Weaning day and howtheheckdoIorganizeeverything?

Sunday was a frosty morning. The horses went on a romp when I went down to feed.



Sassy was just full of herself.... good thing she didn't know that her world was about to change.
Yup, Booncat weaning day because Sassy was headed to Alberta to her new owner.
Normally I wean during the waning of the moon, but I didn't have that choice this time as this was the only day that Sassy could be hauled. And a good thing they didn't wait another day, because Alberta got hit with another early snowstorm.

As she left, Booncat was calling and followed the fence line as the trailer pulled out, calling for his mama. But he had his buddy Eli and lovely calm Gussie to help him through the day.
He called sporadically throughout the day, but by the next day, not at all. Life goes on as normal. I do prefer the over the fence method as I did with Eli and Belle though, less mental stress on both mama and baby.

Drifter got saddled and longed , he took well to being saddled and there was no silliness to him at all. I will continue his training weather permitting, and once I get all the weaning sorted out. I still need one more pen! Not quite ready to turn Drifter in with an unbred mare (Gussie) but I would like to have a place to put Booncat separately- the li'l rascal still won't eat the foal ration so I am supplementing him with alfalfa- which the mares don't need.  Eli will be leaving in a couple of weeks.  I guess it'll all sort itself out soon! I may be able to put Booncat and Drifter together once Eli is gone, then I can put Belle and Gussie together and my 3 pens with shelters will work.

I'm trying to ride more often, yesterday I rode and was wondering how the 2 babies would do without an adult in the pen with them, but they had their hay to keep them busy and didn't seem too worried as I rode away.

Beamer has been getting turnout in the bottom hotwire pen. To do that I have to lock Drifter in the top foaling pen, even though Beamer is good I don't want to push his limit by having another stallion across the fence, even if it is a juvenile. The fenceline of this pen borders both the mare pen and the bottom paddock that adjoins the foaling pen,so you see my dilemma in turnout and weaning. I have logistics problems! But it will all sort out, especially if I can get Booncat eating the foal ration, which I can either pop him in the horse trailer or the barn for the 15 minutes it takes to eat that. Or if I can have Booncat and Drifter together and can just lock them up while Beamer is out. Either way, it will help once Eli is gone and Belle can go back in the main pen.

Riding day 60

Race day

It's Kentucky Derby Day! I am cheering for Roadster!

Anyway, Eli looks like he is practicing for a race himself!

Or maybe it's dance moves?

I think I'll go with dance moves!

Because he sure doesn't need any practice in being cute!

I did get his colour and 5 panel tests back. He is EE aa nCr which means he is a smoky black, as I suspected. He also carries one copy of the herda gene as Beamer does. It seems the cutest ones get that gene mutation- Eli, Tumbleweed, Mesa and Josie all carry it. For those who don't know. it is a recessive disease found in certain lines of Quarter Horses, which means that it needs to have 2 copies of the gene for the disease to actually be present and affect the horse; a horse with one copy is not affected at all. I started testing Beamer's foals once I found out in 2013 that he is a carrier.

Starting Monday, he and Belle will be getting daily turnout, if all goes well they will stay out with Gussie and Sassy. Speaking of Sassy....

she is 301 days today and is starting to bag up. Her 320 day mark for a viable foal is May 23. I have a feeling she won't go until mid June, which is the standard 343 day mark. So I will be closely monitoring her and will start foal watch as soon as she is bagged up a bit more. Stay tuned for foaling contest #2! I am really hoping for a blue roan or a black from her.

Raising young horses

It seems a lot of people don't know what's involved in acquiring a foal and raising it to the age where it's usable for riding. As with keeping any age of horse, the first consideration is a safe environment. A pen with solid fencing- not barbwire!- is a good place to start. This can be board, pipe, or mesh fence, or some other material that a horse won't injure itself on. As with adult horses, a good source of water and a safe place to put feed, and some sort of shelter; a run-in 3 sided shelter is usually  enough- like this one I had for Chickory and Andee (now owned by Fern Valley Appaloosas):

That's Andee on the left, Chickory on the right

Once housing is taken care of, that leaves your interaction with them. As a side note, it's always good to have a companion for them, either another youngster or an older horse. Until they are in the summer of their yearling year, most of what you do with them will be just getting them to lead nicely, pick up their feet, behave for your hoof care provider, stand tied, and tolerate grooming all over. If you plan on showing, you can add in training specific for the class you show in, eg. halter, showmanship, in-hand trail, etc. Since I don't show, I can't advise on what you  can do for that. 

As a yearling, you start introducing other things, such as trailer loading, ponying, sacking out. 

Rio trailer loading at age 11 months

You also increase your expectations of good behaviour. If you plan to introduce them to riding in their 2 year old year, then in the fall of their yearling year you can introduce them to longeing for short periods (not too long because it's hard on their joints), sacking out with saddle blankets, and progressing to setting a light saddle on them.

Longeing Sassy as a long yearling

 I like to have them checked by an equine dentist and get their wolf teeth pulled before they are 2.  There is lots of ground work you can do with them as a yearling, like getting them to move away from the pressure of your hand on their side (imitating leg pressure). There are many books written on the subject of training, and I'm no expert, I just do what works for me.

None of this is rocket science, and there is no horse-whispering- mystery involved in getting a youngster prepared for their life as a good using horse. It's all common sense, and treating them like a horse, not tolerating bad behaviour just because they are cute, and laying out a training plan for them. If you aren't confident in being the first one on their back, plan ahead and save enough money to send them to a reputable trainer for at  least a month. Remember, the ground work you do with  them helps to build a bond and establishes your "place in the herd". Start as you mean to continue: if you don't want to be pushed around by a  1100 pound horse, don't let a 500 pound baby push you around. Establish boundaries from the get-go. 

The end result will be a horse that you know the complete history on, one that you helped form, that you know inside out. 

Me and Sundee,  Coyote Belle's mama; my first heart horse that I bought as a weanling.

Updates on lots of things

"I hear someone is interested in having me for their very own!"

I have an internet ad with Northern Horse.com for Sassy and have been getting a lot of interest in her. One lady in particular sounds promising, and I'm praying that this will be a good home for our pretty girl.

This photo was taken yesterday while we were waiting for the farrier. (I subsequently adjusted the knots in the halter so that it fits her better!) Isn't that snow disgusting! She is in heat right now, but even so was good for the farrier, who says she has really nice feet. Actually, he says all my horses have good feet, which is nice to hear. As you can see by the picture, Sassy tends more to the running side of her pedigree, she isn't the chunky type. She has a lot of speed, so I hope she has a career in speed events; she has a lot of cow breeding too, which makes her a perfect candidate for Working Cowhorse. She is two months away from her second birthday, so she has a lot of growing and filling out to do; it's a good thing she still has some of that winter hair too!

Still no foal; keep an eye on this post (Foaling Contest Continued) for details as to who is still in the running for the prize, and it's still open to those who had a guess in but the date has passed. There are still about a dozen guesses left that could win! Coyote Belle was really cranky this morning when I turned her out, and she is just starting to wax. I think she's close!

Chickory was perfect for the farrier, I was really proud of her! You'd never know that it was only her second trim. She still looks like a wooly mammoth, but she is growing like a weed- oh, wait, weeds aren't growing here yet; nothing is growing here yet, just horses!

I'm going to the Mane Event in Red Deer next weekend; hope to watch Al Dunning's clinic and take in the Trainer's Challenge. If any of you bloggers are going, email me and I'll give you my cell number so we can meet up!

Sassy videos- 9th ride

I got my husband to video my 9th ride on Sassy today. In this first one, I had just got on and lined her out along the fence line. (Sorry about the buildup of poop in the corner, there's no cleaning that until the snow's gone!)

In the second one, coming back along the fence you can see her reaching for the bit and shaking her head around a little, but mostly she travels along quite nicely.

In the next video, I work her a little on changing direction and the back-up. I like that she stands quietly and waits for me to show her what I want- even if she doesn't get it right away!

After Ted left, I rode her a little more, and danged if she didn't try to pull a sideways jump at some imaginary boogieman. It kinda made me laugh, because it was pretty easy to ride. I prefer to have colts pull that stuff when I first start riding them because it's usually easy to handle; and if they don't, you end up wondering when they are going to come apart on you. I say, get it over with soonest! I rode her some more after that, and she settled in and behaved. Coltishness aside, she is a sensible filly, and it's going to be a delight to work with her this year.

Good day sunshine

"Whaaaat?"

The warm weather has finally begun! Woo-Hoo! The snow is getting soft and sinking into the ground, which is wonderful for the farmers. It also means that the pastures where I ride have better footing, which I took full advantage of yesterday. Sassy had her 8th ride yesterday; I rode her in their winter pen, and at first it was rather like pushing a wet noodle, and of course familiar things like the round bale feeder suddenly have horse-eating monsters lurking when one has a rider on top! So instead of getting in a battle and insisting that we ride past the bale feeder I took her down along the fenceline and rode her back and forth along that- I had to tap her butt with the rein a few times until she figured out that I wanted her to just travel out in a straight line. Once she was going relaxed there, we went up by the bale feeder again and I worked her in figure eights, changes of direction and stepping across on the front end; then we went past the feeder, which no longer had lurking monsters. So it was a good productive ride that ended on a realy good note.

After that I rode Beamer, just putting along through the snow, until I asked him to stop from a trot and he tried to throw his nose up and bull into the bridle- which of course, brought about a working session until I had him stopping softly on a loose rein! (He tries that every now and then when he hasn't been ridden for a while!)

Today I hope to get in another ride on Sassy, hopefully with pictures this time. I'll leave you with This one of Reba and Tess soaking up the sunshine while they were guarding the herd.

A hot fudge sundae Thursday

Sassy got her seventh ride today. I didn't have my camera with me, so you'll have to put up with words instead:o)
I saddled her up and took her for a walk along the route I planned to ride. We inspected such potentially horse-eatin' hazards as vehicles parked and covered with tarps, snowmobiles, implements and lumber partially covered with snow, which makes them look rather odd, and the new compost heap from corral cleaning day. Once we were sure there were no attack monsters hiding anywhere, I stepped up and rode her through the same route. Little darlin' did just great! She stepped off the path a time or two, but soon figured out it's a lot harder to pack my considerable weight around in deep snow than on the path. So we had our first solo trail ride! If the weather holds, I plan on doing that about three times a week with her. And then, because it was such a nice day, I led Chickory along the trail, just to get her out and inspecting new things, sights and smells. To top off the day in style, Beamer'n'dogs'n'me went for a putt down the road, just enjoying the heat of the sun on our faces. Days like this are like a hot fudge sundae; hot and cold and delicious!

Work and play

Warmer temperatures means it's time to get out and do things! Shake off those winter blues and enjoy the sunshine! Yesterday Sassy got her 6th ride.

I managed to get a few trotting steps, and then worked a little on spiraling her circles down to a front leg crossover. She did super! Total riding time is now about an hour.

Today was corral cleaning day. Our neighbour has this really cool machine (I wants one!):

He also has a bucket attachment and in three hours totally cleaned Beamer's pen and the mare's pen. He hauled everything out to the compost pile in the pasture. Needless to say, Beamer had to romp when we put him back in his newly cleaned pen!

Tomorrow I'll have time to ride again. I plan on taking Sassy on a tour of the pasture, and working Beamer too. I was practicing sliding stops in the snow with him yesterday; he was having as much fun as I was! There was a spot on the driveway that had the perfect balance of packed snow and traction. One must take advantage of such opportunities!

Oh yeah!

Little darlin's

It warmed up enough today to muck out the horse shelters and put fresh straw in. Peppy and Chickory were very cute, sharing the salt block. Coyote Belle's baby was kicking up a storm in her belly, so I checked her udder and guess what!

Yup, she is starting to build a bag!

Now the watching and waiting begins! Her due date is April 8, but this is her first baby, so who knows? 320 days will be March 26, so any time after that is baby time! I think I'll start a pool for date and time sometime in early March-watch for a future post on that!

Now that I know Peppy is leaving I am trying to get more photos of his fuzzy little self to share with you. And of course, we have a certain little blonde camera hog!

Trailer loading

Woke up to -21C (-6F) this morning, and it only warmed up to -9C (16F) so since it was too darn cold to ride, I decided to give the youngsters a trailer loading lesson. I have a wide open stock type trailer which is great for teaching the youngsters to load; they don't feel claustrophobic in it. So here, in pictures, is how it went:

Hmmmm, you say you want me to go in there? I dunno.....

(thinks about it for about 5 minutes while I tap his butt whenever he moves away from the trailer.)

Yeah, OK, I can do this!

(I loaded him two more times and he just hopped in both times. )

Then it was Chickory's turn. Apparently she has complete trust in me; because she hopped in with no hesitation.

Anything boys can do, girls can do better!

Is this where you wanted me?

Note to self, get Chickory a new halter! I loaded her 3 times too. And then, because Sassy is up for sale, I videoed her loading.

No problem! So a cold day turned out to be a productive day, even if I didn't get to ride.

Riding Sassy-Videos

Today I had my third ride on Sassy. Remember that my rides on her are very short, so that the total riding time I have on her is less than 15 minutes. I think she is doing very well, and she feels good when I am on her- soft and willing, even when she is mouthing the bit she still comes back to me when I ask. Gotta love video for critiquing my own riding! If you look, in the first video, when I go to get on my toe pokes her leg, so she steps out; when I move my foot forward she stands quietly like she should. Note to self- slow my hands down!

What a Difference a Day Makes....

No riding today!

Training, trees, and trails

As you can see from my Wednesday photos, I rode Sassy yesterday. Because she is so young, our session consists of some ground work, and about 3-5 minutes of riding. She is going to get bored with the small pen we're working in real soon, so I'm looking for another place to ride, preferrably an indoor arena. I rode her again today, same way. Love this filly!

I also rode Beamer yesterday; just around the pasture checking fence, then loped-make that fast loped!- some big circles in the snow. He was feeling pretty good, and needed to burn off some energy. It's nice that even at speed, I can just sit down and say whoa, and he'll slide to a stop and stand quietly. I have to give a hat-tip to Beamer's trainer Kim Smith who did a great job on my boy.

It was so warm yesterday (50 F ) that we really didn't want to go in the house, so we decided to burn our Christmas tree in the fire pit:

There really is a fire pit under the snow! We pulled up the lawn chairs and had a beverage and just enjoyed the rest of the day.

Me'n' my B boy and Tess (aka the Tessalator!) hit the trails today for a totally wonderful ride up the pipeline. I had to leave Reba in the barn as she is in full standing heat and I didn't want her teasing any coyotes in the area :0)

Tess is very good on the trails, she heels very well and doesn't stray too far although she does stop at doggie points of interest such as coyote poop! I found some new trails to go on, and come summer I can probably ride for hours up there.

This is the view from the top, looking south west;

and looking south east. Beamer really enjoyed getting out and seeing some new country. I rode him at a brisk walk, loose rein, just soaking up the sunshine. Around here, it doesn't get any better than this for the first week of February!

Wordless Wednesday