A New Herd - or Two

We went with GunDiva to see her mare and had a great time with the third generation.  Ida bred each of Estes' daughters to the same Friesian stallion last year and seems to have gotten two pretty fantastic fillies.

Who are you?  Wanna play?

None of us had been in with the babies before, yet their curiosity got the best of them and they raced up to the GunDiva and pretended fright when she raised her arm.  Then they mugged her and got their first ever treats (I bet).  Sorry, Ida.  She couldn't resist; they were so cute.

Hi.  I'm Dakota.  I'll be a year old in May.

'Momma' Meeker with Bill

Notice Meeker's crescent, yet her daughter is pure black with no markings.

Hi.  I don't remember my name.  I'll be a year old in June.

Now notice that Audobon has no markings, yet her daughter has the distinct crescent on the forehead and one white hoof.  Looks more like her aunt!  Audobon is also half Belgian, I believe; much larger than her sister and a totally different nature, more stubborn like her draft daddy.  I'm curious to see if the fillies show a size difference later.  Right now they stay nip-and-tuck.

'Momma' Audobon

'Grandma' Estes and GunDiva

And the proud grandma with both grand-fillies in the background.  Estes has just had a mini spa day and is about to fall asleep on the hoof.  Couldn't quite get the babies to stand still long enough to get the burrs out of their forelocks, but Bill and GunDiva did get a curry on most of the mud spots-with no halters,even.  Although as soon as they were a little cleaner, they promptly waded into the pond-up to their bellies-and came back muddy again; just like their aunt Jesse, who is NO relation at all!

Hey!  I found the goodies!!!

The blue bucket is really GunDiva's grooming bucket, but I had tossed my little treat bucket into it to 'keep safe'.  Obviously there is nothing wrong with this one's smeller.  She zoomed right in on where those horse cookies were.

Where you goin' with the bucket????

Bill decided it was time for the buckets to go away - to the chagrin of the culprits!

On our way home we found a different herd - the Rocky Mt. Sheep were down by the road.  We were extremely happy to count all nine of them.  A week ago we had spotted a new herd of one male and three females in a different location, so the herds are expanding.  When we first moved to the mountains, we would only see five of them and watched as they aged - their horns growing more curl each year, and the numbers increasing every couple years.