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! 

Friday Roundup: Books, Links, Podcasts and Videos

I've been trying to come up with more blog content lately...mostly to keep myself engaged with the process of trying to write something and find a few images to go along with it all!  I tend to spend more time in the winter reading and watching youtube videos, etc. so I thought I'd do some mini reviews of the stuff I've found.

First up is a cute little book: Mini School by Sabine Ellinger

Rating:  2** out of 5

Why:  This book is really cute, but really basic.  It has lots of pictures, but aside from the basics of horse "stuff" like the dressage movements, the training scale, how to longe, how to teach basic tricks, this book is lacking for the experienced horse owner.

I bough this one for 3 reasons 1) I was already doing an order from horseandriderbooks.com so I just added this to my cart and 2) this lady has trained her mini Lancelot to do all kinds of cool advanced in hand stuff and 3) I was looking for a bit of guidance on how to get Copper into long lines.  Turns out I'd be better getting some real-life coaching!

There are a couple of grainy videos of her and Lancelot doing in-hand work:

• Video 1 and 
• video 2

Copper is suspicious that minis should even been doing this sort of nonsense!  lol

svelte summer Copper:  pfffbbbtttt haute ecole?  Puh-lease.

Link(s): Jec A Ballou's blog

I bought a book that I'll review next week by Jec Aristotle Ballou.  I follow her on Facebook and found the link to her site, where she has a blog.  There are some good tidbits in her posts and I liked one on working a horse over ground poles even though the horse hits every one (FRED!) and one on core stability.  The posts are fairly basic and hint at more information being available in her books and videos, but doesn't bother me too much.    I came across these articles as I was starting to plan some work and exercises for Fred.

A few posts I liked:

• Conditioning Horses: Stability before Strength
• Focus and Fitness in Horses
• My horse doesn't care where his feet are

Podcasts: The Perfectionism Project and The Confident Rider

So, I have a confession.  It is very hard for me to listen to content and focus on it.  I have conditioned myself to listen to music or the radio as background noise when I'm doing something else.   I've tried several times to listen to podcasts at work, but I lose track of what is going on since I'm not focused on the podcast!

I've been working on building my focus and listening to short chunks of podcasts at a time while at home.  So far, some podcasts make me want to take notes (Perfectionism project) and others bug me a bit as if I don't pay attention for a few seconds, I miss part of the story (true crime)!  

I'm not sure I'll get far in the podcast realm!

Videos - Warwick Schiller  on youtube

I'm not sure how I found these videos - I feel like another blogger might have mentioned it? Maybe TeresaA?  If you know/remember, drop a comment below!

This winter, I thought I would seek out some natural horsemanship content and see what is out there.  I don't typically read/follow natural horsemanship anymore, but I like Warwick Schiller's approach - he even admits he's changed his approach over the years as he learns and understands more about himself and how the horses  react to what we do.  

It is interesting stuff and there are many, many videos on his channel to keep you occupied.  

Any favourites that I should know about? I'm always on the lookout for more content!

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday: Yahooo!!!!!

This:

Plus this:

Equals this:

Yasssss!!!!

And now we wait and cross our fingers that all goes well.  I'm not good at waiting.  

via GIPHY

More winter: meandering, pondering, wishing for spring

On my day off Friday, I took the time to take out my nice camera and just (try to) enjoy the winter day.  I actually don't mind winter and cool temperatures - there is something about the fresh cool air that really refreshes my mind and my spirit.  Okay, that sounds totally cheesy, but it's true!

I took the dogs out for another snowshoe and got a few pics and forced myself to enjoyed the fresh air.

Artsy fencepost photo.  And a reminder to cut brush along the fence line in a month. lolz

This simple fence post image has me thinking about my farm to-do list for the spring. My fencing is in need of adjustments, repairs and some maintenance.  I'm also hoping to get some gravel and maybe repair the shelter footing.

We have my father in law's dog every winter while they go away.  She (border collie) and Sophie get along really well.  Sophie follows her everywhere and they love sniffing all the animal tracks in the back field.

Lots of animal tracks and stuff to sniff.

We don't have a ton of nice trees on the property - most are scrubby willow and a few maple and some pines - so I've been guarding this little oak tree for years.  It was just a stick with a leaf or two when I first found it and now it is about 4ft tall.   I will not likely live here long enough to see it become a huge tree, but it is cute nonetheless.

Grow, little oak!

As we kept wandering back to the little grove of maple trees, I tried to get a few cute pics of Sophie, but she is not the most photogenic dog out there.  Her goofy face makes me smile tho...

Don't worry - there are horse pictures coming.  From the back of the big field, I could make out Fred and the other guys snoozing in the sun.  My hubby calls Fred the jolly green giant when he is wearing his green t/o blanket.  lol

Fred is watching us...

Fred has become the watcher of the herd since Spencer left. It is pretty cute.  He will come toward the fence with his head down and then when you call his name, he perks up and looks all cute.

Coming over to see who/what is behind his field...

This green blanket is toast - the neck part has ripped apart from the shoulder and I don't think it can be fixed.  It is holding up to get Fred through this cold snap and then it will be retired.

She knows my name?  Maybe she has fud?  Fred, probably.

I spent the rest of my day off with a hot cup of coffee, a good book and several cats on my lap. It was nice to have an extra long weekend to relax and dream about spring plans!

Winter stormy days

We had a big storm this past Thursday - I think most of the eastern seaboard was hit in some way or another.  This storm hit extra hard since it had been so warm the days prior and the snow was melting!  Oh well...that is life in this part of the world.  We got about 8-9 inches of snow, which is nothing like some places get, so I can't complain.

I was able to work from home Thursday, which is rare, so I was very happy I didn't have to drive in that weather. I had also been meaning to take a Friday off to use up some leave, so I did that this past week, as the roads were nasty and I thought I'd save myself the hassle.  I love it when I'm home during the day and I can glance out and check on the horses. They were playing and running around at one point and I only managed to get two shots before my camera battery died.  D'oh!

I'm fairly lucky here with the horses in a big storm.  I have lots of hay at hand and the power rarely goes out, so I don't have to worry about water too much either.

zoom zoom!

I went outside with my cell phone hoping to get some video, as the horses were having fun ripping around.  Fred did not disappoint...lolol

I do tend to watch Copper in bad weather as he is not wearing a blanket this year.  He is fine in cold and dry snow, but when the weather is drastically changing, I don't want him getting wet, then super cold.

As the day wore on Thursday, the temps dropped from around 0C (32F) to -20C (-10F) and the wet snow changed to a drier snow.  Since I was home, I had the luxury of bringing the horses in for a few hours so Copper could dry off before the cold temps hit.

He does NOT like being in a stall for long, so I usually have to lure him in with grain.  Yes, I could get his halter/lead line, but that seems like a lot of work!  lol

I left them in to dry off for a few hours before chucking them back out in the elements.  When I first had horses at home again, I was hesitant to put them out in bad weather.  After seeing Spencer stand in freezing rain and snow over the years, I realize they tolerate a lot more than we think.

They have shelter and lots of hay, so most of the time they are fine!  Although Fred is going through blankets like crazy - he has now wrecked three!  OMG horse.  Luckily they were all cheaper or ones that I bought used, so I'll have a big pile to see if I can get them repaired or maybe I'll just chuck them.  I'll be saving up for a nicer set for him for next year - so far I'm looking at Schneiders, Dover or SmartPak with their warranties. 

Still here..chugging along

I'm still here, winter is still here, you get the idea...  ;-)  We've been having a freak warm spell where it is 7C and sunny (L William's trick tells me that is approx 44F! You double the temp in C and add 30).  I've been enjoying snowshoeing on the weekends out in our back forty - well more like back 14, but still, it is fun and the fresh air is nice. The dogs love it too, so we all benefit.

I've been watching lots of tv, getting lots of cuddles with the pets and reading some horse-related books.  I'm trying to decide if I'll do a review or not...stay tuned for the exciting outcome of that decision.  lol

Archie likes to watch Nat Geo shows while lounging on the dog. My legs are somewhere underneath both of them!

The sun is setting later and later and has made for some pretty wicked sunsets lately.  There is a hint of spring in the air  - the horses have just started shedding a bit on their faces.  Not quite spring, but we are heading in the right direction now.

So purty.

And best of all, we went to the US to pick up a special delivery for a certain AQHA mare.  The deed was done about 9 days ago, so we have to wait until at least 14 days to ultrasound again to see if she caught!!!!  Keep your fingers and toes crossed!  This mare has had 2 foals before and has been easy to breed, so we are hopeful it went well.  

V. special "sample"

And Fred is doing well. He is continuing to eat me out of house and home! I think he might have hollow legs...lol  He also seems a bit bum high lately, but I'm hoping it is just my eyesight and he really isn't growing any more.  He is around 16.2hh and I'm sort of afraid to stick him.   I'm keeping his weight in an ok place and am now ramping up his 2nd cut hay amounts to help put on some more weight.  

Nom nom. Fred, probably.  He is standing a bit funny here with his back legs way underneath...

I haven't started working him yet, but tomorrow is day 1 for him.  I'm going to start using some exercises from the book 55 Corrective Exercises for Horses (Jec Aristotle Ballou) where I can, since I don't have hills (boo) or good footing due to the snow/melting/more snow mess that we have.  I can work on backing him, getting him used to a surcingle/ground driving lines, carrot stretches and some walking through the snow.  It won't be much to start, but it will work on stretching out his muscles after not doing much all winter.  He has definitely lost muscle tone over the winter so we need to start working back up to a basic level of fitness so he is ready to do more when the footing permits.

I'm hoping to show him in late June, so we are working towards that date now!

Checking in

January got off to a bit of a rocky start...we had a family issue that took up some extra time.  Between that and work being very busy, I haven't had a chance for much else.  The past three weeks has had me running to work and then running home to the barn to throw hay and check water, but not much else.

Things are starting to look up a bit now as the days will be juuuussssst long enough for a bit of daylight after work.   I'm looking forward to taking a bit more time out at the barn and just hanging out with the horses while they eat their hay.   I'm also hoping to start working Fred a bit, just easy in-hand stuff when the weather allows. 

Copper says: hey, got treats?

We've also had some crazy weather - we've had two or three cycles of above freezing temps, rain, ice pellets and then snow, which is just a weird combo.  One day the paddock was just a skating rink - every inch of it was ice. I wish I had taken a picture to show you guys - it was raining and the water was just running off the ice - very weird.  My place is mostly flat, but the paddock had just enough slope to make it treacherous. I kept the horses in until the snow came back and improved the footing again.




Now we are on to straight snow, which is much, much better, imho.  We had a few inches last weekend and another few inches this weekend.   Fred has been busy wrecking his current blanket, which is always fun.  Somehow he ripped apart the neck cover on his blanket and I don't think I'll be able to salvage it.


Pre-blanket destruction: these two always look like they are up to something. 

 Now that we have some snow piling up, my boarder has been bringing over her snowmobile to help pack down the riding ring and a little loop out in the back pasture. Of course, it keeps snowing so she has to keep going over the trails.  She is trying to ride as much as she can throughout the winter, which is admirable, given the unpredictable weather we've had so far!


One of the many reasons I love having the horses at home is being able to fix issues right away.  Exhibit A:  Hubby looks out the window and tells me that Fred is "walking funny" and I'd better go check him. (his description). 


So, I went out to find the back end of the blanket all twisted and flipped up.  One of the stretchy leg straps was down below his hock, causing him to "walk funny".  lol *sigh*

Nice job, Fred!

He wasn't too concerned that his butt was getting wet and his leg was tangled - you can just see the black strap on his LH in the picture.  I have a feeling this blanket won't be around much longer. I'm not a fan of how it fits him, so it is probably time to let it go. 


Not much else is going on here for the moment, so I'm off to shop online for another blanket for Fred!