06/30/09

OK, at this point in our Saga, we're up to 6 horses. The four we purchased and the two babies. Time to see how well Mandy does on baby number three.

We had to wait for awhile for number three, the one that Carolyn just calls Dancer. I'd suggested "SunDancer" ... but she never really took to that, I guess. As you can tell, I need to get the camera out and get back to taking pictures, it appears as though all of the pictures of Dancer were taken by Carolyn with her Polaroid. Dancer is a wonderful, friendly fella, but does have one shortcoming. He's not short. At one-and-a-half years old, he's the tallest horse we have, taller even than Bear and Suzy. He's still the apple of Carolyn's eye, though.

We added to the herd in the summer of 2003 after Carolyn saw a local ad in the paper. Someone had rescued a little stud, and was looking for a home for it, the little guy didn't really fit in at their place since they had a setup for full-sized horses. We drove over to Poseyville and immediately liked the little guy. Bullet was a carrot colored little guy about the same age as Windy and we thought he'd make the perfect companion for her. He wasn't as perfectly formed as our crew, his legs seemed a bit short for his body. He was very gentle though, so we thought he'd fit right in. Apparently, he'd been rescued from another local farm where the owner had thought Bullet was "cute" and kept him in a doghouse!

Now, we fully expected a new baby in 2004, since both Suzy and Mandy looked very pregnant this year. In fact, I was surprised in mid-summer to find Mandy hadn't delivered yet (no surprise with Suzy, of course), since she's been so dependable. During the summer she showed significantly, her belly dropped and one could see the outline of a leg on one side (or so it appeared), but summer came and went and we're now nearing the end of autumn as well. It certainly appears as though something happened and she lost it. Never having seen any sign in the pasture, we assume she must've reabsorbed the baby. So, it'll be awhile before she has number 4, sadly. Carolyn cannot wait for foals, she just loves the fact that they're REALLY tiny.

With no baby in sight for this year, Carolyn jumped at the opportunity to get one any other means possible. She located a mare and foal in the Freeland area, and we went over to take a look. They were both perfect, of course - good conformation and great personalities ... but Carolyn was even more taken with the other "little stuff" at that farm. You see, they raise miniature goats and had some babies around. Can you imagine a goat the size of a cat? Anyway, several days later we hitched up the trailer and went to get our new additions. The mare, Hannah, has a very pleasant and gentle disposition -- with us anyway, she lets Mandy know she's not impressed with her status -- and has fit in very well. Her filly was 3 months old at the time we brought them home, and is a real darling. She'd been played with by young children and was very used to being handled and completely unafraid of anything. It's quite amusing to be rubbing her neck and have her try to lay down in my lap (she's not THAT little anymore!). We cast around for a good name for the little one and finally decided that her color gave us an excellent clue. She's a pleasing spice color, sort of a cinnamon, so we settled on "SpiceGirl", or "Spicy" for short.

And in 2005, Hannah gave us another little one - we've named him Cinnamon (keeping the spice thing going) due to his color. While Spicy just tried to lay in our laps, you can see from the pictures that Cinnamon did just that for some months. In fact, it was pretty funny to see how fast he'd go completely limp as soon as he was in your lap ... my surmise was that it was (to him) like being in the womb - completely relaxing.

I need to update the pictures, but following the year after Cinnamon was a little fellow that only lived a week (Ginger). He was a pretty little guy born to Spicey -- her first, and she turned out to be unsuited for motherhood. Didn't produce enough milk, so the vital first day was a disaster. Somehow - between trying to milk Spicey and hand feed the little one, and even getting a vet in on the action, we managed to keep him alive for 5 days, but after the vet informed us that even if he survived through the weekend with expensive vet care, it was unlikely he would live, we let him go quietly. It was heartbreaking to Carolyn, but her pain was alleviated a week later when Spicey mother, Hannah, surprised us with another colt. Beau (short for yet another spice - Beaumonde) is another perfect little stallion, not that we needed any more male hormones around here. And not long after Beau, our herd mare, Mandy, gave us yet another little colt. So far he seemed to be Midnight Dancer very dark grey to black and seems to be keeping silver stockings as well.

Click on Next (below) to go through the horses, or use the links at the left to go directly to 'visit' one of the little guys.