Monday, May 17, 2010

Off to the Races!

Yesterday I took Prince to our first horse show. It was a gaming show at the Stanwood-Camano Fairgrounds. Gaming shows are kind of like barrel races, but instead of only running around three barrels, each race has a different pattern and obstacles. Mom and Dozer came along with us...it was their first gaming show too. I was in the Little Trainers leadline division. In the Little Trainers we aren't timed, so Prince and I just walked. I don't really like to go fast yet! There were five different races - Idaho Figure 8, Speed Barrels, Stake, Tomahawk and Key. I was napping during the Stake race, so I skipped that one. My favorite was the Tomahawk race; we had to go to a barrel, pick up a rubber tomahawk, and then drop it into a pail at the end of the race. I wanted to go back and pick up everyone else's tomahawks after the race was over. We were the stars of the show...everyone loved Prince! He was a very good boy.
Dozer was a little nervous about all of the excitement, but he ran better than we thought he would. Out of the 120 entries, he was the biggest horse! In the Novice division, he won 2nd in the Idaho 8, 5th in the Barrels and Stake races, and was disqualified in the Tomahawk and Key. In the Tomahawk race, he wouldn't go near the barrel because he was scared of the tomahawk. In the Key race, he was running so fast that he missed the poles!
It was a long day for everybody, but we had fun - can't wait until the next show in June!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Takaye's First Chick!

Last summer we hatched a single bantam (mini) chicken in our incubator on the kitchen counter and I named her Takaye. A few weeks ago, Takaye started sitting on a clutch of her eggs. Since we don't have a rooster here, her own eggs would never hatch. Mom bought some fertile ones so that Takaye could be a surrogate mother and the first one hatched this morning! It came out of the little green egg.
She has eight more eggs to go...I wonder what the other chicks will look like!?! The surrogate eggs were from many different chickens of assorted breeds...

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