Rip - Weeks 2-6

 Well, I was sort of getting caught up here, then things went south again. Lol   Well, to be fair, work was pretty rough last week.   Even though I'm still working from home, I pulled several late nights last week dealing with lots of things that made the news. Sigh.  In good news, things are slooowwwllly starting to open up here now that more people are getting vaccinated. I had my first shot a month ago, which is way ahead of what was predicted.

OK - on to foal pics!  I guess this is a better late than never sort of thing at this point?  Lol

This brings us back to late Jan/early Feb. Rip was born on Janurary 17 and stayed at the fancy maternity barn until the end of Feb, when he and his dam came to my place.

Cute little man!

Rip, like most foals grew (and still is growing) like a weed! Around the 3-4 week mark, a creep feeder was put in the stall to start giving him some foal starter pellets.  The only catch, is that his dam outsmarted all of us and was able to lick some of the pellets out of the feeder!  Lol

I will crack this puzzle.  Lucy, probably.

The barn owner also handled Rip for us as well, since we weren't able to get there that often. He haltered him, picked up his feet and led him around the barn a bit.  He also got some turnout in the arena when stalls were cleaned.

The cutest wee halter!

He got to meet some of his neighbours as well!

I think this guy is a half brother (same stud)

As the end of February approached, I started to get excited and nervous as Rip was due to come home.  I've never worked with a foal before, so I had a lot to learn.

Hopefully it won't take me so long for the next post! 

I have a foal!!!!!

I'm sooooo excited!!! The foal has arrived!!!!!!

It is a little colt and his name is Rip.  Anyone a fan of Yellowstone?  ;-) I haven't decided on a registered name yet - I still have time to sort that out before sending in his papers.

This is the first pic that I was sent from the farm where she is boarded to foal out.  He was born at 12:36pm.  Apparently this mare likes to foal during the day and not at night!  This is her 4th foal in 3 pregnancies.  Her last was 3 years ago and she had twins (both survived and are doing well now).  Luckily there was only one this time.

My friend that co-owns the mare and foal with me called and I could barely make out what she was saying since she was so excited! lol. After a minute, I figured out that she was on her way to my house to pick me up so we could go see him. Unfortunately the barn is about 1.5 hours away, but worth it for the care Mom and baby are receiving.

Being smol is tiring!

The little guy was about 3 hrs old when we got there.  He was up and trying to nurse and figure things out.  He has a nice big blaze and at least 2 socks - I was looking at pictures again today and can't quite tell (he was in straw and shavings) if he has more white on his little legs!  

I got to pet his wee little muzzle, so that made my day.  :-)  Is there anything better than soft foal (horse, pony) muzzles?  Not really, in my opinion!

He is just the cutest little guy - his colour is quite light right now - but I expect he will get darker over the coming weeks. Mare and stud are both dark sorrel, so I expect that is where he will land eventually.  We did wonder with the little dorsal stripe you can see in this pic if he would stay this light (red dun?) but I don't think that is possible genetics-wise.  

The barn owners sent this pic this morning - sooo cute!  

I'm clearly gaga for this little guy - #sorrynotsorry!

I'm going back to see him again on Thursday, so I'll have more pics to share.

I also have a good update on Fred, but he will have to wait. He's been upstaged by his little brother!

A little road trip - mares and foals

Yesterday I piled into a truck with 3 friends and we took off on a little road trip.  We didn't venture far, just a couple of hours away to visit a friend's foals.  My friend has 2 mares that she bred - one foal is 22 days old and the other one is about 2 months old.

so cute. omg.  22 days.

And you guys?  I turned into a teenaged-horse-loving-weirdo all over again!  lol  I couldn't get enough of their soft fuzzy coats and soft little muzzles.  I have horses at home and can visit them multiple times per day... but these ones were just extra cute. 

2 months and lots of sass

The barn was full of mares and babies: 2 more mares were about to have babies, 2 yearlings (omg so cute) and 2 older broodies.  What a different place than most barns with riding horses.    The guy that owns this barn has agreed to take our mare Lucy next December to foal her out.   He has been breeding horses for ages and loves the breeding/foaling part of horses the best. He is retired, so he also works with the babies to get them to lead, pick up their feet, etc. 

*sigh* so cute. 

I totally fell for this yearling colt - he just wanted attention and scritches and would nicker if we walked away.  He is out of a reining stud, so not really what I would look for in a riding horse, but man, if I had lots of disposable income, I might have bought him on the spot!   The owner was also trying to sell me one of his broodmares - a cute chestnut appendix mare - who is the mom of the colt above.  I had to laugh at his sales attempt, but my budget is sadly fixed and won't allow for another mouth to feed right now. 


We ended our visit with a few adult beverages and a nice home cooked dinner.  I hope I get to make the trip out here again in a few weeks when there will be even more foals! 

Treat Yo'self - mega edition: continued!

So this is part two and hopefully the final instalment of me spending all of the money I've been trying to save!  LOL

Me lately!

A few months ago, a friend approached me to see if I was interested in a partnership to breed her mare. I was thrilled that she asked me, as having/raising a foal has been on my bucket list before I even knew what a bucket list was!  

Also me.

We make a good team since a) we both have the same first name (lol) and b) she has the mare and doesn't like to show, but I do want to show.  So we agreed we would each go away and do some research on studs we were interested in.  In the end it came down to a halter stud who is actually a paint!  We were originally looking for something double registered (AQHA, APHA) so we'd have more breed show options, but we were able to get a special rate on this stallion that was on our short list.  We signed the contract and sent it in this week, so it looks like I'll be half owner of a foal in 2021, if all goes as planned.

Baby daddy!

And the other big, unplanned purchase this week is a new-to-me used truck!  I already had a truck, but it turns out it had a huuuuggge mechanical problem caused by modifications the dealer made, which were not disclosed to me.  Long story short, the dealer bought the truck back and I had about 5 days to find a new vehicle.

I thought about not getting a truck (cheaper on gas!) and then found a truck and sorta fell in love.  Yep. With a truck.

It is a 2015 GMC Sierra 1500 and has heated seats (which is awesome when you live where I do!) and lots of other features.  It has a towing package with trailer brakes all installed and everything. I have two trailers I can borrow whenever I want, so a big goal for 2020 will be learning to drive with a trailer! *Gulp*  I've driven my friend's rig once or twice on short hauls, but I want to get my skillz up next year so I'm comfortable on local hauls.

Swwweeeettt!!!!!

I know all of  this spending seems quite a bit out of character for me - I've been pretty careful about not spending - but at least most of it was planned and within budget.   I was already making truck payments, so this new one is around the same amount, so it isn't a shock to our budget. The stress of doing all this vehicle stuff in a week?  That is a different story...  Stress aside,  I'm very grateful that I am in a position to do all of these things right now, as you never know what life will throw at you!

What about you guys - any big purchases planned?  Are you saving up for anything? As for me, I'm back to saving...well, right after my trip to DisneyWorld with my Mom in a couple of weeks...  I'm also going to go check the couch cushions for change and hope to find a $20 in a pocket of  a winter jacket!  Edited to add:  I found $15 in change in my old truck when I cleaned it out. Counting that as a win!

Treat yo'self - mega edition

I've been trying to keep my horse "stuff" shopping to a minimum lately.   I was able to get away with it over the past year as I wasn't riding or showing much and all the horses had what they needed.

Until Fred grew. And grew. And continues to grow. And stuff gets old and needs to be replaced. And then before you know it, I'm on a full out shopping spree. I even ordered a couple of things from the UK - or at least tried to - one site with a lot of cool stuff didn't ship to North America! (the nerve!)

Started filling this out before I realized they don't ship to NA - they actually have Lord and Lady to choose from! LOL

Fred really needed new blankets this winter - his butt was hanging out of his size 81s from last winter. And he didn't have a rain sheet, so he now has a nice new wardrobe of green and matching blankets! I bought an old green/blue plaid stable sheet from a friend for $20, so I saved some cash there.

winter pjs

I also couldn't find what I was looking for here - green blankets for a reasonable price - so I broadened my search to the US.  Shipping to Canada is super expensive for some reason (it's not like I'm that far away) so my friend and I planned a trip over to NY state to pick up our items at a UPS store that holds items for desperate Canadian shoppers.  (yes, this exists!)  I also ordered myself a new pair of winter gloves, a winter coat and a new stretchy hose from Schneiders.  I'm only about 1hr from the border, so this is a fun option, as we make sure to hit up the TSC and a grocery store for my vanilla coke fix.

so cute.  And there is a heavyweight t/o in green too!

Copper didn't go neglected, don't worry. I got him a nice new rain sheet to hopefully keep his thick coat dry so he doesn't get rain rot again.  The thick coat he gets is a good and a bad thing, it seems.

I'll probably  cave and get him the matching purple winter t/o 'cause I'm a sucker!

I also got a few sweet things from going through all of the used tack at the therapeutic riding centre.  Maybe volunteering to help them re-sell old tack wasn't so smart, since I've been buying most of it!!!  I found Fred a 5.5" bit to tide him over until his 6" ones arrive from the UK.  He wasn't doing great with the copper rollers - too much for him to play with - so I'll try the full cheek snaffle.

Ahem - need to clean this tack at some point...

I also snagged a BoT dressage pad, a rambo newmarket fleece, old woof wear tendon boots, eskadron wraps, two wool coolers (I like to have spare coolers in case a horse is sweaty/colicky/cold) and a few other odds and ends.

Not green and a tad small, but for $20, good to have around.

So, after my little mega shopping spree, the boys should be good to get through the winter.  And while I bought a few things I needed, I still have a long-term wish list that seems to keep growing...but I'll try to hold off until the new year to shop!

BoT pads, coolers and not shown: all kinds of other stuff.  Omg my barn needs to be cleaned out big time!

Oh and since I started this post, I have ordered more from the UK (omg this is a dangerous trend) and I got a new cat!!!  Meet Archie - he is 4-8 months old and is from my friend who volunteers for a rescue and had a bunch of kittens.  Yes, I already have 2 cats, but I could not pass this guy up.  He is very sweet and affectionate and fitting in well around here.    Be prepared for lots of cat pictures moving forward, as we are heading into winter, so reading books with cats on my lap is my main goal  ;-)


Edited to add:  And I have two more big purchases to announce later this week.  OMG  Money floweth like water around here!  LOL

The tongue out kills me...lol





Archie and his ear floofs