Saddlebrook Appaloosas

Wow, a lot has happened since our last public update.  Here are some of the highlights:

Swine Flu – a high school student came down with a confirmed case here in Oconomowoc, and our kids were off school.  Turned out to be all bark and no bite.

We’ve fixed a lot of fence. We fixed the backyard pasture ourselves, and had a fence company put two new paddocks over by the Church barn. That fence line is a little higher both top and bottom so the horses can eat under it, but not push so much over it.  Amazing what you learn after years of doing a job!

We got a new (used) RV for our trips to the horse shows, trade shows and visiting Aunt Cindy and Uncle John in Colorado. I had it done up with our logo on the front so no one can miss us coming down the highway.

I have spent a lot of time working with Trace. He is doing really well and leads, longes, trims and in general behaves very well no matter what you are doing with him.  Igave him a bath and taught him to trailer load. The biggest issue however is that he still hasn’t shed out. We need more 90 degree days and a lot of elbow grease.

Susan finished her extreme Adventure fitness boot camp this past month. Boy, it was a workout, but in the end I think she felt good about making it the entire way through.  Every day at 5:30 a.m. is tough and then all that exersize and running. I am proud of her.

I got Susan an Outhouse for Mothers Day. Yes, an Outhouse, but it is a really cool one. I know I will never live this down. Please remember in the old days I am sure a wife would be thrilled to get a new outhouse.

I also got a few new videos posted since the last update. There is one of Trace, and two of Luke. I still need to add them to their pages. Always something left to do. You can see them all at http://www.youtube.com/user/appaloosas

Another thing I forgot to mention was this nice email we got from the McRitchies.

Bill & Susan,

I hope you are all doing very well.  We have been awesome!

Sedona, our Zippy offspring, has been making the grades as one of the very best buffalo herding horses in the country.  She and I have been a team for a long time now and not only working our buffalo, we are among the select few on the permanent list to assist every September during all buffalo roundups at Custer State Park.  We basically live there most of the month of September working and herding and riding all day every day.  She is awesome.  I have included some photos for you to see from the past 2 years working at Custer State Park.

We also want to breed the same mare, Symphony, again to Zippy for another excellent off-spring to continue this success.  Will this still be possible this year?

Another bit of news is that sweet Spice is sold to a great new home.  She is staying in the area, and going to one of our new friends and Buddies here in Wisconsin. These are the people that used to own Annie, and they take great care of their animals. She will be leaving today, Friday.

And last but not least. We have a new streaming camera that we are hosting that has become really sucessful. It is a sheep co-op in Martha’s Vineyard. It sounds a lot like what we started here so many years ago, only you can buy a share of the wool. You can see the Lambcam at www.fiberfarm.com/lambcam

Thanks for watching,

S/B

Sorry for the delay on the update. Lot’s of new things happening, but my Internet connect at the house is really spotty right now. Sometimes it works great, sometimes, I have nothing. I am posting this from Joe’s choir practice where they have a great connection.

I put out Annie and Checkers in the arena yesterday and today. They seem to get along really well and you might remember they were together before they foaled, so I figured it would work out and the filly really needed to run around, so what better way than to have her out with another foal. The funny thing was that for about the first five minutes Annie’s colt followed Checkers around like she was his mother. Suddenly it looked like Checkers had two foals. Checkers did not seem to mind at all, but Annie was a little confused, wondering where her foal was. Finally Annie figured it out and they all ran a couple of laps around the indoor before each foal nursed on thier proper mother.

Meanwhile outside, I moved Fanny over by Spice and Luke in the big pasture as Fanny was knocking down all the fence she could find in the back yard pasture. She is really big and when she pushes against a board, before long she pops it off. The big pasture has boards that are higher and so she can not get over them to start reaching and pushing. That left Roxy by herself and since she had spent most of her time over the fence with Angel, I thought I should try the three of them together. It seemed to work out fine yesterday and this morning, but when I can back this afternoon, Frosty had two small cuts and a big bruise on one of her legs. They both looked calm again, but obviously there had been some kicking going on and Roxy was the winner. I have never really seen Roxy behave like this, so I am still a little confused, but I can not put them together again, if there are going to be issues. I guess we will have to move her over to one of the other pastures instead.

I also got to finally talk to Kevin McRitchie today. He is the guy with the horse that does the buffalso. He told me all about his rides. He told me about the big Buffalo round up at Custer State park. It sounds great. Maybe we should take the RV.

September 26-27, 2009 (Saturday and Sunday) / Buffalo Round-Up and Arts Festival

Enjoy three days of South Dakota’s finest artists and craftsmen at the 15th Annual Buffalo Roundup Arts Festival. Start your morning with a pancake feed, enjoy on-going Western and Native American entertainment or browse the many exhibits and craft booths located on site. It’s a South Dakota experience you won’t want to miss. The first 2 festival days are held on the festival grounds adjacent the Peter Norbeck Visitor Center. On the 3rd and final day the festival is held on the festival grounds located at the buffalo corrals complex on Buffalo Roundup Day.

September 28, 2009 (Monday) / Buffalo Round-Up

Feel the thunder and join the herd at the 43rd Annual Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup. Watch cowboys and cowgirls as they roundup and drive the herd of 1,500 buffalo into the buffalo corrals. Following the actual roundup stay and watch as park staff sort, brand, and vaccinate the herd in preparation for the fall Buffalo Sale.

The other excitement for today was that our LambCam I told you about a couple weeks ago was feature on the Weather Channel. Here is the link to the story.

Thanks for kind of watching,

S/B

We have been delinquent. Procrastinating. Lazy, even.  It has taken us so long to get around naming this little filly, people visiting the barn just have started capitalizing “Filly” as though that is, truly, her given name.  *sheesh*  Sorry about that, little one.  You deserve to know your name!  So as not to delay even longer with deciding on her name, we are going to depart from our normal “pick five and vote” process, and just go for it.  When Checkers and Annie foal, we will get on the stick and do it right, and more quickly.  Promise.

With a nod toward the heavens and honoring the very special markings on her hip, this little filly is going to be called ZMI Touch Of An Angel, barn name Angel.  We’ll need to make the name fit in 20 letters and spaces to register her – if anyone has any good ideas on that, please let us know.    The other name we also really liked was suggested by Buddy Becky R and is ZMI Material Girl, barn name Madonna - next Frosty filly, that’s going to be her name!

Well, Zippy got loaded up last night at about 2am for his trip down to Texas. We were not sure if they would be able to get in the farm driveway or turn around once they got in, but they were able to do both. The only problem they had was coming south on the highway.  There is a low bridge and the driver’s GPS didn’t show it to them, so they got within a 1/2 mile and had to call me for directions. Anyway, once they got here, Zippy loaded right up. He had a nice big box stall in back. There were two drivers. Jason was the one I met and the other one was sleeping. They work that way so they can keep driving 24 hours. Jason loved Zippy.  He is from Texas you see and is a roper.  I told him all about Zippy, and Fanny, and Java. He ropes in Jackpots where everyone pitches some money in and the winner gets the money. They handicap all of the ropers in these things so that it is fair to everyone.  Jason it turns out has a roper score of 8 for his heeling. That is just about as high as I have ever heard. I think they can go up to 10, but no one is a ten. I think all the guys that have roped on Zippy, Fanny, and Java at the world shows were all sevens. Headers typically have lower scores for some reason, maybe because it is more competitive. The headers tend to be more of the glory position of the two spots. Our headers have been 5’s I believe. Zippy should be in Texas on Saturday morning.

We also bred Fanny on Thursday and Friday morning to Mr. Cool Hand Luke. We had been checking Fanny and Frosty all week. Frosty is supposed to be in heat again but is not quite ready.  It looks like Fanny is going to ovulate twice, once off of each ovary, so we will have to make sure and check for twins (we always do) at 14 days. She produced two follicles last time as I recall, but it was not a problem. We are hoping for another colorful foal. Maybe this time a filly!

Moses, our Great Dane, has been having problems with his leg lately. The one he had surgery on is fine, it is the other one that is becoming the problem.  It is not that bad yet, so we are hoping if we just don’t let him run for a while things might get stronger and we won’t need to do surgery. We are also going to put some more runners down in the kitchen so that he won’t slide around on the tile floor. Moses’ personality makes keeping him down incredibly hard. He is so happy and social and curious about all that’s going on.  It is hard to curb that spirit!

Bobcat has been sneezing a lot lately. I think we might need to take him to the vet. You might remember he has kitty AIDS and so we have been keeping him inside the house for the last four or five years. Lately he has been sneezing. He is 14 years old also, so it might be a combination of things.  Some days seem better than others for him, but I want to make sure all the sneezing isn’t a sign of something bigger. We will keep you posted.  What we do for our beloved pets!  LOL

Susan also reminded me that we haven’t talked about the cows lately. They too are getting old. Delight is about 15 years old.  Getting “up there”.  She seems to be slowing down a little but roams around the big pasture with Reverse without much of a problem. Last year she fell on the ice (evidently) early in the winter and had quite a limp for a month or two, but the vet confirmed at the time that nothing was broken.  The two cows have the big pasture all by themselves, and have had it that way all winter. That should help the grass grow better in Spring as cows are easier on the grass than horses. They chew more gently, cutting it off rather than ripping it out and their hooves are less damaging. They enjoyed the warm temperatures this week as did the horses. Everyone was just lying flat out taking in as much sun as possible!?

Thanks for watching,
S/B

So our new little foal is a week old.  She has had quite a week!   I must admit that she is going to be one of our favorites.  She has the blanket like Zippy but “frosty” legs like her mom.  Her coat is dark with the lighter “frosty” colors showing thru.  She has 5 spots in a row on her left side that look like finger prints-all lined up.  She has a big white blaze and tiny snip on the end.  She also has one eye that is half blue, which we love.  Frosty has had one other filly, Diva, with a partial blue eye, so she is in good company.  And this is all before I get to her personality!  She is spunky and independent and of her own mind already.   Yet despite her independent nature she is already figuring things out and fitting right in here at the farm.  Mom Frosty is an excellent mother and we are truly grateful for this!  She makes it look easy and has bounced back remarkably fast, as she always does.
We got the call yesterday that they are ready for Zippy again down in Texas.   I have not heard back from the hauler yet, but it sounds like he will leave in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile cases of the disease that has delayed his departure (for safety’s sake, as he is healthy) keep popping up in Northern Wisconsin.   All tied back to the one equine clinic in Kentucky were everything seemed to have started.
Yesterday Nicole started working with Sport in the arena.  Her job will be to get him started under saddle.  Meanwhile I am going to get Trace started on the longe line. Sport has really grown and filled out over the winter as we anticipated.  I will put a stick to him to be sure, but I would guess he is 15 hands now as a two year old, with more growing to do.
So enough about the good stuff- there must also be some bad stuff.  The water running to Luke and Spice’s pasture froze Friday.  It froze somewhere underground as the hydrants still work fine, just no water is running to them.  The below zero temperatures we have had for what seems like forever are to blame.   The frost line must be pretty deep by now.  I rigged up an old water tank.  Using my truck, I can fill the tank and then fill each of the tanks in the pasture so that I do not have to carry buckets of water.  It kind of looks like the thermos we setup when Finnegan needed a wet-nurse, only this is a 100 gallon version.  I will snap a picture when I get a chance.