Foal spam

 Got some updated photos of Shayla's foals. Enjoy!

Bear- this is the one that we think will be a black buckskin. Color testing is planned. 

Bear and his mama Concho and yes that is smoke- more on that in a bit.

Belle's foal. The owner called him Nero but that is such an awful name because Nero was such an evil man- kinda like calling a foal Hitler. So I call him Hero! He is still unfolding those long legs- he's very tall! and only a week old whereas Bear is 5 weeks old. 

He's adorable!

Jayne's foal, as yet unnamed. I didn't get a lot of photos of him because, well... 

my attention was diverted by this little sweety! Dolly had a filly! Only a day old. 

She has figured out how to scratch her face,

and a very cute face it is!  This one is a keeper for sure. 

I got word from Sylvain that Sophie's filly by Beamer will be for sale. Will try to get photos of her on here soon. 

Anyway, back to that smoke I mentioned. 

We woke up to a very smoke filled world yesterday. The fires are mostly north and west of us, and we have had a strong south wind- well, it switched to a strong north wind overnight and filled the whole province and most of western Canada and the northern US with smoke. 

That is the actual color of the sun in the early morning. 

Morning sun viewed from our house. 

This whole thing is a nightmare. More towns and reserves have been evacuated. Good news is that Ted's family can finally go back to their town. We also have two days of rain in the forecast but not until Monday. And thunderstorms in between that usually mean lightning strike fires. I'm hoping that we get our usual rainy June and that fixes this. 

So anyway, trying for long distance photos of  Shayla's herd was hampered by the smoke, but here are a couple more just for fun. 

Zipper following Concho and Bear- he wasn't at all concerned about where his own mama was. 

Bear has a lot of speed!

So smoky you can barely see the fenceline behind the horses.  Hopefully we will be going back that way in a week or so after the rain. There are a bunch of cute draft foals to see too!

Ruby stuff

 Catching up with the Ruby stuff!

I worked her in the round pen the other day, pretty basic stuff just to see where she was at mentally. 

First with the flag. Then with the saddle pad. Pretty much the same- no issues. 

She does move away from me when I try to get the saddle up on her, not sure why just that she takes exception to it. Not in a big way, just lets me know she isn't best pleased about the process. 

The good news is that I get a new-to-me saddle today that is 5 lbs. lighter and should be a good fit for her. We shall see!

Working her on line and at liberty in the pen. We discovered a few holes to be fixed too. She is pretty good going left but switching sides and going right (clockwise) she has some resistance, wanting to scoot back the other direction. We worked on that until she went around a few times without bailing on me. 

See? I like going left!

I took the halter off as the lead rope was catching in the spaces between the top of the panels as she did her sudden stop and reverse directions. We did get a nice lope both ways. I love how this mare really strides up underneath herself- I'm sure that having a long back enables that!

That long back makes her legs look short, but they aren't. 

It will be interesting to see how her physique changes now that she is being put back to work after a couple of years off. She's rump high, not much we can do about that but with conditioning and some nice work under saddle hopefully we can improve her topline. 

I love that she doesn't pull back like Sophie did! She is overall a much calmer mare, but she is a bit stand offish. One of her favorite expressions of that is turning her head and neck away from me. I work on that in the pasture; when I catch Velvet for her grain and take her out of the pen, I spend time with Ruby and give her scratches while she has her head turned away, which encourages her to acknowledge me and turn back her attention to me. She is a very emotionally reserved horse. 

The dentist appointment was interesting.

Checking the balance- left side was higher than the right

 Initially she was good as he did her incisors, without sedation, but when he got to her molars she objected so was given an oral sedative.  While we waited for that to kick in, we checked Beamer's mouth. It only needed a couple of swipes on the incisors, for the rest there is pretty much nothing to be done for him as the teeth erupt so slowly at his age and he was done a year ago. 

So between having her teeth done and having a saddle that should fit better, we are geared up and ready to go! 

#4

 Foal #4 for Shayla is Belle's foal- another colt, surprise surprise! A huuuuuge black colt who should mature at least 16 hh. There was a bit of drama at his birth: the draft mare and Belle foaled at the same time, about 10 ft. apart  and the draft mare tried to steal Belle's foal. After a lot of bravery on Shayla's fiancé's part, things were sorted out and Belle and foal put in another pen. 

I'm cute, of course they both wanted me!

This foal was sold in utero last year, which basically means an non refundable deposit put down on him and the balance payable at weaning/pick up.

His person named him Nero. Probably in reference to all the fires burning in Shayla's area. 

It's hard to tell if he will stay black. And the reason I say that.... is Bear, the other black colt off the same sire is exhibiting some color change at just a month old. 

Both Nero and Bear have buckskin mamas. It looks to me like Bear will be buckskin once he sheds out. He definitely has those eyes that speak to a dilute color, which is why we at first thought smoky black. It will be cool to see his color emerge. 

Velvet had a strong heat, and Beamer covered her 4 times over the course of the week, which, if she caught means a foal due date of around April 20th. 

Those of you who follow our Diamond Lazy H Quarter Horses page will know that I will be retiring Beamer from breeding after this year. He's still strong and willing but his knees are getting pretty bad. He's losing muscle mass in his shoulders because of his limited front end movement. However, since he now has his own pasture and can move around a lot, I think we may see some improvement there. Time will tell on whether he still has viable semen too, as age can play a part in its viability. So to that end, I will have him cover Ruby this year too, and we will see if both mares catch. I also have another mare coming from a friend for him. You may remember from 2008, you long time followers, when I bought two dun fillies from a breeder's auctions and sold one (Andee) and kept the other, Chickory (Josie's mom).  Andee will be coming to Beamer's court in June, pending her disease panel results. 

I'm waiting for the last quarter horse mare. Dolly, to foal, then I will head up to visit all the foals . Camera in hand!

Just chillin'

 Some days it's all about just remembering to breathe and enjoy the blessings God has given me. We have had some good rainfall for the last couple of days, so that will help the fire situation, locally at least. 

No better way to relax than to head out to the gazebo and stop, look and listen. Oh, and take photos 😁

The squirrel was scolding me. So I shot him (with my camera!!!)

I wasn't about to leave, so he did. 

Next up was the Mallards. They came a cruisin' upriver, ducking for food. Is that why they are called ducks?

They look just like the rock!

It was awesome to just sit there and listen to the birdcalls, and watch the thunderheads building in the sky. 

About then the thunderheads started rumbling so it was time to head in. Right, Thumper? 

Umm, Thumper, you coming? 

I ground worked Ruby in the round pen, now that we have finished the set up on it. I will do a separate post on that. The horse dentist is coming today to work on her, so after that I will be riding her. 

Thumper sez: Yeah get to work Ruby and keep your nose out of my barn!

What a week....

 Grab a coffee, this is a long one.....

So many things have been going on in the last week. First of all, there was the fire danger. Not so much for us in particular, but for our family and friends. Shayla had 2 or 3 fires close to her , and her fiancé was kept busy hauling and operating dozers to help with fire fighting. One was very close to his dad's place. Fortunately all those fires were controlled quickly. 

But then there was the town where Ted's dad is in long term care in the hospital, and where his brother and sister-in-law live. They were put on evacuation alert and within an hour were given the evacuation order. It was a logistical nightmare getting 7,000 people out of Drayton Valley all at once, and the 20 minute drive to the mustering area turned into an over 2 hour drive. The hospital residents were not evacuated that night; the fire department kept a watchful eye on them but all the residents spent the night in their wheel chairs awaiting imminent departure. The next day, they were driven to a town quite far away, about 4  to 5 hours drive. We hope he will soon be able to return. But so far, the fire is not contained. 

There are several small towns and reservations in northern Alberta that have been evacuated. However, cooler weather has arrived, but unfortunately still very windy and not enough rain to be very helpful. Speaking of rain, B.C. has flooding and mudslides and their own evacuation alerts and orders.  Crazy how the weather is completely different from one side of the Rocky Mountains to the other!

Despite the heat and wind, we managed to get a few things done here. The round pen is up (mostly), just needs a repair on one of the fasteners for a panel so it will be a couple of days before I can use it. I got Beamer's pen enlarged now that we moved the debris pile to the burn pit. (And no we won't be burning it until next winter!) All the horses are on pasture now, and since it was a slow introduction to the spring grass, there are no health issues for them. 

Speaking of Beamer....

Yes? what is it?

You got work to do, buddy. 

Yes that is Velvet. I kinda figured she wasn't in foal as she didn't get any larger in the last couple of months. Then in April she had a mini 2 day heat, and on Friday she came into full blown heat. She was willing and ready yesterday so Beamer got to cover her. Today she is pacing the fence and calling to him so this is a good strong heat, and she will get covered once a day until she goes out. I sure hope she catches and settles well this time! She turns 23 on May 16th. Putting in my order, once again, for a blue roan filly. 

Speaking of fillies...

I got word from Sophie's owner, she foaled out- guess what- a Beamer filly. Imagine that! I knew if I sold her it would be a filly! It's a sorrel with a star, no other white. I hope to get some nice photos of her sent to me. For now, here she is at just a few hours old. 

He said Sophie is being a good mama. I think she went to the perfect home. If you want to check it out, he is on Facebook, Sylvain Lachance in Quebec. He mostly raises paint show horses. 

I went to the top of Beamer's barn to look for some tubs for my raised/container garden, which we are also working on, and to my surprise, look what I found!

Mama cat was under one of the half barrels and she growled at me and then zoomed down the stairs. When I lifted the barrel these lovely little Siamese cross kittens were there! So I hastily retreated without touching them as I don't want her to think she has to move them. Mama cat is the black short haired feral cat who is Smoky and Bandit's mama. 

I thought the full Flower Moon would bring on foals for Shayla, and it did!  One of the draft mares that I had photos of, the lovely Katey, had a colt last night. 

And Jayne foaled! Yay! 

Check out the chrome! Shayla said "He's missing a boot!" Yes, it's a colt.

The sire is the same as the sire of Bear, and there are 3 more siblings due- Dolly, Belle and Gussie's foals. 

Musta been hard work , lots of yawning going on! 

Can't wait to go play with this one! Probably in a few days. 

Foals and friends day

 We are having summer like weather here. A few days ago, we still had snow in the shaded areas, then -whammo!- we get 30 C weather! So of course that meant getting a lot of the outside work done. Clean up from winter's mess, trim tree branches that were rubbing on the garage roof, take that big pile of debris to the burn pit that was such an eyesore when I looked at Beamer's pen from the house.... etc. etc. We are also preparing an area for my raised bed/container garden. 

We took a day yesterday for visiting- Ted to go see his dad, and me to go see Shayla and help with the foals. And visiting our friends where we used to have our horses, the ones who gave me Velvet. It was a great day! Except for the end, but we'll get to that. First- foal pics!

Zipper is adorable, very friendly and easy to catch. Shayla did a little work with teaching him to give to pressure (I think this is only his 3rd time being haltered) and he did very well. Smart little fellow!

Working with Bear was a little different. He hadn't been haltered before, and it was definitely a two person job. However, once he was haltered and got loved up on, he figured out that this was a good thing! I didn't get any photos of the process as I was busy helping, but did get some from after. 

He was much happier being handled after the halter lesson. 

We also visited the draft mare herd, there are two foals there. This one is a filly. Her sire is full Percheron and her dam is part Percheron with Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred in the mix. 

She's very cute! Not named yet as far as I know. 

Then there is this fellow, the mares had moved into the shade of the trees and he was just chillin' out having a nap. 

The cows are calving there too. We kept an eye on this new born for a bit until we were sure it had it's first drink- important on such a hot day. 

Jayne, Belle and Dolly are all close to foaling. With the full moon on Friday, I'm betting at least 2 of them will foal out. Belle may take a little longer as she doesn't seem as ready as Jayne and Dolly. This may be the first time in a long time that she doesn't foal out on a full moon!

Got in a visit with Gussie and Boe too, they are turned out with some others on a separate pasture. Gussie isn't due until late July. 

At 20 years old now, she's looking good! Boe is growing a lot too, and was his usual friendly handsome self. 

Still has his winter scruffies going on!

It sure was great to play with the foals, I'm having withdrawals seeing everyone else with their foals! Ah well, I got my fix. 

And about that "except for the end" bit....

When Ted came to pick me up in the early afternoon, I could smell smoke. There are wildfires an hour or so west of there, so we figured it was probably that. However, when we got home I got a text from Shayla about a new fire right close to them. Like within a couple of miles. They got an emergency alert on the cell phones. Having to make possible evacuation plans when you have that many animals to look after is stressful! Fortunately they have enough land that is fire proof to keep most of them and places to put others. Including here. Fortunately, there has been no further notice to get out, so the crews that worked all night must have been effective at controlling it. 

Ted and I discussed our own plans in case of fire. We are surrounded by all those spruce trees and we have an asphalt shingle roof on this house. The house would probably be a loss. We do have the river close enough to pump water and we have plenty of pasture, but it has dead grass that would be a fire magnet, so we would load the two older horses and either pony or ride Ruby out of here to a nearby plowed field. 

With the high and hot dry winds, prairie fire is a constant concern. There is a complete fire ban in this part of the Province. Two more days of this before we have rain in the forecast. We sure need it, not just for the fire threat, but for those who have put their crops in, the rain is needed to get the seed growing.