Al Settles in to Canyonside
Ali
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Ali, Judy and I left Bonny Doon at 6:30 AM on Saturday, April 3. I was worred about Ali being nervous, but she hopped into the trailer with no problem, and when we checked her about two hours into the trip, she was completely calm. We got to Weed about 1:00 PM, and stopped and let her get out and walk around, which she thought was great. We got out her hay bag, got lunch for us at Taco Bell and all had lunch together. We got on the road after about an hour, and got to Canyonside Ranch, in Redmond, Oregon, about 6:30. When we got there, no one was home. We got Ali out of the trailer and walked her around to tour the ranch - the dark pictures on the rest of the page are from Saturday night. We found a clean paddock with hay and water in it, so we figured Robbi had prepared it for Al - we threw her in it and went out to dinner. When we came back Robbi was home, we had put Al in the right place and we talked until late. | ||
Foals
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| The next morning we got up and toured Canyonside Ranch. One of the cool things about the horse gestation cycle, is that Al had to be there to get bred just about when this year's foals were born, so we got to see them. All the foals are fillies and they are all as friendly as the day is long. | ||||
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| The mare and foal combination with the sort of white-ish mare and sort of buckskin foal has got to be the combination in which there is the greatest difference in handsomeness factor between a mare and foal, ever. Boy, was that foal cute! | ||||
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| In addition to the buckskin foal, there were a couple of Canyonside Specials - beautiful little chesnuts, with a lotta chrome. Finally, there was a 2 week old foal - still pretty awkward at almost everything. I stuck a couple of pics of the yearlings in here - we didn't get to their paddock in time to take too many pictures, but they were a handsome bunch. | ||||
Robbi
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| It wouldn't be possible to think about Robbi without her animals. Her she is with the yearlings. The horse in the picture where Robbi is holding the puppy is Splash, the stallion that Al is bred to. You can see the that he doesn't think highly of the pup, and I think the pup knows it. That is a bold little Aussie, but, as you can see, even Robbi's cat outweighs her - she's definitely low on the totem pole. | ||||
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Splash
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| This is Splash, of course, the stallion Al is bred to. In addition to good looks, he also has a great, calm temperament - I think he's done several thousand endurance miles, which speaks well of his ability to get along. | |||
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| Splash also has what's called the "Crabbet Bracelet", which is a white band all the way around his leg. You can see it above his knee on his right leg. Also, if you look at the last picture in this row, you can see this highly dignified stallion caught sticking his tongue out at the camera. | |||
Nadia's Shirt Tail Relative
In my family, "shirt tail relative" means someone you know belongs, but you aren't exactly sure how. This handsome fellow is going to be Al's foal's half brother, so he is an "Splash Son" and a shirt tail relative of our proto-horse. He's a year old and belongs to our friend Caitlin - so I guess that makes Caitlin and I relatives. Hmmm. Caitlin's sister, who also lives in Bend, is keeping Mr. I'm-so-curious until Caitlin is out of jail, I mean school. If you look at the leftmost picture on the top row, you can see the edges of a big white patch on his belly - Robbi's trademark chrome. And if you look at the fence behind him in the rightmost picture, you can see the dog, who appeared to be the colt's constant companion.
Stallions
In addition to Splash, Robbi has two other stallions of her own, Sawyer and Sherman, and she was loaned one the morning we arrived. Robbi walked the new guy out to a paddock on Stallion Row. The way the stallion section is set up is that they are all in a row, but each paddock is separated by a long, narrow, about 12 feet wide and as deep as the paddocks. Robbi moved a mare from Sherman's paddock into the long narrow space between the new guy and Sherman. Wackiness ensued. Sherman was annoyed and the new guys strutted his stuff.
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| In my family, "shirt tail relative" means someone you know belongs, but you aren't exactly sure how. This handsome fellow is going to be Al's foal's half brother, so he is an "Splash Son" and a shirt tail relative of our proto-horse. He's a year old and belongs to our friend Caitlin - so I guess that makes Caitlin and I relatives. Hmmm. Caitlin's sister, who also lives in Bend, is keeping Mr. I'm-so-curious until Caitlin is out of jail, I mean school. If you look at the leftmost picture on the top row, you can see the edges of a big white patch on his belly - Robbi's trademark chrome. And if you look at the fence behind him in the rightmost picture, you can see the dog, who appeared to be the colt's constant companion. | |||
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Stallions
In addition to Splash, Robbi has two other stallions of her own, Sawyer and Sherman, and she was loaned one the morning we arrived. Robbi walked the new guy out to a paddock on Stallion Row. The way the stallion section is set up is that they are all in a row, but each paddock is separated by a long, narrow, about 12 feet wide and as deep as the paddocks. Robbi moved a mare from Sherman's paddock into the long narrow space between the new guy and Sherman. Wackiness ensued. Sherman was annoyed and the new guys strutted his stuff.
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| In addition to Splash, Robbi has two other stallions of her own, Sawyer and Sherman, and she was loaned one the morning we arrived. Robbi walked the new guy out to a paddock on Stallion Row. The way the stallion section is set up is that they are all in a row, but each paddock is separated by a long, narrow, about 12 feet wide and as deep as the paddocks. Robbi moved a mare from Sherman's paddock into the long narrow space between the new guy and Sherman. Wackiness ensued. Sherman was annoyed and the new guys strutted his stuff. | |||
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