It's been a busy year - mostly real life things - so I haven't been keeping up on this blog at all and basically been slacking on the horses a bit too - not their care, but my activity in the Mini Community.
The horses are (knock on wood), all doing well and the herd has been stable at 28-30 Minis this year. We did have one sale fall through, fortunately the mare never left here, so yeah for that! Still have a couple of "fun" buyers that I'm having to chase for money owed - surprise!
A few of our older ladies went off to a wonderful retirement home with Veneta at Galloping Angels Rescue/Sanctuary, where they're getting tons of TLC. It was hard to see them go, but after Veneta's awesome job getting Woody's founder turned around last year, I have every faith she's giving them top quality care.
We really vacillated on breeding or not this year, but finally did. We're at a comfortable number (I'd still like to get down around 20, but 30 is a huge improvement over the 55-80 we had for a number of years). So, we did end up breeding late, and gave Oz (Fallen Ash Scouts Oscar) three weeks - make it or not - with the mares. Once he got over his joy of having a whole bunch of mares all to himself, he seemed to settle into getting his job done. So, we're crossing fingers we should have a great foal crop this coming Spring in mid to late May.
I was tickled to get Oz last fall, as I've been wanting to add the L&D Scout line to our herd, and had been looking at grand-daughters/grand-sons, so to get a son, was just wonderful. Especially one with a National show record and his line already proving to be have what it takes in the show ring here as well as overseas.
We do know at least one mare was pregnant as Valentina (Wesco Farms AToy4Me Brazen Beauty) aborted last week at 4.5-5 months. Of course a perfectly formed pinto filly....argh!!! Fortunately, Val is healthy and bounced back as expected. Sad loss, but it goes with breeding.
On a happier note, we will be getting Boo (Wesco Farms Netherstorm) back from Redbud Mini Ranch in January. That should be exciting, as we've had a lack of "color" in the herd the past couple years, while I've been sorting out life.
Boo's baby pic
We do have a few for sale, but not really pushing them as the mares are one's I really don't want to sell, but do need to reduce the numbers down a few more. Decisions, decisions! Post foaling, we'll definitely be making some decisions/corrections/adjustments to our breeding program as the goal is to have ALL the foals for sale, but I'm sure there will be one I'll want to keep! So to keep the numbers under 30, if I keep one, somebody hits the sales list!
Other than that, I've been slowly (I mean slooooowwwly) going through all of our equine books, magazines and tack to put things up for sale. The accumulation of "stuff" since 1999 definitely needs to be pared down!
I'm setting myself a goal of getting more involved with the Mini Community again and keeping the blog/website updated more frequently in 2014. We may actually even show up at a show or two!!!!
Happy Holidays to everyone and best wishes for a totally fabulous, awesome 2014!
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