Our First Attempt to Train Hatchet

            Well, today we are going to try our first attempt in training Hatchet. Hatchet is young, but she's just about the age where you can start training her.

             Today all we are going to do is try to put a bridle on Hatchet. We don't have a halter that she can use, so I was thinking we would just use the bridle that doesn't have a bit in it.

              Once we can get a bridle on Hatchet, we'll practice getting her to walk with us while we're trying to lead her.

              Out of what I've seen, I really want to ride Hatchet in the future, because she is very fast.

              For now, we have to start out with baby steps, then gradually we'll make bigger steps and so on.

              I hope everything goes well today!!! *Crossing Fingers*

              It's kind of funny, if you look at my blog archive, almost all of the posts is not all are posts about animal!!!

               Maybe I will should call our land The Land of a Thousand Animals.

                Well okay, bye for now!!!

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Our First Horses

       Two weeks ago from today, my sister and I got our very first horses; Diamond and Hatchet.

       We have always loved horses, and really, we've been around them for most of our lives.

        I've always loved horses, and everyone around me knows it all too well.

        I've basically been around horses since I was four years old.

       It was just a little bit after Christmas when my parents told us we were getting horses; two, a mommy with her baby. We were so excited.
       We have now had our horses two weeks, and they are out and roaming in their new home.

        I'm so happy, because, our horses are getting along with the others quite well.

        Hatchet loves our cousins' horse Ginger; she will just follow her all over the place... almost as much as she might follow her Mommy.

        Hatchet is still not much more than a baby, she's only about eighteen months old.

        As odd as it seems, Hatchet sometimes still nurses. Hatchet definitely eats the solid stuff, but she still nurses from her Mommy every so often.

        Our horses are really sweet, and I think they really like their pasture and freedom here.

         When Diamond and Hatchet first got here, Diamond and Conan (another horse out there with them) were being very aggressive towards each other.

          I think they have mostly gotten over their rivalry towards each other, but they will be like that until they learn to get along with each other.

          It seems that Diamond has become the new lead mare of the herd, but I think she and Conan are still about equal in rank right now, I'd say.

          All of the horses seem to be getting along pretty well.

          I think Ginger is just so thrilled to have some more friends there to be with her.

          Ginger probably showed the most enthusiasm when the new horses were brought.
     
          Ginger was whinnying and running around, then suddenly stopping, then running again, then snorting and whinnying again.

           I was very excited about our horses, but I was trying to be very calm because you don't want your first impression on your new pet to be scaring it.

            Well I have taken some new pictures of Diamond and Hatchet, I hope you enjoy.

Diamond is so sweet, she's very tame and a very independent mommy too.

 Diamond could definitely use some grooming, I'm sure we'll get to that soon.






Diamond is an Appaloosa mare, and the reason she's so dominant is because she was also the lead mare of her former home.

 



Hatchet closed her eyes right as I took the picture.

I just wanted to show how she really is pretty small and young.




Look at that face. I'm sure not a lot of people can, but when horses (or really any animal) is still so young, you can just tell, you can see it in their face.




Let's just say Diamond was curious about a weird thingy pointing at her.

The horses weren't very huge fans of the camera, but they did well on not freaking out about it for me.

I can't wait until we get to ride Diamond, it's good she's so gentle, that might make it a little easier on us to re-train her.The horses are a little dirty right now, but we'll brush 'em some more later.




Hatchet really is such a pretty horse, and she's very energetic.

Hatchet is just beginning to let us pet her more now.

 Hatchet will just follow us sometimes when we go out there to visit and such. 

     
         When it gets warmer and things start to grow, I'll go out and take more pictures of Diamond and Hatchet, then I'll show all of the horses with that pretty green grass and wild flowers behind them.



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Out and Free

        Well yesterday I guess our horses had one of their aggressive moments and ended up knocking down the gate to the smaller pen within the pen that our two horses were in.

         So now all of the horses are out together, and they seems to be doing just fine. I guess they finally settled who was boss.

         I think Hatchet and Diamond have been liking it a lot better not being in their smaller pen. I noticed, Hatchet doesn't even want to walk into the pen anymore, which is understandable. As long as the horses behave, Hatchet won't need to go in the pen again necessarily. 

        I haven't taken any new pictures of our horses Hatchet and Diamond yet, but that's only because it's so muddy and rainy. 

        Speaking of which, we also need to brush all of the horses, since they got pretty muddy.

        I cannot wait until it gets a bit warmer, then we'll try to ride Diamond!!! Right now we pretty much have her saddle and her training bridle which doesn't have a bit.

       We got her in her training bridle the other day, and she was listening and following pretty well. The main reason we didn't ride her then was because Hatchet was freaking out; I mean she was literally charging and running strait past us and in circles. She began to make us nervous, so we just stopped.

        We think what probably made Hatchet so worried was first, we had her mommy in her bridle and she might have thought we were taking her away. Second, she probably was confused and didn't know what to do. It was most likely a mix of both.

         Though  now that Hatchet is getting a little older, she won't be as close to her mom. She's about the where she starts roaming free and separating herself a little bit more from her mom.

         Hatchet will always be friends with her mommy, but she just probably won't be so dependant on her.

        Now onto a bit of a different subject, my cousin said that we really won't be able to be sure about which gender the baby goats are until they're at least two weeks old.

          Probably a little bit after that, I'll take more pictures of the babies, and I'll tell whether boy or girl.

         If the baby is a boy, my cousins will sell, but if it's a girl, they'll keep for breeding again and such.

         Sadly one of the babies has pneumonia, but he has a good chance. It's not like pneumonia is really deadly, but just for a baby it can be a lot harder.

         There are three baby goats, one is solid brown, one is white with a little bit of brown on its head, and one is white with a little bit of black on its head.

         The other two babies are doing just fine, if we let them out they will wander around and they're really friendly.

          The mommy goats are both still at the vet, one of them is a lot better. The other is still pretty sick, they said she can't quite stand up again yet. But we think they both will be okay in the end.

Well I think that's all I have to say for now, so until my next post,

BYE!!!!
            

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Getting Along

      I'm very happy to say that Ginger and Brandy are getting along very well with the new horses. 

      When we had just gotten the horses, Ginger was SO excited; I mean she was running in circles and hyperventilating. Ginger seems to love the new buddies that have arrived.

      Today when we went to go check on the horses; water check and food etc. , Ginger was muzzling Hatchet. My cousin also said that Brandy was really loving the new horses, too.

       Conan is still a little bit edgy, but I think he is beginning to warm up.

       We have had a little bit of snow lately. I'm hoping the snow won't be too wet and muddy tomorrow; then I might get to take some more pictures of our horses.

        Since the snow is so white, it makes all four white horses look very cream colored; but when it's summer they'll all seem a lot whiter.

        I love it when it's cold here. But when it gets all warm and flowery I really want to take pictures of our new horsies. The pictures look a lot better when the plants are pretty and things are green and shiny.

       So just as a somewhat review, here are all of the horses...



Meet Conan, the man of the family. He can be very sweet, just in the winter he's a little more on edge. For what seems like forever, Conan was the only eligible for riding, but it won't be too long before we start riding Diamond. Conan is definitely getting a little old (as far as horses go), but he has definitely been showing us that he still has a lot of spirit left in him.




This is Brandy, she's super shy, but she can be so sweet and gentle. I can't remember if she or Conan is older, I know they are very close in age though. I'm sure hardly anyone, if anyone, knows that the guy who gave us Diamond and Hatchet is the very same guy who gave my cousins Brandy quite a few years ago. She may be shaggy and old, but she's very gentle and sweet too.




This is my sweet, sweet Ginger. Ginger is very spirited, she also isn't even fully trained. She is really sweet and very gentle. Sometimes she can get a little wild and spooked, but she really is so sweet. I was there on the very day Ginger was brought home, and I've loved her ever since. Ginger used to be like Diamond and Hatchet with the rivalry with Conan, but now she loves him. Not long after we got Ginger, if we EVER took Conan out of the pen, Ginger would literally run up and down the fence and whinny until Conan was back safe in the pen again. A few times when I rode Conan, Ginger was running up and down the fence, and all of a sudden Conan start running back to see Ginger. I was lucky I didn't fall off of Conan. Ginger also always has that spirited and eager look, I don't know why, but to me Ginger always looks eager and spirited; that's one thing I always will love about her.




This is the new mommy in the herd, Diamond. When we first got her she was pretty scared and timid, but she is beginning to warm up to her new surroundings, I'm positive. My mom says that Diamond has a very homey face, and I'm beginning to believe her on that. Diamond is really gentle and sweet. Something really funny about her is... she likes being scratched on her rump. It's true, she loves to be scratched on her rear end, if you start she just about freezes until you stop; she absolutely loves it!!




This is Hatchet Diamond's baby girl, she is only a year and a half. Hatchet is so shy right now, but she and Diamond have already begun to come to us more and are looking like they might be relaxing a bit more. Whenever I feed them, even if I put the food in separate bends, Diamond and Hatchet always share their food and eat it at the same time. They just walk to one, eat it together then walk to the next and eat it together.

         I've made quite a few memories with all the animals, and I'm sure I will make more with these new horses too. I'm hoping all of the horses will make friends. I know Ginger and Brandy already like the newcomers, and Conan will like them too, but just in his own time.

         And even though we have new horses, Ginger will ALWAYS still be my baby.

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Goats and More Goats!!

       Well, another goats had twins; two boys. One of the boys is completely brown and the other just is white with a brown head.

       I said one of the boys was having trouble getting up, he's great now; up and walkin'.

       I took a few more pictures of the babies.

This was the first baby born, she's a real cutie, isn't she?

This is her bubba, he was having trouble at first, but he's fine now.



Awwwww, isn't he cute?





This is their cousin who is completely brown. He was born a few hours ago.





This is the brown one while he was drying in the sun and sucking on someone's finger.... I can't even remember who.




That was the brownie when he was a few minutes old and drying off.

       I guess I didn't take any pictures of the fourth baby... I will next time I guess.

       There's still another goat who is about to have babies!! She has been going through some of her labor today, but we think she just isn't ready to give birth yet.

       The babies remind me of lop eared rabbits!! They just look so cuddley!!! They can be very sensitive, when you pick them up they might just start yapping and yapping; it's cute though, as long as it is NOT non-stop.

        I think my cousins will sell the boys when they get older (can't have a lot of boy goats; or they'll fight). Luckily there is one girl so far, and I'll take pictures of her as she grows.

        If we're lucky, it looks like we'll have some more babies tomorrow, we'll see.

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Horsies Are Here!!!

      Well we finally got our horsies; Diamond and Hatchet!!! They are both mares, I don't know how old the mom is, but the colt is eighteen months old. They are really sweet, just right now they need some getting used to in their new surroundings.

      I actually wasn't here when the horses were brought, but they said that Ginger was really excited.

      It's definitely a good thing we separated the new horses from the others, they are not being too friendly with the man, or horse, of the land. Conan and the mare Diamond have been feuding quite a bit, but they'll work it out.

      I remember when Ginger was brought and they had to pen her up too, since Conan is always aggressive with new horses. Now they've bonded and Ginger absolutely loves Conan; she follows him around all the time.



This is Hatchet, she's still a baby; only eighteen months old. She's even still nursing a bit, but mostly weened now.




This is my sister Anna with Diamond. Diamond is really sweet.




This is me and the colt, you can tell she's still a baby; she still has that baby face.




At the moment they haven't been doing much, I guess they need to get used to their new surroundings.




Hatchet is still a mommy's girl...




They were sharing their food.....

        Hatchet and Diamond are pure appaloosas, even though they don't look anything like them. The daddy of the young colt is very spotted, but I guess these guys just didn't get the spots.  I can't wait until they get all settled in; because then we'll try to re-break-in the mom and try to ride her. Now there are four white horses and one brown pony, it's so exciting!!!
       And don't worry, we'll get more pictures later.

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Kids Are Born!!!

       I already said that my cousins were breeding these goats, and at the moment only two seem to be very pregnant. So far one of the goats has had twins, one girl and one boy.
 
 The girl was born sometime last night and the boy was born about noon today. The girl seems to be very healthy and walking around, but the boy has been having trouble getting up. We think he'll be fine, he's only a few hours old, so he might just need more time.
      The twins haven't really been eating much, we're hoping the mom might nurse them more if we left her alone.

      There are three goats in particular (out of five) that we thought were pregnant, one of them doesn't seem to be, but we think she might still be. There are two of the goats that are really pregnant. One of them just had twins, and the other we expect will give birth tonight.

      I took a few pictures of the baby girl, the boy kept squirming too much so I thought I wouldn't take any pictures of him... yet.

      They are so cute!! The baby girl almost looks exactly like her mommy; she has the exact same brown marks on her face, she just doesn't have horns yet.




Isn't she so cute? We don't have a name right now, but I think she'll be okay for the time being.

  


She is so cute, she just walked around the pen making her little baby noises and trying to find a way out. finally after all her walking she had to take a nap.

 



This is the baby just walking around the pen. They are just so cute when they're babies!!!

 




Can you see the similarities? They look really similar, except their big age difference changing things a little and no horns on the baby.

 




This is just the mommy lying down, after having twins she has been pretty tired and really hungry and thirsty.

         It's fun just to watch the little babies. I know the baby girl was born fine, but the boy was backwards and our neighbor helped pull 'em. At fist we thought the baby boy might have had a broken bone or something, but he seems to be fine. The thing we're a little worried about is, there's supposed to be a cold front this weekend, we just hope the babies will be strong enough by then.

      We figured out that the horses we're getting are named Diamond and Emma, Diamond for the mare, and Emma for the colt. We think we'll keep Diamond's name, but we're going to change the colt's name to Hatchet.

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Blog Newz

       Well, I guess I won't be showing any poems for a while... I seem to be having a writer's block, and can't even come up with any poem topics right now. Also I won't be showing the poems because I think I've gone through all of my poems in my notepad.

       Even if I don't have any poems to show, I have some very exciting stuff about to happen here that I can post about.

      I've been working on a clay flower of a poinsettia, now I'm not too far into it yet since when I make these clay flowers I takes a lot of time, plus, I can be lazy sometimes too.

      So the first thing I will say is my cousin have some animals that are about to have babies (three are pregnant), and I'll get to help take care of the babies when they're born!!!!
      The reason I'm not mentioning exactly what animals are about to have babies is because I have friend who I haven't told even what kind of animal it is and she reads this blog, so I don't want to give it away yet. When the babies are born I'll probably post about them not long after that.  So there's a surprise to look forward to.           

       The other news I have is really awesome (drum role!), my sister and I are getting horses!!! We're getting these two solid appaloosa horses; a mare and her colt.
        The mare is trained so we might get to ride more now. The colt is still really young at eighteen months, but I've heard that's usually about when you start training the horses. My sister and I also came up with a name for the colt, Hatchet. The appaloosa is a horse that has been favored by Indians, and  Indians have probably used hatchets before, so we've decided on Hatchet. Mostly I really wanted a unique name we could name our horses when we get them; not a name that's so common.
        We don't really plan on naming the mare, since she probably already has a name that she's used to. The mare is a trained horse, I mean, why would someone go through all the trouble of training a horse and not even give them a name... actually I could probably come up with some ideas, but I'm sure the mare has a name that she knows well. We just don't want to teach the horses a different name if they have a good one already.
         Unless we just flat out don't like the mare's name we'll change it, but we might just keep it as it is. The colt pretty much the same, but since the colt is so young it might be easier to give him a new name without so much confusion.
   

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