Spring foals

Chinchilla, a Caspian, and her foal. One of the best parts of Spring is observing all the new life entering the world. While a protective mother, Chinchilla is willing to share her foal with 'her people.'

Cull cows

I hauled 3 'cull' cows to the sale barn today. What an expensive lesson. One cow was a "Freemartin", which means that she is sterile.  Apparently when a cow has twins of each sex, then the bull twin will be fertile, but the female twin will be sterile. WHO KNEW? How does one go about acquiring such knowledge, other than by making mistakes? I bought this cow as a breeding heifer & have now put two and 1/2 years of feed, vaccines, etc. (expenses) into her only to find out that she is a freemartin & thus sterile.  Therefore, I had to sell her as a slaughter cow as opposed to a breeding cow - slaughter price being much lower. What a bummer!

More bonding

Hi-Ho, Silver!

April plays Parelli's Friendly Game with Silver, registered TWH, SSHBEA, NSHA, & Racking horse stallion.  Originally Silver was afraid of the whip (actually a stick with a string attached). But by flipping the string over his back, April has taught Silver to trust her and that even though the string is in motion and touching him all over his body, it is not going to hurt him. The fact that Silver is walking on a slack or lose lead rope shows that he is not trying to get away from April.  April praises Silver to let him know that he is doing the right thing.  Even though Silver is a stallion, he has a wonderful, gentle disposition.  His easy-going temperament and his trust in April allow him to actually enjoy being with her and participating in the 'games'.