Romance The Ladies: Random Ramblings

I'm not neglecting the blog, I promise. Have just been too busy to have anything of blogworthy interest as of late. Breeding season is upon us, and Durango's daddy and his co-hort Tatorchip are gaining enough interest to make me very busy this spring. That's a good thing... bad for time allocation to be spent on Durango and the rest... but still good for business! We've also been completely re-doing our barn and facilities. Cleaning out and painting/decorating the tack room, feed room, and entire barn... as well as putting in a new fenced in arena (very exciting!). Poor Durango has been on the backburner for a couple weeks... yikes... but I promise tomorrow will bring another session. The slow progression hasn't just been due to a lack of time, however. Durango is still young, and even though he is a big boy, was a late May baby. It's easy to push the babies too far for their bodies when their minds are so willing and able, and I don't want that to happen to Durango. While I want him to hopefully have some successful longe line and in-hand shows this year, I'm waiting until the ones later in the season, and just a handful of select shows, such as the Appaloosa World. I want to get him out there, but I don't want to overdue it to preserve his body for an even more important riding career. So, he's certainly still in training and learning, but it's not going to be an every day routine, and each session will be kept to a minimum.

We also brought in the third baby to be worked with this year. First was Durango, then Denver, now "Aspen". I don't believe I've mentioned Aspen yet on this blog, as she is not a relative to Durango in any way. Aspen is a palomino filly, also born in 2010. She is by World Champion Huntin For Chocolate, and out of Southern Sensations, "Sendy", who I believe I HAVE mentioned on this blog before. Sendy is the dam of Parker, Durango's brother/nemesis by Chance, and the chestnut colt in the last blog, Southern Rock Star, "Clash". Sendy had an embryo transfer done on her last year, as a result she was able to produce two foals, Parker and Aspen. I have owned Sendy for 14 years, since she was an early yearling, exactly Aspen's current age. Looking at Aspen is like being warped back in time 14 years. She is an exact carbon copy of Sendy, which is an amazing example of fate. Sendy is the once in a lifetime, irreplaceable horse, and she's getting up there in years. So fitting and lucky for us that she produced a palomino filly that is identical to her in every way physically... and most important, mentally. Little Aspen is going to give Durango and the other smart Chance babies a run for the money in the brains department. We pulled her out of the pasture over the weekend, and she'd never been led before. We got her all the way to the barn (at least a quarter mile hike) and into the stall. She was unhappy, understandably, it felt like weaning all over again as it was the first time she'd ever been separated from her buddies. However, the whinnies died down after only a couple hours, and then there was barely a peep. We kept her in the stall for a couple days to make sure she was settled before trying out our first leading expedition to the turnout pen. I figured we were in for a rough one, a filly who barely knows how to lead, that has been in a stall for a couple days... well, she led straight out to that pasture like she'd been doing it her whole life. When it was time to come in, she led straight back to the barn equally calm. Not a single explosion, no dragging, not a spook, not a peep. I don't want to jinx it, but if this is a sign of things to come... wow! Who knows, maybe she will make a girlfriend for Durango one day. :)

A weanling photo of Aspen. Will get new photos when she sheds out all the white faded fuzz. She's not turning grey, but she likes to fool you with all the dirt!

Dam of Aspen, Parker, Clash, all-time favorite horse and the inspiration for our entire stock horse breeding program, Southern Sensations, "Sendy" (see the resemblance to Aspen already?).

Also thought I'd share some of our "barn improvement" photos to show examples of the task we've had at hand... yikes. 4000+ sq ft concrete barn that has mostly been a lot of stuff stored. We had a huge rat infestation around five years back that chewed holes in the walls, ceilings, etc. Finally cured that by putting all the feed into sealed cans to cut off their food source, in combination with the snakes that discovered the rat haven in there! Hey, I'd rather have snakes than rats! Needless to say, there was tons of cleaning, organizing, repairing, and painting to be done. We have the tack room and feed room near done, and the bathroom done. On to repainting the whole barn from an ugly light grey blue with peeling green wood trim everywhere... to a more pleasant (and better for not showing dirt!) color scheme of a tan brown with darker brown trim. We're hanging up artwork, photos, awards, and everything. Then re-bedding the stalls and repainting the stall fronts. It's going to feel like a brand new barn! :-)