PlayTime Minis - Finished for 2013; See you in 2014

[eagles ring farm]

Another pretty spotted lady congrats again

Wish looks great...can't wait to see her foal

 

[MountainWoman]

Thanks Lori. Anna, Silver is fine but I think she has a long way to go. I'll do pictures of her too.

 

[AnnaC]

Thanks Sara - I would love to see her again.

 

[MountainWoman]

For Anna, Silver straight in from a roll in the dirt and before brushing.









Also, a dumb question but is it okay to give a pregnant mare a bath or is she too close? Temps are warm during the day so that isn't a concern.

 

As long as it's something that she is familiar with, I'd say go ahead. You just don't want to introduce anything that she hasn't done before, that might give her stress that she doesn't need. But if she's been bathed before and does fine -- have at it!! It will probably make her feel even more pretty !!

 

[AnnaC]

Aww she's looking great! Her tummy is advancing perfectly, I just cant understand why she's not showing any/much udder yet - when is she supposed to be due? Thanks for the pics by the way.

 

[MountainWoman]

Diane, thanks! She'll be getting bathed tomorrow then while it's still in the 80s. Anna, she was pasture bred and with the stallion from August 22nd to December 1st and she's a maiden at 15 years (if that makes a difference) so I'd say she has more time to go for sure and might be a November baby. Or if she takes after Sweetie could be an entire year. Gee, RFM's IMA Sweet Creation (I've named her Madeline) is due in February so it feels like babies all year long this year which is lots of fun. Suzette is leaving in a couple of weeks for Danielle's so time with the foals passes quickly.

 

[MountainWoman]

Anna, I know your horses and my horses lead very similar lives in regards to how we pasture them and I know you wanted to see my winter photos of horses running so here's my late summer one. We made the lower pasture available again to the horses after doing some maintenance so here's part of their world from the bottom of our field.

 

Just AWESOME!!!!

 

[MountainWoman]

Thanks Diane. After living the majority of my life in cities, it's nice to have room to roam in my senior years.

 

[AnnaC]

That looks fabulous Sara - I just love it when it is possible to give the minis the space to roam, graze, race about being silly and having fun! It makes life so much more natural for them, although I do realise that this is just not possible for the majority of folk.

We are just about to load up approx 15 of my 'feral' little tribe and cart them off to a neighbouring farm as they have an area of 12 acres devoted to natural 'pasture' land - a conservation area that needs grazing at this time of year. They cant use big horses or cattle - they will do too much damage - they cant use sheep as sheep graze the land too closely, so mini horses were suggested and approved by 'officialdom', as they will graze/browse the land, nibbling at all the bushes, the nettles, the thistles and the tops of the wild flowers/herbs. As my lot are used to this sort of 'living' they asked if we would be willing to send some over for 6 weeks or so. It will be interesting to see how it turns out - I've been over and inspected the area and it is totally pony safe - fencing and no poisonous plants etc - and I think my lot are eally going to enjoy themselves - as long as we can get those that have never left our place to load up into the lorry for transportation!!

 

[MountainWoman]

Anna, that sounds exciting and keep us posted with photos if possible.

 

[paintponylvr]

I am so, so, so jealous!! On a full 12 acres your little "feral" herd will be able to completely disappear! Wow - that's lucky for both your little horses and you (well, I think so!).

Have fun with that and safe loading!

Since we don't have one that's "green w/ envy" I'll use this one...

We only have 9 acres, part of it isn't cleared yet and only about 4 acres fenced (maybe?)... It's hard to imagine a full 12 acres of just grass and wild growth to graze them on. When I was growing up in Colorado & MT, and the mid-west - paddocks were usually anywhere from 1-10 acres and a pasture could be 10 - 100 or more... Again, I cant even imagine pastures that large, LOL!

 

[paintponylvr]

MountainWoman - Dianne's little horse is a silver dapple leopard (I think??) and the other one that I know aims for driving silver appies is the woman in Norco, CA. Honey Pot ponies I think... I knew her horses/ her from the Khemosabi (Arabian) son she has that I always admired. I don't know if she still has him or not... But if I keep the daughter of the double bred Khemosabi mare that I have, I'd love to look at breeding back to a Khemo son or grandson... There are several that I really like!

I have a double registered mini/shetland mare that is a heterozygous black/heterozygous silver (really dark w/ a lighter mane/tail) that is 3 this year. I have to send in her for her permanent AMHR papers soon. She MIGHT make a really nice cross on an appy stallion for an appy mini. She was sired by an LWO paint but she is solid and tested LWO -/-. So, unless she's hiding sabino (I don't think they can?), she's solid and I'd love to cross her on a silver dapple appy. I want a prospective driving horse(s) from such a cross, not just a pasture pet or a halter horse - so would look for driving attributes in a cross for her. She's started driving training and she's awesome. Though young, and I'm not a pro trainer, think we might have her ready for country pleasure (or western ctry) driving next spring. I'll see about taking her to some of the NC shows...

Again, your pastures are to "die for". Love them, treasure them yourself! Maybe I'll have a bit more pasture before I meet with my maker...

 

[MountainWoman]

Paula, I'm very thankful for the space I have and even more so after seeing a situation that made me sad. As I said, I've lived on postage stamped lots most of my adult life in cities so having room to roam is wonderful at my age. 4 fenced acres is also a lot of room for minis and I've seen some of those gorgeous mid West farms where the pastures seem to stretch on forever. Wow! I'd love to see a photo of your mare. Is that her in your avatar? I couldn't get the photo to enlarge to see so if you look at your profile, it's going to show I've been looking at it but I was just trying to enlarge your photo

.

 

[paintponylvr]

Hey there, Mountain Woman! Well first I have to correct some things I wrote. The name of the farm is Honeypony (not Honey Pot Ponies) and it's owned by Karen and Mike (or Mark?). I also went back out to Diane's site - her leopard boy that I really like has a cream gene not a silver gene...(He's still soooo gorgeous!).

No, the pony in my avatar is Iggy. He is now our main stallion - siring all of our silver babies. Here is a larger picture of him ground driving taken ummm 2 weeks ago? I was using him alone first to drag "logs" to the burn pile. The he and his 3 yr old son worked together to pull larger logs to the burn pile.

The mare I was referring to is Ami. I'd admired her from afar (and her dam) whenever I saw posts by the farm that owned them here in NC (or went to their website). An acquaintance of mine purchased her - but it wasn't working out and she knew that I was interested. When she offered her to me, I said yes - even though it meant facing my hubby's "wrath"... She blended in with my guys at first and I truly don't think he even noticed at first (for once!)... then it was when, where? And I admitted she'd come home with me from a drive... Ami's page and a picture of her. She came home the same month that she turned two and was fat as a butterball and almost "rolled". I haven't measured her recently and she's really small compared to most of ours... She's probably 35-36" at the withers and a little smaller at the last hair of her mane.

 

[MountainWoman]

Wow, is Ami ever beautiful!!! I can see why you wanted her and were willing to face your husband's wrath and I loved your story about her blending in. Been there done that too

She's so gorgeous. I have to say I love your photo of Iggy working and helping you with logs. I was thinking the other day when we were doing fencing that I should have one of the minis hooked up helping us. Just love to see the horses being used to help around the farm. Thanks so much for sharing the photos. I really enjoy it when people share their horses with me. Just beautiful.

 

Thank you Paula. He's really special, and I just adore him!

 

[AnnaC]

Great pics Paula of two very beautiful horses and I love the way you keep them busy helping out with the chores!

 

[MountainWoman]

Here's Wish this morning.

This pic looks crooked but she is standing on a hill