The boys are all getting more work these days. Dave came over and held Booncat and I did get all 4 feet filed. He was not too bad, which made me happy. I will have to do him again in a few weeks, I didn't take a lot off; just enough to reduce his heels and shorten his toe and balance him. Doesn't take much with those baby feet! Eli was easy, I just tied him to the hitching rail and filed his back feet.
I have been trying to get Booncat eating ration, but he is pretty uninterested. I tried soaking the alfalfa pellets and he takes a few slurps and loses interest. He's a funny boy, he likes things to be his idea. So I guess I will just have to be patient, he'll come around eventually but I bet it won't be until after his mama leaves.
Belle looked like she was dropping condition so I decided that Eli's 5 month birthday was the day to wean him. It's going well, they are across the fence from each other; I put Belle in the foaling pen and closed Drifter in the adjoining paddock. There is some whinnying but no stress to either mama or Eli.
Gussie is taking over babysitting duties
Drifter is getting some more education now too. I took him to the round pen and got him saddled and cinched up. Poor boy was getting eaten up by mosquitoes as I was working him, but despite that he was really good. Didn't mind at all being cinched up. I did a little bit of in hand circles, direction changes and flexing then had him carry the saddle back up the hill to the horse trailer. He was so good!
He stood well for unsaddling- note that he isn't tied, just for safety in case he had a moment when I unsaddled. But he just stood there like a good boy. I will probably just work him in his pen instead of the round pen, being barren ground there are less skeeters there.
I have had Booncat out every day, he is leading really well now and happily goes in and out of the trailer and the barn. He is such a curious boy!
He likes the cats....
and they tolerate his inquisitiveness. When he goes in the barn he has to check everything out....
he even went in the Hideout and checked out the table and chair. He is still not too sure about Beamer, but at least he didn't run away this time.
Beamer was being so cute and gentle!
Today was hay hauling day, it feels great to have all that hay in the barn! And I still have 8 more bales to pick up but I have to feed enough of these ones to make room for it. No more storing hay outside for me! My hay guy is storing it for me in his hay barn until I can pick it up.
As Eli's departure date comes closer, I have to say I am really happy with him. I can now hop him in the trailer and close the door while he eats his ration, and he is very good about it. He eats a bit then looks out the window openings to check on the herd and goes back to eating. He is standing tied very well, and picks up his feet easily- I do still need to file his back feet, but need someone to hold him for me, perhaps later this week. He is easy to catch and lead. He also doesn't mind fly spray.
Booncat is also making progress. He's easy to catch and is leading fairly well. I haven't tried standing tied with him yet, but that will come. Some of his training will wait until weaning time in October. I have been loading him in the trailer and taking him into the barn, so perhaps I will use the stall in the barn for teaching him to stand tied and get him eating ration, which so far he has no interest in. Doing his feet is in the works for later this week too, as my friend Dave will be coming over to hold colts for me. Dave is 80 now, but you'd never know it. He is an old horseman and very good with the young ones.
My riding this year has really been sporadic. Partly because my trailer needs tires, but that should be remedied by the end of the month. Gussie is enjoying the time off!
We have mosquitoes now, for the first time this year. The recent wet weather is to blame for that, I'm sure! Poor Drifter got hit the worst, the skeeters must love his colour.
Yesterday was the first time for firing up the wood stove, it was just too darn damp and cold (74 degrees) in the house for me. I do so enjoy a good fire on a dreary day!
My flower gardens are hanging in there. The roses are on their final blooms as I am letting them develop their rose hips. Everything else is still happy though especially the zinnias and blue salvia.
Tillie is getting very independent and active (read: into everything!) She comes to the barn with me every day, but I have to carry her past the neighbour's fence as their dog has a very loud scary bark that sends her hiding. I put her in the barn while I do chores and she is so good, sits near the back of the barn and just watches.
She is mostly house broke too, as long as I pay attention to getting her outside when she first wakes up. Her favourite way to pester her mama is to hang on to her tail as mama walks by and I sure hope that does not translate into horses tails!
She will be 6 weeks old September 20th. She is very smart and already shows that she wants to work... poor Merle.... he's the only one small enough for her to work! She does leave the cats alone which is a good thing.
Booncat is 3 months old now. I haven't done as much training on him as I have with Eli, partly because Eli needs to be ready to go to his new home next month and partly because I know he will be staying with me for a while- the smaller colts are harder to sell, nobody really wants them.
He has pretty much shed off his baby coat; his black stockings really show now. Wish his mane would come in better!
His personality is really developing well too; he is curious, friendly, helpful (!!!) and not in the least bit fearful, very self assured.
That is.... until he meets daddy....
He is getting easy to lead, although when he takes a notion that he doesn't want to do something he does let me know! But overall he is getting easier to work with all the time. He even went into the barn today for the first time, his curiosity made it easy.
Getting him to eat foal ration is a work in progress. It always takes a while and he's no exception. He had a few bites of alfalfa pellets with mama yesterday so that will probably be the best way to get him going. I tried him sharing with Eli today but Eli was not impressed. He didn't seem to mind the cat jumping up.
I have had zero response to my ads for him so I guess he will be here for a couple of years. I don't try to market yearlings, there is no sense as everyone wants to pay weanling price until they are started under saddle. So I get to have some fun with this one!
One last trip to the river before the cool fall days are upon us.
Oh yes, Beamer was walking well enough to ride him and I was pretty happy to get on my boy! I love how he strides out and enjoys every ride. Shayla rode Gussie, we were both bareback in the hopes that we could get them into the deep water.
Gussie was good! Shayla did get her out in the deep water, but Beamer wouldn't stand still enough for me to get good photos as I had to zoom in . He was quite certain that he didn't need to go any more than knee deep in the water!
Silly mare!
Love how you can see Goose through Gussie's legs
I am not getting much riding time now that I have the puppy, she does take up a lot of my time. I try to get things done while she has her midday nap, as I don't have her in a place where she is contained other than her open crate which she can now climb out of. I take her outside a lot, and have to supervise her now that she is mobile. Trying to keep her from eating my plants is an ongoing battle! She is into everything!
She is eating a small handful of soaked puppy chow every day now, and is she ever growing fast. She's a smart little thing considering that she isn't quite a month old (Monday Sept. 9 she will be 1 month.)
Drifter has had the summer off to grow up and just be a horse. I have kept up on making sure he minds his manners but other than that he hasn't been worked at all. Since Shayla is in town for a couple of days she was eager to see if he remembered all the training he had from the early part of the year.
Starting with just longeing- no problem! He remembered all the little nuances. So she moved on to the saddle blanket, still no problem. If you remember, we did all that with a horse blanket and a tarp, and yes he remembered all that too. So then it was time to introduce the saddle- and Drifter seemed to really enjoy everything about this whole session.
He handled that really well. She walked him around in a circle both ways, letting it fall to the ground a couple of times. When that happened he just stopped and looked at it, not startled at all. That is a good thing, we want him to just stop and look, especially for the future if anyone falls off him or if any gear falls off he won't get excited about it.
Since he was so chill about just carrying the saddle uncinched, she ran the cinch under and held it in place without fastening it for him to get the feel of it. Again, he took it in stride. So that was a good place to end the saddle work. Next, and since he was so enjoying everything, I brought in the step stool and Shayla draped over his back from both sides.
Once again he was relaxed about it. Not in the least bit twitchy!
So of course we stepped it up once more. Literally....
We both had big silly grins on our faces! They say about the Driftwood horses that you show them how to do something and they get it right away, so you better do it right the first time. I think this was a really good first time for Drifter! Maybe not the traditional way where you rope all the feet and rope the belly and all that, but we do what works for us. Low key, no stress, but always giving the horse something to think about. And keeping it a good experience for them.
Happy horse, happy Shayla!
This horse has a wonderful future ahead of him! He will be a start-to-finish horse for Shayla, and I am so looking forward to their progress.
Another session is planned for him today including cinched up and perhaps trotting cinched up. And we are going to measure him.
After all this, he is going to get more time to grow up and resume his training in the spring.
Tillie is about 3 weeks old now. She is quite adorable!
Her potty training is going well, I just have to catch her as soon as she wakes up and take her outside to the pee spot (as defined by Merle!) It's right next to the oak barrel with some lovely petunias, so that of course makes for a great photo op.
Sniffing them...
and tasting them too!
Her eyes are still quite blue, and I hope they stay like that, it will remind me of Reba. Tillie's daddy has blue eyes.
Her nose and lips are filling in with black, and she has little toofers now too! Although I usually start pups on mash at 3 weeks I'm going to wait another week with her as she has no competition for food and is growing quite well. As soon as her teeth start annoying her mama I'll start her on the mash.
We'll start this post off with a family photo for National Dog Day.
The pup is getting quite mobile, and as soon as she wakes up I take her outside to pee, which works quite well. Hopefully she will be easy to train to not go in the house.
I finally got to ride again. I put one of those Equine Streamz bands on my ankle and within 24 hours I had so much relief! Not 100% but good enough to go riding today.
Come for a little ride with me! Gussie was a little lazy going out, she has had it pretty easy this summer so I decided to challenge her a bit. We rode down to the river at a spot that has an easy crossing.
Picture me with my camera in one hand and my split reins and a willow switch in the other hand trying to urge Gussie across! We got it done with much urging, she was reluctant to cross that rocky bottom river.
On the other side is a very steep hill, with spectacular views half way up and at the top. The half way up video wasn't worth sharing, too shaky, but here is the view from the top:
I think Gussie enjoyed the view as much as I did.
Or maybe she was just drooling over the equine buffet spread out before her......
At the top of the hill there are a couple of apple trees growing wild, so I grabbed a snack for me and Gussie.
On the way back I figured she would be a little more inclined to cross the river; sure enough!
We wound our way through the cool and welcome shade of the trees on the way back.
I love this horse so much! It's always a joy to ride her and I feel so at home on her.
Even when things don't go the way I want, there is lots to keep me busy and happy.
It has been a pretty low key week for me. I did get in another ride last week with a friend, just riding the river trails, and had plans for a couple of rides this week.... but that went downhill last Thursday. I was trimming Sassy's front feet and she wasn't too happy about it. I had her just ground tied and her foot on the hoof stand in front of her filing her toe and she sunk down and pulled back at the same time, hooking her leg around mine behind my knee and sent me flying. Needless to say I am pretty sore, fortunately just a soft tissue injury to my lower back but it sure does cramp my style! Hopefully I will be able to get back to riding next week.
Eli is looking great and almost completely shed out, just a few hairs left on his lower legs. He loaded really well last time I asked so I moved on to working on standing tied. I like to give colts a reason to do things, so I put his food within reach at the hitching rail and just looped the lead rope 3 times around the rail; it gives just enough resistance so that he feels it but will slip if he spooks at something or pulls hard.
He is also getting quite accustomed to the dog and cats being underfoot- or, in the case of Thumper- under nose!
I also noticed that he has a good sprinkling of white hairs on his flanks, just like Mesa does. It must come from Beamer's mama, who was a black rabicano. Eli is also getting really good with his feet, letting me lightly run the rasp over all 4 while he was eating. So when Mel comes next time we should be able to complete his trim without much drama.
Drifter is really looking good (and my how he has grown!) I took some photos yesterday when I turned him out- just cell phone photos, times like this I really miss my Nikon.
He's going to be stunning when he's all grown up! He's a good boy and really smart too. It took only once to train him that he isn't allowed in the shelter when I am in there either cleaning it or putting his food out. But it doesn't mean that he doesn't get up to no good! Look what he did to my stall fork which was leaning against the shelter while I put his hay out....
Dang! I hate it when that happens! I saw somewhere that they are making a fork that can withstand being stomped and bent, I hope I can find one! Meanwhile, he just had to play with it... what the heck it's ruined anyway; let him have some fun.
And I can't go without sharing a really cute puppy video! She now has a name- Tillie. She is 2 weeks old now and finding her legs and her voice. She is quite entertaining!
Time for a Booncat post! He is 2 months and nearly 2 weeks old now so it's time to work on his training a little more than I have been. I can walk up to him and catch him most of the time- he gets better every time- and he is starting to lead too.
I haven't done a lot with him other than pick up his feet and catch him once in a while but as he approaches 3 months old it's time to start getting him to eat the Step One kibble.
It will be a work in progress! I'll probably have to do the alfalfa pellet trick like I did with Eli.
Speaking of Eli.... while he is loading in the trailer to eat every day, it still isn't at the jump-right-in stage. He loads the front feet and backs out several times. Yesterday I added something new to the equation by leaving the trailer door hanging open instead of pinning it all the way back like I have been doing. This makes it like a longer loading chute with the door on one side and me on the other side. I like to send the colts in instead of having them follow me in, which is fine for the first few times but sending them in is safer and more like what they need to do as an adult.So yesterday Eli was not happy about having something different! It took me about a half hour to load him, reminding myself always to stay soft and not get frustrated. I used the John Lyons method of tapping his hip with the stock whip and stop tapping every time he made a forward move. It gets them using their brain as they associate the absence of the aggravating tapping with forward movement and eventually seek that reward. ( Note that I say tapping and not whipping!)
As soon as he starts jumping right in I am going back to having him stand at the hitching rail to eat so that we can work on his standing tied some more. When he goes to his new home I want him trailer loading, foot broke, and standing tied. Another thing I have been doing with him is fly spraying him, he is actually pretty good about that.
But mostly, they just get to be boyz.
Doing the Booncat Boogie
Eli the elegant- he can sure cover the ground!
The size difference in one that will be 16 hands and one that will be 14.2 hands- remembering that Eli is 2 months older than Booncat.
And ... ummmm.... I am guilty of not checking properly when I looked at the puppy, apparently "he" is a "she" and no she does not have gender confusion! The owner of her daddy stopped by yesterday and I showed him the puppy. Apparently his daughter can't take her so..... I may just keep her! ***Big silly grin*** My husband rolled his eyes when I said that.... but really, Tess will be 13 in 2 months, Tay is not a good dog to take when I trail ride as she constantly harasses the horses so this pup could be my next riding companion. (See how I justified that). And I have been wanting another female pup for years now. I consider this a gift from God who always knows best.
I like it when there is progress every day with the babies. And Eli made good progress yesterday. I led him straight to the trailer for his kibble...
He is getting the hang of it! Several times he stepped in and out with his front feet. Then he loaded one back foot....
and then the other one.....
Good boy Eli!
My goal for today is to have him stand all the way in the trailer to eat. He stepped out nicely too.
After that he seemed to be quite pleased with hisself, and he got a good grooming and even let me clean all 4 feet with very minimal fuss. Very happy with his progress!
Since Mel was last here, I have been working on a couple of things with him. Getting him to really enjoy his kibble so that he will be willing to eat it wherever I put it (think trailer loading) and picking up his feet . With the youngsters, it's always a work in progress, and giving them something to think about. Sometimes they process things for a day or so and then the next time they are much better. Eli wasn't very good with his back feet when we were trying to trim him so I worked on touching them all over with my stock whip, rubbing and petting with it all over his legs and belly. That went really well. So the next time, I used a soft brush, and brushed all his legs, and again he was fine, no kicking. Then the next time he let me pick up the feet and hold them by the toe for just a little bit. Today, I picked them up and if I had a hoof pick in hand could have cleaned them (reckon that will be tomorrow) and he let me circle them and set the toe on the ground. Good boy, Eli!
When I started him on his kibble, I had to mix alfalfa pellets in with it because he likes alfalfa and the smell convinced him to eat it even if the texture bothered him. Every time I had to make a new batch I used less and less alfalfa and now he is on straight kibble (Step 1) and eating it heartily.
The other day it was raining when I went to feed him. I take him out of the mare pen to do this, and had been feeding him at the hitching rail with the rope looped over and not tied, but I was darned if I was going to stand in the rain for 20 minutes while he ate, so I opened up the back of the trailer which set him off in a holycrapitsahorseeatingmonster moment. Colts are so funny when you introduce something new it's such a big deal for them but then their innate curiosity takes over and they just have to check it out.
Very suspicious!
Initially I set the feed tub on the ground next to the open door. As soon as he was ok with that, I set it just barely in the trailer.
That was enough for the first day; I sat next to him quietly while he chowed down, then took him to the hitchin' rail for grooming and working with his feet. The second day (yesterday) he went straight to the feed tub without hesitation and as he ate he was checking out the sides and floor of the trailer and discovered bits of hay there that he wanted.
I kept moving the tub back a bit so he had to put his head and neck a little farther in but stopped short of where he would have to put his feet in. Didn't take him long to clean it all up.
Well today I stepped it up again. I started where I left off and once he was eating heartily, I moved the tub back to where he would have to put his feet in the trailer
I didn't care if he actually ate I just wanted him to volunteer to step into the trailer. He stepped in with one foot, then the other one landed in his feed tub so he backed out.
I asked again, just giving him time to think about it without pressuring him up.
I moved the tub closer to him and let him eat some more, then slid it back in again and asked again. The next video is 6 minutes if you care to watch it, but it's interesting watching his thought process as he takes his time deciding that maybe he can do this.
Since he was so good, I moved the tub back to the door for him and let him clean it up. He did think about stepping in again to eat some of the hay after he was done his kibble but after 5 minutes, he was done. Little guy burned a lot of brain cells thinking today! I gave him a good grooming and picked up his feet before turning him back into the herd. I was pretty happy with him today!
The last two days have been rather trying. Tay was quite agitated and didn't want me out of her sight, so I spent all of yesterday sitting with her.
She was super restless, and was ruffling up all the dog beds, a sure sign of imminent whelping. At 11 pm she had her first pup... sadly, it was stillborn. A large pup. I stayed with her all night, making myself a makeshift bed out of cushions and she snuggled right next to me laying her head on me. In the morning I had Ted keep an eye on her as I rushed down to feed the horses. At 11 am this morning, she had her second pup, again a large stillborn pup. It was a real struggle for her. There was a foul smell with the sack that was attached to it, it was quite black too. I called the vet to ask about that and if he thought there would be any live pups in there. I had barely hung up and she gave birth to the third pup- this one smaller and very much alive! I quickly checked him out and dried him off- Tay wasn't quite sure what to do with him but started licking him, and her maternal instincts really kicked in when I got him suckling. Now she is quite possessive of him!
In fact to get her to go do her business I have to carry him - she keeps a close eye on him but gets it done. I'm hoping in a couple of days she will chill out a bit.
Since this is the only pup, I have offered him to the owner of the pup's dad as we had a deal that he would either take a pup or the price of a pup, and his daughter wanted a pup. I will wait to see if she wants him before I make any other plans, and she will get to name him.
It's always a good day when my husband rides with me. He promised to go for a ride with me this weekend, and since I only have 1 rideable horse at the moment, he rode Gussie, and I led Beamer and we headed to the swimming hole to cool off from the August heat.
Beamer has been gimpy lately and I wanted to see if exercise would help. It certainly improved his mood, and he didn't limp as much as I thought he would. I put Gussie's hoof boots on him although they are a size too big for him. He was doing some stud talk to Gussie, but I can't really blame him. He doesn't get out in the company of mares much any more unless it's teasing or breeding.
There were some folks at the swimming hole, bet they weren't expecting to share with horses! But it's a large area and we stayed at the shallow end well away from them. We both rode into the water; I had brought Beamer's bridle, so I took off his boots and bridled him to ride into the water. He quite enjoyed it, a bit apprehensive when it got quite deep but I didn't swim him. Gussie wouldn't go all the way in for Ted, as you can see in the video....
so we switched out and I grabbed a willow branch to motivate Gussie- and we swam! That is such a cool feeling, at least for me. Gussie gets a bit kerfuffled when her feet don't hit bottom but she did swim a few strides for me a couple of times. The water was just right! I hope to go again this week.
On the way back, we switched and Ted led Beamer while I rode Gussie. I didn't put the boots on as they were a bit floppy on him, and Gussie doesn't need them. We were riding on the dyke which is fairly rocky and I wanted to see if Beamer was tender footed, but he isn't . I took this video to see if he was gimpy after the long walk but I think he actually improved.
The plan is to monitor him today and see if he is sore, and if he isn't I will be taking him for walks or turning him out in one of the larger paddocks on a regular basis.
I said goodbye to Sparkle today, and I hope that wherever she ends up she will get a chance to sparkle and shine for whoever is lucky enough to get her.
Eli's owner came over yesterday, and we did a run to North 40 in Sandpoint where she bought farrier supplies and I got some dewormer and rope for making halters. Then we spent some quality time with Eli, culminating in getting his front feet trimmed. I wish I could say he was good, but he did protest quite a bit; but with persistence he got done. He was really kicky with his back feet and that earned him some discipline and some work until he decided that maybe, just maybe, it was easier for him to let us pick up his back feet. So that is what I will be working on before her next visit.
Here are some cute photos of them, you can see that Mel is quite smitten with him.
You can tell she is a farrier, those are strong arms!
Eli is almost all shed out now. His tail will keep a lot of that light colour mixed with the black, just like big brother Rio. In fact he is a lot like Rio.
I told her she is going to have to teach him to bow so he will be easier to get on to ride! 12. 2 at the hip at only 3 and 1/2 months old....
The hot days are upon us and what better thing to do than ride to the swimming hole. I had a new trail riding partner yesterday, with her lovely Arabian mare Mya.
As we approached the river I was quite surprised to see a big ole stump right in the middle of the river- it wasn't there a few days ago and we didn't have any rain that may have washed it down the bank somewhere.
I wasn't sure if Gussie would be willing to go in the river, as the last 2 times I was there she refused to go in more than a few feet, and the other lady had the same concern with her horse. We both broke off a willow branch to use as a motivator as we wound our way through the shrubs on the river bank. It definitely helped, but once Gussie and Mya started in they really seemed to enjoy the water and we had a pleasant time wading around, and just standing in the water up past their bellies. No swimming this time though as I didn't want to get my saddle all wet.
The water was just right, not too cold. I may go back several times over the next week or 2 as we have a heat wave coming.
Eli's owner is coming to see him on Friday and I'm hoping she will want to trim his feet (she is a farrier) . He is really shedding his baby coat and coming in with that deep chocolate colour that is typical of Belle's smokey black foals. I will work on getting some good photos of him when she is here.
Booncat is really roaning out now, I just can't wait for all that bay hair to be replaced with his real colour!
He is quite the little charmer. I have decided that if he doesn't sell by weaning time at the end of September that I will take him off the market until he is a little older, as he is quite small and probably will only be 14.2 when he's all grown up. It will be fun for me to do all the ground work on him over the next year or 2 and then I will decide when to market him. Who knows, maybe I won't want to part with him! He will be gelded next year.
And then there is Sparkle...
You all know that I don't like it when my herd doesn't get along. The reason Sparkle is separated from the herd and put in with Drifter was because she was kicking the crap out of Sassy and generally being a crabby mare to the others. I don't mind ear pinning and posturing, all mares do that, but to outright kick the others is not allowed. It would be different if I had 20 acres for them to roam on, and bigger sacrifice pens, but with a smaller set up like mine, herd harmony is paramount . I don't need injuries and vet bills.
Since being in the separate pen, however, she has started picking fights over the fence with both Belle and Sassy. (Gussie is wise enough to stay out of it). One morning the hotwire between the pens, which is above the panels that I lined with wire mesh, was broken down . It was pushed into the main pen so it was obvious that Sparkle was the guilty party, as well, she had bite marks on both sides of her face . She had been picking fights with mama Belle, and got put in her place. After that, she started picking fights with Sassy again. I caught them going at it one morning and took after them both with the stock whip, and got them momentarily broken up but they just moved down the fenceline and went at it again. So they both got TOLD. I thought that might have a lasting effect but sadly, no. Yesterday there was a wire down between the pens, all stretched out and a staple missing. I use double twist wire, like barb wire without the barbs and it proved it's worth as there were no injuries, but I will need the metal detector to find the staple. That was the final straw. So on Saturday, I am hauling her back to her former owner, as we had an agreement that if Sparkle didn't fit my program that she would take her back. It's kind of sad, because there was a lot of potential that she would be my cowboy dressage mount, but it wasn't to be I guess.
