Karen Dallimore

Okay, I'm too soft for this weaning thing. He's still nursing but there have been a few changes.
I was pleased to have Tatti to comfort him through his gelding, so that was good. Since then he's had a one-day fever (103 degrees) that passed quickly and a brief colic that also passed quickly. If he had been weaned I would have blamed it on that, but there didn't seem to be any obvious cause for either. Kids stuff. 
So he's still nursing. I was trying the fenceline weaning and separating them for longer…Read more

Jake will be a great gelding. He had his castration surgery last week and all went well. He's nearly six months old but there was no point in waiting. The vet says that gelding early tends to make them a bit taller and not quite so chunky, but that's just fine with us. While Jake certainly had the potential to be stallion material, I think he will lead a better life as a well-socialized gelding. I have customers who routinely geld at a young age since it makes handling and groupings easier if you have no…Read more

 Jake's quite ready for weaning at just over 5 months of age, and his dam is ready too. I'm trying what they call 'fenceline weaning' in the beef cattle trade: mother and son can see each other through safe fences or gates but he can't nurse. This time I'm doing it gradually too, on the advice of my friends who have weaned their own two-legged children. We started with four hours a day and we're up to about 8 hours. Jake doesn't really notice there's anything different since he's in the herd with all of his…Read more

If you stand next to him long enough you can almost hear Jake growing. He wears a pony size halter now and he's been good about leading. Twice now he's lied down when I picked up his front foot. He just lies there, having a little nap, playing possum. I'm glad he's experimenting with this now and not when he's 500 lbs. I've been 'tying' him by looping the rope around a solid fixture in the barn and he's been good so far, about ten minutes at a time. He's also been on the trailer several times by himself…Read more

Jake has just turned three months old. So far he's been an easy keep (touch wood). I haven't led him as often as I should since he doesn't go in and out of a stall on a regular basis, but when I do lead him he comes along fairly well and stands to have the halter put on. It's a bit tricky to get it past his open mouth though. The foal halter is on the last hole now and I'll be searching the tack room for a new one this week.
He's well started on Buckeye Gro'N Win and a bit of oats that he eats out of a tub…Read more

Jake had his first hoof trim this morning. We tried to do him last week but he played shy with the farrier so we left it another week so we could do some more handling with him. I've been picking up his feet and touching him all over while he hangs out in the shed and he's good to halter, but he needed to experience having two people around him. 
So how did he do? As expected, the fronts are tougher than the hinds with a colt. In the herd the colts try to take each other's front legs out from underneath…Read more

As usual, it's a happy accident that things happen. I was hesitant to put wee Jake in with the rest of the herd, not because of what might happen to him, since the other horses are very good with a foal, but because of what Tatti might do as the overprotective viper mother. Apparently I need not have worried. They were all together one morning this week after they breached the gate between their yards. No harm done. Jake is very independent and has been well-received by the others, and at 6 weeks has come…Read more

 He's cutting his second set of incisors, top and bottom, at the moment. All the better to bite you with, as Dracula said...
Jake had his first 5 minute training session: halter on, halter off, halter on, halter off. Repeat. No big deal. Resist the urge to grab the halter for any reason - he hasn't learned what it's for yet! 
Halter training is more than just putting a halter on and hanging onto a rope while he bounces around. It's about putting that halter on and taking it off without any concern from…Read more

 I hope you will enjoy checking back here regularly for progress reports on this fine little lad. I'll keep you posted on his training and life in the herd.

Sweet Grass Jake was foaled June 9, 2011. He's a Tovero colt by My Painted Black Jack, a black and white paint owned by Glenn Miller of Hillsburgh, from legendary North Dakota ranch stock lines of Adios Amigos and Flying Fawago. His dam, Sweet Grass Tatti, is a bay and white paint who has proven herself in the show ring and on the trail. She is the…Read more