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.

Shiloh

There is absolutely no purpose for these pictures, other than that I took em and I like her.

She is so cute.

Shiloh shows her moves

Shiloh is a beautiful mover, such an even but powerful lope, and she handles herself so well. I think she gets that from her daddy, although her mother is no slouch in that department either.

She certainly takes after her mother in that I cannot get a civilized photo of her. Some of them are just that way--impossible to really catch the right way to show her accurately. For some reason, it is usually my prettier ones that are that way. Story of my life.
She is always throwing a silly act in there to keep things interesting. My favorite thing about this photo though is not Shiloh acting a squirrel--it is the background--see Grandpa back there? That is his version of a lope these days. He is a little rusty on that, but he is doing it and that was the sign I was looking for from him.
She finally slowed down--now if she had stood out in the open where I could have gotten a decent background, I might have had a not half bad shot. It is time to start thinking about registration pics and I thought I had one here, but she is hiding her white foot.


Guess I will have to do it again!

My annual twins pic

Every year I get one of these pics--I do not know that is what I am taking, it just ends up in my camera somehow. My very favorite one is of Gypsy and Nita when Gypsy was still nursing, it is still on the website.

It is uncanny to me that they are standing the same way, their tails are both blowing, their ears are exactly the same---

Gypsy gets mixed up

But this is not her baby. I doubt she has noticed, but that is a Aries' son, Reno.
I do not know what set her off but she kept doing laps around me, dragging babies with her, bucking and farting and kicking like a fruit loop---more than once I heard a horrible snap, and was sure she had made contact with one of the babies, but everyone came out of it sound.
She already has a round little tummy, even though she is only three months pregnant by now. Nursing is starting to draw her down, but I am going to let her keep her baby a few more weeks at least. I will probably do her and Aries at the same time, since their babies were born the same day. Shiloh is the more independent of the two so it will be interesting to see how that goes--you never know with the maiden mamas.
That is the right one--she must have realized she had them mixed up and took her own baby back.
I think that is her hiding behind Gypsy on this pass.


I love watching these two, and I guess I will never tire of trying to get a decent picture of her. It is sure a challenge though. Further complicating the matter is that with the Gator broken, it is too much trouble to go take pics in other pastures--so I will just keep snapping away at the same thing, I guess.

Do not let it be said I am not persistent

Even if it is only about some things. I am bound and determined to get decent pics of these dang babies to put on the website. They do not cooperate. Today it was not so much them as that there were weeds in the pics, and that makes me crazy. Crazy enough to bushhog for 2.5 hours, but not in the pasture where I was taking pics. I will get there tomorrow though, come hell or high water. Well not really high water as you cannot bushhog in the water so good, I learned that yesterday trying to do it just after a short shower.

Anyway, once again, I did not get what I wanted. I did however finally get a photo of Gypsy that is not hideous. For such a beautiful girl, this one cannot take a decent picture. And of course, it is not really suitable for using for anything but I may put it on the website anyway. People will wonder if it is the same horse as she is so sunbleached, but such is life in the midwest when you think your horses should live outside instead of in a barn.


Shiloh almost got some decent shots, but Gypsy's shadow messed them up---they are still cute though, because it looks like Gypsy really loves her baby

Shiloh

I know I can do better picture wise, but I have not even taken many baby shots since before we went on our trip--either too busy or too hot or too cranky or something has kept me from it. I tried to get a few the other nite when it was not miserable hot, but it got a little dark on me--so pretty much they are not very good.

Better than nothing though for when you need a baby fix. This is Miss Shiloh, Gypsy's baby, and the very first bay Slybaby that I have personally owned. Like her mother, Shiloh is a sweetheart who wants attention and loving from whoever will give it to her.

She is one of my favorites ever. Look at that pretty head!

Speaking of babies

Isn't Shiloh just about the classiest thing? She is such a little lady.

And clearly I need to go on a mission picking up stuff---leave it to one of mine to stand so pretty--right in front of some stinking net wrap

A rainbow!

Well it has been raining non-stop--so a rainbow is not out of the question. Since the sun won't come out, this will have to do.

Shiloh

This one is still my favorite. She did so good Saturday being left at home while Gypsy was gone for almost four hours.
When we got home, I turned them out on the hay field for some green grass and beautiful sunshine---she had a lot of fun. Echo was putting on the show of the day though so I got fewer pics of everyone else--not much variety to share is the result.
This one is funny because the grass is up over her chest-she was trotting right along with mama though--she must have thought the Gator was bringing dinner instead of the photog. That is usually the only time I get this much attention

She dances like Barry

I have never seen one carry on like Shiloh does--this kid has some moves. I could watch her forever, and I do and end up with hundreds of pics of her unique groove.
This one was my favorite of the day.

Looks like spring

I love this picture---wish the fence was not there, but I love that they have all four feet in the air and the purple tree in the background is in bloom

A virtual cornocopia of

This is my favorite picture I have taken in years--it reminds me very much of a photo I took of Gambler and one of Angel--who were both paternal siblings to Shiloh's mama Gypsy. I love this one just as much, isn't it great? She is three days old here, and look at that chest on her, and watch her get her legs under her. I will admit that the next thing that happened was she fell on her face--that is the wipeout photo I posted last nite. If you ignore that, this is pretty impressive though.




These posing photos are noteworthy, because this one is going Mach 2 all day long--I have never seen a baby with so much energy in my life. She runs and bucks, flings herself down and generally entertains herself almost every minute. With the exception of these few--I wonder if she has read some books on photo composition--she is almost just right in each of the not-moving shots.









These three are a series--which shows how fast she can go from loping along to getting a buck out, a rear up and starting the process all over again.


She is so much fun to watch.










Just when I think it is over and safe to turn the camera off because she is far away again, I see her practicing her posing. I love this picture---they both look just like Gypsy's dad, High Brow Hickory here. Other times, she is the spitting image of Gypsy's mama, Nita--even down to holding her tail funny like Nita does and seems to pass along often--I have seen lots of her grandbabies at shows that hold it funny like she does too.



This picture looks a lot like one I have on my website of Nita on the mares page--with a baby Gyspy looking just like this, standing next to her.

















When you go so fast and hard all the time, eventually you have to stop too--and from this pic it looks like she has that down too.

I could post 100 more pics of this kid, she is so fun to shoot and such a silly kid----

I did think of killng her dead this morning when she would not go with her mother to the pasture, but that anger is passing now that I look at all these pics. Good for her, if she only knew.


Just a few more--I cannot help it, so many of them turned out swell. This one is going to be a treat.

Two of my favorites

Another thing that is wrong with me is that I think it is hysterical when the babies wipe out--they go so hard and so fast and eventually happens--the best part is when I get it on the camera like I did these two. There is actually a series to the Shiloh one that I will follow up with eventually.