Poit finally popped! And on July 4th to boot! I obviously left her with the buck for longer than I remembered. This is why I write down breeding dates. I kicked myself the entire time because the suspense was killing me, or at the least making me a very tired person due to the constant late night checks. I believe she went about twenty hours after her ligaments completely disappeared. Most does, in my experience, will go an average of eight to twelve hours after their ligaments are gone. Dakota always went a full twenty-four, however. The first kid was a little stuck. She was coming out breech, but with her rear legs folded beneath her. I had to push her back in and had a little trouble getting my hand through the pelvis, but with patience and some gentle maneuvering I got it done. I had to cup my palm under the hooves and straighten the rears leg so they could slip through properly. I had my hubby shine a flashlight for me and I swear his face turned green. He is fine with gutting a deer, but the sight of birth fluids nearly makes him lose it.
In any case, the second kid came easily, and the third kid was trying to come head-only. He was big, so I brought one foreleg forward and helped pull him out. If they are large, leaving one foreleg back against the body can help them move through the canal. They only need a head and one leg forward when coming out in a normal position. Breech requires both legs to be coming out due to the bulk of a folded hock. I had to help pull with the last, but it wasn't too difficult for her. She gracedme with two bucks and one doe, all very lively! I was so nervous about this birth because of the troubles her breeder had with her. Not only were they all on their feet within minutes of birth, but they all have straight legs! :) After that huge weight was gone, Poit's legs looked much straighter. She still toes out behind, but minimally in comparison to her original leg set. She walks well too. I'm going to try and show her in August and see how we do. Her udder is beautiful, so I'm hopeful she'll do well. She is really a gorgeous doe. Her only caveats are those legs and they have come a long way. I will be retaining her doeling, who is gold with that huge white overlay their daddy gives to most of his kids. One of the bucks is the spitting image of Poit's father from color to spotting. He is gorgeous, and as long as his legs stay nice I'm thinking of keeping him as a buck.
Firelight Ranch Liberty Belle
She has those gold patches on all four legs, which I love. If she is like her dad, she'll have more hidden spots on her top-line under her coat which will finally move to the top as she ages and will be super visible with a clip job.
Firelight Ranch TH Patriot
This little boy has blue eyes. At first I thought, "Gizmo must have gotten in and somehow bred Poit as well..." I sold Gizmo in June, but he was the same exact color. However, so was Poit's sire. This boy has the same body spot and hints of his grand-sire's ankle spots. I love his build so far, but it is so hard to evaluate an infant kid.
"Rocket"
This guy is a riot, he just bounces off the walls. He will be wethered. He might make a good buck as well, but there are plenty of nice bucks in the world and because I won't be keeping him I don't want to go through the effort of trying to sell him as such. It's much more difficult than selling a doe kid or a wether. I might reconsider once he is older and more developed and I've given mom a good 12 hour fill. Time will tell.
I was supposed to pick Angel up this Sunday, but the breeder's truck broke down. She was going to meet us in Roseburg. We will be at my mother-in-law's all weekend, however, which is only an hour from her farm. I shot her an email to see if swinging by on Sunday and picking her up would be alright instead. Crossing my fingers because it would really save gas to not have to make a separate trip.
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HORSES:
There is a lot going on for me on the horse front right now as well. I've agreed to work with a filly for a friend, who also owns the stallion who is my foal's sire. Granted he shouldn't own a stallion at all. I trained his stallion to hand breed just so I could have a foal by him because he is a beautiful, hugely talented horse that I wanted a copy of (that is being very much wasted at this time, he could be a great performance horse.) This filly I'm working is beautiful! She is a Mustang/Quarter Horse cross and she is a grulla. She has a beautifully thick mane and tail as well. To top that off, she has a very good personality. Honestly, this guy has no clue when it comes to horses. He is lucky that he has three very tolerant horses with great personalities. I watched him attempt to catch her and it took him a good fifteen minutes. There is another mare in a small pen with her. He just chased them for fifteen minutes before roping and removing the older mare. He swore it was the only way to catch the filly. I'm guessing it would take less than five minutes to catch either if you went about it correctly, but I'm not the kind of person to push my views on someone else unless they are endangering someone or something (in other words, I DO nag him about his crappy fences.) He then led her to the round pen. She kept planting her feet and refusing to move, and then plunging right through him. He cringes and acts afraid and his horses have zero respect for him.
I got her in the round pen and did some work with her to establish some ground rules. I then took some time to touch her all over and then started tossing a rope all over her body. She was a little jumpy and did the usual dance and then settled. But when I got to her rear legs she kept panicking like I was murdering her. The owner told me that he had been roping her rear legs to try and teach her not to panic when something tangles around her feet, because his fencing is so bad that the horses can get their feet caught up in it. I nearly shook my head at him but stopped myself. No wonder she is so terrified of a rope around her back feet! He has been roping her hind legs like you would a calf in a rodeo. If he insists on continuing to do things like this to his horses, I don't know how much my working with her will accomplish. He may just go back and undo everything I'm going to be trying for. Also, your fencing shouldn't be dangerous. He needs to fix his fence so that a leg becoming tangled is nowhere near a possibility, but he is lazy and cheap.
Even with the initial panic she displayed, it didn't take me long to convince her that not only was it alright to stand calmly while I threw a rope over every part of her body, but that I was her best friend in the entire world and she should give me her full attention at all times. She has a lot of heart and try and really wants to trust me. She seems to appreciate having a leader and some guidance, I think it makes her feel more confident and at ease. She is very sensitive, quick and athletic and she learns in an instant.
With three horses I don't need another, but my sincere hope is that eventually I can talk the owner into selling her to me. He wants mares to cross on his stallion, but his group of riders has convinced him that small horses are a bad thing to have. His stallion is probably 15 hands, and this filly is only about 14.2...So he won't breed her to him, and wants some tall mares. Yet he is holding onto her because he is convinced that she is worth a ton of money just because of her color. He was also suckered into believing she was a registered Quarter Horse because they gave him some papers from some bogus organization I have never even heard of. Yet the papers state the sire is an AQHA stallion and the dam is listed simply as "mustang." He got her as a stunted, starving yearling for $800. He is set on finding an Andalusion stallion to breed her to. I almost face-palmed at that. I think he'll give up on the whole thing as he isn't going to find one around here and won't be willing to spend the money to transport semen or haul her any great distance. He also doesn't understand the way a professional breeding farm operates and he wouldn't be into all the vet fees, board fees, booking fees, mare care, ultrasounds, etc. that the farm might require. I'm sure he'll want more than she is worth, and by the time I have her going well a lot of the value will be due to my own unpaid efforts.....but I'm willing to make payments on her if I can haggle him down, and maybe work with his other mare or stallion if he'd do a part-trade. I have the money to care for another horse, but not the space. So my big gelding would have to go, but that would be easy considering how child and beginner appropriate he is. We will see how it pans out...At least I get to work with her.
Now to my own horses. My mother decided not to trade her flashy overo gelding for my own because she paid too much for him. Also, she is buying a really ugly little pony to ride. Luckily my mom five foot nothing and as small as a pixie. She has been using him to trail ride on and he is very trust-worthy and she is simply tired of being frightened. So Chief stays, unless I buy this grulla filly. I have been working with him when I can get in some saddle time between my responsibilities and the scorching hours of the day. He is so heavy on the forehand and stiff (and slow), but he is coming along. Unfortunately he is built in such a manner that I can only do so much for his carriage and athleticism, but he is a very reliable guy. I'd love to do some reining and gaming with him, but I have a feeling he is better suited for something a little less demanding.
I gave Pandora her first bath a few days ago. She had some diarrhea for a single day, but it cleared right up after leaving her poor little behind a mess. She didn't fret very much over the water and we got to practice tying on a line with a lot of give. She was a champ. :) Here are some new photos of her at six weeks old:
She is getting so big! And look at that little muscle-butt! There is no doubt in my mind at this point that she is a roan. That makes me extremely happy. :)
