They were pulling this coach filled with the senior citizens:
Then there were the Percherons:
What a couple of characters! Love that expression!
And of course, we must have children on ponies! This little foal
was quite independent and not at all worried about mama getting way ahead of her. Cute as a bug's ear!
This was my favourite entry of all- the walking haystacks!
This nasty little pest is a bot fly; you can see the eggs already laid on Coyote Belle's leg. I take a scrubbing block (like a grill stone) and scrape them all off. They drive the horses crazy and they try to hide in the bushes:
like Peppy is doing here. He wasn't very happy; and they tried to outrun the flies-
Gussie is shaking her mane, all upset. Sassy is the only one who wasn't bothered too much- maybe bots don't like blonds!
Peppy is getting really big now, it's two weeks to weaning time.
He's all blue now; remember that little brown fuzzball a few months ago?
Speaking of colour, this is Coyote Belle's 4th colour change this year. You can see how light she is compared to Beamer in the background. ( Can't wait to see what her foal is going to look like!)
Peppy has long legs; he's going to be tall like his mama. Such a pretty colour too!
I enjoy kicking the ball for my dogs; but Tess rarely lets Reba catch it.
She catches it in mid air, sometimes turning right around in the air.
Reba figures this kind of leaping and cavorting is for the youngsters; she is 7 years old now.
And that's just fine with Tess!
Riding a mare in pasture with other horses loose around you poses it's own set of problems. The first time I did this with Gussie, the other horses got quite excited and raced around like little hooligans, doing fly-by kicks and getting in the way when we were trotting circles. I like my long split reins; I can use the end of them on little horse bums to encourage them to move away.
They finally settled down and ignored us and let me get on with schooling Gussie. The last few times I rode in the pasture, they kept their distance, and I am now able to work Gussie without interference. She has a really nice stop and a very willing (sometimes too willing) back-up. She tends to use the back-up as an evasion, so I really focus on forward impulsion with her, especially when working on spins, so that it is always a forward movement for her. When I ask Gussie to turn, I find I have to be careful to release the aids quickly- timing is important with her as she gives more than you want if you don't release quickly enough-a quarter turn can become a roll-back. So it's good for me because she is keeping me aware of just how little pressure I really need to apply, and my riding is improving as my mare improves. Win-win!
( Al Grandchamp, May, 1998)
I've been riding Gussie, working on her lateral moves and just reminding her of all the things she did before she had time off to raise a foal. Today was a very hot day, so after I rode Gussie I took her and Peppy up to the barn and gave them baths. You can see in this picture how the sweat was running down her sides. Gussie loves the water, and was quite content to get hosed down and get her mane and tail shampooed. I decided to give Peppy his first bath, too.
He did quite well, only jumped around a little bit- he takes after Beamer in that he hates getting his face wet. His colour looks great wet!
This was taken before his bath. I'm liking the Blueboy Quincy/Mr. San Peppy cross in him! It's going to be hard to part with these two horses; if I didn't have Beamer, I'd be keeping Peppy.
I registered Peppy online a couple of days ago, and yes, we did get the name I wanted. I waited this long because I wanted to make sure his blue roan colour was undisputable. As you can see from this photo, he only has a little bit of baby fuzz left- this was taken 4 days ago, and he has even less now. I did a preliminary measure on his legs, and it looks like he will mature a 15 hands, or maybe a little over that. I do this by measuring the length from the hairline on a front leg to the top of the bone which sits on the cannon bone- commonly called the break in the knee.You can feel the indent there between that bone and the one above it, these are called the small bones of the knee; anyway measure to that spot between the small bones of the knee and whatever you get in inches is what they will be in hands. Ideally you should wait til they are about 5 months old to get a true measurement. Peppy measures just over 15 inches there so he will mature at just over 15 hands. Gussie measures just under 15 and a half inches and she stands just under 15 .2 hands. Try it on your horses just for fun! So if your horse measures 14 and 1/4 inches, it should stand 14.1 hands; or 14 and 1/2 inches will be 14.2 hands; 14 and 3/4 inches would be 14.3 hands etc.
Gussie (Bar Dawn Sabre) is 5 years old, broke to ride, 15.2 hh. She sells in foal to Beamer.
Sassy (Smooth Sailing Peppy) is one year old, ground work is in progress. She is reining bred on the top and speed bred on the bottom.Anyone who is seriously interested in these horses can email me at diamondlazyh641@hotmail.com
I woke up at 5:30 to this beautiful sky, and also this rainbow:
As promised, here is the picture of the completed fencing project. On the left is the large paddock where the mares will winter. In the middle is a pen that has access to the box stalls. Then there is a 17 ft. alley that leads to summer pasture, and at the top, behind the barn, is Beamer's winter pen. To the left of the barn will be an extension of the building that will serve as shelter for the mares. I think the guys did a great job!
They really were belly deep in grass! 
Peppy is almost invisible.
This picture is taken a week later, you can see how much they have beat down the grass; they have eaten a lot of it, but mostly it's laying over. 
I've been very busy this week, painting the interior of our church, so I haven't had much time for blogging. The mares are doing a mutual grooming session in this photo; Peppy tried to get in on it but he wasn't tall enough.
I took this picture of Beamer a couple of months ago; it reminds me of those old photos you see in the stories of the old Quarter Horse legends.
Okay, I know, this isn't a horse photo, but Reba and Tess were so cute with their little faces peering out of the long grass; I took this the day I moved the girls into their new paddock. The grass was so deep you couldn't see the dogs in it!
The new pen that Beamer will winter in is finished, so he got to try it out yesterday.
It passed the test for being big enough to gallop around in;
Big enough to play in, with high sides that I put a hot wire on to discourage chewing.
Yup, it passed the Beamer approval test!
We have been taking it easy the last few days after last weekend's workout building fence. We only have the gates to finish and are waiting for some custom built hinges- I'll show you all pictures when we have the finished product. The last two days, the new waterer was installed and I put electric wire around the top rail of Beamer's new pen today.
The mares and Peppy were moved to another paddock 4 days ago, belly deep in grass and lovin' it. I only let them in for a couple of hours at a time for the first few days, but tonight they get to stay. Peppy is changing colour more and more every day and his black points are really starting to show. He is going to be a striking looking horse when he's all growed up! The horse flies have been making them crazy, so I've been using Muskol (for humans) on them. It works really well and is more affordable than the Absorbine fly spray that the local feed store carries. What do you use?
