I picked up Velvet yesterday and took her up to Shayla’s place to tease her with Beamer as we suspected she may be in heat.
She said no not right now! Beamer however thought she should be. So we will have her visit him every day to check where she is in her cycle.
She got turned out into a large pasture with 3 other mares, including Gussie.
Still waiting for that foal!
1 week to go for move in....
Got some cool news from Rio's people.
If anyone was watching the Calgary Stampede Show Riders in their flag carrying ceremonies or in the victory laps for the contestants you may have seen a familiar set of hooves. 😊
Apparently the pick up men were eyeballing him; he's big and powerful enough for that job!
Rio has never carried a flag before but he took to it like a champ. And I think he rather enjoyed all the attention and commotion of the Stampede.
Good job, Rorie and Rio!
Yep counting the days until we get in our new home on the farm. 2 more weeks! Camping for extended periods is a true test of marital bliss.
I have been busy with my "job" of teaching Sage to load. Sage is a mare owned by the people who gave me Velvet. She's a grade quarter horse, 7 years old. Mostly she's just halter broke and stands tied. I have been working her every day, short sessions of ground work to give her the tools she needs to learn to trailer load. 2 days of that and we worked on leading. First time it was just the front feet. Next day, in she went. We were using my trailer which is a 2 horse angle haul as it's wide open.
Front feet in....
All the way in. This was the 3rd time in a row loading . She did great!
She also backed out beautifully.
A couple days later we loaded her in a 2 horse straight haul. First day just the front feet, next day all the way in. Because straight hauls are more confined I did put her treats in the manger to give her a reason to step all the way in. Viola! In she went. We will load her in there a few more times to make sure she's comfortable with it.
Meanwhile Sophie is turned out in a back pasture with a herd of mares and geldings; got to see her yesterday and she's looking great. She also came up to the fence to visit which made me happy, she hasn't gone feral on me!
Her beautiful bay color has a metallic sheen to it- hard to see in a photo. She looks great!
She's having a vacation! But once we get on the farm I will resume working with her.
Just a quick post to show off some Boe photos😊
Isn't he a chunk!
I am considering putting him up for sale at weaning time. I think he's one of the prettiest Beamer boys along with Derby, Belle's last Beamer baby.
Of course I have a couple of Scooter photos to show off too .
And a Mama Belle photo - she looks pretty good for being 18 yrs old and working on baby # 13!
And now for the big news! You all remember Belle's first foal, Sparkle N Peppy who I had for a little while a couple of years ago. Her owner, Janice, bred her to a grey double bred Playgun stallion last summer and yesterday at 1 am she foaled....
A filly.
Isn't she a beauty! Looks like she will go grey like her daddy. I will post more photos as I get them.
Beamer is a grandpa finally!
As some of you know I had covid last August. I recovered with the help of ivermectin although it took a while to get my strength back . One of the things about covid is that you can lose your sense of smell, which is what happened to me. Believe me that is really weird! Anyway, I seemed to have recovered my olfactory senses although not completely. Like I only got half the intensity. Then around March this year things started smelling funny . Like when you have something garlicy in the fridge and if stinks everything up . Everything had a rancid smell . At first I thought it was something going on with me because my sweat and my breath smelled like that but so did all the food and drinks even my coffee. 😟
Finally I googled it and discovered that its a fairly common side effect of covid and its called Parosmia. It is a result of damage to the olfactory nerve. It can go away but it takes time.
It does seem to be slowly improving. Some things do smell normal now. Like my horses!
To answer some questions about Velvet; she was never on my blog as I had her before I started blogging.
She was born in 2000 and I sold her as a long yearling. Her dam was one of my most quiet and reliable horses. So Velvet is 22 this year.
I will be trying to get her in foal one more time to try to preserve the bloodline; she has some wonderful old school blood on her sire's side.
As far as I know she was ridden before becoming a broodmare; I will he researching that with her previous owner.
She is sound, quiet and easy to handle .
This is a photo of her mama back in the day. We were getting ready for a parade. She was a really nice horse. I used her for dragging calves to the branding fire and she was my go to horse for giving little kids rides.
Anyway, I leave you with a photo from yesterday and hope the rains quit so we can get some summer!
I did get to ride one of Shayla's horses, checking on a little group of cows.
I got to visit Boe the other day; I needed to take a hair sample for DNA.
All the horses are doing great, living their best life on all that pasture.
My apologies to all my blogger friends. I find I am unable to comment on your posts! I get asked to sign in with Google but instead it just kicks me back to the post. I am reading your blogs! We are going to look into ways to get online for rural applications. We heard about the Hub, here it's supplied by Telus. Anyone have other ideas?
Beamer's idea is to just chill out and eat. I hand graze him every day.
It has been wet here and the horse flies are bugging the horses. I guess rolling in the mud gives them some protection.
Sophie is enjoying being turned out in the herd. She hasn't come back in heat so I am calling her bred. That should be a nice foal!
Speaking of foals.....
Scooter, Belle's son by Root Beers Boots is sure looking good!
Here he's hanging out with Shayla's stallion Jet.
Boe is a month old now .
It's nice to see the boys hanging out together and playing. The mamas have loosened the apron strings a bit!
I have a few more photos of Boe to share. Not much news other than all our stuff will be in storage by tomorrow afternoon. Our cats are getting crabby with their extended confinement! Little do they know they had better enjoy it because once we get on the farm they will have to go back to being barn cats 😁
The last couple of weeks have thrown us a couple of curve balls!
First there was the move to the monthly rental . When Ted did the walkthrough before signing the contract there was a houseful of people - landlords, tenants etc . They were supposedly cleaning the place and Ted was told that the damaged floor from a leak in the washer hose would be fixed before we moved in. So the guys hauled all our belongings and stuffed them in the living room. We get there June 4th and nothing and I mean nothing was done. The place was filthy and the floor was a health hazard. A closer inspection showed may other things that should never have been allowed to happen. Needless to say we gave instant notice. That left us without a place to stay. Shayla kindly let us stay in her travel trailer for a week while we figured things out.
We did secure the farm rental (although we haven't signed for it yet ) but can't move in until August 1st . So a friend of Ted's very kindly allowed us to use his travel trailer for the next 6 weeks! We are blessed with all the help we are getting from our friends!
Anyway enough of the downer news! I went to see Boe and he is just as cute as I hoped he would be 😊
Then there's Belle's colt- oh my she sure put a nice one on the ground this year!
Close inspection says no white markings even though he has a lot of white hair, it will all shed off.
We still have a lot going on but will post as often as I can.
Mr. Handsome is Mr. Lonesome these days, and he wants to tell you all about it.
Cheer up Beamer! We will be reuniting you with your herd by Saturday!
Well hello little cuteness!
Who, me?
Although I haven't seen him yet, and don't have any updated photos, I have decided on a name for my colt.
Boe.
He is named as a tribute to an old cowboy, John Boe, who was my mentor when I decided to get into breeding quarter horses. John passed away a couple of years ago, and I will never forget all his kindness and all that he taught me.
We have secured a place to live; it's a month to month rental in a village 10 minutes from Shayla's, so it's easy to get to my horses. Also close enough to where Ted's dad is, and a short commute to where his son lives. I guess I will have to put up with town living for a while until we can find a farm rental.
I will miss this view....
I was watching a horse program on TV the other day and found this interesting- Clinton Anderson showing a better way to tie horses. I have a puller in Sophie, and it is hard to get the standard slip knot undone when she sets back! So I'm going to use this knot. (Sophie is now at Shayla's)
The next few days are going to be hectic, we can move in on Wednesday June 1, so now it's all about the logistics of hauling panels, Beamer, household stuff as well as cleaning the house and emptying everything in the barn. I may be awol for a while!
I am getting impatient to get moved now, things just seem to be at a standstill. I am 90% packed, just dishes and food left to pack and what clothing we will wear. We should find out about the farmhouse we are interested in this weekend.
Really looking forward to spending time with all the horses! Belle and Scooter, Gussie, Jayne and foal, and all Shayla's horses and getting to know the draft horses.
My foal has a perfect swirl.
