Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Registration Time

It's official...Shooter's papers have been sent in and hopefully he will come back with the registered name...

Fast Draw Dandy!!
I only listed one other option...Hesa Fast Pistol. I never send in papers with the six name choices they request, nor do I ever let the AQHA pick out a name(They come up with the dumbest names). Only one time have I ever had the papers sent back requesting another name option.

Who me???

Yes you, you little turd!
And I really wished you would quit dragging those feed tubs around!!

No, I haven't weaned him yet. Big Momma probably wishes I would. He is such an ornery little stink. But that is one of the wonderful things about not breeding mares back every year. You can leave the them with their momma's a little longer and not have to worry about next year's baby being robbed of his nutrients. Of course, Big Momma is wayyyy past the age of producing a foal year after year, but we don't do it with our younger mares either. **For lots of reasons besides the horse market going ka-put!!
We took her off of all the mare vitamins, so her milk production would go down. Her weight dropped some, so you are looking at the skinniest horse we own...
The grain situation has been a little tough around here lately. We have not been able to buy any beet pulp shreds for the last 2 months. Then the feed store where I got my equine senior complete feed pellets stopped carrying that brand. Rolled oats(the only kind that does Woofer any good) went to $16.00 a 50lb bag. I was running out of feed and pretty limited in options. But...to get by, I started feeding her Safe-Choice and just moistening it a bit to soften the pellets. She is starting to pick back up again. I started doing some figuring and actually feeding the Safe-Choice is very cost effective, even if I have to feed her a bit more. It is the only feed I can get right here in town that is worth feeding-but it eliminates driving to pick-up feed. Because it has vitamins and minerals in it, I don't have to feed the A-Z Vitamin supplement anymore either. I had already taken them off of the A-Z Vitamin supplement-Shooter was starting to get bumps on his pasterns...a pretty good sign he was getting TOO MANY vitamins. The bumps are gone now. I still add the Basic Mineral and the Formula 7 to aid with digestion, but they are relatively inexpensive to feed. She is off of the Formula W(to help mares milk). Trying to feed her any oats besides the rolled oatmeal is just a waste. I think the only thing I will add, when the feedstores finally get some back in, is some beet pulp...maybe. Since she is picking up weight again and is getting lots of grass hay and some alfalfa, she may not need anything else. Shooter sure isn't hurting though...I had a guy come look at him the other day(he just wanted to see him) and he was looking around the pasture and in the barn. I was standing right by Shooter and he finally asked where the baby was. Uhhh...hello, got my arms wrapped around him!! He looked a little shocked. He thought Shooter was a yearling. Okay, I know he is good sized for 6 months old, but really? What the hell has he been looking at for comparison? Ugghhh-scary thought!!

**You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them. Dark horses are just really, really hard to get photographed so they show any detail and then add all that winter hair and basically what you see is a dark blob with a horsey shape to it-LOL.

Yay me(that is sarcasm)...I get to spend the day, baking Christmas Cookies for the 4-H Christmas party tonight...if I feel really ambitious, I might just through a little house cleaning in there too-hehehe.
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The fruits of today's labor...

Before...

After...
It's amazing what a little colored frosting will do!!

16 comments:

Chelsi said...

Hmmmm.... I have that whole wack load of cash over on my site.... wanna trade for Shooter? LOL That is one fine looking colt you have there. I cant wait to see how he is going to finish out. His mom has one fine fat arse on her too (even if she is not actually fat right now:) She sure is dark, but a dun?

Danielle Michelle said...

I bought my last guy right off his mom at 4 months at a performance horse sale. I have never had a horse grow that fast before in my life. He's a long yearling and he is HUGE!

Typically I wait a bit myself, but seriously, there must be something to be said about these Ramuda foals. Way healthy!!!

Laura said...

He's a nice looking colt!!! Growing like a weed. I can't remember the deets on his bloodlines - how tall do you expect him to get?

Too bad about feed supply situation...sounds like you found a good alternative.

Krystina said...

Wow Shooter is coming along great! He is going to be a stunning guy thats for sure!

mmm Christmas cookies! I wish I had some time to set aside to enjoy that again....

gtyyup said...

He's really a handsome colt!

Cute names you picked. Hope you get the first one!

Andrea said...

I really like the first name pick!! Very cute! I normally only send in one name. My mother in law sent in all six and AQHA picked one out of the six. Lesson learned.

Scooter looks really good. Beat pulp went up to 21.95 a bag here. I was only paying 12 a bag. So, that was quite a jump. Safe choice is expensive here. I feed a 12% pellet that is 9.90 a bag. Then my two prego mares are getting that mixed with Omalean 300. That is a killer 14.95 a bag. Then my Ozzie is getting fed Horse Chow 100, a low protein complete feed. So, our feed bill can get up there. I am almost finished with my beet pulp bag and have switched over to bran. That at least is staying around 7 dollars a bag. It's crazy how fast feed stores run out of feed that is inexpensive. My father in law feeds his horses an all stock. I am not a big fan of all stock for horses.

Anyway, super long comment here. Your mare looks "skinny"! LOL!! I love the bellies on all your horses. Oh sweet Blue, he is my favorite.

Have fun baking cookies!! I need to bake some too!

Leah Fry said...

Hope you get your first choice - great name!

Vaquerogirl said...

I love the name! But then I would- I'm a gun Goddess!
Nice looking colt- love the thick rich color of his coat.
Have you tried the Natures Essentials by Purina? I have good luck with it, and the make one especially for mares- Mare Maintenance.It's concentrated and costs me about $24.00 a 50lb sack-but it last for about a month.

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Horse Crazed-Woofer is a true dun-she is actually quite yellow. I think the snow and the clouds this morning just dulled and darkened them up a bunch in the pictures. I'd trade you Shooter for that stack of cash...I'm not insane-LOL!!

DM-There is just something different about a colt that learns to travel in bigger areas. Shooter has done pretty good in his little 2 acre pasture, but will go to a big pasture next spring.

Laura-I'm hoping he doesn't get over 15.1H. The stud is about that size. Woofer is 15H even. Good to see you back-we've been missing your posts.

Natarojo and Gtyyup-Thanks.

Andrea-$21.95 for beet pulp? No wonder people can't afford to feed their horses anymore. Poor things!

VG-I have heard good things about the Nature's Essentials. I think mostly Woofer just needs her teeth done. We've tried to schedule the dentist several times this year and either he doesn't call back or we miss him when he comes through(we wouldn't miss him if he would just call back-sheez). After the holidays, I am going to contact a vet in Neb. and see if he does basic floats. Most of our horses just need a little maintenance, not the full work-up from the dentist. But since he works on my barrel horse's mouth, I cannot afford to lose him entirely.:(

cdncowgirl said...

Wow, oats $16/bag?? Yikes...

Hopefully you get your first name pick.
You mentioned that AQHA picks some dumb names, do you have any examples?

sue said...

Loved the pics of shooter and hope you get the name you want for him... your cookie look wonderful too... AND I feed Safe Choice and thought it did a grand job for my guys, nice to hear someone else is happy with it as well... my old boy is on Equine Senior... and we are big fans of beet pulp.. sorry it's been hard for you to find, and I feel grateful that it's not the case here....

keep warm with the snow...

kdwhorses said...

Like the name pic! He is so purdy!

Love the cookies~great job!

Man look at the white stuff! Looks cold! Love the pics!!

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Cdn-I can still get Exacta Oats(it's triple cleaned and coated with soy oil) for $12.50 a bag. That is up from the $9.50 I used to pay. But rolled oats jumped from $12.00 to $16.00.
Usually if you let the AQHA pick a name, they just look through the pedigree and pick out random names from there, stick them together and that is your horse's registered name. My brother accidentally let them name one of his mares and she came back with the registered name Watch Leo Command. Okay, she is Leo3 and Power Command bred, but I have no idea where they came up with the Watch part of it. It makes me think that she should have some Watch Joe Jack in her pedigree, but she doesn't. Nothing with Watch, whatsoever. I suppose they do the best they can, but part of the excitement for me is coming up with a "cool" name. One of my horses might be famous some day and I don't want them stuck with a dumb name-LOL.

Sue-I do like the Safe-Choice. I think I will be sticking with it. I won't be giving up my beet pulp totally though...It does wonders for those hard to keep horses. The feed stores have never run out before. They said it was because sugarbeet harvest was late this year. That coupled with the number of people who feed it these days sure drove the price up on what used to be a relatively inexpensive feed. Ten years ago-when I first started feeding it-people thought I was crazy. Hmmm?? I guess not so crazy after all-LOL.

K-Glad you are back online-we've missed you!! Snow yes-but not cold. Heck, yesterday it was 50 degrees.

Melanie said...

Shooter is looking mighty fine there in all of that snow!!! I love the names that you haved selected for him, and I hope that he gets to keep at least one of them. :)

Wow, your oats are expensive! I don't know what they run around here, but Bo's senior feed is $25 for a 50 pound bag, and he goes through two bags a month.

Stay warm and have a cookie for me!! lol!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow - Shooter is looking h-o-t. What a good looking baby. But, you're right, he doesn't look the part of a baby at this point. Good luck on the registration names - I like both of them.

Fantastyk Voyager said...

Shooter is sure nice looking! I hope you get the name you want. I'm looking foward to naming my baby next summer!
Why didn't you go with "Shooter something"?