Surely you don't think I stopped after riding Ginny yesterday? No, I am all fired up with ambition and determination.
Sooooo... let's meet Ditto.
Ditto is an unusual case with even more unusual breeding. You'll hear about his dam soon enough -- she is my mare Imp, a draft cross of unknown origin. She is pinto but I don't think it comes from Paint breeding -- she seems more likely to be a cross between a Percheron or Cheval Canadien and a pinto Saddlebred or Spotted Saddle Horse or some such thing.
Probably not breeding quality, definitely not breeding pedigree. And even if I threw all that to the wind, she sure as HECK wasn't a breeding candidate at 13 months of age, which was when she did indeed get pregnant with Ditto. I board on a farm that has a herd of mustangs, including stallions, one of which broke down fences and had his way with my poor little Imp (Oh do I jest here... I am quite confident Imp was more than asking for it, even at that age! She's a bit, um, lusty.) Anyway that stallion wasn't with Imp when the broken fence indiscretion was discovered, and we wrongly assumed he had left the yearlings alone. Yes there were FOUR yearlings together, so it could've been much worse. But there was also a full-grown mare in the same general area, and she was in heat, and the stallion was on her when we found him... and thus conclusions were drawn. Incorrect conclusions, as it turned out. Hence Ditto is half Sulphur Springs mustang, half... Imp.
That was late July of 2004. On April 1, 2005 Imp entered Pilchuck clinic with purpura hemorraghica, a frequently-fatal complication of strangles. She pulled through and began to return to health, though she lost all of the skin on her head, chest, underbelly and legs, and will be permanently scarred. On May 1, with her back home again, I had her preg checked, based on a hunch. She had lost weight in the clinic and as I fed her back up, it all went to her belly. And she started to develop an udder. I think if I had continued as-is, she would have lost the baby. My vet started to cry when she palpated and found the foal inside -- how much could this mare, er, FILLY take? But once I knew she was pregnant her nutritional rehabilitation went into full swing. She had the best of the best and tons of it. Her udder receded, she grew fat and sleek. And just after midnight on June 27th, she delivered... Ditto. He was healthy and perfect. And so much like his mother, it's a bit eerie.
Ditto will be three on June 27, 2008. He is very cute and amazingly well-put-together considering all the care and thought and planning that didn't go into his breeding. Like his mother, he is smart and strong and stubborn, but with a heart of gold.
He got some training last fall at a Jon Ensign clinic -- groundwork, desensitization, saddling. Then he had the winter off. I resumed his ground training yesterday and WOW! OK, I was in the round pen, whereas at the clinic and other times at home I was in an arena. He may have clued into what I was asking a bit better in the roundpen. But it seemed like he had done some thinking about his past training and it all came together. He was excellent! Responsive without being a nincompoop, steady without being a freight train. I did longeing/driving exercises, backing and one rein stop. A very good boy.
My goal for him is to have him under saddle this summer. I am lucky enough to have a very capable small person willing to work with him! I will continue his groundwork and refresh his memory on some baby life skills (bathing, trailering etc.)
Yeah, yesterday was a good day! Today in addition to riding Ginny I will do groundwork with Ditto's mother Imp. A story unto herself! Since I've already told her bizarre medical history here in her son's blog, I can go ahead with all of Imp's other interesting tales...
Sooooo... let's meet Ditto.
Ditto is an unusual case with even more unusual breeding. You'll hear about his dam soon enough -- she is my mare Imp, a draft cross of unknown origin. She is pinto but I don't think it comes from Paint breeding -- she seems more likely to be a cross between a Percheron or Cheval Canadien and a pinto Saddlebred or Spotted Saddle Horse or some such thing.
Probably not breeding quality, definitely not breeding pedigree. And even if I threw all that to the wind, she sure as HECK wasn't a breeding candidate at 13 months of age, which was when she did indeed get pregnant with Ditto. I board on a farm that has a herd of mustangs, including stallions, one of which broke down fences and had his way with my poor little Imp (Oh do I jest here... I am quite confident Imp was more than asking for it, even at that age! She's a bit, um, lusty.) Anyway that stallion wasn't with Imp when the broken fence indiscretion was discovered, and we wrongly assumed he had left the yearlings alone. Yes there were FOUR yearlings together, so it could've been much worse. But there was also a full-grown mare in the same general area, and she was in heat, and the stallion was on her when we found him... and thus conclusions were drawn. Incorrect conclusions, as it turned out. Hence Ditto is half Sulphur Springs mustang, half... Imp.
That was late July of 2004. On April 1, 2005 Imp entered Pilchuck clinic with purpura hemorraghica, a frequently-fatal complication of strangles. She pulled through and began to return to health, though she lost all of the skin on her head, chest, underbelly and legs, and will be permanently scarred. On May 1, with her back home again, I had her preg checked, based on a hunch. She had lost weight in the clinic and as I fed her back up, it all went to her belly. And she started to develop an udder. I think if I had continued as-is, she would have lost the baby. My vet started to cry when she palpated and found the foal inside -- how much could this mare, er, FILLY take? But once I knew she was pregnant her nutritional rehabilitation went into full swing. She had the best of the best and tons of it. Her udder receded, she grew fat and sleek. And just after midnight on June 27th, she delivered... Ditto. He was healthy and perfect. And so much like his mother, it's a bit eerie.
Ditto will be three on June 27, 2008. He is very cute and amazingly well-put-together considering all the care and thought and planning that didn't go into his breeding. Like his mother, he is smart and strong and stubborn, but with a heart of gold.
He got some training last fall at a Jon Ensign clinic -- groundwork, desensitization, saddling. Then he had the winter off. I resumed his ground training yesterday and WOW! OK, I was in the round pen, whereas at the clinic and other times at home I was in an arena. He may have clued into what I was asking a bit better in the roundpen. But it seemed like he had done some thinking about his past training and it all came together. He was excellent! Responsive without being a nincompoop, steady without being a freight train. I did longeing/driving exercises, backing and one rein stop. A very good boy.
My goal for him is to have him under saddle this summer. I am lucky enough to have a very capable small person willing to work with him! I will continue his groundwork and refresh his memory on some baby life skills (bathing, trailering etc.)
Yeah, yesterday was a good day! Today in addition to riding Ginny I will do groundwork with Ditto's mother Imp. A story unto herself! Since I've already told her bizarre medical history here in her son's blog, I can go ahead with all of Imp's other interesting tales...
4 comments:
Chances are if she (his mother) came from a PMU farm in Canada she would be from a draft or draft cross mother and a paint stud. French Canadians are not normaly used on PMU farms (significant lack of them in that area actually). If its any help most farms (7 or 8 years ago) started using quality studs in hopes of producing a foal for the sport horse market.
PS - he is a very cute colt! :)
more pics, please! He is adorable, smooth bodied, but I'd like to see a side shot!
justaplainsam: that's what I would've thought, and what I've come to expect from PMU "crosses" but she's just DIFFERENT. Also, she was an "extra" and I never could find out if she had been born at the PMU farm to a mare from the pee line, or if she and/or her dam were from an auction. Good to know, though, about Canadiens not being in the western part of Canada. The farm she came from did have a Canadien stallion though.
mcfawn: I want to get (and post) lots more pics of Ditto. Maybe this weekend!
Who was the dam? Do you have any pics of the Sulphur Mustang mom?
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