HC Minis 2020 line-up...

[Chanda]

Thank you.
Everyone is back where they belong.

[dcwolcott]

  Lot's for prayers for success!!

[Chanda]

Will need to dig up my dates, and calculate earliest 300 day date, but it'll be mid summer.

[Chanda]

Pulled my calendar...
Turned Topper out on July 29, 2019.
Saw him actively pursuing Misty on 7-30, Sophia on 8-2, and Bonny on 8-5; I never did see him actively pursue Tana.
I pulled Topper on August 28, 2019.

That makes my earliest possible 300 day date of: May 24, 2020
[330 days: June 23, 2020.]

I haven't seen my girls go before 307 days, most were closer to 320-330.  Although, I don't have exact dates for my last pasture breeding turn-out, just exact gestation for the year I hand bred, so I supposed during that pasture breeding year, they could have gone earlier.

[dcwolcott]

Exciting!!!

[Chanda]

Can't really tell with my taller girls, but I think Sophia is already starting to show a bit of belly, although who knows with all the hair.

[Ryan]

Well this sounds exciting

[dcwolcott]

This sounds like a good year for baby watching!  I'm getting more and more excited!!

[Anna]

Well to me this year already seems to be speeding ahead, so May will soon be with us and foal watching can begin for you. Hope the winter months are not proving too hard - if I remember correctly you often get quite an amount of snow in your area??

[Chanda]

Well to me this year already seems to be speeding ahead, so May will soon be with us and foal watching can begin for you. Hope the winter months are not proving too hard - if I remember correctly you often get quite an amount of snow in your area??

yes, snow and or cold, depending on the year.   Snow has been middle of the road this year, but the wind has been blowing it up into decent drifts.  Hard to say what the next three months of still winter weather is going to do for us.  We start getting decent weather in April, but it's not til May that the weather gets more predictable and spring like.

[Silver City Heritage Farm]

Three strong possibilities.....and one Sneaky Tana.  . If I were to bet, I'd place my money on the longshot.  Your "I'm not pregnant at 0800, but at 1300 look what I have" photo is plenty enough proof for me! ROFL

Do mares have silent heats like some bitches do?  When I was in show dogs, we had a Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier that didn't want to come off the truck to go to the exercise pen.  As we stood back to the end of the leash and knelt down to encourage her.  Imagine our shock when, as she squatted to "pee"....she delivered a pup instead!!   Having a pregnant bitch on the show grounds is very highly frowned upon.)  She delivered a litter of strong, healthy brindle puppies...thereby giving away the father.  It was the brindle and white Best in Show winning Whippet she was usually turned out with at home.

Our head handler got called in by the show committed and actually received a suspension of 2 shows.  That would have kept him from handling client dogs at several Specialty shows and left us with some very angry clients.

Fortunately, the owner had vet records showing that her dog had silent seasons.  She also admitted that she "forgot" to inform us because she was so excited to send her dog on this particular show circuit.  It was where she would have, most likely, earned her last 3 point major to finish her championship.

[dcwolcott]

What a cool story and what a surprise, I'm sure!!

Thanks for sharing, something I'll never forget!

[Chanda]

While still very early to tell, I've never seen much of a belly or kicking with 3-4 months to go; but Tana's starting to look a little more promising.
A couple of my girls are a bit thinner than I like; I've been trying Triple Crown senior, and while perhaps feeding more would do more, I have not seen a significant enough improvement to continue with the special ordering and paying an extra $10/bag to get it over the regional, in stock senior.   I'm going to probably have to feed them more of the regional senior or something.  My hay already has skewed minerals, that are more similar to alfalfa than grass, with the heavy calcium levels, so I really don't want to add more alfalfa to the mix and widen that ratio, but I'm going to have to figure out a higher protein addition to their diet.

[Chanda]

I'm guessing Sophia is pregnant has she has more belly than I'd expect for the food she's getting; so thinking her early shedding may be a "side-effect" of pregnancy for her, as I've only had her two springs, and both years she is shedding early and lots, dropping more hair than all the other girls.  It'll be interesting to see next spring if she starts shedding this early without a bun in the oven.

[Ryan]