Contest #2

Sparkle is settling in well with the herd. Hasn't been any drama for a few days now (Gussie is sporting some missing hair on her hip from a scuffle a few days ago) and being the low girl on the totem pole, she got a job the other day.

Drifter turned a year old the other day. He is growing up... and up... and he is finally looking like a palomino. I put hotwire up at both ends of the alley between him and Beamer so he could get out and graze for a while every day.

I did end up having to halter him every time to get him through the gate, and he is really enjoying the grazing. Beamer greets him and then ignores him.

Sassy is getting large and is really slowing down, just kind of waddles around.

She is at 311 days today, and since I have a gut feeling she is going to foal early it's time to start the second foaling contest! Since this is her first foal, I have no history to go by. Foals are considered viable after 320 days, so she could foal any time after May 23rd. Technically her due date is June 15 which would be 343 days, but mares never go by the book! 

So get your best guess in: colt or filly, day, time and colour and I will start a chart on the sidebar. 

I have done a coat colour probability chart on her and I am going to assume that she is aa for Agouti (meaning she won't throw a foal with black points, as Beamer also doesn't carry Agouti).

Offspring Color Probability 

25.00% -	Blue Roan
25.00% -	Black
25.00% -	Red Roan
25.00% -	Red (Chestnut/Sorrel)

Nature ride

Sometimes it is nice to get on your trusty steed and just take a little ride to enjoy nature.

Like checking the level of the spring run off in the river and just enjoying the sound of the water.

Finding lots of Oregon Grapes in full bloom....

and mock orange....

and just the sound of the little swamp dwelling creatures. (turn up the volume!)

Then back to the reality of the daily grind, which isn't really too bad right now as I am still procrastinating with spring cleaning but am having lots of fun getting my flower gardens and containers planted as well as some of the vegetable garden.

Riding day 38

Bringing you up to date

Got a little catching up to do!
Rode Beamer the other day, just a short ride as he was really ouchy on hard ground, I had trimmed him a few days before.

Look at that unruly mane! I wanted to ride him through the pond, but it is rocky bottomed and with him being ouchy , not a good idea.

Then since we had a nice hot day (several of them in fact!) I figured it would be a good time to introduce Drifter to something he is going to have done to him a lot during his life- bath time! Although I only hosed him not shampooed. For the first 5 minutes he circled me trying to evade that darn water that kept following him but he eventually figured it out.

You  can really see his palomino colour when he is wet, he still has white baby fuzz that needs to shed off. You can really see it on his belly in the next photo.

Then on to the big news....

My friend Janice who originally bought Belle and Beamer's first foal, Sparkle N Peppy, (you can read about her by clicking on my sidebar under the label, Sparkle) asked if I was interested in owning her again, and since I didn't get my Beamer daughter this year from Belle, I agreed and she arrived yesterday. Sparkle was born in 2008 so she is 11 this year. She is just under 15 hands, unlike all her brothers who are 15.2 and 15.3. Perfect size for me!
When she got here I put her in the foaling pen so that she can socialize over the fence with the rest of the crew before being turned out with them.

So pretty! Doesn't she remind you of Mesa?

She got her mama's big booty!

She has Beamer's signature silver upper lip

Pretty happy to have this lovely mare back! And it sure seems that I have a habit of buying back horses that I have sold!!!! This is the third one!

Riding day 37

Wordless Wednesday

All together now

Once Mesa and Ice moved out, it was time to put the herd .... the much diminished herd! all together. Yesterday I put Sassy in the foaling pen, and put Mama Belle and Eli in with Gussie. First I showed Eli the fenceline before turning him loose.

Gussie was quite happy to be in with her bff again, and was politely interested in Eli.

She will make an excellent babysitter, but I did notice at feeding time this morning that she chased him away from the gate in no uncertain terms!

There was some synchronized rolling going on.

This morning I added Sassy into the mix, and there was zero drama. I figured it would be a smooth transition when I saw Belle and Sassy hanging together at their mutual fenceline.

All is well in their world! But- stay tuned, there will be a change coming soon!

Mesa moves on

Today is the day....

I got her all spiffed up....

for her new owner, who picked her up today.

You can follow Mesa's adventures on Shannon's blog if you wish.  And no, I didn't put the halter on her.....

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.

Eli's coming

Coming along nicely in his halter training, that is! ( His name reminds me of the song by Three Dog Night)
He is getting fairly easy to catch, it's a bonus that he isn't shy like Pistol was, I think it took me a month before I could walk up to Pistol and catch him.

I am working on touching his legs and lifting all 4 feet; every day a little more progress. He's a very feely colt as you can see in the next video:

The lightest touch is enough for him. I took him and mama Belle out on grass and he had to step over a rubber mat that I have covering electrical cords, as soon as he put one foot on it he stopped with a "what the heck!" look on his face and inspected the mat carefully then leaped over it. Not a big leap, just enough to get over it, and on the way back stopped, glanced at it and leaped it again. He is going to be fun to train!

Water and sunshine

Sometimes...

You just want to sit and listen to the water flow....

and sometimes...

you just want to go charging through it!

Riding day 36

Visitors

Weather forced cancellation of Mesa's trip to Alberta to her new home, it has been postponed for a week. So while we didn't get those visitors, we did have other ones!

You may recognise these folks, they come every year to visit Beamer and his babies.

Eli was pretty good for them, I had him haltered for a while and he discovered the joy of getting all that attention; even after we took the halter off he was still quite happy to be loved on.

Mama Belle was certainly getting her fair share of love too, and she was sure pleased!

I just love this photo!

They didn't really get to see him doing his wind sprints, but I did catch this one later in the day:

The first week

Eli is a week old now.
His life so far? Lots of love, food, zoomies, and some halter lessons.

Mama Belle and daddy Beamer are always keeping an eye on him

Those long legs of his are made for zoomin'!

All that zoomin' makes a guy thirsty- Eli has learned to drink water too.

Best way to teach a colt to lead is to have him out with his mama. 

Showing off the toofers! Gotta have 'em for nipping grass!

I sent away his DNA for color and 5 panel, I should have the results middle of next week.

5 days old

Such cuteness! Eli is quite the friendly little character. Very approachable, loves to investigate things, and is doing well with his halter lessons.

I should be able to lead him in the pen tomorrow with mama haltered up too. Then they can go out and he can try eating grass!

I peeled back the hair on his star to see what shape it will end up- looks like it will be heart shaped! It will be fun to see it as he sheds his baby coat.

I'm doing the best I can with my cell phone for photos , but I think I'd better start saving up for another Nikon camera body.

Pending AQHA approval...

What is your name, little one?

Only, he isn't little! This is one tall colt!

Let the baby pics begin!

Oh how I wish I still had my Nikon camera...

I still don't have a name for him, either registered or barn name. Fire away with your ideas! I want the registered name to have Peppy in it, and the barn name to reflect his combination of strength and elegance.

New blog

The lady who is buying Mesa is starting a blog  and I thought all you folks who love Mesa might like to follow her! Here is her blog, Two Baileys Please . Stop by and say hi!

One rainy full moon night.....

Apparently mama Belle has a thing for a full moon on Good Friday.
For the second time, she gave me a beautiful colt, he was born around 4:30 am this morning on a foggy drizzly night. I heard Beamer calling and when I shone my flashlight out I could see the reflection of several pairs of eyes as all the mares lined up at the fenceline to watch, so I jumped up and checked- sure enough Belle was in labour with 2 little feet sticking out  and within 5 minutes he was drawing his first breath.
Everything went textbook! He had a good 10 minutes of just lying quietly before attempting to stand, allowing nutrients to still pass through the umbilical cord.
It took him a bit to figure out those very long legs, but Shayla and I gave him a boost and up he went and then stayed up for a long time. He was fairly quick to figure out nursing, and mama cleaned out perfectly too.

Although he was born out in the pen, we ushered him into the stall while he figured out nursing as the pen has a bit of a slope to it and was slick from the rain. But before long he ventured out and all the mares got to see him.

Mama Belle is just the best broodmare. She is quite ok with her foals being handled and she is protective of them around the other horses.

This  big boy is quite sure of himself and sturdy.

The name I had picked out I will save for a filly, so I'm still mulling over what to name him. (I was so sure it would be a filly!!!!)

Giving me the raspberry because I thought it would be a filly!

So- the winner of the foaling contest and proud new owner of a Diamond Lazy H Quarter Horses cap is my sister, M, who had a nearly perfect guess! Congratulations, sis! I'll get that in the mail to you on Tuesday.

Day number.....

361. She has to be getting close.

Meanwhile, we took a little ride and I found some pussy willows.  Gussie tried to eat them but I managed to bring them home unscathed.

Off to the barn I go to check on Belle! I sure hope I have baby news soon!

Riding day 35

A few firsts and no foal yet

Sorry no foal news yet! There are several people who can enter another guess- if you pick the same day as someone just make sure you have other things different.

Yesterday we had some fun riding; we had Matt come and ride with us again. He rode Ice, Shayla rode Rose, and I rode Gussie and this time we took Shayla's little dog  Goose with us; Ice's first trail ride with a dog. We had a great ride! Through the bush, and to the river.

Ice didn't mind the dog at all.  We headed upstream along the dyke towards the swimming hole, but since there were people with dogs there we rode a little further so as to leave them in peace.

We all enjoyed the peaceful  sound of the river. At this point we all switched horses, and were able to head down to the swimming hole to let the horses wade .

Shayla always has the biggest grin when she rides! All three of us find our own peace riding horses. So good for the soul.

Later in the day, Matt came back as we had asked him to be the first one to trot and lope on Mesa. We want Mesa to be ready for her new owner, and know how she will behave under saddle at all 3 gaits.

Mesa, of course, was a sweetheart. The saddle kept sliding forward on her, I really don't have a good colt starting saddle!

The trot and lope were accomplished, both ways. The footing is terrible in there as there are loose rocks that keep working their way up through the loam, but she handled it quite well.

After that, he rode her out of the pen (even opened the gate ) and took the long way back to the barn. Another first for Mesa, being ridden out of the pen. She was a rock star (of course!!!) 

Yes, it was a great day.

Riding day 34

Sunday Silence

Not yet....

I'm running on fumes these days, my nights are checking Belle every 2 hours and then taking another hour to fall asleep again, meanwhile listening for telltale signs of foaling. I will be so happy when this one is born and I can get some sleep! Here is today's photo:

At least I'm getting some riding in. The other day I tried out a Martin reining saddle on Gussie. 

The front half of the saddle fit her well, but then it flattened out and was too wide over her loins, and the seat was uncomfortable for me - too wide where my seatbones were, and my knees rubbed on where the latigo and the billet went through the dee rigging. I would be pretty sore if I rode for any length of time. It had a 16 inch seat and I am more comfy in a 15 inch.

Then another day Shayla and I went for a lovely bareback ride, just meandering through the bush and down to the river and back. Very relaxing!

I thought it would be fun to take a photo of the river rocks under the water with Gussie's shadow. I had to tweak it a bit but it looks ok.

You can only tell there is water in the photo if you look at the shadow! Very clear water.

Drifter is doing really well with his training, he is sensitive and smart and figures things out quickly. I get quite a kick out of watching him playing with the 2 rubber feed tubs and the jolly ball that he has for his entertainment. I think he needs more toys though! 

When I was cleaning the pens this morning he smelled the straw form Belle's stall carefully and then did this:

Several times! 

He is finally shedding that woolly mammoth fur and the darker palomino is starting to show on his face, neck and legs.

Riding day 32 & 33