Playful kittens
Saturday, July 9th, 2011The kitties have a new toy so thought I would share some cute video of Carmel playing with it.
The kitties have a new toy so thought I would share some cute video of Carmel playing with it.
Cookie had a romance with Scotch Bar Man in June and we are happy to announce today’s ultrasound showed she is indeed in foal. So we will be expecting a large bundle of joy in mid-May of next year. Scotch has really nice conformation and a great temperament. He is also homozygous for black/tobiano so we are expecting a dark colored, colored foal. If you followed the story of Cookie losing her foal last year then raising a “foster son” for 6 months you will understand how happy, yet anxious we are about this new foal. We’ll keep you posted.
After two years and lots of patience one of our little foster mares, Spice, has been adopted along with another one of her acquaintances from Spirit Horse Equine Rescue, Copper. She arrived frightened of everything (including people), a scrawny youngster and left as a beautiful, outgoing, confident mare. I was so proud of her when she got right into the horse trailer to leave. We will really miss her but she has a great opportunity to help others as she is being adopted by someone who does Life Coaching and Equine Assisted Coaching. Her “sister” Sugar is still here and actually is doing just fine without her. Hopefully she’ll come out of her shell more as time goes on but she has always been more cautious/wary than Spice so she may end up being a “permanent foster” here.
Last night Gadget didn’t come into the barn when we were bringing the horses in for the night. Usually he will come running when I call as he and Beauty usually sleep in the barn at night. Beauty was hanging out in the barn but just seemed to be acting a little different so I went to look to see if he was locked in the garage as he sometimes goes in there when we pull one of the cars in or out. No Gadget but that wasn’t totally unusual but I felt a little uneasy for some reason. This a.m. when we went down to the barn there was still no sign of Gadget but Beauty was still just hanging around in the barn. My husband went to look around for him and found him in his bed in the milk house (we had a round bed in there that was heated and we could plug in for them in really cold weather). He was gone. I’m glad he didn’t suffer as there were no signs of any injury or trauma. He probably had a heart attack yesterday. He was about 12 years old and is survived by his sister Beauty who is missing him already. We did show him to her, the dogs, and the equines so they know he is gone. He is buried near the barn yard and agility area. Each time I go down to the barn I will be missing my “Gadge Man”. I thought we still had a few good years together.
RIP sweet Orange Man. You were loved and will be missed.
It’s been quite a summer having both a litter of puppies and a foal to watch grow up and become more independent. Foster has been here since May 3rd. He has been eating grain and hay on his own, drinking water from buckets and nursing less. He leads fairly well and stands for grooming and the farrier. Lately at times he and Cookie would even be a pasture apart from each other (but a gate opened in between) and they were fine not being right by each other. Foster also had become good friends with my gelding, Nick.
Seeing how he was getting more independent his owners felt it was time to wean him and take him back home. On Friday we loaded Cookie in their trailer and in a short time Foster jumped in with her and they were off to Foster’s owners’ farm. Cookie stayed there with him all weekend to help him with his transition and tonight she came back home, her job done. She didn’t have a problem leaving there but now she has been galloping all over our pastures whinnying and looking for him. Nick was calling for him (and probably Cookie) Friday night until quite late so Nick had to wean from Foster, too.
I know it will get better with time but right now we are all sad to have come to an end of life with Foster. Fortunately he is only 5 miles away and we can visit him. Plus through this experience we have made new friends. Maybe some day we will have a foal of our own to raise here. Thanks to Foster our experience with raising him has eased the pain of our loss of our own foal for both Cookie and ourselves and we’ve learned a lot.
If you hadn’t read the story about Foster the original post is here: http://dunnsmarshlabs.com/bbfarmblog/2010/05/foster-story-about-a-foal/
Sugar is gaining more confidence but still hasn’t had the halter actually fastened on her, I can slip it over her nose but that’s it so far. She is very bright and will take direction from me without being haltered including getting on the pedestal which is pretty amazing considering how fearful she was a year ago.
The best thing for them would be to go to a home with patience who does not put pressure on them. They can be separated and adopted separately (which actually might be best). They do fine with regular sized horses as well as with our mini donkeys so they could be a pasture mate for a lonesome horse.
They are very easy keepers. All they require is a thin flake of hay each evening right now and a few hours of pasture during the day (they cannot be on a rich pasture 24/7 as they could develop issues such as founder or colic besides getting too fat).
They are able to be stalled but they prefer being outside so we have a “dry lot” with a run in shed for them. Even in the winter last year they preferred being out there and only were in the barn in the most bitter weather. They would make a wonderful project for a 4H member.
They are available through Spirit Horse Equine Rescue but contact me if you have questions about them.
I gathered them up and took them in the house, put them in a box with a heating pad and hit the internet to look for help. I knew they needed someone with experience to take care of them. Fortunately I found a link to an emergency vet clinic that said they helped with wildlife rehab. They in turn gave me the number of the Four Lakes Wildlife Rehab Center which was open until 9 p.m. I rushed the baby bunnies in to town and got them to the center before it closed. They applied ointment to their burns but felt the bunnies would be okay. Their eyes were open and they were jumping around when touched. Hopefully the little guys will do fine and end up released back into the wild. Next time I burn anything I’m going to do a thorough check for nests under the weeds or brush!
Foster, the foal that our mare Cookie is fostering, will be 2 months old tomorrow! Cookie is doing a wonderful job mothering/raising him and he is huge now. When he first came to us he could literally walk right under Cookie’s belly. He is about 6 or 7 inches taller now.
Foster is like a clean slate waiting to be written on. He is very curious and has to taste almost anything that is in his environment. His owners come often and Foster has been introduced to many things over the last few weeks — having a halter put on and learning to be led around and walk nicely, having a towel draped and rubbed over him, having his feet picked up and cleaned, being brushed, moving away from pressure, doing a little circling, eating small amounts of grain, grass and hay, etc. He will be here until he is weaned. The timing will be whatever is best for him. IN the meantime we are really enjoying him.