Boo.... just in time for howl -o-ween.

Just this....

I has a happy, Boo came back after being on the prowl for a week.

Of dogs and cats.

My dog Tess turned 11 yesterday, here is her official 11th birthday portrait.

I have been doing some serious thinking about Thea, and her strong desire to work, which you can see in this video:

I feel that it isn't fair for me to keep suppressing her desire to work, and my horses are starting to take after her; she got kicked by Pistol the other day, and Mesa was striking at her today. So I mentioned to one of my Saskatchewan friends that I would consider letting her go to a working home.... and she got a hold of her friend Wendy Schmaltz, who happens to be the breeder of Thea's sire and owner of her grandsire. Wendy is the breeder of several of the top trials dogs in Canada, and after seeing this video, called and we made a deal on her. Thea will be leaving in November, hopefully for a life of working to her heart's content. Although I will really miss her, I feel that it's in her best interests to move on.

Beamer got in a bit of a wreck the other day, when I went down to feed he was moving funny and I saw that he had a swollen left front leg and a swollen sheath. (He was walking like a kid with a full soggy diaper!)

He also had dirt all over his back. To be on the safe side, he got a shot of fast acting penicillin, and a tetanus shot. I did find some scrapes on his sheath, one is visible in the photo. So after some CSI work, I found a spot where he had rolled and I figure he had gotten himself cast up against a fencepost and probably had a hind leg on each side of it, hence the trauma to his sheath, and I figure he banged his front leg with a hind or even with his other front. Cold hosing the leg really helped, by the next day it was fine. The sheath swelling is going down, it's about half the size now. I did watch to make sure he could pee properly.

I lost my kitty Pearl the other day too. She lived upstairs and never came down to socialize, and if you went upstairs she would hide. I found her laying partly under the bed, so I picked her up. She was clearly dying, too weak to move more than her eyes and very faint meows. I held her for the next hour and she died in my arms. No idea why she died, she was just 7 years old. 

Pretty Pearl, shortly after we got her

Speaking of cats, kitty Boo has been gone for nearly a week, I sure hope he comes back.

There is always something going on

Who can this be?

Well I'm gonna keep you hangin' 😄

You'll find out in a couple of weeks.

Sneak peek

Today my husband helped me on some of my hideout projects. And Hideout is exactly what it is to me. It's a place to sit peacefully while I wait for the weanlings to finish their ration and get a head start on one of the hay piles before letting the mares in with them; a place to just sit in front of that nice open barn door and look at the fall colours and the snow that is creeping ever lower down the mountainside.

 A lovely peaceful place with no TV or internet, and I often don't take my phone with me.

Today we got the bin finished and my roadside find of a Stampede banner put up.

I still have several things to do in there, but it is functional now, and racoon proof!

Shayla was back out today and trimmed Pistol's feet. He was pretty good considering that he is a fidgety fellow, and what we found that worked best for him was letting him fiddle with his lead rope. He stood quietly when it was in his mouth.

I wanted her to see how nicely he loads- remember I had been loading him and feeding him in the trailer for about a week? That was around 2 weeks ago and he hadn't been loaded since then.
One small hesitation while he thought about it and in he went.

He was backed out, reloaded, and then unloaded by stepping out forwards to make sure he is comfortable with either way. He was a little rock star!
We can't send him home with her for a while as the majority of horses at the barn where she lives and works are sick right now, so it'll likely be December before he leaves.

The view and a visit

So Crystal was asking if I could see my horses out the window of my hideout in the barn....

A little heart shaped rock that I found, for my heart horse!

Only Beamer from the window, but that's ok with me, as I can see all the rest of them just looking out the barn door.

We are finally getting the rain we needed back in the summer. It was preceded by a big windstorm that played hell in Alberta and Saskatchewan - several huge grass fires, people evacuated and 2 deaths that were fire related (vehicle accidents) and several farms were burned up, including cattle burned to death. So very, very sad.

Shayla came over today to meet her colt, and I'm happy to say she liked him as much as I hoped she would.

In the next photo you can really see how much taller he is than Mesa, even though he is 2 months younger. We measured him and he is going to be at least 15.1, most likely 15.2 as we take the final measure after 5 months of age. Mesa will be 14.2hh.

Mesa stuff

I finally got around to trimming Mesa's front feet again yesterday. I usually like to have someone hold a youngster when trimming, but with nobody around to help, I just took her to the hitching rail, looped the lead line 3 times around without tying, and got it done. She did pull back several times as the bot flies were pestering her, and the rope just had enough friction that it released but not so quickly that she was instantly free. Stepped her back up and carried on. She did pretty good. I also measured her leg for her grown-up height, as she is over 5 months old now, and it was right at 14.5 inches, so it looks like she will finish up around 14.2hh, which to me is the perfect height.

She is just so cute!

Then we went on a walkabout. I took her up next door to our buddy's workshop, as I knew Ted was in there visiting.

Don't be shy, c'mon in Mesa!

She walked right in, (doorway is wide enough for a vehicle) and had a nice visit with Ted's buddy Dave ..... and as we left she left her *ahem* calling card, which I quickly shovelled up!

Whaaaat? What goes in must come out ya know!

This 'n' that

I made some progress on my hideout, all the boards are in place now. Now it's all about organizing all my tack and decor.

I have lots of ideas, like a bin to store all the feed to keep the raccoons out and to not have to use all those barrels and tubs.

The window is Thumper approved. The cats like that I moved the table near the window, now they sit there, they didn't do that before.

I start the weaning process with Pistol now. Every day when I give Mesa and him their ration, I leave them locked up in the pen a little longer every day. By the end of the month I'll be weaning him, unless he goes to his new home sooner than that.

I have been watching cutting on internet live streaming, and Thea is watching it with me.

I still have lots of flowers, although we have had some good frost. Tomatoes and onions are harvested, and that's abut the only thing that survived the deer here.

Emily Carr rose

Delta's Sarah, an upright fuschia. I'm really surprised how well it did, it got a lot of sun and heat and has lived through 3 frosts.

Pistol at 3 Months

3 months is a landmark for foals, after that they get into a gawky phase. Pistol is looking pretty good now.

That mark on his neck is showing the colour he is going to shed out to, a darker buckskin. He probably will not shed his foal coat until next May or June.

He has mellowed out quite a bit, he isn't as reactive as he was.

But he still likes to bust a move! I always get a chuckle seeing photos of running horses, how their feet are positioned.

He has beautiful straight legs and is a sturdy boy.

He still has a ways to go to grow into those legs!

Horse language

Can you guess how this conversation played out?

 I'll tell you in the comments after y'all tell me what you think.

The kids

Just a little fun with the weanlings yesterday.

Thea is obsessed with Pistol. It's a wonderment that they just ignore her.

Projects and ponying

Well we have been busy here! Ted finished the sliding barn door, next is for me to paint it.

The cats are using the opening on the right as their cat door. The bat house Ted put up above the door a while ago still doesn't have any residents, but I am hopeful that next year they will figure it out.

I finished trimming Beamer, he is lame right now, I am treating him for thrush and I think his arthritis is bothering him. Still have to do Rosalee's back feet but I should get that done today.
I saddled her up on Saturday and gave Mesa a ponying lesson. I started on the ground, dallying Mesa and leading Rosalee.

Once it looked like Rosalee was cool with that I stepped aboard.



Rosalee was quite patient, although she did pin her ears a couple of times when Mesa got right behind her, which I fixed by moving Rosalee's hip over so that Mesa was t'd up instead of behind. Kept the lesson short for the first time.
Then I went for a little ride and played with my mini obstacle course,

 and then we headed over to the barn to check on Ted's progress.

It passed inspection.

I'm liking this mellow version of Rosalee, it is much like she was when I first bought her. 

Day 33

Of feathers and felines

We had a lovely fall day yesterday. I trimmed Rosalee's front feet, then took her to the round pen to exercise her, she is getting quite... ahem... fluffy but we are going to blame it on pregnancy 😄
The local turkey flock left us a present.

Not used to seeing turkey feathers, mostly hawk and owl and wasn't quite sure what it was from, but Brown Eyed Cowgirl identified it for me so I checked my pics of the turkeys that have been hanging out here for the last couple of weeks and sure enough, it's a wing feather.

Getting back to Rosalee- here is what I mean by her fluffiness:

She was really lazy,and not overly inclined to exert herself. Once I get her back feet trimmed I think I'll go back to riding her- I like it that she is feeling lazy, hopefully I will get some nice rides in on her.
I can start ponying Mesa now too.

The youngsters are doing quite well with their trailer loading, so I'm giving them a week off on that and will just refresh them later, changing it up to just loading without the use of feed.

Mornings at the barn are quite enjoyable, I now have all 3 cats greeting me and escorting me to their breakfast table. They all jump up there and wait for their food, and Boo has let me rub ointment on his eye every day; it's looking much better.

I was working with Pistol at the trailer the other day, and Thumper jumped up on the tarp covered haystack and startled Pistol, so I led him over for a visit to check out that scary cat.

Thumper, the king of the castle.

Pistol making submissive mouth chewing to the cat.

Ted is supposed to finish the barn door today, and get me set up for putting up the boards on the inside of my Hideout. I've got a batch of plum jam to make, and then go trim Rosalee and Beamer's hind feet.

I must be boring....

Pistol makes progress too

The 4th day of loading lessons went really well. Mesa self-loaded, and I closed the door, she just quietly went about chowing down. No issues. Good girl, Mesa!

This time I made sure I had fresh battery so I could video Pistol, and he did super well! I think his big resistance from the day before helped him to progress to the realization that resistance didn't get him anywhere, and it was much easier to just march on in and get his feed. I barely had time to hit record, and he was loaded!

No butt rope needed yay! I'm hoping he will self load this evening. After he was done eating, I took him for a stroll, his first real walk away from the mare herd.

Beamer is so good with the babies. He should have had a life as a pasture breeding sire. From the beginning, Pistol has always been intrigued with Beamer, always talking to him and responding when Beamer called out to the mares.
Pistol has really come a long way, he isn't nearly as flighty as he used to be. I think he will always require a lot of handling, he won't be the kind of horse you can just pull out of the pasture after a few months off and just go to riding (once he's all grown up!). I think that is because of all the hot breeding on his sire's side http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/cd+shiny+pistolena  because we know that Belle's other foals are quiet minded.

Barn and Mesa progress

First, Mesa- her second loading went well, took only a few minutes, and then yesterday her third loading went like this:

Quite proud of this filly! I left the door closed until she was finished eating, and then backed her nicely out.
I did try to video Pistol's 2nd and 3rd loadings, but both times my camera battery quit on me. But basically he is still suspicious and flighty and I have to put the butt rope on him. As soon as it's on, he steps in willingly. Yesterday he self-unloaded 3 times, so I kept bringing him back in - with the butt rope each time. At one point, he backed out fast, reared up and flipped himself over- I am pretty sure he is going to need a chiropractor now. He seems to have no ill effects but I will get him checked to make sure. Hopefully today he will behave a little better!

Ted got to work on the barn door yesterday. We had a 5 ft wide door inside the barn separating off the backroom where I store my square bales, and we took it down and installed it at the front of the barn.

Setting the first framing board in place

Framing in the gap so that it can be sheeted in afterwards.

Installing the track.

Semi-finished. Ted will be adding a piece to the bottom, and sheeting in the side opening. I think he plans on doing the traditional X on it, and I will paint it. There will be a cat door on the bottom of the side opening.
And- he installed the window in my Cowgirl Hideout!

Now I can start putting up the boards on the inside wall and get it all organized and comfy 🐎 💕

Loaded!

Trailer loading lessons went well yesterday. Yes, Lessons plural, because Pistol got a lesson too to prepare him for hauling to his new home after weaning.

I started with Mesa (video is almost 9 minutes). Overall she took about 15 minutes to load and unload.

The new routine will be feeding them their foal ration in the trailer.

Then since that went well, it was Pistol's turn. He was a little more concerned and took a little longer, but he is pretty young and I thought he did pretty good, considering that this is the first thing he's had to do without having mama close by. This video is 7 minutes, it was taken after about 10 minutes of him thinking about whether or not he wanted to load. He wasn't bad, just reluctant until I put the butt rope on him.

Since he was concerned about his mama I had him eating at the back of the trailer so he'd feel less confined.

Both foals needed the butt rope to encourage them to step forward into the trailer. Today we shall see if it is needed- I hope not!
The goal is to eventually just send them in instead of leading them in.