Xtreme Kiss Makes Six

This morning Ian and I went to see our newest horses. Late last week we bought Cairo’s mother Windy and the foal she was carrying. Windy is an eight-year-old purebred Arabian mare. She is broke to ride and we will use her as a brood mare. She delivered her foal, a stud colt, on Sunday morning. He is a National Show Horse. On-line encyclopedia Wikipedia describes that breed as follows:

The National Show Horse, founded in the 1980s, is a cross between an American Saddlebred and an Arabian or a combination between an American Saddlebred, Arabian, and National Show Horse blood. Both mares and stallions must be registered with their appropriate registries. Although any combination of these three breeds may be used, there must be at least 25% Arabian blood in the horse to be registered.

The horses combine the beauty of the Arabian with the flashiness of the Saddlebred. The resulting horse has the high-set, upright, long and swan-like neck of the Saddlebred. The breed is usually used for saddleseat riding. They are flashy park horses, with high-stepping action and a very elevated front end. A versatile breed, they can also be used for jumping, endurance, dressage, or western riding. They are very friendly, willing to work, energetic and can be any color.

As the photo of Windy and foal shows, he is a tobiano paint pattern that is chestnut and white in color.

His registered name will be Xtreme Kiss, after his mother RJ Kissthe Wind (Windy) and American Saddlebred sire TF Xtreme. I suppose we’ll just call him Kiss. Kiss and Windy will come the farm from the Genesis Training Center at the end of June. Before they arrive Windy will be bred to one of two purebred Arabian stallions we are deciding between. One is a half brother to our horse Trouble. The horse gestation period is 11 months 10 days, which means her next foal would deliver around May 1, 2007.

Today was the cats’ turn at the vet. Tinker and Tiger both had distemper, rabies and feline leukemia vaccinations. They really enjoy each other's company.

Saturday morning the 20th Cairo returned home from one month of training at the Ramblin’ Rose Training Center near Princeton. He is much more gentle and well behaved. He no longer bites and he leads and stands tied quietly.

Last week Donna and I set up an electric fence pasture for Whisper and Cairo is now his pasture mate. They are of similar size and age (two years) and they seem to like one another’s company. On Sunday Ian re-fenced an area of that pasture and cordoned off half of the open poll shed so Cairo and Whisper could share that while Nutmeg and Trouble accessed the other half. Now the four horses stay out all night and there’s no barn stalls to muck out. The joys of summer!

Two goslings returned to the Macdonald Farm last Tuesday afternoon, two days after their four siblings had been mauled and eaten by the puppies. I was so happy to see them I picked them up and cuddled them on my pap talking calmly to them. Geese aren’t into being picked up but they quieted down and seemed to understand that I was glad to see them. Now they are either in the locked and puppy-proof barn or out waddling around with the puppies safely out of sight in the house. There are 10 more goslings coming sometime this week. I plan to out the dozen together as soon as the younger ones are able to go outside. The two puppies are still up for sale and could be in new homes anytime.