Regarding the Horses in our lives...

I do. Some things not so much but thats a learning curve. I signed on to BYH some years back when i had goats. So its not unfamiliar to me..

I finally found the list of my watched threads. What a relief. some are old and closed but have excellent reference info. Like stuff from Resolution.

Oh and i found out I have eighteen followers. Never heard of em.
And there is a button to make you not show up if you are on line. In the personal preferences area.

deb

I have some new pics of our Shetland ponies! These are our foals for this year - 4 with 1 more expected. Post is picture heavy!

Born 1 March - Nymbus - a silver bay tobiano colt.



Born 17 March - Guinness, a bay tobiano colt.




and Trixie, a bay tobiano filly, born 28 March -



Unfortunately, Trixie has passed on. She is the first foal that we've had die that we haven't sent up to State (NCSU/Rollins Lab, Raleigh, NC) due to heavy work schedule combined with way increased costs. We think one of two things happened - reaction when her dam was treated for equine lice 48 hours before she died OR possible weird lightning strike - a heavy lightning storm passed thru the night before I found her dead next to a round bale when she didn't come up for breakfast w/ her dam. The mares all stayed jumpy for about another 48 hours after finding her - going to different hay bales, pulling mouth fulls and then jumping away. We put Trixie into our bonfire area and her bones are now in the mound that will be planted with fruit trees this fall/next spring.

Nalani, another bay tobiano filly (not as much white as Trixie) born 30 April. Don't have as many pictures of her, she is 5 days old in these and about 3 weeks old now..



All of these foals are sired by the same stallion - a 42" tall bay tobiano that was sired by our first stallion. He was born in 2011, sold as a 2 yr old in 2013 then came back to us in 2016 - as a stallion that had developed many bad/nasty habits which he hadn't had when I sold him as a well handled colt with a castration appointment with a local vet that new owners cancelled. 2 days before his castration appointment he got out with our SR mares. Even with 10 adults and funneling all the ponies into a catch pen like wild mustangs, we were unable to catch him. So I removed the two oldest mares that I definitely didn't want bred and went from there until I could catch him again. A year later, 2 vet checks - both of which he didn't "pass" (single cryptorchid), we are now getting ready to "cull" him. Thankfully, both of his two sons have both testicles (at birth anyway) and should be able to be gelded. We'll see on the last foal to be born.

Pony life, since we moved into this property in December of 2014, has been more than a little interesting and amazingly packed full of new learning experiences that as a long time breeder hadn't ever experienced before... I'm ready for these types of learning experiences to come to an end! We have spent the last two summers doing ground work, vetting farrier work on ponies but not real work. They have all enjoyed the time as pasture pets.

**********
Does anyone here have experience with getting rid of or dealing with equine lice? We've had more ponies get them each year since we moved into this property. Every "official" I've talked with say that equine lice can't survive in the environment - yet until we moved in here, we'd only had horse lice 1x previously and it was cleared up pretty easily. Since the first couple had them in March of 2015 in one paddock with pine trees, we've had more cases until this year March 2017 when all but 3 head have them! Some of the ponies have had reactions to the fly spray concentrate we used (recommended by a vet) like Equispot (spot on fly treatment). Back to using DE as a topical combined with Ivermectin wormer internal. But it's been difficult to get them all treated at the same time/day... O, and most of the ponies who've gotten the lice this year were at a good weight originally, only to have some lose weight as diagnosed w/ lice. After first dose, all ponies looking pretty decent except for one yearling that I thought I'd killed as I overdosed her with the spot on meds (she's tiny!)...

Ivermectin is all I know. you have to treat wait till the eggs hatch and treat again.... I am thinking ten days ?

@casportpony will know.

beatuful babies... sorry for your loss.

deb

Yes, Deb, it's 10-14 days. UGH! This has been horrible.

Thank you.

Hi @paintedChix Was just thinking the other day that we hadn't heard from you in a while; was wondering how things were going for you at the new place.

Sorry to hear about Trixie. I have to think that the mares' jumpiness around the round bales is significant of something - my horses have been within a hundred feet of a lightning strike 3 times in the last few years, and each time, they were seriously spooky for a couple of days afterward.

Sorry to hear about Toro, too. I understand that "crypto's" are disgustingly common in small equines. I had one of those "shut the computer down and walk away, before you say something you shouldn't" moments a while back when I saw a "stud" being advertised on Craigslist, and the owner even said that he only had one, but that was enough . . . .I take it the one that is missing has been determined to be well and truly lost, and not just inside the ring?

Yes - each vet hospital I spoke with basically agreed that we were looking at serious exploratory surgery. Ultra sound didn't pick it up either - told that the extra one could be up by his elbows! Well, spent a lot of $$ on him find that out. He was the 2nd to last colt sired by our first stallion.

Prices are all over the place with the least expensive sitting right at $2,500 IF everything goes perfect during the surgery. Of course, there is also the fact that he may not make it off the table and then he'd have to make it thru recovery.

The same day that he was checked (at NCSU, by techs, vet students & 3 vets), I had a 2nd colt with us that was of different bloodlines. He was found to be a double crypt! OMG - I have been wondering what's in our water here - let me tell you. We were hoping (& praying) that that colt would drop them on his own. The vets didn't tell me about an aggressive set of hormone shots that MIGHT have helped him - if started early enough. Now, they don't think it will make a difference and that it would be a waste of time/$$ to try.

Now, we also have a 3rd with 1 testicle retained. He is younger & related to the first stallion, and I've ordered the hormones that were prescribed for him and will be giving him them myself. Vets told us to be prepared (he is actually owned by my girlfriend now) - that his personality could mega change. Not looking forward to that, but if it helps him drop that 2nd "bad boy", then I'm all for it.

On the original two... well, horse slaughter is still illegal if I understand, but sure haven't had anyone step in to say they'd help. Right now, the cost of the surgeries are prohibitive. So they will both soon be fertilizing our sand pastures - helping to make the sand more fertile and "bring on the grass"...

have more to say about this subject, but my keyboard is giving me fits, so I'm off for now... Besides, 4:30 am comes early.

One other thing - I've bred Shetlands since 1995. We'd never experienced any retained testicles on any of the colts we produced out of the first 35+ foals. I'd never heard that "small breeds" experienced retained testicles UNTIL I posted on 2 different Mini Horse forums. Then had several people say that it "...is a deep, dark secret..." that runs in quite a few bloodlines of the "true minis". Then I was told that many of them "take longer" to descend and that I should wait. The mature stallion is now 6 yrs old. How much longer should I wait? AND if I use him, a slow descender, won't his sons be likely to also be slow or slower?

UUUGGG stupid computer - g

otta go

dang..... sigh for you