Not My Mama!

Friday March 26 2010

Never mind Kazam looks not in the least, in color, size, shape, personality, and not to mention sex, like her mother Princess; but Smokey still sidled up to Kazam to try to nurse.

She's been weaned for 3 months, and has been hanging out with the (much) older boys since then, but she must have had an instinctive pang for her mama, and momentary loss of her senses.

Kazam set her straight right away.

Owyhee Trauma

Wednesday December 2 2009

All is well in Owyhee at 10 AM.

Not so at 11 AM.

The rancho on the creek has erupted. Upset horses. Change in the air.

Rhett gone. Sophie gone. Princess gone. Princess gone! Baby Smokey is traumatized. She has just been weaned.

Steph and John left for a winter in Arizona this morning, with Rhett and Sophie in the trailer. Princess is also on the trailer because she's going to a new home a few hours east. (The other horses left behind are actually quite matter-of-fact about the winter Snow-Horse migration... and since Princess had plenty of food in her stall in the trailer, she appeared to be indifferent about the weaning.)

It started out with a few baby whinnies for the missing Mama - after all, Smokey often wandered far away from Princess. However, as an hour ticked by, with no sight or sound of Mama, Smokey began to get worried. The whinnies increased, the frequency and the urgency; and she began trotting around her pen, looking over and through the fences. Huckleberry occasionally walked after her to check on her; Stormy just ate.

When Smokey gets upset, she wants to nurse. She was upset. She tried to nurse Huckleberry. He wasn't too sure about that, and he finally pinned his ears and shoved her away.

Smokey ran herself tired in the cold morning, smoke puffing briskly out of her nostrils. Run, stop and whinny, listen, run some more, whinny some more. Kick the hay feeder in frustration. Pin her ears. Whinny. Check every corner of the pen, every fence line. Run some more.

Many hours later, she's still walking about - between mouthfuls of hay - and whinnying. She's tried to nurse off Jose and Kazam, who joined them in the pen tonight; Jose had to keep biting her in the hind leg.

The uncles are of no comfort; I am no solace for a lonely abandoned baby. It's the next step in Smokey's life, on the path to growing up, but there's something sad about it.

I hear Princess hasn't uttered a single whinny all day.

Tiny Dancer

Thursday November 5 2009

Oh, the pure joy of being a little kid. Smokey is 4 1/2 months now. And she just knows how to enjoy life.









Jose played with her a little, reached down and nipped her in the back leg, like he does with Kazam, and she leaped off in surprise.







Lordy look at her buck!















And, come to think of it, she's not tiny anymore. I could swear she is putting on inches every day.

I wonder what new lyrics Elton John and Bernie Taupin would come up with if they watched this little joyful beauty?

Smokey's First Trim

Friday October 23 2009

It was a landmark day in four-month-old Smokey's life: her first encounter with a farrier. She got her first hoof trim.

Steph's been working on halter breaking Smokey, leading her, picking up her feet. I like working on moving her off pressure, front end, hind end, backing. She's very good, ("smartest baby ever," says an unbiased Steph), though she can show an attitude at times. Like when she's hungry - she'll double barrel when she's waiting for the hay breakfast to be delivered, or she'll balk during her lessons, if you catch her at a bad time - like when she just gets up from a nap and is crabby and needs some of Mamma's milk Right-Now.

Linda and Mike of Perfect Balance Shoeing were very patient with Smokey. They recognize that taking your time at the beginning will save you hours, days, years of headaches down the road.

Steph haltered and held Princess close (who could care less about Smokey now, it seems), while Linda held Smokey for Mike. At first Smokey objected - strangers holding her, a man trying to pick up her feet, and she was just not in the mood to deal with any of this. Fortunately she's still small enough she can't out-muscle a human, so when she tried to get away from Linda, she wasn't able to, and realized she had to yield to pressure - i.e. not try to pull or push away.

Once she stood for Linda, Mike used the approach and retreat method,




and, as soon as Smokey did what he asked - picked up a foot - he used the quick release as a reward. With enough approaching, asking, and retreating, Smokey was soon, without objection, and without further trauma, lightly picking up her feet and letting Mike hold them up and trim and rasp them while licking her lips.

First a back foot:
















Then a front foot:












Afterwards, however, as soon as Linda took off her halter,
she ran right to Mama to nurse.