Horses and more horses

Well, the Brabant Stud we leased took a turn for the worse at the beginning of summer. He become seriously ill and we thought we would lose him. With daily medical attention he slowly made a recovery ( he got an infection in his leg that turned septic). Due to the massive doses of antibiotics, his loss of condition and difficulty in moving we were not sure if he would be able to cover the mares we had.
He has since made a good turn and is well on the road to recovery.

Last week we decided to preg test some of the mares, and so far the three we tested are all in foal to him.
So, we are all super excited to get some brabant babies from him next year.

Other news, Jess bred her Quarter horse mare Loretta and she too is in foal to a lovely quarter horse stud. Next year our spring should be full of lambs, calves and foals.

The baby we had this spring is doing just great. She now has a name and that is "Sandy", however looking at her markings she should perhaps have been called "Chicky" or "Ducky"..



Sandy is doing great and will be my future riding horse, being draft x quarter, she should make a great mountain horse. She is pretty a can be.

Missy, our Brabant mare did not foal this year, we had hoped she was bred last year, but she came up empty. She will still be preg tested to see if she caught this year.

Other horse news, Smoky and Crackers have had a fair amount of cattle work to do, these past few weeks.
Crackers is heading back to college with Jess,
and both should further their education this coming year.

The two new pups are also expanding their education,
They are doing great with the sheep so a meet and greet with the big horses was next on their to do list.

Some advice from Sherlock Homes for young Kushi:
"Horse's are dangerous at both ends and crafty in the middle." 

So, far all is good and the horses are pretty gentle with the pups.

and, the cows came home..

Due to a very hot and dry summer,
the pastures for the cows were running low,

the weather turned quickly 

and the beautiful fall days are making way for some colder ones.

Last weekend we decided it was time to bring the cows home.

As  we have good cows,
I did not expect it to be a big chore  to get them penned up and hauled away.

Roy and I saddled up, while Eric was the ground troop.

All went well,

and, as  expected it was fairly easy to get them penned up.

Except for one heifer...

This one heifer had the potential to ruin the day.

Every time we headed her towards the gate she would change her mind and dart off in another direction.
Roy blocked her, Eric blocked her and I blocked her.

Eventually, we got a little weary of her fun and games,
so I pushed a little harder than what  my "stress free cattle handling clinician" would have approved of,
 Blackie, got the message real quick and made the right choice.

She joined the herd in the pen.

So, we loosened the cinches, tied the horses and got into loading mode.

Five trips and a day later,
they cows were home.

As soon as we released them they recognized their home range,
off they went exploring their old stomping grounds.

At the end of the grazing season, the sheep ( in the distant background)
and the cows graze all the regrowth. 

The dogs came to see what was new,
and they too remembered the cows.

The whole summer the cows are pastured away from the ranch,
 the dogs do not see them all this time
and yet, when they return, the dogs have a quick look over,
and things settle back into the old routine.

This coming weekend, it is time to move the heifers home.

The cows coming home,
the geese flying south,

the gathering of the Sandhill cranes,

the leaves blowing off the trees and the first little bit of snow

is a reminder that winter is headed this way.

Gathering the sheep this evening with the first hint of blowing snow for this season.

It is a time where I feel a certain restlessness,

 a  touch apprehensive of what is to come,

and melancholic of what has been.

Big Willem

We bough a bull,
his name was Big Willem,

he has now become,

a Big Mac.. 

That is the short story, here is the somewhat longer version...

 

We needed some fresh blood so decided to buy an older Red Angus bull from a well established herd.
The only problem really was that Big Willem, as he was affectionately called,
was on the far side of old.

He flunked his semen test, but despite that,
we decided to let him have a shot at some breeding,
in the hopes of getting  one or two bull calves from him.

Yes, we do have a back up bull,
just in case Big Willem was firing too many blanks.
This is Blackie, the buck up bull.

So, in he went first with the heifers,
while Blackie serviced the cow group,
then we did a switch,
to ensure all had the bovines had exposure to 

both BW and Blackie.
Just in case..

So, with breeding season done, it was time for Big Willem to leave.

As, Jess decided to leave us and run off to college, on the other side of Alberta,
I was short some help in gathering and moving the cows.

So, Roy had to "cowboy up", pull his boots on and get with the program...

We gathered the heifer group where Big Willem was still hanging out,
we gentle pushed them to the corrals.








Once corralled. we moved BW into a smaller pen
and let the heifers go back out to graze the last fall grass.

The truck was lined up and would come the next morning to collect BW to take him to the auction.



Big Willem was not amused and was,
 in fact getting progressively grouchy about this arrangement.

We decided to feed and water him in his pen to try and calm his anger.

When Eric got there with a hay bale,
Big Willem was in the process of hoping over the cattle panels to rejoin his herd.

Eric ran to stop him from clearing the final panel,
but there was nothing to do to stop the old bull. ( He is 9).
he was up and away.

He disappeared into the sunset,
and with that,
 delayed his fate with destiny by a week or two.

So, round two.
The herd is in our sights, once again..

Roy and I repeated the above  mentioned process of gathering, corralling and  penning,
 the big difference this time is that BW did not get to hang out in his own pen,
he got loaded directly onto our trailer.

He had to hang out in the trailer for a day or two before
making his last, and inevitable trip.

And, that is how Big Willem, became a Big Mac.
The End.

PS: We hope to have a few little Wills running around our pastures next spring.

To be continued, next year.

Django

He is cute.

Take a look.

See all the mosquito's?

This is his solution for getting them out of his face..

Yep, very cute.

Visiting

What do sheep ranchers do when they have a day or two off?
Well,
they visit other sheep ranches.

Eric had some work to do in Dawson Creek, BC,
So we made it an over-nighter and decided to visit two friends.

The first visit was with Ken and Erin.
We originally got to know them through the border collies.
Ken is a keen sheepdog handler.
They have a sheep farm just outside of Dawson Creek,
so we decided to go and look at their sheep and dogs,
and, of course visit a little.

Ken and Erin have about 8 border collies at various stages of training.
It was great to meet all the dogs.
For the sheep protection they have also about 7-8 Big White Dogs.
Most of them are Akbash.

Sometimes, while taking some pictures,

 I do not notice the little details.
Looking at them on the pc,
 I can see that Eric was doing weird things to Nuge's ear.
"Eric, could you please leave the dog's ear alone..
Akbash's have floppy ears"

"No, not that either..
Honey, just don't touch the dog please..."

Thank you Erin...

Ken likes to build things,
He built this hay feeder that the sheep can push in.
He has also built a shearing table,
where the sheep get airlifted onto the table,
the table has rollers to maneuver the sheep while you can stand up straight and shear the sheep while laying on its side.
I, am not yet convinced that this is the way to go...

After this great visit, we stayed the night in a hotel that
was creepy.. stuff horror movies are made about.

We survived.

We then went to visit Brent
  with his Brabant Draught horses.

We had Brabant's in the Netherlands
and Eric, would love to have a heavy horse again,
not any draught horse,
 it has to be a Brabant!
We have had email contact with Brent for a few years now about his horses,
 and this was the perfect opportunity to go and visit and meet his horses.

Gus, the stud.

A half Brabant

Some mares, some full Brabant,
others, crossed with Percheron.

A future team perhaps?
Half Brabant, half Percheron

We had a great visit and a nice little break from the routine here at home!