http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMko5LelBdA

[Click on the YouTube video above to get you ready for this posting]

Spring is settling in nicely here at the ranchhouse. The grass and weeds are surely growing. A few days ago, I shared with you a post about the wildflowers in full bloom now. The other reminder Patti and I have about the change in seasons is the “arithmetic” of the horse ranch. I hope I did not lose you there.

Arithmetic is very simple: one horse + another horse = a baby horse.

Tiffany is the ranch manager here and she has a full-time job taking care of all these equines — feeding, exercise, training, grooming. It’s a full-time job. When we see Tiffany out in the corral working the horses, we stop by to see how the herd is doing. She will routinely tell us which of the horses are finicky, which are being stubborn today, which are enjoying their time out in the fresh air and not in their barn stalls.  And she will tell us which horse has had a baby.

This year, the theme is to name the babies after popular songs with female names. For example, the first filly of the season is called Layla. We also have a Jolene. You get the picture.  My suggestion of the Beach Boys’ “Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara Ann” has yet to be bestowed upon a newbie. I can see why. After all, hearing “Hi, yo, Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara Ann, away!” by a masked man with his faithful Indian companion just doesn’t have the same ring to it that Layla does.

Any way, routinely, the new babies, are up on their hooves the day they are born. They stay very close to their mothers, certainly as they nurse and begin to discover the culinary loveliness of … hay.

Occasionally, people who drive by on Murphy Road in front of our house and the ranch will stop by to ask us if the baby horses are ok. What they are seeing are babies lying in the hay next to their feeding mothers. The moms eat just about all day and when the babies get tired, they plop down in the hay and snooze. But to people driving by on the road, it appears the babies are sick. They’re not, just tired and napping.

For your Spring pleasure, here are a few recent pictures of some of the wonderful sights we have outside our kitchen window.

Seeing the next generation is a wonder to behold.

 

The world is your oyster, honey!

 

 

 

Mom and baby going for a stroll

 

 

 

Getting her legs

 

 

 

Stretching their legs