Sunday Silence (aka it's time to start using my real camera!)

 

Marching on

 March has been rather lion-y all month. We just had another blast of snow and cold (-17C this morning) and I sure hope it will be winter's last hurrah and spring will get sprung!

This morning's chilly sunrise

The last weekend I had family over, and my sister from the coast picked up the last kitten from the litter, Minou. I had her in the house for a month socialising her, getting her to the vet for spay and vacs. 

It was a wonderful weekend with more family visiting on Saturday. Sunday we drove my sister and Minou to the Calgary airport. 

At least the weather cooperated that weekend. The river went out just before she got here. 

The geese are winging their way back too. 

Happy is getting pretty big now, her 320 safe date is about April 11th. I had the farrier over yesterday to trim Gussie, and Happy just hung out with us. She really is a sweet mare. 

I have a name for her foal, which will fit if it is a colt. We will be doing a foaling contest again as soon as she is a bit closer to foaling. 

I am so looking forward to April and an end to the cold and snow! So I am enjoying vicariously all the spring photos you all are posting, especially the flowers. I am itching to go to the greenhouse to get some more daylilies and some annuals for my potted flowers. 

The river and Ruby

 I have been watching the river, waiting for it to go out. 

April 9th, Easter Sunday, still not really flowing. Thumper was being ever so helpful

April 14th and it's flowing

There is still a lot of ice flowing but I don't think it will create and ice jam and flood the lower pasture. At least, I hope not!

My favourite spring boquet

I took Ruby for a walk to check out the river from the far side of the pasture. Most of that ice is broken up now. 

Ruby enjoyed her walk! I am trying to get her mane to go all on one side, hence the braids. 

I have a lady bringing over a saddle today for me to try on her, a wider fitting saddle. I sure hope it fits but I have a feeling it will be too heavy for me. We shall see. 

The good news is I finally get my truck back tomorrow! Yay! So I can start hauling to the indoor arena and put some schooling/get-ta-know-ya rides on Ruby. I'm sooooo looking forward to that! 

Sunday Silence (Scenes from a hammock)

 

Beautiful autumn days

 We sure have had some beautiful fall days to start off the season. The sun shines in my office window first thing, it rises right at the end of our driveway. 

Morning chores are done to the sound of geese v-winging it overhead, honking as they head from one farmer's field to the next, gleaning grain that the combines have left behind as they (the geese, not the combines!😏) prepare for their long flight south. I will try for some photos of them over the next few days. I heard the owl hooting in the trees across the river this morning too. I do love my mornings! Beamer has been frisky on these frosty mornings too, up to his usual antics. Too dim of light for my cell phone camera at 7 am, will have to pack the Nikon. 

The boyz are doing well, this week is all about getting them foot broke so we can trim those li'l hooves asap. Also tomorrow I will put the horse trailer in position to start the loading training. 

They aren't too worried about small spaces so I think the trailer loading will go well. 

Little buddies

Somebody got his daddy's penchant for yawning! I haven't seen Scooter do this so it has to be the Beamer genetics in Boe showing up!

We were working on the fence in the south west pasture so I walked over to see the river. We are bordered on 3 sides by the Medicine River, north, west and south , almost like we are a peninsula. The bank is about 20 ft. high here. The river curves from the west to the south, and the current is flowing north here. Where my hammock overlooks the river, it's the north side and the river is flowing west! This little river meanders through the farmlands as it pleases. 

I have a little update for you on my former dog Thea, remember her? She is the one I sold back to the breeder as she was in need of more work than I could give her. 

Thea has excelled in working cattle, I'm so glad she found her niche, as they usually show their collies on sheep. Her littermate Mia is also a working cattle dog on an Alberta ranch. 

Back on line!

 We finally got the internet hooked up here; now I can post from my computer again which means I can post photos from my non-cell phone cameras. However.... that means I have to find the cord that connects one camera to the computer.... so meanwhile we are still on cell phone photos.  

This is a gate that leads down to the river. 

The river is low right now and although it looks muddy it's actually clear, and shallow. 

We have a lot of deer here, and when I was checking fence I spooked a couple of white tail bucks - couldn't get my phone out quick enough to get them jumping the fence, but did manage this one. 

They are actually across the river there, it's quite shallow. 

A little back story on my Sunday Stills post.

Since both mares seemed to be settling in nicely, I thought it was time to see if Beamer could go live with them. Considering that they are both bred to him, and neither one is in heat, it should have worked. 

Wrong. 

Sophie wasn't too happy with him from the get go. At first it was a lot of posturing, but it devolved into kicks and bites. 

They seemed to find their respective places after a while, usually with Beamer far away from the mares.

Then either he or Sophie would approach, and the squealing and roaring was on again. 

I gave it 3 days, but by then it was obvious that it wasn't going to work; Beamer had only one thing on his mind and the mares were saying flat out get lost. So I pulled him and back to his pen he went... where he paced and paced and hollered and worked himself into a sweat. I was at my wits end to find a way to calm him down; he would get really wound up if the mares went out of his sight. I finally tried some Stressaway oil in his nose, then I locked the mares in the pen opposite him so that they were always in sight of him; and finally he calmed down. 

Was it wise to just stick him in with the mares? Probably not. But I was going by how well it worked when I put him in with Jayne; they got along great, and Velvet is very much like Jayne. The catalyst, I believe, was Sophie. She has turned out to be an alpha mare, at least in this herd - she wasn't when she was in with Shayla's horses - and she got quite aggressive with Beamer. He isn't used to that, so he got pretty ramped up. Poor guy has lived a sheltered life! As long as Sophie is here, he won't be living with the mares. I will be sending her to Shayla after she foals, to be bred to Shayla's stallion, at least that is the current plan. 

It's nice to have peace in the barnyard again!

Sunday Stroll

 

Hot hot hot

My least favourite part of summer is when it's too hot to do anything. My routine is pretty simple- early morning chores, do any garden stuff that needs doing, then in the house until around 4 pm and head down for chores before supper, water the garden and that's about it for the day. I don't do heat well.
However, this is the best time for heading to the swimming hole! Yesterday I got my husband to accompany me, he rode there and back while I walked and I rode Gussie in the water. I so need another riding horse!!! ( I also so need the exercise...)

I love seeing him ride, he doesn't ride often enough.

Gussie is wearing her Easyboots…. more about that later....

The water is just right, not cold any more. There were swimmers there and people on floaties going down the river. One guy came walking upstream packing a huge inflated swan floaty- Gussie could have cared less...
I didn't swim her as I didn't want to get my saddle wet and didn't feel like unsaddling so we only went chest deep.

I left her boots on for the river crossing..... bad idea....

Yup there is one missing.....

I did ride back and search but I'm pretty sure it got washed downstream and I wasn't about to make Gussie walk over all those rocks looking for it.
The Velcro was really worn out and it was time for new boots anyway so I will be ordering a pair of Cavallos for her today.
I will be spending more time at the river as I have a friend who wants to come and swim her horse.

The farrier trimmed all my horses including Moondance. The little guy was really good to trim, all that handling of his feet paid off.

The boys are the sons of the farrier, there were 2 of them and they trimmed Belle and Jayne while their dad did Drifter, Gussie and Beamer. They all did a good job. And I am happy to say all my horses were good! Jayne did try to pull a back foot away, and the dad coached the son through that- he was holding her foot higher than Jayne was comfortable with; she may have some hip issues from compensating for her bad front leg. And both boys were really interested in Moondance!
That's another thing that has been playing on my mind lately- If I can't get Drifter sold soon I may have to sell Moondance as I can't justify keeping him and Drifter . I do have 2 more Beamer babies coming and I sure hope at least  one is a filly.

Riding day 28

A good horse day

What a year for storms. It's gotten so that I schedule my day around the weather forecast. For example, yesterday they said thunderstorms in the afternoon, so I did all I could before then. First I worked Drifter as I needed new photos and videos for someone who is interested in him. I haven't worked him for about a month so he was a little bit fresh on the longeline but more like happy-to-be-doing-something fresh than anything. He settles down so quickly and is so willing.

My niece was taking phone photos for me.

This one made me giggle- doing the bunny hop!

He longed beautifully once he settled into work mode. 

My right arm doesn't work so well due to torn muscles so that's why I was using my left. I had to save my right for swinging the rope. 

After the rope work and longeing bitted up he did so well that I asked my niece if she wanted to get on him. Of course she did!

Please note that I did not turn her loose on him- no helmet, boots with too much tread and inexperienced rider meant the she would be on the lead line. Drifter did well with her mounting, just twitched an ear and balanced himself. 

I was pretty happy with Drifter, he shows that he has a good mind and a willingness to learn. I really hope that I can get him to the right home. I will keep you updated on that!

After that it was ride Gussie to the river. My niece rode there and I rode back. The river is really nice now, so I took Gussie in to stirrup deep.

As always she was happy to turn around and head for shore.

When we got back it was Moondance's turn. I'm happy to say that he pretty much just stepped right into the trailer and happily munched his ration while we groomed him. But then when it was time to step out.... well he had to ponder that!

Oh! Look how far down it is!

He has unloaded at least 4 times without giving it that much consideration... 

I had to laugh, he would put one toe out- no ground!!!! pull it back, think about it, try again a few minutes later- still no ground!!!!! 

Thinking....

After about 4 of those he decided that the last 4 times weren't flukes and the ground really was still there and anyway he was thirsty for mama milk darn it all!

A couple hours later we had one heck of a thunderstorm as predicted. I sat in the barn watching and listening. The horses weren't in the least bit concerned about the rumbling and booming right overhead.  I made sure to feed them all in their shelters. Although Jayne still isn't comfortable with being all the way in the shelter with Belle, there is enough of an overhang on the sides of the building that she can get out of the rain and weather. 

Riding day 26

Training and riding

Sure can't get any consistent weather lately. Couple days too hot and muggy, then a couple days of rain and thunderstorms... rinse and repeat....

I don't do a lot on the hot days unless I want to spend a few hours hiding in the house recuperating. I have managed to get Moondance out every day and work with him a bit. After that first day of loading in the trailer, he refused to load again. So I have been working on getting him to load his head and neck then one foot. Reward the slightest try. Today I kept putting his left foot in the trailer, give him a mouthful of kibble, try with the right foot, and so on. After many repetitions he finally loaded a foot himself and got to eat as much as he wanted while he had that foot loaded.

With colts it's often one step forward, three steps back until they figure out what you are asking of them and decide it isn't life threatening. But it always makes me laugh when I see that sully look on their face when they don't want to do something and how the light bulb goes on when they figure it out.

My sister is visiting for a few days, and she was helping me with Moondance, it was nice to have her help especially at the hitching rail as I had to rasp the front feet. 

After handling his feet so much for the trailer loading, he didn't mind too much getting his trim. Should be able to do the back feet without too much trouble in the next day or 2.

We also saddled Gussie and took turns riding her  as we went to the river to check out the water level in the swimming hole.

Umm, Thumper, can you move so we can throw the saddle up?

The water is still a little too high and swift for swimming, couple more weeks and it should be perfect. 

As I was riding, we had a tree come crashing down about 50 yards ahead of us- Gussie just stopped and raised her head and looked. Sure do love not having a spooky horse!

My sister (who rarely rides) rode her part way back. 

Sure was nice getting out. Gussie seems to be over the worst of her thrush, so now I can get more riding in. 

Riding day 25