A boy and his (miniature) horse

May 31st 2014 was Purina Day at the Huntsville Alabama Tractor Supply store.  William was spending the night with Grandma and Grandpa Dake so he wasn't with us.  I didn't know about Purina Day until Greg and I stopped by there to buy livestock feed.  I talked to several people that had animals there, and managed to find a buyer for all of my pedigreed French Angora rabbits.  Right beside them was a guy with a horse trailer and four miniature horses for sale.  I asked him if any of them were broke for a kid to ride and he said one was.  It was a chocolate palomino stallion about five years old.  I led it around and checked its teeth and feet and asked the seller how he knew it was trained to ride.  He tied the lead rope to its halter and sat on this tiny horse and rode it around the parking lot.  I noticed then that the horse was five-gaited as well, so it was pretty much a miniature Tennessee Walking Horse.  The seller was asking the same amount of money I'd just been offered for my Angora rabbits, so I followed my gut and impulse-bought a horse for the first time in my life.  The tiny horse was delivered and gelded that same afternoon, and the rabbits were sold as well.  

William got to meet his new horse on Sunday evening, June 1st, and finally the horse got a new name - Popcorn.

 He didn't have a name on his health certificate, just a number - 034.  From that, I knew he'd gone through a sale barn.  I'm sure at some point he HAD a name, we just have no way to find out what it was.  He has excellent manners, is very calm and is indeed quite well trained for kids to ride, brush, pick out hooves, pet, lead around, etc.  When we got him he was skinny and dirty, in need of some weight and some grooming.

He also had a cough that showed up after a couple of days with us.  After a visit from our veterinarian he got anti-inflammatory meds and a 10-day course of antibiotics, and the cough cleared up.  The vet also confirmed his age as between 5 and 6 years old, so Popcorn could be William's buddy for another 30 years or more with the right care.

Twenty-six days later, Popcorn has gained some weight (but not too much and not too fast, because we don't want him to founder) and gotten lots of grooming and attention.

He's also worn a harness and been hooked up to a mini cart - he didn't mind it but he didn't really know what was expected of him.  I think he'll be very easy to train to pull the cart, so even the adults here can have some fun with him.

He looks much better and is even sweeter and quieter than when he arrived.  William rides him bareback with a parent leading them around, and absolutely loves it.

He also helps keep Popcorn's stall clean and move the portable paddock to fresh grass every 2 or 3 days, and gives Popcorn his daily handful of mini horse feed.

At the time I wondered if I was nuts to buy a horse on impulse, but now I think it was one of the best split-second decisions I ever made.  

2014 Goat Kidding stories, last two

Ruby Goat (so called because we have long had a horse named Ruby)  was next to kid, and she had another textbook kidding.  Buck/doe twins, born and walking and nursing when I found them the morning of April 12th.  The doeling got the spots for once, and the buckling is just plain brown.

RubyG's twins, buck on left, doe on right.  Just born, still wobbly.  :)

Last to kid was Amelia, with doe/doe twins.  I was lucky enough to be in the barn when she went into labor and got to see the birth.  She had a tiny brown doeling with a half-belt, and a loud-spotted black and white doeling.

Amelia's twin doelings, just born.

Unfortunately, the black and white spotted doeling got under the stall door, and into the barn hallway.  She got too cold away from her mother and was almost dead when I found her.  I tried to warm her up but she was too far gone, and died.  :(  That really hurt, because she was gorgeous and her mother is an awesome milker.  More daughters from her would be great.

RIP Wingnut Farms H/A Mighty Shiny

More goat kidding stories

Our second kidding of the 2014 season was on April 6th, and this one went just the way I like it.  I got to the barn in the morning and Hermione had a gorgeous black and white spotted doeling already standing, nursing, and mostly dry.

Hermione's gorgeous spotted doeling

I managed to get the doeling dried some more, and purposefully got some birthing fluids on my hands.  I let Hermione sniff my hands and she started licking them clean, which is what I wanted to happen.  She was almost impossible to catch before kidding, and this way she thought I was one of her kids and has become easier to catch.  She behaves well on the milk stand, has very nice teats with large orifices, and her milk is high butterfat and sweet.  She has a forever home here, that's for sure.

Then on April 9th the roller coaster went back downhill and we had a very difficult kidding for our doe Lilly.  She had triplet bucklings, but the first two were trying to make their entrance into the world at the same time.  I didn't realize it until I started helping, pulling on feet when Lilly pushed.  After a good bit of this, I realized I had one front foot and one back foot.  So either we had a kid trying to come out sideways, or we had two different kids.  I tried to push the hind foot back in and get the front foot kid out, but couldn't.  So I pushed the front foot kid back, and went in looking for another hind foot.  I finally found it, and got the first kid out breech.  Then the front-foot kid started to present, and came out relatively easily.  Then the third kid was breech, and huge, and stuck in the birth canal.  I was really afraid I was looking at an emergency C-section to get it out, but with some wiggling him around and getting feet out, Lilly and I managed to get him born.  He was a monster, 8 lbs at birth, and a gorgeous black and sable color.

Newborn triplet bucklings, still wet and still haven't eaten

Lilly was in bad shape after the kidding, though.  She was bleeding bright red blood from her vagina, and she was lying down grunting.  Sadly, I had to put her down because she had torn internally and was bleeding out.  Her black buckling died sometime in the night.  He never stood unassisted and he never ate.  Then I had to make an even more difficult choice.  Lilly was CAE positive, which is a disease kids can get from their dams from milk, or sometimes even en utero.  So the two surviving bucklings were a liability, possibly CAE positive, and having to be bottle fed.  I chose to euthanize both of them rather than risk them passing CAE off to the other goats in the herd.  

And that's all the time I have for kidding stories today.  More soon!