Life's lessons: fold those long legs!

A few hours after birth...

This little gal was born shortly after midnight, and the above picture was taken a few hours later - after daylight. As you can see now that she is dry, she is not black/white but tri-color: bay (chestnut/sorrell with black on mane & tail) and white. She has a big, white patch on her nose, so Frank wants to call her: GOT MILK!

It's a girl!

After several sleepless nights on Foal Patrol, Red finally delivered a beautiful black/white spotted tobiano foal. Since it's almost 3:30 a.m., I'll post more later...

Weary of waiting...

Jose's Lucky Lady (Red) will be foaling soon. She is huge. She is tired. She is bored. She is very uncomfortable. She and I will both be happy when the little one (which surely isn't too little) is on the ground and nursing. Red's actual due date is June 17, but I don't see how she can go that long and am concerned by her increasing girth.

Hey, lemme outta here...

This is Lacy Blue, double registered Missouri Fox Trotter/Kentucky Mtn. Saddle Horse. She is currently confined to a stall so that her right front foot (another victim of barbed wire) can be doctored.

Breeding season

Note:  CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR AN ENLARGEMENT.
Now that he's pastured with the mares, Silver (stallion, in center) is calm & contented.  In fact, all three horses are best buddies & generally enjoy a blissful existence:  where one goes, they all go - sorta like The Three Musketeers.

Tornado Season

Spring brings many blessings, but also deadly storms.  The area just North of our farm was hit by F3 winds which left a swath of destruction in the form of twisted, broken, & uprooted trees, shingles & tin, in addition to the contents of barns & homes.  Fortunately no lives (including animals) were lost.

Last of shedding season...

With the advent of warmer weather, the horses began shedding - actually back in February/March.  While they are now pretty 'slick', they still enjoy a good scratch now & then, with the unfortunate consequence of pulling out their manes or tails.  

Happy Horses

After months of separation, Silver, the stallion, is finally allowed in with Missouri Showtime (barn name "Mo"), American Saddlebred in middle and Pushover's Heart of Gold (barn name "Push"), Tennessee Walking Horse.  Silver's and Mo's foal will be a registered Racking Horse and Silver's and Push's foal will be a double registered Tennessee Walking Horse and Racking Horse.  If it is spotted, it will also be registered as a Spotted Saddle Horse.  Silver is so happy to finally have his very own harem!

New cattle purchase

This is the new herd of cattle I purchased:  seven cow/calf pairs of Red Angus/Charolais mix. The cows are 4 years old (oldest is 5), & the calves are all out of a Charolais bull.  So far I have only been able to make a bit of money on cows, so they are supporting the horses.  This new group will be isolated from my existing herd for several weeks to insure there is no sickness (even though I had them all vaccinated & wormed at the sale barn).  This purchase will bring my cow count to 22, 1 bull, and 21 calves.

Ladies in Waiting

Gaited horses:  Lacey Blue, MFT mare on left, & Pushover's Heart of Gold, TWH mare on right, are next in line to visit Silver, the stallion. 

New foal on the way...

This is Tennessee Walking Horse mare, Jose's Lucky Lady.  As you can see, she is very pregnant.  This is quite the surprise as due to the collapse of the horse market, I didn't intend to breed any of the mares last year.  Obviously, some stallion had other ideas!  
Fortunately, I noticed her increasing girth and brought her to the barn to keep her off the fescue pasture.   It appears that she will definitely have milk  (one of the problems with fescue is lack of milk  &/or decreased production of colostrum), but I am concerned about her size. Another problem with fescue foals is their large size (resulting in difficult births) and thickened placentas which the foals are unable to break through and thus suffocate upon birth.   Retained placentas can also cause the mare to founder or lead to an infection resulting in difficult rebreeding.  I certainly wish I had known about her pregnancy earlier and could have taken her away from the fescue sooner.