A Name for Sky

Back on the road after a week at home. It was...not very relaxing...but still nice to be there. The majority of the time was spent cleaning and fixing up the house to get it ready to sell. The realtor came on Saturday and it should go up online today! So we'll see what happens!

The first three days of our break were spent at the ranch where Malcolm used his dozer to fix a creek crossing and also helped out a little with haying.

Its been one of those years where the weather hasn't cooperated with haying. It keeps raining, making it hard to get the hay cut and baled. The weather was nice while we were there, so the third person was handy to have. Malcolm cut hay, while his mom and dad raked and baled.

And I sat at the house feeling completely useless and lazy and not happy about it at all! But I don't know how to run any of the equipment and there were only three jobs to be done anyway. So I entertained myself by making sandwiches and running them to the workers, reading, and playing with my colt, all while trying not to feel guilty over not being a help.

Remember Sky?

He was introduced to you several weeks ago. I have been pondering what to name him, for a registered name anyway. I knew I was going to call him Sky due to his blue eyes and the possibility that he would turn gray and white like a cloudy day, taking after his sire.

I'm no good at fancy names, so I decided to wait till I got his papers from my sister-in-law and then see if I could come up with anything. They were waiting for me at the ranch where they had come in the mail a few days earlier.  You can't imagine my delight when I opened them and learned the registered names of the dam and sire. Sky's mother's name is

 "A Unique Dawn"

 and the sire is named

 "Cody's Blue Merle."

 It couldn't have been more perfect! So Sky's name (providing I can get him registered as this) is

A Unique Blue Sky

That's about the best name I ever came up with and I'm rather proud of it!

He's gotten huge since I saw him the last week of May!

He's definitely going to have his sire's gray and white coloring. You can see that his black coloring is fading to gray in some places already.

And he has his mom's white butt and blue eyes.

He's been running around free for the past two months, so he's gotten a little shy.

He didn't want to get too close to me. But after a couple days, right before I turned him and his mom back out, he did walk up and sniff my head while I sat in the grass in the round pen. And later he took a cautious nibble of grain from my hand.

I won't be feeding him many treats like that, but I wanted to see if he had gotten braver since he'd been around me a little.

The mare is supposed to be broke to ride, but I don't know how broke she is, and since Rachelle hadn't had the chance to climb on and see before she moved, and because I know less about her than Rachelle did, I opted to wait before climbing in the saddle. She is very calm and trusting though, lets you pick her feet up, lean on her, and catches fairly easily...so long has you have a peace offering. Her previous owner, and conveniently the owner of the stud also, lives down the road from me, so I plan to try and get in touch with her at some point and have a little visit. I'd like to  know what the stud is like and also find out what kind of training Dawn has had.

In the mean time, they are running free at the ranch and its going to be that way for a while. Sky is getting a "natural" childhood, romping through the grass, sunning himself under the Montana sky, and exploring his world without much human interruption or interaction. I know that might work against me later on, but there isn't any help for it. I have to be here, and he has to be there. Hopefully his mother's good natured and kind and gentle spirit will be a part of his genetics as well so that when I have time to be with him, we'll able to become friends quickly and with as little pain and stress possible (to either one of us)!

We're back on the road. Left yesterday afternoon, delivered in Nebraska this morning and are heading to a reload before hitting the trail for Oregon country. Hoping this round of trucking will prove more profitable than the last, because our motivation is super low and being successful is probably the only thing that's going to keep us going this time around!

Before I go...I need some input. I am, for all my years of love and obsession, pretty horse illiterate.

What is up with Dawn's nose?

She came in with her nose like this. Its like dried up blisters and its cracking and raw in the cracks. Is it a fungus, or sunburn, or what? Does something need done, or will it just heal on its own?  I've not seen this before in my limited experience. She had a pretty nasty cut on her flank back in May and I know that Rachelle had gotten antibiotics and stuff for her, as she was really favoring it for a while. Malcolm suggested that this might be a result of a fever due to her cut. He said the other animals often have similar reactions after a fever. I was curious what your thoughts were, since so many of my blogging friends are horse enthusiasts. Should I be taking action, or just letting it heal in its own time?