From this to that

Can you believe that this baby boy above--Foxy's son at 4 days old--

will turn into this, before we know it? This is Hawkeye. He is 4 (and for sale, by the way, if anyone needs a do anything sort of horse). Not a full brother to Foxy's baby boy ( as he is at the trainer) but a half brother, as Sly is the daddy of both. I realize this is a crappy picture with all that tape wadded up there, but he was standing so pretty in the corner where the temporary fence hooks into the regular fence line that I took the picture anyway.


This is Foxy's baby boy on the day he was born. I am posting this picture--which shows how rough Foxy looked on the day she foaled--last Wednesday--to illustrate a point. Someone commented in the comments on a previous post that she had often wondered about mares looking a little ribby after foaling, and I had explained that sometimes that happens when they just get a little sprung from carrying all that baby around in there. So this is my second "from This to That". You can also see how much babies can change in the space of a couple of days--they fill out and don't look so awkward.

Poor Scrawny Foxy on Wednesday. Not only is she ribby as hell, her butt is all caved in from foaling. You can kind of see that she still has a belly
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This is Foxy on Saturday. Three days after foaling, and two days after going outside of the barn get some exercise and some fresh air.

In case you think I am hiding something--here she is in a different view. Clearly this is not a mare who needs to gain weight--if anything she needs to lose 100 pounds or more.



This is Foxy on day 4 post-foaling. It gives you a better shot of her side, so you can see that she is not only not thin, but is pretty round. She could look better on her top line, and she will as she gets more exercise chasing baby around, and she is 15 years old, so not a really young horse.

When I was choosing photos to post, I had to cull out some cute ones of babies, because mama was in the background looking rough. I know that is normal--not every mare does it, but a lot do-- but not everyone knows that. So instead of hiding it, I decided to use it and explain it.

It also serves as a reminder that pictures are just a split second in time. They can make anything look good or bad but that does not mean that is reality--it just means that at that split second in time, that was happening. I think of the blogs where people are shredded on the basis of one picture, and while many times it is warranted, we cannot possibly know as much as we think we do from looking at one picture. Or even ten pictures. I hope this "From This to That" about Foxy demonstrates that. She went from looking like death warmed over to way too fat in the space of THREE days. Someone looking in from the outside could see the pics of her looking awful and think I was starving her. I know I am not. She knows I am not. God knows the elevator that sells me grain knows I am not. On the other hand, I can think of some people who would lecture me over her being too fat--and they are probably more accurate than anyone.

Perspective and context can change the whole story, can't it?

More interesting buildings

I kind of like church buildings. This is a Baptist sort of town, but we do have one Catholic church. It is actually across the street from the Appellate Court, which is why I happen to have this photo of it.

What is mostly tells me is that I have a common problem of twisting when I take the photos, so they keep coming out cattywampus