Escaping Stallions

Nothing like waking up to Litte, Topper, McLuvin and Zydeco cruising the backyard.  I'd let them in next to the pool yesterday to do a bit of 'mowing', well apparently the new gate was not Demon worthy.  So, found the four of them in the yard; the gate to the front yard is open; no sign of Demon or Ringo.

Weirdly no screaming, "I'm a stallion and the mares are right here either"!  Hmmm.

Ringo finally pops his head out of the shelter, apparently he'd missed out on the breakout.  I close the gate on him and he's completely put out, once he sees they're in the yard within feet of the mares.  Oh well.

Now to get the gang out of the backyard. I spent 25 minutes trying to dislodge the quartet to no avail.  The clever use of landscaping, they managed to run circles around me - literally!  I finally turned the sprinklers on hoping to corner them close to their exit.  No joy.  McLuvin cracked a sprinkler head on one of the gallops around the yard, so now I have a geyser in the backyard, and we're all soaking wet while still playing the circle game.  Not a good idea the sprinklers.

McLuvin (sire Little behind him covered in mud)

Enough is enough.  I dump the water bucket in the backyard, if they get thirsty they'll have to go back to their pen to drink.  Hopefully what little landscaping I have will survive them, but they're enjoying seeing my feeble attempts to catch them way to much!  Maybe putting their feed out will entice them.  Not!!!  Fresh grass versus dried alfalfa, no contest with my horses.

Still no sighting of Demon.

I'm fairly certain he wouldn't take off - not with all the mares around.  So put hay out for the boys.  Feed the hobbler crowd (Woody and Charm), and spy Demon flirting with the mares by the hay barn.  I go grab a halter and by the time I get back he's standing at the hay cart, apparently bored with his escapade.  Halter him, taking him back in with Ringo when he now notices Topper and Little in the backyard.  They're a fenceline CLOSER to the mares! Oh NOES!

Ringo and Demon

Peace is restored, no OMG foals were created, and the boys have drifted back towards their pen.

Had Tomas out yesterday to trim. As we only had ten to do, it went fairly quickly (less than three hours!)

The two guests here, Lalique and Charm are doing much better.  They've dropped a bit more weight and they're both able to finally get around without incredible pain.  Charm can actually take real steps versus hobbling everywhere.  She still has a long road to recovery and soundness but seeing her able to walk is wonderful.  Lalique thinks she's fine and desperately wants out with the rest of the herd.  She's looking better, and can stand and bear weight correctly on her front legs.  She can actually walk fairly well, but her one front hoof, well we're not risking until Tomas says she's as close to 100% as he can get her.

I'm very pleased to see both of them getting the sparkle back in their eyes and showing an interest in everything going on here. They both should full recover over the next year.  I'm going to be so happy to see them able to run and play again one day.

I forgot to take photos of them, but I want to show the wonders correct trimming can do for a horse.  I'll post next week the before and after.


 The boys were also in spectacularly good moods so it went very smoothly with them.  They're all really good anyway, but even Hot Topic who hate's being caught actually stood for me to put his halter on.

Miscellaneous Monday 6-14-10

It's hot hitting into the mid-90's, and we're still waiting oh so patiently on Libbe and Maria to foal.  My preference would be tonight, but I don't think they're going to oblige me.  At least we should be cooling down back into the 80's this week.

The foals are all doing well, Kiega has completely shed out. Bruiser is not a blue roan, but a black; Rose is the prima donna with all the boys, and Fifa (we're naming him after the World Cup - big football fans here! So it looks like Wesco Farms World Cup 2010 maybe his name - lol!) is enjoying his play time with Rose and Bruiser.  Kiega does play but thinks he's the 'stallion' in the mare/foal pasture, so he'd rather follow the mares around then play with the babies!

The rest of the herd is waiting for me to start bathing/clipping/general clean up on them.  

Tomas was out last week, and we're officially all caught up on trimming - yeah!  We have visits planned out through the Fall, so we shouldn't get off schedule again until December-ish.

Sent off a huge stack of paperwork to both registries.  Late stallion reports, transfers, permanent registration and DNA/PQ tests.  A chunk of change as I've procrastinated for so long.  ** AMHA coupons are still good for horses that have RV paperwork!  Check out their site - AMHA.org registration.  These are good through the end of the year.

Other news –

Little Kings Dream Demon and Lucky Four Colorcard Miramax will be out on lease soon.  Demon will be going to Imperial Acres for a couple of years, and Miramax is off to Redbud Ranch for the season. 

Little (Grosshills Little Mans Anticipation) is off to Wee Gems Minis along with one of our mares Libbe (LGF Miss Liberty Belle on lease) and two mares that came back for re-homing, Charm and Lalique.

It’s going to be nice with less mature stallions, but I’m going to miss these guys and their individual personalities.

How "NOT" to photo a horse.

Trying to take photo's of a weanling can be oh so fun.  These are a series of Wesco Farms Count Your Blessings, Ringo's 2009 filly, out of Una (Wesco Farms Bella Luna).  They have a serious love affair, and I'm likely going to repeat this breeding in 2011.  Blessing (we call her Pretty Girl), thought the whole lead rope and set up was pure torture - we were laughing at her posture!

Maxim steps in to assist.

Finally - a decent shot!

We haven't had a photo-op session with her this year, but she's one of our favorites - 

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Glossary of Horse Terms

• Veterinarian: That career you wish you had pursued whenever you open your monthly vet bill.
• Horse Shoes: Simply-styled flats which come without a designer label, only last 5-6 weeks, but cost the same as Ferragamo's.
• Horse Show: The ultimate goal and destination of all training, feeding, shoeing, medicating, equipment purchases, and  free-time hours whereby for approximately 6 minutes your horse shows you just how badly behaved he can be (see also: Show Horse)
• Hock: Financial condition of all horse owners.
• Stall: What your rig does at rush hour in an unfamiliar city on the way to a big horse show.
• A Bit: What you have left in your pocket after you've been to your favorite tack shop.
• Fence: Decorative structure built to provide your horse with something to chew on.
• Horse Auction: What you think of having after your horse bucks you off.
• Pinto: Green coat pattern found on freshly washed light colored horses left unattended for 2 minutes.
• Well Mannered: Hasn't stepped on, bitten, or kicked anyone for a week.
• Rasp: Abrasive metal tool used to remove excess skin from ones knuckles.
• Lunging: Popular training method in which a horse exercises their owner by spinning them in circles until dizzy.
• Gallop: Customary gait a horse chooses when returning back to the barn.
• Nicely Started: Lunges, but not enough health insurance to even think about riding him.
• Colic: Gastro-intestinal result of eating at horse fair food stands.
• Colt: What your mare gives you when you want a filly.
• Easy to Load: Only takes 3 hours, 4 men, a 50lb bag of oats, and a tractor with loader.
• Easy to Catch: In a 10x10 stall.
• Easy Rider: Rides good in a trailer; not to be confused with "ride-able".
• Endurance Ride: End result when your horse spooks and runs away with you.
• Hives: What you get when receive the vet bill for your 6 horses, 3 dogs, 4 cats, and 1 donkey.
• Hobbles: Walking gait of a horse owner after their foot has been stepped on by their horse.
• Feed: Expensive substance used to manufacture manure.
• Dog House: What you are in when you spend too much money on grooming supplies and pretty halters.
• Light Cribber: We can't afford to build anymore fencing or box stalls for this buzz saw on four legs.
• Three-Gaited Horse: A horse that. 1) trips, 2) stumbles, 3) falls.

Miscellaneous Monday 5-31-10

Busy the past couple of week.  Our website is up, but only the basic pages.  I'm taking a CSS class this summer so I'm holding off adding back much of the information and individual horse's pages until then. It will make life easier to change things after I'm better with my CSS skills.  If anyone does need information on our horses, please contact me - I have it all - including all the reference horse page information.  Which I've been debating about loading all the photos on a Flickr or PhotoBucket account.  Being a pedigree junkie I always love looking at the ancestors of my horses.

Foaling season is dragging on, as we're still waiting on Libbe, Maria and Baybee to foal.  So much for the theory on keeping older mares pregnant! First ET, now Maria (24).  Both haven't been bred in 5+ years and one night of fun with (I'm suspecting Frenchie with the three remaining), and we're having a foaling season.

We did take Topper's mares out last week, so he had about 3 weeks to do his magic.  As this was his first time pasture breeding we'll see which of the mares did get covered.

Took some photos a week or so ago FINALLY of Ringo (thanks again Jenn for helping out!).  

It was about time considering all I had were yearling ones and he's now seven!  These are right out of the field, unclipped, so he's a bit flyaway looking but at least we have a few.  

Miscellaneous Monday 5-10-10

**** OUR WEBSITE IS DOWN AS OF TODAY****

Please contact us through wescofarms @ gmail.com (remove spaces) for the next week while it is transferred to the new domain server.

What's with the weather? Wet, windy and hmm this is May, right?  Feels like January.  I'm glad for the green as it prolongs our hills being green and the flies aren't out yet - two big yeahs! 

Foaling is still the waiting game.  Waiting on Chiclet and now Libbe to see if they're going to foal in the worst of this new storm or hold out for better weather.  Baybee is also being carefully watched.

Took the camera out last night and took a few photos of the gang and ended up with the roan edition.  Bruiser  has that normal chinchilla color I associate with blue roans at birth.  He could surprise us and go black but I doubt it.  I think he'll like his two siblings and be a blue roan under the baby fuzz.

Bruiser aka Wesco Farms please give me a name!

Kiega aka Wesco Farms ETs Secret Affair showing off his blue roan-ness!

This was a bad angle, but I was trying to get his back, shooting down at minis a big no-no.

Ringo, Wesco Farms Buckerowdyroo, sire of the two boys above

standing downhill - taking decent photos of minis is my curse.

Random photo's today

Took the camera out to "try" to take photos with the results most are of nostrils, noses, horses chewing or butts! A few not headed directly for delete follow.

View from one of the pastures.  It would make a wonderful backdrop to the posed photos if we ever get those taken.  Las Doradas Calypso Queen (left) and her daughter Wesco Farms Jamaica Me Crazy (right).  Two of the under 28" Minis here.

West Coast Buena Callita, 22 years young.  We retired her, but she's still cycling and in good body condition so .... maybe a date with WCR Top Cop this year. If she's guarantee a filly I'd happily breed her!  She's always been fairly heavy producing colts, though.  I only have Baybee here, who is expecting in the next few weeks.

 

Wesco Farms ET's Secret Affair aka Keiga (top).  His blue roan is showing through his rubbed spots. Two months old and thinks he owns the world. Bruiser's roan isn't showing yet but he's not into using everything including humans as scratching posts. I'm leaning towards Bruiser's registered name Wesco Farms Twist of Fate, as if Ringo wasn't a jumper he wouldn't be here!

Wesco Farms April Sunshine BB (Bonus Bucks x Sarah) and Wesco Farms While You Were Sleeping FF aka Surprise (Frenchie x Twila).  Both are yearlings with close to 7" height difference. April is under 27" while Surpise is taller than her dam Twila and I'm going to hold my breathe she stays under 34".  Surprise's color? Silver buckskin?  We're still not sure. April will be off to Colorado in June.  We're going to miss her. One of those if the deal falls through - it would be a win - ROFL!

New Foal update...

A couple days late, (this flu is kicking my butt), so photos have not been high priority.  This is LeeLee's (Las Doradas Blazing Beauty) colt sired by fence jumper extraordiniare Ringo (Wesco Farms BuckeRowdyRoo).  A perfect match to Kiega!

 Leelee isn't overly thrilled about this or the dogs lurking in the background.  Although the dogs have a very healthy respect for the minis flying hooves and hang out literally under hoof during farrier visits - new babies are another story!  She's still in 'new mom' mode.

This is as yet to be named colt getting his daily molesting. He's strong and very tenacious, just like Kiega - I see driving in these two's future!!  Hmmm - matched pair blue roans = awesome!

Nice pedigree on this guy too! Ringo being a Buckeroo/Rowdy grandson (his sire is Juniors full brother) and LeeLee is a daughter of World Champion Little Kings Bay Ablaze (doa 2009) who is heavy Blue Boy while her dam was linebred Gold Melody Boy/Hashs Comet/Merry's Golden Mohawk - those gorgeous palomino Shetlands!

As the flu is pretty much fogging the brain, I haven't came up with a name yet.  Although as I've been reading the Histories by Herodotus on my iPhone, it won't be surprising if mysterious ancient Greek names appear this year!  Titan, Titus, Taras, Timon ....


NEXT UP

Next on board we think is Baybee - she's very round, but no bag.  She's starting to get the V from the side view too. She's a maiden so we're hoping everything goes well.  She's been paying lots of attention to LeeLee and her baby so hopefully has picked up some pointers - lol!

ET's Secret Affair...

It's one of those days/stories, that you can only laugh about in retrospect!


Yesterday, Thursday February 19, 2010, my son had his best friend over for a visit. They wanted to hike on the hills and his friend's girlfriend wanted to see the horses. So off they go, beautiful day almost 70 degrees in February. A light breeze, the grass is growing, early spring flowers and trees in bud - a perfect day.


While they were hiking the 'couple', being in the post teen angst filled early days of a relationship had a minor tiff. Somehow the three of them were separated. (I know but we we're that age too once - lol!) A bit more hiking back and forth and a minor shouting match on the hills, the couple make their way back down off the hills. They had made up enough to leave in one car (yeah!) and off they go (the stress of young love OMG!), about 4 o'clock.


Around 8 p.m. my son's friend calls and they're chatting. My son then tells me "Oh by the way.. guess what the girlfriend discovered!" While wandering around on our 63 acres of hills she had discovered a black mare with a small black skinny baby. Yeah for finding the sneaky mare - big marks down for not saying anything for FOUR HOURS!


We had a short debate on could she have been mistaken as she's not a horse person and minis, people often call them babies because of the size! So could it be one of the smaller horses next to a taller one? Maybe one of the two year olds (a couple are in the 30" range)? Maybe. Finally it's a better safe than sorry situation, so we change into gorgeous ranch attire (mud shoes/boots, the oogly clothing). We have to go on foot as the ground is almost to wet for the Jeep and in the dark, just not lots of fun! Plus getting the Jeep stuck in the middle of our property...AAA won't help us there!!


Off we go, Maxim, Anya and I to comb 63 acres of hills on foot to look for a BLACK horse with a BLACK foal in the dark by flashlight! Choice words were mumbled by me as we went up and down the muddy hills, dodging the abudance of rocks lacing our hills, not to mention the many small streamlets and two major streams.


When we do find the horses - at the other end of the property - the mares of course are freaking out why we're out there with flashlight's in the dark. So the whole herd starts running. We're trying to identify all the 'black' horses as they race past by flashlight and finally spot the mystery 'black horse' and foal at the back.


I was suspecting Chiclet that looks very likely pregnant, but no surprise! It's ET (Las Doradas Etoile de Mar) my first mini! Now we haven't bred ET in five years, and apparently she hasn't liked not being a mom, so took matters into her own hooves so to speak.


We finally chase the horses down to the house, while I'm sure I'm going to have a heart attack in the dark stumbling up and down hills. My son grabs her baby. Well she's having a screaming fit that she has lost him, her new son is kicking the crap out of my son in his baby 'I don't want to be eaten by you, human' way.


So I grab her foal, we're shining a flashlight on him, calling her over and she's racing around screaming. Finally ET is like 'oh there he is' and we lock them up. All of this is accompanied by Libbe's constant loud screams (she sounds like a 16 hand draft horse - very loud and deep) of baby alert - she loves foals - and will steal any of them she can!


We check the foal - a colt. Obviously very alert and has been nursing and not a few minutes old either. Check mom - full bag, no discharge, alert, healthy and very smug! Give mom some Ivermectin and foal Foal Response. Blanket baby Kiega (long story on that name, but fits him) and leave them alone.

So here he is - Wesco Farms ET's Secret Affair "Kiega"

Check out the head shot - he has a moustache!!!

The truly ironic part of this, just the day before she foaled Kiega, we were watching her walk up the hill and I remarked to Maxim, damn ET looks pregnant. We both did the naaa! Can't be. Darn mare proved me wrong again.


Now to figure out the mystery of when and how she managed this. Suspect number one is Ringo as Kiega looks to have blue roan ability going on! The only issue Ringo did NOT have access to the mares unless she very willingly backed up to the fence last March. So another guess daddy foal. Thank goodness for DNA/PQ testing!!!

Monday fun

Nothing exciting today - well unless you consider scraping moldy, slimy alfalfa out of the hay barn fun! The rain this past month, some of which was falling in a horizontal fashion, managed to get in and the loose hay on the floor near the windows turned into lovely glop!

The pile of 'clean' hay we rake into a pile received enough moisture to be a lovely pile of mold! The mold spores - ugh! So off to the compost pile with that as well. I have to say we've had some gorgeous alfalfa this last couple of deliveries. The horses are loving it and staying in good body condition.


The horses are all doing well. Leelee is definitely pregnant from Ringo, due in May. Need to look up his 'jump the fence and cover LeeLee day'. Chiclet I'm still on the fence about, but might be as well from Rohan's leap! All the rest of the mares show no signs of those two's attention so crossing fingers its only one or two unexpected foals this year.

Spring is in the air - a bit - as the mares are starting to show a bit of interest in the stallions! I'll be glad when the rest of the 'sold' boys leave this month. Less accidents - lol! Although the biggest culprit, Ringo, will still be here.

Time to order and get our vaccinations completed the next two months. So, inventory of syringes, etc., is in order.


I had planned to get to all of Anya's show clothes and post prices, etc., but unexpectedly had the fun of PC cleanup/defragging my son's computer. That and I've had the brilliant idea of backing up all my music to a HD! Never knew I had so many CD's until I started that project! 6.6+ days of music as of last count.

Foal heads

I was out feeding this a.m. and actually took the camera. How do they actually know I'm trying to take photos? If I don't have a camera they run and jump and play. Camera they clump up and hide or are two inches from the camera lens.

So, many bad photos later, pulled these few of the foals. Practicing with Picasa's collage feature -

1. On left - Corona, double dilute colt (Frenchie x Java)
2. Center - Pretty Girl, blue roan filly (Ringo x Una) <3>
3. Below PG - Jai Ho, buckskin pinto colt (Frenchie x Val)
4. Right - Surprise, buckskin maybe roan? (Frenchie x Twila) Surprise has four socks, darker leg, then lighter, then light body, blue eyes and is truly a surprise! She's very shy, not outgoing and bossy like her mom!

Over all very happy with Frenchie's foals and Ringo's fence jumping pretty daughter!

These are the 'tall' foals, the three munchins (April, Vanna and Zydeco) the photos were truly awful. April being the character she is was in visiting Woody today - she is about the size of our Australian Shepard, Sabrina, so finds her way into most anything. Vanna is even smaller, but not always as adventurous!

Thursday prep work

Moved the boys down from their pasture to the two adjacent to the house - tomorrow is trim/deworm/clean up day!  It's suppose to be in the high 90s to 100 so we'll see how motivated we are in the clean up department! 

I'm hoping to at least put bridle paths and clean up heads a bit as we need new photos for registration and the sales page.  

The yearling boys are a wild bunch, fortunately they travel in a pack so get one moving they'll all go!  McLuvin is still very friendly and always looking at them like 'What's your problem?'  Rohan has adopted the boys as his herd and he moves them around like a stallion with mares.  Herd dynamics are so interesting to watch ... the Jan Goudall in me!

Ringo could see them on the other side of the house, so his knickers are in a knot!  He actually is very social and enjoys being with the boys, but Mr. Fence Jumper, it borders on pointless to put him out with them at all.

Missy and Val still have not foaled - probably waiting for the extreme heat wave we're having this weekend.  We're getting fans set up tomorrow just in case and the swimming pools will be out by Saturday too.

The foals are all doing well.  I'm very please with the overall look quality that Bonus Bucks, Frenchie and Ringo have sired - wish Frenchie and Ringo's were a few inches shorter, but they're foals are nice!

We only had one bit of diarrhea with Surprise at foal heat.  We'll see if Una's filly has it (she didn't get Foal Response or mom dewormed the first 12 hours).  I'm doing an non-scientific test if Foal Response and deworming with Ivermectin on the mares helps prevent foal heat or not.  Twila/Surprise was the one foal we found dried and although we gave them the combo, we're not sure how old she was, so . . .

I really need to carve out time to get caught up on paperwork, it keeps falling further behind.  Nine years I was always on time or early, year ten I've fallen apart in that department!  Oh well, nothing that's not fixable - just extra fees to get it all in order!  I have a three week break from being a taxi coming up, so hopefully will get caught up on the outstanding backlog of papers!

I'm going to be very glad when the boys are all done tomorrow, right now I'm dreading it though - lol!!!

Just another Monday

Started off this morning by finding Ringo - my raptor ala Jurrasic Park fence tester - had in his vigerous fence testing way found another spot in the fence and was out cavorting with the mares.  This time he had a pack of followers, with Deva kicking everyone away from him.  Not much good it did as he zeroed in on LeeLee and even my yelling and Deva's kicking was going to stop him from doing the deed! 

We don't know how long he was out, or if he had a busy morning or not, but there goes my plans for no foaling season next year and a new stallion report is in order!

Well at least it should be a nice cross if it took as Ringo is our Buckeroo grandson (also a Rowdy grandson) and LeeLee is a daughter of World Champion Senior Stallion Little Kings Bay Ablaze on top and heavy Johnstons/Gold Melody Boy on the bottom.  I just looked at Ringo's webpage and had to cringe - awful photos of him! Oh well that's not surprising seeing how poorly I man a camera!

I guess Ringo's repeated in/over/under fence testing along with yesterday Ivan getting into the stallion pasture - missed his friends now that he's a gelding? LOL!  Being chased across 20 acres of hills changed his mind on that!  Anyway, this seems to be a clear indication we need to redo all our fences!  

Well if the economy stays on track (ie horses keep selling/DH stays employed) we'll be getting Lindeman back out to refabric the perimeter in a couple spots and do something about the deplorable interior fences that are in major need.

Ugh, I dread that bill!  

Website

Other fun - worked on our website today adding pedigree info to the foals pages, and photos.  I really need to delete alot of the information on there or combine it so it's not so unwieldy.  It's out of date in some sections, and just a plain mess in others - but nine years of it growing and adding, it was bound to happen!   So, I'm plugging away at it, between everything else that needs attendance.  It will likely take awhile as I could do it on the laptop while doing all the waiting I do (a teenage daughter that doesn't drive yet!), so maybe it will get done sooner than I think!

Mares & Foals

The mares & foals are doing well.  If it doesn't rain tomorrow I'm going to try and get some new photos of the foals.  I'm very happy with what Bonus Bucks and Frenchie sired and the mares are all doing excellent jobs in the mother department.  We've only had one foal heat diarrhea with Surprise (oh so lovely on a light colored horse).  She was the one that received Foal Response the latest, instead of right after foaling (well when they're ready to stand that is!).  So far we've been pleased with this product.  It may be actually doing nothing, but we've had very robust healthy foals with a minimum of foal diarrhea since we started using it.

Note to self - order hay!  I generally write this down and forget until we're down to the last four-five bales.  We're truly luck Higby's is sooooo good at getting hay to us in a timely manner.

April 1st fun

As can be expected, Ringo found another way into the mare pasture.  He's like a raptor from Jurassic Park, always testing fences!  He found a loose place - boom! - he's in with the mares!  At least I always know where the fences need to be repaired!

He had them all herded into a tight group along with most of the geldings, except Dash.  Apparently Dash was his 'threat', although Dash has been gelded for 2+ years!

Fortunately he's very calm about being recaptured and went directly to his hay for breakfast.  Such a fun morning!  He did this between 7 and 9:30 as at 7 he was still locked up!  The brat.  I'm toying with putting a mare in with him so he won't feel the need to jump fences, but I really don't want to breed this year.  Geldings don't work as he knows the difference - lol!

Other than that, Sarah and April are keeping all the attention of the mares on them.  Grandma, Tina, has been standing guard on the other side of the fence admiring her new grand-daughter. The rest of the preggers are watching the new baby closely too.  Mom and baby seem to be doing well.  Sarah seems a bit uncomfortable, but is eating and drinking well, so I'll watch her and give her a bit more banamine if she doesn't seem better this afternoon.

Tomorrow the farrier will be here, so if any foals are born tonight, I'm praying for quick/easy delivery of a healthy foal!  I'm only going to have him do that pregnant mares, retired ones and Ringo so 12 tomorrow.  I know I'm going to be dead on my feet by the time he's done!