Diablo's baby is here~

And we still do not know if he is going to make it. I took him to Coogan's Farm to foal, on the recommendation of my vet. A lot of people thought that was not necessary, but today's events proved it was almost prophetic.

Her foaling alarm went off at 2:40 a.m. last night and she had a textbook delivery by 2:55 a.m. His cord did snap early so his umbilicus had to be tied off, but that is no big deal. Judy thought he was lethargic, so after giving him plenty of time to act normal, she got in there and tried to stimulate him. When she manipulated him a little, his head and neck flopped over to the side, like it was broken. No matter what she did, his head fell over. It scared her to death, but not nearly as much as when he started seizing in a wild manner. She said she had never seen anything like that in her life---seizures, yes-this sort of behavior, no. He kicked his legs all crazy all over the place, and still could not control his head. He thrashed and thrashed and banged his head on the ground, and ran like crazy as he laid there. She said it was like he was making snow angels but super fast--straw flying everywhere.

The whole reason they were there is because they can handle virtually any emergency and are way closer to Dr Miles should they need him. They needed him. His emergency service rousted him out of bed, and his thought was that there was nothing they could do for him. Judy could not get me to wake up, so she made the decision that he would be given a feeding tube, and we would see what happened.

So doc came up, tranquilized baby boy, gave him some banamine, some dex for brain swelling, and put in a stomach feeding tube. He left meds to continue tranquing him in the event he started seizing again when it wore off. In his opinion though, there was no chance in hell he was going to survive--he thought he was approaching brain death

I finally heard the phone ring around 10 and hotfooted it down to Coogans, about 45 minutes away. I thought, from her description, that I was going to say goodbye and make the decision to let him go. I was so frustrated. Barry was right behind me in his truck, because he was supposed to go on to the Shawnee to go mountain biking.

When I got there, Judy came out of the barn and looked so serious, I knew it was over. But nope--he was still hanging in there. This was the scene that greeted me. He was under a blanket because he shook so much. That is vet wrap around his neck and nose, to hold his feeding tube in place. There is also some duct tape on his nostril so the tube could be sewn in. They had been milking Diablo and feeding him via the tube every hour since he was born. That is the only reason he was still alive. His little baby eyes were practically swollen shut from all the trauma.

Within minutes, he had rolled his little self up on his chest, and could hold his head up. Judy said he had not been able to do that yet. She was more than a little shocked.

It was feeding time, so that happened. That feeding tube sure makes life easier, and Diablo is a saint. She is such a heavy milker, it just takes seconds to get 8 ounces out of her and into him. He is surely eating better than if he was doing it himself.

After a couple of hours of this, where I laid in the stall with him and rubbed him all over under his blanket, he got stronger and stronger. He started responding more to stimuli, and even talked a little bit. It broke my heart. No one could believe it when he started trying to get up, but try he did. Just like a newborn baby, but he was 9 or 10 hours old.

Finally he DID IT! We helped him a couple of times, but finally he did it on his own! He does not move around a whole lot, but he can sure stand up. He seems confused by his legs, but not like he has neurological issues like we thought--just like a new baby. A little slow maybe, but he is doing it

The vet called while this was happening, and I swear he thought he had the wrong number when I told him baby boy was wobbling around the stall on all fours, just like a regular baby. I think you could have knocked him over with a feather.

I stayed until 2:3o and he was trying to learn to nurse, but had not gotten it down yet. There is a fine line there--you have to keep them fed every hour because they have no reserves, but then they are not as inspired to find the taps because they are not hungry. I was sure he would figure it out.

I had an update at 6:30. He had gotten up with assistance, and once on his own, but still does not nurse on his own. So no improvement there, but he is not going backwards either. I have to keep that in mind instead of being disappointed. It is not a foregone conclusion that he is going to make it yet,. but he has a fighting chance, and he did not have that 12 hours ago.

He would not have had a chance had he been here. It is only because of Dempsey and Judy that he is still with us. If working hard and wanting it is enough, he is going to pull through. Let's hope it is enough.

Breeding developments

So far so good!

We had our first preg- check yesterday morning--Diablo. She is now 21 days in foal to TR Dual Rey. YAYAYAYAYAY! I am so excited for this. Meanwhile, Diablo's son Young N High, who lives in Canada, became the father of his second child, out of Playboys Rondeevous, who is Melody's daughter and also lives in Canada. Big day in Diablo-world. For some reason, when we were ultrasounding her, she was shivering all over the whole time---then I realized it was only about 40 degrees and we were all shivering. This weather is weird.

Also yesterday, we checked up on Haida Girl and Cash, and oddly both had exactly the same 49 follicle, starting to lose shape, which means it is getting ready to let loose of the egg. I ordered some Kit Dual semen for HG and some Peppy Plays for Cash for Cash, and hoped they would hold on until this morning.

Off I went at 7:30 this morning, praying HG would not give me any trouble about getting in the trailer, but leaving her son at home. I should not have worried about her--she was perfect. I was very pleased with her.

We made it to the vet on time, and our first hangup was a missing can of semen. The shipping stallion station had failed to have the can held at the Fed Ex warehouse, so it was jaunting all over southern Illinois in a delivery truck. Usually that means it can be hours before it gets where we need it and it can mess up a whole. Fortunately, Fed Ex was on the ball and got it to the office in record time. It was there by 9:15.

The Kit Dual semen was good stuff---not all the way warm when we checked it, but still pretty active stuff. HG had a 51 follicle, so now we hold our breath that all these good circumstances result in a conception.

The Peppy Plays for Cash semen was excellent as always. Those little fellers were practically jumping off the microscope slide. Cash was down to a 46 follicle, but that is okay--it had changed shape so much that ovulation had to be imminent. Cross your fingers on that one too.

And on top of all that, I get to take the rest of the week off from the vet--I don't have to go back until Monday morning to see if Squeak is ready to be bred.

Meanwhile, Aries is getting pretty close to foaling. She has been waxed up for a while, but is not tonight. It could be any time. I sure hope it is by Thursday morning, since I have to leave town that late afternoon for work, etc, and won't be back until Saturday evening.

I love foaling season, but it sure is a lot more fun when it is not raining non-stop like it has been lately. Tomorrow is supposed to clear up and get close to 80 degrees--now that is prime baby watching weather.

Serious breeding dilemma

Well, for once my paranoia about Diablo turned out to be well-founded. She has lost her Laredo Blue baby.

And I cannot rebreed to him because he is in Brazil. That means I have to decide between two other studs I can replace him with and that make financial sense. But I have to decide ASAP. Like tonight, as she is ovulating on Saturday probably.

The following information is taken from Buffalo Ranch's webiste.

Choice #1: TR Dual Rey.

Details

• 2008 AQHA Freshman Sire of the Year!
• First foal crop had 5 NCHA Futurity Finalists in 2008! 2 in the Open
• 2003 NCHA Leading Money Earner
• 7 Time Champion or Reserve Champion
• HERDA N/N
• Oldest foals born in 2005

Career Stats

• 2002 NCHA Futurity Open Semi-Finalist
• 2003 Augusta Derby Open Finalist - 5th Place
• 2003 Memphis Derby Open Reserve CHAMPION
• 2003 Suncoast Winter Derby Open CHAMPION
• 2003 NCHA Super Stakes Derby Open Reserve CHAMPION
• 2003 NCHA Super Stakes Stallion Incentive CHAMPION
• 2003 Breeders Invitational Derby Open Finalist
• 2003 NCHA Derby Open Reserve CHAMPION
• 2003 Brazos Bash Derby Open Finalist
• 2003 Suncoast Derby Open Finalist - 6th Place
• 2003 PCCHA Derby Open Reserve CHAMPION
• 2003 Great American Open CHAMPION
• 2003 LEADING MONEY EARNER
• 2004 Abilene Classic Open Finalist - 5th Place
• 2004 Augusta Classic Open Finalist - 4th Place
• 2004 Western Horseman Cup Open Reserve CHAMPION
• 2004 Memphis Classic Open Finalist - 7th Place
• Retired to Stud in February of his 5-year old year sound and on top - His very special show career will only be surpassed by his even greater career as a Sire!

Choice #2-- Hydrive Cat

Details

• 2007 NCHA Futurity Open CHAMPION Stallion
• CHAMPION Stallion 10 Times in his first 21 Major Aged Event Finals
• Simply a MASTERPIECE: Genetic - Performance - Conformation - Heart - Mind
• Not only is he the best PERFORMING stallion of his generation, but is also the best Bred one
• “From the very beginning I knew Hydrive Cat was special. I have been around a lot of great horses, but none have proven to me to be as consistent, athletic, cow smart, or more talented. He is equally as awesome to look at without a saddle on as he is in the show pen with one on. He is of the utmost quality in every imaginable way!” - Hall of Fame Trainer Clint Allen
• Dam LTE $218,916 - 6 Aged Event CHAMPIONSHIPS - 27-Time Aged Event Finalist - Produce Earnings to date of over $850,000
• 2nd Dam the great Playsboy Ruby #2 All Time Leading Broodmare of over $1.6 Million
• HERDA N/N
• EVA Negative
• First foals arrived in 2009

Career Stats

• 2006 NCHA Futurity Open Reserve CHAMPION - CHAMPION Stallion
• 2007 Abilene Derby Open Finalist - 3rd Place
• 2007 Memphis Derby Open Reserve CHAMPION - CHAMPION Stallion
• 2007 Bonanza Derby Open Finalist
• 2007 NCHA Super Stakes Derby Open Semi-Finalist
• 2007 Cotton Stakes Derby Open Finalist
• 2007 Breeders Invitational Derby Open Finalist - 10th Place
• 2007 NCHA Derby Open Semi-Finalist
• 2007 West Texas Derby Open Reserve CHAMPION - CHAMPION Stallion
• 2007 Music City Derby Open Finalist - 4th Place - CHAMPION Stallion
• 2007 Brazos Bash Derby Open Finalist - 4th Place
• 2007 South Point Futurity Open Derby Finalist - 3rd Place - CHAMPION Stallion
• 2007 PCCHA Cutting Stakes Open CHAMPION
• 2007 UCHA Derby Open CHAMPION
• 2008 Abilene Classic Open Finalist
• 2008 Western Horseman Cup Open Finalist - 6th Place
• 2008 Tunica Classic Open Finalist
• 2008 NCHA Super Stakes Classic Open Finalist - 9th Place
• 2008 NCHA Summer Spectacular Classic Open Finalist - 4th Place - CHAMPION Stallion
• 2008 Music City Classic Open Finalist - 7th Place
• 2008 Brazos Bash Classic Non Pro Finalist
• 2008 Brazos Bash Classic Non Pro Ltd Reserve CHAMPION
• 2008 South Point Classic Open Finalist
• 2008 South Point Classic Non Pro Ltd CHAMPION
• 2008 South Point Classic Non Pro Finalist - 5th Place

So what would you do?

A matched set

Diablo and the Demon Cat--previously known as Bubbles-- have been reunited. Not hard to tell they are a mother and daughter, is it? Diablo is covered in mud, as is her preferred condition, and the Demon looks like she is, but on her, it is really white hairs.

I wonder if they or I am more ready for spring.

Baby bubbles is gonna have a sibling

Baby Bubbles is going to have a brother or sister! This is Diablo's baby girl, Bubbles, who finally got a name. We had such a good experience breeding to Buffalo Ranch's stallions last year that I wanted to do it again this year. I stepped it up a notch and chose Laredo Blue.

If you are paying attention this year-- and I am not even sure I am, so I can hardly blame you for losing track of all this--you know things did not go as easily as they should have in the breeding shed for us. Diablo foaled in May, and we passed her foal heat but she had an excellent breeding while we were in Bonaire. All systems were operating beautifully--but it was a big ol bust. No pregnancy. Then she struggled getting herself another follicle, and it took enough time to get her ready to roll that I was sure she was not going to get the job done before breeding season ended. Luckly she got it together at the tail end of June, and we bred her again.

We were a little delayed preg-checking her, but on July 17, she checked 22 days in foal with a perfect little wiggle, heart beating away already. That puts her due at the very tail end or first couple days of June. Then we will give her a year off to back up her potential foaling dates.
I absolutely love this horse. I loved him before I really knew who he was, he just looks like a man to me. When I first saw his breeding, I laughed--because it just goes to show how predictable I am. I cannot say he will bring a lot of diversity to the program here--Haidas Little Pep and Doc Wilson are already pretty well represented in our herd. I do not care, I think he is gorgeous.
His record is not too shabby either. He won over $300K, and damn near won the Non-Pro Triple Crown, but took reserve in the Derby instead of winning it.
His first foals show this fall, and God willing, they will turn out to be as good as I think they will be. We will have a hot commodity on our hands then--so cross your fingers that all goes well, and she has a healthy athletic baby.
It is going to be a long foaling season next year, with the babies fewer and further between. We are expecting only four, starting in early April and running through June. That will be a different experience. We have two re-breeds to use nexy year--one to Peppy Plays for Cash and one to Snorty Lena, so that leaves us a lot of decisions to make.

For the time being though, I am going to enjoy the anticipation of what wonderful foals will be showing up in 2010.

Scenes from a Spring Sunday

China's first turnout was Sunday afternoon. Look at that precious little face, could she be cuter?
Babies are so funny, they can go from zero to 60 in a heartbeat. Cash was very protective of her for her time out--she tried to keep her in the corner so no one could look at her.
But that was kind of pointless. There is no coralling a new baby who is figuring out how fast her legs can go.
Cash can chase with the best of them though--she was right on her tail as I got the second shot off.

I will have more pics of them soon. While she was out for her turnout, we discovered that she had some gastrointestinal issues of the sort that means something--not normal funny baby poop. That has had me on edge, the vet on consult and the fighting commencing to medicate her. Babies can turn from healthy healthy like she obviously is, to the verge of death in the matter of an hour, but it is also a very bad idea to use antibiotics when they are not warranted. While I could tell anyone else what to do in the same situation, I rely so much on Dr M to tell me when and how to start a particular treatment, because I know I am paranoid and looking for problems that may not be there. He told me exactly what I knew he would and I think I may have it under control. I so hope I am not jinxing anything by saying it out loud. She is still nursing and still feels good, so cross your fingers that we have avoided a potential disaster.
Also on Sunday, I fetched horses out of the back pasture that need to be up off of the fescue grass that is popping up--that was Diablo and Snap. It did not take D long to find someone to boss around, and I thought this pic was funny as it shows their pregnant bellies. Diablo on the left is due May 15--Gypsy on the right is due April 14. She is way bigger in real life than this photo shows.
I knew D would win that stand off--they looked like two studs posturing at each other. It was just a matter of time til one of them cracked.
This is Voodoo, he is supposed to go to training any day. However, in fetching him from the back pasture, it became apparent to me that the new hay SUCKS. They have been on it about three weeks and they all look terrible. This tends to happen as the new grass is springing up, but normally our hay is so good that they maintain better than this. OK, they stay fat. Our horses are always fat unless there is a reason like they are 150. But Voodoo here has lost his butt, a bunch of width in his chest--he just does not look good. In fact, Phoenix, the two year old filly that is the spitting image of him, has been in a different pasture for the last month, eating different stuff, and she has passed him in size, hands down. Voodoo is normally pretty thick, so this broke my heart.

I know we will get them all back in shape, and I knew it was bound to happen eventually--that we would end up with hay that does not do what it should--but it still makes me feel terrible.
On a good note, look at Tango's leg---the healing is amazing. You can see where the new baby fine hair is growing in--none of that skin was there even two weeks ago. The open area over her knee was as big as the palm of my hand, and now we have just a bit of scabbing, no swelling, not proud flesh to speak of--it looks really good. And she has still never been off on it at all. We must have some sort of special healing vibes around our place for these weird ugly should-be-catastrophic injuries, as they have all turned out so well over the years.

So that was part of my day yesterday, a sunny afternoon, good sun for pics, good things to take pics of and only the one crappy matter of the hay causing the horses to not look so good. Of course, that is the one thing I am obsessing about.

I should be able to get China back out in a few days as soon as I know she is going to be all right, so I can get some more pics. She is absolutely darling. Full of piss and vinegar, but darling

Diablo gets svelte

Recall recently that I was concerned Diablo had slipped her fancy baby as she was much leaner than she ever is. I had her checked and she is still in foal, thank you baby Jesus.
But this is what Diablo looks like ....never. Even post foaling, weeks after foaling, time to wean...Diablo is just a big girl. Well as big as you can be when you are just hitting 14 hands. She really might be as tall as she is wide, normally. Her belly is usually in the way of even simple things like trimming her feet--which gets dang near impossible once she hits about eight months in foal. This is really really svelte for her.
She is not even really sticking out on the sides. Isn't that just as pretty a chest as you could ask for? On a horse, people. They have totally different standards than people. This is a good 'un--take my word for it.
Isn't that a pretty face she has? That is a yearling halter she is wearing as well--I won it in a photo contest and did the smartest thing I ever did--asked if I could NOT get the horse size as it won't fit on any one here.

There is some belly in this one, but nothing like normal.
She is a gorgeous mare too, isn't she? Her yearling Squiggy is looking more and more like her every day too. She will make someone a great prospect.
Where do broodmare's forelocks go? I guess they come out in cockleburrs, as almost none of them have them anymore. An odd phenomenon, that one.
I just love this shot--I wish the trees had covered the whole background--but you take what you can get.

After we got done with these shots, we took her to the back hay field, and rustled Ammo from the middle pasture so that they would not be able to access each other. It took a while, since it was dark. I put her in the pen with Grandpa, to hang with him until he was done eating--but what did I find when I got back? Ammo took down a board and disappeared--back to the middle pasture where she came from.

Now she thinks Playmate is her mother. I guess if she can nurse from a mare whose youngest foal is 4 years old, more power to her---I think she just has a crush on Play.

I give up, she can be wherever she wants to be

Potential problem?

Lookie here and weigh in on this. Diablo was bred June 1, and checked in foal on June 18 or so, looking good. She weaned her baby a while back, and if you recall, she got unweaned and hurt herself in the process. Diablo was brought back in with her, and they stayed together about 10 days. Thursday, Ammo was weaned again.

When Diablo came in that last time, she was her regular fat self. She always has a monster belly, no matter her condition. I noticed she did not look so big while she was in with Ammo. I REALLY noticed it tonight.

She should be four and a half months in foal to Highlight Cat. This is certainly not a baby I want to give up, and I would be heartbroken to find she had slipped this foal.
What does that abdomen look like to you? In comparison to her normal self, she is much smaller than usual, which is a little odd as she stayed fatter than usual during the whole nursing thing. She always maintains a belly, but will sometime show a shadow of a rib at the top of her barrel, as the baby wears her down. That did not happen this year, she maintained herself better than ever.

I cannot stand these anxieties, I guess we will be up for some palpation Saturday morning.

Add that to the list. I might as well have Fuzzy checked too as I think she is foal despite a negative ultrasound.

Jailbreak...or it was bound to happen

I got to the farm after work, scraped the last of the Strategy from its house, whistled a little ditty and skipped down the aisleway like the happy go lucky gal I am, to feed my little weanling babies in their stalls. Stall 1 was happy to see me, and no wonder since that baby boy Uno is by himself.

Stall 2 was happy to see me as they really like food. Stall 3--hey ! What the hell? Lookie here--there is no front on this stall. These are two inch thick oak boards. Most are knocked down, and some are split slap in half. It looks like a tornado went through it. I started to panic, thinking baby Disco must be hurt.
I looked closer and saw that not only was the entire front of the stall to the left of the door destroyed (the right side is blocked by a big hay bale holder), but the corral panel that Barry had put in there to serve as a better barrier so that she did not wiggle over the wall of the stall like she did on the first nite, was completely folded over at the top. The entire top rail was bent down.
And no baby. Not a one in there. I looked all around the interior of the property and found nada, nor did I find torn up gates, or anything that would give me a hint where she went. So I loaded up my Gator and headed out to the pasture to find her---I assumed she was in the hay field in the back with her mother Gyro. As you can see by this photo, I found her. Only she is not Disco. Never was Disco. It was Ammo causing all this trouble, and she had found her mother Diablo. And look how HUGE she is.
We brought them in and that is when I saw that Ammo was limping. It is no wonder considering how much damage she did in the stall, I was just surprised that it had not occurred to me to worry about that until I saw her. That is not like me. She loped after her mother very willingly, so it is not killing her, but eventually she picked it up and did not use it to put weight on at all. She is pretty well swollen, and has a little dried blood on the inside, but it does not look deep at all.

These children are killing me. I knew weaning would not go without incident this time-it never does, but we were SO CLOSE to being done with it.

So both Ammo and her mama are back in for the evening, and we will separate them again tomorrow and if the swelling is still there after her first treatment, we will wrap her up and get her lined out. Poor baby.

Edited to add: I forgot to tell you the best part. I stepped on one of those damn boards, whose nails were sticking up and buried a nail half an inch into my foot. I am ignoring it.

Fall must really be here

I noticed it when I was at the farm this evening, but did not see how much the trees were changing until I downloaded these photos. I thought this was a cool shot, because even though my goal was to focus on Xan in the middle, to see if I could get bokeh on the one in front and the one in back (which clearly did not happen), the way they lined up a little off kilter came out sorta cool. I am bound and determined to take photos from different perspectives, and I guess today is butt day. Bear with me, if I was creative, I would not be a lawyer, people. Give a sister a break just for trying.

Gyro in the front is darkening up because her winter coat has started to come in, in her barrel area. Xan is mostly fattening up, but is getting darker as well. Diablo has not changed a bit, she always has the most beautiful coppery sheen to her coat. She and Gyro better be loving their babies as they are losing them on Tuesday--Gyro for sure is, and since Diablo's baby is dang near as big as she is, she is on the block too. I may get crazy and wean all four of the last babies at once.


Nita's coat must be coming in as she is black as night, except on her butt. Heck, I am just glad she has a butt since as you know, she did not have much going on at all a month ago. I just cannot get over it.

Look how pretty the tree line looks behind her-the contrast of her coat against the changing leaves is so pretty.





Looking at these pics of my girls would make you think I am a color breeder. I am so not. In fact, Xan and Nita are my only non-red mares of all of them, they just happen to be in the same field for no good reason( Xan is an interloper who will not leave as she knows the feed is flowing in the pasture and not in the one her fat ass should be in).

I hate it that the changing leaves means I really DO have to close my pool as I will not be getting back in it, but they sure are pretty.

Signs signs everywhere signs--of recovery

One of my pastures got all jumbled up when we were gone one weekend, so I ended up with three mama/baby pairs in with the very old/skinny mares that were on their tryout to stay on the top side of Earth. Since it was no big deal, really, as they were all eating the same thing in the same amount, and because we were so busy, they have stayed there. I have been so busy, I have not been there at picture taking time--since Barry is out of town, I now have no choice and that led to some great discoveries.Diablo is fat as a tick--which is her normal state, but usually by weaning time, she is showing a touch of rib. Not this year--look at that insanity! She is about 3.5 months in foal to Highlight Cat.
Gyro is just one big sister. BIG sister. She is not in foal, I am saving her back as part of the cutting down on breeding plan and because I love riding her so much, I want her back. The condition she is in, I will have to put two girth straps together to get around her.


This is the exciting part for me though. I agonize over my old mares every year, but never so much as I have this year. This is the first year that good pasture did not fatten them up and keep them there. Three weeks or so ago, maybe a month, I was ready to make the decision to put down Lucky, Nita and potentially Playmate--and that last one was just killing me, as she is still a hell of a ride. Her weight issues scared me and I thought maybe she was just done at 27. After all, you cannot slap a saddle on one with their spine sticking out. I decided to try one last thing and if they rallied, I would know they were in and wanted to keep living.

I am so superstitious, I am a believer in signs, and karma, and waiting for God to tell me what to do. It is normally so easy to know the right thing. This decision was not easy, and not because I did not want to put them down. I did not WANT to of course, but I CAN do it if I know it is the right thing. And when I do it, it is okay, as I know I have given them relief. It is rare for me to just not know which way to turn. And I really did not know what to do with these three--every time I would think I knew, something would change my mind---literally from day to day.

In the photo above, that is Diablo on the left, Playmate in the middle and Lucky on the right. Lucky is still too thin, but she looks good for her, and Play is borderline FAT!

Look at that belly sticking out on either side. You can see a little bit of bone at her pelvis, but not anywhere else. Now granted, standing near Gyro the Gynormous does not make her look so filled out, but she really is.
Is that amazing or what? Just look at her. She could go work a cow in a heartbeat if we would let her (and maybe I will).

Even Nita has come back amazingly well. For those who are not used to seeing her, she is one swaybacked sister-yes, I know that--having a kajillion babies will do that to you. She had two for me, her youngest is 6 years old, Gypsy. She produced cutter after cutter and now even her granddaughters are doing the same thing. Nita is 27 now.

A month ago, I swear to you, I could see every bone in her body, but she still had a belly. I wanted to cry when I looked at her. It seemed to happen over night, but of course it did not--I just refused to see it, I think. These old ladies mean so much to me, it is hard to explain how I see them as they were, and not necessarily as they are right this minute.
I hesitated to post the side shot, as it shows her back in all its glory, but hey- this is who she is. And it shows how much weight she has put on
This photo sucks, but it shows how even her chest has come back--and it was almost non- existent a month ago.

Maybe that stupid coyote was there so I would track him with the camera, and have to walk back--giving me time to actually see what they are looking like instead of zooming bye on the Gator dumping grain as I do, in too big of a hurry to appreciate it. Maybe all the rain we got this year that made such a difference lately to our grass production was to sent to help me see what happens when you do not make rash decisions.

What a batch of nice signs I got tonight

High Brow Desperado

The current owners of Diablo's oldest son sent me a photo to put on my blog. This is the 4 year old that is now being shown in NRCHA events. They call him Dezy

I am so proud of him, and glad to see that pretty face of his.

An excellent development

I was hunting some info today and ran across news of Diablo's first baby (a 2004 stallion), who we called Magnum. His real name is High Brow Desperado, and he now lives in Colorado.

Darren Miller is riding him in NRCHA events, and he recently took reserve in the Open Derby at the Blue Sky Firecracker Derby.

Isn't that great?

I emailed his owners and hope to hear back from them, I would love to post a photo of him on here to show him off but I am not about to poach one from their site. You can see him there at
http://heppnerranch.com/dezy.inc.php

I am SO proud of him, and thrilled to report that Diablo is a producer with her first foal, that is pretty impressive and does not happen every day. Since he is still so young, I expect great things from him in the future.

Congrats to his new owners!

This weeks assignment

Is headstudies--and I am not sure I get the difference between that and a head shot other than it can include more of the neck and even chest, and does not have to follow all the halter rules. It can be more creative. That would be swell if I had any creative anything in my body.

In any event, this is Ammo--Diablo's kid. Like all of her babies, she is so pretty and grabs your attention right off. She came in today during the trimming marathon because I noticed she had a wierd ouchy on her left front fetlock joint--first it looked like a little rip, but when I looked at it later, there was real blood. I wonder if she did it earlier, and just opened it up while I was there. So she had to be addressed and since I had them in, I took the clippers to Diablo and took them out front to be my models for some of the assignment.

I love this top shot and the bottom shot though--even if they are not creative.

This one has nothing to do with class, but I took it so here it is.
This one is cool huh? This qualifies as the multiple horse shot part of the assignment. It is not perfect by a long shot, but I love it anyway. It is cool how they are both so alert even though they are looking different directions

I did do some things wrong-- I will not put baby oil on a horses face in the dead of summer, just for me to take a pic of the horse. Stupid. At least I did trim her up so the whiskers were not distracting, and put a good leather halter on her instead of the rope one I drag her around with. I also took the photo around 1 pm--as that is when I was available to do it. How nice it would be to have the luxury of doing it when the light was right, and with help to get the horses ready--instead I was a sweaty mess, with an allergic reaction to grass from kneeling in it so much, and I got worn out after a couple models.

It is a start though--the pics are getting better, but more than anything, I am really learning how to use my camera--the more I do it, the more changing the settings is becoming second nature.