The Pissy Pony March to Adulthood

Tiki is, inevitably, growing up. As baby horses grow, they turn into surly teenagers. This USUALLY doesn't happen until around 1 year old, but Tiki's been well ahead of the curve since Day 1. When she was a month old, she was already independently walking around on the lead without mom nearby--something normal for 3-4 month old foals. When she was 6 weeks old she was already standing for the farrier like a champ. When she was 2 1/2 months old, she was being such a pissy playful baby walking in from the field with mom that she started having to be walked in separately--something not really normal for a suckling foal at all, but if you had to do it, would only be once they were just about ready to wean at 4-5 months. This past week, Tiki has become such a pissy handful walking with mom at all that she insisted on being led in AND out independently. Again, this is not normal for a suckling foal at all--to have the confidence to insist on being led BY HERSELF AND IN first from the field. More importantly, her attitude has shifted from cute little baby horsie to surly teenager WELL ahead of time. Fun, eh???? *sigh*

Most foals are shy and stand back from the gates while the adults are led in. Most foals will be kicked back by the adults at feeding time, put in their place and are often forced to come in last or next to last. Not Tiki! Nope, she stands at the gate and completely takes over. She will not be budged by the adult horses and they don't even try. I think they understand it would be futile. She comes out first to be led into the barn. Even before her mother. And, with a true friesian appetite, she runs to mom's feed bucket first and steals bites of food until Mona walks in. Even though we've had nights with high winds or situations where we've needed to bring the entire front field in at once, Tiki is the first horse out and the one to lead the pack as they march into the barn. She doesn't look back for her field mates, she doesn't cry for mom, she just marches with the whole world ahead of her with an occasional primordial yelp on the way in. More expressive than "where is everyone?"

She's been a surly, independent, pissy pony these last few weeks. Much like her sire before her, she's highly dependent on my level of interaction with her to keep her attitude compliant and happy in general. While overall she's a great, well-trained foal--the fact is if I don't have time to groom, talk to, or work with her she gets VERY upset and takes it out on whoever her handler is--in this case, poor Anne-Marie. Thankfully Anne-Marie has a personal connection with her and also handled her sire extensively during his young formative years. While I would run into the barn and train/teach all day, Anne-Marie (and others) recognized when Eddie's tolerance level of my lack of involvement was running thin and would remind me to spend time with him. Even pulling him into the grooming stall and giving him a good grooming gave him his "mom fix" and he would be a delightful boy for a week or so afterwards.

So, Tiki's been checking my nametag and has been acting out (piaffing and levading her way into the barn, having stomping, pouty temper tantrums etc) as she's been getting progressively more independent this last month and a half/two months. She's been marching her way to Weaning Day, stomping and pouting all the while. As it's almost upon us and the holidays are over, I'm entering back into her life to boost her confidence, guide her discipline, and reconnect with her to prepare her for her next big step in life.

Tiki's first snow!

I happened to be home sick for Tiki's first snow! I bundled up, grabbed the camera, and went outside for a few minutes to get a couple pictures of the momentous occasion.

Tiki, Doc and Mona gathered around the round bale watching me approach with interest. They had hay, they were happy. Tiki (of course) whinnied and came running over to greet me. She wears the mantle of Official Greeter for the barn and takes her job very seriously. After saying her hellos, she ran about the pasture, leaping and sliding around like a whirlwind.


After watching Doc lay down and roll, she decided to try it herself. Instead of getting all the way down and rolling though, she got on her knees and shoveled her nose into the snow. She popped up, sporting her new snow nose and ran around the field wildly with her nose straight up in the air. After that, she shifted between looking up at the snow like she was catching snowflakes and shoveling her nostrils into the powder, getting a white mustache perched onto her upper lip, and then careening around the pasture terrorizing Mona and Doc with her new 'doo.

Checking my nametag

So, with life events these past couple months, Tiki has not really seen me. November was taken up by our CISSP boot camp class, Thanksgiving, and then insane nightly studying prepping for our CISSP exam on December 11. I have to say we passed, but we have no idea HOW. The tests we were given were for software developers (which NEITHER of us are) and we truly felt we did not know the test material. Out of all the people at work in our class however, Joe and I were the only ones to pass on the first try. In our field, it's the equivalent of the bar exam for lawyers, and equally as required for our positions. So, this was a big deal to us and took a large chunk of our lives from Nov-Dec. Hopefully now I'll be able to post a little more regularly.

Pink Leopard Craziness

So, could you see Tiki sporting this stuff???

Pink Leopard Polo Wraps

Pink Leopard Dressage Saddlepad

Pink Leopard Western Tack

Pink Leopard Halter
(and no, I will NOT wear the pink leopard gloves to match--my sense of humor only goes so far....)

Pink Padded Dressage Bridle

Pink Crystal Browband

WOW if we're going Western, this is pink leopard AND rhinestones!

Pink Leopard Brush Boots!

Pink Leopard Bell Boots!

(ok, enough's enough.....though I take a certain guilty pleasure in the last two....LOL!)

Tiki in Pink!

Yes, for all of those who thought I had lost my mind, you are correct. Tiki is all dressed up in PINK! Blame it on Kim and I painting her hooves hot pink at 2 days old, or on my crazy sense of humor. Blame it on the fact she seems to be a DIVA (lucky me.....) and doesn't like to get her little twinkle toes dirty. I'm at the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" stage of my life. So, if Tiki likes pink so much, I might as well celebrate her pinkness in style.

So, here she is in all her pink glory! I figure the more garish, the better......I'm checking out HOT PINK LEOPARD polo wraps, saddlepads, etc etc

3 days, 3 months, 3 years

So here it is......Tiki's 2nd time over the jumps out back. Her form is actually quite good! What's wild is how TALL she's gotten.

Her 3 month old birthday is tomorrow......you know what they say---the horse looks like what they're going to look like as an adult at 3 days, 3 months, and 3 years. So, if this is the conformation, not so bad :-)

And the results are in.......

CHESTNUT! No gray. Here are the results:

Red-Factor Result:
e/e - Only the red factor detected. Basic color is sorrel or chestnut in the absence of other modifying genes.

Agouti Result:
a/a - Only recessive allele detected. Black pigment distributed uniformly. Basic color is black in the absence of other modifying genes.

Gray Result:
N/N - No copies of the gray gene. Horse will not turn gray.

So, no worries of being "genetically" chestnut but then graying. Yea!

Poor Tiki is looking like a patchwork quilt though. Now that she's shedding out her foal coat she's growing in some very strange stuff. Looks like some sort of ugly reddish liver chocolate color, Depending on the lighting, she either looks almost black, VERY dark red, or chocolate.

Tiki and the Technicolored Coat

So, Tiki has become the complete mystery horse as she sheds out. Around her eyes and muzzle is gray skin with some dark reddish/brownish sort of hair. There's a spot on her neck where she got a little hair knocked off weeks ago and it's growing in VERY dark brown. There are spots on her legs where her hair has been knocked off and scratched that ranges from dark gray to dark brown to black. And, the oddest part--her stifles are salt and pepper grayish. The hair growing in at the roots of her mane is dark reddish brown. Her tail has her dorsal stripe down the top of it, then has flaxen blond highlights on each side of her tailhead. The rest is bright red/chestnut. The hints of gray plus the blackish brownish reddish hair in different places is just odd. It's very, very odd. Her sire, Masetto (affectionately known as Eddie) was EaAa. I had him DNA color tested by UC Davis. Eddie's sire Diego is eeaa. Eddie's dam Operista is EEAa. She was genetically bay under a gray coat. This means that Tiki could possibly be genetically chestnut under a coat that turns gray. I have not had Mona color tested.

So, last night Kim and I attacked Tiki's tail at midnight and got hair samples. I'm mailing them off to UC Davis for testing today. It won't tell us what shade of chestnut she'll turn out, but at least it will solve the gray mystery. If she tests positive for any gray, that will mean that she will eventually gray out, no matter what she looks like now (much like her granddam Operista who is a dapple gray on the outside, but genetically bay).

Stay tuned.........

Coffee With Tiki

This is a little less about Tiki and a little more about what I am learning from her. This morning, I did something I have never done for the entire 8 years we've lived here. I went out on the deck to have coffee.

For those who don't know the backstory, let me just summarize by catching you up--for the last 15+ years, I've worked two jobs, usually 7 days a week, usually averaging 14-16 hours. I would work my day job M-F, then zoom to the barn to train or teach. Weekends were spent training/teaching/doing manual labor to improve the barn, ring, or run errands for supplies for the horses. As you can see, I, myself, or Joe were really not in this picture. Just horses and work--and horses BECAME work. Occassionally (like what happened yesterday, actually) my body forces me to rest by hitting the "reset" button. I get sick. Stress tends to have a very psychosomatic affect on my body and makes me physically ill. One thing that I've learned about myself--and many others have seen--is that I will work,work,work,work until it's "sit down or fall down". I was brought up that you ALWAYS finish your work before you play. Unfortunately, I always have an insurmountable mountain of work at any given time. I feel guilty playing with so much work to do that I cannot ever really let go and just ENJOY life. This is hardwired into me. There really is no getting past this.

The past two years, having bought the farm (hahahaha! I really almost DID thanks to the purchase of a large training facility!) the workload that was already at maximum capacity DOUBLED. In the middle of this, Joe and I changed jobs to something more demanding, but something we really, really enjoy (most days, LOL!). So, in the interest of sanity, Joe and I decided to sell the big farm :-). In a better economy, it would have worked well. We would have had the capital to make the improvements we wanted to make, pay the salaries we wanted to pay, etc etc but we bought the farm in the fall of 2008 just as the entire country was taking the largest economical nosedive since the Great Depression. The profit just wasn't there to be able to run the facility the way we wanted, and horse people were doing everything possible to keep their horses. This usually meant moving to the cheapest facility they could find, and that was not us. Not because we didn't want to charge less, but because we physically couldn't. The mom-and-pop stables down the street that had no mortgage and had been in the family for oodles of years could drop their board to $200/mo, but we could not possibly pay our fixed operating costs while competing with them. We were throwing our own personal money, to the tune of $3k+ a month, into the business while barely able to survive ourselves. No one was sending their horses out for training, hardly anyone could afford lessons and board, and then our 4 y.o. andalusian stallion ended up not being able to be a viable breeding stallion for AI, and then suddenly died. We're a victim of horrible timing and terrible luck, and while we're still paying for it financially, we're very glad that due to the economic hard times our house didn't sell so we had something to come back to.

So, we sold the farm, moved back to our farmette in Aberdeen, had a party, and Joe and I looked at each other and collectively sighed. Time to relax! We're HOME again, and back close to all our friends!! Since moving back, our friends stop by often, we have LIVES, we've had some awesome parties already, (pot luck.....we're still broke as heck LOL!) but our lives are so much richer for the experience. We're grateful for every second we get to spend with each other, the horses, and doing things around the farm that make it better, even if it's only tiny little things that only we will notice. Right now, there is a large 4 foot ditch in front of our 5 stall barn where we're laying in a french drain. Our wonderful neighbors, Christy and Aaron came over with their barely-alive backhoe over the weekend and dug it for us so we can fix the drainage in the barn. It will be alot of backbreaking shoveling, but it's on OUR time, and (thanks to just boarding to a few friends vs a huge public facility like we've done for 10 years) we don't have clients staring us down asking us "when will this be done?!?!?!?!"

It's wonderful. I'm happy even digging a ditch......because it makes the home for our horses better.....on my terms......when I have time....with no huge expectations or judgements because it's not done fast enough, pretty enough, or with footing that Pooky likes but Fluffy doesn't. (hey, 10 years of listening to client demands will make anyone a little sarcastic LOL!)

So, for the first time ever since we bought this 7 1/2 acre farmette in 2002, we have our own horses in the barn instead of running down the street and spending more time at a leased facility than our own home. I can sit on my deck and watch the horses chew peacefully on their hay and notice how beautiful the back pasture is as Ariana and Sandy stand under the tree that's turning red this fall. I didn't really have a reason to go out on the deck and drink my coffee under the morning sun before. I didn't have Tiki to go watch and laugh at as she tries to mimic the older horses by putting her head in the round bale holder pretending to eat hay I KNOW her little neck doesn't let her reach the hay. I didn't have a chance to laugh while Tiki victoriously grabbed a mouthful of hay she discovered outside the round bale holder, waved it in the air for all to see that she too has hay like the adults!!! I didn't have the time, either. I was always racing to go teach a lesson or train a horse.

I decided this morning to take the time to go out on the deck, have coffee and watch Tiki nap for 10 minutes. The view from the deck is great. Sure, there's a lot of projects we want to work on around here--the work is never done--but they're OUR projects. We own them. They're for us, our happiness, and no one else. They benefit other people who come here to enjoy their horses,sure, but we're boarding to friends now and the barn is peaceful. The horses are incredibly happy and so are we. Even Pepper has found a happy place to nap. Makes all of us nervous as heck, but she uses a birds nest for a pillow and snores away during the daytime.

Completely OT - Bring your ferret to work day :-)

I just had to share! I had to bring Ice to the vet today for glucose testing before heading to work. He's now 5 years old and is FINALLY mellowing out. He's curled up on my lap at work right now, napping. One of the cool things I missed about our first ferret Sparky was his desire to curl up, cuddle up, and hang with me.

Well, you can't sit on my lap anymore, Tiki

I had a "Boy, she's gotten BIG!!" moment about a week ago. I got home late from work and grabbed a glass of wine. Well, ok......a plastic cup of wine......and went out to the barn to play for a few minutes with Tiki before heading off to bed. Recently, life has been a bit crazy and I haven't been able to spend as much time with her as I'd like. So, even though I only had about 10 minutes and I was tired, I was determined to go visit her.

I discovered two things: Mona really likes wine, and Tiki's gotten big!

I walked into the stall to be INSTANTLY mugged by Mona. I swatted her away, telling her to go eat her hay, but she was having none of it. She was determined to see what I had in my hand, and could she have it? NO, MONA! I tried walking this way and that in the stall and she was mercilessly pursuing my wine. I knew there was no way I could just set it between the bars of the stall--she would knock it right over with her upper lip. So, I reached WAY up and set my cup of wine on the fan hanging on the outside of her stall and sat down on the beanbag in the stall.

Tiki was desperate for company. She hadn't seen me in a few days, so she was all over me asking for scritches. If she could have crawled inside of me, she would have. She stood with her chest pushed firmly up against the bag, reaching over my shoulder and "hugging" me tight with her neck to her chest while I scratched her withers and all around her neck and shoulders. We spent about 10 minutes like this, and she started to try to climb on the bag with her front feet. NO Tiki! If you want on the bag, you have to turn around and sit on it with me.

I got up and gently repositioned her so she could sit. Her favorite thing to do when she sits with me is to lean up against me, hoping I'll pull her onto my lap, grab her front legs, and cross them over me on the other side of my lap. She then drapes her head on the other side and starts snoring.

Well, I discovered how big she's gotten when she leaned next to me. :-) She was gentle, but it was obvious she wanted to lay across me. I figured I'd try, more for fun than anything else. I put my arms around her neck and shoulders and gave her a big hug. As I hugged her, I lifted her up. Whew, she weighs alot now!

The comical thing was how Tiki seemed to be happy no matter how uncomfortable she looked. Because of her increased weight, I couldn't lift her very far over my lap, so her front legs stuck straight out in front of me. Her neck and chest covered my lap and her head fell off completely on the other side of my lap now. I started laughing hysterically--this HAD to look ridiculous! It sure FELT ridiculous! "Tiki, this CAN'T be comfortable!" She looked at me, still desperate for attention, and it was like she put on a brave face "Nope!, it's fine, ma!". She laid there with her body limp, legs rigidly stuck out in front of her, and her head craned towards me looking up at me, ears pricked forward. What next??

I tried to grab her front legs and bend them, but they've gotten too long to grab from a sitting position now. I slid her down the bag so she could at least lay down. Her butt remained up on the bag, while her barrel, head, and neck all slid down to the stall floor. I was imagining being her, with all that blood running to her head. Again I started laughing, as she was obviously putting on a brave face for attention--"Tiki, this CAN'T be comfortable!" I repeated. She didn't move an inch. Surely she'd get tired of this and leap to her feet soon, right? Nope......

I pulled her forward off the bag and got her level on the ground. I laid behind her, hugging her and rubbing her all over. She sighed and closed her eyes, happy to be petted and loved.

"Tiki, you're getting too big for this!!" Somehow, I don't think she cares......

Tiki and the Weedeater

I've discovered there is a problem with bombproofing too much. Horses begin to lose their healthy respect for things that can hurt them. There's something to be said for flight instincts and common sense. Tiki, unfortunately, has neither. She is extremely trusting, almost to a fault. This is a wonderful trait when you're trying to get her to do something--"Here, Tiki, you really DO want to walk on this tarp!!" but isn't the greatest of attributes when trying to keep her unhurt and alive.....

Case in point:
Before the Tiki party in September, Joe, Kim, Anne-Marie and I were cleaning up around the farm like crazed landscapers. We weeded gardens, put away clutter in the barn, mowed, cleared off the back porch, the deck, and the addition. We had a trash company come in and haul away some of the leftovers from our deadbeat tenants who had moved out in March of this year and left behind large trash items. Tiki watched with interest as cars and large trucks paraded up and down the driveway. She observed us rushing around the farm with trash bags, tossing doors and trash off the deck, and Joe careening around front lawn mowing at 12 mph :-)

In the interest of neatness, I grabbed the weedwhacker and attacked the barn perimeter. I weedwhacked around the back and side of the barn, the back porch, the deck, and headed for the fenceline. In typical Tiki fashion, she saw me walking up the fenceline with a loud whining weedwhacker in hand and started inching towards me. Hoping to beat her curiosity, I started going faster down the fence. I would mow down a section, she would take a few more brave steps towards me, ears perked up and tail wagging like a dog.

By the time I got to the corner of the field, she was closing in fast, taking more steps across the field faster than I could trim with the string. She was now within 15 feet of me and I was imagining a stone being thrown and uncannily finding her eyeball. All of my mother's sage advice from my childhood about not running with scissors and all the various things that could mysteriously poke my eye out came flooding back to me. I could see it already--Tiki sporting an eye patch and me greeting the guests the next day: "Yes, this is the Tiki Party. You made it to the right place! The thing is, we decided to change it to a Pirate Party! Tiki---can you say 'ARRRRRRRR!?'"

It was obvious Tiki was not going to scram, even with my pitiful attempts to jump up and down with a running wheedwhacker in hand, scream over the din of the engine, and wave my remaining hand in the air like a maniac. She thought my antics were quite amusing and wanted to come up and tell me so! NOOOOOOOOOO Tiki! So, I sighed and walked away, weedwhacker idling, and found another lawn patch to attack instead. I guess I don't need to do any bombproofing training with lawn equipment any time soon.......

Play Ball!

So, one of the goals I have with Tiki to engage her sense of play is to teach her how to play with a ball. I was excited, ordered a small/medium sized ball from PetSmart (COUPON!!! WHOO-WHOO!) and ripped open the box with delight when it came. I envisioned Tiki and I, much like I did with her sire, out in the pasture happily playing ball with each other within days. Sure, it was a trained behavior, but Eddie loved to play and would joyfully run over and stomp on, grab, or carry anything you pointed him at. Hats, zippered jackets, climbing on steps and benches, large and small balls--anything amused him. So, I thought for sure this would be a score for Tiki. Finally, she'd have something and someone to play with.

Boy was I wrong. I go bounding out to the pasture with the ball in hand. I open the gate and as per usual, she comes running up to me expectantly. "LOOK TIKI! A PLAYTOY!" I tell her, proudly holding it out to her nose to sniff. She snorted at me derisively and took off bucking across the field. She was not impressed. I was deflated, but not defeated. I walk off after her, put the ball on the ground and punt it in her and Mona's general direction. It rolls underneath Mona's feet and touches her feathers. Suddenly, it was like Mona was prodded with a hot poker by her legs. She snorts, springs about 2 feet off the ground, lands next to the ball with legs going a million miles a minute and runs at full speed across the field. Tiki, shocked at her mother's sudden and explosive dismay, joins her in her frantic flight from the Ball of Death. NOT a good introduction to the object that is supposed to be hours of entertainment.

I felt like a parent that had been duped by the glitzy kid commercials played ad naseum during Saturday morning cartoons. It rolls! It bounces! Your kids will love it! She likely would have been more amused by the box and bubblewrap, like most toddlers.

I sighed, grabbed the ball, and walked over to the horses. Tiki stared at the monster I was holding, snorting and shaking while Mona grazed. Food, to a friesian, is often higher on the priority list than the lions they must run from in the survival chain. I wondered how many friesians, if in a predator-driven environment, would succumb to their appetites versus stay alive. I imagined a herd of friesians in a particularly tasty part of an African plain, grazing quietly while a lion stalks them. The lion leaps out, roaring, and while most of the friesians immediately take flight, two of them stand there and discuss the options with mouths full of green grass. "You gonna run, Jimbo?" "Nah, I haven't had grass this delicious for at least a day". "Yeah, I'm with you--my stomach's pretty full and these blades ro......." Lion: CHOMP. No wonder friesians were almost extinct, right??

I was determined that Tiki was going to play with the ball. I let her sniff it all over, made it make noise, and bopped it around on the ground in front of her. She walked away and went back to pretending to graze. That's the most insulting part. She's not even grazing. She doesn't really have much in the way of teeth yet, and she's not chewing and swallowing grass. She's just mimicking mom as she sees her grazing in the field. It was akin to a child pretending to sleep to ignore you. I rolled the ball in front of her legs and, curious, she touched it with her nose as it passed by. "GOOD GIRL!" I yell and walk up to scratch her as a reward. She stares at me in confusion. Why did I make such a big deal out of this all of a sudden?? Remembering my trick training and target training days, I roll the ball again, holding my breath and waiting for the moment for her to stretch her neck out as it goes by her nose and touch it again, poised to praise. As expected, she reached for the ball as it rolled by and again I yelled "GOOD GIRL!!" and walked over to scratch her in her favorite places, making a huge deal out of her. I was watching the light bulb in her head slowly begin to turn on.

This went on for about 5 minutes--the average baby horse attention span--with me repeatedly rolling the ball by her, praising the moment she made any move towards it, and scratching her with vigor for every attempt to touch it. After the first few punts, trying to make her take a step towards it, I started kicking it a little further away from her. At this point, her interest completely waned and I began to play a pathetic game of kickball with myself in the middle of the field. People driving by were staring at me as I went from kicking a ball to a ghost opponent in a field peppered with manure piles to pleading eye to eye with a small foal to please touch the ball. At this point I decide to pack the ball up and leave with my dignity only slightly degraded.

The next day, I march doggedly out to the field to try this again. Hoping to pick up where I left off, I walk into the field, set the ball on the ground, and punt it towards Tiki. I wait expectantly as it rolls towards her and gets closer to her legs, hoping for a repeat of yesterday's behavior so that I can praise and scratch her. Much like a slow motion horror film sequence I watch as she turns toward the oncoming Ball Of Death and a look of terror spreads across her face. She leaps into the air to escape the ball and sprints behind Mom to hide. Peeking around Mona's shoulder, she watches as I walk towards her, determined, ball in hand. I again go through re-introducing the ball, letting her sniff it, touch it etc. Again I roll it past her nose and wait with baited breath to praise her for touching it. Gotta start somewhere, right? She reached, I praise, I pet. Finally, I walk a little distance away and roll it in a way she has to take a step towards it to touch it. The ball gets close, goes past her, and stops a short distance from her. She looks at me, cranes her neck toward the ball and takes a tentative step towards it. "GOOOOOOOD GIIIIIIIRL!" I squeal and run up to her to scratch her. She startles, puzzled, and scratches me back as I itch her withers. I make it an extra long scratch for her and make a huge fuss over her. The lightbulb shines bright now. I roll the ball further and further away from her, forcing her to have to take more and more steps to touch the ball with her nose.

At this point, I'm thrilled. Is Tiki going to take over Pele's position with the Cosmos? No. But, I have her consistently walking over and touching the ball. She was loving all the scratching and attention, so I felt this was going well. As with most training and small attention spans, her attention span burnt out quickly and I had to wait until the following day to continue trying to teach her about the ball. The next day we were able to start right where we left off. Tiki is very motivated by any attention, so it was great to have something she felt it was worth it to work for.

What I didn't expect, though, was what happened next. The parent and child relationship reversed. Here I was, like a kid, gleefully kicking the ball in the field for Tiki to walk up to and touch. Whenever she touched it, I jumped up and down, squealed with happiness and ran over to pet her. Tiki, channeling a patient mother playing with her toddler, began to watch the ball roll by, look at me, sigh, put her head down and walk over to the ball. She would touch the ball and stand expectantly for her scratches. I've never felt more condescended by a foal in my life. She was humoring me.

After this episode, I've decided that Tiki can take the damned ball and stuff it. I'm sure she thinks the same of me as well, so we've agreed to table the attempt to play ball for now. Maybe we'll approach it again at a later date, but for now she'll just need to amuse herself by pretending to graze......

One month old....growing up!

She's looking very mature now! More like a red friesian now than an andalusian......

It's amazing to see her filling out, getting bigger, and getting more bone on her. She really is starting to have big knees and starting to grow into those legs of hers! I don't have to bend over quite as much to give her a hug, and when she puts her little head up at me to stare into my eyes lays it on my chest/shoulder so I can pet her head, her chin now rests on my shoulder.

If I get down on one knee now, she towers over me like a giant. I call it "Attack of the Giant Baby!!" Thankfully, she's gentle (most days, unless she's got a ton of pent up energy and wants to play) and I've been reinforcing boundaries to her. She needs to know humans CAN be her playmates, but THEY ARE SOFT AND SQUISHY, GET HURT EASY and ALWAYS must be allowed to win. (big grin) She also is learning that she must be INVITED to play (more on that in the next post). She can ask, but she may be told NO by a human. And she has to ask NICELY!!!

Her legs are finally starting to straighten out a bit, and while she's still on restricted turnout, she's less over-at-the-knees than she had been after turnout. Her chest is getting wide, and she's got a great foreleg-to-chest connection. While she's a bit close behind, which I do not like, I'm hoping that straightens out as well as she grows in these next couple months.

No matter what, I am still amazed at the deep wisdom in her eyes. She is truly an old soul.

Early shedding is looking like she may shed out to be a liver chestnut (sigh) or even a black chestnut. Her "adult coat" that seems to be growing in underneath a few scratches is VERY VERY dark. I've gotten used to her red-ness (which happily was starting to get as deep red as her sire's coat!), and she gets deeper and deeper red daily. So, knowing she may end up being a strange dark-red-brown color makes me sad, but I've learned to look past her odd coloring. It would be a neat color genetics conversation starter if she shed to black chestnut--very black-looking with dark red points-- like this morgan stallion:


Eh, who knows? What will be will be.....

Swimming with the sharks

So, it's Tiki's first day out with an adult horse. I have to admit, Doc isn't much of a shark. Normally, "baby's first day with adults" is a swimming with the sharks moment, where the babies stick close to mom, and the adult horses swirl around them like curious sharks. Or, with a bold baby, you have the role reversal moment where the baby stalks the adults, who are running away from the protective mothers. DON'T YOU TOUCH MY BABY!!

So.........you take a wild guess as to which situation this is......

"Hey look!! A new horse in the field!!"

"My name's Tiki! What's yours??"

Mona: "GET AWAY FROM MY BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Now, as babies are wont to do....SOMETIMES the bold and smart ones figure out that they can get their new pasturemate in trouble by "baiting" them to incite Mom into thundering over to beat the crap out of them. We had a colt named Gossamer who was famous for this--truly his favorite trick. He would stalk the unsuspecting adult grazing nearby, walk slowly but very deliberately up to the adult horse, one eye on Mom, one eye on the target. Once within a few feet of the horse, Mom gallops over, teeth bared, ears pinned, wheels around and begins firing with her back legs.

Tiki is beginning to master this art......

Tiki: "MOOOOMMMMM! Doc's touching me!!!"
Doc: *SIGH* "Kids......."

Appreciating Mist

It's a small thing, really, but when I was cleaning Tiki's stall this morning, there was a gentle mist rolling in from the field. She stood with her head hanging out over the wheelbarrow, observing the world around her while I picked her and Mona's stall out as Mona munched on her breakfast. Being only a month old, Tiki still has very little interest in the vittles that Mom will just about tear a stall apart for every morning. She and I have a solemn pact worked out when it comes to stall pickout time in the morning--she is allowed to casually look around the barn with her head out of the stall (a rare treat) as long as she stands quietly at the wheelbarrow. No escape attempts are tolerated. If I see her body tense or her little back legs start to come under her like she's thinking about a flying leap (something she tried only ONCE) I come flying at her with the pitchfork tines pointed at her chest, screaming like a banshee, so fast it makes her head spin. So, as long as she's quiet and relaxed, we enjoy some relaxed bonding time together in the morning. Me, picking her stall out and listening to the birds, and her, poking her head over the wheelbarrow, watching the cats and looking outside. Occasionally the siren song of the outside world is drowned out by her desire to follow me around the stall like a dog and play with me while I clean :-) This morning, though, she was looking particularly pensive as she stared into the field. I realized as I was removing the wheelbarrow from the front of the stall and stood next to her that she was staring at the mist rolling in from the field. She had never seen anything like that before and was just fascinated by the movement in the fog as it swirled. I stood quietly next to her for a few minutes, taking in the sight, and listening to Pepper lapping up water from her water bowl in the otherwise eerily silent barn and realized that my friend was right. A big part of my journey with Tiki is to see things through her eyes for the first time, slow down, and appreciate the wonder of her world around me.

Tiki Party!!!!

I LOVE MY TIKI :-)

So, it was our Warlander filly Tiki's 1 month birthday on Sept 10, and SO many of our friends wanted to come meet her after she was born, that we held a Tiki Party in her honor. We had about 40+ people, decorated our deck, our bar, and the barn in Tiki/tropical decor and had a great time :-) Tiki lights were everywhere! Mona and Tiki have been WONDERFUL about having a lot of people milling about in their stall, meeting and greeting them. They're awesome ambassadors for the breeds. In true friesian fashion, they took the festivities completely in stride. We decided for fun we'd give everyone a Hawaiian lei as they arrived and have them sit with Tiki on the beanbag in her stall and pose for a photo. Well, after I started telling friends about our plan, it really took off from there. Can she wear a lei? How about a grass skirt? What about a backdrop? Even when our wonderful friend Lisa (I bred and sold her her Otte filly) came over to make a backdrop for photos in their stall, the horses didn't blink an eye as we assembled it in their stall. Lisa used large rolls of colored paper to create a beach scene with palm trees, coconuts, and a boat in the background called "Leaky Tiki" (remember Adventures in Paradise with the schooner??). Little Tiki pees so much that her nickname has become Leaky Tiki :-). I got a little grass skirt from the party store and put it around her neck for the photos, and put the lei around her ears as a cute headdress. She loved every minute of it! She's such a diva, she loved playing dress-up and posing with the guests. She was so patient, quiet, and well-behaved with all the non-horsie people from work who came up to our house for the first time to see what all the excitement was about. We even had a few family photos taken with Tiki. I was so proud of how still, gentle and good she was with the little kids who came up to pet her and sit with her. I told her there was a special place in heaven for her for being so good! And gosh knows, she'll put up with nearly anything. It was less like having a horse with you than having a large stuffed animal or a really big dog hanging out with friends. We know she'll only be this little once, so we're taking full advantage of her cute-ness LOL!

We had a ton of fun, people LOVED meeting our little angel filly, and it was a great experience we'll never forget.

Tiki N Emilie

Tiki, Angie, Brenna and her new baby brother Paul

Tiki and Ray Luellen pose with his girls

Tiki and Friends!

Emilie, Kim and Devinne all pose with Tiki in preparation for her debut in her Tiki Party in September....we spent tons of time in the field and stall with her cuddling and playing. She eats up every minute of it!

Kim getting a hug from Tiki :-)

Emilie hugging Tiki

Devinne and Tiki practicing sitting

Jumping with Tiki

Pics to go with the story ;-)

One Very Extraordinary Filly

So over the past couple weeks as I've gotten to know Tiki I've discovered she's a very extraordinary filly. She is like no other foal I've worked with in intelligence and heart. She is quite literally the sweetest creature I've ever known. She is so bonded to me she whinnies when I walk in the barn, stands at her stall door and puts her nose out for me, and whinnies whenever I leave. She tracks me constantly, looking wherever I am when she's turned out. She doesn't have any playmates, so her focus might very well just be due to loneliness and wanting someone to play with. My friends, when they visit, will go in the field and we all just sit indian style in a circle in the middle of the field. Give it 30 seconds and she's right over in the middle of the group. 9 times out of 10 she's standing over me, playing with my hair, licking my cheek, "hugging" me with her neck and it's been noticed by the group over and over that while they all want to play with her, she clearly chooses me over everyone else to play with. Of course, we're enforcing manners--not letting her bite or paw at us, walk over us, or be aggressive in playing with us. At one week old she already figured out her boundaries with playing. She'll canter right up to you while you sit calmly and skids to a stop at a safe distance from your feet :-) This, short of her constant want to be around humans, is pretty normal stuff.

What I'm starting to really see is her intelligence at problem solving and trust level. If we're out in the pasture together and I'm scratching her or just hanging out in the pasture sitting with her while she grazes nearby, if Mona alarms at a sound next door or nearby, putting her head up, stiffening up and snorting, Tiki looks at me. If I'm not concerned, her demeanor doesn't change at all and she continues what she's doing. If she does get alarmed for some reason, she's equally chosen running to Mona as much as running to hide behind me. Devinne, a vet student who has done TONS of repro work and has handled tons of foals, was stunned at her "circle of trust"--the radius that Tiki feels comfortable moving away from Mona, especially if it's in an area she's not familiar with. A foal of her age will usually stay within 10 feet of mom. Tiki will happily follow me up to 50 feet away from Mona while free in the pasture. In a halter and lead, at two weeks old, not even needing the figure 8 rope around her butt anymore, she'll walk with me pretty much wherever I want outside the pasture already. Devinne was able to lead her into an area she had never been before, with Mona grazing nearby, about 30 feet away.

She's already working very competently in halter. Most foals at this age I'm still figure 8-ing and they're not as confirmed as her in leadwork until at least a month. I took her out back in our grass "ring" and showed her poles and jumps for the first time. After a couple "hell NO I'm not walking over that pole" moments, and me just waiting at the end of the lead rope for her to figure out what I wanted, she walked over them with no problem. I then put the pole about 6 inches high and asked her to jump over them. I've done this with foals, but not normally until they're a couple months old. It was the first time I ever worked with her with a dressage whip and she completely understood what I was asking for. All training is pressure-release-from-pressure, and she's already mastered that concept. She's shown her stubborn streak and the fact she's more willing to lay down and stop listening completely in a temper tantrum than give in, but I've figured out how to work around that already. Things do have to be presented as something for her to figure out or be her idea. I've seen her need to "discover" the answer to the question you're asking and approach her that way now. The great part is while she can be frustratingly stubborn when she doesn't understand, once she does the right thing she LIVES to be praised. Once she figured out that I wanted her to go over the poles, she FLEW over them in a big show and then got to the other side, waited to be hugged and scratched, and then danced at the end of the lead in joy that she "got it right". She was SO obviously proud of herself. Then as we walked past the jump, she pulled to go over it again and couldn't wait to do more. We only did 6 jumps total, but she was incredibly happy and proud of herself, it was so funny to see. Her rapid cognitive ability to figure out what was expected of her and then repeating it was really impressive. I've seen foals learn, but we all clearly witnessed her get it right once and then clearly repeat and want to repeat over and over.

She already sits on the beanbag like a pro and anyone can sit her down on it and sit next to her. I got her a small ball and am starting to teach her how to play with it. So far on the first try, I can kick it a few feet and get her to follow it and touch it. She then waits for a scratch as a reward. We've already set a small saddle on her back (she didn't care), saddlepads, jingle bells, towels, lead ropes, hats, whatever you do to her she doesn't care. Complete and total trust. She already flysprays and bathes like a champ, (she turns three weeks old tomorrow), has had her first farrier trim and did great, clips, and stands quiet for the halter to be put on and taken off in the stall and in the field.

She is truly a little ray of sunshine. She loves EVERYONE. She's hard to walk away from. She'll lick you on the cheek and "hug" you with her neck forever. She loves to tickle people with her upper lip and has already learned that nipping people is BAD, so she's very gentle when she comes up and wants to be scratched and groomed and groom you back. I am constantly floored at the outpouring of love from such a little body, and her eyes are a thousand years old. She is so wise beyond her years already, it's somewhat spooky looking at such mature and wise eyes in such a tiny foal. While I am sad that Eddie is gone, I am grateful to have Tiki as his legacy. I'm not sure I've ever been so unconditionally loved by a horse before. It is a strange and wonderful experience. I hope she doesn't grow out of her super-friendly, super-loving self.

The Itch Fixer

I've decided that Tiki's title for me is not Mom #2 or Second Mom, it's The Itch Fixer. I may regret this later in life, but for now, I don't mind the title. It started a few days ago when we were doing our 24/7 vigil on her trying to get her through her impaction. She obviously was having trouble and was biting at her sides, but she also was simply itchy in several places. I was sitting on the beanbag in the stall while she was trying to itch her stifle and told her "come here and I'll fix it for you". She promptly marched right over and presented her side to me and I scratched it for her. She then began to point to a bunch of different places with her nose and her hind hoof and I scratched them all. Mona thought this was an awesome new service I was providing and walked over, used her nose to point to her front leg, chewed it a little and then presented it to me to scratch. I sighed, and started scratching the leg. She then pointed to her hip etc. So I ended up standing between the two of them in the middle of the stall, scratching Mona's hip while she was scratching Tiki's butt and Tiki was scratching (best as she can with no teeth) my leg for me. I was just laughing so hard while the itch "circle" was going on. Now, when Tiki has an itch, she just comes up and points to it and waits. Now, I know this isn't all that unusual, but I still find it really funny to experience it.

So this morning as I'm cleaning their stall Tiki comes up to me and points to the dock of her tail and waits. I dutifully scratch her, since I am The Itch Fixer now, and go back to cleaning the stall. I lean behind the other side of Mom to clean up a pile and feel this presence next to me. Tiki has walked up behind me. She taps me gently on my back with her nose to get my attention, I turn to her, eye to eye, and she reaches out and briefly licks my cheek, like a little kiss. It just seemed so much like "Thanks Mom!" Now, the logical side of me knows she's just a foal being a foal, but my heartstrings tugged, I giggled, and just looked her straight in the eye and said "you're welcome".

The All Night Mineral Oil Vigil Worked!!

Tiki was finally able to go on her own at 2am and 6am. It's so soft it's actually a little runny now. Guess she doesn't need any more mineral oil :). But she's no longer acting colicky. No more straining to go, no more stamping her back legs and constant up-down trying to get comfortable. She's happily snoring and whinnying away in my lap as I type this on my phone. I swear I've never seen a foal dream so much or be so noisy in them. Give her 1 minute of a nap and she's twitching, mouthing, snorting, grunting, and whinnying in her sleep. Right now her head is in my left hand on my lap and she's snoring. I've raised a lot of foals, but nothing like her. She whinnies for you when you walk away and waits at the door hoping you return soon. She beams when I walk in the door and waits for me to scratch her and cradle her head in my hands and play with her ears. She lives to cuddle and loves when you sit next to her when she's laying down. She thinks human pillows ROCK lol! She LOVES water. LOVES it. She's facinated with it and was already drinking little slurps out of the water trough her first day of turnout. When I fill the water buckets in her stall she plays in the water and watches it swirl with undivided attention. She stamps her front feet in excitement and I have a feeling she'll be trying to get them IN the water buckets soon. And she LOVED the hose when we gave her a bath on day 2. It was 105 degree heat index that day and we needed to get the milk, afterbirth etc off moms legs so we took them in the wash rack. She was so fascinated by moms bath we gave her an impromptu one too. She loved every minute. She is an odd little duck but in a great way-she seems to find incredible joy in every new discovery. It's funny to watch her.

Our first scare with Tiki

She's been having a little bit of trouble passing manure on her own. She's 5 days old today. She had hard stools a couple days ago but then seemed better. Tonight when I brought her in from her first full hour of turnout she was constipated and can't pass any manure on her own now. I gently used my finger to pull out what I could, and it was very soft, odd consistancy and color, tinged with a little blood. Tried enemas but unlike her merconium enema that went in fine, this was like it hit a wall and came right back out. Seems she's impacted right near the rectum and can't push it out. Vet will be here in the am, until then i'm pulling an all nighter in her stall and giving her 20ccs of mineral oil orally every 2 hours on vets orders to try to soften it up. Tiki is uncomfortable, but sleeping and nursing fairly normally. She's actually dreaming as I type this on my phone and whinnying in her sleep. She dreams alot and whinnies all the time :) It will be an all-nighter. Kim and Anne-Marie are on their way to help keep vigil overnight and help give her her mineral oil oral dose treatments.

Tiki's first real day out!!!

So, even though little Tiki is a bit down on her pasterns, especially the right hind, the vet said it was ok to go ahead and give her a little bit of turnout. We had let her go out yesterday for a few minutes to try to straighten her legs out on her own. Gosh knows she's been folded up inside Mona so long!! We're supposed to get a boot in the morning to put on her RH foot to help prop it up and strengthen it. She has to spend two days in the boot with it taped on, and then she's good to go! Joe took pics while Kim and I encouraged a little movement.

The fun of imprinting!!

I do a ton of imprinting, so by day two she has already had a bath, had a saddlepad with jingle bells on her, halter, leadropes all around her, sits on a beanbag, lays down with you, picks up all hooves etc. Her mother, a maiden, is completely ok with everything--just enough concern to be a wonderful mother without being too possessive. Even when Tiki was walking around the stall with a towel, jingle bell necklace, saddlepad, and more jingle bells draped over her back, Mona just looked on. As for Tiki, so far she puts up with everything we do to her!


Mona's legs were incredibly dirty and crusted from the foaling. We took her and Tiki into the wash stall to hose Mona's legs off. The temperature was in the mid 90's, and when Tiki was born it was 105 heat index two days prior. While washing Mona, we decided to spray Tiki off a little, and it grew from there. Well, we got her wet, why don't we try some soap and see if she'll stand well for that?? Well, she's handling that, let's see if we can spray her off? Short of not liking the water spraying on her back legs and kicking out at the wall a little, she handled the experience like a champ. Anne-Marie was taking the pic of Tiki and I started laughing and said "Wait a minute!" I took a big glob of suds and stuck them right on Tiki's nose. Had to laugh, she didn't care one bit, but it made for a hilarious picture and we were laughing hard at how chagrined she looked standing there with soap on her face!


On Day 1, I was showing her how to "sit" on the beanbag and she's been living with it in her stall ever since. The photo below was her first attempt. The photo above is one of my favorites! One of the points of teaching the "sit down" to a foal is to have the ability to quietly lie them down for the vet or farrier if you need to for any reason. The bonus is having a little foal that will sleep on you and curl up and nap with you whenever you want!

Our fun with Tiki--we put a rainbow colored jingle necklace on her, tied a towel around her neck, threw a saddlepad on her, put little rainbow-colored bands in her mane, and draped large jingle bells over her back. We tried all this on Mona first while she watched with interest, and then put one thing on her at a time. Anne-Marie and I then played "pass the football" with her to turn her around and have her walk towards the next person to "catch" her so she could experience movement with all these things draped around her and making noise. She took it all in in her typical "college try" way. Almost like she shrugs her shoulders and says "well, this is weird, but okaaaayyyyyy...." She thinks we're great fun to play with, and I guess by these pictures you can see the feeling is mutual!

The post foaling excitement

We had an eventful morning finding Tiki in the field resting next to Mona, who was standing guard over her. She looked like a small brown log next to Mona's feet. My morning consisted of the dreaded "Mona had her baby last night..." call--even though we ALL looked her over extensively the night before and she didn't show a single sign of impending foaling. Her milk hadn't let down, couldn't express a drop, tailhead was tight, etc etc, so she was turned out in the field for the night. I ran out to the field repeating over and over to myself "Please let the foal be alive and Mona ok". I felt like I was running through water to get out to them and inspect them both. Mona had miraculously (for a friesian) fully passed her placenta. Tiki walked right up to us, fearless, and we quickly shuffled them into the barn. Tiki had extremely lax pasterns, so I had to really support her and help her walk as we navigated the field. She showed no signs of having nursed and seemed slow, so after calling the vet, close watch was kept on her and Mona. Her IGG levels were good, but she had a weak suckle reflex and no concept of nursing from mom.

After all of us taking turns for hours milking Mona out and trying to teach Tiki how to nurse from a bottle, we finally had success around 12+ hours after she likely had foaled. We had several friends helping (see Scott nursing Tiki at right and Kim trying to teach her to nurse from Mona above). While the first priority was getting Tiki to nurse her colostrum, the priority quickly shifted to Mona, who was showing the beginning signs of a post-foaling colic or possible uterine bleed. Her heart rate was elevated, she was in clear pain, and was biting at her sides, pawing the ground, and up and down. Her eyes were glazed over, and the vet was called out again to look her over and palpate her. She had a slight impaction right at the end of her intestinal track which the vet cleared. Hoping the problem was caused by Tiki's lack of nursing, we hand milked Mona out more, put warm compresses on her udders, gave her a couple doses of Banamine, and just kept vigil on her.

At around 5pm, one milestone was finally passed--Tiki NURSED ON HER OWN. We thought for sure we were going to have to bottle feed our "slow" filly for the first 48 hours until she caught on. We were already divvying up shifts for the night, since she was going to have to be fed hourly overnight. So, we relaxed, watched a movie, watched the horses on the the webcam from the living room at the same time, and let Mona and Tiki bond.

Mona was still not passing any manure, though she seemed a little less painful as the night went on. Kim, Anne-Marie and I went back into the stall to play with Tiki more and check on Mona. We all hung out for a long time, sitting on the beanbag, petting the horses, watching for further colic signs, checking vitals etc. Finally, around 10pm, we notice Mona seems restless and hanging by the corner of her stall where she tends to go. Anne-Marie and I pick up on it and feel like maybe Mona needs us to leave, so we packed up all the stuff around the stall, walked up to the house and stared at the camera. Less than 5 minutes goes by and her tail lifts :-) WE HAVE POO!

That was the last thing we were all worried about. We celebrate--glasses of wine, etc and all give a collective sigh of relief.