Catlow's baby

All along I knew I was going to have Catlow bred too.  I'm almost more excited about her baby.  I feel she has more positive attributes to pass along to a foal that I couldn't get out of quarter horse breeding.  She has stout bone, big feet, and a very nicely balanced body with a big stride, and to top it off, she has a beautiful head.  You can't find quarter horses with stout bone and big feet anymore.  I've looked.  I'm sure they are out there, but they are not the ones that are being advertised and siring dozens of foal.  Catlow is often mistaken for a quarter horse with her very balanced body and big hip...and I think it is a shame that her foal could not be registered as a quarter horse.  I think she could do a lot to improve the breed.  I fear quarter horses are going the way of thoroughbreds...such a limited gene pool.  It didn't start that way; quarter horses had a very diverse beginning, with mustangs figuring prominently into their foundation stock.  But now, after generations of selective breeding, many of them do not resemble their founders at all, not to mention being plagued with some genetic issues due to "line" breeding (another word for "inbreeding"). 

Years ago, when I was first toying with the ideas of breeding my special girls, I considered a gaited horse for Catlow.  She almost moves like a gaited horse sometimes, and she has a big overreach with her hind end.  I think she'd match well with a gaited horse.  But, I am a bit stuck in my ways and just like the way quarter horses look.  IF I ever decide to have another baby from her (unlikely, but I can't predict the future), I might go with a gaited horse.  I of course get a lot of insight into gaited horses from my "heritage" Tennessee Walker breeding neighbor.  I think I would look into a Rocky Mountain Horse first, and Tennessee Walker second....but that's beside the point....right now Catlow will be having a foal sired by Rawhides Slvr Bullet!

Not only is he a wonderfully built stallion with a solid reputation of having a good temperament, but he is also a well known reining stallion that was successfully shown...and grullo on top of that!

Of course I've played around with the color genetics (I was a geneticist in my former life you know...)

Offspring Color Probability (Catlow X Bullet)

25.0% - Red Dun
25.0% - Chestnut/Sorrel
12.5% - Black
12.5% - Bay Dun
12.5% - Bay
12.5% - Grullo

I'll be using the baby as an all around horse, and mostly a trail horse.  It's crazy to think that my special horses are almost in their teens.  Catlow is 11 this year and Cody is 12.  By the time their babies are ridable, they will be 15 and 16!!!  I think it is a good time to think about replacing them someday, not that they could ever be replaced, but the timing is right.  By the time the girls are slowing down, their young'uns will be developing into solid horses themselves. 

It's kinda funny spending time with the herd now.  The mares are definitely starting to "show" and are 7 months along (only 4 months left!!!).  They are slowing down.  I can sense the fatigue in them.  They just aren't peppy and almost act like sometimes it is too much work to get moving from a standstill.  Don't get me wrong - they are still plenty agile and I see them galloping in the field and cavorting still (saw Cody rearing up and picking on Chico the other day), but they are really taking resting seriously these days.

 Catlow

 

 

 

Cody

 

 

The weather has been above freezing the past couple of days and Stormy has needed a trim for a while, so I brought her into the new barn and got her done.  I just think she looks gorgeous tied to the wall that will be my tack room eventually!

And I might as well show more shots of our barn/garage/shelter.  It has it all and is PERFECT!  Aside from the fact that it is not finished yet.  But our builder does quality work and I will not rush him.

 

Front side - this building will double as a haul in clinic for horses and some small animals eventually.  The garage area will be heated for large animal exams, and there will be a small side room that is also heated with water that will serve as a small animal exam/surgery room.  There is clear panel instead of tin above the stalls to allow ambient light in so that the barn will not need to be lit at all during the day.  It works really well.

From the back.  The horses will have access to the shelter area at all times, and the stalls will be only for bad weather, and feeding supplements (mostly the stalls are for me.  My horses have never had them and never seemed to want them.  But I will have fun being able to still visit them when the weather is bad)

 

The stalls area.  Just got the first door on today.  It is all rough sawn oak.  The builder's father saws it from his own woods.  We got a great price on it.



Barns and vet visits

I was also tagged by Jesse, but unfortunatley, I don't think there are any horse books out here at my parents house (aside from perhaps some of mine in boxes in the shed). I'll have to wait till I get back to ID.

So, I saw the Washington Post article on the mustang rescue, and I also read what Fugly Horse of the Day had to say about it. Fugly really pisses me off sometimes. I don't really know what to do about this mustang situation (well, actually, I'd like to see less taken off the range, and look into alternative sustainable management...we'll probably have to euthanize the cattle that they are competing with instead (kidding...)). My big beef with the Fugly blog is the fact that she tends to be so negative and acts like a horse is not cared for properly unless it is cared for the exact same way she does hers...and you need lots of money to care for horses like that. Anyway, done ranting.

I sent an email to someone at the OR/WA BLM horse program to see if I can track down Chico and Catlow's dams. I want to find them. If I can swing it, I'd like to adopt them.

Today, I took some "after" pics of the barn. The barn is just an old tin shed that my grandpa built in the 70's for his cows. It's holey and rusty, but with a good load of sand and some lumber, it makes a great horse shelter.
This is before we made it horse safe...

And this is after...we covered the corners of the tin and nailed boards up inside to give them and L-shaped area for shelter. We also brought in a load of sand and smoothed it out.



I still can't believe the horses are really here!!!


Today, I worked with the 3 horses. I took Cody for a bareback ride around the property. She became nervous once out of sight of the others, and whinnied for them a few times (meanwhile, Chico was screaming in the background). She was okay, but was very fast (fast walk). We did trot and canter a little and she was good. I didn't boot her at all because the ground here is so gentle on a horse's feet, compared to the ground in ID.

Then I took Chico out for a bareback ride. Since he's not lame, I'm going to ride him. I think it might help break up the puss in the wound. He was quite eager to get out and see things, but then after we crossed the ridge, he became a bit more uncertain and nervous. He was also very fast...when Chico walks really fast, it's almost like he's gaiting because of how short his back is.

After his ride, I loaded him into the trailer and we took him to the vet in Sparta (amazingly, there is no one near us who will see horses, guess maybe there's a niche for me after vet school?). The vet said she thought this was an older injury that had abcessed because she didn't think that a wound he got only a few days ago would be draining puss like this without having heat or lameness. So, there is no heat in the injury and his temp was not elevated. She rinsed it a lot, and thought that whatever was in there causing the abcess had probably drained out previously with the puss. She thought there was no need for systemic antibiotics, so gave us this salve to use on it to help drain, with the instructions to flush it with dilute iodine once every two days. The bill was VERY cheap compared to the one for this same injury previously in ID. I won't tell you how much, but in ID, they charged over 4X as much to probe the poke from the stick, and tell us that he didn't have wood in it (which it turns out that he probably did). They sedated him that time (not sure why) so maybe that explains the difference?

During the visit, the vet asked me about ID and why I'd moved back. After I told her I had applied to vet school, she invited me to ride along with her on her appointments to see what this large animal/equine thing was all about. How cool! I think I'll go early next week (after I get my manuscript edited and submitted).

After we got back, I took Catlow out of the pen (she didn't try to avoid me this time). I loaded her in the trailer and gave her some oats in a bucket inside. We continued to go in and out, grabbing mouthfuls of oats whenever we were in. She was definitely hesitant about going in at first, but after she discovered the oats, she relaxed a bit. Then I took her for a walk (thought she needed to relax more before I ride her out). She was actually pretty good on our walk. I've had her be worse before. She was definitely nervous, and I had to constantly wiggle the rope or back her up to remind her to walk next to me, not lead me. And she was definitely huffy about me asking her to flex, but she did everything I asked. I think I'll ride her next time. Once back at the barn, she was very relaxed. I guess they think of it as home now!

I think my dad and I might try to go for a ride tomorrow. We also need to put up fence.