Stupid Hot

 It is officially stupid hot.

For us Canucks, that is 37 and 42 degrees, although the thermometer outside the house says 38.

This is mid August weather, not June. The bush is shut down now, at least for logging; I'm not sure about hiking and trail riding/camping. 

Beamer handles the heat well, which is surprising for a black horse. I hose him off every day, but he is usually basking in that hot sun. He goes in his house if the flies get too bothersome or if he's hungry. He got pasture turn out from 5 am to 8 am today, and was happy to get in his pen and hide from the flies that hang out in the tall grass.

Jayne is another story. 

Yesterday, she was sweating, so I sponged her off at around 3 pm. Dally wasn't sweating. I went back down at 4:30 and Jayne was quite sweaty; not sure if she just hadn't dried off from her sponge bath or if she had fresh sweat.

You can see the dirt on her back and face, so she had rolled after I sponged her off. That blue stuff is loose salt- I had just put it out and she really ate a lot of it. 

This morning she was fine, and when I checked her at noon she was just starting to sweat so I sponged her again. Then at 2 pm I fired up the generator to give them fresh cold water so I took the opportunity to catch her and hose her off.

Which I think she enjoyed! 

I let the hose just happen to splash on Dally, and to my surprise she backed into the water- I think we have a water baby! She was actually sweating a bit today .

I think Jayne eating more salt really paid off because she isn't as sweaty today. I was ready to give her electrolytes if she was looking stressed but she seemed ok so I saved it for another day. I'm sure this isn't the only heat wave we will get this summer.

Sunday Stills- Outfit of the day

 I wasn't sure I had anything for this challenge today but this is what I came up with. What does one want to wear in the scorching heat? Ask Beamer.

Dally is a good girl

 My hoof trimmer came yesterday to trim Jayne and she also trimmed Dally. I have only picked up Dally's feet a few times, and she has been quite willing to let me so I have just let it be an occasional thing; if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

As you can see, she was a very good girl! She will be 6 weeks old on Sunday. It's important to keep a foal's feet balanced as they grow, their bones are so soft that any imbalance can result in undesirable formation. 

I am a good girl!

I got a few photos with my Nikon later that afternoon.

One of daddy's moves!

She is so quick on her feet that I have to be on the ball to get any action shots of her. The only thing I don't like about my camera is on the action setting, it will take a burst if you hold the shutter down a fraction of a second too long, then it has to go through all the burst photos before you can get another shot- by then Dally has stopped.

All that lovely green? That is common mallow. Now that I only have a couple of horses in this pen, the weeds are taking over and I don't spray this pen. So I have to mow or weed whack to keep it under control. However, with all the shortages in the supply chain due to the mismanagement of world trade over this panicdemic, parts for lawn mowers are almost impossible to get, and we have to baby our aging John Deere riding mower. The local dealer can't even get new tractors and mowers, their supplier in the US has little or no inventory to send to all the JD dealers. So- that means weed whacking. I may have to hire someone, this old body can't take much of that.

Planning her next move

New Derby pics!

His foal coat is starting to shed. That light colour will be all gone by the end of the summer.

He's a very typical Belle/Beamer Boy. Big, sturdy, and well proportioned.

Concho and Stetson are now in with Belle and Derby.

Mama mama she won't let me play with the new boy!

Quite the size difference between a 7 week old colt and a day old colt. They grow so fast!

Stetson

We may all need to be wearing our Stetsons in this upcoming heat wave- it is going to be stupid hot and keeping the sun off our heads will be important. 

But here is another Stetson....

Shayla's buckskin mare Concho (the one I will be leasing next year) finally foaled out on the first day of summer. A big strapping palomino colt- with 2 blue eyes!  This is a half brother to Drifter- same sire- and he sure does look like his big brother. 

Baby pics!

That curly mane- just like Drifter

Testing out the legs

I think someone was giving him skritches!

So everyone- say hi to Stetson!

Silly boy

 Just this. Beamer is very adept at untying himself even if I drop the tail of the rope through the loop.

He makes me laugh because if he sees me watching he stops and looks all innocent. I did have that rope all nice and neatly (tightly) tied to the post!

The new header photo was taken about 10 years ago at our old place. 

Sunday Stills- Morning

Mornings are my favourite time of day! I am an early riser, and enjoy the freshness of the new day, and all the sights and sounds of nature that accompany sunrise. I was hoping for a good colorful sunrise, but alas! No such luck this week. 

So here are some of the other things that delight me in the morning.

I made it to the barnyard before the rooster crowed 😁

 That "what are you doing here so early?" look!

Beamer peeking out of his house. 

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Switcheroos

Jayne and Dally were quite happy to get back into their bigger pen; Dally did laps to stretch her legs. Beamer is not quite so happy, he did a lot of calling today but Jayne ignored him.

Sorry Beamer, fun's over!

We got the news yesterday the Belle is indeed in foal to Root Beers Boots, and I think it's pretty sure Jayne caught so there will be 2 foals due around the third week in May. There will be a switcheroo happening at weaning time in September: so far, the plan is that Shayla will bring Belle here for the winter, and take Jayne to her place for a long term breeding lease. Since I will get the next Jayne/Beamer foal, and I'm trying to keep my limit to 3 horses, I won't need to have another broodmare, so Jayne will join her former herdmates in Alberta. I will foal Belle out and breed her back to Beamer next spring, and then she can go back to Alberta sometime next summer, or possibly at weaning time when I pick up Jayne's next foal and there is another twist- I will be leasing Shayla's buckskin mare Concho next spring and breeding her to a stallion who is homozygous for both black and dun. Take a look at his website: Gonedun Quarter Horses 

There is actually one more colour possibility: Smokey Grullo, which is Grullo with one cream gene, as a buckskin mare carries one copy of cream.  I have met this beautiful boy and he is as sweet as they say he is. I am pretty excited about the opportunity to get a foal from him, especially out of a Driftwood mare.  

This opportunity is solely due to selling Derby. Yes there was a little horse trading going on there too! So there is a lot of switching and planning going on at Diamond Lazy H Quarter Horses!

There will be a Gussie update coming soon, we may have switched who she is being bred to. 

Are you dizzy yet? 😆

It pays to be flexible in your plans; and take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Love is in the air!

Jayne came in heat last Sunday and as of today is still in standing heat. Yes, Beamer has been quite delighted to court his lovely lady Jayne 😉 So assuming she caught, baby will be due around the long weekend in May. Everything has gone smoothly; we had Dave handle Dally the first 2 days and then he wasn't available so we just left Dally in the foaling pen and took Jayne into Beamer's pen for the breeding. 

Oh Jayne... are you flirting with Beamer? 

Teehee- who, me?

Dally does run around when her mama is *ahem* busy but she doesn't get too frantic. The whole procedure from the time we catch the horses to the time Jayne is returned to the pen is less than 5 minutes. Efficient Beamer! However, I am really hoping that tomorrow Jayne will say no! I would like to get them back into the bigger mare pen and get Beamer back to going out to graze during the day.

One more flower for you- this is my "black" iris!

Refreshing rain

Over the last couple of days we have had some great night time thunderstorms and rain.

I went out early this morning to get some photos for the next Sunday Stills challenge - Morning.

My favourite time of day! We don't get much for spectacular sunrises here so I was looking for great light and shadow play.

I may have to go out early a few more times, because I will have a hard time saving the photos until Sunday! 

So to help me hold off, here is a cute video of Dally- check out her flying lead changes. 

Sunday Stills- Look up

Who doesn't look up to the sky to see what the weather is doing?

After a few days of rain we had some sun come a-peeking through. 

The view from my roofless gazebo

I like to sit in that gazebo; it has a nice bench where I can see and smell the Louis Jolliet climbing rose. I'm ok with it not having a roof, because I planted clematis and wisteria along it with the hopes that it will eventually have a living roof. 

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More roses and a bellyache

First the pretties:

I did a little more research on the rose I thought might be a John Franklin and I have changed my mind, because of the way it starts out a lovely red and fades to pink.

I took a photo of a fresh red bloom next to one that faded to pink:

I do have trouble photographing red, but the colour difference is definitely there. And the rest of the description fits.

I also took one of the Campfire Rose all opened up and gorgeous 

Here are 2 more roses I didn't include in my other rose post- Morden Blush:

and Louis Jolliet, my climbing rose. It is really growing this year!

Its blooms don't last long, but it is self cleaning and new blooms come all season long. And- it smells divine!

I have moved Jayne and Dally into the foaling pen, which is right across the alley from Beamer, with the idea that Jayne will be less worried about her baby and more inclined to flirt with Beamer.(it seems to be working!) Yesterday I was sitting in my cabin watching for Jayne's behaviour to indicate heat, and I saw Dally rolling. No big deal, I thought, there are mosquitoes and she is probably itchy. She rolled completely over.... 6 times. Ok, that's unusual. Earlier I had seen her straining to poop- a far cry from the liquid stream she had last week. So I watched a little longer, and she was lying down and licking at her belly, then standing up and kicking at her belly. Ok, we have a bellyache, I suspected gas as everything goes into that baby mouth. I got my DiGize oil out and got some on her belly, then left her alone for a while. 

That's an unhappy baby!

Licking where I put the DiGize, which is fine as it is ok to consume

An hour later I checked and she was indeed passing gas. She got one more application of the oil; hen I checked her an hour later she seemed to be pretty much back to normal. Whew!

This morning- she was back to her normal precious little self.

There's always something with babies!

Derby update

I don't have any new photos of Derby, but this one is one of my favourites.

Derby has been sold! He will go to Step In Time Performance Horses in Neilburg Saskatchewan. He will stay with Shayla until weaning time and then go to his new owner in September. He will be raised up as a stallion prospect for them- this is the third son of Belle slated to be used as a stallion, the other two being Moondance and a bay  colt sired by a full brother to Playgun that was born in Alberta when she was owned by Fleetwood Farms for a few years before I bought her back. 

I am super proud of Belle for the quality of foals that she consistently puts on the ground. We are waiting for confirmation by ultrasound of her next foal, who is sired by Root Beers Boots. Should have the results in a few days. 

Gussie will be headed to the same Stallion Station where Belle is, to be flushed and then bred to A Classic Guy  

Both those links have videos of the stallion at the bottom of the page, they are worth watching.

Not to be left out of mention- I am also super proud of Beamer for consistently throwing gorgeous babies! Update on Eli-  Last year I had a local farrier come and trim Moondance, and he loved him. Well, my friend who bought Eli decided that he was too darn big for her and sold him to that farrier. This guy is the one who I used as a farrier from the time I moved here 12 years ago until I started trimming my own horses, and he is familiar with Beamer and my mares, so I was pretty happy that a guy who sees hundreds of horses thought enough of my horses to want to own one. 

Everything is going according to plan

One of the reasons I halter train my foals early is to make them easy to handle when it's time for mama to be bred again. We have started teasing Jayne in anticipation of her coming into heat in the next few days. I like to get her used to the idea that the stallion may be in the same vicinity as her precious baby 😀

We catch Dally and Jayne and lead them into the foaling pen. Dally is leading like a champ now! Then I take Dally's halter off and let her loose while Ted holds Jayne and I get Beamer and bring him over to the panel fence to talk to Jayne. He's pretty loud! Once she shows signs of being in heat we'll get our friend Dave to come and hold baby down in the corner by the shelter while we tease mama in the top corner of the pen.

I finally got some action photos of her; not easy because she doesn't zip around as much as the boys do- I gotta be quick with the camera!

She sure has powerful hind quarters! She is really filling out now.

Cute as a bugs ear!

I got some good news today- she is 5 panel negative! For those of you who don't know what that means - it is a dna test I get done on all Beamer's foals to check for a  hereditary disease, and she doesn't have any. It is required for stallions to be tested but not many people test their mares. 

The princess

Sometimes....

You just gotta stop and smell the roses. 

Especially this one- Abraham Darby, a David Austin rose. Such a heavenly scent! My favourite pink rose. 

Then there's miss Emily Carr, this rose bush is currently 6 ft. tall and it blooms all summer long with small deep red roses. 

I love the colour of this Weeks rose- Ebb Tide. Purple! for you purple lovers!

Speaking of colour- this rose has all of the colours! Campfire rose.

As it opens it goes from yellow to white, just like a fire burning out.

This next rose was one I was waiting to see what it was- it's one that was just a gnarly root when I got it and planted it with tender loving care. It didn't bloom last year but this year it's going gung ho!

Not sure who it is, but I think it's a John Franklin from the Explorer Series roses.

Not a rose but this Weigela makes a stunning display that I always stop to admire- and the bees love it!

Then there is the peony, which I planted next to the back deck so we could enjoy that amazing fragrance every time we step out the back door.

Right next to the peony I have an old oak barrel with this red dianthus in it, I was lucky enough to have my camera in hand as I opened the door and saw this lovely.

Dally at 3 weeks

Sunday (yesterday) Dally turned 3 weeks old. Usually for the 3 week photoshoot I turn them out in the bigger pasture so I can get action shots, but yesterday was herbicide day so they will be off pasture for at least a week. We used Grazon. 

Dally also has foal diarrhea, so I have been catching her every day and giving her 30 cc of Peptobismal. 

Jayne should be coming into heat soon and that may have something to do with it, but mostly I think it's because she is grazing quite a bit and her tummy is adjusting to the new diet. 

I did catch Dally yesterday without Jayne being caught too- although I did have a halter on Jayne  but just threw the lead rope over her back while she ate her grain.  Dally pulled away on my first attempt to catch her, but was easy for the second try. She even let me squirt the pepto in her mouth without too much protest. 

The other day when Shayla was here, (Friday) she played with Dally a bit, and led her around. We had Jayne tied up.

Then yesterday, Sunday, after treating her, I led Dally out and it went well so I tied Jayne up and led Dally away from her again.

We had a minor protest, but she quickly gave up and followed. Good girl Dally!

This morning it was pouring rain so I took only a few photos. 

Just before the rain

Jayne wondering why I am delaying with the delivery of her breakfast

Does that wheelbarrow taste good?

That booty!

Dally is getting muscled up nicely in true Beamer baby style, but still maintains her classy little lady image. 

One last photo from Friday!