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!

First foal photo

Proud mom, Sarah, (Wesco Farms Tricked Me Tina) with her 12 hour old daughter, April.

First foal!

So, while I was typing the blog about marestare, blah blah blah . . . Miss Sarah (Wesco Farms Tricked Me Tina) decided maiden-shmaiden she was having her baby on her due date so there!

I went out at 2:30 a.m. and found Sarah with her new daughter (a lovely buckskin pinto filly) standing there like an old pro!  She was out in the pasture with two of her friends fast asleep and the rest of the pregnant mares grazing in the distance.  Her mother, Tina, and the other retirees were munching hay in the adjacent pasture.  My appearance alerted all of them and the baby's first whinny brought them all running to inspect the new baby!  Thank goodness Deva wasn't there (she's uber mom and will show any new mother how it's all done from cleaning to nursing!), as Sarah was a bit distressed to have all her herd-mates oggling her new baby!

I love the first foal every year.  All my horses - mares, geldings, young and old - will line the fence to watch the new addition.  The proud mother usually by day two or three is parading their prize around showing off!  

Back to the foaling . . .

I grabbed baby and and led Sarah to a private (no neighbors) run and she immediately settled down.  (She is such a good mare!)   Her baby is very alert and talkative - Sarah doesn't answer yet as I'm not sure she's figured out what this little stranger is!  The foal had passed it's meconium as a large portion of it was on her mother's face and passed even more after we gave her some colostrum.

To be on the safe side we milked Sarah (I love Udderly EZ Mare!) and gave 48 cc of colostrum (she gave us close to 80 cc of thick, sticky, glorious colostrum, so the rest is in the fridge!) and 1/2 tube of Foal Response to the baby.  

We haven't seen the foal nurse yet, so this is purely precautionary.  Sarah didn't resist much to the milking, one almost kick, then she relaxed and let my daughter milk her while I held her lead rope and talked to her.  I was glad to see she was so cooperative, as some new mom's are not always so thrilled with anyone poking around back there - whether it be a sore bag or being ticklish.

I gave Sarah  .5 cc of banamine and a full dose of Ivermectin and we left her happily munching  her hay.

Now for a name!

Sarah's registered name is Tricked Me Tina as her mother, Tina, delivered Sarah on our hills a few weeks early in the early evening - a rarity for us - as most of our foals are born between 11-2 at night or 4-6 in the morning.

Sire is Las Doradas Bonus Bucks (black and white, blue eye'd pinto), so two pinto parents . . . homozyous maybe?  That would be great, but healthy and alive is what we wanted, so I'm pleased!!!!

Barn name might be April.  Registered name Wesco Farms ?  

One down, eight to go - hopefully they'll all be this perfect!!!!

MareStare . . .

Watching nine mares.  I've read the Excel spreadsheet that shows nine names and said seven to myself.  I count the horses (nine mares) and say seven to myself.  People ask how many foals are we expecting and I say seven.

 I guess I'm still in denial that we have NINE MARES PREGNANT!!!!  We only bred 13 total (including three that aren't ours), so basically of the 10 that are ours NINE ARE PREGNANT!  Great statistically speaking but I seriously expected 3-5 as we used two new stallions.  I guess they'd been saving up so to speak!

Oh well.  Hopefully healthy!  If we can get all fillies, great conformation and color - it will be a fantastic foaling season - lol!!!

Well it's 2:27 a.m. - Calypso, Sarah and Chiclet are due now, so I'm sure they'll wait til I fall over asleep from exhaustion to foal or while I'm running my daughter to the dentist tomorrow.  I won't mind if they can do it without problems.  

As Calypso lost her last foal to GOKW (God Only Knows Why), so I'd really like her to have a live one (her only surviving foal - Jamaica is pregnant this year too!).  Calypso is one of our smaller mares - she's right around 28" (registered 28.50") and carries overo - not that she's produced it but she carries it!  

Sarah is a maiden and hopefully will be just like her dam Tina, popped out 14 foals never lost one!  She's a gorgeous mare (Little Kings Echo Diablo x Pences Tina) with her dam's movement, sire's prettiness and a wonderful personality - unlike her half sister Cajun that is a @#$% on wheels!  

Chiclet is one of those overly placid mares, so I'm hoping she'll do fine. She's our Rowdy daughter and I'm crossing my fingers for another filly from her.

The rest of the ladies-in-waiting are due in the coming three weeks, except for Dresden.  She's the only one due in May.  All even if they go long should be done by mid May.  I'll be glad of that. It's too hot here to have foals in the summer.  So unless Ringo's jumping the fence last year brings some surprise foals I'll be sleeping the night through by June - lol!!

Crossing fingers we'll have a good foaling season and praying for healthy live foals and healthy happy mares for everyone!

Two years later . . .

Apparently I completely forgot about this blog!  Two years and two weeks later - I'm back!!!

As to the state of things at Wesco Farms -

We all know the economy sucks!  I've not been marketing or trying to market the horses because of this.  Right now the herd is 62 (I think - need to count) strong. Seventeen intact males and the balance mares/geldings of assorted ages from yearlings to 25ish retired senior mares.  

STALLIONS

Eleven of the guys are on my list to geld - unfortunately with these uncertain economic times I've not wanted to allocate funds there.   Last year's $15-17 a bale for hay in our semi-drought, wiped out my 'horse funds', and although I know my DH will cover the cost of geldings, I'm seesawing as I'm concerned we'll have a repeat and I'll be wiped out on the feed bil.

We did aquire two new stallions last year, Topper (WCR Top Cop) and Flash (Vegas Views SS Jumpin Jack Flash).  Both are pintos and really nice.  Flash was an exchange and Roger Rabbit left her for Las Vegas - I'll have to write up that trip - un!@#$@#%believable - but we made it home in one piece - eventually.  Other than that we had one of our most heavy foal crops that were colts.  Toki, Raider, McLuvin, Shaman, Sunny and Rocket - so they added to the number in the bachelor herd.  Right now they're running around lik monkeys and playing with the big boys.

  

MARES

The girls - Callita joined Tina, Maria, and Lady in retirement this year.  She's getting too thin after every foal and she's 21, so I felt it's time.  Tina the old hussy at 26 struts her stuff still and teases the heck out of Ringo (he that jumps all fences - the brat).  Lady is still keeping up with Tina (also 26) and moving well.  I'm sure she needs her teeth worked on, but the extra funds aren't there unfortunatel.  Maria, I can't separate her from her daughter, Patsy, or she has hysterics.  The fact that Patsy is four doesn't matter to Maria - ITS HER BABY!!

I do have a few other mares that are retired, although it was a personal decision not a age related issue.  ET, Sissy are two - the original ladies that along with Woody are the W, E and S of Wesco Farms name.  I never sell ET's foals or havn't yet - lol - and Sis well she's my special girl so I don't want anything to happen to her.  We have her daughter, Dazzle, and son McLuvin, here as well - so she's retired . . . for now!

The rest of the ladies are fat - hairy, tangled manes and did I mention fat?  I'm glad though they alll came through winter in good flesh.  I hate to think of them losing weight and cold so tend to pile it on in the winter.

Avril, the mother of ET (another retiree) we got back last fall is doing well.  She lost her excess weight, her hooves are back in good order (reminds me time to call Tomas we need to get back on trimming schedule), and her founder is gone.  She seems happy to be back and will likely die here with her family around her.  

FOALING

We're expecting seven foals.  Twila, Val, Jamaica, Sarah, Chiclet, Missy and Java for sure. Dresden looks possible and Cajun I think is a no-go again.

THE STAFF

Me - I've been AWOL from all things mini-related the past six months - okay closer to a year.  Life does take unexpected turns at times, doesn't it?  A busy teen, disgust with the political machinations on both registries and overall apathy on my part - so I gave myself a timeout!

I'm trying to get back interested and involved, but honestly looking at time and schedule it's likely to be another couple years before my daughter can drive (the taxi service end - yea!), I've been toying with going back to school - I'm an education junkie - so that is also a possibility too.  

Hubby - working like a dog to support all of this.  He's a blessing that's for sure.

The kids - both still help out but we've discovered this past year - the horses truly are my passion, not theirs.  So, they help with all things but will never have the joy I do with horses.

Anyway, back to the horses! 

Fortunately they're all doing well.  Grass is growing, it's 77 degrees (in March!) so they're running around enjoying life.  Now to make it through foaling season without mishap will be the goal.  Hopefully get those boys gelded.  Work on my website (ugh what a mess that is!).  Bring all my outstanding paperwork current - my 'timeout' left lots of stuff undone!!!!!

Hopefully the posts will be a bit more regular from now on.

Trimming, vaccinating & de-worming

15 more horses are vaccinated for the year - yeah! We trimmed and dewormed at the same time, so we're almost caught up from our winter break.

Sad day

We were leaving today and found Topaz dead by the road. She looked like she was sleeping or taking a nap. We did a 'field' exam - no blood or trauma, no signs of rolling or other colic symptoms - a mystery death.



The only thing we noticed was she had a bit of pooled blood in her eye and inside her mouth. We're not sure if it was from falling, a kick to the head or aneurism.



It at least didn't look like she suffered. RIP Topaz you will be missed.

Stallion Reports

There all done!

At least the AMHA portion of the stallion reports that is! I still have the AMHR to finish, but as they don't have fillable forms yet for their PDF files, I'll have to hand write them.

Not awful, just a pain.

Colic again!

Jack was colicy this a.m. He's had these re-occuring bouts of colic since he was born, even after his week in ICU at Loomis back in May.

He was a bit bloated, his gums were a good color, eyes were bright, but he was boviously in distress. His temp was 98 degrees, and he had obviously been rolling, so we double blanketed him, then gave him the treatment! First 1/2 cc of Banamine, then 50 cc of mineral oil, 10 cc of pepto, followed by 100 cc of warm water. He started acting better once he passed some gas and had a bit of diarrhea. Once he felt better he went to sleep - poor baby. Anna sat with him while he took his nap. When he woke up, we put him in a pen with Jazz for company. His appetite came back, so we put him on grass and he had a nice meal.

We did give him a second cocktail around 4, and turned him out with Jazz. Jack raced around screaming for his mom, so we put Celena in and he had a long drink. He's over 5 months, so definitely could be weaned, but I think she's more comfort to him than anything else.

Boys will be boys

We turned Little and Roger out with the rest of the bachelor herd. For those that haven't been here - the boys have a 20 acre section of hills, valleys and flat treed section of our property. There is a 1/4 mile common fence with the mares and the hills overlook the valleys were the mares hang out. It was the first time Roger's been back with the boys in over year, and Little has never lived in a bachelor herd to my knowledge, so we were prepared for any fighting.




Ray, Little Primo, Homee, Ringo and Rohans head

We put Little in first, and he immediately took off up the hill, ignoring Ray and Demon (they've made a pact to co-rule the stallion pasture!). I was surprised as they took off after him, but then realized Little had never been in a pasture larger than about 2 acres in many years, so he was out to explore the new territory! He disappeared for about 20 minutes, and returned with all the boys in tow. During his travels, we put Roger in, and he was thrilled - took off in another direction.



The boys came back sweaty, squealing and having a good time. No fighting fortunately! The younger boys were hanging out for scratches and just observing the older guys strutting and galloping around the hills.