Kate ~ Testing READY!!

[Bonny]

Ahhhh that time of the year again! Foals are starting to kick in mommas tummies, and the mares are getting rounder! I am starting to get excited waiting for the small of little bearded foal breath.....

Kate is the only mare I have due this year, she is roughly 233 days in foal.

So here are the pictures! Please enjoy all pasture condition photos! Lol

Kate( Bay Roan Welsh Mare)



and Heritage Halls Hy Priority ( aka Riot, Bay Welsh Mountain Pony)



My Barn cam & live Chat are located in my siggy.

We started a new barn, and though the foaling stall is safe its only semi completed to where i want it to be. I do have cams installed and we have been working on the barn as supplies come in. Such an exciting year!

 

[AnnaC]

Welcome back Holly - great to hear from you again and great that we will all have sweet Kate to watch over again! Oh and I LOVE your new barn, you must be thrilled.

Is Indy still with you and did you keep that stunning colt of hers - mind you that was a type of pregnancy that I dont think you will want to repeat again!!

 

[Bonny]

Hi Anna, no I did not keep Indy as I didn't want to risk another pregnancy, I am just not set up to be able to seperate long term. She sold with her foal and are doing very well.

as for now we just have Kate, riot, and grace. Grace is my coming 3 Arabian gypsy vanner. I am just now starting to really work with Grace and she is doing fantastic. I look forward to doing trails and actual with her in the future. No babies planned for her for a while. I would love to add a fewspot or snowcap appaloosa or poa into my program at some point. Just have to wait and see...

 

[Ryan Johnson]

Welcome Back Holly

The barn looks great as do the horses

. Looking forward to watching her as she progresses. Glad to hear that Indy is doing well.

 

Great pictures and a beautiful barn!!! Welcome back! We're so happy to have you here again, and look forward to more "growing" of that little one!

 

[lkblazin]

Wow riot has a gorgeous face. They are both beautiful I can't wait to see Kate's baby!

 

[Wings]

Yay I LOVE welshies!

 

[paintponylvr]

Thanks for sharing pictures! LOVE the welshies and I always get to drool while watching them.

While we are waiting for more baby development, can you share more info on that fantastic barn? Is the back side completely enclosed? I know that you have "less weather" then we have as far as cold/snow (USUALLY), but then again, lately the weather isn't "normal", LOL. How many stalls? Is the lumber treated or are you putting up edging to keep them from chewing on it? Sizes of stalls? Hay/feed layout? I've always preferred the open type row stalls - so always look at this type of barn. Grew up w/ no barn completely enclosed (no leading horses in/out) - each stall connected to a "run" that was then connected to larger paddocks that then opened into larger pastures. Weird to come South and see so many barns over the years completely enclosed (& many quite nasty due to lack of ventilation!!)...

We are closing on acreage next week and it has a 3 stall barn that ended up being completely closed in for their non-horse purposes. We will probably start out using it as a storage (feed/hay) and feed staging area for now (I pre-set buckets for each of 26 head then add water to feed wet when carrying buckets to individual pastures/paddocks) - w/ separate run-ins for each paddock/pasture until we decide exactly where and how to build our new barn. Don't know if we will even have a single large barn - due to the probably layout of the pastures... Weird to think I won't have a "main barn".

 

[Bonny]

Phew! brow sweating work lol. barn is now 90 % done... course arent they all as we constantly think of new ideas

Kate is at 280 days growing a big tummy and doing excellent!

 

[Bonny]

paintpony.... the barn is a 3 stall semi closed. I live in southeast Texas so most of the time its very hot here.I will be adding on more stalls as needed. My husband has a saw mill so we cvut our own trees, make boards and dry them ourselves.We are do it ourselfers lol..

the entire barn is made from rough cut 2x6 pine, the roof is held up by 4x4 & 4x6 beams. we uses 2x6 for rafters and 2x4 for braceing. tyhe roof is corrigated 14ft long to give us 1 ft overhang each side. we also used some tar paint stuff as the beams are sunk 2 ft into the ground and the bottom boards are also tarred.

Kate & Grace are on the end stalls and both their stalls are 12x12. Riot my small stallion has the middle stall 10x12.

I dont treat the wood, but mine dont really chew on the boards.s for the haywell its a work in progress. I started out making a corner feeder on the ground for the hay, which actually worked very well except then my ponies started to knock their water buckets over and flooded the stalls so I put them in the corner feeder area . right now I have a large hay net attached to the wall. that seems to be working very well. i am going to upload a bunch of the pictures of the barn... if you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

[Bonny]

 

[Bonny]

 

[Bonny]

Eventualy we will add a 8 ft hall way on to the front where the stall doors are. that way the sun and rain will not blow in the doors. we also have plans to install a gutter across the front so the rain wont run off and wash away the ground. we plan on doing the corrigated roofing to make window shutter, it will be able to be raised and lowered to keep weather out of let breeze in.

 

[lkblazin]

Really nice!! I can just about smell the fresh wood

 

[AnnaC]

WOW!! It's looking fabulous Holly, and yes, I can scent the lovely smell of new wood too! May I ask what you are using for flooring?

 

[Bonny]

We built a pad for the barn to sit on. the pad is just our texas dirt. Has clay and sand , mostly clay so makes a nice firm floor. I thought a lot about the flooring before we started the project. i looked into a lot of subtrates, and for my needs I just settled on dirt floors would be the best option for me. I use the pine pelleted bedding on top of it, about 4 bags moisted and fluffed and 1 50 lb bag from our local wood mill, of pine chips. lots of moisture absorbing, plus easy clean up. i usually have to add a bag of the pine pellets weekly when on foal watch.

When not on foal watch, my ponies are only in the stalls during feed time or bad weather. So not a lot of use esp in the summer, and I usually strip the stall after foaling so it can really dry out.

This year i have been thinking of a different way to foal Kate out. I was thinking of doing foal watch in Graces stall, and after Kate foals and baby is up and nursing well, moving them both back to Kates stall. That way Kates stall will stay nice and clean.

Grace and Riot dont mind budding up in Riots stall, Ive actually found all 3 ponies cozied up in there together lol.

This is the only time I wish I would have made the barn 4 stalls lol, maybe by next year.....

 

Looks great!!

My stalls all had dirt floors, but then I packed them deep so momma and baby were comfortable. I couldn't get straw here, so I packed with a local hay which I don't "feed", since I use Alfalfa hay, but it did make nice soft and deep beds.

Congratulations on that beautiful barn, and yes, I can smell the new wood, too!

 

[Bonny]

Well Ive been a busy little bee! It looks like we are going to have a wet winter so I decided to take down a wall in my barn to make a HUGE foaling stall for Kate! I took the wall down between grace and riot and made Kate a 12 x 22, my barn cam just barely covers the entire stall lol! When we put the wall back up after foaling/ weaning I am going to make it removeable for future uses! Meanwhile grace and riot have free access to kates old stall a 12x12 and they look so very cute snuggled up in there. They don5t fuss a bit and really seem to enjoy it... I just love ponies!

Ok update on miss Kate... She is 290 days today! Whoot! tiny bit of udder change, not enough to really even talk about. She is getting big and starting to get a drop tummy. She sure enjoys her new stall too. The last 2 foals she had from riot she foaled at 328 & 329 days so I expect her to do about the same this year.

I am getting excited!

 

[AnnaC]

Glad to hear the update on Kate, it sounds as though she's progressing perfectly which is great! I think your idea of extending her foaling space is a brilliant one especially if it seems as though you will be looking at a wet late winter. New babies need space to scamper around regularly and if the weather is bad there is nothing worse for them than to be restricted during those important early days. Just tell Kate to be sure to foal near your cam and not at the far end of her space!!

 

Absolutely, and can't wait!