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.

Winter fun

Spent the day, catching horses (Boo and Jai Ho are off tomorrow) to their new home on Saturday with Holly & Gary Bradshaw.

Grabbed poor Zydeco, as he's finally leaving the mare herd, or should say is again leaving them! We weaned the 2009 foals in October, but two months away from mom didn't do the trick! So, we need to find him a buddy to go through the trauma again. Likely Raider, he's here and friendly enough.

We're leaving Blessing, Vanna and Surprise with the mares. Una's getting a little thin, but nothing scary, and as we're not breeding any of them, not too worried. The number of inquiries we've had on Surprise I doubt she'll be here by March 1st anyway.


Other fun today, started going through my daughter's show clothes. Time to put them up for sale! Some she never did wear, but none fit her anyway. So, took photos now have to get them on photobucket and price them. Also took photos of the video's (driving, clipping, etc.) I'm ready to let find new homes!

Next will be the books and magazines. Last will be ten boxes of horse blankets, halters and other stuff! Amazing what you accumulate in 10 years - lol! Time to pare it down to what I really need to keep.

Random shots

As we've been updating the sales list, we took some random shots of the mare herd one day in all their glory...muddy, winter woolies, but still beautiful.


Anya is getting mobbed as usual by them. Ivan her gelding (Wesco Farms Bucks Cosmonaut ET) is front row with her (the silver dun). Remy is to the right, behind her is Deva, Dipper, Gemini, Twila, Boo, Cookie and Baybee's nose!

Valentina, (Wesco Farms AToy4Me Brazen Beauty). Val is such a pretty mare, besides having a superb personality and great conformation. We've loved both the foals she's produced too. A definite keeper!

Remy (Wards Creek Extreme Dream), she has such a pretty head and gorgeous eye.

Sarah (Wesco Farms Tricked Me Tina), just love this mare. My daughter Anya is playing with her...Sarah has the patience's of a saint! LOL!!

Patsy (Wesco Farms Checkered Dream) My only Little Kings Dream Demon daughter we have. Hopefully we'll breed her in 2011.

Who's herding who?

Vanna (Wesco Farms Vanna White BB), the one-eyed wonder. She doesn't realize she's pint size at all (she's under 26" right now). Having one eye hasn't slowed her down either. Most people don't notice she has only one as she full bore in go most of the time.

Here she's looking for trouble...

Vanna spied Fraiser, one of our mini Aussies (he's our biggest one), and pursuit began.

Poor Fraiser is a chicken for being a good size Aussie. So time to flee from the might of Vanna.

Fortunately, Fraiser is fast...

Vanna almost caught him, but he made it out and under the fence. Maybe this is why the coyotes have been absent this year....

Happy New Year!

WoW! Fell off the blogging again. Life gets busy and time is at a premium, so some things get dropped! Oh well...


Recap the last quarter of '09

Vanna did end up with vision in her right eye and is staying in the munchkin height range. I doubt she'll get as tall as her mom, Jamaica (under 27"), but the do look like carbon copies. We're definitely keeping her as we downsize.


April, Avril and Corona went to new homes. It's always sad to see them go, but they went to good places.


We're finally reducing the herd and in this economic market, have really been taking a hit on prices. But we're trying to be very careful on screening families and making sure they're a good fit. Kristi Soholt, Viking Wind Farms, has been invaluable helping me with this project. Our overall goal is to reduce the herd to a managable number (for me as I tend to do this by myself) of 22 minis. So, unfortunately some really hard choices have had to be made. Horses I never thought I'd sell are going and some of the retired horses are leaving this week for a new retirement home.

Wednesday is going to be a heartbreak when Callita, Tina and Sonnet leave, but it's to wonderful homes with some caring individuals. I'll be numb then a puddle of tears, I'm sure. It sounds like wonderful homes.

Other than that there were no major accidents, injuries, etc! Yeah!

Foal photos

Vanna is doing better, and we're hoping to salvage her right eye. So many times a day we chase Miss Backbreaker around and medicate her eye, apply more fly spray and pray/cross finger & toes for her recovery. She did well for her trim last Friday as did the rest, practicing leading and tying torture by humans.

I haven't taken any photo of Miss Vanna's eye - I guess I should to explain the stapling of her right eyelid, but it's not pretty. She looks like a pirate with a squint with one eye partially open. A fiesty pirate with a squint I should say!

As for the rest - which I just had a sudden ephiphany about! All the foals are somehow downline from Callita except for April. Frenchie is her son while Calypso is her grand-daughter and Jamaica her great-grand-daughter! Good going Callita!

Frenchie's foals are really nice but going to be pushing the stick or B size I believe at least Surprise and Corona are almost too leggy! Here are Jai Ho and the twins - Surprise and Corona.
Surprise is the mystery colored foal this year. Bay roan dam and black white pinto sire so we get - The Bonus Bucks munchkins are all in the 24-26" range right now. April is a dink, although she eats like a pig and resembles a keg on legs, she's definitely precious.
Zydeco - the seeker of shade - hard to get a good photo of him in the sun.

And last but definitely not least - Count Your Blessings, that doesn't have a farm name that sticks other than Pretty Girl (isn't that awful!). She's going to be very B size like her mom.

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!

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!