One snuck in!

Surprise! I brought Hotrod in last nite around midnite, since she had looked a little weird during the day. I watched her off and on while I read a book by Jodi Picoult that has me half hysterical. That woman can write a book--this is "Handle with Care". That book kept me up til 3 am and I made myself go to bed because I had to get my hairs did at 11:30 a.m. Nothing was shaking in the camera stall.
Lorna woke me up around 9 am and told me there was a baby! She was not kidding either, and the baby was all dried up, had gone to the bathroom, the afterbirth was delivered--she must have come shortly after my last check for all that to have happened.

Barry came over around 11 am so we could do the medical stuff, and we took a couple of shots. I love this picture, I just wish I had not cut his head off
This baby girl does not have all of Hotrod's white trim, which is a first. I like white trim. I know she will be gorgeous though, as all of Hotrod and Sly's babies are stunning. This one just won't be as flashy, which is okay, a lot of people like solid red.
I don't know what her name is going to be either. Maybe Pebbles, to go with Bam Bam since they look a lot alike, but who knows.
For some reason, her little mouth cracks me up. Tomorrow, if I have some help, I will turn her out with the other new babies, and get some more photos.

Cash is on tap to foal next--I hope she does it soon. I am pretty excited about that one, I sure hope I do not sleep through it!

Stay tuned, things are getting interesting around here!

Big belly update

And this time I am not talking about mine. We already did that, didn't we?

This is Miss Melody. She is due on March 14, but last year she was a tricker and went two weeks early. If she does that again this year, she will spit forth her spawn this weekend. Of course, since I am expecting that, she will do no such thing. I am trying to trick her to hang on til it is a little warmer around here. I stopped over to feed her and check all the soon-to-be mamas this afternoon, and while she is not bagged up far enough for me to think she is going to foal soon, she is uncomfortable, so who knows.

I won't be finding out if something happens via the living room though as Barry did not get the foalcam set up yet and he is leaving in the morning. Nor did he get the horse trailer moved over there--for the first time ever, I am looking forward to staying there on the nights when I am watching multiple mares, because I will get to stay in the new fancy horse trailer!~

But it aint there yet, so that is not going to happen either. He swears he will do it this weekend---

That is a lot of karma running into each other for one situation, isnt it? Me sick and unable to be at the top of my game, Mel not showing signs, so not stalled, foalcam not up anyway, trailer not there for me to be on standby, but Barry leaving town for three days.....that ought to make the universe work extra hard to get things lined out.
Big Xan is due at the same time as Mel. She too went early last year--12 or 13 days, I cannot remember which. I am watching her ass too--but she is not even starting to bag up. I am not having her slide by me this year like she did last year though, no sirree Bob.

If those two trickers are not enough, Hotrod is also due at the same time as them! Sly was wearing himself flat out on these girls last year, knocking up four of them in the space of 24 hours (and no, he did not breed all four of them the same day--but they managed to ovulate within 24 hours of each other or so--I could not make that happen had I tried to).

These top three mares are my biggest girls size wise--and not just height, but girth as well. They are all also about the same age, and I know what to expect from them when they deliver. Absent any mal-positioned foal or other unforeseen complications, I do not worry about them very much. I do want to be there for them though, as I have seen so many births that it has become normal for me to see them rather than abnormal. I know how wonderful it is, and now that I have the good camera, I want to be on top of things.


This one gives me some pause. Baby Cash--I guess we should stop calling her that now that she is about to become a mother--is due on March 13. Since she is a maiden, there is no telling when she will go. And while I say she is "due" then, there is really no such thing as a due date for mares--let that be todays horse trivia. They are considered full term after 32o days, and normal terms are from then until 360. It is habit for me to fix their due date at 340 days, which is what a lot of people do, and to expect a baby around that time. Some never do that, for example Playmate who always foaled at 326 days even if she had to back up to you and birth it in your lap to get it done on time. She was like magic. Other horses are not so reliable, although many will make a pattern of going around a certain number of days. With mares who have never foaled, though, it is a crap shoot.

Cash conceived on April 8 last year. That is how I picked March 13 for her day. However, we have passed the 320 day mark, so if she foals anytime, it will likely be okay for the baby as far as being developed enough--some just do not have to cook as long as others. She is started to bag up, which is cute on her, since she is such a roly poly.

I wonder if she knows what is going on? Is she scared? Or excited? Last year, she stole Gypsy's baby from her right after it was born (another surprise a couple of days early with no warning), and was trying to take care of it--so I hope that carries over to her own baby. Horses are so weird, a maiden can do any fool thing like not have any interest in the baby, or hate it or be scared of it, or try to hurt it--so I dont want to miss this one under any circumstances. I have only had that happen once in all these years and that was one of our first babies, and I pray to God it never happens again, as we had to put the little baby down. I hate that.

On to other medical matters of interest besides the birthing of babies, Tequila is making it het job to lick herself into a bald oozing sore. She currently has these nice two lick granulomas or hot spots she is working on like it is her damn job. They are not nice. They ooze. I am not a fan of that. So she is back on prednisone and an abx for any infection it allows in. The pred makes her pee, which makes me glad I dont have the kind of illness that makes me queasy for sure.

She is a piece of work, but her back end was working pretty good today--enough that I saw her playing with Ratty boy and peeg today
Then I have the eye injury of unknown origin in Aries. She has somehow caused her right eye to swell shut--the lower lid is swollen pretty good, and it is almost all the way shut. She started eye with an ulcer treatment yesterday, just in case, but that takes a while. Eye injuries are weird. A little bute got the swelling down some tonight, enough that she fought the eye meds due to pain. Poor girl, I hate that for her. She is due in April, and I hate using a bute on one that close but it is not good to let her hurt either, so maybe a couple days of that will help her out.

I love that horse.
Yeah this is a pic of nothing--one that I focused on funny when trying to take shots of babies that will not get out of my way--it kind of turned out a little artsy though with the focus in the background rather than the fore.

I think my fever is making me loopy.

Shocking assault to their systems

I am not kidding when I tell you that we have had a hell of an ice storm since last nite and it is not over yet. In all the years I have had horses, I have never seen icicles hang off of so many of them like this.
This is what the babies' first ice storm is doing to them---look at that poor butt! That is not snow just lying on her, that is iced on and is hanging on for dear life.

This is baby Shiloh's back--she is completely covered in ice pellets.
She does not look very amused--look at all the ice chunks in her mane
She is still cute though.
This is the only smart one of the broodmares--Melody--she was at least standing in the barn to get out of the sleet. Evidently she had not been there all day, as she too had icicles hanging off of her.
Nita seems to have the most ice on her, but it is no wonder with all that area of her back hanging so low. There is plenty of room to catch ice on there!
This is Nita too--she has ice balls hanging from her tail and a chunk of tail hair was stuck to her butt.
Squeak appears to be pretty smart--she had a lot less ice on her. She has her own pen and turnout since she is blind, but there are some days when I swear she is faking it. In this pic, she is trying to get into the bucket of feed even though she was the only one that had already eaten. After this, while I was trying to take other pics, she went around the corner, and stuck her head under the fence and into a feed bucket that Lucky and Ammo were sharing--she took a few bites, and then she stole the bucket right under the fence. That would not be so odd for any other horse, but for one who supposedly cannot see the broad side of a barn, it is kind of interesting. She is also the most pleasant easy-going enjoyable horse I have ever known, so for her to pull a stunt like that cracked me up. Hell, I even let her keep it!

Xanadu was caked in ice. She was also not very amused by this whole deal. Not at all. She has 6 weeks until she is due to foal, as does Mel, Cash and someone else I cannot currently think of. Surprise crappy weather like this is why we do not breed for early babies--you never can tell what is going to happen--and can you imagine how miserable it would be to accidentally foal in this mess?

Miss Foxy is due in April I think. She needs to put on a little weight, I think, but she is doing okay for one who always struggles with her weight when in foal. She has the singularly most annoying habit I think--when she thinks she should be fed, she runs her teeth along something metal--like the corral panel that separates her pasture from Squeak's pen. I swear it makes my hair stand on end--she goes back and forth back and forth scraping her teeth on the metal. Creeps me right out. It is a good alarm though to tip me off to when she has not been fed her dinner, as I thought she had--she will not let me forget something like that.



This pic of Hotrod cracks me up--she is as pissed as I am about the weather.

If this keeps up, it will be a work at home day tomorrow-- I got stuck in my own driveway coming home tonight, and that is before the other 3-6 inches of snow arrive.

Photo day--I got nothing

I muse be losing my personality or my sense of humor or something--maybe it is the cold. But I do not have anything entertaining to post about--which is crazy as I have so many funny things that have happened lately. When that happens, I go back to pics---see how round Xanadu is getting? And how evidently her mane has been neglected- I swear I just worked that thing out not ten days ago and it already looks like dread locks again. I do like how healthy she is, you can even see those dapples through her winter coat.
Squiggy will be getting the cockleburr treatment this weekend, it appears to be past due.
She is more than a little fat. I know she is short and squat now but I know she will be a gorgeous mare--she is only about 18 months old so far. She will blossom next year, I am sure of it. I have never had a Diablo baby past weaning, so this will be my chance to see what they do with my own two eyes--I have obviously kept up with the others, but it is different to see their stages with your own eyes instead of someone else's pictures.
Hotrod is another one that is due in mid March. She is always pretty, but it was nice of her to pose for me as I was losing the light.
This is Fuzzy. She is 7 now I think. She is open for next year.
This is her with her yearling daughter--they have the same front ends, I have never noticed that before. They actually look a lot alike, I never noticed how strong the resemblance is between them.

This was the comedic relief of the evening--donkeys running crack me up. They are not very good at at, and their legs are so short that they have to move their legs really fast to get anywhere---they are kind of built like me. That is not a good thing.


Come to think of it, I run funny too.

For Missy---more twin pics

Missy mentioned earlier that Gizmo and Hotrod walked the same way in the photo I posted. This made me go back and look at a few more and see what they showed. A lot of them were that way, but this one was the most striking in their similarity.


From front to back, they are in the same position here---heads cocked funny with their noses to the left, but their necks stretched as well...ears not quite pinned but not up either....left foot barely ahead of the right one....resting their right rear leg and their tails blowing around or being held up.

That is downright freaky

Gizmo is getting big

She surprised me today when she was in with her mama, who was being ultrasounded. She is so tall for her age, and is such a pretty girl.

I should take more pictures of her, they grow up too fast.

Hotrod checked in foal 16 days--old reliable, she is a good mare

Hotrod Day

This was an all around Hotrod day. Not only did we get to go see Hotrod's oldest at the reining trainer, and see that he is doing so well I cannot stand it, but when we got home, she gave us a repeat performance. This one is a girl though-sorrel with a big star and the longest legs I have ever seen---so long it was kind of hard on her to even find the bar, she had to contort herself so much to get to it.


Of course, I have a jillion pics of each, but it is almost 2 am and the farrier is coming in the morning, so they will have to wait until I get a break tomorrow

Hotrod poses for the camera

Hotrod always manages to get herself at the right angle to look nice. If she was self-cleaning, it would be even better, but considering it is almost New Year's Eve, she could look a whole lot worse, I guess. She must be moving too fast in the running picture to see any mud on her!

A sweet family photo

or so you would think. This is Hotrod and Phoenix. And Hotrod is not the mama of Phoenix, but they look like they love each other huh? It is like one big commune out here. If it takes a village to raise one, I guess we have one!

Lorna took this pic during her visit yesterday. It was so hot out there, she is a glutton for punishment. There are a million more pics to do, will post more later