New guys! PICS!

You probably thought that I had retired my camera... but no! The weather hasn't been the greatest and I haven't had a ton of time to take pictures. So yesterday evening, I took out the camera... no... I didn't take pictures of the horses, but I should've. Although no horse has had significant changes, they all look exactly the same! ;P

We managed to take out the horses twice this weekend for about 1.5 hours everytime. Peg only got out once, remained sound without shoes, but she sweated a lake.. she is not in good shape, since she is only used occasionnally, she never gets much exercise. At her age, she rarely runs around anymore and enjoys her days basking in the sun or in the shade if it's too hot... I've actually found them using the shelter!!! :D I have decided to not put shoes back on Peg. She is rarely used and is sound in the pasture... I will treat her thrush like all the others and keep her hooves trimmed in a natural way. I plan on selling the shoes that I didn't use, they would make excellent shoes for someone who is into gaming and wants their horse to enjoy a more natural way of living. The shoes can be glued on or nailed on.

One of Misty's overgrown hooves broke off to a normal lenght. I can pick up her front feet, she hasn't had much work this weekend except for putting on her halter twice, leading a bit and picking up her feet, but I'm in no rush. She can still be touched pretty much all over except for her underbelly, but we'll work on that in the weeks to come. The next steps are to trim her feet, at least the front (I will take before and after shots), then probably start sacking her out, maybe putting a circingle on her and a bit in her mouth, just to get her used to it. I don't want to skip steps and I want to have confidence when I put my foot in that stirrup. She is a sweety, but I don't know how she will react to a saddle and rider yet... I'm thinking that either she'll just stands there, frozen or shoot forward in a panic, but I will probably video tape that first ride and some of her training. She has seen me getting on Dandy and riding, she is curious about the saddle and there isn't much that spooks her. I was bathing the horses yesterday and she was getting too close, so I sprayed her neck with water... but she didn't move... Nothing makes her nervous. There was a deer in the pasture with the horses on Friday evening and she kept looking at it, then got closer... then realized it was just another "horse" and got back to grazing.

On Sunday morning, we added a new addition to the cattle herd... Here he is:

He is a 16 month old Blonde D'Aquitaine bull. That's Nabisco behind him. He was introduced to the herd on Sunday morning. We'll only see what he can produce next year, in March-April 2011. Nabisco seems to be close to her heat cycle, he is sticking with her away from the herd, so I am expecting her to be bred this week, I will note the appropriate dates. The Blonde D'Aquitaine is a great breed that gives calves that aren't too big at birth but that have significant weight gain in their first weeks of life. I am not fond of this bull's conformation, but he is in his dangly yearling stage and should even out with time. I also find him a bit thin. He should build more muscles in the year to come.

I have also taken pictures of the herd:

Above: These are two of our Gilbvieh X Angus cows. The one in the middle of the pic has not yet calved and the one behind her is the latest one to have calved.

BELOW: This is the next one to calve. She is a first calf heifer, so we'll be keeping an eye on her. She should calve in the week to come.

Below: These are the youngsters. Our two calves and first calf heifer. The calf laying down is the latest calf. He is a steer from our biggest Gilbvieh X Angus cow and from a Charolais bull. The calf in the middle is our white heifer from end of April. She is now a few days short of 2 months old, while the little guy is 20 days old, he was born on June 1st.

We've called the little heifer Biscuits... because her mom is Nabisco... we stayed in the cooking theme! Biscuits will be staying with us. The little guy didn't get a name, I am trying not to get too attached since he will be sold, probably for meat... It's hard to keep away from such a cute little face. He is curious and wants to walk up to people to smell them, but he doesn't know that we wont hurt him yet.

As for the bull, he is just getting used to people. He ran for the woods a few times but once with the cows, we were able to get close to him. Our cows are very friendly and I found myself having to back up to take some pictures since they were standing way too close to me!

This weekend will be our annual rodeo, I will try to take some pictures of that, weather permits... I am participating in the opening parade, I might have pictures, if someone takes some. This is also my last week at work before a week of vacation. I am going up to the cottage for the whole week next week so I will have no Internet access, no phone, no TV... Everything I need for complete PEACE! My mom is also on vacation and we are planning to go pedalboating quite a bit, she just got her pedalboat on Friday! I'm more of a canoer, but I'll adapt. Since the cottage isn't all that far from the farm, I'll be able to go every day to check on the cows and horses and probably will be going for a few rides... by myself but that's ok. I will probably have more time to take pictures.