Oohhh Man! I have been working my butt off this last week. I'm sore and tired, so I have been sleeping at every opportunity. LOL.
The heat finally hit, so my schedule has changed. My alarm goes off at 4am now. Although, I am still struggling with that a bit. It takes me a bit to drag myself out of bed, but I am still up and rolling by no later than 5am. You cannot waste the morning this time of year.
I was getting at least 4 head of horses worked, along with a bit of random cleaning done, but I had to put all that aside to get some shades put up for the horses. I bought 2 kits awhile back and have been waiting to get help to put them up...and waiting...and waiting!!
With 104-106* temps in the forecast, I couldn't wait any more. I had to get them up. My poor hubby came home for a few days and helped me get started on one. I feel bad...it was over his birthday and to be perfectly honest...I was so concerned about getting the shades up, I totally forgot about his birthday. :-/. He said he didn't care, but I kinda think he did. Poor guy!
He had to go back to work before we got started on the 2nd shade, so after the promised help from someone else got pushed back another week, I said 'Screw it!' and put the shade up myself.
Let me tell you...It was no easy feat. These shade kits were not at all what I had in mind. They are m.a.s.s.i.v.e. The legs are 4 1/2" pipe and the purlins are heavy gauge, with the short sides being 12' and the long sides being 16'. It took me 4 mornings (about 20 hours) to get the damn thing up, whereas MH and I had the frame up on the other one in one morning. And in all honesty, I'm fairly surprised I didn't kill myself doing it alone. It's not perfectly square...and I do have one leg that is tipped in...but it's up and now both shades have their roofs on too. I even got a mister set up for the mares and baby(ies).
Oh yea...Still waiting for the Tiny Watch mare to foal. That poor mare. It's hot and she has gotten huge. I know she is miserable. I am praying that she foals in the next few days. We are supposed to have a reprieve from the hight temps for a few days and it would be nice if she and the baby got a few days before the intense heat comes back. I need to move some panels around, build her a foaling pen, add some sail shades on the ends of the structure shade and another mister and go buy some more straw bales to put down. I contemplated moving the mare over to a friend's, because she has an enclosed barn and it would be much cooler in there than here, but Scamper gets so freaked out about being moved around and separated from her friends that I decided she is too close to foaling to risk it. We'll just have to make do here. I'm trying not to be overly worried about this foaling, but so many people have had foals born dead, or lost them, or lost the mare, that I cannot help but feel more anxiety than normal. It doesn't help that this foal is very, very important to me. I am hoping for a colt this time. Hah!! All this time I keep hoping for fillies and have gotten colt after colt....Now that I actually want a colt, I'll probably get a filly.
(shrugs)...Either way, this foal is a keeper, so more than anything I just don't want anything to go wrong!!
On the sad side of things...Sassy absorbed her embryo again. Even with receiving the regumate shots. :-(. I don't know what is going on with her. Physically, she looks fantastic and she is traveling good. Something in her system isn't right though and even though she is making an embryo, she cannot carry. It's a sad, sad blow. I love my yellow colt by her and was hoping for several more. Not to mention that Cindy D. will not get her foal out of Sassy. I feel horrible. Talking a friend into jumping into the 'make a baby' game and then having it go so badly just sucks. I was hoping to raise a Starlight baby out of Sassy for myself too, so both of our plans are shot. I did tell Cindy D. that I would buy her stud fee and next year I will breed Belle to Starlight. That should be a good cross and even though I intend on using Belle, raising one baby won't set me back too much with her. I'm not opposed to riding a mare that is bred, so I can keep going with her for quite awhile next year and she will still only be 7 when she is ready to go back to work.
I dunno, this breeding business has been very costly these last couple of years. Two studs I bought stud fees to are dead, with no babies by them, one mare dead with no baby out of her, a lost stud fee because Frenchie didn't settle last year and now Sassy out of reproductive commission. It's a good thing I don't do this thinking I was going to make money on it. LOL.
And with that...I have to get back to work. Horses need rode. Right now is not a good time to try to sell horses down here, but I have to keep after it so that the ones I do plan on selling are ready to go when it's time. ;-).
4 comments:
I'm curious- don't the stallion owners have a live foal guarantee? I sure as heck wouldn't spend money on a stud without that. Even if it takes rebreeding for a couple of years, or whatever, I stand by my live foal guarantee with Beamer once the stud fee is paid. The only exception would be blatant mismanagement or abuse from the mare owner.
They have all had LFG and in most cases, the owners have been generous to let me change mares (as was the case when the gray mare was unusable and now they will let me use a different mare on the Starlight breeding too), but it's trickier when the stallion dies. The contracts I had on those stallions said they would only refund a portion of my stud fee, or allow me to breed to an alternative stallion they had standing. I did try to use Frenchie on that race-bred alternative stallion, but she didn't settle and I wasn't going to waste any more time or money on that. I wanted her bred to Firewater Fooler this year, so I cut my losses on that one. The other stallion that died, was slated for Sassy (after she produced a Starlight baby) and when he died, I could have used their other stallion (no refunds on him because I bought that breeding through a charity auction last summer), but I am not enamored of the alternate stallion, so I just wrote that one off.
I'll use Belle on the Starlight breeding next year, but Cindy is out. She just wanted one baby, preferably out of Sassy, and she is not interested in waiting another year.
Breeding is not for the faint of heart! I would be like you- get the shade up myself. Good for you!
Ya breeding seems to be a dicey game, I know a few people spent quite a bit of money to get a foal, makes me worry for my 2 next year
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