The twins are now 8 months old and no longer looking like anything but normal horses. They are still smaller than the other foals but not that much smaller. Chris Lelli was here the other day and was amazed at their size.
Trouble is living up to his name and finally beginning to act like a colt. He's gotten himself into some, what else but, trouble lately for being pushy among other things.
I got a call from PA the other night, Surprise's blanket was up over her head and they were struggling. I put on enough layers of clothes that I wouldn't freeze to death on the way to the barn, it was about 10 degrees here. When I arrived, they appeared fine but Surprise's blanket was pushed up in a bunch over her whithers. It was pretty odd looking and I couldn't figure out how it had gotten that way but I straightened it out, re-adjusted her leg straps and the checked them over to be sure they were both OK.
Then I went back into the house and watched them on the webcam for a while to see if I could figure out what was going on. It didn't take long until Trouble jumped on his sister. The little varmint was trying to breed her. She kept trying to walk away from him and he just walked along behind her on his two hind legs until she kicked him. He stood there for a minute and I could see the wheels turning, the snot was thinking about doing it again, but thought the better of it and went over to the corner for some hay.
It's too darn cold to geld him, so needless to say I'm going to have to split them up. I'm afraid my barn is going to get pretty noisy. And the loudest one will be Trouble. He is such a wuss.
When I went out to the barn with Chris, both of them mobbed us. They have so missed having regular company. Each was vying for attention and trying to bite the other one. Surprise is smart enough not to bite the hand that pets her, Trouble, on the other hand, can't resist his hormones and has to bite just a little bit, which gets him into huge trouble. He's not impressed.
While his behavior is a pain, I'm also glad to see it. He's been the most severe case of dummy foal syndrome that I have ever seen and while he hasn't been as bad as they can get the symptoms have lasted longer than normal. Sometimes, I've worried that he might not totally recover. But I don't think I have to worry anymore, the last couple of months he has really come into his own and is finally acting like a typical colt.
Tuesday, they finally got outside to play. It's been to icy for them to get out. I started off leading Surprise because she's usually pretty excited and gives Lindsay a hard time while Trouble is usually quiet. But guess the hormones have kicked in there too because he was giving Lindsay fits. Surprise was being great so we swapped. Then Trouble started behaving and Surprise became naughty. I decided that since they were both being good for me, I's take them both and let Lindsay get them some hay and open the gate for me.
Boy, was that a mistake. I don't know who started first but it soon became apparent I was well on my way to impersonating a Maypole with bright colored lead ropes all wrapped around me. Surprise managed to get her lead rope wrapped around her brother's neck as well as me. It wasn't a pretty sight. Thank goodness they don't get stupid over being trapped. Both of them stopped their foolishness and I was able to get us all untangled.
So Lindsay had to come and rescue me for a change. She took Trouble again because he really wasn't being as naughty as his sister. This time we proceeded by taking two steps and stopping and getting a pet and not starting again until they relaxed. We actually made it without incident to the paddock.
There the little princess decided that she was NOT going into the paddock because of the mud in front of the gate. She put on the brakes and tossed her head at me. In the meantime, Lindsay turned Trouble lose. He knew exactly what to do with the mud and had himself quite a roll.
Then Surprise was really disgusted and didn't want him anywhere near her. After all he might drip some of the yucky stuff on her. So Trouble did what brothers do best, he terrorized her.
We tried to sneak off as they raced around but Surprise spotted the opening gate and tried to make a run for it. We managed to cut her off and get out while she stood on the other side striking at the mud expressing her displeasure. She whinnied as we left and even her voice told her impression of our decision to turn her out in that paddock. After all, she is a princess and her place is in the garden eating my winter pansies.
I've included a recent picture of the twins in their stall. It's getting harder and harder to get them both into the same picture unless they're eating. Then I had to send a shot of Trouble's roll in the mud.
I started a series on my blog today about their birth. It's a detailed account and take several posts just to cover the first week of their lives. So if you're interested in the detailed story of their little lives you can find it here — http://risingrainbow.blogspot.com/
I'm hoping I can get enough hits and cross links going on my blog to get my rankings up in the search engines so I can get even more hits and so on. The goal of this thing is to help educate people about Arabian horses and help dispel the myths about them. So if that's an important issue to you, please send the link on to your friends etc and together maybe we can help in the efforts to turn things around for our industry.
