fast six months

Well, that was a fast six months! On October 10th, Hope turned six months old. A lot has changed, and just as much has stayed the same. 

Perhaps you noticed, I took an unplanned rest-n-reset from Blogging. Somehow my hiatus turned into three months. Sincere thanks to those who reached out. You know who you are.

Life has been good. We have enjoyed a quiet end to a hot dry Summer and start to a cooler wet Fall. These days are all about wrapping up the gardening season, and getting ready for Winter. Along with a continuation of endless projects.

My last post about Hope was on June 27th. Unless you count the July 14th dunk-a-thon video. Those dunk-n-days are long over. Cue a not so brief update of all things Hope:

Daily indoor turnout came to an end.

June 2023

July 2023

August 2023

Hope was weaned at four months. It went well, just some normal calling. In preparation, she spent some time away from Mama Cierra each day. First in the indoor, and then in the outdoor arena.

August 5 (21 sec) indoor

August 6

August 7 (1:04 sec) leading out


August 7

August 7 (22 sec) leading in

August 10 (1:42 sec) outdoor zoomies

(note: arena was intentionally left to grow)

We changed things up, again. Hope began daily turn out alone in a (rotated) paddock in the middle of the upper pasture. Koda & Harmony hung around outside the paddock and kept her company. Cierra was turned out with Nemo in the bordering pasture.

Around 5 1/2 months old, we progressed to turning her out with Harmony. I pulled Koda out of their pasture just before Brad released Hope. We watched interactions for weeks, and really thought the trio would work well together. Hope is stalled between Koda & Harmony. We decided not to risk it after Koda started his usual pasture antics. Sigh. Our Appaloosa geldings have made horse care challenging lately. So far our girls have all been easy.

September 23
Hope being shown the fence line.

Adult horses L-R (Koda, Harmony and Cierra, Nemo)

I believe mixed herds are more natural and ideal. However, we really upset the balance within our mixed herd. We may try putting them all together some day. Maybe. Our current plan is to keep the mares & geldings separate. We are trying Cierra out with Harmony & Hope. Fingers crossed it goes well without incident or (re) lactating. Edited: Girls are all together today! 10/14/23

In other news, Hope got her first (Fall) shots on Wednesday. She is growing like a weed and has had her feet trimmed 3X already. I have yet to see her do the baby mouthing thing. Brad said he has seen it a little.

almost 4 months old

One thing that has not changed, is how much Hope continues to amaze us with her sweet trusting personality. On harder days, she reminds us ~ there is always Hope.