Sunday Silence

 

Wild weather

 The start of summer has been a bit tumultuous around here. Starting with a Monsoon season then turning into multiple warnings for severe thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes.  None of which hit here! 

A tornado did touch down at Rocky Mountain House, which is a 45 minute drive west of us. The clouds that day were quite ominous from our vantage point. 

All is well that ends well though!  The system moved off to the north east of us. What we did get was very strong north wind about an hour later, I thought for sure we would lose some trees, in fact I could hear a tall old spruce tree cracking as I was watching out of our only north facing window in the bathroom. Thought for sure that old giant was going to come down, but it stood strong. 

Now we have rain and smoke.... always something!  But at least it has cooled off. 

We have a lot of cliff swallows that have congregated here- they are very welcome because ever since they arrived, the mosquito population has been decimated- yay! 

This is just a very few of them, the rest were reeling around the sky snacking on bugs. 

My flower gardens are thriving, this is my Jacmani clematis which last year had only a handful of flowers. 

The veggie garden is yielding carrots and peas now  and the potato plants are flowering. That is actually all I planted this year, I still have enough green beans in the freezer from last year. I did plant a tomato that I picked up for 3 bucks, it may or may not have fruit before frost time. 

Tuffy is growing and thriving too! 

Thumper intrigues him. 

Today was vet day, Happy came up open, no foal, so come mid August she will go live with Shayla and I will wean Tuffy early. Vet said wait and see until after weaning on how his hernia is, we hope it will close on its own. 

Meanwhile, the little herd gets to enjoy summer. I will wait until end of August to start working with Dally. 

A horse of a different color

 Speaking of color changes, Tuffy is quite rapidly going grey now. 

His sorrel coal has faded from the intense shade he was born with to a washed out red as the grey pokes through. 

This was then....

And this is now....

He has also grown in the last two weeks; he is now 12.2 hh at the hip and sure has filled out. In fact, one of the ladies at the breeding farm thought he was a draft cross!

Since he has haltering, leading and trailer  loading figured out, it is time for me to get serious about working with his feet, which will soon need a trim. 

True colors and updates

 Tuffy is starting to show his true color

Around the eyes is the first place to show grey. 

He has his mama's pretty face too

His muzzle is greying too. It will be fun to see his changes over time. 

He continues to be adorable and fun. 

He prefers to get in the trailer without his mama, she takes up a lot of room. 

Tuffy, however, is huge! He is now over 48 inches at the hip- over 12 hh now. 

 Now for the update....

Anyone recognize this mare?

That is Midnight Mesa, with her first foal! The sire is a very well bred reiner, and that little colt looks the part. 

Mesa sure looks like Beamer now that she has matured. One of the reasons I sold her was that she looked too small for me, but she sure has chunked up and I wouldn't hesitate to ride her. 

I came up with names for the colt I am buying, his barn name will be Leo ( of course) and his registered name will be DLH Jetaway Leo.  They haven't handled him much yet, so he will likely be a blank slate for me in September. We are pulling hair for his DNA test including color, but I am pretty sure he will be sorrel and not palomino. If you look around his eyes, that dark red is starting to show his true color. 

I do love me a bright sorrel horse!

Several firsts

 The first "first" is not one I wanted to see. Tuffy managed to get an owwy. He had bright blood on his pastern; a small tear from who knows what. I rinsed it ( blood still flowing) and applied Schreiners solution and once the blood slowed down, put Manuka honey on it. 

If you dont like to see wound photos skip the next image.  But I do post them here for easy reference for me. 

No idea what he snagged it on. 

Second first: This morning's session was an introduction to the horse trailer.  First he had to be led beside his mama, which went quite well. Led them out of their familiar pen, then into the round pen where I turned them loose while I went to get the ration for Happy. I do like to lead them beside their mama when they are going to a strange environment. The round pen is all grass, no sand, so they enjoyed grazing. 

I set the feed tub on the pallet bridge wanting Tuffy to be ok with new objects and hopefully put a foot on it. Bonus- he has started to eat  with mama, which is Purina's mare/foal ration. He loves it, whereas he wouldn't eat the Step I  for mares and foals. I think it is a bit softer. 

He didn't see the point of stepping on it...

Next up, the third 1st. 

Since they had eaten the feed I tossed the tub in the trailer, which I had set up the night before the same way I did for Rally. 

Led Tuffy up to the trailer so he could investigate. 

Protective mama

Let me go first, son, to see if it is safe...

Mama says, it is

Tuffy: Ok, if you say so

At this point, Happy went all the way in to check on that feed tub, so I stepped out in case she tried to turn around to get out. 

I turned Tuffy loose then and wanted to see what he would do. I was content with the lesson that he had put one foot in the trailer and was about to call it a day.

Tuffy however, wasn't done. I love the curiosity of this colt. I once heard Richard Shrake saying that curiosity in a colt is a sign of intelligence, and it stuck with me. Seems to be true. 

What's this all about? 

Mom went in so it must be ok....

It made a funny noise! 

Well not much to see in here!

Let's see, how to get down....

Nothin' to it!

I finally got his dna panel test results as well as his registration completed. He is officially Jess Tuff Enuff, and is 6 panel clean. 

I may yet do the roan test on him, but there is no need to test for grey as it is clearly seen coming in around his eyes. 

So I can now catch him anywhere- out in the field, in the barn or shelter, no problems. I think he expects it every time he sees me. I will give him a few days to heal up before I mess with his feet again, don't want him to associate picking up his feet with pain; but he is doing very well with allowing me to put the foot down instead of pulling it away. 

What a good colt!!!

A Day In The Life Of Tuffy

 The mornings are peaceful, every morning they are laying down, sometimes with one standing guard but not today. 

Then it is chow time....

The pastures are amazing right now with all the rain we continue to have. 

While the mares get fed, Tuffy gets haltered for his daily lesson. Progress report: leads well, lets me pick up his feet and place them on the ground myself, and is learning to go past me on the lead line (precursor to many things like lunging, trailer loading, obstacles etc.) When I hold a bit of pressure on the lead rope, he thinks about it for a moment then steps forward, precursor to standing tied. 

Then back out on the pasture to find the tallest grass so he doesn't have to bend those long legs so much. 

Walking is fine, but....

zooming is more fun!

It is always better to see if one can get in trouble.... (those ears tell the tale!)

Trouble found! 

Of course, if I am in the pasture it means obligatory rump skritches!

 

Poor Velvet, she  puts up with a lot of pestering from him but she is a very good nanny and never reprimands him. 

She just walks away and hopes he finds another distraction. 

One can scratch oneself...

Or get a little help from a friend. 

He hunts me down, knowing that I will give him lots of attention. 

I love this colt,  he has the best personality and is so very easy to work with. At 5 weeks old today, I am so pleased with his progress and he sure is easy to look at!