The Weekend

 After much procrastination, here it is finally, the post about my weekend.  People wise, it was a very bad weekend.  Horse wise, it was pretty good and that's what I'll tell you about.  My dad was gone for two weeks so the horses haven't had much attention other than the occasional pat from his landlords. 

Friday:  We got there pretty late, around 11 pm.  Alex and I went out to try and find them.  Copper and Spartan were in the lower half of the pens and the two new pintos our landlords just bought we're in the top half of the pens.  We visited with Copper and Spartan but left the pintos alone.  We weren't comfortable going in the pen with them for the first time at night.  We walked up to the Plant in the big field but didn't find the horses.

Saturday:  My dad and I went to go find the horses while my siblings made breakfast.  My dad made me get on Pawnee and that did not last long.  I proved to him that I do indeed have a concussion and I am serious when I say I do not want to ride.  We managed to get all the horses in the pens, which is not easy when you have 14 horses that you need to bring up to the barn from the back corner of a Quarter.  Especially when some of those horses know they have to work when they get to the barn and do everything they can to not go there.  A bucket of oats always works though.

At this point I actually went in the barn.  We have been overrun by mice.  They are absolutly everywhere.  We've never had a problem with them before.  We don't have any barn cats, but my dog, Si, always did a good job of keeping them to a reasonable level.  But Si has been at my house in the city for two weeks and Somebody who got a long lecture left some bags of oats out on the floor which the mice got into and ruined.  You walk in the barn and there's at least seven of them running in all directions away from you.  But the more you go in the barn the braver they get.  Our landlord has a pile of horse harness on the floor and I will not go with it.  They hide in it.  I was also afraid to reach my hand into any of our buckets and bins.  I am not a fan of mice.

We had a lot of horse to work with so my dad and brother got started on that.  Jillian and I were in charge of catching horses since the boys get too impatient and try to rush them (we, unfortunantly have a few horses *cough*Pawnee*cough* who are pretty lazy and if he realizes he has to work, will do anything he can to not get caught.  When he's in that mood it takes at least two people and a lot of time to catch him in the big fields. 

Jillian and I went into town to buy dewormer and mouse traps.  And a cake, since we were celebrating Alex and Jillian's birthdays.  When we got back the boys were still working with horses.  Jillian and I hung out with Cas and Hades.  Later on is when I came out to cut/butcher Cas' mane and then my dad and Alex went on a ride. 

I also hung out with our landlord's new pintos.  For once they're actually trained which is a huge difference to the older, never been touched horses they've brought home previously.  The pintos are both trained to harness and they were bought to pull the wagon.  The  mare is a dark sorrel pinto and the gelding is a sorrel pinto with two very light blue eyes that are almost just creepy.  Cool, but creepy.  The gelding isn't friendly and I couldn't get near him but the mare will come close.  She's still a little iffy about letting people touch her though.

Sunday:  Sunday was the best day of all of them.  We went to two for breakfast and when we came back Jillian, Alex and I went to hang out with the horses.  I wanted to put Cas' blanket on her and take pictures.  She never actually wears it but I think she's cute in it so every now and then I torture her and make her wear it.  I brought it out to the paddock beside the pens, where all the horses were and dropped it on the ground.  Apparently it then turned into a horse-eating monster.  The entire herd was terrified of it but yet, they had to keep coming closer and then running away.

 Here are the very brave ponies a few seconds before they all ran away and then came back.  I should mention that they have seen the blanket before but apparently they forgot.  Cas was very brave though, she was fine with me putting it on, except the leg straps.  We're still working on that.  I set her free after getting it on her and she immediatly started running around bucking.  She'd run up to the other horses and they would all take off in the other direction.  Sadie kept putting herself between Cas and Hades so the evil blanket couldn't get anywhere near her baby. 

We tried to get near Boots, our landlord's buckskin paint colt who has never been worked with, but we were not sucessful. After that we had to work with June.  June is another of our landlord's horses.  She was broke to ride years back but hasn't been ridden in at least three years and was previously abused, so she has some issues.  But she was actually great and we made a lot of progress with her.  After June we also worked with Cas and Penny.



We went and saw Artemis twice this week.  Yesterday she was not good, at all.  She was really fighting having her feet picked up and ended up kicking me in the hand.  I went months without getting hurt and now every time I turn around I'm getting injured somehow...

Cas' Mane! Or Lack of One!

The real post about my weekend is coming later when I'm in a better mood and a little less tired, but for now, here's Cas and her haircut.  Cas is an Appaloosa filly and takes the "rat-tail" Appaloosa image to heart.  She has a tiny, skinny little tail and basically no mane.  In fact, her mane was just getting worse and worse.  So, getting the idea from Mare over at Simply Horse Crazy I decided to cut Cas' mane.  Not that there was much to cut.  I warn you, I have never, ever cut my horse's mane before so it doesn't look the best.  Basically I took a pair of scissors and hacked away.  And Miss Cassidy wasn't too pleased with me either, especially when bits of her mane would fall and make her itchy. 

Here is the pathetic strands of hair Cas called a mane:

The right side.

The left side.  Yes, there is before I cut it.  There just wasn't anything on this side.

Again, this is all of it.

Yup, that was all of it.  I don't think you can even call it a mane.  Here is Cas' lack of a mane now, after twenty minutes of hacking later.  Between her moving a lot and me trying to make it somewhat even, it took a while.

An Unhappy Cas

Baldy

Pawnee had to come check it out.

All of Cas' mane that I cut off.

Everyone keeps making fun of her now and calling her Buzz for buzz-cut.  I am really hoping that it grows back.  I would love it if it grew back nice and thick, but I'll admit, I'm a little afraid it won't grow back at all.  She had barely any mane after two years...  So enjoy my bald pony.  I'll post updates every so often when I see her. 

And here's a little preview of what my horse-related part of the weekend included.

Edit: I was looking through my pictures as I'm making a birthday present for Sommer and I came across the pictures I took on May long.  I have a bunch I took of Cas when I was grooming her.  Back then my pony actually had a mane!  I forgot about it!  What happened?  Just a few months ago she had a pretty silver mane.  And then it disappeared.  I hope it grows back and stays this time.



Hugs

We went out to the stable late tonight.  I've been bugging one of my friends to come out and see Artemis for months.  She took riding lessons years and years ago with me, when I first started and while she likes horses well enough, in her own words, she's "too lazy" to come out to the stable.  She finally got sick of my harrassing though, and my mom took us out.  It was already getting dark by the time we got there.  We stopped off to see Jimmy first.  He left his food and came right over to us, even though last time we saw him we not only dewormed him but sprayed stuff up his nose (Strangles vaccination).  I thought for sure he was going to hate us.  I know people say horses don't hold grudges but they've obviously never met this one :).  We didn't stay with him for long and then we went out to the back pasture.  Charlie and EB were annoying like usual and that whole herd followed us over to Socks' herd.  Ebony came right over to us.  Her eye looked runny but it was too dark to see it properly.  She once again chased Charlie away from Artemis and I love her for it.  Cici actually went at Socks and my horse didn't do anything in return but run.  That's VERY strange for Socks.  She came over to check on her baby, let me pet and talk to her for a bit and then left.  I know my horse likes me well enough but sometimes I can't help but wish she was a little bit more sociable. 

Artemis was glued to us while we were out there.  She was in a very huggable mood tonight.  She would come and rest against me just ever so slightly, and then put her head between my arm and my side.  If I stepped back she'd come forward and do it again.  She wasn't pushy and didn't actually put any weight against me.  When we finally left she followed us a bit and when she finally stopped she watched us for a good ten minutes before she finally left and went to join her mother.  We stopped off to visit with Jimmy again briefly and then we left.  We were only out there for just over half an hour but I still loved being able to see them.

On an off note, Socks has a bump on her back.  It's above her hip.  I noticed it awhile ago.  If I press on it or around it, she doesn't react.  It doesn't seem to hurt her but that, along with my concussion, has made it so she hasn't been ridden in a while.  Here's some pictures I took of it last week.

It's hard but not very large.  I'm not sure what it is.

Deworming Woes

Artemis has been out in the pasture for a week tomorrow and so far I think she's loving it.  Her and Ebony are tight.  Socks, Ebony, Tona and Artemis all hang togther in their own little herd while the rest of the horses are another herd.  We went out twice during the week to see them, once when it was basically dark and once a little earlier in the day.  The first time we brought out treats.  Big mistake.  We were mauled.  Luckily just Socks' herd was on our side of the creek and so Ebony and Artemis did the mauling.  The second time we did not bring out treats. 



Bays at their prettiest, in the falling light.

 We were harassed by Charlie, the little Arabian foal, right away.  He's a biter, he tries to rip your arm off and he follows you around.  He was also trying to mount all the mares, with the exception of Socks because she goes at him if he goes near her or her baby.  Artemis enjoyed a good scratching, she kept making extremely funny faces while she was being scratched.  She was following my mom around everywhere until she'd get distracted by the dog and chase after Si.  When we finally left them Charlie came racing over to us and promptly started trying to bite us.  He is not my favourite horse, to say the least.  He's going to be weaned at the end of the month and I'm not disappointed.  However, his owner is planning on keeping him as a stud and I am a little worried about that.



My silly pony being silly

 On Saturday we went out to Deworm them and give them their Strangles vaccination.  Socks and Jimmy were getting the Strangles, but Artemis is still too young.  We dragged my brother out since I still have a concussion and wouldn't be handling the horses.  We went to Jimmy first and he was, well a disaster.  Last time I dewormed him he was a monster but I got it done.  I got some of it on me as well but most of it in him.  I can't really say the same for my brother.  It took twice as long.  Alex is too slow about it so it took forever.  I filmed a bit of it and then sat with the dog in the shelter to get away from the wind.  Once deworming was finally done, we needed to give him the Strangles, which isn't a needle but needs to be sprayed up his nose.  That did not go over well.  E was feeding the horses and offered to help.  We brought Jimmy in the barn and he put him in a stall.  He showed us how if you wrap the lead rope around the stall bars and keep the stall door open, you can safely give him the Strangles and get out of the way if he freaks.  I have to say though, E was surprised at how strong Jimmy is.  He may be small but he's fierce!  After Jimmy was done we put him out in the grass pen and went to grab Socks.  She was in a mood.  My brother went to get on her bareback, like we've done a thousand times and she bucked him off.  She never does that.  After I got her out of the gate she proceeded to hit my head with hers.  I wanted to kill her.  We left Artemis in the field to see how she would deal with it.  Ebony was more upset than she was. 



Before Jimmy realized that the dewormer was indeed not a treat


Socks on the other hand, was horrible.  She's always great to be dewormed.  She was not.  I think Alex got more of it on me then he did in her.  She kept throwing her head up.  Then we had to do strangles.  I handed her off to my mom because my head hurt and they ended up putting her in the stall like we had with Jimmy.  At least she wasn't too difficult to give the strangles too.  I was really annoyed with her though, she's never given us a problem with deworming before, she's usually pretty great with it.  We also put her out in the grass pens.  Then we went to grab Artemis. 




Artemis with her dewormer beard

 Artemis was being chased around by Charlie.  Ebony would then chase Charlie.  Artemis, who usually won't walk over to my brother, went right over to him and practically put her halter on herself.  She was dying to get away from him.  Ebony wasn't too pleased that we took her friend away.  Artemis, who had never been dewormed before, stood perfectly fine to be dewormed.  She did however, end up with hug gobs in her little beard which she then wiped on my hand.  So I wiped it on her face, which is what all that yellow stuff on her is.  She needed to have a special dewormer because most dewormers are too strong for horses under the age of one year.  They can severely damage their intestines so she got a special, caramel flavoured one.  I don't think she actually enjoyed the taste too much.  After that we measured her and weighed her again.  She's about 400 pounds, if we did it right which chances are we were a little off and just over 12.3 hands.  She's catching up to Cas who, at the age of 2, is 13.2 hands.  My mom began talking to T at this point, so Alex and I brought Artemis back to the pasture.  We were accompanied by her children, L and M, who at 9 and 6, were very, very hyper.  There was a lot of yelling going on.  We let Artemis go in the field and she immediatly ran to the herd.  Ebony and Charlie came racing to meet her.  I took a video of it so I'll show, not tell. 

I absolutly love Ebony for defending Artemis like she does.  We were all hoping Ebony and Artemis would be pals and they are.  This is also why I kind of hate Charlie.  He doesn't try to play with her, he just harrasses her.  I hope Artemis learns to stick up for herself a little bit better.  She is also under the impression that she is an Arabian as she holds up her tail like one, and a Mule deer, since she hops like one.  You can hear the kids yelling in the background since, like I said, they were pretty hyper that night.


Silly pony being silly again

 We went back and put Jimmy in his pen.  He ran straight to his food.  When we'd first gotten there he'd come running up to us.  After giving him the dewormer and strangles, I have a feeling it will be a while before he does that again.  We then grabbed Socks and put her back in the pasture.  Artemis came running to meet her.  So did Charlie and Toy.  Charlie almost ran into Alex until Alex spooked him off.  Then Socks took off, chasing Toy and Charlie.  It was kind of funny, watching one mare and foal chasing the other one.  Toy and Charlie than stayed with their herd and Socks and Artemis went to theirs.  I was frustrated with Socks and Jimmy that day but proud of Artemis, she did pretty good since it was her first deworming.  We've decided not to wean her until Charlie is out of the field, so that she doesn't have to be harrassed by him constantly. 

Also I saw Lion King 3D tonight with a friend.  Since that is one of the best movies ever, it was of course, amazing.  However I have to say one of my favourite parts was when Mufasa died and the little girl behind us started freaking out and asking her mother if he was gone forever, and then asking if her daddy was gone forever too, even though he was just a few seats away from her.  It was really cute, although I felt bad that she was so upset.


Asking EB not to hurt her



One More Week and Concussions Suck

I love this picture so much.  First I think Artemis' trot looks great in it, and I love how they're chasing my dog.  This post will probably be long because I have a lot to share and I have some pictures I wanted to post.  By  now though I'm sure everyone knows I'm kind of long-winded :).

On sunday we went out to the stable later in the day.  My brother came to do the horses feet and since we're watching my dad's dog, Si, she came with us.  She made it very difficult to catch the horses since, as you can see, they were all interested in chasing her.  We brought Socks and Artemis in and my brother started doing Socks' feet.  She was pretty bad, for her.  She hasn't been behaving lately and I can't wait until Artemis is weaned.  Socks was like this with Cas, the closer we got to weaning, the worse she behaved.  I don't know if she senses what's coming or it's coincedence, but it's annoying. 



My mom and I brought Artemis in the arena while Alex did feet.  That didn't last long, Artemis was horrible.  So to keep her occupied and make her work, while my brother continued with Socks, I worked with her and the saddle blanket.  She's slowly getting better about having things on her.   She was not very happy about having the saddle blanket on though.  I put it on her neck first and slowly moved it up to cover her eyes.  She tried her hardest to get it to slide back but she couldn't suceed.  After that she stood there and my mom said she looked like she was pouting.  I think she just fell asleep.

Yes, there is a head under there, somewhere.  You can just see her little nose peeking out.  She had this on for probably fifteen minutes, until Alex moved onto her feet.  She was good for her left side, but when Alex started her right side, she was not happy.  I held her head as he did her front right, and she tried to get her foot away.  Alex held on and she went down and then snapped her head back up, right into my head.  She hit my cheek first and then into my forehead.  It knocked my glasses off and instantly Alex and I had a mad scramble to get them back.  I grabbed them from underneath her and somehow, they weren't broken or even bent.  Then I could finally register the pain.  It hurt, so badly.  I had to take a minute before I could help Alex again.  Then we did Jimmy's feet.  Like Socks and Artemis, he wasn't that great.  They were acting like they'd never had their feet done before.  It was extremely windy though, the wind outside sounded like children screaming, so that definitly wasn't helping.  T (barn owner) came by to bring the other horses in and we stayed and talked to her.  She told us her daughter, L, cried because she wasn't allowed to come out and see us since it was so late.  Usually L comes and brushes Artemis and she as so upset she couldn't.  I love that family.

Today is my day off from school and so I was at home for most of it.  My head started killing me the moment I woke up.  I was getting dizzy spells and headaches, which was strange because after an hour or so the night before, my head didn't hurt anymore.  Anyway, today was the day we moved Socks and Artemis to the back field for the final step of their weaning.  My mom and I got to the stable just as T and E were getting ready to move Ebony and Tona, the horses in with Socks and Artemis, out to the pasture.  So my mom and I caught Socks and Artemis and the five of us (L came too) led the horses to the pasture.  At one point Artemis almost got away from me.  She jumped forward and I wasn't expecting it so she pulled me a few steps down the path.  T just laughed and told me she would have started screaming. 

We got into the pasture and set the horses free.  Ebony took off running and Tona followed behind her.  Socks and Artemis were a little slower.  They all went to the creek and hung out there, and then Socks decided it was time to cross.  E and T were surprised she went but she's been in fields with worse.  Everyone followed her and they all began grazing.  E kept calling for the other horses in the field to come over but it was only when L ran halfway to them that they did.  When Ebony and Tona saw them, they ran over to them but Socks and Artemis stayed where they were.  Then Ebony ran back to Socks, bringing all the other horses with her.  Socks went into protective mode immediatly.  She kicked out at the other mares and made sure none of them got near Artemis.  Charlie, the little Arabian foal, kept running after Artemis and Socks was running after him.  She wouldn't kick him but she was trying to get him away from her baby.  Once she got Charlie away, Socks, Ebony and Artemis took off running.  Socks and Ebony both ran on either side of Artemis, sandwiching her in between them.  The herd came running after them and they all thought it would be a good idea to run at us.

Here is Charlie between EB and Toya.  Toya is his mom but they have nothing to do with each other now.  Her milk has dried up too.  EB has taken over the role of being Charlie's mom.  EB is the seal brown mare and Toya is the sorrel with a star.  E chased the horses away from the gate and Socks, Artemis, Ebony and Tona went one way and the rest of the horses went the other way.  We were all surprised Tona stayed with Socks, since she'd spent most of her life out in the pasture with EB, Flip and the other mares.  At this point we decided to leave and let them get to know each other.  We slowly made our way back up to the barn, stopping every few steps to look back and make sure everything was still okay.  All the horses were just grazing.  We stayed a while longer to talk to T before we finally left.

After we left the stable we had to go to my school, across the city.  We then decided to go the the clinic nearby because my head was still hurting.  We found it but we didn't actually end up going because the waiting time was ridiculously long and we had the dog with us.  We ended up driving home, dropping the dog off and then going to the hospital.  We were there for three and a half hours, which really isn't that bad, but we only got there at 9:30 at night, so that really sucked.  The doctor I got was really nice.  He checked me out and I have a concussion from Artemis hitting me with her head.  He seemed pretty amazed that I'd been injured by a horse though, I guess they don't get too many horse-related injuries in that hospital.  He also found it extremely amusing the only other time I've been to the hospital was when I broke my pelvic bone after jumping off of Socks.  He sent me home, telling me to get lots of rest and to really limit my physical activity for a while.  I'm not supposed to work with the horses and I chose not to tell him that I'd already been leading Artemis that day.  If we go out tomorrow I'm just going to be standing back and instructing my mom and Jimmy.  Luckily we were planning on giving Socks and Artemis some time off since Artemis is going to be weaned in a week or so.

All I can say is, concussions really suck.  I can't wait for my head to stop hurting.  

My sister says this picture looks like they're about to duel.  I can't help but agree with her.  My money is on Socks.

 

Ten Years

I was standing on the tarmac at my school, getting in line to go inside and start my day.  I was standing behind two boys and they were talking about planes and fire.  I asked them what they were talking about and they told me about the planes.  I thought they were talking about a video game.  I was ten, I couldn't understand that something that horrible could happen.  They brought us inside our school and I remember seeing groups of teachers standing huddled together, whispering.  They didn't understand any better than we did how this could happen.  I honestly don't remember if we weret old what happened, we must have but I can't remember it.  I remember my teacher asking us if we had any relatives in New York.  If you did, you were sent home.  I don't remember much of that school day but when I got home is when I first saw the footage.  My family watched in stunned silence, frozen in front of our TV, unable to say anything.  That day it wasn't just Americans who were attacked, it was our neighbours, sometimes our family and friends.  It was people like us and although we weren't in the same country, all we did was pray for them. 

I can't remember a lot of the names of people I went to elementary with, but I will never forget the names of the two boys who first told me what happened.  Like everyone else, I will never forget where I was that day.  I pray for all the family and friends of those lost on that day.  May we never forget but I pray that we can heal.

And on another, much lighter note, Kienan Hebert, a little boy abducted from his home in Sparwood BC was safely returned to his parents today.  My prayers are still with his family and I hope that his abducter will be found by the police so that this can't happen again.

Happy Days

Sorry for the bad quality of the picture and the video, they're taken from my Ipod.  I can't find my cord to charge my camera so until I do, no good pictures.  Which I desperatly need, I don't have any good recent pictures of Artemis but lately we've been too busy working with her to take pictures of her. 

For the first bit of exciting news, this blog no longer has an expiry date.  I don't know if I've mentioned this because everytime I thought about it I'd start hyperventilating and want to crawl up into a ball and die, and how I wish I was exagerating about that, but Artemis was meant to go up to my dad's once she was weaned, probably at the beginning of October.  I, for many reasons, didn't want this.  For my own reasons, I wanted to be able to keep working with her and I can't bear the idea of rarely ever seeing her.  Also, there's already sixteen horses up there, including two other foals, and my dad barely has time to work with any of them.  My dad and I, while we were camping, argued about this but we came to an agreement.  He saw my point and in the end we agreed that she would stay down.  I have more time to be able to work with her than he would.  I just had to talk to the stable about it.  There didn't seem to be any point in boarding her in the paddocks, it's too expensive to keep three horses in paddock board, especially when one of them is not yet ridable.  Our stable has some horses out in a larger pasture but they don't offer pasture board.  My mom convinced me to email them anyway and ask if we could keep Artemis out in the pasture.  I procrastinated for four days because I was afraid of the answer.  Which is also why I haven't mentioned that any of this has been happening.  I haven't been this nervous about anything in a long time and I was afraid of jinxing it.  Finally though, I made myself email them, and they said yes.  So Artemis will be staying with me. 

The next time we went out to the stable we ran into E, one of our BO as he was feeding Socks and Artemis.  We talked to him about Artemis staying and I don't think he was disappointed.  He was so excited when Artemis was born, as my mom said, they get to enjoy a foal without having to be the ones to get kicked or bitten :).  We then discussed weaning her.  E said that the best way to wean her would be to put her in a stall so she would be safe.  As he was telling my mom this I caught Socks and took her out of the pen, leaving Artemis in it.  We've been working on seperating them.  Artemis started calling and ran around her pens a few times and then stopped and started eating.  E just started laughing and said maybe she wouldn't have to be put in a stall.  In the end we decided against putting her in the stall.  The plan is to put her and Socks in a larger field with three other horses and then wean her there, leaving Artemis with the other horses and taking Socks away.  The other horses are all mares, two old mares, the younger one is twenty, and the BO's two year old filly. 

We've been working with Artemis away from her mother.  We've been taking her on walks around the stable and in the back hay field.  The first time she was great.  She hesitates but she'd come.  The second time she was horrible.  She kept trying to knock me over and race ahead.  I became so frustrated with her that my mom took over.  That is why I appreciate my mom coming with me all the time, if I become too frustrated she'll take over so the lesson doesn't end on a bad note, and I do the same for her.  Last time we were out we took Artemis to meet the two mares she was going to be put in with (that day but I'm getting to that).  Here was their meeting.  Flip is the paint mare and I can't remember the sorrel mare's name.  Artemis' chewing motion is basically a horse's way of saying "I'm a baby, please don't hurt me."

After their meeting, which despite what I say in the video, I think went pretty well, we went and grabbed Socks to put them in the field with Flip and the sorrel.  I led Socks and my mom led Artemis.  I was a little nervous about putting them in together, mostly because Socks is such a dominant horse.  Luckily Flip and the sorrel stayed back until we'd taken the halters off of our two.  Socks and Artemis immediatly went to the top corner away from the two mares.  Flip and her friend followed, and the sorrel got to close to Artemis and Socks went at her.  She bit her on the neck and kicked at her but luckily didn't connect.  Flip was smart and got out of there and her friend soon followed.  Socks and Artemis then explored their new field.  It's right next to their paddock so they've been near Flip and the sorrel for weeks, which I hope will make it easier for them to get along.  Ebony, the two year old, will be put in with them soon. 

I'm really glad Artemis will get to have the herd experience.  Once she's weaned her, Flip, Ebony and the sorrel will be going out in the pasture with four other horses, including Charlie, the other foal.  I also want to say that I think I have the best barn owners anyone could possibly have.  They've been so great and supportive about Artemis.  I don't know what I would have done with them.  They're true horse people too, E used to breed horses before they opened the boarding stable.  He told us the other day that we were doing a great job with Artemis, and coming from him, that's the best compliment I could ever have gotten.  I can't help but worry, given my limited experience with foals, that we push her too hard or not enough.  I do know that my barn owners are going to get a special christmas present from us this year.