It’s a Hard Nug Life

Published on by Amanda C

Guess who’s 5 months old?

holdhands
these two hand-holding bro nugs

Presto celebrated by getting his second official farrier-performed trim. You may remember that he was, um, less than cooperative for the first one, so when I was up there a few weeks ago we worked A LOT on farrier manners. Either the extra lessons worked or he just decided it wasn’t worth the fight, because he was very well behaved this time. The farrier also complimented the quality of Presto’s feet (now that they aren’t being aimed at his head).

SoItchy
but what about the quality of my itchies?

In all honesty, Presto and Liam are pretty much ready to be weaned. They’re independent, they’ve been eating grain and hay for a while, and their moms are not all that concerned about them anymore. Under normal circumstances, now would be the time.

But we got inspection dates for the sBs (Belgian Sporthorse) tour, and they’re not coming through the US until the end of September. While it’s not really ideal to leave the colts on their dams for that long, it’s far less ideal to present them for inspection “off” their dams, for several reasons. So they might start getting separated a bit for feeding time (moms are starting to look a bit “drained” from these big babies sucking the life out of them, but if you overfeed, you risk physitis in the babies), with official weaning waiting until after the inspection.

prestohead3months

I’m still looking into options for moving him closer to me, but that will probably get put on the back burner until winter. I remembered he has to be gelded before he can be pasture boarded (duh), but I’m not going to geld him a) right after the stress of weaning b) in warm gross fly season. We’ve had enough complications so far, I’m not interested in stacking the odds against us any more than necessary. So maybe in November/December he can lose his manhood, and then I can look into bringing him home a month or so after that.

His current favorite hobbies are trying to catch the little goldfish in his tank (who knew he was a fisherman?) and snacking/napping at the same time.

 

Very tough life this kid’s got these days.

13 thoughts on “It’s a Hard Nug Life”

  1. I love that video of him. He is such a multitasker!
    ..and he looks so grown up in that last pic. When did that happen?!
    Gorgeous boy. I hope the people inspecting him agree on that…

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  2. Happy Birthday Presto!! And he is so stinking cute and so elegant at different times. HA. He cracks me up. I think that is a good plan leave him at Michelle’s till he is gelded then figure it all out. When does Liam leave Michelle’s? Isnt he sold?? Those two will be sad when they are parted.

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    1. i wrote that and erased it LOL cause i was like she will think i am crazy BUT YES LETS SEE THAT 🙂 cant wait till he is a grown up event and stops at water jumps to look for fish HA HA

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    1. Several reasons, but the big two are 1) foals typically show their quality MUCH better when they’re with the mare. They’re way more confident, and the handler can more easily control the movements of the mare, which in turn controls the movements of the foal, which in turn leads to better presentation. 2) if it’s the mare’s first time being presented for approval, a nice foal is a very good reflection on her as a producer.

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    2. If it is like many other inspections there would be another fee to verify DNA for the dam if not presented with their dam, as well as they seem to show better in strange situation with their mom’s to show them the way-

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