Just Spring and Fall…

Why can’t we just have Spring, and Fall without all the nasty wind? I’m hot! Ok so I’m spoiled, I know that, but high 80’s, and 90’s without air is a bit much for me in my old age. Ah those days of youth when 100 degrees was nothing, barely noticeable even. We didn’t have air conditioning in our school when I was growing up, and I will forever remember the nunnies saying if they could deal with the heat in their wool habits then we had no room to complain. They don’t make them like that anymore. We did have fans, and they would open all the windows, and doors. Nowadays our kids would faint from 100+ degree temperatures under those conditions, and parents would be outraged saying it was inhumane, child abuse even. We had swamp coolers at home of course, but once the monsoons hit, they only made things worse. I remember going home (LA) for summer vacations. Everyone there was dying because of the heat, and I was asking for a sweater or coat because I was freezing. My how times have changed. We have all become spoiled.

I did ride in the heat day before yesterday, getting done about three, and suffering yesterday totally exhausted. Today there was a breeze, and some clouds. I elected to clean stalls. I got three done then died going inside in the late afternoon. We’ll see how I fare tomorrow. I have to start teasing Sadie & Lizzie tomorrow. I was supposed to start today, but oh well. Ibn was oogling at Sadie, and she seemed uninterested, well not totally, she’s in love with Ibn after all, and is never totally uninterested. This brings me to a conversation on one of the chat groups on equine repo. The question is do stallions have preferences. Personally I don’t see why animals should be any different from us, and Lord know we all have our own preferences. The person asking had a stallion who was more or less uninterested in their mares except for one who behaved like a total witch (she used another word, you figure it out) kicking, and screaming even though she was obviously in season. Now our boys have no such problems. In season or not, if it has a tail that swishes, they’re Johnny on the spot. They are both totally enamored of Sadie however. She’s their favorite. We call her our little harlot, because even at the ripe old age of 22 she loves the boys. She’s an easy breeder, and always takes the first time round.

One person mentioned that her stallion never took an interest in his own daughters, and wondered if there were pheromones that told a stallion which mares were closely related. Now Mother Nature is a lot smarter than we are, and it seems to me that common sense will tell you that she will take care to ensure that stallions know the difference, otherwise the species would not have a very good survival rate due to in breeding. Why do we need studies to tell us what should be a no brainer? We currently don’t have any daughters on the farm so I can’t test out this theory, but then again I don’t think I really need to. People are the only ones who force inbreeding amongst the animals that are in our care. In the wild they seem to figure it out just fine. Young studs are kicked out, and later build their own harems from unattached or stolen mares. The strongest, and the best seem to find each other just fine. It’s only we inept humans that breed the less desirable in order to try to fix conformational problems in animals that should never be bred in the first place. Considering that our stallions are hot to trot after all our mares, which we carefully picked, I would assume that we were pretty good at picking quality mares. If a stallion weren’t interested in a particular mare, then I would begin to wonder why.

Now the mares are another story. They can be picky for any number of reasons. Lizzie I think doesn’t really care for Ibn, but has no problem with Jeri. I have no clue why, but taking her lead I’m going to try to let Jeri breed her. She seems to like him just fine even when she’s not in season. Ibn she strikes out at. Of course it could be that she knows he can’t reach her, but I don’t think so. She’s old but not that old. I think we, as breeders really need to listen to our animals, and take clues from them. If I said all this on the chat group I would probably be blasted (which is why I won’t), but these are simply my thoughts on breeding, and everyone else is entitled to their thoughts as well. Since I have not once had anyone say anything negative about our stock, I think we must be doing something right. Not that I would be outraged if someone did. In fact I take all comments on our horses seriously. Anything we can do to enhance our stock we will do. If bringing in another bloodline would improve our lines I want to know about it. I am certainly not the end all of knowledge here. I simply try to use the common sense that God gave me.

On another subject, Star is finally coming home, along with a few of her friends. I’ll know Tuesday for sure if they will be coming next weekend or the weekend after. Sammy will be coming too I hope.  I can’t wait to see him. Aulina has been ridden for over a year, but Star, and Cupid aren’t even green broke, meaning they have only been ridden a few times. I will have a lot of work to do teaching them their p’s, and q’s. Aulina they have had problems with, either her pulling the limping ruse, or bucking. I think she just needs a stronger hand that won’t give in the minute she pulls something. We’ll see. I also am concerned that they have had issues with her colicing. She never coliced while here so I’m not sure if it was the feed they have been giving her, or the confines of space. All our horses have large runs. Well Sadie’s isn’t so big, but it doesn’t matter because she doesn’t move if she doesn’t have to anyway. That’s why her feet get so long when she’s not in pasture. If I don’t have any issues with Aulina colicing while she’s here then I know it has something to do with the setup where she’s at. I’m not sure what they want to do with Aulina since they had planned on showing her, and she’s coming here. The little girl is riding another horse, but it seems that that’s because she has had problems with Aulina. They don’t want to sell her, so maybe at some point they will breed her.

Zara, Lightning’s dam is also coming. They don’t really know what to do with her either. In fact all the horses they are sending me they don’t know what to do with, or don’t really want, but can’t sell. Right now the market for Arabians stinks. Zara is a good producing mare (just look at Lightning), but she doesn’t jump, and they don’t really like her as a riding mare. I plan to put a saddle on her just to see what she’s like, and see what I can do with her. Some horses are not that great themselves, but produce good horses. I think Zara fits into this category. Lightning is an absolute sweetheart, and I really think she will make a better than average jumper, and a beautiful dressage horse. She’s of good size, and has a wonderful conformation. I want them to train her, and show her before I start breeding her. Her color genetics combined with her disposition, and conformation, will make her a great broodmare for us. A good show career even if short will make her babies more desirable. That’s the one thing our horses currently lack, a show career. Ibn had one but it was a long time ago, and not under saddle. He’s not that great a show horse, but he is a great producer. Jeri was never shown, but he has proven himself a good producer. Star is a favorite of their trainer, both for her brains, and her performance.

All in all I should be in second heaven with all these new horses to ride. I will be a very busy bee very shortly especially since I will start working again as well. While I love being a rancher it does not pay the bills when you can’t sell your horses for what they are worth. Hopefully that will change, and the horses will start selling. Once we are accepted as a serious breeder things could all turn around, and who knows maybe someday both of us can quit our day jobs, and do what we love most, breed, raise, and train horses. That’s the dream, and they say follow your dreams, and you can’t go wrong, only they left out just broke!