30 November 2007

Believe it or not the first two pictures above are of Taxes (7 months old!!!!) taken a few days ago. Snap shots I am afraid, it has been cold and windy the past few days and wet the days before so they arent too crazy about getting outside. The second one his head looks a bit big because of the wider angle lens I used as I was quite close to him. He is still a brat and I am still threatening to tie a road map to his neck and send him down I70 in Mike's direction!!!!!! LOL
This shot is from yesterday evening. The three boys were having a rough and tumble in the new enclosure and were running around the outside of what is left of the roundpen and jumping up on each other mock fighting.

Our helper has been coming over all week and he and Larry have been getting all the stuff fixed in the barns. It sure has helped me as I have been able to concentrate on cleaning stables and getting ready for the horses to all be spending more time inside.

Nothing too exciting to report from this end of the world except that it has been really cold and windy the past two days. I can handle the cold but when it is windy too it is dreadful LOL.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. (((((Hugs)))))) and welcome to my new blog visitors.

Lori
xx

27 November 2007

I always find it hard at this time of the year to keep motivated especially when the dull weather, short days and cold really set in, so I have been absent for a while but am back for the moment LOL.

On one of my regular blogging buddies' blog, MiKaels Mania (the link is on the right side in my favorites), we have been discussing submissive behaviour and different responses in horses and two of them have been what some of us call "foal mouth" which is when the foal stretches its head and neck out towards an older horse, pulls the corners of its mouth and tongue back and makes a sort of chewing motion. The other is called the Flehmen Response, which is a response to a smell that I horse may encounter which causes them to curl their top lip up, one explanation is that doing this heightens their ability to smell whatever it is that has caught their attention.

Here are two pictures of these things happening. The first one is of Eb doing the foal mouth thing with Wiggle when he was still a baby, and the other is of Blue when he found something interesting to smell out in the pasture after the mares had been there before him LOL.

Not much happening, just getting through each day one at a time at the moment. Yesterday was dreadful, cold, gray and wet, we had another inch of rain. Taxes is not feeling well today, I am not sure if it is him going down with something or just depression. Yes horses do get depressed and with the weather and them being inside more because of it they feel down and go off their food. I am hoping that it is just that because I will take him out for a walk tomorrow and that will hopefully perk him up, but if he is getting ill that is a whole other ball game.

Not many photo ops the past week or so with the mud and cold. Hope you are all well. ((((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

23 November 2007

Huggy Cat on the new fence

L-R : Wiggle, Cayenne, Lori, BB & Girl Sonny

Cayenne, Wiggle and BB (these three were born the same year)

Dee and Dawn, two of the yearling fillies.

After a couple of very soggy days and a pretty cold one yesterday, dank and dreary, we had a beautiful day filled with mostly sunshine today, with some periods of cloudy weather but in general it was cold but pleasant.



I fed the starving masses and then put them out in the fields and they were very happy to be out in the fresh air. The one new spicket (water hydrant) that I had replaced in the main barn had started leaking during the night and I got into a barn under water this morning, just what I needed with the cold and no chance of it drying very easily. I baled water, threw down sawdust to soak up the remaining water and managed to make an adjustment to the faucet which seems to have solved the problem, we will see tomorrow morning!!!! I also managed to get five stables cleaned and filled with sawdust, will get the remaining 8 tomorrow. We also had some snow last night so there was a nice dusting on the ground this morning, makes everything look so clean until it melts and turns to mud LOL.



The pictures today are a few that I took this morning, had to get the kitty one in for Catblogging Friday. This is Huggy Cat on the new fence next to the electric tape. Good thing he didnt zap himself. Muddy horses LOL I love muddy horses.

Hope you all have a great weekend and are recovering from Thanksgiving dinners. ((((Hugs)))) to you all.

Lori
xx

22 November 2007

Happy Turkey Day!!!! This is not a traditional holiday where I come from but is a big thing here in the USA and after eating yourself to death on Thanksgiving Day all the big stores have huge sales starting at sometimes 5am the next morning which are attended by thousands. I, personally, give them a miss, I am not a morning person and certainly cant justify getting up that early in the morning in the cold (it is going to be in the low 20s tonight, had a bit of snow this evening) to do battle with the crowds LOL.

Larry and I had a quiet day, his sister joined us for lunch and I made a small Turkey breast (6 lbs LOL) and some vegies and salads and an apple pie and we had a nice lunch and then I made the mistake of laying down and that was the end of the day!!! Nice to relax even though I still had to feed horses, and we didnt get any help from the Home Health Agency today so I gave Larry his quick bath and got him up. I think this is only the second Thanksgiving that he has been able to get up for in the past 6 and a half years, so it was nice to be able to sit at a table and have a meal.

Today's pictures are a few I have been working on for a young lady at one of the shows this year. She wanted some casual shots with her mare for her Senior pictures (wallet size) to hand out to her friends as she graduates next year. These were two of the ones she chose. Larry is also making a collage with 7 of the pictures on it to be printed 12" x 18" which is looking lovely.

I had a great giggle today on my friend MiKael's blog and would recommend it as good reading for anyone wondering about the affliction which we have called horse fever LOL. I am going to give you a link to "Blog Village" as she is in the running for a ranking for her blog and if you click on this link

http://blogvillage.gotop100.com/in.php?ref=471

go to the bottom of the page and click on the button "Click here to enter Blog Village", you will find her ranked at 4th at the moment. Her blog is called MiKael's Mania - Arabian Horses. If you click on the name of her blog you can read her latest post which will, I am sure, make you giggle LOL, and perhaps make some of you understand my affliction, then if you click on the button the right on the Blog Village ranking page "Rate this site" you can give her a ranking and leave your name and a comment if you would like. I really recommend reading this and in fact all of her stories, she is a master story teller and for any horse enthusiast is a mine of information. She is very passionate about her horses.

Well that is about it for today folks. Hope you all had a great day. ((((Hugs))))))

Lori

xx

21 November 2007

This has been a very trying year for me on a whole lot of levels and I am going through a phase of my lost childhood and family possessions, birthright and I have been feeling a bit like a nomad. Growing up in a warzone has had its effect on me and this past week it has been at the forefront of my mind. I am still struggling with the animal abuse problems and now this so I am sorry I havent been very good company. I will try to elaborate at a later time so that some of you may try to understand where I am coming from.

Today's pictures were taken yesterday when I put the 4 mares that have been down the road, in with the horses that have been here. It is always quite a stressful ordeal because when you get a routine in place for the horses it is good to stick to it as they are herd animals and have their pecking order and like to keep it with as little disruption, it also makes it far easier to handle so many horses for one person. I put Cat and Piglette (the B&W and the Black mares) in the field with the three yearling fillies. The fillies really need to get used to sharing with other horses because they have only been the three of them and before that their other 4 siblings. It went really well, Cat and Piglette ran up and down full tilt and because they remembered the field knew where the boundaries and fences are already, just needed a refresher. I put Wiggle and BB in the other field with Dosie, Girl Sonny, Cayenne and Lori. That also went really well and they settled down quickly.

Wiggle loves to roll, and as can be seen, that was one of the first things she did, after finding the muddiest spot of course LOL. Above she and Girl Sonny are feeling each other out and doing their squealing thing.
The picture below has 10 of the 11 horses out in the 2 fields in the picture. The ony one missing was Dosie who was off to the left finding things to nibble on and not too phased by all of the goings on.
Taxes had his first day out in the new enclosure yesterday. He stuck close to the barn and we didnt leave him out on his own for this first time but he did discover the electric tape so knows that it is there now and treats it with respect. I will supervise his first few excursions while he is learning where everything is, then I will be able to leave him out unsupervised.

I didnt take photos of the mares when I put them out and they were running or Taxes because I am normally more worried that there wont be a wreck than a photo op.

It has been raining all day, we have had an inch so far but has been really warm, upper 50s but tomorrow we are expecting a drop into the 30s yuk, so it has been a dull grey wet day all day. The horses are all in their new pens and stables and seem to be content and dry.

I need to go and feed the last round to all the horses right now so am going to publish this, may add to it later. Mike mentioned Victoria Falls Hotel which is in Zimbabwe and I thought I might elaborate on that beautiful place. I have a few photos that my daughter took but will have to find them.

(((((Hugs)))))) to you all.

Lori
xx

18 November 2007

Another of my winter sidelighting pictures. I hope I havent posted this before, but I had it entered in a Challenge on DP Challenge so wasnt able to use it at the time until the voting was over. This is a link to this site, it is fun at times and frustrating as well LOL but sometimes it gets me inspired to shoot something as they give you a subject and you have to shoot something to fit during that week. They dont allow a lot of digital editing either which keeps it interesting http://dpchallenge.com/portfolio.php?USER_ID=40386&collection_id=1 . This is Mike's buddy Taxes.

I went and fetched the girls from down the road this evening with a friend of ours, Stan, who owns two of our horses and they all loaded into the trailer like little angels but not before Cat (the B&W) and Piglette (the black) tried to avoid us by heading to the far corner of the pasture when they saw the halters LOL. We got Wiggle and BB loaded and the other two started running circles around the pasture, kicking and bucking and having a great old time LOL. I think they knew they were going home to stables but I enticed them with oats and they let us catch them and load them up.

I still havent got the temporary stalls built but am hoping that Paul, the chap that has been helping out will be over tomorrow afternoon to help me do it, so they are in spare stalls tonight as the other mares are outside still. it is cold but not below freezing so they are coping well out there and I may as well take advantage of it while I can because it wont last long before the temps plummet. Now my problem is to figure out who can be turned out with who during the day without causing a riot and upsetting the heirarchy. Believe it or not, there is one Boss mare in a herd and she has more authority than the stallion. She runs the herd not him. I have a few mares who like to think they are Boss Mare and they just have to get the pecking order sorted out.

Wiggle is so glad to be home, she is already playing with me and being a total brat. Hand raising her has made her a handful LOL. I cant wait to put a saddle on her now that she has picked up her weight, and see how she behaves.

Hopefully I will be able to use this pasture next year again, it has been a godsend not having to worry about the four of them.

Well that is it for today, tomorrow is another one and it has 1000 things to be done. I have a few online orders for business cards, trading cards, a collage made up of 7 pictures I shot and a few prints so the internet orders are starting to work.

(((((Hugs))))) to you all.

Lori
xx

15 November 2007

Not an exciting pic today and no horses, it was VERY cold today, wind chill in the low 30s and it was pretty windy. We will finish building the stables tomorrow for the mares and hopefully I can get hold of a friend of ours who has a horse trailer and he will be able to help us bring them home. We are expecting a low of 26 tonight so I feel a bit bad because there is no real shelter there for them. There are a few buildings which they can stand behind to get out of the wind but that is it.

Larry suggested using the panels from the roundpen that we needed and making the balance of them into a smaller roundpen so we at least had some type of enclosure if we needed it. So we now have a 30.5 foot diameter roundpen LOL. It used to be 60 foot diameter.

I think I am winning the battle in the house and the barn against the rats and mice. Yuk I hate it, I dont like killing things but they were being very destructive and it was becoming a problem.

The picture today is of the seed pods of the milkweed plant. This will be one in my series of this plant and the monarch butterflies, their caterpillars and the milkweed bugs which all survive on this plant. The only shot I need now is one of the crysallis, I have not been able to find one despite checking the plants and surrounds regularly this year. We didnt have so many caterpillars this year because of the lack of rain so maybe I will get that next summer.

That is it for today, hope everyone is keeping warm, ((((Hugs)))))

Lori
xx