Wordless Wednesday

 

Sunday Stills- Evening

 

'Nuff said.

Adding stuff

 Dally's weaning is coming along well, she only fusses if Jayne moves to the far end of her pen. Poor little thing !

I started taking her for walks in the afternoon, and am working on teaching her to stand tied at the hitching rail- a whole different deal from standing tied in the horse trailer. 

I set it up so that the rope slides if she backs up. I started out on the same side as her, but she wanted to cuddle up to me for security and she ain't no teddy bear! 

I like that she isn't super reactive. Gets over her pouts really quickly. 

We did this again today, only I had Ted holding the rope as I wanted to take my hoof rasp and correct the balance on a front foot. She did try to back up when she felt the rasp initially, but then stood good for me. 

So this will be part of our daily routine until she is quite comfortable with standing tied. 

Weaning time

 Yesterday- just after the full moon- it was weaning time. I separated Dally into the foaling pen and left Jayne in the main pen for a while. 

Once Dally realized she couldn't see the mama, she carried on for a bit. 

Once I put Jayne across from her, she settled down considerably. I put their feed right across from each other so they could be as close as possible.

See that gap between the gate and the panel? I didn't like that one little bit as it could be a potential leg/hoof trap if Dally got to pawing.

So I fixed it. Looks kinda hillbilly but it works for the amount of time it will be needed. 

This morning Dally was her normal self, greeting me as she saw me coming and looking for her scratches. Her favourite thing is to interrupt my stall cleaning for this:

All is well!

Never a dull moment

 Things are going well with Dally's training. We did have one setback the other day when she decided that nuh-uh there was no way I was going to catch her....

Little munchkin did laps around the pen too. 

I wasn't about to play that game so after a while I left her to her own devices minus her evening oats. Next day I got a little devious and caught Jayne and took her out to eat some grass (happy Jayne) and left Dally in. She was easy to catch then! Just a phase she's going through, I am sure. She is an independent little miss. Just how independent is about to get tested as weaning is happening in the next few days. 

She sure does look like her mama! When she isn't playing silly booger she is quite the character, like this morning at chore time.

This evening we stepped it up a bit with the trailer loading. She has been standing tied to eat the last 2 times, so today I stepped out and closed the trailer door. Gave her a few minutes of that, and will increase the time she stands in there alone as we go along.

Stomping at those pesky flies. They can go away anytime!

This redhead is no deadhead; she is smart, figures things out quickly, and is very expressive. 

Sunday Stills- Signs of Autumn

 Autumn is slow to arrive here. The trees ae just barely starting to turn, the grass has decided that it is going to green up again, and most of my flowers are either reblooming or are still going strong. 

Even the horses are not showing much sign of new hair growth- just a hint of shedding on Dally, and Beamer's hair in the mornings is a bit fluffed up.  

We haven't had a heavy frost yet either- just a hint on the windshield of the truck a few mornings ago.

So for this week's challenge, this is all I have to offer- the sunflowers from the earliest part of the summer are drying up and the chickadees and  a few other types of birds are happily munching on them. There are still plenty of them that are still yellow and still growing though.

For more Signs of Autumn, click here

Weaning delayed

 We have a rain storm in the forecast, so I am delaying weaning by a week or so. I will have to put Jayne in a pen that adjoins the foaling pen, and it doesn't have a shelter. I want Dally to be able to see her at all times since I don't have a companion horse to put with Dally, so for the first week Jayne will have to be in the pen adjoining. I figure after a week I can switch her back to the regular pen, where she will at times be out of sight for Dally- but by then she should be a lot calmer. 

Meanwhile, the trailer feeding/loading is going great. I closed the door halfway this time, no problems so today I will close it so that it's only open a foot or so. 

Meanwhile, I always look for training opportunities and since the flies were pesky even though I had just sprayed her, I put my jacket on her back to keep them from landing there,

 and used her lead rope to shoo the flies away from her legs. 

Softly, like her mama's tail swishing. I use a light rope for the lead on the babies, as a yearling I switch to a standard size rope- the reason being I don't want a big knot or clip banging her chin.

She turned 4 months old yesterday. I measured her leg and it looks like she will be 15 hh. Perfect!

A couple of updates

 

Foose sez: Is the election over yet?  We have a federal election on Monday- the good thing is that it was a short campaigning time. 

Thought you all might like to see something neat- This is an ultrasound photo from Sparkle (aka Jazz), the daughter of Beamer and Belle that I had here for a short time. 

Yup that's a Beamer/Belle grandbaby! Thanks Janice for the photo!

This is the sire. 

He is a red dun who went grey, so it could be a colorful baby! Due date is late July. If I am not mistaken this is the first grandbaby for Beamer other than an Appaloosa cross on his daughter Velvet last year. So this will be his first registered quarter horse grandget.

Since we are doing updates- how about Drifter? They are riding him regularly now and are just delighted with him. Plus- there will be Drifter babies next spring! Can't wait for those photos to share!

Where's that Easy Button?

 So- since we hit our goal with the tarp training, and it was time for something else, I decided to revisit trailer loading. 

I had started this earlier this summer, back when it was really hot out and before Dally fell in love with her oats.  So, that was where I decided to go next. 

Opened up the trailer door wide, hung her bucket in there- then I had to field a phone call while Dally took advantage of my inattention to dance around and fuss and fret on the end of the lead rope. When  I was done, I took the bucket and set it on the floor so she could see it and start eating. 

Well she dove right in! I moved the bucket back a little.....

She stepped right up....

Well that made me smile!  I didn't confine her, she was free to come and go.  I let her step out, and asked her to come back in. 

I will continue to feed her in the trailer, with the ultimate goal of being able to leave her in there to eat with the door closed. 

Done and Done

 In my last post Et Viola I mentioned that the only thing I had left to do with the tarp is to have it drag on the ground on both sides of Dally as she walks, turning into it. 

Well... got 'r done! We can now take a break from the tarp work and move on to something else. 

She also got her li'l feetsies trimmed again today, and she was actually pretty good. Better than her mama was, in fact!

Good li'l Dally Darlin'!

Sunday Stills- Dogs

 I have to admit, my heart kind of sank when I saw that this week's challenge is dogs. We really miss Tess and Merle and I didn't think I was going to be able to do this challenge.

But then, I went to visit my sister, and she has three lovely dogs! They are all collies. 

This is Indi, the only female of the three. I was hoping that white rock wouldn't wash out her lovely white plume tail but it did.

This is Key, the younger of the two males and future mate for Indi.

This lovely fellow is Comanche, the first one of these dogs my sister bought. 

Indi always seems to be in the middle of all the play scuffles they have.

They are an energetic bunch, but are also well behaved. 

Et Viola!

 Just as I figured, Dally has this tarp thing figured out. I didn't bother with the drag and walkover, just went straight to asking her to wear it. I like to build from where we left off if possible, only going back to the baby steps if the horse is going backwards instead of advancing. Usually, if you build the basics well you don't have to repeat them every single time, although a review every now and then is a good thing. 

So here we go...

Throw the tarp on, let her think about it for a bit, then lead her out. 

I put it back on and asked her to carry it into the stall.

Tomorrow I will probably spread it out a lot more so it drags on the ground on the sides and ask her to turn into it and away from it. 

The little red head is doing good! 

Day 5 progress

 Dally is getting pretty good at standing while I spray her with fly spray. I use an aerosol and the sound startles her a bit at first, but she is pretty good about it, especially when I spray her belly and legs. I think she has figured it out that it keeps the flies away. She is getting her feet trimmed again on Monday morning so I want her to be pretty good with the spray so she will stand nicely for her trim.

As always I ask for a walk over first, and if she doesn't comply (she didn't) then I do the follow routine which she has down pat. 

Then I rubbed her with the tarp and threw it over her back. Not sneaking it on her, just placing it over her back like I would a saddle pad on a broke horse. She was a little nervous about that and went in circles around me, when she stopped I took it off. We did that twice before I was able to get a video- this is the third go at it. 

That was pretty good!  Especially since the first two tries she was trying to climb in my pockets. She calms down pretty quickly.

This is the 4th go, and where I stopped- I let the tarp slide off her off side. I think tomorrow she will have no issues with it. 

I put the tarp back in the stall, and asked for a walk over before we quit. I found that if I bend over so that I am at eye level with her she is more willing to step onto the tarp with me. Over all, a really good session. Good girl, Dally!

Such a pretty girl too! I actually prefer a dark sorrel like this over a more light one like her mama, although that flaxen mane of Jayne's is quite striking. 

Tarp School Day 3 and Day 4: the Touch and the Walkover

 The  next session was all about getting Dally used to being touched by the tarp. I started out with the usual drag and follow routine,  and I could see that the biting flies were driving her nuts. So I started rubbing her with the tarp, which kind of took her mind off the flies. 

She actually did better than I expected her to. 

Since the flies were so nasty, I decided to take the tarp into the shade of the shelter for the next bit, getting her to step onto or over the tarp. 

Today was a nasty fly day again, poor little thing was just beside herself. She did a lot of loping around the pen, mad on both sides of her face!

Can't buck the flies off, Dally! 

I had the tarp spread out at the entrance to the shelter and had my chair there. Then she does this:

Well would ya look at that! (Grin)

I caught her and sprayed her with fly spray and stayed with her while she ate her grain- before, she would take a bite, lope around, come back for another bite etc.  Then I worked with following the tarp again, and then went for the touch- again, building on the routine and adding a bit more each time. 

This is how it went:

I let it drop to the ground, she sniffed it, and that's where we stopped for the day. I will probably do a couple more days of this and get so she will walk while the tarp is draped over her, then move on to some other methods of sacking out. Once she has the tarp figured out we only need to revisit it a couple of times a month. 

Tarp School- Day 2

 I hung the tarp in the stall overnight  and after bringing Dally in, I rattled it a bit to see what she would do. 

Not a whole lot! But still reactive.

I like to see how curious they are about new things. I feel that the more curious they are, the more intelligent they are. And doing things in a non threatening way helps them to build confidence; while still introducing something that is out of their comfort zone. 

Next up was dragging the tarp and having her follow it. This helps them to build self confidence; as if they are chasing it instead of it chasing them. You can see that she is still a bit wary of it. 

This next clip you can really see her thinking things through. She did really well, so we stopped there. It will be interesting to see how today's session goes!

Tarp school day 1

 I am taking advantage of Dally's time in the foaling pen while I work on separating her from the mama. It's Tarp Time! My favourite training tool for the youngsters. It's big, it's noisy, it is white and therefore highly visible, so no surprises. 

First I just had it laying on the fence line as I took her in to eat her grain- she gave it the hairy eyeball. After she ate I dragged it to the middle of the pen and let  her get a good look at it. 

I like to drag the noisy tarp between me and the foal for a few minutes. She was a  little bit s'picious but not terrified.

Then  I spent some time sending her around the tarp with me always on the opposite side. 

Little miss is quick on her feet!

She did pretty good for her first session! I will post today's session separately tomorrow.

Sunday Stills- fences

 Sometimes fences are about what you want to keep out...

and sometimes they are to protect you from what is within!

For more Sunday Stills click here

I'm still here

 I guess I have kind of been AWOL the last couple of weeks. It has been a rather trying time. First, one of my husband's best friends passed away. We were not able to go to his funeral. It was very tough watching his health deteriorate so quickly.

Then you all remember Mel, who bought Eli? Her husband passed away unexpectedly and that has been very hard. We still don't know the cause. Again, we were not able to go to his funeral. 

Then there are all the cases on the Covid Adverse Reaction Testimonies site where people are sharing the devastating effect of the jabs that people are willingly taking and how some people are shamed into agreeing to do something that is an unknown and experimental procedure. So please don't anyone tell me how safe it is to put your faith in an experimental gene therapy and how horrible people are for not wanting to get jabbed.  Millions of people have had their lives radically changed from the jab agenda. I am so fed up with people spreading hate and blame. And don't even get me started on medical apartheid. Did we not learn anything from the last century? How did we go from In God We Trust to in Bill Gates We Trust?

I think it's time for the God Reset, not the Great Reset. 

Ok rant over.

Back to our regularly scheduled program......

Nitro went to a new home yesterday.

He is going to a roping family who host jackpots and roping schools so it looks like he will be helping a new bunch of youth learn the ropes (pun intended!) 

I couldn't ask for a better ambassador for my breeding program. 

Sunday Stills- Black and white

 

Summer winds down

 Whole lotta nothing going on here. The weather is great- enough rain to make the lawn start to green up again. 

I have been doing some harvesting- the elderberries are ready so I picked some to dry for tea.

Also made an oxymel out of rose petals and bee balm petals.

Once they dried I mixed them with honey and cider vinegar; should be ready by the end of September.

I am preparing Dally for weaning which is coming up in 3 weeks. I separate her into the foaling pen to give her grain, and leave her in there for about half an hour. Mama hangs around across the fence while she eats - probably wishing she could have a few bites-  but I have cut Jayne off grain to help decrease her milk production. 

Dally has graduated to the next size halter now. She is really starting to grow.

 One thing about this program, it makes the foals easy to catch and lead when they know they are going to get their nummies.

And a photo of Mr. Handsome. Just because.