Toad Hill's Run For the Roses

Thursday morning (May 1, 2008) I had to leave early since I was to attend Lincoln Examiner training about two and a half hours away. At 4:30 AM I stumbled into the barn half awake to feed the mares and found that one had foaled. No, it was not the one that we were waiting for, it was her neighbor, the mare I had put in the stall next to Kibbles so that Kibbles would not be lonely.
High Octane had given birth to a medicine hat, pale sorrel pinto foal (best guess about 4:00 AM). This was High Octane's first and at first glance it looked all bones and legs. I did a quick check-- colt and finished chores, got to the meeting by 8:15 AM and had decided to name him: Baldrige. (For those of you not aware of the Baldrige Award, it is an award for excellence for companies. That's all I plan to say about it--check it out in Google for more info.) The Lincoln Award is the state equivalent.
By the time I got home that night, the foal looked more filled out and pretty cute. Naturally I did a second check..oops, girl. Now that great name got wasted and I had to start thinking about a new one. What to name her now?
Too late folks...her name is Toad Hill's Run for the Roses. Why, the Kentucky Derby is this weekend. I did not select May Day, or even Take Me Out To the Ball Game (today is the 100 th anniversary of the song).

So Friday, I go to work and tell everyone. Come home early and..oh my, another hatchling. Finally Kibbles had hers. Guess High Octane's foal inspired Kibbles.

I will be checking this later, but this one is a colt (99% sure, that's better than Six Sigma folks). Somehow, I don't feel like this one is a "Baldrige." Got to start thinking about another name.

Below is Kibbles and Bits with her new foal.

Toad Hill's Lincoln Award

So the long awaited foal arrived. He was mentioned in the previous blog, a day after Rosie was foaled, He and his mom are the last photo in that blog.

Mom, Toad Hill's Kibbles N Bits, is a 33 inch, dun pinto mare foaled in 2003. This mare should have been registered AMHA too, but I decided at the last minute not to bother registering her. This colt is her third foal, the first is Toad Hill's Grapenuts and the second was a sorrel colt named Brownie by his new owners. The sire is Toad Hill's Rust Spot (Pedigrees at end of this blog.)

For now I am calling him Lincoln (Link for short). To the right is the photo that will go with his registration papers. Seems like all the foals this year are very friendly, coming up, wanting to chew on me and be petted. Link reminds me of another horse we own, Stetson. Like Stetson, Link is very a very flashy dark sorrel.
Link is a long legged colt, but with a sire who is 32 inches and mare at 33 inches, he should stay in that range when fully grown.
He is bright eyed, curious, full of energy and a lot of fun to watch as he chases the other foals around the pasture.
Kibble's Pedigree:
Sire: Spagues Buckeye (30.25", buckskin, AMHR/AMHA) by NFCS Yankee Clipper (28.00") out of4 GS Hemlock Brook Silver Jane (33.50")
Dam: Koch's My Angel Baby (32.50", chesnut pinto, AMHA/AMHR) by Little Hoof's Midget Mite (29.75) out of Koch's Little Brandy (36.00")
Rusty's Pedigree:
Sire: Toad Hill's Oreo (Black pinto, 32.0" AMHR only) by WF Flashy Boy (sire: Rainbow Ridge's Starburst Cody, dam: Cirlce S Missy)
Dam: Toad Hill's Neon Echo (30.0", sabino overo, AMHA/AMHR) by Colorworlds Neon Knight out of Mini Bucks Painted Princess)

Updates-Phantom, No Foal Yet

First thanks to everyone who made suggestions about a barn cam. We may be purchasing one in the near future.

No, Kibbles has still not foaled yet, she is probably waiting for the most inconvenient time to foal, or waiting for me to go somewhere over the week...then she will sneek it in. Right now it is chilly, slight drizzle and she is out with the other mares munching on grass.

Saturday went to Arthur, IL and picked up our "school bus." Phantom, if you recall, is the 2006 National Multi-Color (All Stars #1 -Top Ten). The family took great care of him, he was fit, in good flesh, feet neatly tirmmed, and (I hate to admit) cleaner than some at my house. I did a little clipping on his mane and neck...he was totally calm, even when clipping around his ears. Then I turned him over to the kids.

It was something to see him being harnessed and handled by the little kids. There were at one time as many as eight youngsters (the neighbor kids came over to visit) scurrying around him. Most of them could barely see over his back (35.5 inches), but they got him harnessed without dad's help and they took him to the front lawn where we took movies. First the five girls drove him around then the three boys took their turn. As I mentioned previously in the blog he takes three kids to school and back twice a week, 2 miles in 20 minutes. After the cart, the kids took Phantom back into the barn, took off the harness and put a saddle on him. While they were working on finding the correct girth (do not know its proper name) a litte four month old baby sat on Phantom's back on the saddle. No one was holding the baby, he had his feet around the front of the saddle and Phantom stood perfectly still, the baby was having a lot of fun. Now here is a little horse that can be trusted with kids!!!

We brought two other minis down to do a trade out. Gatsby, Phantom's sire, was left for "school bus training" for next year and we also dropped off Stetson for "summer camp." The kids will have another steed to ride around the farm, and Stetson loves the attention. We will pick Stetson up in the fall, unless they decide to move him also into "school bus rotation."

As for the movies, I have put them on this blog for a short period. I knew nothing about how to move the files off the tape I used in the camcorder to the computer and on to a DVD, but finally figured it out. As you will see, there were times I took movies of the grass. Since these kids are Amish I tried not to take images of their faces.
I have redone the videos and saved them at a different download speed.
First one is the girls.

The next one is a close up of Phantom.



Last one is Phantom being ridden.



So I guess you can say I am not ready to quit my day job and become a movie producer. It took 4 hours to figure out how to save these files, upload them to YouTube and put them in the blog (that was the easy part).

Barn CAMs Anyone?

Kibbles and Bits is due any day now and I find myself looking for a Barn Camera. I want something that is wireless from the barn to the house. It ultimately should connect to the computer and then out to the internet for a service like MareStare.

I bought a little setup at Wal-Mart, and I figured it would not work...but it would allow me to at least experiment. I suspect it may actually tranmit between the house and the barn, but I have to move the car at the very least. It does block line of sight.

Something with an external transmitter on the outside of the barn would probably help a lot. This one has an itty-bitty antenna on the camera. Probably not the best.

HELP Out there...anyone have makes and models they can recommend??

Award from Midlife Mom!!!

My blog has been a substitute for the standard website I used to keep. However in the world of bloggers, it is the custom to honor a blogger with custom awards. I am delighted to announce have been selected for the: "Excellence in Equine Care Award" by Midlife Mom. Stop by her site and see what a real blogger does.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Midlife Mom!!!

2007 National Champions - Multi-Color

Well it was a long summer, but we were on a mission. Our mission was to win National Champion All Stars in each of the four multi-color classes that AMHR offers. I don't believe anyone has ever done it. The ad at the right appeared in the April 2008 issue of the AMHR Journal.

We ended up with three firsts (National Champions) and a 2nd in Top Ten All Stars...so it was close. So my question is: "Has anyone come so close before in sweeping this class?"

As a bonus we won All Star National Champion in Produce of Dam ... we figured out half way through the season that two of the horses were from the same mare...and started entering in that class as well.

Would we try winning National Champion in the four multi-color classes again...probably not. First you have to have four horses, each in a different category: stallion over and under 34 inches, and mare over and under 34 inches. Then there are other factors to consider...you have to enter lot of shows, (we showed every weekend for three months straight) and did I mention cost...there are entry fees, gasoline, hotel, food and equipment costs. It was a lot of fun, we met a lot of nice people and saw a lot of central United States...but I think in 2008 it will be one horse and fewer shows.