Sunday, June 12, 2016

Putting Along

It would seem that summer has arrived. As usual, the temps abruptly skyrocketed and for a few days I was scrambling to get water on everything to keep it from frying. I was mostly successful, but had a few patches in the pasture that didn't get a good soak and fried the grass in those areas.

I borrowed my neighbor's creaser attachment, which doesn't really fit our tractor, but MH fought with it until he got it chained into position and I promptly fixed the creases so that water is now running properly.

I think my irrigation woes have been remedied sufficiently for this year. It's going to take another year to get everything 'perfect', but like everything, it just takes time. I do think that this Fall, I will reseed my pasture to speed up the 'filling in' process. The vast majority of the acreage took really well, but there are a few areas that the grass is a little spotty. The neighbor told me it usually takes about 3 years to get a good, solid root system and all of the spots filled in. Then after that it's just taking care of it. And keeping those god-damn prairie dogs out of it!! Ugghhhh!! I bet I filled in 20 holes when I started irrigating. I need to call the gasser lady and have her come gas all of the holes along my fence line again. That also, will probably be a Fall project. As long as I have the irrigation on, I can keep those nasty, little rodents out of the pasture, but as soon as the water gets shut off for the winter, they start moving back in. A good kill before winter will keep them at bay. Since the people who own the land to the south of me refuse to do anything about their prairie dog problem...it will just be something I have to deal with continually.

I still haven't been able to get into the groove of riding regularly. Between the watering and the breeding, I've stayed pretty busy. I suppose if I was still inclined to kill myself trying to accomplish everything, I could be riding...But I am so over wearing myself out like that. Now that the water is running right, the grass is growing and all of the mares have been bred, I can start focusing on working some horses.

The whole breeding thing was a regular 3-ring circus around here right after I got back from Canada. Before I left, I took the gray mare and Sassy and her golden boy over to the breeding station. I knew the gray mare was due to come in again while I was gone and Sassy was going to be coming in somewhere around then too. I did not want to miss her, for sure. Sure enough, Sassy came in just before I got back and was ready to come home shortly after my return. She was bred to Starlights Starbrite...

Of course, that foal is already sold. As is Hawk, Sassy's palomino colt from this year. ;-). He didn't last long did he? LOL. I'm excited for Hawk's future. He was sold as a stallion prospect, so I retained some lifetime breedings to him as part of the deal. :-D. This Starlights Starbrite foal should be a hum-dinger too. You know, I got Sassy specifically to breed to Firewater Fooler, because I knew her pedigree was one of his 'magic crosses', but the more I have researched, the more I realize just how many different stallions seem to be crossing exceptionally well on the Colonel Freckles bloodline. That blood goes cow, reining and run with equal ease. I'm pretty dang excited about Sassy's future as a broodmare. I'm predicting that she will produce a sorrel, blaze-faced filly by Starlight. :-D.

I knew that both the brown Tiny Watch mare, Scamper and Beretta were due to come into heat within days of my return from Canada. It was my plan to take Beretta to Arizona and the brown mare to Utah to be bred. At the time, I did not know that the place I was getting Sassy bred at was willing to breed outside mares to to outside stallions. I wasn't thrilled about having to haul mares all over the place to get bred, but after last year, I wasn't comfortable using my regular vet for breeding services and the other breeding station I checked out has extraordinarily high rates. Once I found out that I could just take my mares to where I took Sassy to get bred and I observed how gentle this vet was with the mares, I decided to just take my mares over there to be bred rather than haul them all over creation.

Well, turns out the brown mare had already ovulated (I really dislike how quickly the TW mares ovulate. I mean, if they are showing 'heat', they have already ovulated. Grrr!!) and Beretta was in fact, ready to breed. I had to call A and ask her if she could collect Mags and ship me some semen right before she left for her wedding. LOL. It all worked out. Beretta, being the superstar she is, held that follicle until the semen got her, she got bred and then she promptly ovulated. Text book!! So Beretta is re-bred to Firewater Fooler...
This foal will be a full sibling to Ruger, who I am utterly in love with. I am going to hang onto him for awhile to see what he develops into. I think he is going to be pretty spectacular. Of course, I really, really would like a buckskin filly out of this cross, however, I am predicting that Beretta will give me another bay colt.

Scamper, we had to lutilase to get her to come back in. Figured since she likes to cycle every 2 weeks anyway, might as well just bring her back in when we were prepared and could get semen shipped at the appropriate time. That worked out and Scamper was bred to First Prize Stone...

This foal is the one I am most excited about. The genetics have me all twitterpated. LOL. I'm thinking this cross will produce my very first race horse. :-). Of course, this is the one I am hoping will be a colt, but I'm predicting a plain bay filly.

Last, but not least, was Frenchie. I couldn't really tell when Frenchie was cycling. I knew she had been following Beretta and Scamper, but since those two cycled earlier than anticipated, I was hoping I hadn't missed her. When I took her in to be ultrasounded, she did have a follicle, but we weren't sure what it was doing. She had some uterine lining that didn't shed from a previous follicle, so she wasn't really growing the new follicle. We checked back and her follicle had grown a little bit, so the vet gave her a shot to help her along and we ordered semen. Frenchie was bred to Second Painted Sign...

It took me a little bit to warm up to this cross, but now that I have, I'm thinking it's a pretty good cross. Frenchie sure enough worked on A Streak Of Fling, shortening up the back and strengthened up the stifle and hock on those babies...So I think she will add just enough of herself to this cross to make the baby perfectly balanced. As much as I love my little Flashy, I think this cross will produce a foal that is more to MY taste. Of course, I am really hoping Frenchie will give me a filly somewhere along the line, however I predict that this foal is going to be a brown colt.

We have already done a 14-day ultrasound on Sassy and she does have an embryo. However, it was a little bit smaller than a 14 day embryo should be, so we are going to check her back this week when Beretta is due to be checked. The vet said he has been seeing quite a few embryos that are smaller than they should be at the time the mares were checked, but all of the mares were in fact in foal. He thinks that fertilization may be being delayed for a day or two. Every year presents a different challenge to these breeding specialists. Last year everyone was having trouble with follicles in each horn, growing at different rates, this year seems to be delayed fertilization. LOL. I've actually learned quite a bit from talking to this vet this year, however all of the running back and forth does make me miss the days of when you just threw the mares out in the pasture with the stallion and let them do their thing. Hahahahaha.

10 comments:

Shirley said...

I take it Mags is grey? Does he carry a copy of the cream dilute gene? Wondering about the dilute babies from him.
First Prize Stone looks like the Orrin Mixer drawing of the perfect Quarter Horse. I bet on a sorrel colt out of Scamper.
It is going to be an exciting spring for both of us next year!

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Yes, Mags carries both the gray and the creme gene. His base color was palomino.

Unfortunately, no Mags/Beretta baby next year. Beretta did not take. She had a 42 follicle in the other ovary this morning and I cannot get semen by tomorrow, so I am just going to skip her this year and breed her early next year. Of all of the mares, she was the one I figured would take without issue.

Bisky said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I love listening to you talk breeding and bloodlines. There's so much knowledge and skill you demonstrate, and the quality of your breeding program shows.

Can't wait to see these babies grow and do wonderful things. Can't wait to see the next crop, too.

Crystal said...

How exciting, too bad about Beretta though, cant wait to see what they come out with, specially Sassy

Cut-N-Jump said...

I don't know if you would be interested, but if you remember our gelding Mondo was the Peppy San Badger/Colonel Freckles cross and dang if he wasn't a nice horse. Maybe a consideration for miss Sassy later on. Like maybe next year?

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

CnJ-Sassy's next few babies are already planned out, but who are you thinking might be worth considering?

Cut-N-Jump said...

There are two that come to mind. Mondo's sire and Holidoc. Our Colonel Freckles mare had been bred to him at one time and from what I understand, the nick was a good one.

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

I don't remember who Mondo's sire is and I'm pretty sure that Holidoc is dead. He was a 1983 model. Those nicks have been done and they work, but they don't bring anything to the table for me or my specific program. I don't need any more 'cow' added and the resale value isn't there either. Not like it is crossing her on race/barrel-bred stallions. The cross of CF and race/run is a hot commodity right now and only getting hotter.

I've actually got a bead on a couple more CF-bred mares that I would like to add to my band of broodies. I know where they are, just need to get contact info on the owners and see if they are interested in selling. I can only hope they are 1/2 as nice as Sassy is. :-)

Sherry Sikstrom said...

hmm, it does seem that every year brings issues.I have had mares who appeared not to show heat at all in one year, be so obvious the next they are like cats! That Richie mare of mine was that way when I first got her, then when we tracked back it was a drought year following so maybe they know what we don't?
excited to see what the crosses you have chosen produce