and rain in the forecast.
The dyke can be seen in the background in these next two photos, it's that level snow line in the middle of the photo.

From the mare pen- although it looks like they are lower they are actually above the level of the dyke.

Looking downhill from the barn with Beamer's pen on the right.
Meanwhile, the snow has moved back in.... for the next week or so....
That meant photo op at feeding time this morning!

I think I needed a faster shutter speed!

Coulee

The horses look wet but they don't seem to be cold. The temperatures are right around the freezing mark, we might get some rain mixed with the snow.

I'm pretty sure the snow is deep enough thank-you-very-much!

I think Loretta is quite photogenic! 

Mama Belle- I sure do love this mare!

Ok allright, I'll put your hay out now!

Loretta's rebuttal

Loretta wants everyone to know that she doesn't always have her bitch face on.

See? I can look all sweet and pretty too!

As long as I get first taste of the hay!!!!

Beamer's view

Too cold to ride, so my horse activity is confined to doing the chorse- and of course I always pack my handy little Nikon AW100 with me. It has served me well and is now held together with scotch tape, as the cover falls off now- but it still works!

Here is Beamer's world.

He has a great view of the sunset on the Skimmerhorns. He is snug as a bug in his house out of the wind- but the mares have to tough it out.

They have a roof but no shelter from the wind; fortunately they are in a bit of a  bowl so the wind doesn't hit as hard there as it does up where our house is. Next year will be different, we were in a hurry to get a million projects done here just to get set up before winter, so this year I will get the horses set up better.

The above photo also shows my racist horses (haha) the blacks are together and the blondes are together, they do this every day. Loretta has taken a shine to Rosalee, and Belle tolerates Coulee.

Speaking of Coulee, her baby bump is quite noticeable now (big grin!) Only 4 months to go!

I check her daily for baby kicks, partly because it's fun and also to get her used to having her belly handled. I haven't forgotten how crabby she was when I first got her and rubbed her belly and she tried to kick me. She is much better now; I also touch her on her udder to get her used to when baby tries to nurse. She is due any time around the beginning of May- first foal so no history but her last day bred was May 31. There will be a foaling contest in April!

Loretta

I had sent away a DNA kit on Loretta, for 5 panel and colour. For those who don't know, the 5 panel test covers 5 genetic diseases known to be possible in certain bloodlines of quarter horses, as well as paints and some other breeds.
She is negative on all the 5 panel, great news but what I expected. I also had her colour tested for the silver gene as well as red/black. She does carry the silver gene- again, what I expected, and she carries one copy of red and one black. Since she is a buckskin (now definitely a sliver buckskin!) she carries at least Aa (heterozygous) for agouti and the cream gene. Agouti is the gene that limits black to the points such as ears, legs and mane and tail. Bays are the usual example, and buckskin is bay with one cream dilution. so- she can pretty well have any colour of foal under the rainbow depending on who she is bred to.
Because of her age, I am thinking I will breed her to a silver bay that I know of- here is a photo of him:

Not my photo, I think it's a cell phone photo. Most people would consider this to be a palomino, but he is tested silver bay.

There is a good possibility that she could throw a homozygous silver foal. IF we can get her in foal! After that, she will become Beamer's pasture mate; I'm not sure at what age mares stop coming into heat- I'm sure it's different with each mare- so if I can get a nice filly from her, she could be a candidate to breed to Beamer. If it's a colt it will be sold, and silvers do bring a good price.

Loretta is looking very healthy- here is a video I took this evening.

Merry Christmas to all!

I had a little fun with the horses on Christmas Eve morning- I made them work for their breakfast as I wanted a nice action photo for my annual Christmas Card.
Here are the out takes- enjoy and have a wonderful Christmas!

Rosalee

Beamer

Coulee

Loretta

Belle

Thea was not impressed that she wasn't allowed to join in the fun!

And a big ole Christmas smooch from Beamer! 

Horse stuff but no riding

Oh miss Loretta.

I think she cut herself on some elderberry branches that I had piled up but hadn't moved out of the horse pen...  guess what, they are moved now.... I doctored her up with a tetanus shot (just in case; I don't know her vaccination history) and liberally applied Young Living's Animal Scents ointment.
After that I worked on Belle's rain rot- scraped off the scabs and applied Young Living's Melrose essential oil blend.

After feeding, I noticed that the neighbours were preparing to fall some danger trees that are next to Beamer's pen. Good plan! Because if they fell  they are close to Beamer's pen and could take out his fence.

I stuck around to see how Beamer reacted to all the commotion; he was pretty good considering how close to his pen it was. The mares couldn't have cared less, they were busy chowing down and were a little further away.

Thursday we are hauling in the winter's hay- 20 large square bales, hopefully before the snow hits; it sure has been nice here.

There's cold weather and snow in the forecast. I have just started my Christmas decorating- kind of hard getting into that when I still have reno work to do, but we are getting close.

Back to just girls

Don't give me that look, girls! Yes, there is more change happening!

Fuse left for Alberta yesterday, and Coulee is coming home tomorrow- weather permitting. 

I have a professional hauler bringing her as I didn't want to trust hauling with my 2 wheel drive truck on iffy roads.

I enjoyed having Fuse here, he's a sweet li'l guy. He's going to grow up to be one stout horse too. He is nominated for the CBHI Super Stakes and might be up for sale. 

Coulee did really well with Shayla, once she got through to her she really enjoyed riding her. Still working on getting a blog post on how they did. 

The herd dynamics will change, I hope Rosalee and Coulee pick up their friendship, as Belle and Loretta are pretty much established as the leaders.

A comparison

This is what mama Belle looked like days before I sold her, almost exactly 3 years ago.
 In the summer of 2015 she looked like this:

That was in Alberta, with her foal by a brother to Playgun. By spring of 2016 she was in rough shape. Not sure what happened but her last year was pretty tough on her. She needs help in the winter and during her last trimester.
She is settling in nicely, waiting at the gate for her night feed .

Meanwhile, Loretta is doing very well. She is the herd boss, but not mean. Rosalee is the curious in-your-face/pocket/way kind of horse who makes friends of anyone who comes anywhere near her inquisitive nose. Fuse is a little sweety who is careful to keep on the good side of the mares, and has some pretty good moves to stay out of their way.
Coulee is also doing well- stay tuned for a guest post from Shayla on how much she has come along.
And then there is Beamer....

 He makes me smile.

We made it!

Finally, we got all moved in. That, however, does not mean organized! Stuff is still piled up while we await the completion of the flooring and baseboards. But at least the worst of the move is over. We had a lot of help for which Ted and I are very, very grateful.

The horses have settled in quite well, they are loving the extra room and the pasture. We still have to work on setting up a shelter for them, but our needs had to come first for the last week. They'll just have to suck it up a bit until we can get at it.

Beamer has been suffering from an abscess for the last month, and it finally blew out, at the tip of his frog. He's all diaper and duct tape bandaged now to keep it clean and is getting around much better.

Loretta has gained weight and I discovered that she has a fair burst of speed, not surprising with the breeding on her bottom side (her dam was a granddaughter of Dash For Cash).

Rosalee is pretty happy too, she often instigates the wind sprints that sets all the horses running, and what I'm finding with her is that she has an exceptional power take off. She digs that big butt of hers in and off in a flash she goes! With her athletic ability I should be able to do just about any event on her. We will see where next year takes us.

The dogs are happy here too, and little miss Thea thinks it's her job to keep the horses in line, although they are often keeping her in line.