Isn't this the thing to be doing on a -34C day like today! Sometimes think it would be nice to be a cat.....haven't posted for awhile, October and early November are such busy times here on the farm to get ready for our long old winter. We got our winter wood supply all split and stacked, foals weaned, fences all repaired, water tanks set up with heaters, horses separated into groups (different feed requirements), Thanksgiving get together at my niece's was much fun, lots of riding with great weather this year, brought Totie home, attended a Working Cow Horse clinic, 4 semi loads of big hay bales in the hay yard, straw and squares in the shed, oat bins full......can now slow down some and get caught up in the house and office, maybe....

The horses, chickens, ducks and dogs don't seem to be affected much by the cold. They all have lots of food, heated water and shelter. Even the puppy is doing great in the barn. Supposed to warm up soon, looking forward to that for sure.

Babies

My daughter, Amanda and grand daughter, Desiree visited us last week with great grand daughter Jordyn. I think Jordyn was a hit with the horses! It was great to see them....

Favorite Activity....

We could do this all day!

Stars Honor

Stars Honor is back under saddle after a 7 year "holiday" being a broodmare! We are so pleased with this girl.....hoping that she is the typical example of our breeding program.

In Training at Starmyri

Maike and Stars Satinka

Fabienne & Stars Ladyhawke

Maike & Stars Really Foxy second ride

We have been very busy working and training this summer.....very pleased with all our prospects. Thank you very much girls for all the help!

HSRAC Trail Ride at Starmyri Appaloosas

Starmyri Appaloosas hosted a great trail ride on August 7. We had a nice turnout and the perfect day for riding. So nice to get out and ride with good friends.

Training session at the Funny Farm!!!

Who is concentrating hardest????

I couldn't resist putting these photos on the blog.....too cute. Just a couple of my assistants....

Prodigy Growing Up

Stars Fim Koppur X Stars Honor

4 year old gelding (going well under saddle)

Owned by Neil S.

Stars Fim Koppur X Raincat mare

3 year old colt (soon to be gelding)

Owned by Neil S.

It is very nice to see some of my stallion's offspring nearing maturity. Gives us a much better idea on whether the matches are working or not. I am very pleased with what I am seeing! Both of these boys are growing very nicely.

Playschool Visit

Looking at the Mares and Foals

Honey and Children

I had six classes of Playschool children come visit the farm last week over 3 days. They were just awesome little munchkins, we all had a lot of fun. This is possibly the first and last time that some of these children will ever see a farm. There were several parents who had never been to a farm before and most were quite interested. Sent eggs home with one teacher, her first taste of farm fresh eggs - they most definitely passed the taste test! My Appaloosas made me so proud, the new moms kindly showed off their babies so the children got a good look, babies agreed to play a few games of tag for our entertainment! And Honey, our Appaloosa pony so patiently and kindly allowed the many tiny hands to touch and pet her. Can't leave out the entertaining greyhound X, Pluto who even won over a couple little ones that were afraid of dogs, he soooo loves kids that guy. I have one more children's group booked, a class of Kindergarten that will come in June. Guess you could call it my community contribution and my promotion of Agriculture! Lots of fun...

Last Foal of 2010

Our last foal for this year was born about 3 AM, May 13. A beautiful solid black colt. He is a very strong and sturdy boy! And does he shuffle too!! Love his face markings...Starwalker X Arctic Top Spark

2010 Baby #3

Baby #3 arrived safely at 3 A.M. on May 7! He is a stunnig bay with blanket and spots colt with a TON of gait. He has incredibly long legs and is so cute. Kids have been calling him Bambi (just like in the Disney movie). Starwalker X Magic Snow Flake. We have been blessed with colour and healthy foals so far this year, only one left to go.

Baby #2 for 2010

Well baby #2, a filly, arrived quite by surprise this morning at about 8 AM! She is doing fine and so is mommy, but the weather is horrible.....that wind is so cold you can't believe! Have them blanketed which seems to be doing the trick, neither seem cold at all. Baby is nursing, trying to gallop already, passed the myconium and having nice naps. She is gorgeous!

The Mane Event 2010

Spent another extremely busy weekend in Red Deer participating in the Mane Event April 23 - 26 as a representative for the Appaloosa Horse Club of Canada. Worked in the booth and helped a friend do demos with her horses. Overall it was a really great weekend as usual.

First Foal of 2010

Our first foal of 2010 is a beauty! Colt by Stars Fim Koppur out of DREA Kemosfancyeagle, born at 12:27 AM on May 2. Krissie & Lenard were pretty happy to be home for the event! It is always so exciting when the new babies begin to arrive, not much for sleep! Mare #2 is getting pretty close, due on Thursday. Of course, the weather has turned ugly, will be putting this guy and mom into the barn for tonight for sure. He is doing well though, no shivering or anything....

Happy Easter Everyone!

Happy Easter everyone! And a glorious day it is. I would like to introduce our newest addition, Pratt Double Secret, who just arrived from Oregon on Friday. We are very lucky to have the opportunity to purchase such a well bred old line mare, one of the last of a superb breeding program. There is a good chance she is a shuffler or will produce shuffler foals. I will add more photos as we go along, as her red clay henna job washes out with rain and we begin training her. We have decided to start her under saddle this summer, quite exciting. We plan to breed her to Stars Fim Koppur for an elegant, dressage style foal. You can view her pedigree on the Allbreed Pedigree site.

Finally a better picture of our pony mare that we bought for our granddaughter, Catherine. She is out of quarantine now and we have started playing around with her. She has a fantastic disposition. Will be some time to totally evaluate her training level and start getting her feet looking proper. Going to try to get some better photos of little Belle, AJ's pony today too.

The kids will be here for dinner, pie and apple crisp are made, stuffed turkey is in the oven. Girls are upstairs putting the final coat of paint on the little bedroom. I love it, pretty, sunny yellow. Much better colour for a north facing room than blue. We plan to head outside soon and go do some "baby belly" watching, maybe see some foals bouncing. Gotta do some Easter egg hiding for the munchkins to find later too. All in all, it should be a good day.

Goodbye Nugget

Congratulations to Joan & Tom Holder of Dancing Star Ranch, Rupert, Idaho on their purchase of Stars R A High Sign, fondly known as "Nugget". They are sure to enjoy this lovely young "Indian Shuffler" mare for a long time. Thank you Joan & Tom for considering our breeding program.

The Surprise Package

Here is our surprise package for the grandkids......the mare is broke to ride and the little one will be ready for AJ about the time AJ is ready for her. Cat can start riding the mare this spring as soon as it is dry enough. Mare is about 13.2 HH, a nice size for a growing kid. Very nice minded, needs more groceries, hoof trimming etc. Already been dewormed and deloused. Next will be vaccinations and a really good grooming. Little one is getting more friendly and not so frightened of us. Svenja, my FarmStay from Germany, has been playing with her and doing a great job.

Farm Friends

I find our animals to be so entertaining here on the farm! Here are a couple of pics of "friendships" formed. We had such a lovely day on Sunday, the kids were all home for the day, critters were happy, the sun was shining, got the pregnant mares into the maternity pen, hooves trimmed on geldings.....it was a very productive day. My son and family even brought supper with them, what a treat! I was wondering what to cook for supper and not much feeling like doing it after working outside all day so it was greatly appreciated, let me tell you!

I looked out my livingroom window this morning and was greeted by a beautiful bouquet of colour. Can life get much better than this?

Mommy Tummies

Magic

Magpie

Fancy

Looks like the mommy tummies are progressing very nicely! Missed Dolly cause she decided to be independent and go for a drink by herself. Did the ring test on all and it says we are expecting a boy crop this year......can't wait to find out how accurate it is!!! We are expecting 3 from Starwalker and 1 from Stars Fim Koppur - had bred two to Banner, but Lady aborted twins just before Christmas, very disappointing. Fancy and Magpie are first timers for me so hope all goes well. Dolly is guaranteed a fabulous foal. Am hoping poor Magic has an uneventful time this time, she has had a run of bad luck in the past but produces stunning babies.

Family Day

Family Day weekend has come and gone for another year. It was a very nice weekend, weatherwise. Went to my daughter's on Saturday, toured through the art show (her first to have work displayed), beautiful works! Finally got her drapes hung and her computer desk put together. Sunday had my farrier over and we trimmed up the stallions and five mares, good day! Went to to my sister's for a yummy ham and scalloped potato supper. Just enjoyed the sunshine yesterday, played with different ones, did the ring test on my pregnant mares and it says all Boys!!! Guess we shall see in a couple of months about that. The tummies are certainly getting very round. I am so enjoying the longer daylight hours and milder temperatures. Really starting to yearn for spring, sure hope it is nicer than what we had last year....although it don't do any good to complain about something you have absolutely no control over. :(

Litttle Spot, the two year old colt, is becoming a real little pal and is very sensible. The yearling colt, Spirit is very well named......very high spirited and full of himself at the moment. He really is a cutie. Kitty, the two year old filly entertained us for quite some time night before last playing with Mikey the llama. He got mad a few times and did a random air spit, but never at her, which he really should have done IMO. He was getting into the kicking and bucking pretty good too, not a pretty sight! LOL

Hope everyone had a great weekend and a chance to appreciate your precious families.

Stars Fim Koppur

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Starmyri Stallions

Here is a short video of my two stallions, commonly referred to as the "Big" Boys! They live together from August until April, the end of breeding season until the beginning of the next.


Click on title to view video.

Frosty Mornings

Here are some photos of the hoar frost from a couple days ago. It is such amazing stuff and creates such beautiful scenes. Here we are approaching the end of January, the days are definitely noticeably longer, but it sure is cold again. -29 C again this morning which is getting a bit tiresome, would be nice to go outside and be able to enjoy the sunshine instead of freezing your buns off! :-) I am feeling like it has been winter for an eternity, guess it sorta has since we got snow that stuck around the beginning of October! Plus we had no spring last year either, snow and super cold into the end of May. Sure hope it is nicer this year.......am so looking forward to long, sunny, warm days and green leaves and grass! At this point, dust is even welcome....LOL

Breeders Conference Superb

Well, what a great weekend! The Alberta Horse Breeders & Owners Conference has come and gone again for another year. It was superb as usual, my brain is over flowing with all the new information. Saw so many people, got to do tons of visiting too. So lovely to see folk that you only get to see once a year! The ApHCC booth was set up very nice and very well attended. We sold several spots for the Nez Perce Trail Ride and there was a lot of interest expressed. The ride is almost booked full already. The Confeence is such a great venue and so affordable. We even got to see the Olympic Torch and some of the Fireworks, they were spectacular.
Now, back home and normal life again! Went out to feed this morning and discovered that the moose had broken the gate to the hay yard so the mares feasted well overnight! They weren't too interested in breakfast...So, we shooed them back out and fixed the gate, appears to be no harm done.