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I've been writing a blog at http://www.somebodyclosethegate.blogspot.com and am going to start featuring some blog entries here for your reading enjoyment. Check back often. Second
Haltering Yikes! I didn't realize I had gone so long without blogging. I've been very busy. I
finally got out of the hay field, and then I had a fourteen year-old girl wanting to stay with me to help halter-break the
foals. She was with me all last week, and she kept me BUSY! I forgot how active young teenagers could be, since moving home
and away from my South Cheyenne redneck kids. Besides, I had to cook regular meals again, which I am out of the habit of doing.
We played with the foals, and she jumped aboard and rode any of the grown horses that would stand still for her to get on.
She's a pretty good rider for no more than she gets to practice, and she actually has her own horse. She just doesn't
live near where her horse does, so she doesn't get to spend much time with it.
We worked with the two larger foals
the first day she was here, and they did pretty well, considering they were haltered only once before this. Here are some
pictures of Marissa with those two.   However, we had a wreck with the smallest foal, Tiny, on the second day. She was being a little pill, and resisting
the halter. Marissa was handling her as I led Tiny's dam, Jana, around the enclosure to try to get her to follow mama.
Suddenly, Tiny sat back on the rope, and then reared up on her hind legs. Marissa let the rope go, and the foal lost her balance,
falling over backwards and bonking her head on the ground. She floundered there, having involuntary muscle spasms and her
head and neck were all out of control, so I ran to try to aright her. I thought she had broken her neck or back at the worst,
and maybe put her eye out, too, as it instantly swelled shut. Her tongue was lolling around and she was having trouble breathing.
I grabbed her tongue and held it so she wouldn't swallow it. Marissa kept her cool throughout and I had her hold
the filly's head up while I ran to get the vet box. By the time I got back, Tiny had come to, jumped to her feet, and
was whinnying for her mama. Jana, who is not a very good mother, just continued munching on weeds in the corral through the
whole episode. I gave Tiny some Bantamine for her headache and she walked around very slowly for a couple of days with
a lump on her head and her eye almost swollen shut. She's very cute, but she's a little fighter. I guess it's
that cutting horse blood in her. My daughter has worked with cutting horses a lot and she says fighting is bred into them
because they have to have that instinct to cut out and hold a cow. Tiny finally started paying attention to the lead rope
after knocking herself silly and scaring me into a fit.  Here's a picture of Marissa goofing around on JR, my five year-old stallion. She was riding him around bareback
with a halter. She rode into the barn and as she was coming out, she reached up, grabbed one of the exposed pipe rafters,
and let JR go out from under her. Well, almost. He stopped as soon as he felt her lift off him and looked back as if to say,
"What's going on back there?" He stood very still and she slid back down onto his back, and then did the whole
thing again so I could get a picture. He did exactly the same thing the second time. When he felt her come off his back, he
stood still as a statue, probably not wanting to step on her if she fell under him. That's the kind of horses you want! First Haltering I had some friends out Sunday after church and we haltered the foals for the first time.
The foals didn't like it very much, but settled down after only a short time. This is what I love about raising horses.
The foals are almost addictive. The disposition that my stallion puts on them just causes them to love people, and they are
so smart. They learn quickly what you want them to do and they just want to please. I feel like it's the death of
a dream, however, when I remember just a couple months back when I was fighting for all I was worth to keep them alive, and
I wonder if I want to ever go through that again, so I haven't turned the stallion out with any mares yet. Besides the
horse market is so oversaturated, I wonder if it is responsible to breed any mares at all. Maybe my accountant is right.
I should get some cows. I have one, but she is going to the sale tomorrow. She's slightly over a year old and she weighed
in at 930 pounds on my neighbor's certified scales last week. You want that kind. She started out small, and then really
packed on the pounds. She has been strictly grass and hay fed--no grains of any sort and coming off a severe winter, so that
rate of gain is almost unheard of under those conditions. I wish I had a whole truckload of them to sell. I don't
get nearly so emotionally invested in the cattle as I do the horses, and I just happen to have a whole truckload of what the
rain has turned into cow hay, so perhaps I will get some cows. Gremlin got to haul some kids around at the horse camp
last week. He did well and the kids loved him. He was the only paint horse there, so they gravitated toward him and asked
if they could ride the "pretty one." Even at age 24, he's still a handsome man. The camp was a lot of work,
but it all became worth it when I heard one little boy telling his friend that the horses were "the best part of the
whole camp." I was shocked because they had many other fun activities for them, such as floating the river, picnics,
games, crafts and "big toys," whatever that was. A 72-hour Blizzard and Foal-a-thon I
just survived seventy two hours of hell and I feel like I've run a marathon. I know I worked harder than I've ever
worked in my life. I had three more mares to foal, all of them due last week. The National Weather Service began posting a
winter storm watch for our area on Weds. One mare foaled mid-morning on Wednesday. That was Peggy. I was a little concerned
about her, since I hadn't owned her when she foaled previously. She did fine, but now I had this little baby to worry
about keeping warm and dry.
The storm began closing in. I got as ready as I could. I had all three mares in the corral
due to the wreck I had with the first one foaling early and not surviving it (see earlier post). My barns are pretty drafty,
though, and the corrals turn to soup whenever they get moisture of any kind. I worried how I would keep the new babies warm
and dry.
I set up camp in the truck parked out by the barn. It was just easier than running in and out of the house,
removing overboots, coats and hats, and getting in and out of a warm bed every hour. I have trouble making myself get out
of a warm bed once or twice a night to go check, let alone every hour. Nacho and I dozed in the truck. I prayed to God to
make the storm miss us. Listening to the radio in the truck, it sounded like it was going to do just that. The winter storm
warning went back to a "watch." About 8:30 p.m. they said maybe just some flurries with high winds. About 9:30 the
flurries and the wind began. Soon it looked like a scene from "Battlestar Galactica" and there were big snow flakes
coming down sideways driven by about a 50 mph. wind. I got soaking wet when I got out to do the 10:30 check.
Each time
I got out all three mares were in the barns, just blinking at me. The storm worsened. I went to the house at daybreak and
napped a little. When I went back out, the wind had kicked up to about 60 mph and Peggy's poor little baby was cold, wet
and shivering as the snow swirled around her in the barn. I fashioned a foal blanket for her out of a wool saddleblanket and
strapped it around her middle with two small halters. I had to cinch them rather tight to keep the blanket on her. I held
her ears and nose in my hands to melt the ice cicles out of them. When I turned her loose in the corral, she acted like a
rodeo bronc because she didn't like the halter chinched tightly in her flanks. She squalled and bucked twice around the
corral, slipping and falling in the mud. All the other horses came running to see what was happening. I was laughing very
hard. The blanket served the purpose, and she remained warm enough. The wind was just howling and driving the snow.
It was the worst blizzard we'd had here in about nine years. By eleven a.m. when I went out to check mares, I couldn't
see to get to the barn. The snow was swirling around in my face so hard I couldn't keep my eyes open. I prayed and waited
for the wind to go down. The weather service said it would clear out about noon. It was 2:30 when the wind began to die down.
Thankfully, neither of the other two mares foaled during all that.
I knew the one was getting very close, though, as
she had started pushing a lot of wax out her teats. That's a sure sign they are going to foal soon. I also knew the temperature
would drop like a rock when the storm cleared out. I prayed hard and cleaned the snow out of the barn so she would have a
dry place to foal. Then I hunkered down for another night in the truck.
About midnight-thirty Friday night, the stallion,
who was up in the stock trailer next to the truck for safe-keeping, and because I needed his stall, became very agitated.
I went to check. I heard Lady grunting before I got to the barn. I shined the flashlight and could see the head and both front
feet of the foal, so I knew things were going well. She gave another small push, then a great big one, and out came a large
foal. Lady sighed and wanted to rest a minute. I could see the foal had the placenta over it's head, so I stepped in to
tear it open so she could breathe. Then Lady jumped up and went to cleaning her foal. I went to the house to call my best
friend who was awaiting news and get some towels to help dry the foal. I looked at the thermometer. It was 18 degrees
above zero. I didn't want a crop-eared horse, which would result if her ears froze. Lady had the foal pretty much cleaned
off when I got back to the barn and she was floundering around, trying to stand. I dried her ears carefully, then rubbed the
rest of her body as I tried to help her stand. Lady put up with me for a short time, then she started just sort of tapping
a front foot on the ground in front of the foal, as if to say, "Enough already, I can take it from here." I went
back to the truck for another half-hour. When I checked back in, the foal was standing and trying to nurse. It was a palomino
paint filly-- just what I'd prayed for. I breathed a sigh of relief and went to a warm bed for some sleep.  Saturday dawned bright and beautiful, so I went back out and moved the other mare into the "birthing place"
about eleven a.m. She foaled at noon that day all by herself. I think I was as relieved as the mares to be done foaling. It
seemed like a nightmare that was never going to end. I called my friend and screamed for joy. Permalight Junior's Ancestors One of
Permalight Junior's foundation ancestors was Peter McCue. Peter McCue was foaled around the turn of the century, records
indicate 1895, by the stallion Dan Tucker and out of a mare known as Nora M. Peter McCue was foaled on Samuel Watkins'
farm outside of Petersburg, Illinois, and was registered as a Thoroughbred so that he could be raced at that time.. Known
for his blazing speed, he ran the quarter-mile in 21 seconds flat, a time that wasn't beaten for decades, and still a
very respectable time. A Peter McCue son, Badger, sired Midnight, in 1916 and Midnight became even more of a racing sensation,
winning so many matches that eventually, no one would race against him. Peter McCue sired Hickory Bill in 1907, the
horse through which Permalight Junior traces his lineage to Peter McCue. Among Peter McCue's other famous offspring are
Joe Hancock, Sheik, Harmon Baker, John Wilkins, Buck Thomas, Harry D. Duck Hunter, Carrie Nation, Chief, Squaw (won 49 out
of 50 starts) and Jack McCue. Harmon Baker sired Sancho, Harmon Baker, Jr., Seal Skin, Dodger, Big Nigger, and Little Joe
(New Mexico), John Wilkins sired Joe Hancock. About a third of all Quarter Horses trace their lineage back to Peter McCue. Although
there was not an American Quarter Horse Registry during Peter McCue's active life, such foundation Quarter Horse sires
as Old Sorrel, Wimpy P-1, Peppy, Bert, Ding Bob, Midnight Jr, Grey Badger II, Pretty Boy, Pretty Buck, Blackburn, Nowata Star,
Poco Bueno, King Fritz, Cowboy P-12, Plaudit, Nick S, Skipper W, Jessie James, King's Pistol, and a host of others, in
addition to those noted above, are all descendants of Peter McCue. Coy's Bonanza, Blondy's Dude, Two Eyed Jack,
Zan Parr Bar, and Rugged Lark and other prominent current Quarter Horse sires trace to Peter McCue. Here at Harveys Horses,
we also have mares that trace to Two Eyed Jack and Zan Parr Bar. To be continued.....next installment--Cutter Bill. Cutter Bill Cutter
Bill was a palomino stallion bred by R.L. Underwood of Wichita Falls, Texas, and foaled in 1955. Bill was a great grandson
of the foundation stallion Golden Chief, owned by Underwood. Cutter Bill was owned by Rex Cauble of Houston, Texas. Bill
was started in cutting as a three year old and proved very capable at it, thus the name Cutter was added to Bill. In 1962,
he carried his owner to a world championship in the National Cutting Horse Association, then came back for a reserve world
championship in 1963. His lifetime earnings in the NCHA amounted to $35,964, which was a lot of money in those days. Cauble
built a showplace for Cutter Bill outside Denton, Texas, and there was also a western wear line named for Cutter Bill. Permalight
Junior displays a throwback to the temperament of Cutter Bill in that neither had a buck in them. Rex Cauble relates that
when he first saddled Cutter Bill and got on, there was no funny business. Cutter Bill just walked out. My trainer related
the same routine with Permalight Junior. Cutter bill was a very beautiful horse, with a pretty head and outstanding
conformation. He also won American Quarter Horse Show points at halter. He was inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame in 2003,
as he had been to the Palomino Horse Breed Association in 1982, which was also the year he died.
Cowboy.com - The Western Connection
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Thanks for dropping by and taking a look at my photos. Please get in touch with any comments or reactions!
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