The Beginnings of Tuff

Or Tuff Tuff, as I frequently call him, :). I figured I should do a post about him since this blog is not all about Daisy ;).

First of all, a little background on his mama, and then we'll get to him.

Tuff was a bit of a suprise! A very HAPPY suprise, but a suprise nonetheless. I bought Daisy the summer of '06, just after the fourth of July. I remember Lee's (my husband) dad telling me about a mare he had found that a friend of his owned at the 4th of july party we had for the church. His middle son was wanting a horse so they were looking at her for him. Well he decided she was too slow/stubborn for him so passed on her. (dummy!) The FIL (father in law) kept remarking on how pretty she was and she was so quiet ect. I was intrigued!

So I took my mom over to check her out one day. She was all sweaty (it was july!) and half her mane had been chewed out, her feet were horrible, and she was backed up in a little falling down shed thing with a ugly nylon purple halter on. I have pictures to illustrate but the SIL has my flash drive hostage -_-. (oh wait! I found some on a website I uploaded them to, lucky for yall!)

Anyway even with all that I thought she was just so pretty! With her flaxen mane and chestnut color and her muscles everywhere. I've always been a sucker for a big hip, and she had it goin on!

We messed with her a bit and she took it all very well, though she did want to keep eating the grass lol.

A few days later I haggled my husband and his dad enough that I got them to take me out there so I could ride her. Brought my saddle and stuff, used the bridle that the BIL had used on her when he rode her. She did great. She did steer real well but I was most impressed with her attitude as her pasturemate when careening all over the pasture because she had been left. Even though we were just on the other side of the road from where the pasture was.

She got both her leads and didn't try any shenanigans, that was very nice. Not the smoothest gaits but I just wanted a horse I could ride that would behave and I wouldn't have to worry about. (I had just come out of a bad 'relationship', you could say lol with a mare I bought as a greenbroke 2 year old and had for another 4 years before I finally sold her)

So I scrapped up $600 and bought her! I was told from the previous owner that he had had a stud in there 2 times to breed the two mares, but he didn't think she had took because she kept coming into heat. So we were like oh, okay...didn't think about it again.

UNTIL, hm, it was around November and December I believe that she started to get just plum FAT. So at first I was like, well she just must have a hay belly, or is plumping up for winter, etc. But she started getting bigger and bigger, and I started to get very suspicious. Now she was still coming into heat and everything! (she is a huge hussy with Rusty, lol) The FIL thought there was no way she was pregnant just had a hay belly. But the MIL and I had different ideas...this picuture here is when I first started to wonder. Sorry its from a cellphone.

So I finally decided to have the vet come out and do a check. And that is when the second picture was taken and he confirmed her in foal. With a BIG baby he says! lol

I was SO excited I jumped up and down and started yelling I knew it! And the FIL was just totally shocked lol.

Anyway, that was how Tuff Tuff came into existance! A few months later he made his cute little appearance into the world. It was just the most amazing thing. I had bought a milk testing kit that was supposed to let me know within hours of when she would go into labor. Well it worked GREAT. Sunday April 29th her milk got very white and thick and we knew it was going to be any time. We all parked our lawn chairs out at the barn and played games, read, talked, etc, lol. Daisy grazed all the way up to within maybe 30 mins of when she went into labor. Then she went down into the darkest corner of the pasture. We went down there to go put her into her stall and she did not want to go! She was making funny noises and just planting her feet.

But we finally got her up the hill and into her stall, turned the lanterns low and got very quiet. I don't think it was but maybe 10-15 mins later and we hear this GUSHING water sound. I jumped up and was like did she pee or was that her water breaking?? Well it wasn't pee!

The labor went so fast, the FIL and I went into the stall and watched, she got up twice, Tuffs little legs poking through at this time, and then she layed back down and out he came! All I remember seeing was WHITE. His legs, nose, hoofs, everything! I got so excited, lol. After he came out most of the way I broke his sack open and cleaned his little nose and mouth out, it was so neat. Daisy got up a lot faster then I wanted her too, but everything turned out okay.

Tuff wasn't real quick in the beginning. He had a terrible time getting on his feet and the FIL finally had to help him because he got so exausted at one point that he just layed there on the ground and started breathing really strangely. So he held him up on his feet until he kind of got the hang of it, and then we took him over to Daisy to get him to nurse.

Well THAT took a long time too! By the time he finally latched on I had milk all over me, his nose, and her teats, lol.

We were shocked when we saw him the next morning in good light. He had white all over! Four white stockings, a belly spot! And a spot above his right eye, not to mention his blaze. Wow. I think Daisy may have had something to do with that! We had the greatest fun watching them the first day out in the pasture, Daisy was spinning circles to keep up with him, didn't want him 2 feet from her! Thats him all tired out from his first day out :). The next picture is him about a week old, what a difference a week makes right!

Well I don't think I mentioned his sire was supposed to have been a gray. Well, guess what, that 50% chance of him going gray happened, lol. I saw the beginnings of it at about a week old around his eyes and then his face and chest and hind end quickly followed. He didn't turn fully grey till about 4 months or so. Thats him at 4 months there. He turned out to have the cutest head and eye, definitely something he got from his mommy. She has a beautiful head and her eye is big and pretty. Although I might even like Tuffs eye better then hers. He got her hiney to an extent, but we'll have to wait and see how much, probably won't really see fully until 2 or 3 years old. My last QH didn't develop fully until her 4 year old year.

So we weaned Mr Tuff Tuff at 6 months old, on my birthday actually, lol, Oct 12! Just worked out that way for some reason. He did very well, no hollering or anything, we just locked him in his stall with a bucket of grain and left him in there for a few days before letting him out. He had grain and hay and water and was a happy dude. He didn't even care Daisy walked out of the gate and left him! I was amazed.

When we let him out the first time he had a bit of a fit though. He screamed so pitifully for her a few times that my heart just about broke. He raced around for awhile and then came to us in the barn and settled right down. I didn't have any worry leaving him after a few more minutes. He just went out and started grazing. Good boy.

So I'll end this post here and post later about what training has been done with him etc.