In case you were wondering

 I didn't mean to get y'all worried with my prolonged absence here, but things just piled up in a hurry. 

I will do a separate post on Gemma's journey from being an untouchable to being a darn near pocket pony, as it will be a fairly lengthy one.

Suffice to say, I am well pleased with the progress she made. 

Meanwhile, I went from having a cold to having full blown pneumonia and needing hospitalization.

My first ambulance ride since I broke my wrist 20 years ago

 It's amazing how quickly pneumonia can take you down., I will spare you all the details, except that it will be a fairly slow recovery with weekly check ups. So no major projects for me for the next couple of months. I just got released from a 4 day stay, most of which was spent in the emergency ward; I got an actual room at 11:45 pm last night and got released today around 2:30 pm. Oh how welcome it was to breathe fresh air and feel the sun on my face!

Catching up

 I have been busy- that's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

The weanlings are slowly progressing from wild eyed range colts to allowing as how I might maybe touch them. At first they were in full flight mode, however I am utilizing my small barn to contain them when I work them. It has a small divider I can stand behind if I need to get out of the way, and the set up is that they can go in a circle around it. I have hay stored in the extra stalls in there so it is effectively like a mini round pen. 

It has been a week today; I have been working with them twice a day. 

They took to the barn right away, which is good because I feed them in there. 

I started with flag work, just touching them with it and using it to direct traffic, so to speak. 

After a few days of that I progressed to tossing a rope around and over them. They actually weren't too bad about that and on the second session I was able to get the rope around the necks and get them started on giving to pressure. We are still a long way from being able to get a halter on them though. 

Getting the rope off was more difficult than getting it on though! But we got it done. 

There came a point when I wasn't making any progress so I changed things up. I am all about changing things when one method gets stale. 

Once they discovered that I was the purveryor of oats, Gemma did a complete turn around. She let me touch her more often, and started approaching me in a friendly manner.

She is still reserved and cautious but really is starting to allow me into her space. Shiner, on the other hand, has become more reactive. Can you say, double swirl? He was the first to let me rub his quarters and his back but not much past that so far. That's ok though- I am on a time schedule with Gemma as she leaves for her new home on the 13th, and Shiner can stay longer. He might actually be easier when Gemma leaves. 

I would have posted more photos and videos too, but my computer refuses to download the photos from my phone, so I have to email them to myself. The support for windows 10 is ending so that might have something to do with it. I will post more if I get things figured out! 

I leave you with a spectacular sunset

The weanlings

 Today was the day for the weanlings to arrive. They are Shiner, Jayne's red dun colt, and Gemma, the palomino filly out of Shayla's buckskin Driftwood mare. They are both sired by Rex (Major's Pistol) her junior stallion. This was his test foal crop and her turned out to sire some very nice foals. 

Gemma is heading to the Yukon in a couple of weeks, so we need to get her leading and loading.

The mares came up for a look, but soon lost interest and wandered off. The foals wandered around their pen for a bit- Shiner called out a bit, but not a peep out of Gemma. 

They both seem pretty chill in their new environment. I plan to feed them in the barn, so it was nice that they went in on their own in short order and seem to like being in there. 

Shiner sure has Jayne's beautiful eye. He may end up being here a bit longer as the focus will be more on Gemma at first as she will be picked up by her owner in 17 days. 

Let the fun begin!

Visiting the WV horses

 It is getting close to weaning time for the foals; Theo and Shayla's palomino filly will be 4 months old in a few days. Because Theo's person is picking him up on the 31st, I was going to wean him on schedule, but changed my mind ( I can do that, right?) and will leave him in the herd until that time. 

I had a great day visiting Shayla and giving her a hand with a few projects, including getting photos for their AQHA registration papers. But I kinda got side tracked by a bunch of cuteness... imagine that....

First we visited the two pleasure bred colts, Chex (sired by Rex) and Oscar, who is sired by a show horse and was in utero when Shayla bought his mama, Sally. 

Although Oscar looks black, we think he will end up being a dark bay roan. Chex is red dun. 

The cutest little face!

We turned out Rex with a yearling Percheron stallion prospect... he does make Rex look small! 

He is appropriately named Biggy

Next up was a visit to the pasture with all the mares and foals-  Rex is no longer with them, having done his studly duties. 

This palomino filly was the first to sell. She will be heading to the north country. The Yukon!

This is Johnny,  who is out of the same dam as the next horse, but Johnny is sired by Rex. Whatcha chewing on, Johnny?

This is Jolene, she is a long yearling and has the same dam as Johnny (out of the palomino mare) and sired by the late Givemathrashin, the black stud Shayla had. She is the last horse available from that sire. 

I love the unison in this photo of Jolene and her bff, a draft cross mare. 

And last but not least, this is Shiner, Jayne's last foal. He too is red dun like his sire. 

All these foals except the palomino filly are available.

It's a bit of a tough market right now, there are a ton of foals for sale on all the media pages, a lot for buyers to choose from. People tend to be really specific in what they want- as well they should be. It is much easier to sell a foal with a unique color than a so-called plain sorrel or bay and often quality gets overlooked for a flashy color. A good horse is never a bad color. as Mark Rashid said in the title of one of his books. The one horse that I raised that literally took my breath away when I looked at her was Josie, a solid sorrel. She is probably the one Beamer daughter that I should have kept. 

All about those foals

 Another visit to Shayla, another photo drop for you guys! We started with the two yearlings she has for sale, Zipper (paint horse) and Fire (Jayne son).

EDITED: Fire just sold, he has a future as a barrel horse for a young lady!

Zipper is very tall and will likely end up around that 15.3 to 16 hh mark. He is laid back and friendly!

They are both going to be tall boys, I figure Fire will end up around 15. 2 to 15. 3.

He's in that gangly yearling growth spurt, he likely won't come into himself until he's about 3 or 4 years old. 

His pedigree is a cross between run and cow, so he should be a very versatile horse. 

Moving on to Jayne's foal from this year, whose barn name is Shiner. 

Yes he does have an owwy on his hip, it's healing. 

This colt is very quick on his feet- and with his feet, as I could see when he was kicking at the horse flies that were driving them nuts. 

This next filly is the one Shayla named Gemma, who is sold and has been renamed Trudy. 

She's sweet!

Last but not least of the foals was Johnny- he sure has filled out since the last time I was there!

 

We are still not sure if he is dun or sorrel. And likely won't know until he sheds out. 

Dun stripe or counter shading?

Either way, he is a handsome dude! Another one that is bred to be versatile, with bloodlines of great cow horses, reiners and ranch horses he should be able to do it all. 

All those foals sure do have a nice place to grow up in. This is Rex and his band of mares which includes 4 outside mares as well as some of Shayla's. She is still waiting for 2 more Rex babies. 

Next post will be a Theo post! And maybe some kittens. 😁

Visit Part 2

 Other than checking on Rex and his mares, we also took some photos of another colt Shayla has for sale. This is Oscar, he is out of the bay roan mare Sally, that Shayla bought recently, and sired by My Sleepy Valentine. (All AQHA pleasure breeding). 

He is a big boned quiet and friendly colt. 

He is also bay roan like his mama

Very nice soft eye on him.

Then we visited Jayne and her colt. He is only a week old in these photos, so he has a lot of growing and unfolding left to do. This is Jayne's last foal. 

He's a red dun like his sire, Rex

Cute little face! 

You can see his dun stripe in that photo and if you look closely at the other photos the leg barring is there, and will be more visible once he sheds his baby coat. 

As soon as it's convenient, we will be bringing this little guy and Jayne here to spend the summer. That's going to be fun!  And will definitely give me plenty to do, which I do have time for as Gussie is now officially on maternity leave. She's getting big and is about 2 months away from foaling. 

Once her foal is born- 3 babies here! Jayne's foal will leave around the end of September. Theo is getting to the stage where I don't have to work with him every day, so that works out well to have one to work with and by the time Gussie's foal is born, should be at the stage Theo is at now. 

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!

Sunday again

 Here it is, Sunday again! Tuesday the farrier came and trimmed all the horses. With the advice of the vet, I buted Velvet and Belle, as they have issues holding their feet up, and it went well. Ruby, of course was a rock star for him as was Beamer. They should be good until January now. 

Of course I was a rock star!

I am the handsomest and bestest!

Thursday I visited Shayla and got to play with the foals in halter letting them learn to follow a feel without putting too much pressure on them. They were very good!

This is Fire (WV Jets On Fire) who is Jayne's colt and is a stallion prospect for Shayla. 

Taking the slack out of the leadrope

Aha- learning to follow the feel

and moving the feet to come around. Good boy, Fire!

The other foal I played with was Jolene- same sire as Fire and out of a palomino granddaughter of Sun Frost. She was so laid back, I think she would rather have snoozed in the sunshine, but she was very obliging. 

Taking the slack out...

Thinking about it....

and coming around and forward. Good girl, Jolene!

These are really nice minded foals. It's sad that their sire passed away, but at least Shayla has his bloodlines as part of the foundation of the herd she is working on building. 

Meanwhile, down on the farm... 

The mares are great deer spotters and we always know when something is crossing the pasture. We have had several hunters, and some does have been harvested. We have also seen 2 more big bucks but we aren't letting the hunters know about them!

They are also very good at spotting me when it gets close to chore time; they can see me through the big dining room window and stand at their fence waiting... and waiting...

Yes, Velvet, I'm coming!

Ruby Roo, my lovely!