Catching up

It's been a while since I've posted anything, so I thought I'd summarize they past few months, and try to post more regularly in the future.

Never had been easier to handle since he got home from the trainer. He leads without being pushy, he picks up his feet without a fight, and I can brush him all over without him being touchy. He's pretty dominant out in the pasture, but I can't really do much until the thaw comes and I can put up new paddocks.

Alex is growing like a weed! At a few months shy of two years he's about as tall as his dam, though a little butt high at the moment. He's such a sweetheart, and leads and stands for the farrier with no problems. I've got his Pinto and Half-Arab registration papers ready to go, I've just been holding off until he's gelded (which should be soon).

Willow's Pinto registration application will be mailed this week, hopefully there won't be a problem with the two choices of name I came up with.

Hope had a pasture incident the other day that had her bleeding profusely from a cut just above her coronet band. When I first saw it her hoof was bright red and I thought she had cut her heel bulb through to the coronet band. I washed and wrapped it and gave her a little Bute and kept her on stall rest for a couple of days. After I unwrapped it, I saw it wasn't as bad as I thought, but I wrapped it again for protection and turned her out. That night, I removed the bandage and let the wound air out. She's doing well, a little sore but healing well. I'm hoping I'll be able to send her out for training this year, along with Faith and Willow.

The older horses are doing well, Sparky especially. She's doing so much better than last year, you wouldn't believe that it was the same horse! She's put weight back on, is more aligned in the hips, isn't laying down all the time, and has a zest for life that was missing last winter though to July.

Jul is 37 this year, and is bright and cheerful and has good teeth. Gem is 31, and doesn't have good teeth like his dam, but eats well anyway and acts like he's a teenager. Tassel is also 31, and seems to be feeling her years, but has a bit of spunk every once in a while. Heather is 30 and energetic, I'm hoping to lose some weight and head off to do some light trail riding with her.

Bahim is 26 this year, and has his issues, mostly with his teeth. He choked in October, and freaked me out. The vet came out and tubed him, and there was so much senior feed that came out. She then floated his teeth, and stated he has no real grinding surface anymore, they're plate smooth, so I have to really watch out for choke. He refuses to eat softened pellets, so he gets Purina Senior which seems to crumble better in his mouth. I have his feed pan close to the ground as well, and that seems to have helped.

Rho is in good weight, though he still needs to be sedated to trim his feet. I just don't know what happened, he used to be really good about it.

Fiesta the Wonder Hinny is doing well, plump and sassy. His hooves have been under control for a while not, no more long feet and rocking back on his heels. It took a while to get to this point, and I'm glad we finally did. He also stands for trims with almost no fussing!

All the others are fine, plump and fluffy and content to eat hay and play tag in the pasture. Hopefully I'll keep up with blogging this year, so my posts aren't always so long!

Foals

The vet left a while ago, and after sedating, palpating, and ultra-sounding we have the verdict: Hope and Zora are pregnant. *sigh*

I kinda thought Hope might be, as she's been acting moody and looking slightly round. I though Zora was pregnant a month ago, but then thought she wasn't because I thought I saw her in heat. I wasn't even going to have her checked, but I'm glad I did. Dr Esser thinks that Zora might have two weeks, but Hope may go a little longer. I'm going to keep a close eye on her anyway, as maiden mares can really fool you.

The total cost was about $415 for the trip out, the palpations and the Dormosedan, but it's worth it to know for sure who to watch. It looks like I may be going to Rolex by myself, as Jac doesn't trust Ken farther than she can throw him. *S*

Vet visit

Last May, Never (the 3yr old colt I had gelded in December) smashed his pasture gate and got in with the mares. I didn't think he covered anyone, but recently a couple of the mares are looking a little more round than usual. Considering the possible due date would be while I'm at Rolex, and the fact that one of the mares is 25 while the others are maiden mares, I thought it best to know for sure if they are or if I'm just paranoid.

I'm not totally sure which vet will be coming out, but it should be one of the two that I requested. Dr. Johnson is great, he talks to you and explains everything, and doesn't treat you like an idiot. Dr Esser is the new vet, and she seems nice enough, so I'm willing to give her a chance. She's the one that gelded Never, and she fielded my paranoid follow up phone questions with patience and grace. She also tracked down information on spaying mares for me, so she's got bonus points right there.

I'm not sure what result I'm hoping for at this point. I'm sort of half hoping that Emmy (Diadem Fa-Emerald) is pregnant. The plus side would be that she's purebred Arab, so the baby would be purebred. Emmy and Never's pedigrees are both heavy Crabbet and CMK, so that's a plus. And Emmy is the last of her bloodlines, a Royal Diamond granddaughter on her dam's side mixed with Babson and old Egyptian on her sire's side.

The minus side, of course, would be her age (25), and the fact that this would only be her second foal. Her first was born 4 years ago, and she didn't live long. We think she may have been a 'dummy' foal, but she may have had coat color dilution lethal, or lavender foal syndrome. I'm going to send some DNA samples in for a study, I hope it helps find a test like the one for SCID.

The other possibly pregnant mares that I'm having tested are Hope and Faith. Both are acting a little different, I haven't seen either in heat lately, and while Hope is a high percentage Pinto Arabian, Faith is a graying-out brown grade Quarter horse. Both have excellent conformation and any babies would be registrable as Half-Arabs. Problem is, I don't think I have enough room at the inn, so to speak. I have two possible foaling stalls, though if I got creative I could maybe have three. I'll definitely need to make separate pastures so no one gets bullied or chased, but I was going to do that anyway.

So, I don't know how this is going to go. I guess in the end, I'm just hoping for healthy, happy mares. If they have foals, I'll love them no matter what and I'm prepared to keep them forever if need be.