Greetings All. Happy New Year

It's been awhile.  My good intentions to blog weekly seem to slide into every month then six months!  ACK!!!

I've been tasked with starting to blog again, so I'm going start 2016 with better intention (and a reminder on the phone!).  Soooo, early Happy 2016! Hope it's an excellent one for everyone!

Year in review

Horses
I was hoping to be down to 30 Minis before 2016, and fell short there.  We're at 35 as of today (technically 37 as we have two here, one boarding/one hasn't returned home yet).  So, not quite as low as we wanted, but getting there.

We're happy with the herd in general, just would love a few less to care for on daily basis.

Two mares that we had sold years ago came back home, under different circumstances.  Bonnie was voluntarily give up to Angels For Minis.  I was lucky to be able to track down the people that had bought her from me, so got her paperwork straightened out.

Wesco Farms Rogers Easter Bonnet

Surprise was fortunately removed from awful situation (thanks Nola!), and we were allowed to bring her back home.  Nola gave her quite a bit of TLC, so she was in great condition when we got her.

Wesco Farms While U Were Sleeping FF

Ringo arguing with another stallion stuck his leg through a fence and came up lame.  He was 'rested' or as well as he can impersonate resting for a month and seems to be back to his normal self.  We were hoping to get him in training for driving in 2016, but that may be shelved for a few months more.  Now that we've sold all his foals, except Rocky, we're debating on breeding him in 2016.  I'd love another Blessings just A size.

Wesco Farms Buckerowdyroo "Ringo"

Woody our chronic founder boy is doing okay.  He's not getting worse and actually doing well most days.  The last time he was doing this good he broke into the chicken pen and pigged out on their feed to the point he pretty much lay down for two days.  Silly boy.  He's his own worst enemy.  Comet has been keeping him company, she seems to randomly have issues with our lush pastures (which is a total joke for those that have been here!!!  How they founder this past year on the scrubby crap growing is beyond me!).

Woody at six months back in 1999. Just starting to show his appy-ness.  I thought I'd bought a black colt.....

It does look like a few of the mares are rounding up for April foals.  Remy, Diva, Baybee and Annie look like 100% chance of being pregnant.  Swan, Sarah and Dani don't.  As we sold three mares bred to Oz (Fallen Ash Scouts Oscar), we figure that will be the three pinto fillies and we'll get three-four black colts!  At least that seems to be the general rule here.



Ranch
We've torn up a few runs and fencing projects are underway which will likely take a few months (help is coming in April to kick it in to gear!).  The goal is to have it easier to get around here when people are out and also for us at feeding time.

This involves more work than my aching bones enjoy, so it's slow going.  But coming together.  (We were suppose to be buying fencing today, but cold and looks like rain so blogging!).

One of our cats, Vicki, took his trip over the Rainbow Bridge in March. He had the best personality and was such a cool, fun cat.  We still miss him.

Vickie, Auggie and Odie were the three our Aussie, Sabrina, brought home that we bottle raised back in 2002.

Thirteen years later, Odie and Auggie are still here, along with Howie (black and white) cruising along at 16ish. We do have a new throw-away cat someone dumped living in the hay barn. Cut muted grey with white feet (but I don't need another cat!!!).  So we've feeding it iin the hay barn, hoping it will enjoy life there and keep mice under control.  He/she has been over here a few times, but I really don't need another lifer pet in the house!  We lost another of the llamas in the fall too, leaving us with Premierah and Blanca. We're also down to three chickens - Superpeep will outlive them all - and the three peacocks - Fabio with his wives Chloe and Zoey.

Speaking of peacocks, we found our Chloe and Zoey are both excellent moms!  One of them (we can't honestly tell them apart) had two clutches of babies.  One we let her keep for about a week.  We're thinking if either have peachicks this year, we're going to let them raise them.  I'm very very cool with them having ZERO.  If I want to breed peacocks I'd rather have some of the exotic



The humans are doing well, getting older and feeling it at times, but doing well! Scott's off working, so busy busy boy.  Anya was home from college at Christmas.  She's turning out to be quite the young lady.  Very very proud of her.

Although she doesn't miss life on the farm, well she missed it here, not the feeding, and cleaning and feeding and cleaning and feeding and ......  She totally missed the zen of manure!

As for me.  I'm still plugging along.  Some days the coffee seems to kick in and it's a whirlwind of activity.  Others not so much!


Goals for 2016

• Finally get the place set up so it's EASY to do things here.  
• Lighten the load - declutter, donate, sell, whatever - less is more is the goal!
• Handle all the horses regularly so they're ALL uber-friendly. (We have a few hold outs on that!)
• Geld at least one or two of the boys - Leo and Rocky are on the list
• Maybe find that homozygous bay pinto stallion I've been wanting for five or so years
• See how this years foals are and maybe add another mare
• Work on ground driving, obstacles, etc. for some 
• Continue on the path towards better health (life changes are good!).
• Blog and keep the website up at least bi-weekly
• Pick up a few more website clients - need to do more design work!

That's the short list.  So what are your hot plans for 2016?

Fall update

Greetings Miniature Horse lovers.

I'm off track again on keeping up on this blog, but life has been busy, so I do apologize.

Part of being busy has been successfully reducing our herd down from the 54 we started with in December 2011 to 33 as of today (November 7th).

We were a bit lower but unexpectedly added a new stallion (Fallen Ash Scouts Oscar "Oz")and two new mares (Half Measures B&W "Bea" and Half Measures Lord of the Dance "Dani" upping our pinto quotient by two black and one buckskin pinto!  We also hadn't anticipated but happily took back one mare because of the new owners real life issues.

Fallen Ash Scouts Oscar "Oz"

Half Measures B&W "Bea"

Half Measures Lord of the Dance "Dani"

Dani's a little thin in this pic but has put on weight here.

We did lose one mare to colic (April) which was traumatic in early July.  Two others, Mardi Gras and Lalique, went into a permanent retirement situation as they are ones we'd taken back from awful situations but neither has the temperament for pet homes.

We're keeping fingers and toes crossed that all the rest are in great places.  You know the kind of  homes we hope for - as in lifer, we love this Mini so much we won't dump it in a couple years and will give it great care -  type homes.  It has been hard letting some of them go (two of them are still here - Jamaica and Vanna - which is going to be hard to have them leave, but they're going to an awesome place in the next few months.

We didn't breed for 2014, but Ringo did have a night out, so we're wondering if we'll have some blue roan or black (the only colors he seems to sire) in April - hoping not, but the stud reports are being filed just in case.

Woody (he's the "W" in Wesco Farms)

Woody, one of our first Minis is off rehabbing with a kind friend, Veneta, as we've been fighting founder with him for two years, and she has a better setup to deal with him at this time and a farrier that is literally a phone call away.  Our farrier, Tomas, is great, but he lives at a distance so is only out about once a month.  We're hoping for Woody to turn around in the next couple months and be able to come home.  We'll just have to keep him off spring grass and monitor his time out. The last report from Veneta's farrier was he was doing well and wouldn't need to be trimmed for five weeks.  We were assuming 2-3 weeks, so great news.

We've also (as I think I'm nuts at times!) added a couple of new varieties of chickens and a flock (only six) of guineas to the mix here.  The new chickens are beatiful and the guineas well - they're guineas!  Chicken Little should have been called Guinea Little - they constantly think the sky is falling!

That's all for this update, I'll try to be more regular about posting, but life is so busy as of late there just isn't enough time!

Farrier day

Today was farrier fun day.

Half the horses scheduled to be trimmed, vetoed by standing on top of the hill watching us, refusing to come down.  My teen age broodmares are hard to trick once they've seen the farrier and with 63 acres to outrun us, we don't play the chase game!

We of course had the volunteer group that love pedicures and for some reason think de-wormer tastes good.  They'll literally follow you around trying to get more - go figure.

Good news, Woody (one of the original three and the W in Wesco) is improving!  Big yeah and made my day!!! He's been foundering on/off for the past year and in early May it looked like he might start rotating, so we thought it might be bye bye Woody time.  He's dropped alot of weight and we're trying to keep him off any new grass (the sugars), but his white line is improving and the new hoof growth is coming in at a better angle.  So, we're hoping to keep him around.  I'm already formulating the 'winter/spring' Woody management, as being so temprate here we don't really stop growing grass even in the winter.  So, I think he'll be in a smaller grass free pen with Silhouette as company.  That's the plan for now at least.

As for hoof issues.  Tomas showed me exactly what we're dealing with so, I thought I'd share the pics.  I know personally I can say he's 'foundering' but exactly what it looked like I wasn't quite sure.  I'm more familiar with colic (when someone says colic, I'm well what kind? Gas, blockage, upset stomach???)  Founder though, I know is metabolic (as Tomas says like a person with diabetes), but I've never had to deal with a horse with these issues.

This is what Tomas removed today off Woody's hoof.

Woody grows very thick hoof very fast but horrible angles (no heel), so Tomas is rasping the front and taking off quite a bit to try to get his angles to improve too.

You can see the reddish part, it has cracks which would have eventually separated the coffin bone from the hoof wall.

The white line on the bottom is dry, crack free and small, what the farrier wants to see.

Miscellaneous Monday 8-23-10

It's hot.  Summer or our second round of actual summer heat hit today.  I really shouldn't complain as this has been one of the mildest summer's I can remember in Northern California's hot valley.  But the next few days are suppose to be triple digits which I HATE!  Especially with the drop into the mid 50's every night.

As for the horses.  All are doing fantastic.  We had caught Ivan the other day and locked him up as he looked a bit swollen in his privates - nothing wrong just over-weight gelding syndrome.  So, threw him back out with the mares along with Ray.  We still have Woody locked up, as he's just not putting on weight and his feet still look suspiciously like he'd like to founder.  So grass hay, a handful (literally!) of alfalfa and we've let him in our backyard to what passes as my lawn to mow.

Woody and Ray our pet geldings

Silhouette, my gaga mare gets away with murder. She ate at least 25 peaches off this tree, evidence was there from all the pits she left behind.  She went after the roses next and was booted from the yard!

Charm and Lalique seem to be improving weekly, they're actually walking fairly well without any pain, or at least not hobbling like they were in May.  Lalique has fallen passionately and vocally in love with Demon.  It would be a great cross if she was sound, but alas not meant to be.

We did 'try' to take photos of the munchkin crowd - April and Vanna measured in out in the field at 26.25-26.50", but the only two photos I have of April that would have been nice have a thick cotton lead rope blocking her nose.  Anyway the two dinks are doing well.  I've been talking to a few people about stallion prospects for them in 2013.

Speaking of stallion prospects - did everyone watch the Double Diamond auction?  OMG!!!!! I almost cried at Vermilyeas Snippets Red Tape selling for $1,100.  He has been one of my favorite stallions for years.  The whole Snippet line has a look I like. If life wasn't constantly throwing curve balls at me this year - I know where he'd have been coming.  I did bid, but my angels were having a fierce battle over bid more/no don't!  Regretfully I had to stop - and yes all my friends will hear about this for at least 5 years as I whine and complain about not getting him.  The other stallion I bid on was Double Diamonds Mister Meaner - what a gorgeous guy! Double Diamond Catalog  

Besides those two, there were some mares that definitely caught my eye.  If I had the funds or was new to breeding Minis - what a great start to get some quality mares in this market.  People just 'getting into minis' don't realize how badly we've been hit with the recession, and what a great buyer's market it truly is.  Which segues into my next topic, one that I'm going to be expanding on over the coming months, but the topic at hand  -  Why do we breed?

 Questions, I'm going to sit down and ask myself, honestly answer, then post here.  I'm not sure I'm going to like the flat self-honesty though - lol!  I hope some of you will use this opportunity to consider why you breed too.

To get it rolling these are my "homework" questions the next month or so.  I tend to find Fall/Winter is when I get into my ambitious breeding plans that get scaled down alot by Spring! 

1.  Why am I breeding?
2.  Am I breeding for myself or am I breeding to sell?
(pleasing yourself vs the current Mini horse market and who is your clientele - pet homes not quality/other breeders/show homes ?)
3.  Can I buy versus breed the type of horse I want to produce/market?
(get a true cost of raising a foal to breeding age - including showing if you want a show record versus buying what you want/need)
4.  Evaluate your mares
(gets in foal easily, foaling issues, ease of foaling, good dam - milk, attitude, flaws or faults, disposition, movement, color - if that's important appy/pinto breeders)
5.  Stallion choice
(proven show record, flaws/faults, disposition, movement, how are his progency, breeding ability - aggressive? must be hand or pasture bred, percentage of mares covered, foals saleable?)
6.  Linebreeding vs outside breeding
(lines that can be double or what's a good out cross? how well do you know your pedigrees and what is/isn't a good cross)

August recap

So much for the daily blogging!

I know I could, but to write 'we fed the horses' or 'we trimmed the horses today', seems a bit boring and not worth anyone's time to read!

I've been looking at some different article type posts that I may add as my taxi service (driving a teenager) will keep me on the laptop at Starbucks for a few hours a day. The price of living in the country didn't include Starbucks stops and hours away from home 'waiting'! rofl

August -

It's been hot and dry. The horses have turned the pastures into dirt pretty much as we've had no rain in months. Fortunately alfalfa is under $10 a bale and grass hays hovering around $12..50, so we're saving a few hundred dollars a month on just hay cost alone.

Tomas was out once, we had to cancel twice due to unexpected events, so everyone's getting long toed again. He's coming this Friday, now the choice the boys or the babies? Both are in need and he can't do all of them at one time. /sigh

Vanna

I know I've been posting to Twitter, but Vanna managed to go for a double eye injury. Her and mom, Jamaica are in the backyard (my recovery room) as Woody, Rohan and Ringo have claimed the other small paddocks. Vanna is doing well after a few days of treatment. The right eye looks like it will heal completely and she has good sight in it. The left...I'm hoping she won't need it to be removed. It's improved, but she really nailed it. We're giving it a few more days to see if it continues to improve.

Her aunt (Jamaica's half sister), Missy was my first eye injury to deal with. We treated her around the clock for 10 days and her eye got worse and she went in for a removal. Missy was only three days old when she lost her eye, so she's always got on well without it. (BTW - Missy lives at Jenn Davis and is due with her first foal this month.)

Sooooo, we're going to continue to monitor the mighty munchkin that is Vanna and hope/pray she doesn't need to lose her eye.


Woody
Woody has lost maybe 5 lbs., lol! He looks a bit thinner and he's definitely alot more comfortable walking, and still hating his grass hay diet. (I've cheated and give him a couple handfuls of alfalfat sprinked around his paddock) He'll get trimmed Friday so hopefully Tomas sees lots of improvement in his hooves. He really hates being locked up, as Rohan through the fence is absolutely no companionship.

Token and Flash

Token, one of our super sweet geldings, went off to become a 4-H horse and project for a friends son. I think they'll do super together. While Dee was here, we got to talking about Flash (Vegas Views Jumpin Jack Flash) and Dee remarked how much she liked him. So we struck a great deal and Flash was loaded up with Token for the ride up to Auburn. Both seem to be doing well, and Flash is loving the one on one attention Dee can give him that I couldn't. I sent an email to his breeder, she's pleased he's in a good home with a clause that if he can't be kept there first rights go to her or me! A real win-win for Flash!

Peanut and Thunder Bluff

Just today, Krissy from a blacksmithing school came by with the intent of getting two minis. One as a companion to her hard keeper mare and another for her companion, educational tool at the school. Peanut was an immediate yes - this will be a great home for her. As I've always felt Peant was not of the quality (had the color and size) of a good breeding animal, but hesitated to sell her to someone that would try.

When we went through the boys pasture, Krissy at first was interested in one of the blacks - Raider (blaze, one blue eye) or McLuvin (ultra friendly no white), but while she was checking all the boys - Thunder Bluff (we've changed his name a gazillion times as nothing seems to stick, but it's Little and Libbe's 2008 colt) kept following her, poking his nose in her face - basically giving her the 'what about me' going over!

Finally she did, which made him really want more, so she decided he was the one for her! He loaded well into her trailer - considering it was his first time - and we caught Miss Peanut who gracefully belly flopped her way into the trailer - hey the back of the trailer step up is above her leg height! So off they went to I'm sure a fantastic home.

July in review

July sped by - hot and hotter days. The horses seem to fair well in the heat, (my assumption as no one is sick and they stand on top of the hill in the blazing sun instead of in the shade or in the shelters!)

A couple of farrier visits, but I still feel like we aren't caught up. I don't know why, the records say everything is okay, and Tomas is scheduled out through the end of September so... hmmm.

Hay prices have been a bit more reasonable and really excellent quality. The last alfalfa at $9.65 and mountain pasture at $13.30. The alfalfa is close to half what it was last winter. I wish I could store more than 100 bales at a time. I'd be snapping this alfalfa up - the horses aren't leaving a piece of it around!

Since we didn't have any vet visits this month, the dog felt the need to rip her leg open, after hours of course! Our vet referred us to an emergency clinic - which turned out to be a total joke. We take Leilah in and after an hour they come in and the vet tells me it will be $799 to $1,100 to stitch her leg up!! I literally started to laugh and told her she couldn't be serious.

She was but seemed very embarrassed. I told her give me my dog, I'll take her to our vet in the a.m.- heck too many horse injuries I was anticipating a $250-400 bill. She did end up cleaning and wrapping her for free as I think she really did feel bad, but she's an employee there not the owner. I really wanted to tell them all how grossly unfair it was to overcharge this way, but only mentioned it to the vet.

So, the next day our vet $300 as anticipated. I'm so glad my animals plan injuries out, but wish they'd get together and ALL decide to be healthy for a year or two!


Other news - my son has moved out again and this is likely to be permanent, so lost my ranch helper. I need to find someone reliable and trustworthy to help out around here as my daughter is entering the busy teen life this fall. So the next two years until she drives, the mom-taxi is going to be more in demand than not.

This segued into some re-evaluation time for our herd. I had already committed to not breeding this year, and next year is doubtful (I'm dying to try Topper out though!), but we need a major reduction in our workload as the next two years I just don't see a lot of horse time!

So, I've slashed the prices on the horses (some very drastic cuts) most of the colts/stallions are in the $650-900 range, and the mares are all over $600 to a $4,500. Hopefully we'll get them into good homes, I'm still going to be picky about that.

Part of paring down, I pulled all my daughter's 'show clothes' and photo'd them all along with the 'how to' videos we never watch. I'm going to post them to our site for sale. I'd love to say I'm going to go through all the horse blankets/halters/stuff and list that too, but it's highly unlikely!!

DIPPER

We finally did manage to meet up with Sherry and trade horses. She now has her black and white pinto stallion (Bonus Bucks) and I have Dipper back after many years of wanting her.
It's so funny as Bonus Bucks (sorry Sherry I've already forgot his new name), has really gone full circle over his nine years of life, living within a few miles of where he was born out on the Northern California Coast.

Dipper is double bred Buckeroo. A Buckwheat daughter and Buckeroo great-grand-daughter with heavy Bond breeding on the bottom. She's back where she lived for her first two years of life, still working her way back into the herd - it's a tough crowd here - so many alpha mares that all want to be queen! Right now Twila, Val and Java have made it there mission to make sure she understands where she fits in the hierarchy and that only the furthest pile of hay is hers ... only if they don't want it.

Oh well, I've watched other mares run the gauntlet here, Savvy did last year, and Sonnet and Remy before her.

WOODY

Woody one of our first minis (my husband's only horse) has developed joint problems because of his hooves. Apparently he grows way more toe than heel, and his every 8-9 week trim isn't working after 10 years. His front left is the worst, but all four were a bit inflamed.

Tomas (my uber-hero farrier) trimmed him into some ugly looking hooves - really cutting back the toe, so at least Woody seems more comfortable. He grows so much toe - I've always called him the Shetland-hoof horse, but it's finally catching up with him. Doesn't it just figure though the $500 pet mini costs me more to trim than the one's that were many thousands of dollars. /argh

So Woody locked up in the run off the backyard/garage area and he's just not happy about isolation and his new diet - grass hay is not his idea of living. I've been sprinkling a few handfuls of alfalfa around his pen - but he's still thrilled with his accommodations. Rohan (the jumper) is penned next (six foot high ex-dog kennel for the win!) to him and Ringo has an adjacent pen too. Neither are wanting to buddy up with the gelding, so I've been feeding the mares with foals extra grass hay along his fenceline. I know the piglet mares will hangout with him for hay!