Easter Gift

Look what the Easter Bunny left at the barn!

Sultanna foaled some time very early Easter morning. When I went out to check on her at sunrise Sunday morning, I could see some extra legs behind Sultanna as I approached the barn.

We have a lively, very prancy, inquisitive filly.

She has a little white mark on her forehead that looks like the letter C and high socks on her hind legs.

She surprised me a bit when she came over and nickered (twice!) at me. My heart melted and I fell in love with her then and there.

When I'd gone back out to the barn Saturday afternoon to check Sultanna, she was leaking milk. Tim asked me to move her to the blue barn along with Hokey for company. (Tim's son lives in town and is always available to help and he moved them for me.)

Abby and Dolly are very curious about the new baby and are spending a lot of time looking over the fence at her.

After attending church (as you might imagine, I was very distracted and had to work hard to keep my mind on the service, haha!) we had a family gathering for Easter dinner and to celebrate my sisters' birthdays. As soon as everyone had left, I zoomed out to the barn for another check.

Things were going well. 

 

Both mama and baby looked a little tired - not a surprise as it had been quite a day for them both.

Sleepy yawns.

Just before I left for home, Sultanna and Sweet Girl lay down and took a snooze in the late afternoon sun.

What a lovely Easter gift!

Extra Long Traditional Haversacks

Happy Easter! And no foal on the ground yet. I'm heading to the barn in an hour to do a check before church.

Since Breyer has been producing a lot of shelf eaters (Uffington, Dundee, Cleveland Bay, and the Shagya Arabian to name a few), the extra long traditional haversacks (XLT) have been in demand and selling well at Horsiemama's Haversacks & Mercantile.

Here are some of the XLT haversacks I've recently made as part of a fundraiser for Great Lakes Congress. 

Dala Horses

Western Blue

Black and Gold Christmas

Pastel Race Horses (Photos don't do this fabric justice - it is gorgeous!)

Green Gallopers

Navy dressage

Flamingo Pond Redux

Golden Horseshoes

Email me if you'd like a haversack out of one of these fabrics in any size.  

(horsiemama8@gmail.com)

Barn Check - No Baby Yet

No foal yet! I've been going out twice a day to check on Sultanna, and yesterday morning she had a couple of visitors when I arrived.

I could see the two young girls from next door  had crossed the hay field and were over by the hay rack saying hello. 

Avery and Ronan did not know that Sultanna was in foal and were so excited when I told them! (So am I.)

Abby's eye is much better although I continue to medicate it. The cloudiness is minimal and hard to see. (It is evidence of Tim's skills that he could even see it - I can barely see it myself.)

Dolly is still the low horse in the herd order, so I made sure to walk down the fence and give her a treat.

Despite Sultanna's great size, there were no signs that foaling was imminent - no biting at her sides, pacing, or leaking milk.

It was windy again and raining when I went out in the late afternoon. (Unlike the previous windy day, the horses were still in the right pasture!)

Day two of being in charge of the herd is in the books - maybe today is the day I will discover a new herd member. I will be sure to post pictures as soon as Sultanna foals.

Stay 'tooned!

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

Second post of the day.

And the winner is.....

 Congratulations!

Another Pied Piper Moment

I arrived at the barn yesterday afternoon to medicate Abby's eye and to check the herd - Tim had left town that morning and I am in charge of the barn while he is gone. (Which I absolutely love.)

To my surprise, the horses were waiting for me at the wrong gate. Tim had said that he'd put plenty of hay in the feeder to last during his absence; why had he then moved them to the east field and paddock when the feeder was in the other pasture?

Plans can change, so I put the antibiotic in Abby's eye, made sure everybody was fine, and went back to my car. But I still had a niggling suspicion that things weren't quite right. I decided to send Tim a picture and see if he questioned the horses' location.

I got this text from him just as I sat down at the sewing machine to finish up a haversack order.

I snagged Craig to help me and we hopped into my car and headed back out to the barn.

The horses were surprised to see me so quickly again, but came right up to see us. Before trying to move the horses, though, I wanted to be sure I knew where the problem was and figure out how I was going to fix it.

I walked down to the gate between the pastures and saw that it was standing wide open.

We had had heavy winds that day and I suspect a horse spooked or bumped against the gate and popped the chain off the latch.

Turning around to go back and get the horses, I discovered Abby had followed me and was standing right behind me, with Sultanna, Hokey, and Dolly behind her. That gave me an idea. I called Craig over to man the gate, then turned and walked back through it to the pasture the horses were supposed to be in.

Pied piper moment! Abby always follows me when I am there, and she followed me right through the open gate. The other horses followed her, and Craig closed the gate behind them. Easy peasy and no rodeo fireworks!

I did the chain latch, wrapped the chain around and slid a link into the latch a second time, and then used a lead rope to tie the gate shut for good measure.

Craig took a photo to send to Tim so he knew that all was well again.

The first day of barn watching is over; who knows what today will bring? I'll be going out twice a day since Sultanna is expected to drop her foal any time now.

Here's hoping that if there are any problems, they are as easily solved as this one was.

New Series: Share Your Horse!

Author and collector Nancy Kelly sent me a text the other day along with this cute photo of her horse, Buddy. After thinking, "Awwwwww! What a cute boy!" inspiration hit.

How about inviting readers to send me photos and a little information about their horses for me to share here with other readers? I'd love to know more about your horses and no doubt others would, too!

Nancy was agreeable, and sent me some more photos and information about Buddy.

Buddy today at twenty-two.

The Craigslist ad said, "I am getting a stallion next week and I need this gelding gone!" Hubby looked at the ad and said the face looked like the pony of his boyhood, so we had to go rescue it.

Buddy is shedding his winter coat finally, and it looks really interesting right now.

The owner said he was a Tennessee Walking Horse, but he had forgotten how to do the "walk." Looking at him, he looked like a TWH/Arabian cross with some draft in him with his thick, feathered legs. She called him "Lucky" and said she had bought him from a riding stable where his name was 'Hobo." 

We brought him home and he became our "buddy."

On his first day with us, Buddy made himself right at home. (Lynn here, butting into Nancy's text to tell y'all how much I love this photo!)

Buddy is always the first one looking for breakfast in the morning.

His ground manners are perfect, no doubt from years of giving rides to the public, but once on his back he can really go. His trot is kind of a jiggly gait with his legs sort of paddling outward. Weird to feel! He's second in command in our herd and loves to boss the horses below him. But he is sweet around people.

Thanks, Nancy! This is a great first-in-the-series article and I loved meeting your boy.

If you'd like to see your horse (or pony, but absolutely NO UNICORNS) featured here, send a couple of pics and a little information to my email address: horsiemama8@gmail.com

I can't wait to meet your horses!

Stay 'tooned!

Last Call!

 Second post of the day.

Last call for the giveaway of the BreyerFest pony pad!

Entries close at 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight time tonight! Email me at horsiemama8@gmail.com to enter.