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| Always Eating |
A balmy 38 degrees today and we had to go to the barn! It was nice to see the horses without the brain-numbing cold to contend with. Even the sun was trying to peek out through the gray inversion fog!
Friday was glad to see us. This of course is because we might have food (which we did). We all took turns giving treats to our girl. She was quite content to fill her mouth with hay and then top it off with a carrot flavored treat. She is healthy and happy and so we are all content to watch and wait. A little over two months to go!
I saw the baby daddy the other day. He is a handsome bay quarter horse named Dusty's Best Effort. His sire, Proudest Effort is a famous sire in Utah. Proudest Effort's progeny have won over 6 million dollars on the track. He had a successful racing career and had a long and prosperous run as a stud. There are many other famous relatives in Dusty's pedigree including Man O' War. One of Dusty's progeny just won a stakes race.
Dusty is a beautiful horse with a great, gentle temperament.
Friday's pedigree is equally impressive. Her sire is a horse named Noble Pride who also had a great career as a racehorse and sire. His sire (Friday's grandpa) was a very famous Quarter Horse racehorse named Dash for Cash. Friday won two races at age 3 before an injury forced her retirement. This baby will have great bloodlines to live up to.
We also had a chance to put a saddle on Smoky and give him a spin. He was ready for a little exercise and we all had a great time riding him.
We braved the cold air today to check on our girl (and Smoky). Friday is looking fit, healthy, and fat. She is now in the habit of coming to me immediately and checking all of my pockets for food. She is in a pen with one other mare, a kind and quiet palomino mare. It is a large pen, so Friday gets plenty of exercise. Pregnant mares need a lot of exercise to stay healthy.
The ground at the barn is covered in ice and taking Friday for a walk can be a little dicey. I don't let the girls handle her because she is a bit unpredictable. Occasionally she gets very rank (ill behaved) and decides to through her head and dance as though we are going to the starting gate of an important race. Despite having her well in hand and a chain over her nose, she still tends to get wild. The kids stay clear. I'm afraid she may fall on the ice so I am now keeping her walks to a minimum. If her back legs start to swell, I will have to get her moving a bit more.
The drama at the barn today involved our 28 year old gelding, Smoky. While Grace and I groomed and checked Friday, Audrey helped me out by getting Smoky and turning him out in a paddock. Smoky ran, snorted, kicked, and rolled (his favorite) several times. I wasn't watching him since by then Friday had decided to attack another horse that was being taken out for exercise by his owner. I had my hands full and Audrey had come to join us. We settled Friday down, and by the time we went to check on Smoky......
We walked out of the barn and looked into the paddock......no Smoky! He was gone and the gate was swinging wide open. I yelled at Audrey, "He got out". I still had Friday and couldn't do much. Audrey was frantic. She ran to the paddock with a look of complete disbelief on her face. I knew right away where Smoky was.
Horses, particularly older ones, are very predictable. Smoky liked to go the paddock, get his exercise and roll, and then go back to his pen and have some special "Senior Food". I was sure that once he worked the gate open, he went back to his pen and was waiting for us to put him back in and feed him. Sure enough, Smoky had gone back to the pen, but he had bypassed his pen and gone directly to the senior food. His head was immersed in the bag and as Audrey approached him, scolding him loudly, he only lifted his head enough so that his eyes were peering over the bag. Little Audrey took him in hand by grabbing his halter and pulled him away from the bag (Quite a sight to see this little sprite of a girl scolding and berating this huge gelding!)
By this time I had put Friday on the walker so I could help Audrey. Smoky was safely back in his pen and Audrey had learned an important lesson without any harm coming to the horse. She was still fuming at Smoky, but he was oblivious and was waiting patiently to be fed. Audrey said she would never, ever leave a gate that wasn't completely secure!
Here are some new pictures of Friday. We forgot the camera (again) so we took these with the phone.
9 months and counting......
This is the look just before the kick!
We decided to set up this blog to chronicle the pregnancy our new mare, Friday. We have had Friday since September 2010. She is a sorrel registred Quarter Horse mare (her registered name is "Nob", but the kids could not tolerate that and renamed her). She was a racehorse at two and won two races. At times, she still thinks she is a racehorse, but I often remind her that she is now 18, and a mother, and has no time for such foolishness. She usually ignores me.
Friday is a sweet girl. When I could still ride her I was starting to teach her neck reining and she was learning fast. She loves to be groomed and is very fascinated by Grace. The one time I helped Grace onto her back I think she thought Grace was a jockey. She tried to bolt, but I hung on (and so did Grace). I finally convinced Friday that we were going for a walk, and not a run. She calmed down, but by that time Grace wanted off.
Friday's main passion in life is food. She spends most of her time searching for food or gauging the time when the next food will arrive. She can be placated by treats, but really is interested in hay (lots of it) and her special mare food (lots of that too). She knows when she is being fed (morning and night) and is very displeased when she is forced to leave her pen at these important times. One day I put her on the hotwalker and she saw her penmate approaching her feed bucket (a bright pink bucket). Friday went wild. She bucked, kicked, snorted, and basically had a horse "fit". When I finally untied her from the walker and let her back into her paddock, she raced around to make sure that the other horse was not eating anything. Only when she was sure there were no morsels of food, she calmed down and began to mark time until the next feeding.
She has also been rather ill tempered for the last couple of months. Her antisocial behavior is limited to other horses, and she still hold us humans in high regard (something to do with food, I am sure). She has a particular dislike for our other horse, a gelding named Smoky. Friday pins her ears back at the sight of him. Smoky, however, is in love, and would like to spend more time with Friday. This will not be happening. For now, Smoky will have to settle for gazing at her from afar and neighing affectionately (which always provokes a pinning of the ears episode).
