foal update

We grabbed the foals the other day and took a few photos.  I didn't clip them as with our weather I refuse to remove the foals protection from the sun and bugs.  So, we barely knocked the dirt off just enough to get updated photos.

It was hot, they weren't happy and very resentful for the implements of torture placed on their heads, i.e. halters.

So of the bazillion photo's taken we have a few 'okay' head shots.  We have a number of wonky, had bad can I stand, ears back, scrunched up necks, butt high I hate life photos!  My hat is off to photographers that take good animal photos, I do NOT have that talent.

Topper (WCR Top Cop) did good though with these three. They all have pretty heads, great conformation, his long neck and wonderful movement.  I wish I had used him this year.  Oh well more Topper foals in 2013 hopefully!

Now to get video of these three moving.  I'm very tempted to keep Jitters, as he's going to make an awesome driving/all around horse (likely gelding in my current mode!).  He's naturally curious and not afraid of anything, uses his neck and is willing to give his ears, unlike his sisters.  Bailey and Cricket in some of their photos look earless - lol!  But they both have that same gorgeous movement.  

Yeah Topper. Although credit must be given to Swan (Wesco Farms Rogers Lady Swan Song), Annie (Wesco Farms LM Rowdys Anticipation) and Val (Wesco Farms AToy4Me Brazen Beauty) for their input.  It's thrilling to see what the 'homebred' mares are producing the past few years.

Wesco Farms TC Ascended Allure "Bailey"

Wesco Farms TC Defiantly Different "Cricket"

Wesco Farms TC Up All Night "Jitters"

What's with this weather?

It's been so all over the board, you really don't know what to expect. We did hit 102 last week, and now possibly rain tomorrow?  Then hot again?

I seriously believe this is what is 'screwing up' breeding this year and the oddly late foals so many of us have had this year.  Nature seems out of sorts.

Something I noticed which had me wondering is our frogs.  We have an abundance of very loud tiny frogs and this year they've been stuck in the tadpole stage for over a month.  It has to be the odd weather.  That's what I think at least.


Breeding season ended - yeah.  All the horses are back where they normally live and calm prevails again.  We did separate the stallions into two groups, so Ringo, Demon and Miramax are in one, while Jelly (Dance), Topper and the four yearlings are in another.  Everyone is much happier, especially the ones not in with Demon and Miramax.

Hollywood is still visiting for awhile.  The poor guy though is in solitary confinement as he's so thin.  We have him on free choice alfalfa and grain, but it's going to take a bit of time for him to put back on the weight he dropped.  He's not a happy camper, so we're hoping he'll be bored and eat!

We did 'lose' a few horses last week, as Dazzle, Gemini, Baroness and Bre went off to their new homes.  I'm very happy with the places they've gone to, and hope they'll be 'lifers'!  Here's a photo fo Gemini, Baroness and Bre meeting their new herd mates.

I am in the process of moving this Blog to WordPress.  It will be associated directly with our website, and allow more flexibility in the design and maintenance.  I will be copying all the old archived posts, but will leave this one up as well.  Just an FYI!  If you're new to blogging though, I would highly recommend blogger (from Google) as it is very easy to use and set up.


As a warning - the next blog post will be a rant!  The past couple month's I've had to deal with a 'friend' as a buyer.  The 'deal' with this person went south really quickly, of course, of no fault of her own.  I won't mention names, but what a pain this has been.  This woman lost two friends over this (she didn't just screw with me), so I will be posting what I did learn from it and why I won't make the mistake again - I hope!

Stay cool and dry?  Rain in July - wow!!!

Mini Buckboards

I've been playing email tag with this gentleman, but thought these were so awesome they needed to be shared with all the driving enthusiasts out there.

Happy Memorial Weekend.


So what about this weather?  The middle states are getting hit by wild tornadoes and before that flooding.  Out west we're still getting rain and snow and it's almost June!!!  Did the earth tip and no one mentioned it?  My big concern in NorCal is that we're going to hit a couple of triple digit days, the snow melts, the valley floods.  I hope it doesn't happen, but all those developers that built on the flood plain around Sacramento, what can I say - brilliant...not.

Which BTW if you'd like to donate to some of the Mini breeders in Oklahoma that got hit - Davie Kilman is helping to organize it.  Read more at LB.


Just read this on another blog about UC Davis Extension Courses. termed Feducation for Fun + Education.  Check it out.


We dragged Dazzle out of the pasture the other day and gave her a quick groom up.  She has her sire's long long mane and tail, and what a sweetie as far as personality.  I wish she had better conformation (my taste), but she's not horrible, just not 'it'.  (No she's not pregnant, just very fat, which I've discussed below).

Breeding here this year has been, what's the word, odd?  I've never had stallions have such a lack of interest in mares.  Is it the weather or what?  I don't know but I'm about ready to end it.  Across the board the stallion attitude seems to be 'meh' maybe I will, soon, someday, maybe.  So, I may have a very brief breeding season, which I'm totally fine with.  Yes I want to see Dance foals next year, but if I get one or two, I'm fine with that.


Did anyone else follow the online auction at Olympian Ranch that ended yesterday.  I was appalled, shocked and surprised at the truly low prices that showed online for those horses.  Olympian breeds nice quality Minis and I was dumbfounded in this market that more buyers weren't jumping at the opportunity to own horses of that calibre for a fraction of what I've seen them sell for.  Wish I had less to support a few mares and a couple of stallions I would have been bidding on!


Otherwise life is good, the horses are still too fat, and I'm trying to 'thin' them down without them getting sick from their perception that I'm starving them.  But ALL the mares except maybe three could drop 15-50 pounds (a few more than that!).  If I was raising cattle I'd be ecstatic!!  But butcher-fat Minis need to be a bit trimmer.  I'm not going for show ring ready, but OMG not are they all 8 months pregnant look either!


Wishing everyone a safe and happy Memorial again.

Missing Horse

We've all been there, well I hope we haven't but I'm sure many of us have... You go out to feed or check your herd and someone is missing.

Having a larger herd (53 + 2 guests), I count noses and check everyone.  When the number doesn't add up I count again and again.

Today started off badly, slept in - hate the time change - to be woken up by UC Davis here to draw blood on a horse for a preg check.  We reschedule our gelding appointment until later this mont because of  rain/mud.

While we're chatting they ask which boys are getting gelded, and I tell them about McLuvin the escape artist and how he's always out in the orchard.  As I'm telling them, I see the little darling out in the orchard again.  Fortunately he's very friendly and will come when you call.  Catch him, lock him up in solitaire for the day and off to go feed the gang.

So, I'm feeding the mare herd, which is the largest group, and counting the gang like I alway do, including the stragglers still coming down the hill when I noticed Sarah (Wesco Farms Tricked Me Tina) wasn't there.

Sarah and April as a foal

April, her daughter, is here but no Sarah.  They're ALWAYS together.  So, I'm counting and looking again.  It's not like one of the 'black mares' as everyone that knows me knows I love black horses and I can tell them apart from 1/4 mile away.but not everyone else can.  It would be easy for anyone else to 'miss' one of them.  Sarah, though, is a silver bay pinto with very distinct markings.  So where the @#$%@ was she?

I'm waiting thinking she's going to appear, but no. Count again.  Check and count again.  Then the mind starts racing.  Broken leg, caught in a fence, dead, WTF? Where is she at?

So, back to the house and get my daughter.  I tell her Sarah's missing, she goes one way up the hills I go the long way around through the main valley, thinking she's slipped in the creek or is in the valley munching on grass.  This time of year we'll randomly have group that decide for whatever reason the long hike to get fed isn't worth it, so we find them in the valley grazing.

There I am slogging though marsh grass, runoff, lots of mud, jumping puddles and creeks, while climbing out hills, slipping a sliding (or as my daughter Anya says mud skiing).  The whole time my mind still racing.

She's dead, it's too wet and muddy to get a backhoe in here?  
How long will it take for us to hand dig a hole?  
OMG what if she's been munched on already?  
At least there is no sign of vultures.  
What if she's badly injured?
Where the @#%@ is she?

Up and down our hills (63 acres of up and down, with seasonal creeks) and I meet Anya at the other end.  No sign of Sarah.  That's good at least she's not dead or hurt, but where is she?  Surely she didn't get out.  No one would have stolen her specifically or if I was a thief I'd have taken more than one, right?

We're scanning everywhere, no big lump on the ground, under a tree or in the creek bed.  The dogs are running around but not 'oh hey look at this'.  So we start going back over the hills a different way thinking we may have missed her.  My mind still wondering, and also a separate track of thinking why do people go to gyms. Fuck that this is real Stairmaster workout!

I'm really getting concerned thinking did we miss a part of the property, as our horses don't wander off my themselves.  I know which ones hang out together, etc., so where can she be?

Anya has ran ahead to where the horses are still munching their morning alfalfa, while I'm checking the tree line along the road thinking maybe we missed something.  Anyay waves me down as I'm having the heart attack coming down the last hill.  She found her.  Sarah was happily munching hay next to her daughter.

ARGGGGGH!

I'm glad Sarah's okay.  Anya makes the remark maybe she thought we needed a good workout - thanks!

So where she was and how we missed her is still a mystery.  But thankfully the missing horse today had a happy ending!

Driving Clinic Feb 26 & 27

PASSING THIS ALONG ...


Driving Clinic Feb 26 and 27 with Austin Van Wyck, AMHA & AMHR judge and trainer of Victory Lane Training Center, www.victorylanetrainingcenter.com, at Aranaway Farms in Grants Pass, OR.

Austin is a multi-World and National Champion in Classic, Country, Single Pleasure and Roadster Driving. 2010 World show, Austin came home with 52 Grand and Reserve Championship driving trophies.

Sat. is private 1 hour lesson at only $100.00 (full). Sunday morning will be a seminar discussing the rules and regulations of both assoc., talk about equipment, clothes, ring manners and prep for the show ring, answer questions. After a potluck lunch, Austin will have everyone hitch up and come into the ring to evaluate your horse whether it is a classic/western, country or single pleasure driving horse. Then we go into driving, with Austin evaluating, answering questions such as what judges look for, or don't want to see in competitors, and critiquing you and your horse. This group participation is only $60.00(a few spots left) and auditing is $25.00. If you had a private lesson on Sat., you may audit for free on Sunday.

Call Lisa at 541-664-4644 days, or 541-210-3403 eves, or email lisa@thehorseblanket.com to reserve an opening and mail a non-refundable deposit to hold your spot. This clinic is filling up fast just by word of mouth so don't hesitate to call, as show season is coming up real soon.

Good weather and Mini fun

We've been experiencing unseasonably warm weather - mid to high 60's for over a week now.  And I'm thoroughly enjoying the sun and lack of mud!

I do feel for the rest of the USA seeing the awful snow and ice storms passing through and the resulting damage. I can't imagine having to deal with ice to that degree - did that for a few years when I lived in Indiana - but didn't have horses!

The horses have been keeping me on my toes though, and I am looking for work for them as fence stress testers!  I swear the little @%%^ angels can make holes and gates in about anything!  Last week I had six horses in with the mares/foals pasture, and apparently the hog panel clips that hold cattle/hog panels together hadn't been tested on Mini determination!  So, I let them all out on the hill.  The mares that have been locked up for months (they think they're suffering on an acre or so of pasture) took the babies on a tour.  They're all safely locked up again after a few days of romping on the hills.


Unfortunately two of the rescues we got back a couple of months ago are NOT interested in being locked up!  I had to go find Celena and Baroness, I guess a few years of small pens at the previous owners was enough for them.  I can't entice those two down off the hill even for hay.  Fortunately we do have a season creek that runs through the property, and they seem perfectly content to wander around out there.  I would just like more groceries in Celena, she's still very very thin, although her belly is getting her normal layer of fat on it!


We finally have Leelee separated from Bruiser, much to her dismay. Her almost yearling son, is finally getting weaned - yeah!  She's not happy about it at all, but it's time. At the beginning of March he and Bambam will be moved into a separate pasture waiting for Binks to get old enough to wean. (Did I say NO MORE Fall foals?  I really really mean it!!!)


Ray, one of our first foals and pet gelding, coliced last week. No idea why, but it was two days to get him to pass poop and get the gas out.  You could here the gurgling in his gut of air moving around.  He's still confined in the backyard, but he's deflated and has been fine for a week, so time to go back out!

McLuvin, escape artist extraordinaire, was out in the orchard yesterday grazing away on knee high grass.  He'd made a McLuvin size hole in the fence and was having a private party.  Fence being refabriced this week, to McLuvin proof it.  He's on my short list to get into UCD for gelding.  Fortunately he's easy to catch as he's so people oriented.  You call him and he'll come, plus like his mom, grab a handful of mane and he'll walk along like a perfect gentleman.


The farrier is out Wednesday, so hopefully I can finally get registration photos done of Topper.  We're mud free, he's wooly but at least we can see his markings without the mud color adding to the fun.


That was last weeks fun - lol!  It's never dull....

A bit of a dreary Monday in December.  Overcast, damp and well typical Winter in Northern California.

My big question of the day... WHY DO WE STILL HAVE FLIES?  I'm convinced nuclear holicaust, alien invasion, another ice age - flies and cockroaches will never die. I've killed more flies today than I did all summer. ARGH!

The horses are all doing well.  It's winter they eat and wander around basically. Half the day it looks like we don't have the big herd we have, as they disappear into one of the valley on the hills.

The rescue group is coming along nicely, no illness, eating well, bright eyed, so today we blended them in with the mares/foals.  They're all on a larger pasture (two adjoining pastures opened together) with free choice grass hay and a fairly heavy alfalfa feeding.  I took a few (bad as usual) photos of them about an hour ago.

Celena out on pasture. She spends most of her time grazing on the hill, she actually ran a few steps today, the first time I've seen her do that.  She's slowly filling out, but it's likely to take through Spring to get back to not looking like a bone.  The rest are doing well too, grazing and moving around.  The healthier ones went for a lovely gallop earlier (of course no camera handy), and really seem to be enjoying themselves.  It's probably very nice for them after being locked up in pens for a few years.

It's December which in Northern California can mean - warm in the 80's or wet and gray. We have the wet and gray right now.

We need the rain, so I can't really complain but my mood tends to go into the gray bleah too, when it's like this. I want a roaring fire, hot chocolate and a good book. My guilty side says how many things I need to do, so I'm sitting at my PC going through more horse related stuff.

I did get stallion reports done and dove into the AMHR paperwork yesterday. It's not quite as bad as I thought - yeah! Other than photos and filling out a registration for Remy (so Binks will be double registered too), it's coming together.  I think I've been building up my ant hill into Mt. Everest for no reason at all!