So many critters, so little time.

Our little horse herd is up to five members now.  And I have little to no time/babysitting available to work with any of them.  I answered a CraigsList ad for an Icelandic mare for sale, and ended up buying her.  She's adorable, smart, and didn't jump the fence and run away.  She's 18 years old, given riding lessons, jumped, shown in several different disciplines, and I think just about perfect for the kids around here to ride.  Her name is Jonina (Yo-neena).  She's hanging out in the pond pasture with the other three mares and all seems well.

All four Nubian does kidded in February, which means last October was a happy time for our buck Hondo.  :) Little Bit went first, as I've already posted about.  Her twins were named Annabelle (the doeling) and Macadamia Brownie, Brownie for short (the buckling).  My neighbor named the buckling, and I named the doeling.  When I was growing up our two best milkers were a Toggenburg/Nubian cross doe named Annabelle and her daughter Little Bit (1/4 Togg 3/4 Nubian).  So now, I have a Little Bit and her daughter Annabelle.  :)

Viola was next to kid, and she also had buck/doe twins.  The buckling is drop-dead gorgeous, black with lots of white spots and great conformation.  Too bad he's to be wethered because he can't be registered.  I named him Rocky Road, Rocky for short.  My vet said he wants to buy Brownie and Rocky, as he has two goats and really liked those two.  Viola's doeling is black with frosted ears, crown and nose and a few white spots.  Not nearly as flashy as her brother but still pretty.  I named her Allegra.

Then Oreo kidded with another set of buck/doe twins.  Unfortunately the doeling was trampled to death when the herd panicked in a sudden storm.  She was only a week or so old, and it was her and her dam and brother's first day out of the barn with the herd.  She never even got a name.  She was brown with frosted ears, nose and crown and a partial white belt.  Her brother is huge, black with frosted ears, nose and crown and some white spots.  I named him Jethro because he's very big and very clumsy but endearing in his own way.

Madeline was last but certainly not least.  She had a single doeling, but wow what a doeling.  Her daughter is long, level backed, wide bodied but still very dainty and dairy.  She's also black with frosted ears, nose and crown.  She has a small splash of white on one side.  I think she's the pick of the doeling crop for this year.  I named her Adelaide as it seemed to go well with her dam's name.

After all the kidding was done here, we drove 6 1/2 hours to Saucier, Mississippi to pick up the doeling I had put a deposit on back in January of this year.  Her dam was in the Top Ten in the nation two years in a row for production and butterfat, and one of those years she was also in for milk solids.  So I'm expecting great things from this little girl when she freshens next spring.  Her name is Athena, she is red roan with frosted ears, nose and crown.

I didn't plan to have all the doelings from this year have their names start with "A,"  it just kind of happened.  Athena was named first, then Annabelle.  Then Adelaide.  Then I figured I'd continue the trend and named Viola's doeling Allegra.  I'm keeping all the doelings born here and of course keeping Athena.  Oreo and her buckling Jethro are for sale.  I suspect this is Madeline's last year to kid, so I've not even been milking her, just letting Adelaide have all the milk to grow to her best potential.

First goat kids of 2012

Wednesday afternoon, Feb 8th, I thought our doe Viola was in early labor. So I left her in the "maternity ward" stall in the barn and checked on her every couple of hours or so. I noticed Little Bit wasn't with the rest of the herd but hanging around the barn, but I figured it was just because I was there. She's our "puppy dog" doe, who would rather be with humans than goats. On my 4pm or so barn check I took loose minerals with me to refill feeders, and when I went in the "communal" stall the rest of the herd uses, Little Bit ran in with me. I turned around to shoo her out and lo and behold, she's laying down grunting and a water bag is appearing. She had no goo, had just started barely bagging up, and no sign of being ready to kid.  Within ten minutes she had given birth to twins, one buckling and one doeling!  Both very healthy, very cute and very active.  

And Viola still hasn't kidded.  After Viola will be Oreo if I don't sell her first, then Madeline if she is even pregnant.  She doesn't look it but then Little Bit didn't look ready to pop out twins either.

Animals come and animals go

Lots of changes around here since the last post (yes, I'm doing great at keeping up with this blog, I know :/  ).  Missy the Tennessee Walking Horse mare was sold, which had us down to three horses - Rose the Belgian mare, Ruby the Saddlebred mare, and Dixie the free-lease TWH mare.

In November (2011) we bought a Haflinger mare named Amber.  She was most likely in foal for spring, to a Haflinger stallion.  She arrived on our little farm at 8am on a Tuesday morning.  But just 20 minutes after the seller left, Amber jumped a fence and ran up the mountain behind our property, never to be seen again.  Well she was seen a few weeks later, by hunters on the other side of the mountain.  Unfortunately she had been shot and had been dead quite awhile.  I feel terrible that I didn't put her in a stall but it never crossed my mind that she would jump the fence and run away.

But, if nothing else, we learned from that experience to never put a new horse in pasture right away, even if they've never been stalled and only ever lived at pasture.  And in January we found out about a small herd of Arabians in Georgia that were being given away to good homes due to the owner's financial problems.  I thought it sounded too good to be true, but decided to call anyway.  I talked to the owner on the phone and it actually was true.  So for the cost of a professional hauler bringing them the 245 miles here from their old home, we got two very nicely bred purebred Arabian horses, along with their papers.

Metal is a 12 year old stallion, flea-bitten gray, 14.3hh and just breathtakingly beautiful.  He's also very sweet, friendly, well-mannered and smart.  His downsides are, he has an old injury to his right front leg that may never heal enough to be completely sound.  And he is cryptorchid, meaning he has one testicle that never dropped.  Should we decide to geld him in future, it will be much more involved and expensive.  He'll have to go to an equine hospital and go under general anesthesia and have abdominal surgery.  But we see no reason to geld him right now, as he's a complete sweetheart of a stallion.  I fell in love with him on first sight, as he stepped off the trailer here from GA, and I love him more every day.  He's my dream horse of my childhood come to life.  :)

Althea is a 17 year old mare who's only ever been a broodmare.  She has had two foals, the most recent in 2005.  She's petite and has the most beautiful dished face and large jibbah I think I've ever seen.  She came to us somewhat underweight but not starved, so she is just gaining weight, settling in and getting used to her new home and new people.  When she's back in shape I will start her under saddle.

And that's the news from our little horse herd for now.