Eclipse day

 The eclipse was almost a non event in this corner of the world- unless you had a telescope like my sister and her husband have. They watched through it and sent me this photo, which is rather cool as the sun looks like the moon but the moon is the dark shadow. 

Photo credit to Frank!

I sat outside in the sun during the eclipse and the coolest thing happened- right at noon, when the eclipse was getting underway, 4 swans flew directly above me, about 30 feet up, with the sun shining through their wings- huge wings at that! I felt very blessed and thankful for such a beautiful moment. I didn't have my phone camera on but a few minutes later did get a snapshot of a pair of  them flying by but a little further away. 

I knew they were in the area as we saw a bunch of them, along with ducks and geese in a field on the way to town. Again, just a cell phone photo. 

While on the subject of wildlife.....

One of these things is not like the others, one of these things is not quite the same...

It's rare to see white tail deer and muleys together. This doe seemed curious, and the muleys were rather suspicious of her. She eventually went back to her little herd .

The river was interesting today. This morning, it was all calm and smooth flowing- worthy of trying for a reflection shot. 

Or two

Late this afternoon it was completely different. 

Velvet is still hanging in there, and my rules are that anyone whose guess has passed can put in a new guess. So far, that is Frank and Leslie. 

I'm still thinking of names....

Sunday Silence

 

Progress

 The snow finally melted enough for me to get to work putting the straw down in the foaling pen. We had a lovely 6 ft. high bale of clean oat straw delivered ,

The ground is still a bit wet, but at least it isn't frozen, that moisture will soon sink into the sandy soil here. 

All set up!  Velvet got a little worried at one point, she had a nap in that lovely straw bed and when she woke up she couldn't see the other horses, so I brought Gussie up so that she is right across the fence from her, then all was well in her world. 

And none too soon.... look at that belly and how it is now V shaped; the foal has dropped bum low, which they have to do to get in foaling position. 

Compare this photo below:

to this one from  3 weeks ago:

Her bag isn't quite full yet, so we do have a bit of a wait yet! 333 days today and counting. 

Waiting and waiting

I was getting a bit grumpy about still having snow on the ground here - guess I'm still in Creston mode, because I looked back at my photos of this time last year.... and guess what, it's about the same! So I guess I have to just suck it up, this too shall pass. It is melting, especially today and tomorrow, but there is a week of unsettled weather in the forecast with some of that S word in it. My point being, that with Velvet getting closer to foaling I am of course hoping for lovely weather! She is at 330 days today. Her milk is coming in well, and she is getting loose in the tail area. 

I have her separated from the other mares now, but not yet in the foaling pen. She seems to be quite content to have her hay all to herself! I have the foaling pen all set up, just waiting for the last of the snow to melt in it so I can put down some straw for bedding/foaling. I don't want to put it on top of the snow if I don't have to, as it will insulate the snow and it won't disappear for a while. 

The mares are all shedding like crazy; I groomed them yesterday and today it will be Beamer's turn. 

Easter Sunday was lovely day here, after Church I spent some time with the horses and even had some sit in the sun with Thumper quality kitty time. A good day to reflect on all that Easter means to us. 

And, although nothing is growing outside yet, I do have an Easter flower blooming indoors. 

My so called Thanksgiving cactus which likes to bloom around Christmas and Easter, came through for me, and opened up on Sunday! There are actually 2 plants in that pot, the other one is pink and it's opening up too, but it is very fitting that the white one bloomed for Easter Sunday. 

And Ted bought us carnations too, so we do have some spring type cheer going on indoors at least. 

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend. Ted spent Saturday with his family while I stayed home to work on the foaling pen. Priorities, right? 😁

If you haven't already, be sure to get your guess in on the foaling contest. All the information is on this post: 

https://rideagoodhorse.blogspot.com/2024/03/at-last.html

You can enter there or on this post. 

At last! (Foaling contest time)

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting (Oops, remember my key word for the year- Patience!!!) for Velvet to show signs of  impending foaling. 

Other than needing a wide load sign, that is!

She finally started bagging up on the day of the full moon, Monday. I was a bit worried if she would come into milk, considering her age. But all is well! 

That's not much but at least the process has started. She is also getting the usual jiggly butt. So you know what that means, it's foaling contest time! Here are the stats:

Velvet was bred May 8th last year. So that means as of today she is at 325 days. The standard is 343 days, but as you know, mares have their own timetable. Belle would go nearly a year, her average was 352 days. And I have had foals as early as 320 days.  I have no history on Velvet's previous 9 foals, so any guess will do!

So- guess the date, time, the gender, and the colour. 

The colour possibilities are:

Sorrel

Black

Blue Roan

Red Roan

I will start a list at the top of the sidebar once the guesses start rolling in, so people don't pick exactly the same. 

And as promised, I have a really nice item to give to the winner!

A lovely steel mug (not a Yeti but similar) with our logo!

It doesn't matter where you live, this can be mailed anywhere, and those of you who are previous winners can definitely enter and try to win again.

Those people who send their comments via email can also enter, and I will put their guesses on the sidebar too.

I am hoping the weather smartens up because, yes, I will be camping out and keeping a close eye on Velvet. I hope she is the kind of mama that lets me handle the foal . 

I am, of course, hoping for a blue roan filly!

 

We are not Amused.

 

Time

 Look what my creative and talented husband made for me!

Those were rusty old hames that you couldn't tell had brass tops. He wire brushed everything to clean it up- that took days! The horseshoes are unused, a front shoe and a hind shoe, and we had the decal of Beamer made at a local shop. The clock mechanism is battery operated.  The leather straps are original to the hames, cleaned up and reconditioned. I love it!

I managed to get the foaling pen cleaned up, still a bit of ice here and there but it's melting fast. The bonus to living on a sandy based farm is that the water soaks in quickly and we don't get a lot of mud. The puddles go away within a day as the ground thaws. With today being the vernal equinox, I hope this next blast of cold and snow flurries that are predicted won't amount to much. The mares are out pawing every day and ignoring their hay - they snack on the hay in the morning and evening but spend the day out in the field. 

Velvet is huge, but not bagging up yet. As soon as she does I will start bring her in at night to the foaling pen, but foal watch will be when she shows other signs of being close to foaling. Sure hope we get decent weather in April!

Misty the Siamese female barn cat didn't catch when she was bred in November as was evidenced by her being in full raging heat last week and having all the tomcats vying for her favors. They pursued her for a week, then poof they were gone. So we expect a litter mid May. 

Hahaha looks like her head is on backwards, but she's just cleaning off the tomcat spit.

A ride on Big Red

 I had to take advantage of the sunshine yesterday to saddle up Gussie and go for a little putt. The day before I took her for a stroll in hand up the driveway to gauge her emotional state - she had been calling out for Ruby when she left so a stroll was how I wanted to see if she was calmed down enough to ride. Need not have worried, it was a lovely stroll.

She was a bit head up as she looked around, but never put a foot wrong. 

Turned her loose in the round pen to see if the energy was the same and yes she was pretty relaxed. 

So the next day we saddled up and off we went. No prep in the round pen, but it is where I mount up as my step stool is frozen into the ground there. So that gave me the opportunity to work her on opening the gate and ride through it- she tends to get in a bit of a hurry so she got the one step at a time treatment and relaxed into it. 

My route was a short one, up the long driveway and into the hayfield for a little tour. 

Here are a couple videos that speak better than words. 

Yes that is a long driveway!

Out onto the hayfield. We still have 2 ft. of snow out there that is a bit crusty, but where the tractor plowed to get at the feed bales it was bare and getting really soft. I may have to wait a bit to ride out there once the snow goes as she could sink in too far. Don't want cranky farmers  complaining about pock marks in their field! 

I have started prepping the foaling pen, raking up the old feed and the manure so that the ice underneath will melt. We have 5 days of snow in the forecast starting on the Vernal Equinox- go figure, spring comes in with a remnant of winter- but by Tuesday the 26th it starts to warm up again. Hopefully NO MORE SNOW after that!!!! Because , you know, Velvet is due mid April, so just a month from now. 

I will be keeping a close eye on her as she starts to bag up- I have been checking, but no sign of it yet. I have never foaled out a 24 year old mare so I am hoping all will go well. I think this is her 10th foal so she knows her job. 

Stay tuned for the foaling contest by the way, I have a really nice prize for it. 😏

Mares in the sun

 The mornings have been so bright and sunny lately, I sure enjoy morning chores. It's always fun to try to get nice shots of the sun shining on the manes and the happy munching faces. 

Now that Ruby has gone, Velvet has taken over Boss Mare duties. Maybe for the first time in decades? 

She pinned her ears at Gussie as she walked over to check if Gussie's hay pile tasted better than hers, and then happily munched right next to her. 

Belle used to be Gussie's BFF but that seems to have changed. Maybe because Belle is not mobile enough to move quickly, she has been ostracized by the rest of the herd and put at the bottom of the pecking order. Sadly, this will be Belle's last year, I won't put her through another winter. But I do appreciate that I am able to spend her last months loving on her and letting her know how special she is to me. She will have the summer to amble around and graze to her heart's content before being laid to rest. 

The little one in this big belly will fill my heart, I'm sure. One door closes, another one opens. 

Also- Ruby's new owner liked Beamer so much she asked if she can bring 2 mares to him this year, so I will have to un-retire him!

Ruby, colts and varmints

 

Ruby and her new owner

The sale of Ruby went well today. Even though Ruby played hard to catch (insert eyeroll) it didn't seem to bother this lady. Once caught, of course, Ruby was her normal good self. We had a nice long chat, discovered people and interests that we have in common, and generally had a good visit. She asked all the right questions, didn't miss anything, and best of all, Ruby likes her. 

All chilled out while the humans chatted

She plans to breed her to Sweet Mr Katz, a cutting horse stallion who happens to be owned by someone I know - I took lessons from him and my dog Reba was out of his dog Alice. The horse world is a small community!

I had a good visit with Shayla yesterday, took a few photos and got to mess a bit with her two yearling colts, Zipper (the paint) and Fire. Mostly we concentrated on getting photos of Fire. Here are just a couple of him, mostly quick snapshots so forgive the lighting and focus please! 

3 feet up!

He is a nice minded colt- and he is going to be big! We measured him to top out at 16 hh. 

The last couple of days I could tell that the raccoons had come back- the cat food in the barn was completely cleaned up and the bowls were scattered. Well, I started putting the cat food in the locked feed room at night to discourage the coons from freeloading, and this morning I could tell just what they thought of that. 

This was the water bowl that I left out. It had never had food in it, only water. It's one of those collapsible silicone dog water bowls.  They totally destroyed it! I am using a stainless steel water bowl for them now. Sink your teeth into that ya li'l varmints!

Now that Ruby is gone I can change out my herd arrangements. Belle can live with the other 2 mares, as Ruby used to push her around, and I can take down the partition in the mare shelter . Now to wait for warmer weather and the snow to melt so I can get Ted in there with the skid steer to clean up the corrals! C'mon spring!

Hellooooo sunshine!

 After a week of cold and snow, we finally have weather forecasted above freezing for at least the next 2 weeks- although dipping below for nights. Hopefully this will melt the 8 inches of snow we got from that last blast of winter!

Ruby sez the snow makes a cushy bed. 

Showing off her baby belly and giving her legs a rest from all that extra weight.

The other mares were happy to doze in the sunshine too. 

The lady who wanted to see Ruby is coming on Tuesday now that we have better weather. She said she's bringing her horse trailer....  I hope she buys her; she is looking for mares with some substance to breed to some of the smaller bodied cutting horse stallions. Ruby definitely fills the bill for that. 

Lionized

 Well. 

March marched in like a roaring lion! The last 2 days of February and continuing on for the next 3 days, here is a little photo essay. 

Haha he makes me laugh, coming in for his feed all tough looking! Whatsa matter Beamer, tired of the snow after only 3 days?  Hang in there buddy, it ain't over yet!

We have had a bit of a north wind that brought this system in, so it was kind of nasty for doing chores, but I bundled up in my insulated coveralls, down coat and fuzzy hat.

Said fuzzy hat post chores today

Needless to say, the next few days will be pretty low key. How is March coming in where you are?  I am slightly jealous of the daffodils posted by 4 R Ranch blog!