What is that thing again?

Twister and I began daily training last week. He is so funny about it. We really should have kept up with the halter as he has been growing but when he was about 3 months old he realized that the halter restricted him and did not like the feel of it on his nose. We were then so busy, I just did not work with him as I should, but he is so comfortable with us that it is not a big concern. Over the past month or so I have just allowed him to smell it, play with it and to just set on the end of his nose. I tied the halter after he got confidence with it being on the end of his nose.

Here is a photo I took with my phone while we were working. He was just trying to pretend not to see me. His horsenality is mostly left brained introvert, when learning he can go right brained, but he usually stays left brained or returns left brained quickly. I don't know if this might change as he gets older but it is pretty consistent so it leads me to believe that this is his horsenality. He reminds me so much of his Daddy, which is very good!

Ok...I know I am behind....way behind!

We finally have something new to report!  Twister is being weaned.  I had put it off for a bit, though he is still within the age range that is acceptable.  At four months he just still seemed young.  He was becoming more independent and we had to rotate fields with some of the horses to protect the field from over grazing as much as possible.  

It has not been the horror that I thought it would be, and we are on the second day.  He calls to Mom and she to him, but this morning was the only real fit we had and it was Mom, not Twister!  He has begun to realize that maybe Mom backed him up more than he realized.  He ran out to me in the field today when our pony would not let him in the stall to eat.  He hollered until I walked back up there with him and made her be nice to him.  It was funny becasue it was like he was tattling. He ran up to me, stopped and then started hollering!

He is becoming much more attatched to me as well and like to just walk the field with me and loves to get his neck scratched.  He is getting so big, he is bigger than our 10 month old colt and he is only at 5 months!  Here are the photos...doesn't he look sad?

OOh my! Poor little ducks...

I think that maybe Twister was just tired of being in the barn out of the rain. Although he has free access to the field, Mom doesn't like the rain, so he stays in during the rain. When he got out in a lull in the storms he saw the poor little ducks that were playing in the puddles in the field. They were a bit spread out and I guess he was just helping Mama duck out.He is so "cowy" he had them all in a circle and then was pushing them out of the field...until Daddy duck came out that is. He is so quick and has such power in those front legs! Such a big boy, It is hard to believe that he is over 2 months old!

School's Out!

We finally finished all the end of the school year activities and the long holiday weekend. Now we can take a break...at least until summer school starts next week!

Twister had a new experience yesteray. Our daughter had a campout in the backyard and put up a tent. He was a bit curious about this new thing in his yard. He spent a lot of the evening looking at it with curiosity. When I woke up this morning all of the horses were still looking at the tent, though I think at this point it was because they heard the girls and wanted to be fed!

Twister loves to be scratched between his ears and has really started developing a great "horsenality". He has a great level of curiosity. but also a fair level of confidence. Not overly confident, but just ready to experience new things.

I have also taught him how to make sure that he gets his own feed in his own feed bucket. I feed Mom and Dad in the barn and then feed the ponies in the field and he now waits patiently for me to bring him his bucket. He knows it is coming so doesn't follow me back and forth. He only gets a small amount of a high quality concentrated pelleted feed which means that he is finished long before the others! I am proud of his ability to learn quickly, I can't wait to translate this to ground skills training! We are excited about this sweet baby of ours!

Remember...he is not a baby, but a HORSE!

I have to keep reminding myself of this fact. I have been working with all of the horses and Twister has begun to really see my as a part of the herd, but he also sees me play with the horses. Now, in the play I use the Parelli Seven games which are really just ways to communicate with the horse,like a horse. Twister has really been watching this pretty intently...maybe a bit more intently than I was ready for. Twister was trying to play a little nipping game with me today, this is the same game he plays with the "big" horses. To protect my space (and my leg!) I drove him back, them allowed him to come back to me in a polite way.

This can be more tough than it seems. I see Twister as a little baby and I love that he comes up to me so easily. There was a part of me that hated to drive him, but it was done in a very gentle way using rhythmic pressure and really just moving the air around him. I did it is was successful and I was feeling pretty good about it, until.....Twister decided that when I had my back to him he might see if he could get me to move away from his pressure. Luckily I saw it coming and was able to drive him backwards again. I guess I am officially a "horse", a part of his herd in his eyes.

I will have to talk to the kids about protecting their space with this little playful one!

Feeding time at the Zoo!

Well, Twister's Mom Sally is getting a bit dominant at feeding time trying to eat everyone's feed so I have decided to regain my spot as the "alpha mare" of our little herd. I took my carrot stick and made it easier on her to do what I wanted instead of what she wanted! As long as she stayed with her overly generous feed bucket, I released all pressure. When she started pinning her ears, baring her teeth and going for someone elses bucket I not only drove her away. but had them go back to their bucket before I would allow her to go back to hers. After only a few attempts she realized that she was not getting ahead and instead just stayed at her bucket. Now the funny thing is that I also put a bucket there for my little boy with just a little of the feed , and he took his place at his own bucket....pretty cute!

Twister and the Round Pen

Twister saw Daddy working in the round pen yesterday and watched from outside looking in. He really wanted to get in and see what it was about. The round pen is in the field they are in, so it is a part of what he knows. Well, this morning I look out and Twister and Butterscotch are both playing in the round pen. I love seeing him discover new things with a confidence.

Twister was pushing the barrels around with his nose and playing with the ball that is in there. So much confidence....now if Butterscotch our barrel- jumping pony will just teach him to jump it... :)

We also noticed that he has 2 new baby teeth. They are certainly helping him eat more hay, and not look so silly doing it!

We plan on working Sally in the round pen now that Twister is comfortable with it. She needs to be "led". Without a leader stronger than her, she is getting to be a bit spoiled and bratty without the confidence and stability that training gives her. She needs a good brushing out too! I think she is shedding her whole coat again!

When I grow up....I want to be a cutting horse!

Twister was off playing with Butterscotch and wandered away from Mom. Now this is still great with him..if it is his idea. Mom left him and went over to eat hay and he proceded to play some dominance games with Butterscotch that he quickly again realized that he might not win. He had to run the full length of the field to get to Mom before Butterscotch got to him! Look at the dust when he was running around the round pen. He ran the whole way neighing to his Mommy. He does have some speed on him though!

Such a little pest.....

Now, we all know how cute our little Twister is, he has really perfected his gait and does not look quite as clumsy. He plays with the ponies and is even eating hay, but he has developed a fun new game. This game is "bite the big horses ears while they graze".
First, let me say that Twister does not realize how very lucky he is. He loves to play this game with Lightning and Lightning is being way more patient than most horses would be. When he drops his head to graze, Little Twister comes up and bites his ear...Lightning lifts his head above Twisters' and then drops his head to graze and the game is repeated. Twister does not grow bored of the game for quite some time. After about 10 minutes Lightning gently lifts his neck and and pushes Twister gently off to the side with a gentle driving game.
Twister then moves on to the other horses, though Mom is not at all patient with the game...he gets in one, maybe two quick bites before he gets a quick bite on the hiney. He is a lucky horse to have such a great Dad.

Meeting the rest of the herd....hmm this could be fun!

Today when Sally and Lightning were in the barn eating their evening feed, we put the two ponies back into the field. We did this because Butterscotch is a pony with a lot of "go". We knew that as she entered the field she would have to run a few laps and buck and roll. She did all of the above. I don't think she stopped for a good 10 minutes. Then she grazed for a bit and started all over again! She had most of this out of her system by the time that Mom, Twister and Dad came out of the barn.

Twister became instantly intrigued. Now to give you a picture...since I of course did not have my camera...the ponies are a little over 40 inches (10 hands) at the withers (base of the neck). If I were to take a guess Twister is about 9 hands at the withers, so the size is about the same. There were a few curious "I'm not looking at you" sideways glances, but then he realized that they were not a threat. He then proceded to drive Butterscotch. What he did not know is that his Mom was behind him at first and was giving Twister the backup he needed to be in charge of the poor pony, but soon he was able to do this on his own.

He was able to drive her several more times and in between she was really showing off as well. (They may actually be made for each other!) Mom was generally OK with this, until he took out at a full sprint at Butterscotch....Mom felt like maybe he was getting a bit big for his britches at that point and cut him off and drove him back towards the barn a few steps.

I think he may have finally found someone with as much play drive as he has! I bet he will sleep well tonight!

Meeting Daddy

Today we made the first step reintegrating the herd. Little Twister has begun really bucking and rearing back all the way around the hay ring. I actually think he can outrun Mom, as she was pouring it on and he was able to keep ahead of her. Now in her defense, she tried a few maneuvers to cut him off and drive him the other direction. He had not listened to her and she was running to catch him to show him that she could. About 3/4 of the way through the challenge he realized that he was in trouble and ran back up to the barn with her a close second.

His run began when he was showing off for Daddy (Lightning) and our Thoroughbred, Hassle. He was playing with them and trying to run with him. His Mom has relaxed quite a bit and she has introduced Twister to the rest of the herd across the fence for the last few days. We decided to bring Lightning back over with Sally and Twister and it was a seamless integration. They all even go in and out of the same stall without incident, even though there is space for each to have their own. We are excited that they are all doing so well!

Sleepy Day!

Today Twister ate and slept most of the day, though I did see that he was trying out his racing legs a few times. He goes as far a Mom will let him, stands there and looks at our big horses a bit, and then runs back to Mom as fast as he can. I guess all of that running wore him out, because everytime I had the camera....he was sleeping!

In the Field with Mom...

Sally allowed little Twister to leave the area behind the barn today and let him go into the field. He was able to run, give a few little bucks and even tried to round up our 2 poor ducks! I guess he is going to be a bit "cow-ey" just like his Daddy. He is so steady on his feet now, but I think he may be thinking he is a little bigger than he actually is. He stands and proudly looks into the field where our 2 geldings (One of them his Daddy Lightning)are living and just watches the big guys! Now when they look back he hides behind Mommy!

There is life outside this barn!

Well, with Twister being born in cold, wet and windy conditions he had been in the barn his first 2 days of life. Today it was a very sunny day and Mama (Sally) actually let Twister go out of the barn.

Now, you have to understand that this was difficult for her. You see, like many kids Twister has a listening problem. Sally would drive him to one stall and, as her back was turned, he would walk to the other one. She could not eat and watch out for him. After a bit of frustration and a few quick nips to the hindquarters he was back in line. We decided today to allow Sally and Twister to have free access to the field. Twister took several naps in the sun...always posiitioning himself behind Sally's very powerful legs.

This evening Sally taught Twister to run. He looks so funny with those long legs...looks like he was running on stilts! Of course the camera was inside so we don't have any pictures of him running. We can't wait to see him playing in the field!

It's My Birthday!

Well, today was the day we have been waiting for. Our little colt finally decided to grace us with his presence. His name is Twist of Fate, but we call him "Twister". His dam is our Tennessee Walker Mare, Sally and his Sire is our Quarter Horse, Lightning.

Twister's Story has more twists and turns than you can imagine. It all started when we purchased a "bred" Tennessee Walker Mare. She was bred to a Tennessee Walker stud for a late summer early fall 2007 foal. Well she was underweight when we bought her because these awful Welsh Ponies were beating her up and keeping her from the food. We brought her home to add her to our herd.

She got larger over time but at the end of July 2007 the changes were slowing down. Her udders were smaller and the milk was only a bit cloudy. She was not getting any bigger around her belly and we made an appointment at the vet. The vet palpated and ultra sounded her and to our disappointment, told us that she was not pregnant. She thought that the udder development was due to excess hormones.

We also had our 2 year old Lightning gelded the same day. He had been sold to us as a gelding and because he was so young he had not dropped and until we put Sally in the field with him he showed no signs of being a stallion (not to mention..we thought she was already pregnant!)

At the end of February 2008 we noticed that Sally was getting more wide. It was definitely no longer a hay belly. Because she had had an ultrasound at the first of August with no baby and Sally had only been with our geldings, we thought that there was no way she could have been pregnant...just that we would have to really work her in the spring! We grew concerned then though because her belly was growing so rapidly. We took her into the vet the first week in March. After a quick palpation it was quickly discovered that there was a nose and two very big feet. We were going to have a baby...and it was our boy Lightning's baby. This was ideal. We had regretted gelding Lightning as he is such a wonderful horse. He is confident, and very much a partner. He is very well balanced and can balance a new horse in the course of a few days...they just can't help but follow his lead.

Because the baby was so large, it was difficult to get a due date. This was the beginning of a lot of worry for us. We had not had Sally off of fescue because we did not know she was pregnant. She had less udder than she had had in July of 2007. We immediately took her off of fescue and gave her a high protein feed divided into several meals a day. We bought foal colostrum..just in case and began monitoring her progress. At the time of her exam, the vet thought that we had maybe 2 weeks left, if that. Well of course just to be more unpredictable, Sally went almost 4 weeks!

When we first thought Sally was pregnant we came up with Twist of Fate as a foal name. We had moved from Louisville KY, where we had lived for 11 years to Bolivar Missouri and this was a great move, but very unexpected. We certainly had not seen ourselves in a place where we would have a farm with horses (expecting to stay in the Louisville area), so we thought that this name was fitting. Well, considering the twists and turns in our foal's story, this seemed even more fitting now.

We would like to introduce.... Twist of Fate or "Twister". He was born on April 12, 2008. He was of course born on a day in the Ozarks where it was 32 degrees with 20 mph winds. We had sleet, snow flurries and it was just plain miserable! The week before we had 60 degree days and beautiful days, though we had had excessive rain. Very unusual weather for a very unusual baby.

We have been using imprint training and he has even been exposed to the halter. Here is a photo of Twister. We will update his blog so friends and family can watch our boy grow!