Barnblog of Saddlebrook Appaloosa Horses

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Barnblog of Saddlebrook Appaloosa Horses

www.appaloosa.org

Here you can find the news of our Admin and Saddlebrook Appaloosa Horses.   

[appaloosa-pony]

• September 9, 2008 - Were has all the summer gone

Well, I am at the airport headed for beautiful Des Moines, Iowa-at least I am supposed to be headed there.  Just as we were about to board the plane, they decided to cancel the flight. Everyone said that they didn’t know why, but they could rebook us on the next flight this afternoon. So here I sit for 4 hours.  Oh the chores I could be doing!  At some point I will arrive at the horse show!   As you might recall, I represent Iowa and Wisconsin for the Appaloosa Horse Club.  A couple of big wigs from the horse club are going to be there as Iowa is making a pitch to hold our National Show starting in 2011. It is being held at the state fairgrounds.  Iowa is completing a huge renovation in 2010 adding a new arena and over 2000 stalls. If they have the facilities and come up with enough incentives, it just might work out. It would be great for us as it would be just a 6 hour drive.


Meanwhile back at home, the internet is dead again. This time it seems to be something on our property rather than up the pole. I didn’t have enough time to get it fixed, but I should be able to track it down when I get home. This of course happened a couple hours after I got the Mare barn cameras working. That turned out to be a wire between the wireless receiver and the computer. It is almost never that, so it took me forever to find the problem.


Also back at home is a new Saddlebred mare. She is just staying at our place a couple weeks until her foal is weaned. If you hear excessive pawing, that is her. She seems to be coming around and we have put her next to Spice which seems to help. She should be going out today next to the yearlings, if the cameras suddenly come back alive. Thursday we also farriered Spice, Zippy, Roxy, and Fanny. In a couple more weeks we will get the last of the bunch done and we will be ready for fall. Everybody is also getting wormed again this week. I can’t believe I missed summer already.


Finnegan got on the trailer without a problem. There was one other weanling on the trailer and I think they are going to be best buddies. He didn’t seem to mind getting on the trailer at all. The driver and his dad seemed very nice. Next stop I think is Michigan and then down south. With two drivers they should make pretty good time. He made it there safe and sound after a long trip with many stops. Good luck Finnegan! 

[appaloosa-pony]

• September 14, 2008 - Just for Sport

We have been working with Sport in the arena recently.  Our boarder will be working his yearling.  We have been teaching them to backup and turn to the right and left. They did pretty well, though they still need more practice. The next step will be working on picking up their feet. Then we will move on to longing.  So far so good and I know the effort will be well worth the rewards. 


We have tried a new plan putting Spice and Hailey out together.  So far they seem to get along and have been enjoying the company.  We shall see who is in charge in this new duo.  Nicole was been working on the stalls-getting them all evened up and putting the mats down on them. They have done a couple of stalls already and tonight they should have the big stall done. This will allow us to use fewer shavings and still have the horses be as comfortable as ever.


I also had the most amazing experience today. I had to renew my license as my old one was up in October and it was almost 10 years old. I always regret having to do this as it takes forever. Believe it or not today I walked right in. There was no line. I went to the first counter, paid my money and they gave me the eye test. Then I was off to the picture station. Again- no line. 5 minutes tops and I had my new license. Can you believe it at the DMV? Should have played the lottery- it was my lucky day! 


Finnegan is doing well at his new home. He is really settling in down there. He has made a coupl new friend and everyone is giving him lots of love.


Thanks for watching,
S/B

[appaloosa-pony]

• September 28, 2008 - Welcome

The geldings have been going out on grass for the past couple of days.  They love it!  Almost too much!  It can be quite difficult leading them off after their time is done.  Usually I can catch one of them and the other will follow.  If I can catch Sport, then everything works out fine.  If I catch Scoop, then Sport doesn’t always want to follow.  The first day they didn’t know what is going on and they followed me just fine.  But now they are wise to the grass and the guy who is trying to catch them.  It is very funny to watch. 

The hay guy cut our hay again Tuesday.  The weather looks like it should be good for the next few days.  He was afraid to wait any longer to cut it as there is so much dew and the days are getting shorter.  It might never dry if he waited another two weeks.  This should be a much smaller cutting about 800 bales rather than the 2000 bales we typically get.  He said of all the 165 acres he makes hay on, ours grows the best.  That is great to hear!  He says it also seems to take the longest to dry.  Ugh. 

The World Dairy expo will be here before we know it.  We are getting all prepared-printing the flyers and signs.  It is at the end of the month so we do have a little time.  This show was really good for the BarnCam business last year.  We sold a lot of high end systems so hopefully it will be good again this year.  I think we stand a fair chance since milk prices are still up.

We also met with Nicole this week.  Everything seems to be going great with her here so far.  We are pleased and grateful.  She is conscientious and a great fit for the farm.  We are planning to start doing riding lessons again once we figure out the best horse to use.  Our options are Spice, Luke, and Fanny.  Nicole will ride them all and see who will work out best.  It will be excited to get the lessons going again. 

Thanks for watching,

[appaloosa-pony]

• October 7, 2008 - No Luck

Well, the other day started out with a bang!  As we were bustling around in the early AM, Bill noticed the fence down along Hwy P.  Hearts pounding, we quickly rounded up tools and headed out to survey the damage and count noses.  The fence along the highway is professionally done, stronger than the rest that Bill and I have put up over the years.  The posts are rammed in the ground by a big machine.  Unlike our fence which has occasional posts that wobble or boards that pop off when a horse’s butt scratches against it, this fence is very sturdy. 

Anyway, we figured it was a car hitting the fence (there was a lot broken) until we got close enough to see that it was a really old telephone pole in the corner of our pasture that had fallen on the fence or been pushed over by a cow rubbing against it.  It took out quite a stretch of fence, and of course, broken boards that now need to be replaced and painted.  If it had fallen two feet to the right…..but no.  So Bill was out there in his dress clothes  (no time to change when the fence is down) and he will get a late start to the World Dairy Expo in Madison. 

We also did some sprucing up around the farm. I got the barn grass all cut down.  The water pump is also going to get fixed today which should get us a little closer to being ready for winter. The good news is that the barn heat in the new barn is deciding to work. Almost every year we need to call someone out to get it going, but so far, knock on wood, it is working. So too is the internet-despite all the rain we had yesterday. I still think I might work on that and run an emergency cable in case it breaks again come foaling time.

The horses are all doing great. The pastures are getting pretty thin so we are going to start feeding some more hay to help keep their weight up for winter. Luke and Spice both had a little riding time on Sunday and they both did great. The farrier will be out again this week to finish the couple of horses that still need a trim.

Sad news.  We checked Roxy at the four month pregnancy point on Friday. Sad to say she is no longer in foal.  We were never 100% sure she was in foal as she was bred late in the season and she has a small cyst that looks similar to a 15 day pregnancy.  Usually we check her again at 30 days to make sure, but because it was so late and we knew be wouldn’t breed her again until 2009 we waited until the 4 month check.  No luck this year for her, so now she will go under lights in December for an early foal in 2010.

[appaloosa-pony]

• October 10, 2008 - Down Under

Yesterday was very nice around here.  The rain held off to the afternoon and I was able to get the BarnCam business back under control.  We got all the orders from the dairy show out the door and even took a couple more.  Everyone keeps asking me about how the show went with the economy the way it is.  The show was neither up nor down at this point. We had the same amount of sales as usual.  I am hoping this week to get some more of the high end calls for DVR systems.  I have 2 so far. One is in Iowa for a handicapped farmer that can no longer use his legs.  They have a grant so that he can move the camera around the barn to watch everything.  I have been researching it now and there are actually computer mice that work based on head movements.  This way he could control the DVR and move the camera all over the internet. Pretty cool.   I will let you know if this all works out and we install the system.
 

The horses are all starting to get a winter coat.  Just in time for winter.  LOL! We have been keeping Zippy in the big stall but using the infrared camera so we can keep the lights off at night. He is the only appaloosa in the barn right now so we want to keep him on camera, but we also want him to grow a winter coat so we need to keep the lights off.  The shortness of light helps trigger the body to know winter is coming.  Similarly we do the opposite by putting the lights on to make the mares think it is spring.
 

 The highlight of the week was a call from Australia! A guy from “down under” wants to breed his mare to Zippy.  I was able to talk to him this morning and it seems like everything is a go. I might have to take the entire family there in the next couple of years to visit the Zippy foals in NZ and Australia. Their breeding season is right now, the opposite of ours, so I need to hurry up and get everything arranged.

[appaloosa-pony]

• October 17, 2008 - Zoom Zoom Zoom

Things are going well around here.  I really seem to be making progress, catching up on things and finishing up some small projects.  One project was adding a Pan Tilt Zoom Camera outside. It is not totally finished yet, but the main camera is now movable so I can pick different places to watch outside.  I can see Zippy, the yearlings, the weanlings or the back paddocks.  I can also zoom in and out on each location.  I still need to figure out a few things with it and I was wondering if I could program it move to certain locations by itself.  I was also hoping to control it over the internet not just our network.   That way I could check on the farm when I am away from home.  The camera is actually a model that has been upgraded and therefore was affordable.  I used it at the dairy expo and as long as I had it sitting around I thought I should put it up and see how it lasts.  Stay tuned, because you never know where it might be pointing.

The yearlings are getting back out on grass now that the water hydrant is fixed.  It will take them a little while to get back there full time.  I will be bringing them all in soon so when the farrier gets here later I will not have to go out and get them.  If you wait until the last minute of course one of them will not let me catch him and then I will be running around like a fool with everyone watching.  I speak from experience! 

I have been talking about Elvis with a farm in Missouri and they seem pretty interested.  They are going to have the vet give him a once over this week to determine if they want to buy him or not.  They currently have 2 horses- one yearling and one 8 year old quarter horse.  We shall see what happens! 

[appaloosa-pony]

• October 27, 2008 - Elvis is leaving the building

Yes- it is official!  I got the check for Elvis yesterday.  We are all set.  I just need to start separating him from Trace so he will not miss him as much. I plan on bringing him into the barn soon and leaving Trace outside in the backyard pasture.

I also brought Elvis into the arena to start his training for the trip to St. Louis. We worked going over the bridge and standing tied.  All this week we will continue on and then next week I will pull the trailer into the arena for some real loading experience.  Then he will be ready to go.  He does not like being taken away from Trace, but better now than on the trip home.  I know he will settle down in a day or so. 

The yearlings are back out on grass and will be full time all week.  It took us a while after the water hydrant was fixed.  I talked to Nicole and she is going to start Sport after her school schedule lightens up in late December.  I can’t wait to see how he does.  Sport is growing into a great horse-friendly, manageable, and even tempered.  Then we will move Hailey and the Saddlebred mare to bigger paddocks. 

Until the snow comes, there are a few fence posts that need to be replaced.  This is one of those chores I have been putting off all summer and there is not much decent weather left now.  I better get to work! 

[appaloosa-pony]

• October 31, 2008 - The animals have it

The other morning was spent fixing some minor camera problems. The panning camera quit focusing for some reason. I am glad it was here and not installed in a dairy somewhere. It was a quick fix as I had all the parts and I could just swap the new one in. Our local neighbor also stopped by with his cow trailer as he was having a camera problem. It turned out to just be an unplugged wire so that was quick too. He said the camera saved another calf on the trip home from the Dairy expo. So far, just for him, it has saved two world champion cows.  Pretty good if I do say so myself!

 Great news!  The best news of the week is on the Animal Planet side of things. They finally updated the horse camera. We had been working on this since August when our server dropped us and we had to find another.  We had called and called, week after week.  Then I started emailing them- week after week- with no response.   I was getting frustrated and desperate.  So the other morning I called on a whim and I actually got through to a person and he made the fix while we were on the phone. Persistence pays off!  J  The site looks great! He moved a couple things around and made the page look updated. You can see it at…

http://animal.discovery.com/cams/horse.html

Happy Halloween! 

[appaloosa-pony]

• November 13, 2008 - Bye Little Elvis

Last Saturday Elvis began his journey down to St. Louis. We had all the paperwork done and his departure went of without a hitch.   I even got one day of trailer loading practice in with him.  Everything went pretty well as far as loading goes. Once I got him in a similar position like we had practiced he went right in. He is very smart so I knew it wouldn’t be a problem.

Last weekend we also had a little excitement here at the farm. Seven new horses are boarding here for a few weeks.  They are all being housed in our mare barn. It is quite a crew. There are horses of all shapes and sizes, including one appaloosa. We are helping a friend out until her farm is ready in two weeks out in Colorado. We had to move all of our horses around to accommodate them, but everything seems to be working out so far so good.

The horses are sure enjoying the weather here.  The beginning of the week was in the low 70’s. It is great to be able to open up the barn doors and let all the fresh air in. Everyone seems to be getting along here. It is so neat to see the one pasture with five horses in it how they really stay together as a herd. We normally don’t ever have that many in one place with our horses, so they tend to hang out a lot on their own. These new boarder horses really stay in one big group. You know, like you see in the old west movies.

[appaloosa-pony]

• November 29, 2008 - Away they go

This week I am going to finally get all the tank heaters fired up and working for the horses.  Some of them got pretty mangled with all the ice we had last year. Some of the tanks use bottom heaters and some use top heaters. It all depends what the tanks are made of and where they are located on the farm.  The wind here can really affect the temperature and freezing.   It always takes a couple freezing days to get the right sized heaters in the right tanks so that we don't have to spend time breaking ice.  As soon as the heaters are all in place, the driveway markers get put up and then… let it snow here in WI.  We are ready!

I got the internet fixed again which is great, but of course the main panning camera has still been giving me problems. I now have that switched over until I can get it fixed.  The more complicated a camera is of course the more there is to go wrong. LOL I am determined to find the root of the problem and get it back up and running soon!

Horse wise things have settled down a bit. We have everyone where they need to be until December 1st arrives. We need to move the mares to be bred next year back inside at night under lights.  I also filled out our stallion breeding report for Zippy and got Trace's papers back from the ApHC.  We also got an inquiry from Belgium today about breeding to Zippy. That would be one more country with a ZMI bambino running around.  Pretty cool!

The seven boarder horses left last weekend.  The loading went very well for 6 of the 7 and the last one was a bit challenging.  Nothing a little grain couldn't help!  Good luck to the horses and owners in their new home!

Thanks for watching,
S/B

[appaloosa-pony]

? December 12, 2008 - Snow again

Nicole has been helping out keeping all of the horses fed and watered and cared for.  She spent lots of time last week with the vet giving everyone their shots, floating their teeth and other minor things.  We are truly grateful for all her hard work!  Frosty is in now at night and Fanny and Roxy are under lights. Trace and Hailey also come in as they have for a while.  Nicole is working on finishing one more stall with mats and then everything will be ready for foaling season.  I just checked the cameras on the house TV and everything is ready for us to watch. (Knock on wood)  It won?t be long now.

This week I need to fix Moses? dog door.  Right now we have been leaving the garage door open for Moses to go outside, but with the cold weather, the snow just blows into the garage.  The old dog door worked great, but it was sized for Mabel not Moses.  I need to close the door up and then make a new bigger hole so that Moses can get in and out without the snow getting in.

I have had a couple people ask me about the predictions the vet made for the foals of 2009. Frosty and Checkers are supposed to have a fillies, and Annie a colt.  We will have to wait for the big days to be absolutely sure!  The doc is pretty accurate on this stuff (about 99%), but when I see the ultrasound it all looks the same to me. H e looks for signs of an udder at 4 months old.

I have spent a fair amount of time plowing snow around here.  I think we got about 7 inches or so this week.  The wind was very strong also, so even after I got done, I still needed to plow again to remove the drifts.  I kept the horses in since it was blowing so hard.  I thought they would prefer to be in and it saved me a little time.  This winter sure reminds me of last winter.  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow?

[appaloosa-pony]

January 3, 2009 - Happy New Year

Happy New Year!  The four young Saddlebreds from next door arrived today - 3 geldings and 1 filly.  We have everything ready for them.  They will be inside most of the time but will get worked every day by our neighbor's trainers.  We are excited to have them and hope they stay awhile!  Bill says this motivates him to get working with Sport and Trace early in the year, to be ready for show season.  We hope to show Trace in longeline and halter classes, and Sport in two year old western pleasure and perhaps a few other things. A different neighbor has inquired about having us pasture-board five weanlings (now yearlings, as of January 1) he just received from Kentucky - also Saddlebreds.  If that comes to pass, we may have nearly as many Saddlebreds as Appaloosas here at Saddlebrook, LOL! 

Frosty still does not have an udder.  She is getting big, though that developed later than usual this year.  We are preparing everything so that we are ready - Frosty often has foaled early.  The extra straw will arrive this weekend and the Fleet enemas, vet wrap and wormer are all set.  Nicole has wrapped the bottom of Frosty's tail to keep it clean.  Frosty's official due date is January 16, a day when Bill and Susan both are scheduled to be out of town on business.  Of course if Frosty looks close we will change our plans, conference or no conference!

[appaloosa-pony]

• January 15, 2009 - In the Cold

I spent my week getting prepared for the change in weather.  We are experiencing a record breaking cold snap!  I filled all of the water tanks and I fixed the stall wall in the mare barn.  Luke and Spice will be in the arena, and Checkers and Annie, Ali, Scoops and Sport in the mare barn. Plus of course we are due for more snow so I will be plowing as often as needed.  The drifting can make it look as though Inever plowed in the first place!  Itlooks like today, Thursday will be the worst of it.  Welcome to Wisconsin! 

Luke pulled a shoe off the other day. That means we are really full up inthe new barn as the cold settles in.  Losing a shoe is not a big deal and it will be replaced this week, though he seems to have pulled a muscle or strained something when he did it, as he has been a little gimpy. Doing fine now, but who knows what really happened?  He is in a stalland I would prefer to be outside, but he has no idea how cold it is!   

Not much news on the udder front, but Frosty is finally blowing her coat.Nicole gave her a good brushing yesterday and there were piles of her hair allover the place.  She still has a ways to go. The warm barn is now stuffed to capacity.  When the neighbors come towork their young Saddlebreds being boarded her we need to put the arena horseinto the stall that the other one came out of. Luckily, our horses are easy tomove around.  Everyone says the next two days are going to be in the -10degree range at night and we might not reach zero during the day. I put theoutside cam on the thermometer!  Enjoythe show!

Thanks for watching,
S/B

 
Post A Comment!

• January 15, 2009 - Frosty
Posted by Anonymous 
I sure hope you guys are able to keep warm. It sounds like you are well organized in shuffling the horses around best you can. I hope everything goes well.
I cannot believe Frosty still has no udder. I have been watching her for so long just waiting for the delivery. Please post again when It appears she is close since we watchers cannot check the "vital" areas
Again, thank you for letting us be a part of this.

Lara in Alabama

[appaloosa-pony]

January 24, 2009 - Not yet

Still no foal on the ground for Frosty.     Actually not much wax on her udder either.   I have been watching her carefully for two days now.   We are keeping the BarnCam on while we sleep and I am checking throughout the night.  I have also kept the phone by the bed in case the foal cam goes on high alert.   I have seen her lay down more, but still not very often.  She is big and round and has some edema on her belly, but she is still happily munching hay.  For all her apparent discomfort, she is quite content.  Hopefully this weekend will bring us a new healthy foal. 

All the other horses are doing well.  The weather has been much milder this week and everyone has been delighted to be outside.  I chuckle a bit when I see how furry and shaggy they all are.  Quite a few even have little beards under their chins.  It is amazing how I have adjusted to the cold also.  At 30 degrees, I hardly need my winter coat.  Very funny.

The Saddlebred boarders from the neighbor?s farm are getting worked daily in the arena.  A crew comes and works them all during the afternoon.  They are making quick progress and have beautiful lines when they move.   

Keep your eyes open for Frosty!  Thanks for watching!