Alberta Equest

 A while back, many readers expressed their interest in hearing more about my breeding adventures , so here we go. You may recall that I decided to also breed Sierra, though I still haven't decided if I'm going to breed her this year or not.  Regardless, Vida (aka "V") (JC: Fastination) is being bred to the dutch Hunter stallion Prototype.  In 2019 and 2020 she gave me two lovely fillies by the dutch stallion Parcival, both of which sold prior to weaning. As our barn reno gets under way, I hope to foal out my mare(s) at home in the future instead of my in-laws, but our barn is not heated.  Between that and Vida now being 2 for 2 for foaling 'early', I'm sitting on my hands until May, but that hasn't stopped me from getting down n' dirty (literally) with my new Ultrasound Machine.  I've been scanning Vida once a week for a few weeks now, so I can track her cycles, get more practice, and get familiar with my machine before breeding season really ...

Following the majority of the clean up ( see Part 1 ), we began with attempting to move some railroad ties from one side of the barn to the other so we could begin the stalls, however we quickly learned that the majority of them are frozen to the ground still.  As a result, we had to adjust the order of intended tasks so we decided to shift our focus to the standing stall conversion first. We made quick work of one standing stall that we simply wanted to use for storage.  Within a matter of minutes, my husband had the hay manger removed and we were pretty much finished with it. The manger took up a fair bit of space within the stall; space I deemed valuable for storage of bales, tools, shavings and a wheelbarrow. The other standing stall however, we are converting into a stock which is taking a fair bit more work.  It's currently also acting as a storage area for some wood and things, so we decided to begin with building the kick plate as we could do that without relocati...

Disclaimer: If you love a good ol' fashion Media Dump and don't mind a drawn-out process of ups and downs, this saga will be for you. We purchased our farm nearly 4 years ago now, and throughout these past 4 years we have waffled on what to do with our barn.  While we are grateful to have a barn regardless, it's a very odd size with questionable construction throughout a good portion of it.  As a result, we have never used it for more than cross ties, tack storage, feed and water and it has acted as a glorified litter box for our barn cats.   The original portion of the barn was built in the mid 80's, and features a very basic (and iffy) construction.  There is a small insulated room which houses an insulated box where the water pump resides, and we keep our tack and feed in there as well.  Over the years, we have made it our own but with boarders it is very cramped.  As a result, across from this room there is an open area and we store excess feed and...