Ranch blog
Jan 30, 2011 A beautiful sunrise!!
The winter's here have spectacular sunrises. We are lucky (and happy) to have great weather while the rest of the county is below freezing to below zero!
This afternoon one of our ranch vehicles caught fire....we are SO fortunate that it wasn't in the barn! The fire was fast, hot and tall! This vehicle was all enclosed in fiberglass....it all melted. Well, another challange thrown our way....we do have a backup vehicle, so we're still able to get our work done!
Jan 10, 2011 Thinking about breeding already!
We have 7 mares under lights to start them cycling early. 4 of our broodmare slipped an embryo this year (one twice). So those 4 plus Elysee (our 1.5 year old mare), and 2 recipient mares for embryo tranfers. Our "plan" (of course, the ladies could have plans of their own) is to flush an embryo from Elysee to one of our recips....then, if Elysee's dam, Icke and our 2nd recip. mare line up, also do an embryo transfer with her....then rebreeding Icke. Icke has not held a pregrancy for 2 years and we're anxious to get another baby from her. Elysee received incredibly high scores as a foal, so we're hoping for another. I haven't been back in the saddle since the holidays, but with a brand new saddle (that actually fits!), tomorrow is the day!
Dec 17, 2010 CHRISTMAS PARTY
For this years annual Christmas party we went to a little fabulous restaurant in Genoa, NV called LeFerme. Good Food, Great friends a lot of amazing memories!!!
Nov 09, 2010 Babies are Weaned!
We weaned our last (youngest) 3 babies this past week. Our colt Hayden had the hardest time with it. Of the moms, our girl Lisette was the most distressed. But....it wasn't very tramatic at all. The boys had each other and they have been pasture mates since birth. We brought the babies in the other night, since it was raining and the temps were going down into the 20s....I moved Hayden in with Gregorio (our oldest colt) and Hayden tried nursing off of him! Have never seen this before. Gregorio was a kind 'older brother' and just kept moving away. I separated them for the night. All of our boys are together now, and our two girls are together with our 1.5 year old BEAUTIFUL filly, Elysee. Elysee was very bossy with Gregorio, so I'm sure he's happy to be with the other colts. He is alpha over them, but not aggressive at all.
We had another embryo absorption last week. Now only 7 of our 11 moms are pregnant. It's been a tough year, for sure. We're all settling in for a great winter!
Oct 02, 2010 Time to breatheeeeeeeeee!
Finally! Time to update my blog....foaling, breeding, keurings (with all the prep that goes with it) and show season is over. These days it's building more fencing, ordering new sheds and there's ALWAYS poop to pick up ;-)
This year was a very tough year for us. We lost two beautiful babies. I was going to write the details, but it's so heartbreaking, I think it's better to skip. I think of them daily (I have a piece of both of their manes on my desk) and miss them terribly when I go out to play with the other babies. Two of our other babies could not go to their keurings for smaller problems that are resolved. Breeding season went on forever as many of our mares absorbed at least one embryo! This crazy weather is probably to blame. High of 85 with low of 34...Not good for broodmares!
ANYWAY, we had a great show season and 2 good keurings, getting three 2nd premies and a 3rd for our 4 foals we brought. Our colt Hayden won Champion Colt at Santa Rosa!! Greg and I actually showed twice at intro level dressage. Next year we will be cantering.
The nights are getting cold and thoughts of skiing makes winter very enjoyable! Here are some pictures of what's been happening over the summer. The last one is our Granddaughter, Maddi, playing catch with the babies!!
Sep 29, 2010 FPS Keuring in Tulare, CA
The annual FPS Keuring in central California was held at the fairgrounds in Tulare.
Gilles was awarded a 3rd Premie and Gregorio was awarded a 2nd Premie.
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