Dappled Gray

If you look at the above picture from a couple of months ago, you will have to agree with me that it's very likely Chrome will dapple out soon.  I'm very happy because I've been concerned that he would be one of those grays that just slowly fades out all over without dappling.  I love dappled grays so I really want to experience that stage in his graying process.  It's so crazy how much he changes!  This next picture is from a couple of days ago (see previous post) and look how dark he is again!  I don't know if all the white on his neck and shoulders is part of his natural graying process or if it's because of the sweet itch sores from last summer.  I'm sure those of you who've had horses go gray know that any time they get a cut or sore the hair grows back in white.

For example his legs I'm pretty sure would still be jet black if his sweet itch hadn't caused sores on his legs.  When they healed his hair grew back in white.  So I don't know exactly how far along he is in the graying process, but I'm fairly sure he will dapple out sometime in the next year or two.

See how white his front legs are, but how dark his back legs still are?  He only got sores on his front legs (not all at once, he got new ones all summer as old ones slowly healed, it's not like his whole legs were big sores), so his back legs have stayed dark.  That's why I think the fact that his shoulders are lighter is because of the sweet itch and not because of his graying.

So anyway about a week ago I was doing random searches of dappled gray horses on Google and found all of these awesome examples (I do not own any of the pictures below this point, they were all borrowed from Google and I forgot to save the links so I don't remember where they all came from... sorry).

This first one I saw and thought it looks so much like Chrome! There is something about his face that makes me think of my boy, so I looked up what breed he is.... he's an Irish imported Connemara stallion!!!  Here is the webpage http://www.breeding-stallions.com/stallion604.html.  The funny thing is that when I posted Chrome on a forum one time asking people to guess his breed several people thought he was a Connemara lol.  I could definitely see Chrome looking like this guy in a couple of years.

This one is gorgeous!!  Freya is actually a Friesian cross sired by the Friesian stallion Friso.  So gorgeous!  I would love it if Chrome ended up dappling out like that.

I forgot to look at what this one above is, but I could totally see Chrome dappling out like that!!  He already has the white face with the little bit of dark on the forehead and cheeks.  It's easy to see where he could look like this in a year.  So pretty!

This one is a little more advanced.  I was worried that as quickly as chrome's face went gray and that his shoulders are lightening up faster than the rest of his body that he wouldn't dapple, but this horse shows me that it's a normal stage in the graying process.  It looks like his haunches and rear legs dappled out last because of how dark they are.

This horse is gorgeous too!  

 And while I'm dreaming... look at that mane!!!  I soooo wish Chrome could grow a mane like that!

So anyway, I just wanted to share the pretty dappled gray horses with you.  :D  I've enjoyed watching Chrome's color change over the years and I look forward to the fun changes coming up over the next few years.  I'm so happy I've been able to take lots of pictures of him to record the whole graying process.  :)  It will be fun one day when he is completely grayed out to go back and post pictures of how he started out.

Random Cute Pictures

At feeding time yesterday I spent some time taking pictures of the horses.  I got some pretty good ones, although I'm very frustrated by the fuzziness from dropping my camera.  Oh well.  I'm just happy to have a means to take pictures of my beautiful boys even if they aren't perfect.  There are two that I absolutely LOVE from yesterday though!  The evening light was perfect...

 
Sorry about the lines and watermarks.  Aren't they lovely??  I love how the light just glows on one side of his body.  :)  It's so hard to take pictures at feeding time though because all they want to do is hang near the feed room waiting for something to eat.  When they stand at the front fence the evening sun is behind them which puts our houses and vehicles in the background... so annoying!  Again, oh well!  Here are the rest of the pictures.

The leaves in Faran's mane almost look purposely put in it for decoration lol!  He's talented.

 

I got a lot of looks from them like this one above... "What are you doing in here with us?  Get out there and get our feed!"

It's fun to look at the difference in the shape of their heads.  Faran's ears point straight up which opens up the angle between his ears and face.  I've always loved that about him.  His nose is rounded almost like a roman nose too, but not quite.  Chrome's face is slightly dished from the Arab in him.  I love that!  Also his mohawk is just to die for!

 "Quit following me around!"

 You can see Zep's ears behind Faran.  He's giving me the cold shoulder since we dewormed him.  :(

This next series of photos is hilarious... check it out.

 "Hmm, what is this?  An electric fence insulator that I pulled out of the post because I'm super destructive."

 "Wait... whoa, what is that?  How is it floating in midair?  It's supposed to be stuck to a post so I can use it as a pacifier!"

 This one looks like he's about to eat Jackal lol.  Gotta love perspective.

 "It is my pacifier... I mean insulator... I want it!"

 "I can't get it!  I bent the fence over when I was being destructive and now it's trapped between two layers of fence.. I'll chew the wire until it gives me the pacifier."

 Dang I forgot to edit the one where he was reaching over... he tried reaching to the outside of the fence to get it, but he couldn't because the wire is wrapped over it, so then he got mad hehe.  I LOVE that arched neck in all of those.  :D

 Here he is showing you guys his sombrero from the last post.  That's the fence that was behind him in the napping photo and yes Mr. Destructive has been leaning on it and destroying it too.  We have to get the electric wire working again!  So as you can see the barrel end is bigger than it looked in the other photo, but it's kind of leaning into the sagging fence, so it looked like a sombrero he was wearing on his head hehe.

 I love eye shots.  I used my macro setting and had my camera right up next to his eyeball.  He didn't appreciate it!  He was getting impatient for supper... oh wait.. he's impatient the second I walk out the door.

 And one last photo.... Chrome wants to take a bite out of Jackal!  He's leaning against the fence again.... turd!

I LOVE that mohawk!

Well my fingers are still frozen eighteen hours later so I hope the pictures are entertaining.  :D  It was worth it to me because I got some really cute pictures!  I need to find some thin gloves to wear when taking pictures though.

Sleepy Pony

I love that Chrome is comfortable with me approaching him when he's napping in the warm sun.  :D

Deworming Fun

Yesterday we dewormed the horses and donkey.  I wanted to get pictures, hoping I could get them making a funny face or something.... err they turned out boring and pretty horrible... taking pictures of the deworming process is more difficult than I thought it would be haha!

We started out with Zep.  Since he's half wild and not halter broke (yeah I fail lol) we have to build a pen to put him in.  He was already in the round pen (that isn't round right now) playing with a feed bucket, so I just closed the door, then we put up another panel to make a three sided square in one corner.  Then we follow him slowly so that he walked into the corner.  When he realizes he's trapped he turns to face us and then he freezes.  Once he's caught he always freezes.  It's kind of sad.  You would think by now he would know we aren't out to hurt him.

So after getting him in the corner I put the halter on him easily.  I was standing in front of him to block his escape the whole time because if he bolts you can't hold on to him.  He doesn't understand halter pressure or leading at all.  Then we gave him his dewormer, scratched and petted him a bit, then unhaltered him and let him go.  Not dramatic at all.  It was hard to get good pictures because I couldn't move from where I was or back up to get better shots.

He's really good about his dewormer.  He never fights it.  Something he even tries to eat the tube lol.

Next up was Faran.  He has to have one and a half tubes of dewormer because he weighs more than what one tube will do.  He doesn't like being dewormed at all and tries to walk away, but he doesn't pull or try to bolt.  He moves his head away for the first tube, but he's always perfect for the second tube.  :)

 You can't see it, but the tube is in Faran's mouth here.

 This was the best "making faces" picture I got.  He didn't like the flavor lol.

Chrome was last.  I always give him his dewormer, without a halter or lead rope, and I forgot about getting pictures.  My hubby got one.  It's awful and I look gross, but it shows me giving it to him without a halter.  :)  Such a good boy.

I'm so happy deworming is almost a non-event around here.  I guess having to corral my wild donkey is sort of an event, but it's not hard hehe.

My Dirty Boys!

The picture above is cool because his forelock is split perfectly so you can actually see his interesting star.  Normally his thick forelock hides it.  You can also see his tiny snip and his white lips, hehe. 

I am SO sorry I haven't posted in a long time....  :(  I guess my plan to do better at blogging for the new year.... is a big fail!  Oh well, a friend of mine kindly reminded me to stop neglecting my blog so I grabbed my camera (for the first time in over a month) and went out to take pictures.  I do have to warn you that the pictures are awful!  It was the wrong time of day to try to take pictures, but I grabbed the opportunity while I had the chance.  :)

And considering it's January... I had the perfect opportunity to share with you guys how dirty my boys are.  The ground (and pond) have been frozen for longer than I can ever remember it being frozen, but it's started thawing the last couple of days... you know what thawing equals... MUD!

So enough chattering, here are the pictures of my dirty boys.  First up!  Faran!  You would think my black horse would be the dirtiest... but just you wait.

Faran's tail ornaments.

You might have to enlarge the picture to truly appreciate how dirty he is.

It was funny, the other day I thought Faran had rubbed out a ton of his mane and I started to freak out, but luckily half of his mane was on the other side LOL!  I haven't brushed it out (too cold for my poor fingers), so it's still on both sides in these pictures.

See how his mane looks all torn out?  It's not, trust me.  Look at the first picture in the post to see how his mane is on both sides.  :)  Also there is not snow or frost on the ground, it just looks white because the lighting was all wrong and the background is overexposed (actually almost all of them came out overexposed so I edited them a bit... not my best day's work).

Now we have Zep!  Also I took more than just these two pictures, but I either forgot to edit/watermark them or forgot to upload them... oops.

 Zep says, "I am NOT dirty!  I would never get dirty!"

 Yeah we don't believe you ZepZep.  Enlarge to see the full extent of his dirtiness lol.

 And now Chrome.  First I have a picture of my two headed, eight legged horse... haha just kidding.

 This is actually to show you how CLEAN he was!!!!

Until he did this... :(  The exciting news is he actually ROLLED ALL THE WAY OVER!  That's the first time I've seen him do it since he was a baby.  :)  I actually don't think he meant to do it.

 So I think because I've been ignoring Chrome (other than when I feed him and say goodnight to him) that he's decided to start training me, since I'm not training him..... he's preparing me for the day when he's completely grayed out.... *shudder*

 

 

That's talent right?  Gross!  So I failed my first test because I didn't even get a brush out LOL!  He has to wait until it's warm enough for a bath hehe.

 He's proud of himself!

 

 Isn't his mohawk still so cute??  He's rubbed it a little in the middle, but so far I haven't trimmed it at all and it looks great.  :)

 Enlarge this one!  He has smudges above both eyes and all over the bridge of his nose.... just how??

See the short spot in the middle of his mohawk?  That's where he rubbed it a bit on the hay ring, but so far it looks good.  I probably need to trim it soon.  :)

 See the pond still frozen over behind him?  I love his multicolored tail.  Here's a question for you though... is the bottom yellow from staining or is that just what color it still is?  Will it eventually grow out completely white?  If I cleaned it would it be white?  It's always been black, white and yellow (well obviously it started out all black lol) so I'm not sure.

 

 

I interrupted their nap time.  I actually have pictures of him with his eyes closed, dozing, but I forgot to upload them.  When I went inside to put my camera away and went back out, he was laying down asleep.  Oops.  He was a good sport though.  :)

We dewormed them later in the evening today, so I'll post pictures from that tomorrow.  I don't feel like editing more.