Another week ends

As we prepare for our vacation I've been trying to spend as much time as possible with Honey, to love on her, scratch her and begin her training more formally so that she is a polite and easy to handle horse. She now will pick up all four feet without much fuss, and is leading with very little "butt" pressure, with only very mild little baby horse tantrums in between. I'm very proud of her progress and just fall more in love with this filly every single day, she makes my sad days into wonderful days, which I certainly need more of!

Shades if amber

Today I played with little miss Honey and gave her another leading lesson, which she was not happy about :)

She did good though and was rewarded with love and scratches!

After her training session she and I took some pictures together and I snapped some of her and Hot Rod, with this cooler weather it was wonderful to be out with my kids!

What a difference a month makes

Now that my princess Honey is just over a month old I find that every visit with her results in inches gained that little filly is a weed, her teeth have come in nicely and she is beginning to she'd the baby fuzz. Too soon for me, why do they grow so quickly?

So here are some pictures ranging from birth to last week, notice the subtle changes, just leaves one to wonder how amazing her complete transformation will be!

A bit O' Honey

A special day this was:

So on June 5th I finally saw a knee doctor to help figure out how to solve my pain issues, I arrived and began waiting to see what this day would bring... Not minutes later my phone rang.

Mandy called and said something was at the barn waiting for me...? The barn? What? My heart began to race as their was only one thing my mind could piece together, but then a sinking dread, Hot Rod isn't due for a couple more weeks it couldn't, shouldn't be the foal.

But it was! She said it looked to be a little filly and both mom and baby looked ok. I went into panic mode and asked Mandy more questions than I can remember, poor girl she was so patient and kind with me as I barraged her with favors, instructions and questions. 

The doctor was taking SO long to see me, I asked repeatedly to be seen as soon as possible due to an emergency occurring ... Nothing after 2.5 hours I finally saw the doctor (which I just had to so my knee would start healing) and then it was off to the races!! I grabbed my dialing kit from the house and made record time to the barn, where Mandy, Brandy and Debra were all waiting and watching the little one. 

I hobbled over and under fences, my knee hurting from the injection, but I had to see her! Tears filled my eyes as my emotions soared into a blissful happiness, there she was! 

Perfect and so small, and palomino!!!

I crawled into the pen tears rolling down my cheek, I talked to her and Hot Rod, then she came towards me... Wondering who and what I was. I touched her velvet soft coat and her muzzle which was like that of a baby bunny. Her little nose was so tiny, all of her was tiny. She was not afraid at all, like she knew who I was all along, and proceeded to give me kisses and love.

I loved her before she even came into this world, and after meeting her, she's more amazing than I could ever imagine, I love all my horses, and my dear Hot Rod did SO well I am so proud of her, but now, my little "Honey" has taken a special place in my heart that can never been removed. 

Welcome to the world little girl, I'm so glad you're here!!

My knee is vastly better now but I had to share this story on Honey's page, the emotion I felt that day was unbelievable in the best way possible!

A miracle before she was even born

My horse Hot Rod is a 15 year old quarter horse mare, a daughter of a mare named Lacey who I grew up riding since I was in the 3rd grade. Lacey took me to the Pecos mountains in New Mexico and hundreds of hours each summer riding with my friend Brandy, she was a very special mare and I miss her everyday. 

In April 1998 Lacey gave birth to one of her last foals, Hot Rod, who had been planned to be Debra's top show filly, she was perfect in every way and Debra began paying up her futurity money in hopes of her going to the AQHA world show. However, at not even a month old Hot Rod suffered a severe attack from a local dog breeders pack of huskies, tearing the muscle, tendons and all soft tissue from her front fore-arms. Told she would never walk again the vets only advice was to put Hot Rod down.

But with some prayers and lots of Manuel labor she eventually stood on her own and blossomed into a wonderful horse, but due the severity of the injuries would never see the show ring.

Hot Rod was never really used and only bred one time in 2007, but due to a outside horse being boarder at their barn contracting Rhino flu the entire herd began ill and an almost full term beautiful buckskin filly was sadly aborted by Hot Rod.

Years later, a filly I witnessed the birth of and loved her entire bloodline finally came back into my life and was given to me by my dear friends. After realizing that once Hot Rod is gone ( the worst day that will be ) the entire line will be gone and the horses that raised me will be completely gone with her, unless she produces a foal.

So in 2012 I decided that I would attempt to breed Hot Rod to Debra's champion stallion, Breaker. 

The breeding season came, and went, and it seemed Hot Rod was not taking plus she was having such weird heat cycles I was losing hope. I bred her one last time in July 2012 and hoped for the best, and it's seemed like nothing happened. In August that same year poor Breaker suffered a horrible case of colic and passed away and with his passing went all my hopes of Hot Rods line being passed on.

In Dec I decided to get hot rod vet checked again to make sure she could still carry a foal, as an older maiden mare I had concerns she was unable to conceive or carry a foal and after deciding to try one last breeding season with an outside stallion I wanted her checked first.

We arrived to the clinic expecting an answer if hot rod could be bred at all.

After asking a thousand questions Dr. Morrow he asked if I was sure she wasn't already pregnant... At that moment I thought " well.....No I'm not sure"

So he ultrasounds her and not seconds later motioned for me to look at the screen. Heart racing and tears forming I looked at the screen and clearly visible was the silhouette of a baby horse head!

I screamed in shock, happiness and surprise and began to cry! I hugged Hot Rod I was SO proud of her!

So you see before she was even here this little foal was a miracle, meant to be in so many ways, with all odds against her, but just like her mother, overcame all odds to be the greatest gift anyone could ever ask for.