Answers

My last post generated several questions, so I thought I'd cover them all in a post.
First of all, I will continue to blog- that is for sure! I love interacting with all of you, and even if I don't leave comments on the blogs I follow, I do try to read them. The blog community is a wonderful, supportive and caring group, love you guys!

Aurora was surprised that I'm letting Gussie go; it was a tough decision to let both mares go, but I have Rio to ride now, and Gussie will do much better if she is given a job to do. She doesn't do well with a lot of time off as she tends to get herd bound, but whenever she is ridden regularly she is awesome. Also, I would like to see her crossed out on a different stallion, so the choices for her in Saskatchewan are better than me keeping her. The fellow that will be checking her out might be a perfect fit for her, we'll see.

Malory asked, how long have I been doing this? I assume she meant breeding horses. 18 years. Selectively breeding just a few horses, with temperament, conformation and athletic ability uppermost in my breeding program.

Several of you have encouraged me to keep Josie, and I agree that she is a little charmer. I may just keep her, as I really do prefer riding mares, so we will see what happens over the next couple of years. Also, I have made a deal with Belle's purchaser that if she is in foal and produces a filly that I get to keep the filly.

And finally, Stella Belle. Yes, I have received the test results, all of which were negative for neurological diseases. No West Nile, EV1, or EPM. Not Rabies or Tetanus. I had the opportunity to speak with an experienced horse vet a couple of days ago, and the first thing he said when I described what happened was trauma. Apparently when there is trauma to the head, there is a bone at the base of the skull/neck that breaks during head trauma such as falling over backwards etc. and all the things that happened to Stella were what he described. The suddenness and violence of the incident and the rapid deterioration all were there. My first instinct when this happened was that Stella got her head through the panels to visit with Nitro, and jerked back and hurt her neck , then panicked and ran out of the shelter, where she started running into things and crashing around. I didn't see her put her neck through the panels as I had my back turned while I fed Beamer his hay, but turned around when I heard the clatter of Stella running over the poop scooping shovel that was leaning against the wall as she fled from the shelter.

So basically, Stella had a broken neck.

And me having to make the call to euthanize her was better than having her suffer until she died, because there is no recovery from this kind of trauma. I cried when I realized that, because until then, I wasn't sure. What if...

The expense of having the neuro tests also gave me some peace, because I know for sure that my little herd is healthy.

And now that I have made these changes, it's time to get on with life. New goals include getting Rio legged up so that I can ride him in a Jim Anderson clinic in January. My goal for Rio is to enter Cowboy Up challenge competitions, and if I can, get someone to show him in English classes that will showcase his lovely movement. (Shayla!)
As for Beamer, I will stand him to other people's mares and he will get lots of riding too.

But I'm going to miss my girls.

Stella Belle Peppy April 3 2013-September 23 2013

There's a big hole in my heart.
Stella is no longer with us. I had to make "that call" on Monday.
I am not going to go into details because I don't know all the answers yet to the inevitable questions, just suffice to say that it was neurological and it was quick (27 hours from onset to no hope left) and ugly. I am awaiting the results of a neuro panel blood test.
This is my tribute to the horse that I thought would be my heart horse, my companion and dream horse, the one I waited years for.

Birthday, April 3rd

She knew she was mine.

I loved to watch her bust out her dance moves.....

I nicknamed her Stella the Stalker because she would follow close behind me

She brought me joy just watching her.....

My beautiful, perfect Stella Belle.

Forever in my heart.

Wednesday's Words: Mix'n'match

Today when I checked up on the status of Belle's milk production I was finally able to call it dried up, so it was time to put the fillies and mares together. It went really well, Stella did not try to suck at all. It was interesting watching the herd dynamics.
Out in the field, they all casually just hung out and grazed.

Stella buddied back up to mama Belle, while Josie wandered off to the far end of the field, and Gussie barely moved from the first spot she hit for grazing.

Notice anything?

Yes my big girl is now sporting our brand! We had the horse dentist out yesterday and I took advantage of the sedation to slap my irons on her. By the way, she had a lot of problems, such big hooks she was unable to grind her jaw at all, he did a lot of fixing and she's a little sore today. I can't wait to see what difference it makes to riding her, but I think I'll give her another day off.
Anyway- I digress-back to my story!
The mares headed back to their shelter to see what I was doing, rearranging the feeders- I digress again, I separated Rio and Nitro into different pens now that the fillies and mares can run together- and I needed the feeder to have 2 separate feeding stations for the girls;
Anyway! once they all came into the shelter, it was interesting to watch little Josie find her place in the herd dynamics. Stella is still her BFF:

her go to gal in times of trouble- the kind of trouble that mama Belle can dish out that is. She soon learned that her best course of action was to keep Stella between her little red self and those big freshly maintained teeth.

Properly put in her place, she was allowed a place at the feeder.

I think Josie will end up hanging out with Gussie, who seems to not mind her, then it will be the reds and the blacks!

Silly filly stuff

The fillies and Rio were having a little bit of fun today..... well, at least Stella was!

Sunset and pedigrees

Summer seems to be hanging on into September here, it has been hot and muggy for a couple of months now. We got a gorgeous sunset last night, these mountains are on the east side of the valley and the setting sun in the west sometimes lights them up with a beautiful soft glow.

The rain rolled in last night,, it should be a big help to the pasture which was looking a little stressed.

I picked up Legends Volume 8 the other day, these are the books that tell the stories of legendary Quarter Horses. Top Moon is in Coyote Belle's pedigree (and all her foals) and Docs Hickory was Chickory's granddaddy so therefore Josie's great-granddaddy. There are some other horses in this book  that I'm interested in like Double Bid, who figures in the pedigree of one of my friend Carol's (All These Pretty Horses) broodmares, Jill Bid.
Top Moon  sired Lady Bug's Moon, who sired Shawne Bug. Shawne Bug's daughter Summer Pet is on Coyote Belle's papers. That's a whole lotta run, and it's balanced by even more run - also on her papers is Sunday Times, whose maternal grandsire is Savannah Jr. winner of the All American Futurity;2 time AQHA running Champion and had the highest ever recorded speed index of 133.
All this speed is balanced out by the cow in her pedigree, she is a granddaughter of the great Shining Spark (Legends Volume 4).
So, little miss Stella Belle.... do you want to run? We could try barrel racing someday......

Some herd dynamics

Or maybe not so dynamic....
Nitro has gone to his owner's place for a week or so, and it was my opportunity to integrate Rio  back into the herd. I started him off with the mares this morning, and while Belle was leaping and carrying on rejoicing at being out on pasture,

Rio could have cared less. 

The mares carried on like a pair of hooligans for a bit,

but soon settled down to graze. I put them back in their pens after a bit, and in the afternoon I let the little fillies out with Rio.

They had a quiet meet and greet,

but once Stella figured out that she had access to the pasture for the first time in 3 weeks, the race was on! At least, she thought it was,

it took Josie a little while to get into the spirit of things.

They ripped around long enough to get Rio going, but just one little blast and then he went back to chowing down.

Since everything went so well, I'll be turning Rio out every day with one of the groups, and as soon as Belle's milk is all dried up I'll run them all together. Nitro has to be kept separate because he isn't gelded yet.

Sunday Stills

The challenge this week is to photograph from the back of things... not a problem! Here are some of my favorite "rear views":

Rio

Rio and Nitro:

Coyote Belle and Gussie:

Stella Belle and Josie:

And last but not least...

Mr. Handsome himself!

Spinning with Shayla

Sunday Stills

Ed gave us the challenge of the color blue for this week - good one, because there is a lot of blue around here, like this salt block....

The bug was a bonus.

Blue is one of my favorite colors, and it looks great on Beamer, he has a blue halter and lead rope.

I have a blue tarp set up to give the horses shade in the afternoon....

the water tub is blue...

but best of all the mountains look blue. 

The girls day out

Stella and Josie got some turnout time in the bigger pen today.
As you read the following captions, you have to sing them to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb!

Stella has a little friend,

little friend,

little friend,

and everywhere that Stella went,

her friend

was sure

to go!

Boys and girls

For those who didn't clue in on yesterday's Wordless Wednesday post, Rio is home. The trainers were kind enough to haul him here, a 4 hour trip that turned into 5 because of a highway accident ahead of them, and they gave Shayla a one hour lesson.We really appreciate that they did this.
 So the big boy is home now, but Shayla only gets to enjoy him for a few more days because she is going to Saskatchewan to learn barefoot trimming and will be gone 6 weeks. So Rio gets a nice long rest! After that it will be some light riding on some local trails.  We took a tour of the hayfield today, I rode Beamer and it was nice to have the two boys out for a stroll being well behaved.

Rio learned to stride out over the last couple of months.

Everyone thought he had grown, but we measured and he's exactly the same- 15.1 and a quarter at the shoulder and 15.2 at the hip, so he still has to grow a bit in height and a long way to grow yet to fill out.

We checked out the cows on the way back, and then back at the yard I wanted a photo of the two of them together so we asked them to stand ground tied while we took photos. They were good boys!

Oh, hai, son, whose yer daddy!"

Posing pretty!

Meanwhile, I started halter work with Josie. Tuesday I built a catch pen from panels and got a halter on her in there- she was not too impressed and tried every evasion she could think of, but eventually gave me a couple of baby steps so that's where I quit. Then yesterday, I put both fillies in there and caught her again- pretty much just walked up to her and put it on, supervised of course by Stella.

"Here, let me lead! I'll show you how it's done!"

She was giving in both directions, so that's where we stopped. Then this evening I walked up to her in the bigger pen and put the halter on her, and used the grain bucket as an incentive for her to want to go where I was asking, but also asked her to step away and come to me, which she did. I'm pretty happy with how quickly she learns, she does have a bit of an independent streak but at the same time willing to learn. I should be able to take the catch pen down today and get her leading all over in the bigger pen. Gotta love those good minded Beamer babies!