Momma and Baby...

Boy  does it get busy busy when you have a baby to watch over at the barn! Life has been crazy. Work has been steady which means a solid 40 hours, no overtime, but no extra hours at home either. Momma and baby have been at the barn for two weeks now! Can't believe how fast time goes. Baby (who still remains nameless) is doing well. We had a little incident on Saturday and Sunday where she was a bit plugged up, but we got it all taken care of. It was scary Saturday morning to find her in pain and unsure of what to do. We now have the know how to take care of her if she gets plugged up again :) Our vet came out and gave us directions and left stuff with us! The good news is she seems to be getting better so she may still outgrow this and be a normal horse. I certainly hope so...I am getting attached to the little one. Speaking of getting attached here is the game plan for her. My vet wants us to start working with her on feet handling so she can trim her no later than weaning. Halter breaking is already happening, She is getting better at leading. In two months she will be weaned and will stay in the pasture across from the barn. She will be staying there so my trainer and I can work with her to get her ready to be sold. So baby will stay around all winter probably and will hopefully find a good home come spring. This of course is all contingent on if she can grow up and poop on her own without needing a special diet. Only time will tell. On to Momma. Momma does have a name, she is called Char. As stated before she is 16 and has been a brood mare her entire life. She is halter broke, but that is it. Char is now the barn horse. Her future was not with my vet as that was never the plan so my vet gave her to my trainer. My trainer told us she is the community horse as of now. Her future is still not certain. Maybe the people across the road where she is staying now will keep her as a buddy horse for theirs, maybe she will stay at my barn, maybe she will be given to someone else....Again only time will tell. Until then she will be a fun winter project. I haven't had the chance to work with a older horse that knows a very limited amount. Having the chance to work with all these different horses at different ages and very different stages of training will make me a much better horse person :)

Baby taking a  nap inside during our first very cold rain of the winter

Momma and baby

Char saying hello during dinner.

Baby the her first day in her new pasture

In other news...My herd is still doing wonderful! They are keeping me busy. I am trying to ride a min of 3 times a week with both Pixie and Jess. Then Navi gets lots of ground work also. Navi is still growing like a weed. She is getting huge! I still haven't done much more other than ground work because her joints are still growing and there is no reason to rush. I have plenty to do on the ground with her and plenty of under-saddle work to do with Pixie. Navi is turning into such a little ham, she meets me at the gate everyday and loves to come inside and get attention! I do not even use treats any more for our training with Navi, while she loves them, she loves attention and petting almost as much and will work for that as the reward. Pixie on the other hand will work okay for praise, but will offer me so much more if I up the reward to treats, lol. So she works for food :)

I cannot express how happy I am that summer is over! I have been loving the cooler temps. I get so much more done with the ponies!! However, fall and winter do bring some good winter storms that make me worry about the horses. This year I have the option of stalling mine when it gets really nasty out so that makes it easier.  In fact Jess now has a permanent stall inside for the winter nights. The girls will stay out most of the time with their blankets. I also brought Jess's extra blanket to the barn for Char. She is still under weight and might have a hard time maintaining weight this winter without  help. So we have a heavy weight blanket for her and we have been graining her daily. 

Hopefully I will have more pics and updates by weeks end!