Babies

I've been busy over the past couple years and not updating things on this blog. One of the reasons is the two babies born at the farm.

Last year's baby is Jet To The Moon. Born May 11, 2016

This year's baby doesn't have a name yet, but he's the foal of my favorite mare Hobo's Dream Girl.  Can you find all the crazy things in his spots? He's got a W on his butt as well as what I think is a turtle, and a Brontosaurus, and maybe a Heart. Keith thinks he sees a ghost face. 

The verdict is in

So we went for a vet check this morning with the Bug and got our verdict.  It turns out that the Bug is just really FAT. That means a diet and exercise. I'm slightly disappointed because it would be nice to have a foal around, but it also means that I don't have late night foal watch and sleepless nights. It would have been nice to have a Bugger Butt baby to carry on the lines, but then no baby means no filling out late stud reports or parentage verification tests to make sure he's really the father. Having a foal around would mean less time to ride the Bug and more time to get Dream Girl started. But not having a foal around means more time to ride the Bug and maybe even compete in a few events. I missed a local judged trail ride last weekend because I was holding up until the outcome of the vet check.

So now I'm off to buy corral panels at the truckload sale in Gallup and then come home and throw a saddle on the bug and head for the hills.

Bug Watch

Well I woke up this morning to find Bug jogging in her pen. She's extremely agitated this morning. She's been testing the fences to try and find a weak spot. She wants out of that pen now! She's been pacing and pawing and she even ignored her feed this morning. Last night she ate like she was starving to death and this morning she's barely touched any of her feed.  

I"m pretty sure this is not a colic because she's already pooped three times in a half hour period, she's not attempting to lay down and roll and she's not kicking at her belly, but she does keep looking backwards. 

I called in from work originally to tell them I'd be a little late hoping that she would settle down, well I had to call back and tell them I'm probably not coming in at all today.  She does not yet look like she's ready to foal, she's not fully bagged up and the tail head is not slack enough yet, but she's not stood still for more than 5 minutes since at least 6:30 this morning.  She's also been very vocal this morning nickering at me and all the other horses. There are a lot of things that are totally NOT normal behaviors this morning so here I sit at my door watching her pace her pen.

The Horse Shuffle

I called the vet on Monday and the soonest I can get The Bug in for an ultrasound is Friday. Based on the foaling calculator for a normal length pregnancy and the date that Booger Butt was gelded, Bug's first due date could be as soon as Thursday. So I had to do the horse shuffle last night after work. Topper is still NOT allowed to go back into the pasture where she's had so many injuries before. We still need to fix the fence down in the back corner where they neighbor horses have torn it up again. Roany hasn't had a chance to meet the rest of the pasture crew up close either, but she's buddies with Topper.  So the pasture is OUT for Roany and Topper. Topper and Roany got moved from their pens into the arena. The pens for Topper and Roany got reshuffled back into one big round pen and Ladybug got moved into that pen.  Since the round pen is right in front of the house and right outside the bathroom window, I can now keep a better eye on the Bug for just in case. Since she was hanging out in the pasture with Baby Girl and Booger Butt, I needed to bring her in closer to be able to see her instead of trying to find her in 6 acres with a lot of trees. It looks like Bug is happy to be alone for a while.

Since I don't know positively, BUT she LOOKS like she might be in foal, it never hurts to be prepared. Just looking at her, I"m fairly convinced that she's in foal.  Even though it wasn't planned, I do hope that the Bug really is in foal and that Booger Butt is the daddy.  I got to thinking about it last night and wondering what if I was lucky enough to have one more chance to have a foal to carry on the bloodlines from my old mare Big Mamma. So now here I sit, hoping for a pretty little filly.

Good Bye Big Mamma

Today we need to say good bye to "The Big Mamma". She's registered as Color Me Super, but  she's always been "The Big Mamma" to me. She's been a part of our family for quite a while and helped us start out in Mounted Shooting. It's hard to believe that a horse with only one eye would accept you shooting from her back on her blind side, but Big Mamma did just that.  

 At that time, Topper and Ladybug were still to young to ride, so our plan was to ride Big Mamma until the girls were old enough to start competing and then breed Big Mamma.  We did finally get to breed her and she gave us the beautiful Booger Butt.

Some time during the 5 months after Booger Butt was born Big Mamma must have fallen or stumbled and injured her knee. We didn't have her re-bred that year so that we could see how her knee was doing. Well unfortunately it has progressively gotten worse. Since she is now unable to maintain balance to stand on 3 legs to get her feet trimmed and she cannot walk much without difficulty, it's time to say good bye. So this afternoon about 5pm, the vet and the backhoe operator are scheduled to arrive and we will say our final good byes to a wonderful old mare. 

A dream girl comes home

That little filly I bought because of a nagging dream finally arrived at my house. The horse hauler unloaded her and we put her in her new pen to settle in. I go back down the hill with the horse hauler so that I can open the gate for him. When I walk back up the hill to the house, I see the baby girl standing beside Keith getting a good petting. Then she sees me, lifts her head and walks away from Keith toward me and whinnys as if to say, " Hi, I'm here!"

 

Baby girl here has so much in common with my old man Hobo. Over the last three years she's revealed more and more traits that do make me wonder sometimes. She has earned her name Hobo's Dream Girl and she was worth taking the risk of buying because of a dream.

Dreams and horses

Have you ever gone to bed at night and when you woke up you remembered a dream that just stuck with you for days or weeks on end? Have you ever had a dream that actually predicted some future event even partially? I have had several such dreams ever since I was in Junior High. I can remember dreaming about a camping trip that eventually took place a year later. I've dreamed about things like one of my friends getting into a car wreck and having a very similar even actually occur a few months later.


Have you ever purchased a horse based on on a dream?

As I posted yesterday, I had a very special horse who died. Well about a month after he died, I started having a very insistent dream. I see a field of green lined with large trees. In the field is a bay dun Appaloosa foal with minimal white markings. The foal was suppose to be a colt with a white star on the forehead and 4 generation all Appaloosa bloodline pedigree. This foal is supposed to be for me. In my dream, people are trying to sell me the foal or even just give him to me and telling me this foal carries a spirit that belongs to me. Basically the dream implies that this foal is the reincarnation of my old gelding Hobo. I tried to ignore this dream. I didn't actively search for any foals for sale. It just happened one day on a forum, a lady posted a foal for sale along with a few photos.






The first thing I thought was WOW that is the pasture I saw in my dreams! Then I thought no way, this just can't be the foal in my dreams because it's a filly and the white star is not there. But something kept nagging me. Something kept telling me to look past the differences. So I pulled up her pedigree and I was totally completely shocked! This filly had the 4 generation Appaloosa bloodline pedigree that kept being emphasized in my dream, but I couldn't figure out quite why until I saw the pedigree.

On her sire side was a horse named MISSOURI HOBO.  Then I looked at her dam side and found this PLAUDITS ANNABELLE. I just knew that this could not all be a coincidence. How many times to you run across a horse similar to what you have seen in a dream? Even more amazing, a horse that has YOUR name AND the name of your recently lost most favorite horse's name in the pedigree? Finally this filly was born just 3 days before the dreams started nagging my sleep.  I bought her almost right then and there.

The Army Years

October 1993, it was time for Shy Monster to be weaned and move on to a new life. At the time I was in the Army working as a veterinary technician at Ft. Huachuca, AZ. I made arrangements with the post stables to rent two stalls and then to head home and pick up my new mule and my gelding Hobo who had been leased out to a local riding instructor. Hobo I'm sure never was happy about being stuck with Shy Monster for the rest of his life. I'm also sure that since he was the longest running witness of Shy Monster's stunts, he had thousands more stories to tell. Below is Hobo as he looked when we went to pick him up from his lease.

Shy and Hobo both arrived at Ft. Huachuca quarantine area as required by the base regulations. and The monster became an immediate hit with all the equine lovers on post.  Since Hobo and the Monster had already had vaccinations before arriving, we didn't find out about Monster's aversion to vaccines for another year. When we did go to give her vaccinations the next year we quickly learned that even young mules can be quite adamant in their dislike of some things. Over the years it has taken on average three to 5 people to give this mule vaccinations. These demonstrations helped her develop the nickname "Monster".  Some where along the line over the years I've also discovered that Shy is allergic to certain brands of vaccine and I believe that a portion of her aggressive behavior at vaccination time has been the result of those reactions. So I've made a decision to not give her vaccinations every year any more. It's far less stress for all involved.

Not long after being released from quarantine and being introduced to the rest of the stable area, we learned more about Shy's attitude on life. First and foremost the word DIET is NOT in Shy Monster's vocabulary. She will eat ANYTHING and she will clean up her plate and make sure that no one else leaves anything behind either.  I got a call one day from a neighboring horse owner who asked me if I would trade stalls with my mule and my horse. When I asked why, she said, because that mule is eating my horses hay. OK So I'm thinking here how can that be when my mule stays in her own pen. Well  it turns out that Shy didn't keep herself completely in her pen.  I sat and watched her one day as she snatched mouthful after mouthful of hay from the neighboring horse. First she goes down on her front knees and then snakes her head underneath the bottom rail of the corral panels and stretches her head, neck and lips as far as they can reach to grab any tiny bit of left over morsels she could get.

Here is the Monster in her stall at Ft. Huachuca.

Despite the monster attitude on some things we did manage some nice times such as the Christmas Parade in Sierra Vista.

Or the 4th of July parade at Tombstone.

 The Monster's story will have to continue on another day because the stunts she pulled in 1996 deserves a full post to itself. 

A "Monster" is born

It happened on May 3, 1993. A pretty little black and white grade pinto pony mare had a baby who would grow up to become known as "Monster". The baby was planned so that long ears were to surprise to either the mare or her owner. The mare known as Daisy was almost big enough to be called a horse but not quite. Daisy had some other beautiful babies before the "Monster" was born and would have others after. The "Monster" however would make a great impression on those who saw her (well mainly me).

My mom was "Monster's" breeder. She owned Daisy and choose the jack that would complete this cross. From the moment I say this baby know known as "Monster" I knew she would be mine for along time. I mean how can you resist this? (Sorry some of these photos are fuzzy, they didn't scan well and are now quite old)






Now in 2010 this "Monster" has been hanging out in my pasture since she was weaned. And she has many more stories to tell about her life of harassing me. Stay Tuned for more of the life and times of "Monster Muley".