Soggy, Soggy, Soggy

Well it was a wet fall day our at Acres of Grace today. The horses were soggy, the ground was soggy, the hay was soggy...I was soggy. Quite the day, at least the temperature hovered around +10 so it was not freezing out.

Misty is slowly being incorportated into the herd, specifically with Cricket, as Cricket is very quiet, calm and gentle. Misty is a nervous horse. The vet was out yesterday and confirmed that Misty is indeed pregnant and surprisingly Cricket is not. Two babies on the way next year :) We'll give Cricket one last shot to get pregnant next spring.

Everyone running around, maily because its dinner time!

Little Mister Ginger decided that at least soogy hay was warmer to sit on than soggy ground!

Llama Games

Kiwi and ebony are very very frisky right now...they love the cooler weather and are having lots of fun wrestling with each other. Before it was always Kiwi picking on Ebony and she would run away but now that she is 3.5 years old she is really getting into the game and at times chases Kiwi!
Kiwi is trying to bite Ebony's legs as she runs by. They both really seem to love these games, they play them a lot, they are both willing participants and the like to chase things or be chased, because they often play a chasing game with Ace too.
Ah the neck grab.

Ebony is really getting into this round of games.

Yep, never make a llama angry! "Take that big brother!"

Cujo Visits Again!

Cujo came back for another few visits to the farm. Actually other than this weekend he has come out every time we have gone out. I am trying to get him used to all the animals on the farm. Here he see's the chickens.....however I think he would like to be chasing them!

It was pretty cold out a few days ago so when Cuj came out he got to wear his new winter 'farm' coat. At home he ususally just wears a sweater coat when I walk him, however because of all the snow (it will come) and the cold wind he needed a much warmer and water resistant coat to be out at the farm.....Lucky dog!

That is actually Ace's toy ball but Cujo had lots of fun running around with it.

Fun times at the farm!

Fall is Here...Winter is Coming

Buck Decided to have a little nap in the sun yesterday. Everyone has been moved up to the winter field until April. They all are doing well, considering they are in much closer quarters. Ace has jumped over a 4 foot gate twice now, so we had to run electric wire all around the perimeter including across the gates. It is a little annoying now, having to undo not only the gate latch but now also the electric wire running across the top of it, but its better than Ace jumping out and escaping or hurting himself or the sheep. He jumps out because he likes to chase the sheep.

A day before we moved them up to the winter field. Misty is looking for he last few dregs of grass. I love the summer field, but when the weather is cold I am glad that they are up top and much closer to the house.

Ace man watching me.

Everyone out eating whats left of the grass.

Barrel Racing Cow Horse!

Buck is quite the horse. He is very well broke, I know that. He rides really nicely, fast but nice. I emailed his previous owner the other day just looking for a bit of background on my boy. I was just curious as to what Buck did when he was younger because he is a very interesting fellow.

I found out he is quite the guy! He was used extensively to train racehorses for the track. He trained young colts barrel racing and he worked cows. He has lived a very active and interesting life! He has a phenomenal pedigree and a lot of speed. He watches the sheep move about a lot, more than any of the other horses, I suppose because of his previous cow work...sheep are kinda like cows I guess to a horse!

A Pregnancy Mystery....That Drives Me Crazy!

This is Cricket on Feb 25th of this year. About a month and a half after I bought her. She is a very lovely, very pretty horse. She has had 11 foals and is 16.5 years old.

She was sent to the stud farm and the first time she was bred she came back into heat so we bred her again. Now we had her checked after the second breeding and the vet said that she was not pregnant. I accepted this as a fact and planned on breeding her for a last time next year before she retires. I did not think much of it after that. However, as I have been watching her over these past few months and also watching Phoenix because she was bred at the same time too, I have noticed Phoenix growing a baby belly (as noted in a post below) and incidently I am noticing that Cricket seems to be gowing one too?!?

This is Cricket a few weeks ago....Look how big her belly is getting. It would not be huge yet, as she would only be about 3.5 months along...but am I wrong? is she not beginning to look pregnant???

This is Cricket last week. She would be almost 4 months along. Her belly is taking on a noticeably round shape to it.....If you look at the first picture of her and look at this one she definitely looks pregnant. The stud owner believes she is indeed pregnant...she is so sure that she entered Cricket into the stud books for this year. I find it hard to decided if she has just gained weight or if she is indeed pregnant. Usually if they are just gaining weight and getting fat they gain it all over, just not in a round belly. And when they do have fat bellies its not ususally so round and low.....
Above is Phoenix and Cricket. Phoenix is 19 days along in her pregnancy. And Cricket has not been bred yet.

This is Phoenix about 125 days into her pregnancy and you can definitely see a baby belly on her. The picture of Cricket would be about 110 post-breeding and does she not look remarkably similar to Phoenix???

Boys

After we went on a lovely trail ride and I spent lots of time grooming him and making him shine, Buck decided to roll in the dirt!

Ace followed suit and now both boys are dirty! Ace rolled in a llama mud bath, so esentially a big hole filled with dirt!

My LIttle Boy is Growing Up!

Here is my little Ace man now. He is 16 months old and growing into quite a handsome guy. Now that winter is on its way and he is growing his winter coat he is turning a beautiful deep sorrel color :)
The other day we were having some fun in one of our training sessions and I had the saddle on Ace for a bit. He looked good so I took some pictures. When I loaded the pictures on the camera and compared them to a picture I took of him with the saddle on when he was almost 13 months I could really see how much my little guy has grown!

The saddle almost swarmed him here, but above he looks good and it looks like it fits him! He is going to be a handsome trail horse.

The Llama Lounge

Kiwi and Ebony are spending the winter out with the horses in the horse field as I have said before. Well we had to build them a shelter becauase the horse one is just not big enough for everyone to fit comfortably...HAHAHAHAHA isn't the little llama shelter so cute next to the giant horse one!?!?! The boards across the horse shelter is to keep the llamas out so they learn to use their own shelter. The horses are not in the field yet.

We added boards across the front, even more since this pic was taken, so that it is too low for the horses to get in. We thought it might be hard to teach the llamas to duck, but they figured it out in no time...."Give us food, we will duck"

Kiwi has no problem using his shelter. Llamas are very clean animals and they pick a spot in the field to use as a communal toilet and never foul up their living space....they shelter will be so claen in the spring...unlike the horse one!

Ebony survey's her surroundings. The llamas are fairly new to this field, they were in it for a few weeks in April but have spent the past 6 months down below.
"Hey where you going? WE WANT MORE CANDY!"

OOPS!

Well at some point the horses got a little rowdy and someone ran into or was pushed into the fnce and knocked part of it down. Actually the post was broken right through. That would have hurt whomever it was that hit the fence. Now I have my suspicions, I think Misty hit the fence, because she seems stiff today, but I think one of the others, namely Phoenix or Buck chased her into it..... Other than some stiffness, Misty has no cuts or marks and neither does anyone else.

The fence that was knocked down is an interior fence...it just divides up the walk way from the fields where they all graze, so even though they knocked the fence down, no one was able to escape.....lets hope they don't make knocking fences down a habit!

Cujo's Farm Adventures

Cujo came out to the farm to visit while we built the winter llama run in. He had so much fun. He was very busy and scooted all over the place. He was not sure about all the different animals though....he whined and barked at them and was too nervous of the horses to even get close enough for a picture.

He spent a lot of time looking at the goats. They were not fearful of him...maybe because of the horns?!?!?! and just stood there looking back at him. Once we had a breach in the fence and Cujo got out and went over to the goats....he waited until we we all up on the roof and could not get to him before he breached the fence....sneaky guy!!! He did not bark or do anything to them and we called him back and he came.

Kiwi and Ebony spotted the intruder as soon as we got close to the fields.....don't they just look like they are walking up with a purpose?!?

They were not too sure what to make of the little yappy thing...lol. They sniffed at him a bit which of course made him nervous so he barked louder. All this rukus brought the horses thundering up which sent Cujo scampering to hide under the truck.....he would not go near the horses, hence no pictures of Cujo with horses.

Kiwi was very intrigued but Cujo and would have liked to really sniff him well but Cujo was having none of that!

There was lots of space in the winter horse/llama field for Cujo to chase the ball to his hearts desire! He had a lot of fun racing around the fields. I am sure he is going to ask Santa Clause for a big back yard like this one!

After all the running around chasing toys, barking at all the animals and just following his nose Cujo needed to take a much deserved rest in the shade of the truck.

Doesn't he look so impressed!?! Of course after a long day at the farm its time for a bath! Normally he loves water but after his day at the farm he was so exhausted he just wanted to sleep! It is 10:10 am the next day as I write this and the little Cuj is still sounds asleep on my bed ;)