Breeding season is kicking off!

Or continuing as the case may be---I just got some paperwork on a mare that we bred last year that still needs her AQHA breeding number, since she is a TB. I call the AQHA to confirm it all and lo and behold, they cannot find the paperwork they are supposed to have. Imagine that. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with them only to be told they are behind. I guess they think this comes as some sort of shock to me---but at least they were nice about it.

That led me to reviewing the whole stud report from 2006 and fiddling with the order they display the entries. Now it is quite clear that I better get it together as the first two babies are both due on March 13---SOON! Oh my, that is soon, it feels like just yesterday I was delivering the 2006s.

I do love this time of year though, when it is getting close, and all the mamas are wandering around in the pastures with their bellies swinging to and fro---they look so cute. I need to get them all cleaned up and take photos of them in all their glory, but from the looks of things out there, the cleaning alone could be a month long procedure! Last nite I saw one by moonlite that I swore was a roan mare---and I don't HAVE a roan mare---turned out to just be dirt on a perfectly normal sorrel mare. Now that is filthy!

The vet comes tomorrow to do some teeth, draw blood for Coggins on a few babies that are on their way out, and look at Barry's mare to see why she has the perpetual rainrot/funk that we cannot get to go away.

I should probably call the farrier to get him scheduled for the last trim before foaling for the earliest mares---it is so hard to schedule them right before they get so fat it is uncomfortable to lift their feet up high but close enough to delivery that they dont need done immediately after foaling either.

AND- big news---I broke in the round pen last nite! Not for any real work, but I turned out the Fox for a little exercise while I cleaned her stall and fed, etc. She has been under the weather so she has been in the front barn for about a week. She did not enjoy the round pen playtime as much as I would have thought- she was far more worried about everyone else eating dinner, even though she has all the hay she can want full time, as well as special rations of feed more often than the others. They are just like little kids sometimes, thinking they are going to miss out on something!