I took a few days off from taking photos of Hope, and boom ~ she is two weeks old! Posts are swirling around in my head...time passes so quickly. Lets get to a few updates!
I forgot to share these two photos in my last post. Hope walked away from Cierra and over to the far windowless corner. Brad and I looked at each other and both instantly thought...
"nobody puts baby in the corner"
4/15/23
no privacy, sorry Hope
Yes, I did just post a photo of our horse peeing. I thought it was cute that she chose to pee in the corner of the arena! Some people train their horses to go potty in corners. It hasn't happened again. Hope usually does her business in their stall. She learned that from Mama.
It is guaranteed that Cierra will pee the minute she gets back into her stall. Even when she is turned outside all day. It was helpful when she had to random test at horse shows.
You know what else she learned from Mama? Pawing. Ugh! All horses paw, but some more than others.
4/19/23 (13 secs)
As you all know, everything goes in a foals mouth. Buckets, humans, gates and even mama's poop. Blech! Hope has become obsessed with eating Cierra's poo. It's disgusting! Who wants to let a foal nuzzle their hands while chunks of poop are spewing from her mouth. Not me.
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4/14/23
"hey lady, put the phone down and pet me"
Cierra says "leave the gate alone" (14 sec)
We continue to be impressed with how good of a natural mom Cierra is. I was trying to hang her hay bag the other day, and kept missing. Now that would be a funny video! The bag clip just about bonks me on the head when it rebounds, every single time. Meanwhile I get covered in itchy hay lol. I am a little too short!
Brad normally fills hay bags (I am allergic to hay). I schlep around a step stool when I fill the hay bags, but not with a foal prancing around. Of course Hope wanted my attention. After about the 6th toss (and duck) Cierra nudged her baby away from me, as if to say "Leave her alone. She is having a hard enough time". It was very sweet, and I got the hay bag hung!
It goes like this: heft the bag up, toss the clip, jump! and try to catch the clip, damn! a little short, duck. Try again.
nom nom (7 sec)
Hope isn't the only one messing with hanging halters...
Tinkerbell (6 sec)
Hope watches us intently while we are doing chores. Speaking of chores, it is a wonder I get anything done in the barn. Take a look at these two funny Tinkerbell video's from last week.
(26 sec)
(11 sec)
We continue working with Hope daily. Getting her used to being touched all over. Short sessions, as many times as we can. She is curious, but cautious. We have a lot of "scratch me, scratch me" then quick retreating "don't touch me, don't touch me" going on. The good thing is she always comes back for more lovin' right away.
Hope shows progress allowing human touch, every day. Slowly. We are on her timeline. It takes a lot of patience.
Friends are anxiously waiting to meet her. We are asking them to wait until Hope is more comfortable around humans. Everyone will want to pet her. Can you blame them? Nope. It will be such great exposure for Hope to meet others! However until she is more comfortable, her exposure is us and our son and Harmony's girl. Along with our shorter four legged critters.
working on picking up feet 4/19/23
On Friday (at 11 days old) we noticed the very lowest part of Hopes feet (four socks) are suddenly black. Like someone put hoof black on them, black. Her tail has grown longer too.
4/21/23
We did one last day of bedding half straw and half shaving, before switching to all shavings. What a difference! Shavings make it SO much easier to clean their stall.
napping on fluffy straw
What is THAT?
Cierra's smallest filly halter is way too big. We bought Hope a suckling halter & her own lead rope yesterday. They didn't have the color I wanted. I don't think Hope will care. She will grow into the halters we saved, from when we got Cierra as a filly.
halter intro (12 sec)
Last week I mentioned adding a cone to the arena for Hope to play with. Other than a sniff from Cierra, and the scoot below from Hope no one has touched the boring cone.
(18 sec)
Yesterday Brad put up his version of a creeper feeder. At first I was unsure, and so were they. It is working perfectly! Last night Hope was messing with the supplement feed (Strategy). Brad also started putting some hay on the floor underneath the hay bag. She has been happy mouthing that too. We are trying to offer the busy girl alternatives, and maybe Hope will leave the manure alone!
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about 5 ft deep
eight days old 4/18/23
4/20/23
Hope at ten days old
5 comments:
Where has the time gone? Two weeks already? She’s growing up fast! Funny that her socks turned black. She’s growing into her full buckskin.
Some paw more than others? Yes! Cowgirl passed that trait onto Epona and I was there the moment it happened. Cowgirl was pawing for her grain and Epona watched her and then did it a couple times. Watched some more, and then started going to town. And the poop eating, too, which is supposedly really good for their gut health, but really gross. That went on for a long time.
It’s good to see they’re progressing so well. Cierra sounds like a very wise mama, and that will imprint on Hope and make her a better horse, too. I remember a story about a wild herd where the head mare had a filly and raised her up in the herd. One severe drought year the head mare took them to some far away, random watering hole. Years passed, the head mare died, but there was another severe drought and her filly, the new head mare, took the herd back to that exact same spot.
I good mama makes a good baby!
My foals all ate their mama's poop. I googled foal eating poop and here ya go:
The most common instance of horses eating manure occurs in foals. Foals eat the dung of their dam, the mare, to raise the microbial population in their hindgut.
When a foal is transitioning from their mother’s milk to roughage, they will often ingest manure to help them build up good gut bacteria. They may eat the dung because they need it for gut immunocompetence as well as myelination of the nervous system.
Building gut immunocompetence helps the foals’ bodies produce a healthy immune response if and when they are exposed to harmful substances. This helps the foal produce antibodies to fight these antigens.
Loved the Tinkerbell videos, what a character!
Hope's black points will become more and more obvious now. By 3 months she will be starting to blow her foal coat and all that black will really stand out. She's one gorgeous filly!
Well, that explains all the poop eating! Koda does it upon occasion too, when he had the sloppy plop's. Which interestingly have not reappeared since switching stalls. I thought Koda was trying to get every last undigested piece of grain. As for the filly, I thought it had to do more with mouthiness and boredom. Just nature taking it's course :)
Also wanted to add, incase you are wondering those boards are screwed in and very secure.
Linda, it sure is interesting how the moms pass on traits and how quickly foals pick up. I witnessed similar with rolling. Watched Hope watch Cierra, and then try it herself.
Shirley, Thank you! We couldn't have dreamed up a prettier well built filly. Of course we are very biased!! Brad thinks Hope is going to do very well in conformation classes.
I am just glad Hope is healthy and here. We are not getting any younger and have no plans for another young one.
What a goofy cat!
Love the videos of Hope, she sure is entertaining.
It brings back good memories of when we could drink coffee at the table and watch our foals play chase and then run into their moms.
Good times.
Enjoy it all.
I believe Hope is taller! She is sure pretty!
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