The wait is over!

Aya had her foal at 3:30 in the morning early Saturday. She had a little wax when I checked her at 9 am and started having regular contractions around 2 or 3. Monica and I settled in and watched her pace the arena, stop and swish her tail, stomp her feet and bite her belly. Around 10 pm, I went in to get some sleep and Monica woke me up about 3:20 with the news "her water just broke".

It was a textbook delivery (the best kind), and as the baby was coming out, I could see it was buckskin. Maybe this time I'd get my buckskin filly! Then, the foal was all the way out and I could tell she was a he. Lovely little buckskin ...colt. He has two hind stockings and one little triangle on the front leg. Lots of get up and go, very friendly.

I have a dog blanket on him, as it's quite windy and chilly and he doesn't have much body fat. He's wearing my son's dog's blanket, which has flames shooting down the sides. I was calling him "Speed Racer" today, as he zoomed around the arena with mom.

I think we have a name for him. My friend Cindy found the word "Merdan", which means courageous. It works as I wanted a M name in honor of his sire, Metman. It seems to fit him too. He marches right up and says hello. Of course, that is much too formal for a barn name. We've been calling him Paddy, as he was born on St. Patrick's day.

There are some photos on Monica's blog and on Facebook under the Cascade Gold page. Monica's blog is http://blog.seattlepi.com/horsebytes/

Sooner or later I'll get a decent camera, but not today.

Waiting for baby

Although it's a bit early in the year, we are expecting a foal anyday now. Aishet, (barn name Aya) is on loan from Freedom Run Farms of MI and came bred to the lovely stallion Metman. Aya looked like she was all ready to go last week and then the weather got nasty. Either the foal or Aya decided it was just too cold, wet, snowy, windy, slushy and sleety out to come out and play, so we've been playing a waiting game. I keep thinking that the next nice day will see a new little face, but I checked Aya earlier today and I think, just perhaps, the kid doesn't want to wait much longer, sleet or no sleet. Of course, we'll see!

I have the foaling stall all set up with nice, deep straw, shavings and a heat lamp. I have my foaling kit ready. I've been checking her every 2 hours for the last week now, although happily, I can see her from my bedroom window so I don't have to go outside every two hours all night long. But, interrupted sleep does take it's toll. Just ask my family.

So, very soon, we'll have another little one running around. Of course, I'm hoping for my buckskin filly, but we'll take whatever comes!

Clipping time

Today I cleaned my clipper blades (long overdue), oiled the clippers and took them out to the barn. Galen has been working fairly hard and it's been warm enough that he's sweating quite a bit. I figured that a very small clip job on the bottom of his neck might help him with cooling out a bit faster. He's got a pretty good winter coat for a Teke, even though he does wear a rainsheet in the winter and sometimes a blanket if it's really nasty out.

I did forget that he's never seen clippers before - I don't worry about nose or ear whiskers and one of the great things about endurance is that no one expects you to have a 'show-ready' horse, polished and clipped. So, we spent some time just getting used to those noisy things. He was very good, all in all, although I wish I had a photo of how far back he was leaning, without moving his feet. I just went slowly, kept telling him what a good boy he was, gave him treats when he relaxed, and we got that neck shaved a bit without much trouble. So, tomorrow we'll see if that helps with the cooling, as we're hauling out to the Redmond Watershed, for a nice, long ride, as long as the weather cooperates.

Monica commented that it 'took pounds off him'. Hmmm, maybe that is an option for humans also..

Youngsters!

Monica and I have been doing some conditioning to get ready for our first endurance ride of the year, which is on March 31st. This will be Danny's (Madgan) first ride, although he did spend the night at a ride last year. We'll be doing the 25 mile limited distance ride and expect to finish towards the back of the pack - no racing for us! Danny is getting the lion's share of the work these days, as he is coming six and really blossoming. Andre is the distant second, although he's showing improvement with every ride. The other youngsters would like to be on the roster, but there is only so much time during the day. Scooter (Miras) and Reggie (Sazanda) get their 5 minutes a day of grooming and ground manners, which is really all they need right now. Mahri would LOVE to get even 5 minutes - she and Slari get a few minutes and a good scratch every now and again. Once our competition year starts, we'll cut back on our conditioning rides, so we can work more with the younger horses. Goshen is getting some arena time with Monica - he's lunging with the saddle and bridle on, has been long-lined and is generally learning how things go. We'll probably back him sometime this summer and let him get the idea that people sit on him.

Aya (Aishet) is due to foal within the next few weeks, so we'll have a new baby to play with also.

They are all keeping us busy, but that is ok - it's a lot of fun.

Spring?

Probably not, but it sure has felt like it the last few days. We've had sunshine, which is always appreciated, and temps up into the 50's. I even saw a fly today! Of course, we're taking advantage of the nice weather and RIDING. Monica and I went out Friday to Lord Hill and then on Sunday, we took Monica's husband Bill along on their TB Willie up to the Pilchuck Tree Farm. As it was Superbowl Sunday, we thought the parking area would be empty. Wrong. It seems that everyone else had the same idea as us, or was getting a quick ride in before the game. But, we squeezed the rig in, saddled up and headed out. Surprisingly, we didn't see many other riders on the trail, which shows how many miles of trails there are up there. We went out from the parking lot a different way than usual and ended up going down a very steep bank into a semi-impressive river. Galen and Danny both did it with minimum fuss, but poor Willie just wasn't sure that the footing was a good idea. Bill ended up leading him across the river and was an excellent sport about wet feet. We did get to gallop up a big hill and let Willie set the pace (as an ex-racehorse he thought he should be first). Galen really, REALLY thought that he could beat that silly TB and I had to work to keep him from taking off and doing just that. We're going to head out again tomorrow, probably back to Lord Hill, as I have committements in the afternoon. I really do need to take my camera with me and quite depending on Monica to take all the photos.

Weaners

Reggie this summer, Monica Bretherton photo

It's that time of year...weaning time. I'm actually a bit late this year, as Reggie was born in June and is now almost exactly 6 months old. But, there was no rush and while his mom is certainly ready, his Aunt Addie was not! Annie and Reggie have been out with Addie, who is very involved in Reggie's upbringing. Annie has enough experience that she lays down the rules and then doesn't worry too much. Addie though...well...if she was a human, no doubt she'd be considered a 'helicopter' mom. She herds Reggie around, watches over him while he sleeps (which is cute) and is very, very aware of his every move. This wouldn't be so bad, except that I usually put whatever youngster is closest in age in with the almost weanling (if there aren't two babies that year), so they can hang out together, play and keep each other company. It usually works very well. I tried that with Scooter this year, figuring that as he was Annie's 2010 baby, it would be a no-brainer. Nope. Annie was pretty much ok with the idea but Addie was SURE that Scooter did drugs and watched online porn. Poor kid. First time I turned him out with the other three, Reggie comes trotting up to him, all ready for a buddy. Addie noticed and came charging over, teeth bared, ears back. Scooter, being a reasonable young man, ran as fast as he could in the other direction. Addie cut Reggie away from Scooter's terrible influence and drove him back to his mother's side. Annie watched this entire performance, but didn't really move. She's ready to be done with the whole colt thing this year.

So, I left Scooter out there, hoping Addie would realize he was a good kid. He tried to talk to Reggie a few times, but was emphatically driven off. He stood as far from Addie as he could until I brought him in.

We tried the next day. Same drill.

And the next.

So, I decided to change the game and put Reggie out by himself, next to Annie and Addie. No problem. Addie even left the fenceline with Annie. I guess if Scooter isn't there, then it's ok.

I'll keep them separated but next to each other for a day or so, then start moving them farther and farther apart, until one day, Reggie and Scooter will be happily playing boy games, without female supervision. At that point, Reggie is a 'weaner' (weanling) and will start to learn all the things that a well brought up youngster needs to know.

Social Director

Now that fall is here, I have to start thinking about where to put everyone when it's raining. Now, here in the Seattle area, we don't just get a little rain every now and then during the winter. We get lots of rain for many, many, many days. That means that horses outside need some sort of shelter where they can get dry, especially on days it's wet and cold. Almost all my horses go out of their stalls for at least 8 hours a day. Two have runs off of their stalls and quite a few of mine live outdoors all the time. This means that they have shelters that get cleaned regularily, but we still have to deal with mud.

So, what is the problem? The problem is space - I have 7 1/2 acres, of which most is in paddocks with shelters. That is all well and good, but right now we have about the maximum amount of horses here (17). The plan (!) had been to sell several over the last year, but that hasn't happened yet, so now I'm playing social director. I have to figure out who gets along with who, who is ok next to someone else and make sure everyone gets their share of food, water and shelter. Sounds easy, right? Well....some get along with just about anyone, they're pretty easy. I have a few others that have demonstrated, shall we say, less than stellar friendliness, over the past years. They get a paddock all to themselves. Then, there is the mare and foal and the stallion and ...you get the picture. It's a big jigsaw puzzle of opinions and personalities. Kind of fun really.

Just one more thing about having horses!