Here are some photos of the puppies born starting May 5 and finishing May 6.

The first babe was born at 11:15 p.m., just minutes before the BIG MOON which affected tides. Interesting!

Currently the puppies are 10days old. We can see that their once sealed ears are opening. The eyes are showing signs of changing, too.

Every once in a while, we’ll hear squawking. When we race to the whelping box to find out what’s going on we see one of the puppies separated from the group, “crawling” away from the puddle of puppies and calling for Mom.

Generally speaking Bobbe is pinned down by the six remaining pups who are nursing. We pick up the lost puppy and return it to the pile. The squawks subside and all’s right with the world, whew!

In another week one of these sweeties will “go over the wall” of the whelping box and that’s when the entire nursery is moved from the seclusion of the bedroom to the kitchen. Until Bobbe had her first litter all previous moms started their litter in the kitchen and kept residence there for the entire seven weeks we have the puppies. But Bobbe didn’t like the kitchen.

She wanted a more remote, quiet place for her little ones. Her sanctuary is upstairs which has greatly increased our fitness level, what with the climbing up there MANY times every day to see how she and the redheads are doing.

As each puppy was born we attempted to weigh it. This was quite challenging due to the incredible wiggle power of the newborn. However, we did decide on an approximate weight and were quite surprised to learn that the smallest puppy weighed in at 14 ounces and the biggest at 17. This is a tight cluster of weights. It’s not unusual for a litter to contain an eight ounce puppy and a hefty 17-ouncer.

In the next few days we’ll start taking weekly photos of each babe so that the new owners will have a photo album tracing the puppy’s development.

Meanwhile, it’s time to head for the barn

- On May 5-7, Nicole Weinauge gave a clinic here. She’s just finished two three-day clinics at Petlyn which is west of here. And, Bobbe (our vizsla) is due to deliver her puppies! It takes nine weeks to create the little ones and May 5th is nine weeks after her first breeding with Ozzie (who is from Australia). Bobbe has had two litters and she quite enjoys giving birth sometime after midnight…I’ll be the mid-wife and one tired rider when my turn comes in the clinic.

- I went to the barn-on-the-hill a week or so ago. I was later than usual. I walked in at 6:28 to find Lulu (a bay mare) in the aisle. I had two toys in my hands. I dropped them. She stepped forward and picked one up, then brought it to me. Meanwhile I was checking to see if any other creatures were roaming free! Nope, she was the only one. AND, she’d had a whale of a time. All the halters and leadlines were removed from the stall hooks. The feed buckets were not neatly stacked, they were scattered over the floor. The wheelbarrow with a bale of hay had been played with. Hunks of hay were in the wash stall and the aisle. However, there were no poops. So I figure she hadn’t been out very long.

I tossed the toy for Lulu to retrieve while I walked to her stall and fetched her halter and leadline. I returned to her and she happily let me put the halter on and lead her to her stall. She was thirsty!

- The youngster we’ve been taking care of went to his farm at the beginning of April. (Sniff, we all miss him!) Well, a few weeks later he had surgery in Guelph. Currently he’s recovering and in isolation. Turns out everyone there loves him. He’s so easy to work with and handle. This is such nice news. We spent almost a year teaching him tricks/games/liberty and it’s great to learn that other people are reaping the benefits of this training.

- Zelador and Zeloso will head to Toronto June 19th to do a demonstration for the RCMP riders. The site is an indoor arena and the boys do their thing from noon till 12:30. This should be great fun!!!!

1. Roll out the carpet
2. Fetch the mail from the “Horses Only Mailbox” to the pedestal
3. Roll the ball from the pedestal to a specific person (at least two people playing this game with him)
4. Front feet on pedestal: move around the pedestal to the right
5. Front feet on pedestal: move around the pedestal to the left
6. Work on the teeter-totter. He is able to stand over the middle and balance. He also teeters back and forth.
7. From home base (the pedestal) fetch the orange ball (he might differentiate it from the blue ball)
8. Spanish Walk
9. From the pedestal fetch the tissue for Ron when he sneezes
10. Standing on the pedestal: Play the maracas, the tambourine, the sleigh bells while people sing three verses of “Old MacDonald had a Band”
11. Do his bow
12. Push the Easy Button

Zelador and I are working on creating a routine with the BIG blue hula-hoop. It is three hula hoops joined together. He is able to:
1. Walk through it
2. Stand with his front feet in it while I lift it over his body and place it on the ground around his hind feet…and back to the front.
3. He stands while I attempt to twirl it around his barrel (might have to use a smaller hoop)
4. I think he’ll be able to piaffe inside the hoop
5. Place front feet in and travel laterally around the hoop (both directions)
6. Place hind feet in and travel laterally around the hoop (both directions)
7. He’d LOVE to grab the hoop in his mouth and carry it around!

Zelador is finally VERY confident about his piaffe. He’s now looking at any opportunity to change the subject by piaffing. This behaviour has cropped up in the past. He inserted the Spanish Walk for a long time. I ignore the unasked for behaviour and continue with what I’d like to do. However, quite often the behaviour is so brilliant I do have to tell him how lovely it is as we move on to other things.

Zeloso’s piaffe is coming along. He’s beginning to understand the “bounce.” We’ll try to get some filming done soon. However, many centimetres of snow are predicted for the next few days. We’ll wait till things warm up!

Bucket round up.

I bought five rubberish buckets to use with the horses. When I got them I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d be doing with them. They had two outstanding qualities. They are light-weight and brightly coloured.

Recently I’ve been placing them on the centreline so we could slalom through them. Last week Bill decided to pick them up when we were done…on horseback. He fetched an umbrella with a hooked handle and tried to snag the bucket’s handle. He dropped the bucket, again and again. Zelador was watching all of this. Two days ago I gave him an opportunity to perform the bucket clean-up. He knew instantly what game we were about to play. We approached the first bucket. I asked him to “push” and he did. The bucket had been upside down which made hooking the handle impossible. Now it was on its side (sometimes it rolled a wee bit extra and landed on its bottom in perfect position!). He stood patiently while I leaned WAY over to hook the handle. He was a statue while I arranged my reins, the bucket and the umbrella. He walked directly to the east wall of the arena and lined up beside the chair I’d designated for holding the buckets. He waited till I asked him to take me to the next one. As we were travelling to it I called out the colour, knowing that in a very short period of time he’d have those colours memorized and we’d be playing another version of the game.

As we were heading for the fourth and the fifth buckets he suggested that he could pick each one up. However, he wasn’t able to carry the bucket easily with the Bitless Bridle. In one of these bucket round-ups I’ll see if he can do it with just a halter on him. Then, if we’re successful, we can try the game with nothing on his head. Now THAT should be interesting!

I’ve taken Z and Z to the arena to work at liberty. This is an interesting “trick”! I lead Zeloso to the upper barn, place him in a stall and fetch Zelador. I leave Zelador in the arena and retrieve Zeloso from the stall. On the way back to the lower barn I put Zelador in a stall and lead Zeloso home. There’s a bit of “calling” going on.

I put up the low jump along the wall and the two love flying over it as they travel around me at liberty. Zelador dreamed up a new move. He puts his front feet on the tall pedestal and becomes a statue as his brother jumps the jump beside the pedestal.

After a bit of free longeing the boys are quite happy to stand quietly on their pedestals (Zelador on the northern one and Zeloso on the southern one). I work briefly with each horse and the other stands politely…as long as the activity I’m doing is not really exciting!

One morning after the liberty work Bill joined me and we tacked them up. Just as we were starting, Ciara came and we decided that she’d get the northeast stall in the upper barn ready for teaching Zelador to sit from a standing position. I did a short ride on Zelador, took him back to the lower barn to remove his tack and get his halter and lead line, then went to the “sit stall”. Ciara had about four bags of shavings (still in their bags) in a corner with another three or four bags opened with their shavings draped over the bags. This is our first session in this stall and our fifth session on sit from the stand. Zelador is on the brink of figuring out to lower his hind end onto the pile of shavings. Ciara and I have been practicing in Zelador’s stall in the lower barn, but realized we needed a spot where we could leave the stall set up for the exercise. This eliminates having to relocate MANY bags of shavings every time we work with him.

Zelador figured out early on that when he backed into the shavings and stayed still he was handsomely rewarded. In fact, when Ciara and I stop to discuss how things are progressing and try to figure out if we should move the shavings a little Zelador will seize the opportunity (our lack of focus on him) to back into the shavings and get another reward!

We’ll try to get some photos at our next session. We’re doing this once every week or two.

As I was leading a triumphant Zelador from the “sit stall” I mentioned to Ciara that this was Zelador’s third trip to the upper barn/arena in less than two hours.

What a nice horse!!!!!

Photos by Ellen Cameron

Saturday was the 8th Annual Schomberg Agricultural Society Farm Tour. The theme this year was “Home of Champions”. The three sites: Glencal Farms, home to 47 Percherons, Schonberg Farm with Thoroughbred race horses and Sunny Maple Holsteins.

Last year Ellen and Sandra accompanied me and we joined forces again. Ellen is a GREAT photographer and took the pictures you see here.

We met at the Schomberg Community Hall on Main Street and enjoyed a bowl of chilli. Ron and Brenda Dike walked in. They live east of Newmarket and it was their first Farm Tour. It’s my seventh. I’ve known Ron and Brenda since 1989 and it was a treat to cross paths.

The “Champion” theme flowed through each farm. At Glencal all the horses were over 17 hands high, with one at 18.3 and another at 18.1. The flyer for the Farm Tour listed over a dozen big shows across North American where the Percherons have been consistent winners in both line and hitch classes.

The Schonberg Farm (Schonberg is German for Beautiful Hill) has been in the Schickendanz family since 1981. There is a broodmare band of about twenty mares with two stallions, Wando (2003 Canadian Triple Crown Winner and 2003 Canadian Horse of the Year) and Mobil (2004 Canadian Champion Older Horse of the year).

The Sunny Maple Holsteins have over 200 head with 90 cows of which 65 are milking. The cattle have been shown at local shows, The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair and the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin.

Sandra, Ellen and I are looking forward to next year’s Farm Tour!