Diary of a Madwoman

[High Point Stable]

Sent off hairs and got test results back for all of the kids.. They were all exactly what I expected them to be.

HPS War Dance:
Ee Aa Crcr Ww FF

HPS Kahlo:
ee Aa Sw1Sw1 FF

HPS Conviction:
ee Aa Oo FF

HPS Mourning Dove:
ee Aa Sw1/n Rbrb FF

HPS Classic Art:
ee Aa Sw1/n Ff

In addition, I placed the three not-white kids up for sale and two of them sold. Dove is going to the fantastic Paragon Farm. They've campaigned some pretty nice horses over there, so I expect to see Dove in the big-time shows at some point.

Convict was sold to Masters Thoroughbreds, a fellow specialist in the skinny, leggy brats. They have also been quite successful in campaigning their horses, and I figure if anyone is going to get one of my colored stallion prospects, it ought to be someone that knows the breed well.

Poor Art, though. Not a single inquiry on him. Not one. One could certainly attribute that to his being considerably less flashy than Convict and not only marginally less flashy than Dove, but also not a filly. Fillies are, in fact, more valuable as breeding stock.. To be truthful, I think Art would do best as a show gelding. Duchess has never been a particularly racy mare and while Picasso was quite decent at the track, I can tell Art inherited more of his dam's sporty build.

Here is Art from today, looking dejected:

Poor little guy. He's sweet as can be, though.

I think Warrior wants to turn into his sire. Radium was a royal asshole when I got him and I've noticed that colt getting rather nippy toward the grooms, which is something I'll absolutely not have. Radium had half an excuse - he wasn't touched except to have his feet, shots, and worming done. Warrior is handled every day, so he's gonna have to cut the shit quick or something of his is gonna get cut, and I'm not talking about his hair.


I've been taking Samay on short rides around the property in the evenings lately. She's doing well. It's mostly walking with some trotting if she relaxes and drops her head; she's still young and as I want her a show horse, I want her to relax. With my thoroughbreds, I don't mind if they have a firecracker in their ass - if it gets their legs moving quick I'm all for it. But for Samay, the more relaxed she is, the more easily she'll come into natural movements and collection. I'm not asking for it yet of course, but when it comes time, she'll be ready.

I've also ponied her on the track. That was fun. I might park her next to the track just so she can watch the thoroughbreds go by. She wants to follow them - she wants to race them, even - but I don't want her doing that. I just want her to get used to the idea of other horses around her, moving all over, doing their own thing. She's a little spooky at sudden noises.

Maybe I should pony her off Picasso? Picasso is getting a little fat, he hasn't been worked in a while.. He's also a perfect gentleman, I'm not worried at all about how he'll treat a new young filly like Samay, and I think he'd be able to help Samay get over the sudden-noise spookiness better than anyone else at High Point.

Because, you know, he's deaf. I think if she's near him and he doesn't spook, she will realize there's no reason to spook.. I don't know how well that'll work though, I'm not sure if horses are aware when their companion is deaf. If she knows.. then that plan could backfire very badly as she might try to compensate for his handicap. But we'll have to see. I'll try it anyway.

Oh, speaking of deafness, Kahlo is completely, 100% deaf. As if anybody here thought for a second she had any hearing whatsoever, with how much white she has..

Anyway.. I think that'll be about it for today. Ta!

[Shiann Crowe]

I must say- You have some spectacular horses.

And I must add.

I was a little unsettled by the first two foals you had born (Mourning Dove and War Dance). The first one is colored like my real-life gelding King, the second is /almost/ like my stally colt named Clyde (in honor of the guy that gave him to us, as he had cancer and couldn't take care of horses anymore).

I would post pictures, but I can't with this computer. >_<

EDIT: I mean 'unsettled' as in 'Wow, that's odd' then 'That's cool! XD' I didn't mean for it to sound as not-nice as it sounded the second time I read it. XD Sorry!

[High Point Stable]

Quick update before I head back out and put some miles on Samay -

We had another outside foal born here recently. It's a chestnut splash filly by Picasso, out of a palomino mare named Path Less Taken. Very lively thing. Everything went well, mom and kid are getting ready to head to their 'real' home. I took a picture this morning when they were out in the big field together..

[High Point Stable]

Super busy again In the time I've been away from here, we had another foal.. This one out of Precious Metal, by WPE Golden Moment - a lovely loud palomino stallion, resulting in a cremello dominant white foal.. I got a few pictures of her playing with Warrior:

It's not bad that they get acquainted with one another. I'm sure at some point they'll have a date in the breeding shed, assuming Warrior doesn't give me any reason to geld him. Here are all the three keepers with their mothers:

back: Onyx, Duchess, Stitches
front: Warrior, Princess, Kahlo

I also took the liberty of introducing my two personal horses earlier. Samay and Cudjo were turned out together. As expected, they got along swimmingly. She is an incredibly friendly filly. She's a bit high-energy but that's okay; I've begun working her more consistently as she's definitely grown more solid. I had planned on taking her to a dressage test this month - just Intro A - more for the experience than results, but she's still a little immature mentally and I didn't feel like getting her wound up in front of a crowd or judges. She has definitely gotten better about seeking the bit now; I've started shortening my rein on her and she's been adjusting beautifully. She's building muscle along her back really well. We're still doing mainly trot work; bending at the walk and trot, flexing, working on the bit. Because she's still young and still building muscle, her training sessions are short still but getting longer.

Anyway, here they are - Samay and Cudjo:

And of course, next are recent pictures - the yearlings. Warrior is going to be really tall. Really, really tall. He's barely a year old and he's already 15.2 1/2hh at the wither and 16hh at the top of his butt. Princess (the Golden Moment filly) is a fair 14.3hh at the wither, 15.1hh at the hip, and little Kahlo barely makes 14.1hh at the wither, 14.3hh at the butt. I did the string test - it said Warrior should finish 17.3ish, Princess at 16.1+, and Kahlo at only 15.2hh. And I thought Radium was tall..

Warrior is going to need to be moved soon. I had hoped to keep him in with the fillies for a little while longer but he's maturing quickly and developing habits I don't like. I caught him trying to mug poor Princess the other day - if he doesn't cut it out I'm going to throw him in a paddock with his dam and see how fast he drops that act. My favorite method of eradicating undesirable behavior in young colts, stallions, and studly geldings is to toss them in a field with a pregnant mare, especially an alpha mare, like Onyx. They learn surprisingly fast that nobody - I repeat, nobody - is impressed by their masculinity.

Pictures.

above: Princess right, Warrior middle, Kahlo left - poor Kahlo, so innocent

I also have a new neighbor. She's insane.. She breeds those silly stunted ponies. She stopped by the farm without invitation the other day just to look around, said she'd never seen such a big farm in person. I was really busy and she annoyed me but I decided if she wasn't going to leave right away she might as well be useful.. She said she had experience with stallions, so I had her bring in my boys..

Poor Picasso..

Picasso, my deaf stallion, he's such a sweet guy.. I mean I'd be willing to put little kids on him if he wasn't a stallion. When he is eventually pensioned from the breeding shed, I might geld him and send him to live out his days as a show horse or a kid's mount. He's just such a good, kind horse. He's kind to his groom, he's kind to visitors, he's extremely kind to his mares. He is usually walked from the barn to the paddock and from the paddock to the barn without a chain at all because he is so quiet. To the breeding shed he usually gets one over his nose, just in case - he doesn't need it. I might have put a lip chain on him twice while he was in training.

This crazy mini lady brings Picasso into the barn with a tight lip chain.. The poor boy just gave her an 'are you serious' look but didn't complain. The lady said he was crazy and wouldn't respond to her telling him to back up.. Well, no shit.. he's deaf! She probably made him crazy because he couldn't understand her!

Needless to say, she did not get Radium or Felony. In fact, I promptly sent her away.. Her incompetence was astounding.

Miniature horses.. seriously?

[High Point Stable]

Foal watch begins again..

In the meantime, I sold a horse today. Action Enthusiast, our homozygous black colt? He went off to his new home. They plan to race him, which was my plan too until I decided to stick primarily with breeding. I did take a couple pictures of him this morning before he left, though..

Grazing at dawn.. As a racehorse, he doesn't get out and graze much like this.

And posturing at Radium, who SHOCKINGLY did not respond.
Radium ate his breakfast and drank his normal amount of water, no colic symptoms.. can't imagine why he wouldn't reciprocate.

I also bought three mares. I'm just waiting on their papers before I put photos of 'em in here, though. Here's a hint, though: one of them is named 'First Snow.' Can you guess what she might look like?

[High Point Stable]

Quick update before I turn in for the night -

-3 colts
-2 fillies

-smoky black
-buckskin
-chestnut
-2 bay

-1 frame
-2 min splash
-2 solid

On the plus side, we got all black-based but one this time.

The girls didn't pass on their color this time around. Not a single one of them. Not even Kestrel. The boys did their job, the girls dropped the ball.

[chloebarlow]

bucky!! (Buckskin) sorry im sorta like that colour too much, me want photos dont know what anyone else wants ;D

[Bella Wolf]

My mum was behind me while I was reading this and noticed the picture of your little Marwari foal. She said it reminded her of the "Dueling Banjos" scene in the Deliverance. I pulled the picture up in another window. The resemblance is uncanny. xD We agreed that baby grew up into a swan.

[Katie Scarlett]

They do look alike!