Taffy and Kody Update

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The palomino foals are three weeks old. They have been together with their mamas for a week but have not started playing with each other yet. Today, Mrs. M is posting some fun, short videos (well, sorry. The first video is 3 minutes. I grabbed it off my daughter’s YouTube channel). Mrs. M will tell you a little about the foals’ personalities. It’s amazing, considering they are half brother and sister, that they would be so different in just about everything (like Shasta and Sunny in Thick as Thieves. I write fiction, but “fact” is so close to fiction sometimes that it’s kind of scary).

DAKOTA (KODY)

Kody is turning golden on his face already and will be gorgeous when he sheds out to pure gold! Right now he looks like “Sunny” from Thick as Thieves, but that colt was a cremello and never turned golden. (Kody’s sire is a cremello.) Kody is a very big boy, already 10.2 hh! Taller than Colton (the mini pony who is not very mini any longer).

Kody is a “gentle giant,” with a personality just like Rubicon, his sire. He’s calm and loves to be worked with. He comes right up to us when it’s time to train. Kody is very “oral.” This means he wants to mouth everything–dirt, leaves, our hands, our shirts, the training stick (to keep him out of our personal space), and anything else he can get his mouth on. He is now being trained to keep his “mouth” to himself. Kristel and I do not care to be “groomed.” Kody stands. Kody lets us pick his feet. Kody already leads (he did not like the lasso around his rump, so he learned fast that life is better without pressure). We cover his eyes, we mess with his ears, face, and belly. He doesn’t care. He is all legs, and boy can he run! He wants to play with Taffy, but . . . well . . . you can learn about Taffy in a little bit.

This 3-minute video shows Susie leading Kody, lifting Kody’s feet, and also doing feet work with Taffy Kandy. Susie reminds me of Andi. She’s got the “touch” with the horses. And she’s twelve, just like Andi. (Big sister Julie, the original “Andi” on the Circle C Steppings Stones books, isn’t “into” horses all that much. She likes cats.)

KODY LEADS, LIFTS FEET, AND TAFFY LIFTS FEET

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Breaking News! Wow! Scarlett would not go into the paddock tonight (Tuesday). She was upset about another horse (Lacey, the “old aunt,” whom she knows but doesn’t get along with all that well). Lacey is now hanging out in the round pen because she has a limp and needs to rest. Scarlett would not go past the round pen to go into her assigned paddock. So Kristel and I hauled a rope and a halter (way out in the pasture) for both Scarlett and baby Kody. I haltered Scarlett but she would not budge. So Kristel haltered Kody and led him toward the paddock! His first real-life TEST, and he passed with flying colors. He led when it was really important, in a new place (not his training paddock) and he led his MOTHER into the paddock, right past Lacey. Ooh! Scarlett was so mad! Once inside her paddock, she thrust her head into her grain bucket and let us know she was not happy. Ears back, shaking her head. “Get over it, Scarlett! It’s not like you are a first-time mama. Lacey can’t hurt your baby.”

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JEWELS TAFFY KANDY

Taffy is a different story from Kody. We call her “Miss Priss.” She’s petite, about 8 hh at two weeks. She also has a shorter body length than Kody. Taffy is going to be a stunning dark-gold with “chrome.” That’s the modern way to say stockings (3) and a big blaze. Horse people love “chrome,” I hear. The breeder just oohed and aahed over her coloring.

Well, we are not oohing and aahing over her training right now. From the first, Taffy has been more sensitive. We had to work hard to catch her the first two weeks, just to put her halter on. It’s a good thing she’s not big like Kody! She is still small enough to manhandle, and we do that a lot. Once she is caught, however, she settles down and behaves. Kristel discovered that Taffy likes to be “close” to her side when being led. She doesn’t like anything coming at her too fast. Slow and easy. And she hates the rope around her rump! But at three weeks, she is finally leading!

TAFFY FINALLY LEADS

But Taffy is the very best with her feet. She stands still while we lift them and mess with them. She even lets us stretch her legs out when we pick them up (like you saw in the first video). We can touch her face and ears, and cover her eyes, and brush her belly. Sometimes, she shivers but she stands. Like I said, she’s a bit of a sensitive priss. But good news. Just this week, so long as we go slowly, we don’t have to chase her down to catch her. We touch her hindquarters and she stands still. Whoosh! That’s good news.

Poor Kody! He went up to meet Taffy when we first put everybody in the pasture together. Taffy turned around and gave Kody her rear end. Then she hiked up her back feet to “kick” him in a “don’t touch me” attitude. A week later she is getting better. At least she lets Kody stand near her now.

I SPY – GROOMING AND GETTING ALONG! (I peeked outside and caught this happy moment.)

In the end, I have a feeling that Taffy (petite and tiny) will end up being the “alpha” over easygoing Kody. Can you just see a barely 14hh filly (when grown) bossing a 17hh gelding? That will be worth a few videos.

We put the two mares and the two foals together in the front paddock for a change in scenery for them (not to mention fresh fodder). Is there anything more beautiful than running horses and their babies? I’ve just gotta have a few of these on the New Earth, or at least during the upcoming Millennium!

RUNNING JUST FOR FUN (three weeks old)

I hope you enjoyed the Painted Acres (not Circle C, sigh) update. I hope I wasn’t showing off too many videos, but except for the first one, they are all very short. And . . . what else have you got to do, since most of you like horses any way you can get them.