Regaining my balance

It's been a wild ride this month. With the help of my daughters, Naomi, Macy and her husband Jon, I was finally able to get the pasture open to the horses.  They have been enjoying the grass all week, and I'm enjoying the reduced work load of being able to turn them all out.  The mares and foals can now go into the paddock during the day, so there is much less work moving everyone around daily and less stall cleaning. I've been able to get into my garden and find the dirt again - if there's one thing I can grow in Minnesota - it's record weeds. They can reach up over 8' if you don't keep up.  I was able to finish cleaning the large paddock last weekend with the skid steer, but the rain has prevented me from finishing Shadow's paddock.  We get rain every few days.. just enough to keep it too wet to work. Shadow spends his time hanging in his stall - only going outside to call to the mares and foals, and to relieve himself.  A lot of bugs this year from all the rain - and we are not getting the nice strong winds that MN is famous for. I never thought I would say this, but I miss the wind! 

I can't believe summer is 2/3 over - I have no idea where it's gone. I guess being so busy makes time fly faster than normal.  Nibbet, who had tendon injuries from birth, is healing nicely.  He will be 100% in another month or so.  Lucy, who went through a rough spell of hormonal imbalance (baby blues) after Nibbet was born, is back to her old self - thank goodness!  Encore and Ebony Rose are doing great - Encore has mellowed so much that it's hard to believe she's the same mare. I'm very proud of her.  Lightening is a star mother, and her colt, Darque Moon, is a rising star. That colt is just stunning - and BLACK!  Once Nibbet finishes healing and can move to his full potential, we will put a video of him up, too. I have never see a foal move like he can - even with being injured. He will stand there and stretch his foreleg horizontal to the ground, and likes to do high level dressage moves in play. I hope he develops the way he has given hints he will.  We live on a big hill of clay, so the paddocks can get slick when it rains, and retains the water - yuck.  We still have the spring muck in some paddocks because it's never dried up all summer. 

I am excited to do more with the foals. They all lead, bath, brush, and stand for the farrier, but they are babies so they belong to their mothers now.  Once they are weaned, we will do more with them.  They are the sweetest foals I've ever known. All they want is attention - which I am more than willing to give!  Time to start the day - lawn needs mowing, garden needs more weeding, weed wacking to do around the fences, and I want to get to the farmer's market this morning.

Nibbet (barn name)

Nibbet is three weeks old today. He is by Hawk's Midnite Shadow x TD's I Love Lucy. Nibbet is like a spider, all legs. Last evening, when we had him and mom in the round pen, he was doing some natural dressage moves (at least that is what it seemed like). Nibbet has the warmest eyes, a gentle personality, and likes nothing more than to come up for some rubs and hugs. He is very curly, and very very special colt. We have great expectations for this colt, and I'm certain he will live up to them.

TO Darque Moon

Here is another of this year's foals, Darque Moon. He is by Hawk's Midnite Shadow x Kentucky Lightening. Darque Moon is a well balanced colt with color and tons of curls. He's just beautiful and loves people. I am constantly amazed by the heads that Shadow puts on his foals. I don't know where they come from, and I want them to just keep coming!

TO Ebony Rose, our 2010 Hawk's Midnite Shadow x Encore filly

Ebby is about as perfect a filly as we could have hoped for. She has it all, conformation, temperment, color, and curls. If I had designed a foal, I could not have done better than what we have in Ebby. We are really proud of this big girl, and know that she has a bright future in front of her.

A small start at blogging.

Well, I guess it's time that I started blogging. I'm new at this, and really can't think of why anywone would care, but I'm going to give it a try. If for no other reason than to document my farm and horse adventures so I can look back in my retirement and smile. I will add more as time and energy permits.