Sure enough, Taffy presented us with an adorable foal on the night of the 21st. Well, technically it was the 22nd, since he was born at 2:15 am. I waited up until 1:10 am, and I just couldn't decide if it was going to be that night, or another... She went from being very agitated and stomping around her stall to quietly sleeping just like always next to her water bucket. She did do one of the oddest things though: she made a huge, let me just emphasize here how huge it was, pile of hay on one end of her stall. She walked around flipping hay onto this enormous pile with her head until it was nearly as tall d until it was nearly as tall as her! We had bedded the stall very deep, so there was still an adequate amount of bedding, but I have never seen a pony do anything like that. It was convenient though, because after she foaled, I was able to spread out all that nice clean hay.

The colt is so cute. We are going to call him "Candy Cowboy"- sort of a combination of his parent's names- Taffy and Cisco. He is the strangest color though. I don't have a clue what color he will end up. He is sort of a chamagne-silver-reddish-dunnish-creamy whoknowsish color. He has a line down his back, but I've never seen a foal that color before. Cisco's dam was a silver dapple, and I am wondering if that is the color he will be. I'll keep you posted!

And that concludes the foaling season for 1998!

Gary has started riding Houdini. What a dream that pony is! He is learning so fast, it is just unbelievable. Houdini had some John Lyons round pen training last year. Not too much, as he was just a 3 year old, and we don't start ponies until they are 4. Right now Houdini is living out with his mares in a big field, and Gary just went down there and put a bridle on him, and essentially just rode sentially just rode him away. He is making tremendous progress- more than I had even expected. He has such a great disposition!
 

Well, we got all of the hay into the barn...well, actually almost all of it: there was a little would not fit. We were able to get 1400+ bales from the main field into the barn before it rained, but about 450 bales from the neighbor's field got rained on. :(  The weather forecasts were totally wrong, and we worked late into the night, but just couldn't get it all in. It was a real marathon. The hay that did get rained on really was not damaged too badly, and will work fine for summer feed and bedding.

Taffy still has not foaled, but I think she will tonight. Of course, one never knows, but she has a huge bag, and the biggest wax plugs I have ever seen on any pony. Gary is out cleaning her stall right now, and laying down a thick layer of nice soft hay.

The Welsh foals are just growing beautifully. We have a name that was suggested by one of the guests to our web site, and it really is a good possibility for the colt. Still, the fillies are nameless! We are going to have to remedy that soon though. You can't call a pony "Adora Belle's baby" for ever!

We got up at 4 am yesterday morning to make the trip up to the big Welsh Pony show up near Portland. We would have made it there right at tave made it there right at the start (8:00), but Gary and I were engrossed in conversation, and neither of us noticed that we missed the turnoff in downtown Salem. We turned around and were soon on the right road. The show was fun and we enjoyed talking with the other pony people.

I went down to the mare pasture today to take some video, and they were all grazing out among the daisies. It looked so pretty. I waved a plastic bag at them to get them to run around the pasture, which they did with glee, but as soon as I put the bag away they came up so close that the only thing I could see through the camera lens was the ends of their noses!

Well, it finally happened. It actually stopped raining. Will wonders never cease? We are cutting our hay now. Gordon and Gary started at 4:00 pm on Tuesday and cut the part of the hay field that we call the house site, as well as two rounds around the main hay field. Then Wednesday, they were able to finish cutting the main field, and move over to the neighbor's field, where they made some good progress. Now (4:30 pm), they are cutting at the neighbor's, and should be done by dark.

Though it is not hot, (64 degrees right now in the shade), it is very dry, and we did not have any dew last night, which really helps. It was cloudy until about 2:30, but has now cleared off and is sunny. w cleared off and is sunny. The house site is now almost dry and will likely be raked tomorrow. The weather forecast looks good-- no rain in the 10 day outlook.

Haying is always so stressful, since we are counting on it for our whole year's feed, and I am always so relieved when it is all safely stacked in the barn. All together, we put up about 50 acres of hay, which is more than we need to feed our herd of 40 or so ponies. We have less ponies now than we used to, so now we have a big surplus of extra pasture. They are all quite fat this year, but those who know me know I prefer them that way!

We have brought Taffy up on foal watch, who is in foal to Cisco. I think it is very likely that she will foal in the next day or two. We are very much looking forward her foal, since it was Cisco's last. Taffy is an adorable chestnut and white pinto AMHR mare, which is the larger size of miniature horse. Check back here for the update!

I just added a page of pictures of the 3 foals we have had so far. Click here to see them!
 

Whew! That is what I call a busy day! We started out by taking some video of Carmen and her colt, Angel and her filly, and Adora Belle and her filly, then went down to the cob pasture to take some video of them. After we had done that (no small feat), we brought Adora Belle up and put her in with Carmen and Angel, then took Houdini and put him in the stall by the house. (He always thinks that is such an adventure because he is so seldom in there!) We went down and caught Flyer, and brought him up and put him out in Houdini's pasture. Then we went and let the cob mares out with the rest of the herd. By then we felt like we had gone up and down the hill about a million times... Gary caught Adora Belle and led her, and I followed behind Carmen and Angel- bringing up the rear. When we went through the gate, Carmen's adorable little colt got confused, and everybody else went out except him. I helped him figure out where to go, and we were on our way. The loose ponies did take a trip around the yard, with a brief stop in front of Houdini, before following Adora Belle down to the pasture. Then we took Houdini out to the pasture to turn him in with the mares. By the time he got there, the mares were in the farthest corner of the pasture and it took him at least half an hour to even realize they were there!

We went back up to the house, and waited for Cindy, who was bringing her cob mare bringing her cob mare, Okeden Jolly, to visit Flyer. When Cindy arrived, we put Jolly out in the pasture and Jolly gave us quite a nice show trotting around putting on all her finest airs!

I think with the video I was able to take, I will be able to capture some nice still pictures of the new foals, Flyer, and the cob mares to add to the web site. Check back, as I hope to get the pictures up this next week.

It's a filly! Adora Belle has done it again! I got up at 2:00 am to check her, and there was a wobbly, wet filly wondering if there was any milk to be found anywhere. Of all the foals that Adora Belle has produced for us, we have only actually attended the birth of one. I think we missed this one by a matter of minutes. I must say, I am not surprised. She has been really consistent about it. The filly is still quite wet, but we did towel dry her to some degree. She is very dark, probably brown, with a small star and one white hind foot. It is really hard to tell exactly what color foals are until they are totally dried off. Well, I hear the water boiling for Adora Belle's bran mash, so I must go. More later....

On Saturday morning, about 8:00, I started to see her get more restless, pace around her stall, look back at her sides, and things like that that made it seem more likely that she was going to foal soon. Sure enough, she continued to be uncomfortable, so I ran and changed my clothes and grabbed my foaling towels. By the time I came back to the porch to look at her, she was laying down. Gary and I rushed out to see a foot already out. At 8:40 we assisted her with the delivery of a very large extremely BLACK filly.

Angel's new filly is quite beautiful, and oh, so very very black. Did I mention that she is black? She looks like somebody just poured black ink all over her. She has about 10 white hairs on her forehead, and a two small white spots above one back hoof. She is most joyful and happy to be alive. She is very enthusiastically running around to meet the world.

eet the world.

Carmen and her new colt are doing well. Though this is her first foal, she is an excellent mother. We are so pleased with her. Her colt is running merrily through the pasture, and she is tagging along behind. Houdini's pasture is across the driveway, so he runs with them. He arches his neck and prances along.

We are still waiting on Adora Belle, who should foal very soon. We are sitting here on the porch debating whether or not to bring her up out of the pasture tonight. I think we will, since she is so sneaky, and almost always foals out at pasture. Also in foal is Taffy, a larger sized miniature horse mare who is in foal to Cisco. If you haven't read his story, read it here. We are very excited about the two foals already, and very much looking forward to the next two. This is the funnest part!!!

WOW! This day certainly was not at all what I expected! We had a full day planned that included digging up the flower beds in the yard, and getting all of the flowers that are in the greenhouse transplanted to the outdoors.

I started my morning by putting Angel out in her pasture. (Can't believe she still hasn't foaled!) Then fixed Romeo his grain, and went out to the barn. On the way back from the barn, I paused to survey the beautiful pastoral scene of my pony herd grazing on tmy pony herd grazing on the green pastures. It was then that I notice that Carmen had a foal standing with her! Gary and I had been down to check out Carmen and Adora Belle last night, since they were pastured with Houdini at the same time as Angel. I was pretty sure though that they still had more time before either of them was due. It had been a few days since we had looked at their bags, and we were surprised to see that Carmen had developed a fair sized bag in the last few days. Gary predicted that she would foal that night. I laughed at him. I was certain that she still would go at least another month. Guess I was wrong!

Carmen is one of our favorites, and is sired by Dixie Prince and out of our wonderful older mare, Alvesta Adora Belle. Carmen is the first of our Dixie Prince daughters to be bred, so we have been very excited about her foal. We started our Welsh herd with Adora Belle and Angel, and have kept daughters by Prince from both of them. Lydia is Angel's daughter, and when I went down to bring Carmen and her new foal from the pasture, Lydia was keeping Carmen company, and keeping the other ponies away from the new foal. I found it very interesting that from our foundation mares, their daughters have become such exceptionally good friends.

Carmen's foal is a darling bay colt, with a crescent shaped star. He has a beautiful, typey head, and we are so excited he is here! I took some pictures of him thme pictures of him this afternoon, and will add them here soon. Have a suggestion for a name? Send me some e-mail!

Cloudy, but warm. The weather forecasters say that we could have a bit of rain today, but so far it has been dry. Okeden Welsh Flyer is out at pasture overseeing his herd of cob mares: Maggie, Abby, and Ruby. It is so wonderful to look down into the green field and see Flyer running with his long mane flying out behind him. It is a happy group of cobs, enjoying the spring.

HVS Penny Serenade (Angel) is up at the house on foal watch. She is in foal to Bristol Houdini, and is due anytime, but still it seems like it will be at least a few more days before our wait is over. She is so sweet and runs to be brought in each evening from her pasture. Our foaling stall is set up so that we can see into it right from the house without her being any the wiser that we are watching. It is so hard to wait though. Foaling is so exciting. Keep checking back here, as this page will be updated upon the arrival of our new foal.

The ponies down in the mare pasture own in the mare pasture are almost all shed out now, with the exception of some of the roans. It seems that the roan ponies take a little longer for their bodies to finish shedding than the solid colored ponies. They put on quite a show out there these days, running, bucking, jumping...It is such fun to watch them play. They have such a wonderful life!