Wood Duck cam???

[devotee]

Hmmmm . . . the cam won't open. I tried everything. I think it's been a couple of months since I could get the cam, except for very briefly the other day. I'll post a message for Rich in the HELP section. (He understands this kind of desperation. LOL!)

[devotee]

Okay! Rich says he has fixed the problem, but that you are not connected to the server this morning. (I'm thinking that maybe you just want some privacy while you and Eveline and Tina sip your espressos together at the counter and catch up the gossip.) I'll keep trying and I'll let you know when the cam comes up. You might be able to hear me whooping from 300 miles (?) away!

[devotee]

Got the cam up!!!!!

[devotee]

And now I'm watching Eveline, Tina, and the espresso bar. Tina looks GREAT! It's the first good look I've had at her, because every other time I've watched, she and Eveline were jostling for position, raiding each other's stalls to compare rations. She is one magnificent yearling! I love the way she is put together.

Ah, so good for my soul to watch them again! (And I have Octavia's cam directly beneath them.)

[Debbie]

Thanks for watching. Yes, Tina is a real looker. I have had a trainer working with her for months now and she loves to work. She is a bit full of herself at times. But she is being led around the yard and taught to stop and back and we have had the long lines on her with a circingle. This week we started teaching her to bow! She will do anything for a treat.

[devotee]

Anybody else have her cam up right now? She is down and either doing some positioning or dealing with a very itchy belly.

[devotee]

Okay, she's back on her feet and looking sooo offended by the assaults of nature. LOL! She is such a Queen!

Debbie, I am having such a grand time watching them both! Tina isn't on cam this morning, but I got to watch her most of the day yesterday, and she is just so magnificent! What are your plans for her?

Our barn shifts are pretty much synchronized, so I have to be lucky to catch yours. You crack me up, scratching Eveline's butt and fussing over her. I do the same thing with my mare, but I've always been glad that there's no cam publicizing our intimacies. LOL! Thanks for keeping me smiling.

[Debbie]

How funny. Eveline is such a sweetie that I have a hard time not loving up on her. I don't think about the camera. I guess some would think I'm crazy. She loves to have her udders scratched now and will walk up to me and show me her entire side in order to have them scratched. She has no ticklish spots so I can scratch every inch of her and she just stands there with her bottom lip hanging down.
You wrote earlier that she was down and doing some positioning. What was she doing? I've been gone all day, so have not been able to watch her. I'm glad you were. She is pushing her butt into the stall wall occassionally as well as stomping the ground. Her udder is already getting full.
I'm not sure what I will do with Tina. Right now I plan to keep her. But I don't know what this next foal will be like. I can't breed to Tina's father any more since his semen is not available in the US. She is by Sape. Eveline is bred to Wander now. My husband won't let me have more than two. I would love to have more. But since I have to do everything myself and am so obsessed with brushing them and swatting flies and having their stalls the way I would want them if I lived there, if I had more than two mares having babies I would not get anything else done.
I've gone on too long. Thanks again for watching.

[devotee]

LMAO, Debbie! My mares both love boob-scritchies, too. And worse. It's really mortifying when your mare is discreetly mincing to pivot her butt in your face when the vet is there. They always give me away. There you are in the stall - as I type!

So, is your number limit on mares or horses? What happens if Eveline foals a colt?

It was hard to make out exactly what Eveline was doing, because part of her was in light and her butt was in dark. I kept adjusting the brightness and contrast on the cam, because at first I thought she might be foaling, and I panicked. (Too early for that!) She was having a sternal lie-down, upright, on her belly. And she was squirming. I think she might have been rubbing her belly to scratch an itch, or maybe she was doing some positioning. My gelding does that sort of thing rather a lot . . . for other reasons. She was at it for maybe 10 minutes. Afterwards, she seemed absolutely fine - stood up and dozed in the shade of her stall for a long while.

What a mare, Debbie! I cannot tell you how much she fills me with joy.

[devotee]

Eveline is down, again. I am guessing now that she routinely has a noon-time nap. Such a majestic nap! :-)

ADDED: She got to her feet and then the cam toggled for an instant, and I caught a glimpse of Tina and the espresso bar. I guess you must be afoot.

[devotee]

Eveline is getting a trim!

Debbie, if you need to know anything about Eveline's habits - you know, how many times an hour she flicks her ears or anything, LOL! - I'm good for it. The cam has been down for the past couple afternoons, but I have her up whenever the cam is working.

She is the queen.

[Debbie]

It is SOOO nice to know you're there Devotee. Eveline is laying down to rest a good bit lately. Yesterday I snuck into her stall while she was down and brushed her all over.
I'm surprised about the cameras being down the past couple afternoons. I have had the link open and my computer on for days now. I take a look at my computer almost every time I come in the house to make sure the connection is working and it is always on. I wonder what could be making it do that. Any suggestions? I really appreciate that you are watching and I don't want you to miss anything.

[devotee]

I know nothing about cams, so you'll have to PM Rich about that issue. He's fabulous!

Have I mentioned that Eveline looks like a blimp from above? LOL! It's not her most flattering angle, I suppose. I haven't seen her take her usual lie-down yet today, but she just moved into the pre-lie-down position (center of the stall, facing right), so maybe she's about to do that now.

She's such a joy to watch. I love the way she cranes to see you when you are in the stall or even in the barn somewhere. It's easy to tell, from her response. The two of you have the most heartwarming relationship!

Do you share a farrier with Pam? It was so funny yesterday, because I saw the farrier trim Eveline and then half an hour or so later, Octavia got a trim. Looked like the same farrier, maybe?

You know, Debbie, no matter how much I watch Eveline, I'll miss her foaling. LOL! That's what happened last year. When I see her yawning this year, I am not going to bed!

[Debbie]

Yes, Pam and I have the same farrier. He is also a trainer. Tina has not been very good for him so yesterday he worked her for an hour before trimming her. The girl that usually works with her uses different body language. Tina is so responsive to that language. The farrier requires the same responses, but demands them in a different way. I was sad watching Tina with him because he would ask something of her and when she didn't do it immediately, he would pop her in the rump with the butt end of his whip. She was so confused. But she tried very hard to please him.
Today she was laying down in her stall. I went in and brushed her all over. As I was about to leave she put her head down, lying flat on the floor. I went back and brushed her some more. She just loved it. She can be so sweet. And she can also be a pistol.
Last year I knew Eveline was going to foal when she did. She had some physical signs. But that night she would circle her stall, yawn, look at her sides, rub her face on her legs, press her butt into the wall and shake her head. She did these things very often as if she was restless. You have watched her enough to know that these are all unusual - except for rubbing her butt on the wall. She did all those things from midnight until 3:45 am. The last time she laid down I grabbed my camcorder and cell phone and ran to the barn. I got there in time to hear her water breaking. I hope you don't miss it this time.

[devotee]

I dunno about farriers. We can talk sometime. LOL! An awful lot of farriers think they are trainers. It's a tough career, I know. I try to cut them a lot of slack because I know they work in rough conditions a lot. But I've had a couple of farriers mistreat my horses - even smacking them on the legs with a rasp - for no good reason. I'm pretty wary of them. So I sympathize with you. It can be really frustrating.

I was watching Eveline last year the night she foaled until 1am or so. I think I even left a message on the board that she was yawning and looking a little interesting. It was so funny when I opened the cam in the morning and saw Tina! Tina was standing way up by the aisle door, and the cam makes everything in that corner look really small. She looked like the tiniest foal I had ever seen. I just shrieked with joy! There was Eveline (the queen!) and this itty bitty foal. So, so cute! Mostly it was a cam illusion, but I'll never forget it. What a thrill!

I was just watching you brush out her tail. What do you spray on it? Rosewater? LOL!